An impromptu OWS!

First let me just say that WE MADE IT TO ARIZONA!!!  Woohoo!  The trip actually went really well and our boys did so much better than we could have imagined! :)

So, Sunday morning I was looking up some information about places to do some open water swimming and just happened to see an advertisement for an OWS race in Tempe Town Lake, where the IMAZ swim will be.  It turns out that DCB adventures, which hosts a lot of open water swim races throughout AZ was doing a make-up race!!!   I got so excited and contacted the race organizers right away to see if I could do it last minute and they said, "Come on down!"  Woohoo!



I thought this was an opportunity I just couldn't pass up because 1) I'd get to swim part of the IMAZ course 2) I'd get to test out the water temp. and see if I needed to purchase a neoprene cap/booties and 3) I'd get to practice swimming in my wetsuit again, which I haven't been able to swim in since Sept. b/c all the open water swim places close in CO b/c the water just gets too cold.

I got all of my stuff together, packed up some shovels for the boys to play with in the sand, and headed towards Tempe Town Lake.   My husband got the boys set up in the sand while I registered.  It was a little pricey ($50 for the race and $15 for a 1day US master's pass), but in my mind it was well worth the money!

I was # 173

The race had a 4000m, 2000m, and 1000m swim.  I would have liked to have done the 4000m, but it started earlier in the morning and I couldn't make it to the lake on time.  So, I opted to do the 2000m swim.  Before I knew it, it was time to get in the water.  The announcer said the temp. was around 62 degrees!  Brrr!!!  I stepped in and it was pretty cold at first.  I didn't want to put my face in the water, but knew I needed to before the race started.  So, I just went for it!  It was a shock at first, but it actually wasn't that bad.  In my mind I thought it was going to be soooo much colder than it was, and I was so relieved that is wasn't.

There were about 15-20 people doing the 2000m race and we all made out way out to the bouys.  The announcer counted down from 5, then we were off!  Everyone pretty much took off in front of me, but I eased myself into the swim.  One thing I DID NOT want to do was go out too hard because this was not a "race" to me, but just a practice swim.  It felt weird swimming in my wetsuit, and again I was thankful to have this opportunity.

Overall, the swim went pretty well!  I didn't really feel that cold during the swim, but my little toes did start to go a little numb towards the end.  Since I'll be doing 2X this distance on Sunday, hopefully my toes won't go completely numb, but I don't think they will (fingers crossed!). :)

Happy to be done!  That's the Mill Ave. bridge behind me where I'll be swimming under on Sunday! 

Oh, and look at the cool stuff I got!  I was just happy being able to swim at TTL, but getting cool swag is always fun! :)

*  A great bag
*  A new water bottle
*  An awesome pint glass that we got when we finished!

I DID IT! My longest OWS to date!

Saturday I participated in the 3rd annual Racing Underground 1.2 & 2.4M Open Water Swim Race.  This is a pretty low key event, with no swag and no awards, but we did have timing chips, which was nice.  There were about 100 other people doing the race, which was the perfect amount for me to practice not panicking in a mass start.  Plus, with the 2.4M option, it was great for my IMAZ training.

The race was supposed to start at 6:30, which is a good thing, because lately the sun isn't even coming up until then (hello Fall)!  I got to the reservoir around 6 and it was still really dark out.  AND COLD!!  In the last couple of days, we've had a "cold" front move in which has dropped our daytime temps into the 80s.  It's awesome during the day, but Saturday morning it was in the 50s and there was a crazy WIND that made it feel even colder.  The water temp. was in the 70s, so it was actually nicer to be in the water then out of it! :)

Here's a map of the race course.  It was this huge rectangle that pretty much spanned the entire reservoir.  It is 1.2M, so for the 2.4M swim, we did two laps.  I thought the buoys looked really FAR away and got a little panicked about the distance.

