paradise

Training this weekend went well. Saturday's bike and run repeats were pretty good. In total I rode 13 miles and ran 3. The first sessions went well. By the third and last bike ride, I felt a cramp in my left calf, it kinds of felt like an electrical shock, as I was almost to the top of the hill at the end of the ride, and shortly there after the same thing happened in the right calf. I knew I was short on my salt/sodium intake, and that was probably the reason, for the cramping, so I took a salt supplement and headed out for my run, the cramping continued on the run, and I decided that I was better off turning around and seeing what happened. I went back to the transition area, stretched continued to drink water, and hope that the cramping would subside. The stretching definately helped, but under the advisement of a mentor I called it a day, and headed home.

Sunday, is now open water swim sessions, the swells are a bit crazy so instead of meeting at the ocean, we swam in the bay. It was calm and much easier to swim with out battling all those waves. I swam a half mile which is a bit longer than half of the distance I'll be swimming at my event. I'm learning how to take advantidge of my wetsuit. I was also told that the water I'll be swimming in for my event will be similar to today's water than the ocean. I was happy to hear that and realized that I'll be able to finish the swim session.

Stronger than the thoughts

What a weekend! It was a busy one in regards to my training. Saturday was had our first long bike ride. 25 miles round trip, along with a run part way around Lake Hodges. I'm not going to lie, I had my doubts. Each time I got tired, on the first leg of the bike ride and thought about how I had to go back. I made myself stop and appreciate what I was doing at that moment. There were times I wanted to quit, especially going up "damn hill". Damn hill is a steady incline uphill for approximately mile and a half to two miles. It was there wher I had the hardest time, and started doubting my ability to get to the top. I had one of my mentors Lisa riding with me, and she kept encouraging me. And as cliche as it sounds, I also kept reminding myself how Tyler, Raul, Virginina, Van, NoJo, Cousin Roy, and the many others going through their cancer treatments didn't have a chance to stop when they became uncomfortable. It didn't make going up the hill any easier, in fact it made it harder, (side note, tears don't make riding a bike up hill very easy.) I did stop at one point and walk my bike for a while, and that pissed me off. eventually the hill leveled out and I started on my way again, only to be surprised by yet another incline. Thankfully, that was the top of the hill, and all that was left was a short down hill, and then I reached the transition area, and off to the run I went. (after refueling and rehydrating myself). I walk/ran 2 miles. hit the porta potties that were there, and then started my trek back to the starting point.
The second leg of the ride wasn't as bad as the first. (there were no tears) It helped that for a while I got to ride with Jay (an assistant coach), and he was riding his bike back after falling on the first part of the ride, and was riding with missing low gears. It was also good to talk to someone who had also lived in CT for a while, and we compared notes about the differences of CT and CA. He also complemented me a few different times on how (even though I wasn't going fast up hill,) I never slowed my cadence down (speed of pedelling) uphill. It made me feel like I knew what I was doing.
After that crazy bike ride, I swore my thighs were on fire and were going to make walking a bit difficult for me. So I had planned on using some of my marathon training and stop at the store for some ice (and chocolate milk) and take a nice cold ice bath once I got home. However, it turned out that we were right by the water, and myself and a few others decided to take a plunge in the ocean. It was cold! but once our feet became numb it was great. It was also a good indicator of what would be in store for us on Sunday.
Sunday was our first open water swim with our wetsuits. All I know, is that I am forever in debting to the person who invented wetsuits. It's amazing how those things work. Our open water swim was difficult, each time I put my head in the water (with my goggles on) I couldn't see anything, and it was difficult to swim with out seeing. I've gotten so used to wearing my goggles and seeing where I'm going in the pool. So I kept my head out of water, Which by the way is completely useless and makes swimmer in the water a gazillion times harder. We swam out to some of our support staff hanging out in kayaks in the water. And then swam back. We had to find some buddies to swim with and stick with while out in the water. So in order to push myself a bit I stuck with two others that were a bit faster than me, and I attempted to stay with them for as long as I could, and really I didn't do to bad. We did that twice, and then we got to "play" in the water, the coach wanted us to try to catch a wave and have it bring us in. Needless to say, body surfing for this east coast gal isn't so easy.
As I continue to put myself in situations that are outside my comfort zone, I learn how important it is to not let the negative thoughts that creep so easily inside my head to get to me. I am stronger than those thoughts!

