Weekend in Review

This turned out to be a great weekend! Great Weather, Great Workouts AND Great Quality Time with Friends! As I said to Jim, "Weekends like this ARE Quality of Life!!"

Saturday: I DID IT! PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE...

I attended an Open Water Swim practice at Lake Anna, site of my swim meltdown last weekend. This time the swimming was much more successful! I feel redeemed...

I worked first on being calm and relaxed with my face in the water. I took some advice from fellow Triathletes about breathing and watching your bubbles in the water. I decided that I would dive in shallow and then come up and start my freestyle stroke and that seemed to work well for me. I'm not sure why but it gave me some sense of release.

After the first 5 minutes, of stopping and starting to swim. I felt completely okay with being the water. Then I was able to concentrate on counting my strokes and practicing open water sighting. I asked a fellow TRI guy nearby how often he sighted and he said 7 breaths. Sounded good to me so I modified it and started with every 5 breaths. I tried 10 but found that I tend to pull to the right so then I tried 7 and found that got me moving forward without making for too many stops and without getting too far off course.

I also got a chance to meet some fellow TRI folks and as usually, everybody was super friendly and cool. That is something I love about this sport .... I hardly ever meet total jerks, LOL.

So... I estimate I spent about 35 minutes swimming from buoy to buoy and marker to marker with some 10-15 second rests in between. The confidence boost of a successful open water practice was wonderful and having a good first session has me very encouraged to get out as much as I can between now and Columbia and Eagleman.

6 weeks to Eagleman ....Practice, Practice, Practice ...

SUNDAY: Pikes Peek 10K Race & Book Club!

Sunday I did the Pike's Peek 10K in Rockville, MD (about 45 drive from my home). Just because it sounded like a local race I'd like to try. This was a rolling course, predominately downhill. I had a good time and the weather was good. I wish I could have kept up the steady 12:00 but toward the last two miles, I struggled a bit with resuming my pace after walk breaks.

The last 2/10 were a long downhill and I used that moment to catch the people I had been seeing just barely ahead of me the whole run and pass then by. Weeeeee!! :)

My knees are a little sore this morning but considering the down hills, I am not surprised. I was surprised to see that Coach Graham gave me today as a REST DAY. Yippeee!! I was fully expecting a swim in the pool. Looks like I am going to do some shopping!

No where near the 1:10, I was hoping for but when I looked at pace calculator, I realized 1:10 wasn't really realistic considering my paces lately so I am moving that goal to later in the summer. I'm still satisfied. The seconds are coming down...ever so slowly!

Here are my watch splits from Sunday's 10K. I would have liked to at least have come in under 1:15. That will be the goal for next time. I don't think the chip time will be off by much.

Mile 1: 11:30
Mile 2: 12:04
Mile 3: 12:11
Mile 4: 12:02
Mile 5: 12:39
Mile 6: 12:49
+.2: 2:04

Total: 1:15:23

After the race, I drove home, took a quick shower and headed back out for some quality time with my gals! We had our monthly "Share a Book" bookclub and gormet lunch! I always look forward to these Sunday meetings because it is a chance to really sit down and catch up with some good friends, eat some wonderful food and talk about what we are reading.

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend! I have regained some confidence in the swim, I am slowly chipping away at my running times AND I spent time with friends I don't see nearly enough!

AND today I got an unexpected "REST DAY" from my coach! I am going shopping after work!! FUN!

What can I say? Life is GOOD! Live STRONG!