As I was putting on my wetsuit, someone behind asked, "Is that Aimee from I Tri To Be Me?"  I was really surprised as I turned around and said, "Yes.."  It ended up being a guy named Steve (hi Steve!) that said he recognized me from my blog!  I was a little embarrassed, but we got to talking and he was super nice!  He helped keep my nerves at bay before we started!  We went down to the start together, then I lost track of him as we were warming up.  He was doing the 1.2M swim, so I hope he had a good swim! :)

Before I knew it, it was time to start!  We started on the beach, but the water level has dropped so much that I'd say the first 50ft. was only up to my knees/thighs.  The timing mat was on the beach, but honestly I didn't even start swimming for awhile, so I started my watch as I was walking through the water.      

source

The mass start wasn't bad at all and I had almost no contact, which was great!  BUT, the one bad thing about the race starting right when the sun was coming up was that we were swimming right INTO it!  Seriously, I could NOT see a thing!  I got off course so many times it was insane!  At one point I went to sight and was swimming diagonally into the wrong direction and I almost ran into a boat!  OOPS!!

Other than the sun, the first lap went pretty well, but it felt really LONG!  I just kept seeing buoy after buoy and I was glad to finally go around the final turn back to the start.  I came to the end of the first lap and had to walk through the water again in order to start my second lap.  I'm not going to lie, it was a nice little break! :)

Again, on the 2nd lap it was into the sun...ugh!  It was soooo hard to see the buoy and it was really frustrating.  AND, again, I kept getting off course.  It was a little choppy, so I don't know if it was the waves, or not being able to see the buoy, but I just COULD NOT get my bearings and swim straight for the life of me.  Seriously, I think I added another couple 100 yards to my total swim distance!  Ugh!

But, as I was swimming and swimming the whole time I was thinking, I CAN DO THIS!  Then, as I got closer to the finish, it was I'M DOING IT!  All I could think about was how awesome I felt knowing that I can swim the distance at IMAZ and it just made me sooo happy!

I got out of the water, happy as can be, and headed towards the bathrooms to change.  As I was getting my stuff, a girl asked, "Are you Aimee from I Tri To Be Me?"  I said, "Yeah!" and she said, "I follow your blog!"  It was so cool!  Her name was Jennifer (Hi Jennifer!) and we started talking all about the swim.  She was super nice too!

Anyways, according to my watch, I did the 2.4M swim in 1:28!!  Now, I know I am NOT a fast swimmer, but considering the walking and swimming off course a ton, I didn't think that time was too bad!  At least it's good enough to make the swim cut-off time at IMAZ.  :)  And, I still have 2 1/2months of training left!

* Next up...a 10M race tomorrow!  Woohoo!! :)

I hope you are all having a great Labor Day weekend!

A week in review and other things too

Training:
This has been a pretty good training week for the most part.  Because we went on our camping trip, I missed several days of training, but it's all good and it was totally worth it! :)

Swim:
I did my longest OWS to date this morning...2 MILES!!!  Woohoo!  I felt good and it was a great confidence booster! :)

One thing I noticed though was that I got sooo thirsty.  I swam two laps, and during the second lap my mouth was so dry.  You don't think I could stash a water bottle in my wetsuit do you?  Ha ha.

Oh, and I got new goggles!  My old ones finally gave out and started leaking, so I went on the search for a new pair.  I ended up getting the TYR NEST PRO and so far I like them!  They fit a lot differently then my old goggles, but I think they're going to work really well, especially in the open water!

Bike:
I did another long brick this week and tested out a new nutrition plan.  Since I know I don't want to do all liquid nutrition, I did a mix of EFS drink, honey stinger waffles, and honey stinger chews (thanks for the idea Mandy)  They are sooo yummy and A LOT easier to chew than shot bloks.  I think it worked well for the most part, but I think I need to tweak the amount of EFS I take in next time.



  






Other Things Too:

*  I took my boys to our local dollar (technically $2.50) theater to see the movie Rio and it was awesome!  It was such a cute movie with a great story line and my boys loved it!  Jon [HERE] did some of the feather animation and I have to say it was beautiful!  Great job Jon!

* I got a new cookbook and I absolutely love it!  It was created by a mom of two adorable girls and it is full of delicious, easy recipes!  I'm planning on doing a full review of it soon!  In the mean time, if you want to check out her blog, which is awesome, you can check it out [HERE].

