who's in?????

Was checking out the GWN website today for no real reason and I see that they have not filled up their team category...only 28 registered...room for 50 teams.

So who in blogger world is up for entering a team?? I could swim...who wants to bike and run...?

C'mon!! Would be FUN!!

hack

I am a hack. A bike hack to be exact.
I am really, really into a great book..."The Book of Joe"...and was up way late reading it last night. Oops. Missed my bike workout this morning. Will try to get it in tonight but not sure... puh-lease, can I miss just one workout?? This is my third week without missing ANY...until today...possibly...we will see what the night brings...
Have my 10km run on Sunday. Babysitter is booked. We have no other plans for the entire weekend but Shaun's hockey game and my run are at the very same time!! So I better run fast as the sitter is putting the cost of the run up by about 25 dollars.

Going to buy some new run pants for the run. Why not? The pants I have now are about 12 years old. They are actually embarrassing. But I have not cared. There will be some well dressed runners there on Sunday...maybe I should try to fit in...maybe I should wear my CTS jacket? I'm sure it makes me faster....

awww...shucks....

So....I get uncomfortable when people make a fuss about my swimming...I do!!

I have swam since I have been 8 years old. It's like walking for me. I just do it and it's easy.

I learned to swim in our pool in the backyard and then my mom put us in the competitive club when I was 8 years old. Every Mon/Wed/Fri we would drive the hour into Saskatoon from the farm for swim lessons and back again. A year or so of that and my dad realized that the $$ he was spending on gas was a mortgage payment!! So they bought a little house in the city and we moved...the city in the winter and on the farm in the summer time.

I get amused when the triathlete gang comments on my swim times...cause believe me, I was not all that "fast" when I was kid. I made it to Nationals only once, I was never picked for any teams, always on the "B" relay, never won any medals. But I always liked the social part (some things never change!!) and we travelled all over the country to meets which was kind of cool as no other kids at school were flying to Toronto for the weekend...

Anyway, I have super mixed feelings about my time in the pool. We would train 4 hours a day. Two before school and two after school. We would log about 10,000 meters per day in our peak training weeks. I did not learn how to play any other sports...like volleyball, I am horrid on a basketball court, I can't skate, I could not throw a baseball if my life depended on it, the only kids I knew were the ones at the pool! I have sworn up and down on my children's lives they will NEVER do this!! They will experience everything! It was alot of pressure and it took me a very long time to realize that the pool is not my life...just because I am not a top-notch age-group swimmer, does not mean I can't do well at other things. On top of that, my coach for about 9 out of the 10 years used to tell us we were "fat"!! Jenn will back me up on this one....he totally messed with our heads and as young, impressionable girls, his tactics were just WAY OFF!!!

It took me a VERY LONG time to be alright with who I was outside the pool. I am pretty sure my parents divorce was largely due to the time my mom spent with the swim club. (in fact I am 100% positive but that is a story for another time....)

On the positive side, swimming taught me lots and lots about dedicating yourself to something you really want to do. Organizing my time. I learned to love running through swimming as we had to do lots of dryland training. Hard work ethics...the a-hole coach used to make me swim with the boys as he called me a "work horse" and good at pacing, we would do sets like 20 x 200m or my favorite was 100 x 100m on about 1:20...

Anyway, I steered clear of any water until well after university was done. Stepped back into it very slowly about 8 years ago...then got asked to be on a team for a triathlon and shall we say, the rest is history!!

Now if I could only get good on that bike....

I have a lazy right arm

That is what Mike the swim coach told me today. When I am tired, I swing my right arm around and do not complete my stroke under water like I should. I said "But I am tired!" He said "But that is for sure when you should be concentrating on getting it right!!" Thanks.

It was too cold for my run yesterday morning. I am getting soft. I will not run outside if it is colder than about minus 15. In my Tuesday afternoon chat with Coach Justin, he told me he got a sunburn on Sunday while out riding. Nice. My weather stalking (thanks Melissa for that awesome term!!) told me the day was only going to get warmer. So I went out after supper and did my fartlek intervals. I am getting faster at these. I am happy with that! I had a bit of a hissy fit on the phone yesterday with JP...tell me again, the BIG picture? All this training by myself with nothing to gauge my progess is getting boring!!

Then he reminded me....do you not have a 10km run this weekend? Oh YEAH!! I almost forgot!The instructions are to run that sucker as hard as possible. This will give us a good gauge of where I am at. My time goal is around 55 minutes. My secret time goal is around 53 minutes. Either? Would be my world record so maybe a realistic goal would be a bit slower than that, but I've always been a bit of an over-achiever so let's aim KELLY FAST!!!

Got to my swim today as well. Was a good one. I like all the longer stuff...we did a pyramid...100m; 200m; 300m; 400m; 500m and then back down again.

weekend review

Did a super hard bike ride last Friday that was supposed to be done on Thursday but with my sleeping issues...as in I just don't sleep...I had told myself that if I happen to wake up in time Thurs morning, I will do the workout. But lo and behold, I actually slept!! Right to my alarm!! So up and at it early on Friday to put an hour and 15 minutes with some hard intervals thrown in for good times.

Saturday morning brought another 45 minutes on the yellow cervelo and then an hour and 15 minute run. Ran from home and felt good until about the hour mark. Walked for a bit, tried running for a bit but my legs were done...so walked to the Roastery for a coffee!! After my coffee I ran home so not sure if that counts for the last 15 minutes, but that's how it went down.

Yesterday was a swim...with lots of kick. My legs were very angry with me. But because I swam competitively for 10 years and in training we did lots and lots of kick, my kick is very strong! In fact it is my secret weapon, along with my tumble turns and I use both to try to keep up to those fast guys on Sunday morning. They were even kind enough to let me lead the kick set...hee hee!! We did a set of counting strokes and I have never really done this. So concentrating on keeping things long and strong and the steady kick, I was taking pretty consistently 18 strokes per 25 meters. I have no idea what this means. It's just how it goes. This week or possibly next, a few other tri people and I have hired a swim coach to meet us at a pool to just have some one on one time. Not that the coaches with the tri club aren't great, but I want to have someone stand over me for an hour or so and give me some reminders and I don't often get that. AND the three others that are coming are super fast triathletes....so hopefully by association (or osmosis), I will become fast (for me) too!!!