Where did the land go

Well Saturday I swam the furthest I have ever volunteeringly (yes I believe I made up another word) did.  Never before did I ever say to myself I wonder just how far could I swam away from the shore.  NEVER.  Actually up until now I can honestly say it also never crossed my mind to do such a thing.  I mean who in their right mind would leave the security of soil for open water.  Not me at least.  But on Saturday with the awesome help of my swimming Coach Lyndsi I did just that.  I had a lesson with her on Friday and felt great.  That seemed to have rolled over to Saturday morning as I decided to see just how far I could go.  While I did not reach the buoy yet I did get closer.  I was probably 60% out so I am very much getting closer to my first new goal.  Which is to make it to and from the buoy while not drowning in the process.  I am seeing that I may have rushed my 2015 goals for the Ironman.  So I might reserve 2015 to get myself mentally and physically prepared for a run at it in 2016.  Right now I need to conquer the first buoy, then the second one and finally do a tri that is what I have seem to have forgotten it official name but the tri between sprint and ironman.  That I will need to conquer first in 2015 and then use that to boost me into a great and awesome 2016 for the ironman.  I just honestly knew swimming would be my major weakness but I also kinda thought I could have overcome it quicker than this as well.  Mainly because whatever I do I can learn it quick and master it quick as well.  But not swimming so that is why I am so happy for what happened yesterday.  It was a major step forward to a lengthy overall goal plan for my life in the tri-world.

After the swim I just did the 16 mile bike ride.  My calves were killing me still from a workout that happened back on Wednesday.  Darn me.  I increase my weights on my exercises for my calves and while it will build up my strength I may have gone a little too high in the weights.  But the ride was great.  Started out way to slow and I have no clue why the leader of the pack did that.  The only thing that did was just put about 15 riders about a few inches apart from each other.  Very dangerous IMO.  But once I got to a passing point I moved ahead of most the riders and just rode with the elite group until I was proven yet again to not be an elite rider myself just yet.  But hey I hung with them for most of the ride.  I am working hard on increasing my speed and am getting up there but I also know that I am still a ways off from getting to the speed that most of the riders are at.

Today it is raining so I am not riding my bike for sure.  So I am probably heading to the pool and practice what I learned from Coach Lyndsi on Friday and the advise from Coach Lyndsi and Coach Dave from Saturday.  Coach Dave gave me so really good tips on how to improve my swimming.  So I am going to try that today along with drills from Coach Lyndsi on Friday.

Back on the run

Wow today was both good and sore.  I got myself back out on the road running after being sick last week and fighting a sore or tight back all spring.  Today I decided to take it easy and also decided it was time to bring out one of those three pairs of shoes that I have store for future use and may that future today.  I got myself out there for a good 5 mile run with no back tightness.  It could be that I am focusing on back exercises and it could be that I am focusing on my core workouts or it could be that my old shoes were worn out and it was a matter of time before the real pain was going to come until I changed my shoes.  Well whatever it was it worked at least for today.  Prayer never hurts either.  Now I am sore in my other normal areas that you would expect to be sore if you haven't ran in a while.  Today's run was not pretty.  It looked like a new runner out there but no it was only me.

Plus the new shoes are cool.  First time to wear New Balance and the colors are totally not me.  But at least these shoes will allow me to wear pretty much any shirt and it will match my shoes.  Yeah they are a little wild.

The swim is improving still.  I am not there with the endurance still but I am getting further and further with the breathing working better and better now.  I am still not close yet to feel comfortable enough to start doing open water tri's.  But I am getting comfortable enough to at least aim for heading out to the first buoy.  I have missed the last couple of open water swims due to lack of sleep one weekend and sick last weekend.  I am both so excited to get back out there and looking behind me to see what next will hit me to prevent me from going this coming weekend.