I broke down and ordered a t-shirt from Beth [HERE] and I LOVE it!  It is super cute and will be a great addition to my running wardrobe!  Thanks Beth! :)

By the way, I  had my 6yr. old take the picture.  It's a little crooked, but not bad! :)

* My husband has had a pretty long week at work, so I thought I would help out and mow the lawn for him.  I'm a little ashamed to say that I've only done it a handful of times, but it's just something "he does."  Anyways, I actually liked it.  Dare I say it was even relaxing?
Well, needless to say, the yard looked great!  BUT, I totally annihilated one of my dog's tennis balls.  I totally didn't see it in front of the mower and I mowed right over it!  OOPS!


I hope you are all having a great weekend!!!
Hopefully I'll be back with the Tasty Tuesday and Humpastry Day recipes soon! :)

Training Firsts and Nutrition Questions!!

Yesterday, I had a great training day and completed my longest open water swim and bike ride to date!  Woohoo!

It all started at 4:45AM as I headed to Grant Ranch for an early morning swim.  My husband had the day off, so I was able to get in a longer swim because I didn't need to rush home so he could go to work.  I  ended up swimming over 1.5M and I felt great!  I don't know the exact distance (do you ever know in open water??)  because one of the swim bouys had drifted causing the course to be longer than it normally is.  It would have been nice to know the exact distance, but honestly, I was just happy that I swam 1.5+ miles without panicking or freaking out in some way.  :)

My bike loaded up and ready to ride!

Then, after we dropped our boys off at summer camp, my husband and I headed out for a 4hour bike ride.  Normally, I do my long rides solo, so it was awesome having someone to ride with.  Our plan was to head downtown for an hour, turn around towards the start, head south for an hour, then turn around and head back home for a total of 4 hours (I hope that makes sense!).
The first hour was great!  We headed towards downtown on a bike path and the weather was perfect.  But, when we turned around it was basically a LOOONNNGG gradual uphill for the next 2 hours.  We gained about 1000 feet within those 2 hours, which started to wear on us after awhile.  Plus, the wind started picking up so we had a nice headwind the entire way!  Ugh!!

BUT, when we turned around it was ALLLL  GOOD!  It was downhill, the wind was behind us, and we just flew!  It was like we were on a roller coaster!  It was soooo much fun and a perfect way to end a long ride.

Onto the Nutrition:

So, I decided to give the First Endurance products a try on my ride.  I filled 2 -24oz. bottles with EFS for a total of ~400cals.  I also had 1 liquid shot with another 400 calories and a bottle of just water to "chase it down" and drink throughout my ride.  I brought along a Honey Stinger Waffle just in case I thought I needed it (160cals).  All together, I had rougly 960 calories with  me, which would be around 200-240 cal/hr.

So, how did it go??

I think it went well for the most part.  I did NOT end up eating any of the Honey Stinger waffle, so I had roughly 800 cals over the 4 hr. ride (200cals/hr.).  During the ride I felt fine, but I also missed chewing on something, if that makes any sense!  AND, I kind of felt a little "off" after my ride.  I didn't feel like eating anything and actually felt like I could throw-up...yuck!  I think it was because 1) I'm not used to just drinking my nutrition, 2) I think doing the EFS drink AND the liquid shot only was too much of the same tastes AND 3) I think I took in too many calories.

Normally, on my long rides, I have 1 bottle of water, 2- 24oz bottles of NUUN water, then a mix of a cut up clif bar (240cals), honey stinger waffle(160cals), and some shot bloks (90cals) that I chose from depending on what I feel like eating.  On my last ride, which was 3:30, I think I took in between 160-180cals/hr. and I felt fine and was able to do a 30min. run after without any problems.


So, what do you think?  For those of you that have done IMs before, how many cals. did you take in??  I'm 5'4" and weigh anywhere between 115-120, so maybe I just don't need that many cals??  

