Swimming Lungs, Bike Brain, & Runner's High

So here we are in April! And as one of my friends so kindly pointed out, less than 4 months to IM Boulder! Eeek!

Freddy & I during an awesome training run in Parker with our group, Runners Edge of the Rockies

Freddy and I have been ever so slowly ramping up our training. We are averaging a little over 8 hours per week of training and so far, so good! There have been days that have been tougher than others; days where we hit "snooze" on the alarm clock until it's too late to get our workout in in the morning; then curse ourselves that evening when we have to train; days where we look at a brick workout and think "for the love of God, we have to do what????", but all in all, we are very happy with our training and are really enjoying it!

Our swimming is coming along just fine. Neither of us are fast, but we are both very comfortable in the water and truly for an Ironman, I think that is 99% of the battle!  I had a nice treat when my running buddy Molly, who is training for her first Ironman 70.3,  texted me the other night saying "a little birdie told me you train at the Apex", "yes, I do!", I excitedly exclaimed. "Me too", she said. "Awesome! Meet me at the pool at 5 am tomorrow morning for a swim", I hesitantly responded, knowing the response would be the typical "Thanks but no thanks".....Molly surprised me by quickly replying with "Yeah! I'll see you then!" Well, Molly beat me to the Apex in the morning and we had a fun swim together! She even stuck around after and did my plyos with me! 

The biggest thing I am working on in the pool at the moment is speed. The toughest thing about speed is not having my swimming lungs quite yet. My body needs to trust that the air will come and I need to focus on calming my brain down and allowing my body to take over (common theme with me!). I can cruise along at a nice, easy pace for a long time. But increase the speed, and it gets harder to breathe, thus vastly changing my swimming form. Freddy and I can both see improvement from where we started but realize we still have a long way to go. We are really looking forward to getting into the open water-that will be the true test!

Training in the aero bars while cars pass me is
enough to have me begging for a marg!

I look like I know what I'm doing, right?

Of all three disciplines in IM, the bike freaks me out the most. I commonly refer to my condition as "bike brain".   Riding is such a different feeling than running, it takes me a good month of solid outdoor rides to get my bike brain engaged and ready.  After a long winter of only riding on my bike trainer, the weather was nice enough last week to take the ride outside! We have a pretty large group of friends doing IM Boulder, so we always have people to run and bike with, which is great.   Most of the people, however, are super fast and I, well, am not. I decided to meet up with a couple girl friends who are pretty evenly matched with me a half hour before the group started to get a head start on the "fasties". We had a great time riding in Boulder and got about 20 miles in before the peleton caught us! This was also the first time using my aero bars. The first 10 miles, I was a complete disaster. The sight of them through my periphery sent me into a panic. But, I knew I had to get used to them sooner or later.  So, like anything with me, I baby-stepped it. I would put one arm on the bar and keep the other near the brake. Then I would switch. After I felt ok with 

that, I would give myself little goals of putting both arms in the bars for a very short time, getting used to the feeling of my body positioning and how my bike responded. Mile by mile, I would extend my time in the aero position, literally talking myself through it. I'm sure the people who passed me thought I had escaped from the asylum. But I didn't care. It was working. I was becoming one with my aero bars! Am I totally comfortable in them? Not even close! But, I can see the benefit in them and 

the positioning is super comfortable so I'm getting there!

Dude! Where's my road????

Yes, I did include this little detour in my mileage for the day!

Jill, Dan, Teah, Freddy & I
at the Runnin' of the Green finish!

Running season in Denver officially kicks off (well, in my brain anyway) with my favorite 7K, the Runnin' of the Green through downtown. Freddy had the weekend off so joined me, my running group, my family, and 10,000 of our closest friends for the Irish jog. Freddy did great and his time was way better than mine. He's discovered that he's much faster than me on the bike and run. I am pretty sure, though, I've got him beat in the pool for now. Freddy is finding he really loves running and is pretty sure he's found his runner's high a time or two! Next weekend, Freddy and I will be heading north to Ft. Collins to do one of my favorite half-marathons, the Horsetooth Half. The last time I did this was two years ago, not long after my broken leg. It was a small come-back, if you will, so this time, I'm hoping to beat my time. That being said, I'm treating it as a training run with firemen, beer and a medal thrown in. Wish us luck!

Me and the CEO and President of my fan club, Jill
and my favorite girl, Teah at the Runnin' of the Green