A Very Wet Day

I had a very busy day today exercise-wise. This morning I got up early and went for a long bike ride with Paul and then I met my tri-group for a wonderful swim clinic. I've decided to share the details of my day today, LOL.

The Ride:
This was my longest ride to date - 51 miles! I felt great too. I am really starting to get the hang of this whole gear switching thing. The course we rode wasn't super hard but there were a few relatively steep hills and a bunch of gentle slopes. The hills were still somewhat tough but not extremely hard. All this cycling is going to make my thighs even bigger :-/ now I'll have to work on getting some of the fat off of them so that at least if they are big they will be big and toned. The forecast called for rain so I was crossing my fingers that we didn't get rained out. We lucked up and only had about 10 minutes of light rain. It was actually kind of refreshing because it came when I was starting to get hot. Of course, the ride wouldn't be complete without being chased by dogs. We were chased by one killer dog and a few less vicious dogs. I'm really going to have to get that pepper spray....

After the ride I stopped and got a bagel and some chocolate milk so I didn't fall out before the swim clinic.

The Swim Clinic:
It was great! It was useful to understand what an ideal stroke looks like and what I needed to work on in order to achieve that. Marisa gave us several drills to help improve our stroke and also let us know what we each needed to work on. I felt like the slow kid in the class because after each length she had something to say to me about what I was doing wrong. That's okay though it just gives me more to work towards. I read this article that said that when you are first working on your stroke that you should do significantly more drills as opposed. So I plan on focusing on my drills and improving my stroke.

Sidenote: I'm still trying to figure out how I'm doing all this stuff and I'm not losing any weight. It's a mystery....

ICE COLD

Today I went to an open water swim clinic to help prepare for my first triathlon that I will be competing in next Saturday. I can't remember the last time I have swam in a lake or even if I have ever actually swam in a lake. Since deciding to sign up for this triathlon the swim is the part that has been making me the most nervous. I'm not the best swimmer to begin with and the fact that this swim is in a lake doesn't really help.

So today I put on my wetsuit (UGH, I look like a stuffed sausage in this thing) and get ready to hop in the lake for swim. Oh, did I mention that the temperature of the water in the lake was 62 degrees.? Yeah, 62 degrees....painfully cold. I guess it could have been worse, although if it was any worse then I don't think I'd have been getting in the water. My toes and fingers were practically frozen and it hurt to put my face in the water. I must like torturing myself.

Enough complaining....I am very happy that I went to the clinic today. I feel so much more comfortable about the swim. The lake wasn't nearly as dirty as I thought it would be and I think having a bunch of other people in the water must have scared all of the fish away because I didn't see any. It was a little different swimming in a wetsuit but I think it won't be that big of a deal. I'm glad that the swim is a timed start instead of having everyone start at the same time. I don't think I'm ready for all of that chaos yet.

To-Do List

I need to get back on task with making lists. I need to make a list for all the things I need to do around the house and start checking them off. The first thing that needs to be done is conquering clean clothes mountain and then washing the pile of dirty clothes so that I can finally implement my clothes washing plan. I don't understand how two people can generate so many dirty clothes.
I'm also planning to make two new recipes this week so I need to go to the grocery store to get some supplies. Be on the look out for those posts later this week - they should be really good!

I'm tired, I attempted to go for a swim at lunch....I say attempted because I only managed to do 250 meters before I felt completely drained and decided to stop and go back in the locker room. I was contemplating getting in the hot tub however it was full of naked old women so I took a pass on that idea. I guess I'm tired from staying up late to watch the Superbowl (really the Superbowl commercials). I posted my thoughts on the commercials on my other blog, "Because I Said SO!"

OK, enough rambling for one post......

Swimming Blind

I decided not to wear my contacts today because my eye was bothering me. That probably was because I hadn't taken them out in about two weeks. I know, I know, I could get an eye infection, eye ulcer, blah blah blah. I really need to look into getting Lasik....this whole taking the contacts in and out thing just doesn't suit me. I need to schedule an eye appointment pretty soon anyways so I'll talk to my eye doctor when I do.

ANYWAY, my not wearing my contacts resulted in me having to swim practically blind. For anyone who wears contacts or knows anything about prescription strength, mine is a -6.50 which I'm pretty sure is almost legally blind. Paul assured me that this would be good practice for Belews Creek because I wouldn't be able to see in the lake. I was concerned about running into the side of the pool but I managed to make it through the swim without doing so! I did however snag my watch on the lane divider which was NOT a good feeling. That was during the time that I was sharing a lane with Paul and the force of him swimming near me pushed me into the divider, LOL.

I did 750 meters in 20 minutes which is great for me! Well I'm assuming it is great, I hadn't actually ever timed myself before. It seemed like a good time considering I just REALLY started swimming a couple of months ago. I'm excited about my progress in the pool and I know that I can be soooo much better, I probably just need some coaching.

Also, I signed up for the Belews Creek Triathlon so that makes it official. I must get in shape and get ready for this triathlon. I'm going to start putting together a real plan soon....maybe this weekend. I have to gather some information because I was looking at some beginner plans online but I feel like I'm more advanced than that so I need to explore some other options. I'll keep you posted.