Swimming is Effin’ Hard

Several people have told me that my body is most suited to swim.  I understand what they are saying – my disproportionately long torso (evidenced by my arm span of 6′1″ – two inches more than my height) and subsequent short legs are ideal for swimming, and my people come from an island nation.  However, as I try to get a couple of water workouts in before this triathlon (a week from today!) I realize more and more that swimming is really hard.  At this point, I think I could run and run and run – easily 10 miles in one go – but even the prospect of 400 meters swimming in open ocean terrifies me a bit.  I just cannot be hurried to swim, and when you add in throngs of competitors trying to pass me by employing punches and kicks, and it might be more than I can handle.

So today I tried again to get some laps in.  I’m in Saratoga for the weekend and I went down to the YMCA (this branch, I know I’ve mentioned before, has everything) and got in a good 700 yard swim.  That’s a little shy of 650 meters, which is 250 meters more than I have to swim next week.  I think I’ve resigned myself to a strategy of swimming freestyle for as long as I can then doing breast stroke for the middle half, then just hauling in as need be towards the end.  The swim is my biggest concern and will probably be what’ll most keep me from breaking an hour.

Since the day is wonderfully beautiful, Jimmy and I are going to head out for a nice 20 miles bike ride.  Hopefully I can hit the middle 10 miles hard.

New Beginning

At some point I’ve had to get over the last training season and focus on what’s coming next.  Since my last post, a month ago today, I’ve had time to reflect on the marathon down in New Jersey, and realize that sometimes you just have days that things don’t fall your way.  I had a great training season, with a huge PR at the New Bedford Half, and a great 20 mile run at the Eastern States 20.  So instead of mulling over a missed opportunity, I am instead focusing on recovering well by getting in some easy runs.  After the NJM, I had a lot of stuff going on, having gone to a wedding down in Houston and coordinating my move away from Boston.  I left the Tuesday after Memorial day and am in New York visiting my mom between visits out to California and Nevada for the Reno-Tahoe Odyssey race (more below), the triathlon out in Hyannis, and my trip to Iceland with David Nutt and Rob Wydra!  After the latter, I should be getting ready to move out west for my next adventure: grad school!

Though I haven’t done over 10 miles in one go yet (I think I’m going to make my first attempt at it this weekend) I did have the Reno-Tahoe Odyssey out in CA/NV this past weekend and got in at least 12.8 miles (plus the extra mileage I ran with some of my teammates.  It was part of the annual Boston Stragglers relay team.  Last year I did the Green Mountain Relay up in Vermont and Robin was happy to have me back.  The team was made up of past members, like myself, Robin and Lynne, new ones, like Paige and Brian (who filled in for Adam who had to drop out last minute) and others from out in the Tahoe area.  Overall, it was a great team of people who were laid back and a ton of fun.  My leg was the first of the 12 and, as per my request of Robin, the easiest.  I knew that I would still be on recovery and didn’t want to push myself, which was good considering the utter lack of oxygen on the course which averaged over a mile above sea level.  I’ve put a couple of pictures up from the race and the hike that Brian, Paige, Robin and I went on during the following days.

I’ve also been running some intervals/speed workouts with the Rockland Road Runners, a small group of runners (about half the size of a CR workout group) near where my mom lives.  The group is super friendly, but I really miss running with Community Running already!  There are some quick people though; not many faster than I am right now, but the ones who are include a 40 year old woman who just ran a 1:21:59 at the NYRR Brooklyn Half.  These workouts are far more suited to those running 5Ks or 10Ks, but it’s enough to motivate me to get some intervals in so that’s good.

My next race is actually a triathlon, like I said, down in Hyannis.  I’m going to focus for the next couple of days on swimming and biking to compliment my running to see if I can do well during this race.  I’m a bit terrified of the swim part, and the chaos of a transition, but hopefully it’ll all be great fun!

I will attempt to recap more of the relay in the next couple of days, as well as my goals for the Summer and Fall racing seasons!  In the mean time, here are some cool pictures.

Super fun team!

I get to lead off! We started at 12:30, and I passed the guy in the orange twice. Once about 10 seconds after this picture was taken, then again after he cheated and skipped a turn! Jerk. He should have read the directions (like I am doing in this picture).

Fun hike! I couldn't tell what was harder though, the run or the hike...

Robin, Paige and myself with Lily Lake, Fallen Leaf Lake, and Lake Tahoe from fore to back.