5 Miles of Swimming

Last week was kind of a lazy week for me. Monday night swim, Tuesday morning bike and then nothing until the weekend. I saw WALL-E on Wednesday (such a great movie with a great message!). Friday I carpooled with Paul to the cove. He, Nikee and I (and others) swam to the shores and back (2 miles). Saturday was the club race (800 meters, more to come later). Sunday was Carlsbad (1000m swim for a relay team) and then back to the Cove with Nikee and the gatorman training group for a swim to the Marine Room and back, without a wetsuit (aprox 2 miles). Let's just say I was a bit swimmed out.

I won't be in town for Gatorman (3 mile swim) as I will be traveling back from Katie's wedding. But I did hear of a 5 mile race...yes, a swim race...in 3 weeks. Here is the race course: http://www.lajollacoveswimclub.org/Events/ToB/courseMap.pdf yes, it's two laps. No, you can't wear a wetsuit. Yes, I'm nervous, but looking forward to it. Yesterday I sent an email out to the tri club looking for a kayaker (which is mandatory for the race) and got a response! I don't know what to expect pace-wise, but I'm hoping to go under 2 hours. I don't think I'm going to change my training too drastically, but try to keep more consistent (masters swim 3x week, cove swim on Friday, and maybe I'll add a longer Sunday swim). So, Sunday, August 3rd is race day. Tour of the Buoys, look out! My mom and sister will be in town to cheer me on.

Club race report: wow. I exceeded my expectations. And yet again, I realize the importance of the run. I was 2nd out of the water, behind Jim Vance (a professional triathlete) and I went the same exact time as the month before; 8:32. I felt strong and not so heavy this time (no one was drafting off me!). I hopped on my bike and was off. I made it to the turn around and not one girl had passed me yet. I'm thinking to myself, "What's going on? Where is everyone?" I was heading back up the strand and started to see some girls still heading down. Hmm, ok, let's hold them off. And I did. I got into T2 and was the first girl off the bike. "Are you kidding me? This feels awesome! Ok, don't get ahead of yourself, you still have 3 miles to go." And wow, those 3 miles took forever! All in all, 8 girls passed me. I love trying out other peoples' strides as they get in front of me. I take a couple strides and then decide that pace is way too fast for me! I did drop 2.5 min in the run and 1.5 min in the bike. Overall I went a 1:10, which is 9 min faster than my first club race (and 4 min faster than last month). Kyle's friend Dan Bronner did the race as well. Afterwards I hung out with him and his wife Adi.

This weekend I was invited to hike San Gorgonio (tallest mountain in southern Cali at 11,502ft) and climb at Holcome Valley the following day. San G is a 20 mile hike with over 5,000 ft of elevation gain in 8.5 miles on the way up. I'm "renting" trekking poles from REI. I've never done anything like this before and I'm nervous for how I'll react to elevation. I did get some good pointers at the tri club JCC swim last night. Which, speaking of, I've been asked to be a substitute coach for the Mon/Wed club practices. It sounds like I'll be a little more of a regular, as one of the coaches wants to take some time off. So we'll see how that goes.

So a big weekend: 5 miles of swimming, and then the decision to swim 5 miles all at once in a race. San G invite, Club race success, and the new substitute tri club coach. My plate just got a whole lot bigger.