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Aug 16, 2012    |      0 comments

Etch-A-Swim: Gossamer

A bit late on this one, but this Etch-A-Swim was from Sunday’s Hermosa Pier to Manhattan Beach Pier open water swim. Remember Gossamer from Looney Tunes? Well, that zigzag of a swim reminded me of his fur. Lemme tell you, that was probably one of the harder “Pier to Pier” sessions we’ve had because we faced a current going against us. It felt like a treadmill where I just wasn’t going anywhere! Water was clear too so that messed with my head as well! It took me almost 2:20 to complete! I really had thoughts of “What is happening?!? Will I be able to make Ironman Canada’s swim cutoff at 2:30? This is cutting it realllll close! Where is everyone? They’re all probably eating breakfast already!”

I came out of that swim pretty spent out of energy that I suffered on the run. It was even a flat run too! We had to do a 3 loop run of 4 miles each. Counter clockwise from the Strand to Woodchip, then clockwise, then back to counter again. That first loop was pretty much a Walk-A-Thon because I just didn’t have enough energy. I was pretty much doing 15:1 run:walk minute intervals then eventually 2:1. Second loop was better as I was able to do 5:1. Then the third, after having some Hammer Endurolytes from coach Brad and another Gu Roctane, I was able to get most of my energy back and ran for the most part. This was definitely a learning experience for me because my nutrition was waaaaaay off! I mean, almost 3 hours of back at the beach (20 minute run warmup then 2:20 of swimming) without nutrition, then continued on a run? That’s a recipe for disaster! I only brought 1 bottle of Accelerade, and some Gu. Once I was out of Accelerade, all I had was water. Not enough. Even I knew that. For some reason I thought we had SAG support to swap out, but we didn’t. For South Bay runs, we usually don’t. Now I know what to do. Unfortunately, it’s these miserable experiences that make us learn, and that I did.

Aug 15, 2012    |      0 comments

So Fresh, So Clean

After practice on Saturday, I dropped off my bike for a tune up at Performance Bicycles in Santa Monica. When I purchased the bike almost 2 years ago, it included 2 tune ups and drive train cleaning services. I already did one before Wildflower, but it was due for another one especially for Ironman Canada. So tonight, I picked it up – it was so fresh and so clean clean!

Aug 13, 2012    |      0 comments

Etch-A-Swim: Spaghetti

The day after we found out there was a Great White Shark in Venice, the team swam in Santa Monica. Saw a stingray though… wished the water wasn’t THAT clear on Friday! 2 more weeks until Canada!!

Aug 10, 2012    |      0 comments

4550 in a Pool

I always dreaded the Friday night pool swims because it doesn’t really give me a Friday night to do ANYTHING. By the time I get out of work, knock out the swim at Equinox, then eat. I get home maybe 10pm. Then I pack for Saturday morning’s practice, then sleep. Towards the end of the season the yardage was always so long because I’m so slow! Yup, 2 hours. Fortunately, my teammate Jeff messaged me if I wanted to meet up with him. Tonight was a little packed so we shared lanes. Unfortunately though, he’s one of the fastest swimmers of the team, so mentally, it was tough seeing him lap me so many times! To get a better picture of how fast he is, when I looked at the swim set and needed 750 more yards, he just finished his set!

Aug 6, 2012    |      0 comments

Awesome 80’s Run

My IronTEAM “Off-Season” schedule is filling up pretty quickly with… yup, you guessed it, more races. This time a fun 10k run, but a week after my Ironman in Canada. Can you say, Recovery Run? This event will be in Pasadena, on September 1st 7am, hosted by Superhero Events, LLC. It looks and sounds pretty fun! One of my teammates originally posted it on Facebook, and you know how social media peer pressure goes, a bunch of us signed up! What’s 6.2 miles among friends anyway? …AND we get to dress up in 80’s crazy neon gear? We also get a shirt and a medal! It’s pretty rare for these smaller 5k and 10k runs to give medals, so I’m excited for that!

You can sign-up on their registration site, and also get involved in their community on their Facebook Page.

Aug 5, 2012    |      0 comments

Etch-A-Swim: Beeker

Meep meep meep! This confirmed my straightest and fastest open water swim in 2 IronTEAM seasons! We started at Tower 26 in Santa Monica, swam 2ish miles to Venice Beach and back. THANK YOU Elisabeth & Donovan for guiding me south, then Holly D & Amy for guiding me back north (you can see when they swam ahead and lost my sighting in the end)

Jul 31, 2012    |      0 comments

Etch-A-Swim: Fox

Ok, there’s no possible way this one is accurate, but hey I’ll go with it. It’s another open water Rorschach test from last weekend’s Vineman 2.4 mile swim. Looked like a fox to me!

Jul 18, 2012    |      0 comments

1 x 4000

So the swim set last night simply said “1 x 4000.” There’s something daunting about doing that kind of distance in a pool, especially since each lap is 25 yards, meaning it was 160 times back and forth, back and forth. We had to “snake” through the pool (nothing new here), starting at one part of the pool, swim down, then duck under the lane line, then swim back, zigzagging to the end. Ugh… pretty annoying. The ocean swims are a little better because it’s a straight (or very crooked) 2+ miles. I do tend to get my rhythm after 30 minutes, so this 25 yard switch direction was still a huge challenge. In the end, my watch clocked 4500 yards. I think it added the walk on the deck between snake loops, but hey, I’ll take it!

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