StrongerBetterFasterMore: August Lessons

I started August off with a new swim attitude thanks to watching Finding Nemo. "When life gets you down, ya know whatcha gotta do? Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming..."

http://www.youtube.com/embed/CmyUkm2qlhA

So Dory and I have joined forces and up'ed our swimming mileage and finally signed up for the Tikiswiim 2.4 miles on Sept 30. It's now or never... and I hired Rachel Willis to help me improve my stroke and teach me the other 3 strokes since now the Olympics are so motivating with all the racing and slow watch videos underwater! I took 1 hr lesson on each stroke. I fell in love with breaststroke and received compliments from complete strangers. Rachel said she was amazed at how fast I took to the stroke and I didn't even know how good I was already. My confidence soared. I practiced it for 2.5 hrs straight.... I walked like I had been on a horse for a couple days though not realizing the breast kick used the inside thigh muscle A LOT!!!

Aug 10: I tried a women's clinic at the SD Velodrome race track. It was super scary as a I felt like Peewee Herman in the middle of a racecar track ! It was exhilerating and included a race entry for the following Friday, however, I was too tired and was concerned about the exhaustion prior to the Chula Vista Challenge Olympic triathlon.

Aug 19: Chula Vista Challenge Olympic Triathlon - Anniversary of my 1st Olympic level tri. Goal: finish faster than 3:30 overall. It was awesome running up the steps toward the lit Olympic torch which happened to also be the last day of the Summer Olympics - 2012!

My anniversary Olympic tri event changed from October to August so it's actually a 10 month anniversary. Wow what a weather difference though! October is dark at 6am and cool. August is hot before we start the swim and the water is 75 degrees! How hot was it?? Like swimming in a jacuzzi if you were in a wetsuit, riding into a blow dryer, running inside a volcano!!!! The swim was a bit choppy and impossible to see the buoys facing the sun. I sighted other swimmers hoping they were not as blind as I was and eventually I saw the buoy myself. I was disappointed that my swim was slower than last year because I felt stronger so maybe the current? maybe that I was in a sleeveless suit? I just don't know except last year my swim time was adjusted by the race timing officials online so maybe it was wrong last year? no clue :( I had previewed the ride route again to refresh my legs of the hills on this route. I definitely felt stronger and I decided to take advantage of the water station on the bike ride so only brought 30oz on the ride to save weight. Well, it was hotter than hell and the water station had been eliminated! Luckily a guy gave me his spare bottle when I complained at the La Media uturn with drymouth! Marcus nearly turned into a raisin however! I guess always bring extra water but I've never raced without water stations on a bike route at a tri. My speed/cadence went crazy on my bike so I could not tell which mile I was on for 25 miles so I had no time on my Garmin for the bike leg and sadly Gemini timing decided to randomly add the bike leg with the T1 time so I can't separate them for comparison. I just know it was faster because I had a stripper for my wetsuit and a helper handing me stuff for the bike so that saved time too. The run route was a little shorter but it was oven air hot and hilly as expected but beautiful around the Olympic Training Center. I was so happy to carry my little handbottle of water that I could sip the entire run and grab ice water at the stations to dump on my steaming head. In the end I got 7th place of 7 in my age group. I was sad but then I realized the other 6 were in the top 20 of 60 females! I had a really tough group of women that were faster than the younger age group! I was 35th of 60 females so 58% and 3:18 is not so bad and overall I improved 12 minutes over last year so that is good even with a slower swim! I'm still waiting for a freestyle lesson with Rachel who has had strep all last week. Hopefully she can help me make a difference soon. We earned etched drinking glasses instead of medals which was pretty cool.

Aug 29: America's Finest City Half Marathon AND Finisher of the Triple Crown award! (Carlsbad, LaJolla, AFC in 2012) and I advance to Uranus moon level with my Half Fanatics running club for completing 6 halfs in 6 consecutive months! It will take me until November to advance to the next moon level but I will achieve both Saturn and Jupiter levels at the same time!

Half Fanatics Criteria

To become a member of the Half Fanatics you need to complete one of the following.

Depending upon which streak you have completed will determine your Moon level.

http://www.halffanatics.com/criteria.html

Love the AFC shirt design and especially the Triple Crown finisher medal! The key to this half is the lean forward for the first half of the race as it is all downhill to mile 5, then try to hold on to the momentum through the flats to mile 11 using the harbor beauty as distractions, because then it is a painful straight up for mile 12, then it's a beautiful flat run across the Prado Bridge into Balboa Park.

The downhill wasn't as drastic as I expected but I did take "Sport Legs" pills just in case my thighs would be thrashed. What I didn't realize was that over half of the race is facing the sun. Even though it still wasn't too hot, the sun was beating down on us hard! And it was especially disgusting as we ran through downtown as the heat provided us with potent urine and fish gut smell...which didn't help at mile 10.5 where some "volunteers?" were passing out 1/4 pieces of cheesburger patties to the runners...seriously I expected to see vomit any minute and got out of that area as fast as I could! I saw a lot of runner friends but it was especially nice when I saw a lot of first timers completing the 1/2 marathon for the first time. I saw an 80 year old that had fallen and broken his nose but crossed the finishline bloody with the help of two others and a lady limping in tears and still crossing the finishline...I just love seeing the will to finish, the determination to reach a goal. The human spirit to push to the very end, through whatever it takes, is so beautiful that it brought tears to my eyes for them! It was my special moment to achieve the Triple Crown and also advance to Uranus in my Half Fanatics Running club. I felt good on the run and only stopped to fill my bottles quickly and to let the damn train pass! Thankfully it was a short train! My training of running at least 6 miles every run day is working well for me. I'm very comfortable with half marathons now, even with the foot pain. I think my run plan will really pay off for Oceanside 2013. I finished 2:21 with the stops placing me at 38% of my age group so I'm always happy with above the average finish times!