Human Bobber

So I don’t know about this but it has been aggravating me. The last two times I have been to the local YMCA to swim laps they have half the pool open for open swim with no lanes and half the pool open for lap swim with lanes. And kind of ironic the last two times I have been there I have shared a lane with the same woman. So this is my question, if there is a half the pool open for open swim with no kids in the deep end why do people think it is ok to tread water or be a human bobber in the lap lane? Yes the last two times people get in the middle of the lap lane and bob up and down and get angry when you splash or interrupt them. What the hell, move over to the open lanes! The last two times I have been there me and this woman would circle swim around the person, ummm you think they would move. But no, anyway it is annoying and I never have said anything. I understand they have a right to be in the pool to do their work out but there is whole open deep end of the pool that is not being used to do your bobbing.

Ok, so this week I am tired, exhausted and struggling to get through workouts but I have to push. So last night I go to do my swim workout. That is right human bobber in the lap lane but my lady friend wasn’t there this time it was another guy. So I was tired and was kind of aggravated because this person was bobbing in my way so I had to interrupt my stroke to get around them. I got so angry about 10 minutes into my swim that I stopped and said is there a reason you are bobbing in the middle of a lap lane while two people are trying to swim and there is a whole open end to the pool over there. They yelled at me and told me they had a right to swim there. I said whatever and made their life miserable by every time I kicked off at that end I would kick up water to piss him off. I am usually not like this but seriously I had had it! Do you think the life guards would say something? I 

was totally annoyed and probably out of line but I had to.

MOVE YOUR BOBBING ASS OVER! Hahahaha!!!!

Workout got done so it’s all good. 

Has anyone else ever experienced this?

First time getting in a wet suit.. really?

Got up this morning and met my friend at the boat ramp at Comet pond for a nice swim. Little chilly but what a beautiful morning. The pond was like glass and it was just so beautiful. While we were swimming the sun was coming up and it was just perfect.

So I get to the parking lot. Start to put my wetsuit on and get my foot caught. Good lord I almost took a digger while putting on my wet suit. I totally tripped and got my foot caught while putting it in the leg hole. OMG!!! My friend almost had to catch me. hahaha!Can you say tired?

I don't ever think I have experienced this type of exhaustion. Yes I had a baby and you were exhausted lack of sleep wanted to cry but this is different. Muscle fatigue, mental fatigue its just wearing me down. You know it is the end I guess when you are this tired.

I swam 2.4 miles in about 1:25. I am so thrilled with that. That is being totally exhausted and running on fumes. I have to believe I can do this. I do. After tomorrows ride it will be all down hill.

Here is to a 17 hour training week. Yipee!!! Few hard days to go.. I got this.

Felt like Death

So I wake up yesterday morning yep it was Wednesday and I kept thinking it was Thursday. I wake up my body feels like someone beat me in my sleep and my legs hurt, my feet hurt and I have a long swim and a 7 mile run with pick ups to get through. I start to talk to myself. How the hell am I going to do this? The exhaustion alone is killing me never mind trying to put one foot in front of the other to walk or run.

Well I go down stairs get Sean off to day camp. The day goes by and I still can't get out of my own way. I dumped a whole thing of fruit salad on the floor and spilt a half gallon of milk all in one day. Just to give you a mental picture, I was the walking dead. Anyway the workouts are on my plan so I must get them done. I needed to focus one workout at a time. I kept telling myself "Kim are you going to be an ironman! Then suck it up." I emailed a few friends for motivational ass kicking and it worked.

Later that day I lace up the sneakers, put on a cute Lulu running skirt (ya because that is going to make me faster and feel better but damn I will look good! hahaha!) and a tank. I head out the door.

I checked my dam plan three times before leaving and I still couldn't remember how the work out went but I had an idea. It was something like this:
Mile 1 and 2 zone II Heart Rate - which is about a 10:20-10:25 mile
Mile 3 and 4 zone III Heart Rate- which is about a 9:25-9:40 mile
Mile 5 zone IV Heart Rate- which is a 8:15-8:40 mile

The first mile from my house is all down hill. I was like wahoo this feels fantastic. No problem. Well then I hit the flats and slight up hills. I kept thinking in that first two miles how am I ever going to be able to pick up the pace. I would have to dig deep. Well my first two miles were 10:20-10:30 as expected, 3rd and 4th miles were in the 9:30's wahoo and my 5th mile was a 8:33, at which point I stopped put my hand over my head and yelled "fuck yeah." I couldn't believe I just nailed that workout completely exhausted and depleted. I was so happy. The last two miles well were cool down but one was in high 9's and last one was in the 10's.

