07/10 Bike/Run Brick

After Saturday's... fun you can rest assured that I had no desire to be out of the house never mind working out. However, we had another epic practice day... 30 mile ride followed by a 2 mile run... at 7am!

Again, I am fairly strong on the bike and this ride, though the West Orange Trail is hillier than the roads we rode the week before, turned out to be a fun ride. The coaches and a few teammates brought some SaltStick and Endurolyte capsules and they DEFINITELY helped with the cramping. I was able to maintain a good pace of somewhere between 16 and 20mph the entire ride (I hit 24 on a few downhills) and did not cramp or feel fatigued the entire way... until the run that is. I stretched and walked a little to relieve the cramping and finished strong.

It turned out to be a great practice for me, and the entire team ROCKED it. Truly an EPIC weekend.

07/09- 500 (1000) Meter Open Water Swim (Test)

I didn't quite make it into the pool for my Thursday "on your own" swim because of thunderstorms and decided to save my energy on Friday for the Epic workout I would have on Saturday for our open water swim test at Lucky's Lake Swim. 500 hundred meters each way... I could barely sleep Friday night because my nerves got worse with every passing hour.

Ibelis made me breakfast in the morning and drove me to the lake. It was a nice morning for a swim, and from the beach, looking across the lake; it didn't seem all that far. "I can do this.” I told myself.

When we finally got into the water, Coach Ryan and Coach Beth stayed close to me, I felt good at the start, but the feeling didn't last too long... The second I started breathing heavily, the nervous energy returned, which as it turns out just makes it EVEN more difficult to breathe. I found myself scanning the water for Coach Beth and the red buoy of salvation. That wouldn't be the last time I found myself doing the same during this swim.

Coach Beth, merciful as she is, gave me a reference point... a floating red buoy in the middle of the lake. I'm quite goal oriented and the marker gave me something to aspire to... I made it there; then she said "Okay, time to head back to the cabana." Oy...

Another few reaches for the red buoy of salvation and a bit of zigzagging later as I was still pulling to the right, I was about 50 meters out from where I started (By the way, I just learned that zigzagging is a real word). "Let go, we've got 50 more meters, you've done this a hundred times, you can do it in your sleep" Coach Beth was shouting... Meanwhile my brain was shouting at me "Why the heck are we doing this, I can't breathe!", and my arm screamed "I'm NOT letting go, you're crazy!!!". "C'mon, you can puke when we get there". How did she know? I let go and swam for dear life, I could se Coach Beth next to me and it helped, I would stop when she did.

The next thing I heard was her telling me to watch out, I looked up and saw people standing, I warily let my feet fall and was relieved to finally feel solid ground. I stumbled up and just sat. My head was pounding, my lungs burned and my legs were weak. I just wanted to lie down. Coach Beth, always the awesome coach she is told me to get up and have myself a recovery drink. I pulled myself together and got up to get myself a Mix 1.

By the way, if you haven’t yet, you should try this stuff... It's amazing like a perfect smoothie with just about everything you need before or after a workout, or anytime really. I say this as I hold up a mental sign saying, "Will work for Mix 1".

Now back from our commercial break...

I asked Ibelis to accompany me to the restroom. I could barely walk, it felt like someone was hammering a nail between my eyes and my stomach was doing cartwheels. I had to sit halfway there. I got my relief after a while and returned to the group to fill out paperwork... I still wasn't feeling 100% but the worst was over...

Or so I thought...Let’s just say that it resumed once I got home…

WHAT A MORNING!