Muncie 70.3. 2013 Goal # 2. Mission Accomplished.

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Usually when I tell someone I’m training for a half Ironman, they tell me they are terrible at swimming and they’d do one if it weren’t for the swim. Well, I’m terrible at swimming too.

ME TOO, ME TOO People. (not to get all worried and stuff, I’m doing a sprint & olympic in the next month before the half)

This is a work in progress. When Glenn started training for his half Ironman in 2011, I jumped in the pool with him a couple of times. The swimming consisted of 1-2 laps, stop, 1-2 laps, stop again. Kick board a couple of laps… you get it. And it only happened 3-4 times.

It brought me back to when I was 8 or something like that and my sister and I joined the Bloomington Swim Club. I don’t know how long I was on the team, but I know I was always in the slow lane and was in awe of the kids who could actually swim and swim fast. They had meets and not once did I participate because I didn’t think I could even do a full lap without stopping. See? Swimming is not my thing. In middle school I wanted to be on the swim team, because I wanted to be on every team for every sport I possibly could, because that’s what kids do in middle school. So I joined the diving team instead. I was still pretty terrible, but much better at diving than swimming.

As soon as I decided to train for this race, I started swimming. I started swimming slow and not very far. Distances I could grasp. 500 yards, that’s 10 laps in the pool at my gym. (lap being down and back- at least that’s what I call a lap) I literally had to take a short break every 3 laps. The first time I swam 5 laps without stopping was a huge accomplishment. Last week, I swam 2,000 yards (40 laps) without stopping. That was huge for me. I didn’t do a workout in the swim, I just swam. It was slow, but I did it.

This week, I swam the farthest distance I’ve ever swam- 2200 yards. I also did a “speed” workout in that swim. 3 X 500 yards. It was really hard. I had to break up the last 500 into two sets of 250 because I felt like my arms were going to fall off and now that I look back, maybe I was being a baby. I could have hammered out the last 250 without a break, but I thought it would be a sorry effort.  I was only scheduled for 2,000 yards that day but cooled down an extra 200. Never thought I’d be the point where I actually wanted to do an extra 4 laps of cool down.

I imagine these big moments and accomplishments in my swimming are similar to how a new runner feels. To a someone who is a “swimmer” the 500 yards that I started with is their warm up. I’m not sure I want to venture much further than 2500 yards or so in the whole swimming thing, but what is that compared to? Capping out at a half marathon in running? 50 miles on the bike? Anyone know?

When I get in the pool and know that 40 laps await me, it seems long. Although I know I’ll be done in less than an hour, the end of the workout seems really far away. But I get there, I just start and I keep going. And, much like running, warming up is VERY important. I always feel rusty those first 5 laps, but it gets better. And I kind of like it. It’s kind of refreshing, the whole no impact thing. I like that I’m using my arms- although I don’t feel like they’ve toned up much, I had a really good dream last night where I had amazing arms from all the swimming. That’s something. (I should probably actually do some weights if I really want that)

I still can’t even fathom the 2.4 miles in a full Ironman. I think back to Glenn’s Ironman, (seriously click that link if you haven’t read his race report yet. It’s a good one. Dude knows how to put work in to get it done.) when all those people just plowed in the water. (IM, WI does a mass start) We ended up watching most of the swim from way up high. It was freaking nutty. So many people. Such a far distance. The swimmers all spread out and we had no idea idea where he was in the sea of people.

This is about 2 minutes after the start of Glenn’s IM in September

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At Glenn’s parents about to head out for our ride. It’s May, why in the world did we need to dress like this?

In my mind, a 40 mile bike ride is similar to a 20 mile run, It takes around the same amount of time for me. Like a 20 mile run, many times when you get started, the distance seems daunting and that’s how I felt about the 40. 40 miles on the bike is long, but it’s not crazy long. The farthest I’ve ever done in a day is somewhere around 80, but that was 3 years ago. And on the same day that I rode 80, Glenn doubled me, riding 160. He’s a much more experienced bike rider than I.

I don’t have a trip meter on my bike, but Glenn had his GPS watch on his bike for the ride. I started asking him how far we’d gone at mile 6. So, yeah those first 20 miles were a bit of a head game. We did an out and back and the first half was into a head wind and I felt like I was crawling pretty slow. A couple of times I was apparently a little chatty and Glenn told me I needed to work harder. Geez man. I wasn’t working all that hard, like in a 20 mile run, you can’t go all hard and stuff the whole time or you’ll crash and burn. When I was pushing hard though, I focused on the turnaround when we’d have a really awesome tailwind.

