On Burns, Bruises, & Burps

My pace of life lately has my head spinning. I've discovered that my endurance is not getting much better, which is extremely inconvenient since I'm competing in an endurance event in 2 weeks. Yes, exactly 2 weeks from today is the big day. I'm really starting to wonder if I'll be ready.

Last Saturday marked my furthest bike distance to date. We went to Seward Park (which, incidentally, is where the Danskin triathlon I'm competing in August in will start) and biked to & around Mercer Island (25 miles). It was a beautiful day, but by the time I got to the run it was getting pretty hot. I forgot to reapply sunscreen at transition, so my forearms and face got a little burned. My poor pale skin! It hasn't seen that much sun since I left Georgia!

Also, I don't know how I manage this week after week, but everytime I ride my bike I somehow scratch up and bruise my legs. They look pretty awful, and I can no longer wear skirts without my co-workers remarking "Oh my God! What happened to your legs?!" Yeah, need to eliminate that bizarre habit.



More updates: Yesterday was my first open water swim. This was really an eye-opening experience for me. We had to wear wetsuits since the water was pretty chilly. My rental was incredibly tight (and not in the way it's supposed to be, it was tight like it was the wrong size). I got out in the water and swam a little way, and started panicking because I couldn't breath. I think it was a combination of the vice-like wetsuit I had on and the fact that I STILL am not that confident of my swimming abilities. I didn't make it very far before I turned back.

Needless to say, it was a rude awakening 2 weeks before the race to discover that I am still a terrible swimmer and have zero endurance in the water. On a bike, it's very tough to catch my breath on the hills, but I always have the option of stopping. When I run, if I'm having a tough time, I can just slow down and walk. But it seriously freaks me out that I'll be swimming in the ocean and if I get tired (which is a definite considering the aforementioned lack of endurance), I can flip over and do a back stroke, but I'm still out there. In the ocean. With just my questionable swimming skills to save me (okay, that's an exaggeration. There will totally be plenty of kayaks and surfers out there keeping careful watch, but if I start to go down, who knows how long it would take them to reach me amidst hundreds of swimmers?)

In any case, I set out to swim practice this morning with lots of anxiety. Our normal swim coach, Julie, was in charge of the open-water lake swim. I chose to go with the indoor swim since my wetsuit didn't fit, so I had Pat coaching me. I had told Pat about my concerns, and he promised to watch me and give me some pointers if he could.

So I set off. The 200m 'warm-up' already had me gasping for air. Then we were supposed to do 1000m (the race will be 1500m). I was beginning to feel very worried, but I just went for it. Pat watched me for the first couple laps and then, when I stopped to catch my breath, told me "Your form looks good, you just really need to work on endurance. Swim a minimum of 3x a week for the next two weeks."

And, magically, that's all I needed to hear. This entire time I have been working on my technique because in my mind I still couldn't swim. To have someone tell me 'Yes, you can swim. Now do it better' was exactly what my mind needed. So I swam. I swam for an hour and a half. I lost count of how many laps I did, but I did at least 35 (1750m). Once my body truly warmed-up, it got a lot easier.

Don't misunderstand, though, I still am not a fantastic swimmer. I am very, very slow and I'm wondering if I'll even make the swim cut-off time. We'll see, I guess.

Also, as I was gulping down air and water over and over again, there were definitely at least two times that I had to stop just to burp. Is that normal?
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Light at the End of the Tunnel!

For months now I've had to keep skipping training sessions in order to accomplish other things. Now for the first time, my schedule is completely clear so I can FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS!


The past couple weeks were spent cramming for my LEED exam. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. In today's environmentally-minded building industry, it's pretty important as a designer that I become a LEED Accredited Professional. Not to mention, environmental design is part of the reason I moved to Seattle in the first place! I'm a green nut, and now, after passing that killer exam, I have the credentials!

After I made up the hours of lost sleep, I was ready to jump into my training with two feet. Saturday I biked 17 miles. It was supposed to be 34 miles but a) I got lost on the trail (it was really confusing! And I wasn't the only person to get lost!) and b) I was definitely feeling the impact of very little training over the past couple weeks. I was exhausted in no time!

Sunday there was no group swim and I didn't do an official "work out," but I DID help my friends install insulation in their house as well as join in helping them mow their lawn with their new motorless lawn mower (now THAT is a workout!).



Last night I went swimming, and tonight I did weight training. Every week when I weight train I also take my weight/body fat measurements. I've been pretty bummed because, yes, part of the reason I was doing this was that I wanted to lose weight. After I started training I GAINED weight (and no, it was not just muscle!). So I've started paying REALLY close attention to what I eat and this week I lost a pound of fat and gained a pound of muscle! YAY!! I don't care if I weigh the same as long as it's all muscle. :)
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