8 Random Thoughts

1-Awesome swim breakthrough last week...took 38 seconds off my previous 1km pool time trial. Down to 15:22 and that is pretty darn exciting. I am going to try and not put too much pressure on myself as a result.
2-Terribly slow swim on Monday (ever wonder how you can be brilliant one day and fade the next...). Back to better form today.
3-My brain is fried from studying for my adol psych course.
4-The kids aren't really good at doing dishes while trying to watch olympic hockey and bobsleigh. And I'm not very good at studying during said olympic events.
5-The gold medalist in women's bobsleigh is a super cool young lady who spoke to my daugher's soccer team (they practice at the Bob Niven training center where all the local sliders train).
6-I think that spin ups for a warmdown after a long, hard indoor ride are mean. What I am thinking signing up to do weekly spin classes with my mean, mean coach.
7-It's 8:50 and I am getting on the treadmill for an easy run...should keep me awake afterwards to cover one more chapter before bed....
8-Found a cool swim pace calculator today http://www.bx3.com/phil/tri/tricalc.asp

Let me tell you about my first triathlon...

It was Father's Day, 2007. It was raining and cold, around 12 degree Celsius. I had a rented wetsuit, a borrowed steel frame bike with shifters on the down tube, pedals with clips. I had no clue about how transition would go. BUT, I was so excited!! There was nothing keeping me from competing that day. I was entered in the sprint distance race and that, at the time, was a huge undertaking! My feet were frozen coming out of the lake, and stayed that way in my asics running shoes that were sopping wet on the bike after running through puddles in T1. The bike was very tentative, I had only been on this bike a handful of times and never on wet pavement. I took it easy on the big downhills, thinking self preservation was important. I went out onto the run with the same frozen feet, wet socks and shoes. I actually couldn't feel my feet. It felt like I was running on stumps. I hung in there though, and had a great result for my first tri. Swim and run times were good, bike was pretty slow but at least I stayed on it. Found my wonderful and equally soaking wet husband and kids at the finish line (it was so good to know they were there for me that day). I sent them home to dry off while I enjoyed the awesome post race meal and awards ceremony. One of the best things about that day was the people I met after the race. There I was, alone, at my first triathlon and no one to eat my pasta with, BUT, I just sat down with a group and had a great visit with some other soggy athletes. There was such a feeling of camaraderie that day, and still I will chat with people about that day..."were you at Arbour Lake in 07"...."it was crazy, man!!"
My feet hurt like you wouldn't believe, near hypothermia and still, after that one day--I was hooked!!!

To Run or Not to Run

It's 9:35pm, I am tired, I left my home this Sunday at 7:45 am to do the soccer mom thing, just got home and guess what, I still have a 75 min run scheduled for today...sigh...all I really want to do is sit on the couch and watch more olympics (got to watch Alexandre win gold in the men's moguls during a soccer party-woop! woop!) BUT, I have had a really great training week and don't want to finish off with a skipped workout.... So, off to the treadmill I go, to cap off an awesome training week. I think my coach would be proud.

Why I love chocolate milk...

Before I share my love of chocolate milk with you I must confess--no core last night after my post and rice works hot chili flavor for a snack as I watched the replay of the opening ceremonies.

Chocolate milk?? When I have just finished a workout and I am starving and don't have time for a snack ( I am usually running out the door somewhere) I down a big glass of chocolate milk. I would actually prefer to guzzle it out of the carton but I guess I should be a good example to the kids...haha! It fills me up, I am refueled and I LOVE it.

Blogging and Core strength....

What do these two have in common you ask? Well, I am new to both of them...maybe not so much to core strength, but new to a focus on it. Inspired by something my coach said I have been working more on strength and core than ever before. Ideally I would like to add a strength session twice a week to my regular training and core work six times a week. I've been pretty good about the strength for past few weeks, the core isn't up to six times but is a huge improvement over my past track record of hardly ever. As for blogging? Well I am brand new to that so we'll see how I do. I am not entirely sure I have anything interesting to say but I will give it a go!!
Now...off to consider whether I need an evening snack or not....