Swim progress!

I went to a lecture last night on racing long-course events at my local bike store. One thing the speaker said that surprised me, was that unless you are a totally pathetic swimmer, putting extra time into swimming is all but useless. He said for the majority of people who have average to above average swimming ability, adding extra swim workouts will have a negligible effect on overall swim time. I know that I'm not a pathetic swimmer, I'm pretty much a middle-of-the-packer, but I have to think that the extra time I'm spending on the Masters swim team doing drills and working on my technique, while maybe won't shave a ton of time off of my swim, it will hopefully economize my swimming so that I'm conserving all of the energy I can for the bike and the run. I really feel like this coach has helped me immensely with my form and I can definitely feel a difference in the way I'm swimming.

And, while this won't help me at ALL in an ironman, I did my first fairly competent butterfly today! I've always been so intimidated by the butterfly, but I've been working on it, and today I put it all together and actually made it 200 yards. Yippee! I was so excited I asked the coach to help me with flip turns. For the first one, I didn't even touch the wall. For the second, I pushed off! For the third, I pushed off, went sideways and smacked my head into the side of the pool. Time to call it a day! And I did all of this with the added challenge of wearing my 3 yr-old's hot-pink swimming goggles.

Mastering Masters

So, I swallowed my pride and joined a Masters swim team. I figured it was the best way to work on my swimming technique and have someone critique me week after week. So far, it's been great. The coach has been very conscientious of the fact that I'm an open-water swimmer and she's giving me lots of freestyle drills. She is, however, having me spend some time learning the butterfly which has been humbling. I'm shocked that the lifeguard hasn't jumped in to save me since I'm pretty sure I look like I'm in major distress. I just don't get the dolphin kick. With short fins, I feel slightly more graceful, but take them off, and I'm just bucking up and down in place choking on pool water and flailing my arms. It's just so unnatural. Maybe someday, post-Ironman, I'll master the butterfly and the dreaded flip-turn and transform into a real pool-swimmer, but right now it's on the back-burner. I've also set up a date for a video-analysis of my swimming, which should be enlightening. I know how I think I look is probably nothing like what will be on that video. But better to start working on this now, before the real training starts.

Hitting the reset button

Quite a bit has happened since the last post! I turned 40. The century ride we had planned for my birthday didn't quite pan out. My friend and Iron partner Deanne suffered a terrible crash around the 40-mile mark that landed her in Boston with a serious head injury. She is recovering amazingly well but I think we've all been a little shell-shocked for the last 2 months. Today Deanne and I ran our first race since the century. We did a 10-miler in Harvard, MA. We weren't sure if either of us were really up for it. We haven't run that far since the 1/2 Ironman in June, she is still not 100% recovered, and I'm just recovering from having bronchitis for 2 weeks. But I have to say it went really well. The weather was cold and drizzly, the run was far hillier than we expected, and it was so foggy we could barely see, but we both finished strong and were relieved that we still had it in us. So, moving forward....

Why??

I was filling out the Ironman registration forms online and got stuck on this question: "Why do I want to do this race?"  I've been wanting to do this for years, but I've never really thought about why. I love challenging myself, and having a goal that seems so unattainable at first, and breaking it down into manageable blocks until the impossible becomes possible. And of course I love to swim, bike and run (swimming slightly less than biking and running). I have a great group of like-minded friends who think it's normal to do things like: get up at 4am and run on a track in complete darkness in subzero temps, drive out to the middle of the woods at the crack of dawn and swim in a pond with snapping turtles, or find a big hill and run up and down it until our lungs feel like they'll explode. So having this camaraderie certainly makes it more enjoyable. But then there are other reasons, too. I grew up with two parents with disabilities, so being able to do these things at all is something I don't take for granted. And while I played sports as a kid, I was definitely not super-athletic. Finding my inner-athlete as an adult gave me a chance to reinvent myself. And, last but not least, it keeps me sane! Being home with two small children can raise the blood-pressure of even the most zen-like parent. The physical activity and subsequent "me-time" I get from get from this keeps me, for the most part, on an even keel. I definitely notice my fuse gets much shorter after a few days off! I didn't get this detailed on the registration form, but it got me thinking more about the "why". And of course it's possible that I'm also a little deranged.

One year out...

I'm officially registered for Ironman Lake Placid. Every time I think about it my stomach turns itself into a little knot. So much to think about, worry about, spend money on....but there's no real training until January. The next 6 months are going to be spent getting stronger and hopefully getting rid of the nagging aches and pains that have been plaguing me for too long. I've already put a down payment on a condo in Lake Placid. I can't even believe how much people are charging for Ironman week, but it will be a great place for Dan and the kids to stay since we're going to be there for a whole week. Deanne and I are going to talk to a coach soon. I'm planning to do the majority of the training on my own, but I'm at least going to do a swim clinic, bike maintenance class, and a training camp up in Lake Placid. I have to admit I find the bike course slightly terrifying, and I'll feel much better if I can get up there and ride it at least once. 

So this will be my little space to vent, be neurotic, and record all of the mind-numbing minutiae of my training. Fun reading!