Musings on an Awesome Training Day

After a very relaxing day with Preston yesterday, today brought a full training day. Our local triathlon club was hosting a timed open water swim at Hagg Lake and I was planning on swimming then doing a 2+ hr bike ride.

We couldn't do all of these events and races without the awesome volunteers so I decided today would be a good day to give back some of my time and volunteer at the event today.

I woke up at 6am, ate some pb & j and gathered up my gear to head for Hagg Lake which is about 25 minutes from my house so I headed out into the cold morning. I met up with some other volunteers at the lake and helped with registration for about an hour before I headed to get into my wetsuit.

Outside of races it is really hard to find an accurately measured open water swim course so it is awesome that the Gecko's (my local tri-club) put this event on. There was a 1/2 mile option as well as the 1.2 and 2.4 mile options. There were actually several people signed up to do the 1.2 and 2.4, holy mackerel!

In preparation for my 1/2 Ironman next month I was swimming the 1.2 mile course. I got suited up and into the water and it was cool but not icy which was a nice surprise. Everyone got lined up for the mass start and the horn sounded. I focused on keeping my stroke smooth and tried to glide as much as I could. Since all the buoys were orange I had some trouble sighting the next buoy which sucked cause I ended up meandering more than I would have liked. By the end of the swim my arms were getting a little bit tired but I feel certain with some more effort this winter I'll be ready for the 2.4 mile Ironman swim next summer. I absolutely love the wetsuit now. It's crazy how stressed I was before getting it about how well it would fit and would my stroke change as a result but I am seriously digging how comfortable I am in it :)

I got out of the water in 44.03 which was a great improvement over the 58 minute swim I did in my last 1/2 Ironman. As soon as I got out of the water I felt good and relaxed which was cool. I stood around and chatted with several people I knew including my coach who was swimming the 2.4. I grabbed a couple Oreos from the BBQ since I wouldn't be eating a burger before heading up to my hop on my bike.

Hagg Lake is widely considered a very challenging bike ride with lots of rollers and a few very long climbs. You have to climb several of the hills before hitting the highway and after a few long rollers I got to enjoy the backside of the longest climb. WOO HOO!!!! It is such a rush to fly down a huge hill like that. My top speed was 42.5 MPH, yikes!!!!!! I had to get out of the aerobars to tap the brakes because I was going so fast.

It was a beautiful day with a little bit of wind in each direction but my legs were feeling good and I pressed on trying to focus on taking on lots of fluids and I practiced eating Clif Shot Blocks while in the aerobars.

At the 35 mile mark I headed back towards the lake and up and down the long hills. At one point as I was cruising along through the forest I just had this awesome moment where I was like "I am soooooo happy and thankful that I am able to participate in a sport that lets me do cool things like swim in a clear cool lake and bike through this beautiful forest" WOO HOO!!!

I ended up with 44.5 miles for the day and my legs felt awesome.

I'm headed to Dallas tomorrow for a meeting and then it's off to Ironman Coeur d'Alene for the weekend where I'll be swimming and biking 1/2 the course, volunteering at the race, cheering on my very good friend Carole and what else ???????????

SIGNING MYSELF UP FOR 2007 - WOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's right people, this Speed Leopard is taking the plunge and laying down $450 of my hard earned dollars for the privilege of punishing my body for 140.6 miles next June.

Stay Tuned, the road to Ironman begins a week from tomorrow :)