Race next week!

Training's been going swimmingly well :) (also runningly and bikingly well!).

It's crazy how much I've progressed since I started training with Coach Jen in May. I've been doing Heart Rate based training with her and My endurance has gone WAY up, my ability to push on the bike has increased, and I'm learning how to fuel properly while training in hot conditions. As a result, my swim and bike have improved dramatically! And my run's coming along okay as well!

Last Wednesday, I did a 3200m swim. Can you believe it? 3200m! 2miles. 2 MILES!! And...I...actually... enjoyed it!

I wasn't bored, the workout was varied enough to keep my interest and I guess for me, that's the key with swimming. Last year, I couldn't even fathom swimming anything more than like 2000m or so without being bored out of my mind and look at me now. Swimming 2 miles at a time.

It's crazy how far I've come along. Don't get me wrong, I still struggle with swimming every time I go, and the devil in me still tries to convince me that 'it's okay if I miss just this one little workout' and 'it's just the swim, how much will this one workout help anyway?' Buuuuut the more I swim, the better I feel, and the easier it is to quiet that mischeivious voice of doubt :)

Even my bike's getting stronger. I still have a hard time handling the heat when it's above 90 degrees outside. I slow WAYYYY down and occasionally feel nauseated in that kind of heat but I've been getting better at dealing with it. I really enjoy the mid week bike spin workouts I get from Coach Jen and I feel like they've helped me increase my strength on the bike quite a bit.

I have a race coming up next week, Barb's race. It's a Half Iron Distance race that is an all women's race and I'm so excited about it! The last few long 4-5h Bike-run bricks have gone rather well for me. I've been fueling right and drinking enough fluids, paying attention to my heart rate and trying to keep it within the right zones. (save a few hills here and there)As a result, I've been able to avoid extreme fatigue and been able to run with reasonable ease right after the bike!

Last weekend, I did a 5h bike ride with a 30 min run on the exact course that I'll be racing for Barb's race. The bike course is a bit technical (read turns and windy roads) but isn't terrible. It's nice with rolling hills and some flat-ish parts and one semi-steep hill that's ~.5mi long. Not too bad at all. In fact, it's gorgeous, winding through the Russian River/Allexandre valley/Healdsburg wine country. Ahh-mazing (if it hadn't been 95 degrees the whole time!).

I was sooo slow cuz little mama here just can't handle the heat. I have NO idea how I trained in Arizona and didn't drive myself bonkers! I took down only 6 bottles of fluids....really needed 7-8 but the stinking route didn't have any gas stations in sight for a solid 25 or so mile stretch on the route! I ran out of fluids and had to go on empty for quite some before we finally hit a gas station towards the last 1/5 of the ride. That was NOT fun.

I was worried that this would mean that I'd suffer alot on the run, but I tried not to pay attention to that. Instead, I focused on doing what I could do at that point i.e taking down my fluids and gels to the best of my abilities for the remainder of the ride and just focus on being positive.

Well guess what...I was able to turn my dehydrated state around! By the time the 5h ride was actually up, I was ready to rock the 30 minute run and was actually looking forward to it. The run went amazingly well considering how dehydrated I'd been earlier! Legs almost felt bouncy and wanted to go faster and once the 30min run was up, I felt like I could have kept going with the same vigor and energy for a while. That's great news :0) and it gives me lots of confidence for race day next weekend. I'm actually gonna be able to race and not just 'finish' this time!

I'm just giddy with excitement. I've been working hard with my training and I really feel like this is all going to pay off come Aug 1st (i.e the day of my Half Ironman).

Just how far have I come along? Well...we'll just have to see on Aug 1st now won't we :)