training training training

OK. I am getting a little excited. (We at small hands prefer excited to nervous.) Today we are going to do a few mini-tris to practice our transitions. I need to get from the lake to my bike and from my bike to the run route in as little time as possible. One of our coaches can do BOTH of them in less than 2 minutes. I mean fuggetaboudit. Of course, she is all bad ass and doesn't wear socks and doesn't need a tank over her tri-suit for the bike and run because she doesn't possibly have beer and chocolate issues. But I digress.

Training:
Weds - Tri training - SWIM. We did open water swimming at Mansfield Dam. Lovely! AND I did not need a noodle once! Woo hoo! I did one 400m loop and then another half loop without resting. Then we did two mass starts that were probably about 150m loops each. By the last start I was actually passing people! (I mean, I was being passed way more, but still.) I didn't need to backstroke any of the last loop.
Thurs - Off. I am a slacker.
Fri - Swimming - I did an 800m loop in my gym's lake. (Yeah, I paid extra--but my gym has a LAKE with buoys marked out at different meter distances.)


Picture hotlinked from PureAustin.com

I did the distance in a little over 31 minutes. This totally blows me away. I thought for sure it would take me at least 45 minutes to finish the swim (you swimmers pipe down, I am slow-as-hell). If feels like it is taking forever to get anywhere, but then I check my watch and it's only been 2 minutes... My heart rate got up into the 160s which is high for swimming, but I finished up alright. I still had to do a fair bit of backstroke and a couple of times just floated for a second to catch my breath. But--a HALF MILE--with no noodles and no let-me-just-hang-on-to-this-buoy-for-a-second-you-go-on-ahead.

Next week we are supposed to taper off our workouts.

The Danskin triathlon is in 9 days!

PS, knitting info and the AWESOME gift I got from Amy will appear soon. But right now I am too nervous .ahem. EXCITED.