Getting into the Swing of Things

This was the first full week of coached and uncoached training sessions. It was long and emotional. Monday the team had our first coached swim session. It started at 7:00pm in a community pool in LaJolla, which means it didn't make sense for me to come all the way home from work before going, considering work is the half way point (note to self: need to seriously look into moving closer to work). So I stayed late at work, and made my way to the pool. Up until Monday, I was feeling pretty good about this whole Triathalon training, but by Monday, I was pretty nervous, and unsure of what I had gotten myself into. I haven't swam for true exercise or purpose since I had instructional swim while in summer camp as a kid. I began to seriously question my ability to do it. But while I was sharing my nerves with one of my co-workers, I said, "no one asks to be uncomfortable when going through chemo, or they're not scared of what will happen when they are diagnosed with cancer, especially kids." It put my fears into perspective, and got me a bit more prepared for the swim. I however, was still nervous as HELL. I couldn't help it, but I didn't let my fears get the best of me. There's approximately 100 people on the tri team at this moment, (that's including support staff) and the coach asked if there were any beginners out there. Knowing that my endurance sucks, and that I was nervous, I raised my hand with approximately 20 other people. I was relived to see the other hands. The coach then separated us when it was time to get into the water. He gave us pointers, on form, position, and a few other things, and then had us get in the water. Coach continued to give us pointers as we were in the water, and I have to say, by using the pointers the coach gave, I felt a difference in my swim from when we started and when we finished. I believe being a beginner gave me the confidence boost I need to be successful right now. I also forgot how much I enjoy being in the water.
On to our first coached run session. That was Tuesday night, thankfully, not as late as our swim, but late enough that again it didn't pay for me to go home from work first. I got to the track for our pace assessment. We were going to run a mile at our fastest and then Coach is going to devise a training plan for us to do our best 10K distance. Coach had us do a mile warm up, with some breaks for stretching, and lecturing. I took my time on the warm ups. I was paranoid that my shins were going to act up, since they hurt like crazy from the run we did on Saturday. So slow like a turtle I went, and surprisingly no shin pain! I kept anticipating the pain as I did each warm up lap. But it never showed up. I was relived again, and I just figured as I ran faster for the assessment, it would show up. Well, I started somewhat slow, again with a crazy amount of people at varying running speeds, it wasn't so easy to get out of the starting gate fast. I also conciously made myself go slow, I knew I had 4 laps to complete and my goal was not to walk to much. So I  completed the first lap, and I didn't walk. There were 2 other people who I was pitting myself against. I would pass one, and then another and then one of them would pass me, and on it went, for laps, 1, 2 and 3. I think I had my first walk break towards the end of lap 2, but since I was so close to the start/end I kept it short. I then hit lap three and breathing was becoming difficult for me, so I took more walk breaks, but tried to keep them short. By lap 4, forget it. I couldnt' breath, but kept my arms up and swinging, and tried to speed walk. I think my speed walking is as fast as my running is at this point. But I kept telling myself, keep one foot in front of the other. So I did. and I finished my one mile in a little over 11 mins. At first I was shocked and relived. I wasn't the last one to cross the finish line. Then I was proud of myself for the time I finished in. Then.....I....got.....mad..."how could you walk so much?....If you didn't walk you would have finished faster....etc....etc..." I couldn't believe how fast I was able to take away any and all pride I had in myself. I seriously would have kicked my own butt if my legs weren't so darn tired. But I did make myself stop, and remember that I wasn't last, and I was proud of my time. I still have moments where I begin to beat myself up over my walking breaks, but how much faster I could have gone. But then I remind myself, it can only get better.
Wow! this is long, so I wont bore you with the rest of the long details, plus these two events were the most news worth anyway.
I'm off to prepare myself for my first team bike session (weather permitting) tomorrow. Can't wait to share how that goes with you.
Thanks again for the support and don't forget to make a donation if you can. I still have a ways to go until I hit my fundraising goal!
http://pages.teamintraining.org/sd/sealtri11/stunick