I feel like I’m always talking about a headwind. Maybe I’m a baby about it, but Mr. Ironman himself told me the headwind out was nasty, so I’ll give myself that.

We took these pics at 20 miles when we turned around. I had my mind set on hopping of the bikes for a minute at the turnaround and took a gel as well. (chocolate hammer, duh)

I think this picture makes us look young. As someone who is turning 30 in 3 months. I like it.

AND, the tailwind WAS IN FACT  awesome. We averaged around 13-14 mph on the way out and 18-19 on the way back. Averaging 15.5, my goal was around 16, so I’m OK with it. I’m not a speedy bike rider. I try, but I need to work on getting some stronger legs.

After the ride, we did a 4 mile run. The schedule calls for an easy run (7:30-8:10 pace). I told Glenn I didn’t know if I’d be up for running that fast. Turns out I lied, we averaged 7:10s. At mile 1, we were at 7:30 and at mile 3 he told me pace was 6:58 and then I decided I wanted to make sure the last one was sub 7 and we hit it around 6:49. Something about sub 7s that make me feel good. I also like biking and running with Glenn because I just let him wear the watch and I don’t constantly clock/pace watch.

I also enjoy running after the bike- there’s no pressure to run very fast and while it takes a little bit of time to wake your legs up, you feel tough. 

Post run. Marshall’s thinking it’s about time we stopped working out and gave him some attention.

Once we put him down for his second nap, we headed out again and went to 3Floyds, in Munster, IN where Glenn stalked up on his favorite beer. Dave (Glenn’s Dad) watched Marshall. They really let us have some freedom on Saturday and it was really refreshing.

When I was planning to to Giest this coming weekend, I had 12 miles at steady state on the schedule for Sunday. Since I decided to drop it, I did an easy 8 instead. Marshall had us up at 5am (this is unusual, he almost always sleeps in until 7) and I almost decided to just go on and get it done early, but usually if I run first thing in the AM I end up having stomach issues- I do much better if I’ve been up for a few hours. Then I almost just scratched it and took a rest day. Then Glenn headed out to run his 8 for the day. When he got back, I had just put Marshall down for his first nap and was ready to get my 8 in. We were having a big brunch at Megan’s (Glenn’s sister) for Mother’s Day and I knew I’d enjoy it a lot more if I got my run in. The alternative was doing it Monday and I like to have to flexibility to throw in a rest day on Monday’s.

I really wanted to listen to music on my run and I don’t feel safe listening to music running by myself… even in Crown Point. It is dangerous and not worth it at all. I know having Cadence with me isn’t fool proof but it helps. It’s the only way I’ll run “alone” with headphones. She used to run this far all the time but hasn’t in a long time- she helped me keep my pace nice and chill and it was just what I needed. (side note- when I stroller run- I do have music, but I play it out loud on my phone with it sitting on the stroller- no headphones.)

Now that’s a good looking dog.

My first Mother’s Day with Marshall. I guess last year technically was, but I hadn’t really met him  yet then.

Rocking the collared IU shirt. Looks like he’s going golfing later. So glad I pulled this sucker out of storage early- it’s 18 months. He is kind of scrawny for his age, so I was surprised it fit already.

This picture of Glenn’s parents with the grandkids is hilarious.

Family pic. Marshall and Glenn got me a purse for Mother’s Day. I’m gonna wear the crap out of it.

I’m so thankful to be Marshall’s mom. Last year at this time, we were anxiously anticipating his arrival. Mother’s Day 2011 was somewhat difficult for me, I’d had my first miscarriage the November before and couldn’t help but feel like it should have been my first “Mother’s Day” and I should have been having a baby 2 months later. What I wanted more than anything was to have my own baby to hold. Everyday I look at this little boy, who relies on me for everything, I’m thankful he does. I feel so fortunate that he came into our lives and I don’t know what the future holds for us with more babies, but I know I can’t control that. I’m soaking up every bit of this little boy that I can. The first couple months of his life were hard and exhausting and quite frankly kind of scary (I was so afraid of SIDS, I know most new parents think about it, but I was obsessive. I think that started getting better somewhere around 3 months. It was the longest 3 months of my life)  It all just keeps getting better everyday though and I’m not sure when I’ll stop saying that. Probably when he starts throwing temper tantrums.

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