The lone swimmer

That was me on Sunday afternoon at the Clem(p)son lake for our practice OWS at Saturday's tri. Overall, I had a terrific time there, and after a few minutes of getting acclimated to the cold water by putting my face in the cold water, I felt fine. Just like Lisa said not too long ago, that seems to be the hardest part and for me, it was. After that it was cake! I'm overall surprised at my comfortableness (wow, that is a word?!?) in the water. We did approx 200yds from one side of the beach (lake-beach) past buoys and come out down the beach, walk back to the beginning and so forth. We did this 4 times then a few of us (David included) did a ~400yd where we didn't exit the water. We just turned around at the buoy and headed back. I could have stayed out there for a much longer time swimming, but we had an hr drive back home. My confidence in the lake swim for this weekend has risen a little. I feel much better. However, we didn't have the crowds we will this weekend. But, I have a strategy. I'm going to start a few seconds after the mass start and stay on the outside of the pool of fishes. I don't need to be in that mess to shave 5 seconds off my swim. No, thank you! Grace got to enjoy the lake afternoon too. I think she's gonna be into water sports, for sure. She loves the water, much more than I do. But, I think it's really growing on me. :-) *Note - my arms look super huge in that pic. I'm practicing unzipping my wetsuit.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my new Mother's Day gift (the wetsuit). Yeah, yeah, I know it's not Mothers Day ---- Yet. But, I got my gift already and let me just tell ya.... Wearing a wetsuit in that lake was AWESOME. So worth it.... The buoyancy was just amazing. So, thanks David and Grace for my present! Isn't a Wetsuit what all Mom's want for Mother's Day? Hehe... My virtual tri twin, Lisa got one too.

I'm glad that swim went okay, cause today I was drained and just down-right exhausted. I didn't have time to do my usual 2000yd long swim at lunch. That just ain't happening. So, I settled for 30 min, and that happened to be a 1500yd swim. I felt like I was pushing myself harder and after I plugged in my time, I was slower. Oh well.

I just recently bought myself some presents for my bikey-bike. She deserves it as she's been so good to me lately. This week (hopefully), she gets new tri bars.


...and I just ordered these puppies. Aren't they sweeet!! I know they look like all other wheels out there, but David tells me "They're good wheels", and apparently my wheels suck. So, okay. Cha-ching...


I also hooked myself up with some new bike shorts. I needed them - wearing them twice in one week is just icky... I really need to start working at BK Lounge at night. This sport is getting expensive!!!

I have a new training partner and I couldn't be happier. We did Greenville tri together last year, and am doing Clemson this weekend, and Irongirl too. What I like so much about training with her is that we're both on the same level, except she's way faster in the water that I, and that we support each other. She's not competitive at all, neither am I, and we're just doing this for the fun of it and the sanity. We work for the same company and live across the street from each other. She's great! and I look forward to many months of us training together. We decided to ride from work yesterday after work to ICAR and do a few laps of it, then run 3 miles. It's a VERY hilly course and requires some "out of the saddle" time for me, which I'm mastering quite well. Our mileage plan got cut short due to some rain, and since we didn't know how bad it was going to get, we did 1 full loop and headed back in. We hit a paved trail behind our work, which was awesome. The rain was coming down in between the trees and there were lots of twists and turns. Fun times. We got back, stowed our dirty bikes and did a run/walk. I'm having mental issues lately with my running and hope to tackle that head on soon.

David mentioned in his blog the other day about my self-doubt issues. It's very true, as I've always had those feelings in my head, not just about training for Tri's or running, but everything. I don't know if it's deeply rooted from my childhood or not, but whatever it is - it's limiting me. I know it's all mental, and that mental part is holding me back. At least I know that, but how do you change? Here's my struggle. Friend and I were talking last night about this very thing. She's very positive and it's super enlightening. Maybe this will help. And, I couldn't have a better supporter than David. He always pats me on the back regardless if he's thinking in his head "Man, that's turtle slow - I can do that in my sleep". Lisa has been a HUGE help too. Our weekly chats are helping and I think that we are on the same level in many aspects of the crazy multisport world, so thanks David and Lisa. So, David was talking about "Why we do this to ourselves?". I've been asking myself this question over the last few weeks, so it's ironic he wrote what he did here. I think sometimes it's the sanity, or the challenge, or to feel a sense of worth. Whatever the reason - make sure "it" makes you happy. That's what I'm trying to convince myself of. We'll see how I feel after Saturday.

We went to Target the other night and when we checked out - I looked at him and said "Grace is growing up". We know she's getting older, and smarter and just so darn snottier but, she's R-E-A-L-L-Y Growing. Grace is a big girl, in fact she's VERY big for her age. She turned 3 on New Year's eve. Grace got her very first C9 workout outfit. They are black/hotpink pants with a wicking (Duo Dry) C9 shirt. Guess what size they are? XS from the big girls dept. CRAZY! Speaking of the little snot. Here's a few pics from the weekend.

She "baked" us a cake. She's wearing her apron and bunny slippers.


After the OWS, we went to Wild Wings for some grub.


Showing her super-cool look, with her "toothpack" hanging out of her mouth. Her Nike hat is her "super cool" hat, so she says.


Tonight, we're meeting friends from Church in the Reedy River Falls Park for some supper. Should be an enjoyable time, and after that I'll have my head stuck in my textbook. Only 11 more days left in this class, then I can start reading gossip magazines again. Until then, I'm relying on you Marcy for the celebrity gossip updates.

Catch ya later, homies.