Chaos in the Pool

Another great week in the books! This one was a little lighter on official workouts, but I got in some fun cross training (if you can call it that...) as well as another sprint tri during the weekend! I'm still a few weeks away from my goal race for the year, so I'm using all of the races I've done so far as practice for the main event. Here's how the week (and race) went-

Monday

30 min frisbee golf

Finally went out to play frisbee golf- our first time in a while! It was brutally hot and sunny out, but in the shade it felt much better. We went at lunchtime so only had time for about half of the course but it was so fun to get out there.

Tuesday

1500 yard swim

This morning's swim felt amazing! I started with a warmup, then the main set was 4x200 repeats. By the time I was done, I was close to 1500 so I extended my cool down a bit to hit that number! This was one of those days I could have kept swimming forever and got in a good groove.

Wednesday

20 min run

Short and sweet run at Run Club and it actually felt pretty good! I ran with a friend and we kept the pace easy but time went by really quickly running with her. Even though it was hot out, it didn't feel too horrible!

Thursday

Rest Day!

Very easy, lazy day with a morning walk with Selma, and then met up with some friends after work. We checked out the new art installation at Dix Park that is 3d printed pieces that project shadows. I have to admit it was a little bit disappointing- I was expecting it to be much bigger but there were only a few of them and they were each about 2 feet tall. Still fun to try something new though.

Friday

500 yard swim

We just did a quick swim to prepare for the pool swim at the race, and it was such a great reminder of how far I've come in swimming. When I started out this year doing 500 was such a big deal and was so hard. I had to take a bunch of breaks to do it, and now it's an easy day to do it nonstop!

Saturday

1 hour kayak

I finally got to check out a new lake this morning with a friend! We went to Lake Raleigh, which is kind of hidden in NC State's campus. Once you get on the water, it's super calm and relaxing. There were so many little coves we explored, and it's already become one of my favorites spots I've visited! Afterwards we headed to a nearby coffee shop called Lucky Tree to refuel to end a great morning. Later that day, I went on a super short bike ride with Dan just to shake out my legs for tomorrow's race!

Sunday

Wakefield Sprint Tri

This morning I completed my third triathlon of the year! It was another sprint with a 250 yard pool swim, 10 mile bike, and 2 mile run. 

The swim was pretty chaotic- Every 15 seconds a new swimmer started, and we had to cross over to the next lane every two lengths. This wasn't really explained before we started, so people kept swimming on the wrong side and there were a lot of collisions! By the time I went up I was pretty anxious about it but I was talking to the people around me and everyone seemed to know what to do. I tried to keep my pace steady, but there were definitely some times I had to wait for people ahead of me (it was pretty hard to pass) but I was still happy with my time of 5:00 flat!

We ran from the pool to the transition area, and I jumped on my bike immediately to get started. The course was easy enough to follow- basically a straight down and back through a gorgeous golf course neighborhood. It was SUPER hilly though, so my mantra while I was biking was to survive up the hills, and thrive down the hills. I was passing a lot of people (and also got passed by just about as many) but I felt great about my pace! I ended up finishing in just over 40 minutes for an average of 14 MPH!

Finally, we got to the run. This was another down and back, but unfortunately the down was dowhill, and the back....was all uphill. It was BRUTAL. I started the run and immediately felt like garbage- my heartrate was really high and my legs felt like there was nothing left in them. Maybe next time I should take time to grab a gel before starting, because I was definitely lacking in energy at this point. To survive the run, I ended up run/walking the entire thing. I was kind of discouraged by how bad I felt, but one of the volunteers was being so motivating and reminded me that I'm still accomplishing a lot!! She kept saying how great and athletic I was (when I felt the complete opposite) and made me laugh when she said "You're finishing a triathlon and can't nobody tell you NOTHING". Thank you for the motivation!! It helped so much!

Overall, I finished 5th in my age group which I'm happy with but I know there's a lot of room for improvement! Very frustratingly, Dan ended up beating me by just 3 seconds (he started the swim in a bunch of waves ahead of me, so I couldn't tell what our gap was). UGH!