Later that evening the swim went well too. I had to cut it short since I only had my sitter for a certain amount of time but almost got 2 miles in.

This training is really making me realize how freaking amazing our bodies are. The really are an amazing organ.

What a Weekend!!!! Racing and Friends

Last Saturday I participated in my 5^th half iron distance triathlon. Well it was longer than half distance by a good three miles. It was such a fun weekend. I went up with a good friend from high school and four other friends and we all raced in the event. It was two of my friends first time doing the half distance so the nerves were off the chart.

Friday night we went to pick up numbers and went to take a look at the swim. We get to the water and my god did the swim distance look long. Instant panic set in with my friends. As we were leaving the venue to go to dinner I was making my way over some plastic fencing and got my foot caught and down I went. Seriously, it was hilarious. Only me! So we head to dinner have a nice night and back to the hotel for early bed time. Not that I could sleep, I never sleep well the night before a race never mind in a hotel room too. Before bed we got our gear together and many questions were asked. One of our friends Cheryl lost her number and was panicking! We looked everywhere in the room, our other friend was in the shower and comes flying out thinking there was a mouse in the room because of the commotion going on. Come to find out Gina took Cheryl’s number by accident. Oh boy!! This is the beginning of the fun. Hahaha! Man I love these girls. Like I always say “it takes a village.”

Race Day!!! The three of us get ready and get our pre-race eats and last minute checks that we have everything. It was an early morning and we were all nervous and ready to go. Our other friend staying in another room came down to meet us so we could all drive together. She comes in the room and she is doing a check with us on if she has everything. I ask her if she has her helmet sticker and she says yes and she goes to put it on her helmet. We tell her she has her helmet on backwards and she insists she doesn’t and has been wearing it that way for ever. I told her it is backwards the visor thing you have on the helmet goes in the front. OMG!! We all died laughing. Her new nick name is backwards helmet. She has been wearing it backwards on rides for weeks now. Bahahaha! I almost wet my pants. It was awesome.

future ironmen! I hope

The race was delayed for 50 minutes due to fog on the water. Not good when you are already nervous had your pre-race GU before they announced the delay. But hey it gave me extra time for bathroom runs, so I guess it worked out. We start the swim it was a nice swim. But when you turned your last turn buoy to the finish of the swim there was no sight buoy. I could not see where the heck I was swimming. It was chaos. I had no idea what I was swimming towards so I tried to keep a line with the swimmer in front of me. It worked okay I guess. The swim was long by about .18 according to my watch and I did a fairly good job keeping in a straight line.

Winna winna chicken dinna

Classy Dismount

Off on the bike we go after a quick transition. I had some anxiety the first 10 miles on the bike. No idea why but it was terrible. I could not catch my breath. I had to keep telling myself I was fine I got this, no problem. I finally settled into a comfortable groove. Mile 37 brought on a new challenge. OMG!!! I got the worst saddle sore ever. It hurt to sit and wanted to cry. So sore and I pretty much had to ride the bike out of the last 6-7 miles of the race.  Not to mention the nice climb of 9-10 miles from 37-47 yikes it was a doozy and sitting in the saddle climbing was not fun. So the ride is over and my friend Jess caught me on the bike. She is such a strong cycler. I kept her in my view as we came to the finish of the bike. As we pull into dismount I am flapping my gums to her chatting and I didn’t clip out my left foot first as I dismount the bike. Whoops… down I go. I went down hard. It hurt. But we laughed that I ruined our bike time. Haha! People came over to help to see if I was okay and the announcer gave me a 10 for best dismount of the day. Ugh.. haha!! So classy!

The run was good. I pretty much slowly ran the whole way. I walked a few hills to keep my heart rate down. It was pretty hilly the second half. I felt okay. Left leg was giving me a little hell but it always does. I kept hammering on.

It was such a great day with my friends. We all finished and I was so proud of all of the girls. I didn’t do as well as I had hoped for and it has kind of got in my head a bit but time to shut the brain off and get my workouts in. Focus on the bigger picture and make this happen. I am working out some sore spots on the legs to. Things are starting to creep up now as the volume increases.

The girls with our new friend Kate!

We ended the day with a nice evening with my friend’s parent’s campsite and had a cookout. It was so much fun. My friend’s mom was my Girl Scout troop leader so we had some funny stories as always. It was just a great weekend.