I definitely need to figure out my nutrition for IMAZ and I'm glad I still have 3 1/2 months to do it.  I'm doing a Half Ironman in Sept., so I'd like to have my nutrition figured out for that so I can dial it in for IMAZ.
I think for my next long ride I'll try a mix of liquid nutrition and bars/waffles to see how that works.  I do have somewhat of a sensitive stomach, so only certain products work for me.  I know it's just a matter of trial and error, but I really want to figure it out sooner rather than later, ya know?  So, any help or advice would be GREATLY appreciated!!! :)

P.S. I want to give a big shout out to all of you that did IMLP this past weekend!!!  WOOHOO!!!  I can't wait to read all about your experience!  

First OWS of the season!

I know, I know...you're probably thinking, "It's mid July and you're just now getting in some OWS?"  Well, the places to go here in CO don't really open till late May/early June and even then, the water can be FREEZING if the weather isn't great.  On top of that, moving out of/into places has really been eating up a lot of my weekend time.  BUT, now that we're finally into our new home I was able to go yesterday morning!  Woohoo!

I got all prepared by:
1.  Soaking my wetsuit the day before.  I don't know if any of you ever tried this, but trying to squeeze into a new wetsuit that hasn't been worn for a LONG time is asking for trouble.  Believe me...I know!

2.  Cutting my fingernails.  I don't want any accidental rips in my wetsuit b/c of my stupid nails!  I don't paint them anyways, so it's not a big deal for me to keep them short during my tri training.

3.  Grabbing my lube.  Wetsuit lube that is! :)  Trislide is awesome.  You just spray it on and you're good to go!

The place I swim at, Grant Ranch, is awesome!  It is a lake that belongs to a housing community so it is always clean, well maintained, and warmer than the other places around Denver.  Also, I have access to the locker rooms and showers, which is great for when I'm done swimming.  There are buoys set up for a 1/2M triangle and a 1M triangle, which is great for training.

Some swimmers getting ready to head out into the lake

So, I headed out and got to the lake at 7A when it opened.  There were a lot of other swimmers there, which is always nice when you're swimming in the open water.  I got my wetsuit on and headed to the lake.  I was expecting the water to be cold, but it was the perfect temperature!  Yay!!!

Originally, I had it set in my mind that I was only going to do the 1/2M loop because it was my first time doing an OWS AND the first time in my new wetsuit.  For the last 2 years, the first time I did an OWS I almost always panicked in some way.  But, on this day, I felt the calmest I have ever felt.  I WAS READY!

I started swimming and immediately found my groove.  I never panicked, not once!!!  I got to the middle triangle of the 1/2M loop and decided I was going to swim the whole 1M loop instead!  I know this sounds lame, but I was sooo excited for myself!  I was so happy and was literally swimming with a smile! :)

I made it back to shore feeling awesome!  And, although I only swam 1M, knowing that I didn't panic and didn't have to stop to compose myself, gave me a little flicker of hope that I WILL BE O-KAY for the 2.4M swim at IMAZ!  I cannot wait till I can get out there and swim again!!  

A week in review and other things too

Training:
*  This was a pretty good training week considering I didn't get  much done last week.  It was a little hard to get back into the swing of things after my in-laws left, but once I did, it felt great to be back at it.  Here are my numbers for the week:

Bike:  3 1/2 hrs.
Run:  12.75 M (not great, but oh well)
Swim:  7034 yds (woohoo!)

*  I got to do another OWS swim this morning.  I stopped off at Starbucks for a pumpkin scone and soy chai latte (I know, I know, not the best breakfast, but it sure was yummy!), and headed for the lake.  I got in the water and realized it was much warmer than Sunday, and it actually felt great (no aching, frozen feet today!).  This means that the water temp. for my sprint tri on Friday will be nice too!  Hooray! :)

*  I officially started my marathon training this week.  I looked at many different plans and finally decided to go with this one here.  What I like about it is that it incorporates speed work and tempo runs.  I also like how it has me running 3x a week (although I'm adding a 4th easy run day), which is totally doable with my Half Ironman training.  So, I did my tempo run Thursday, which was awesome, and a long run (8M scheduled) today.

Now, I'm usually pretty good about my nutrition when it comes to working out, but for some reason, I totally blew it today!  As you know, I didn't have the best breakfast.  Then, I did my swim, came home around 9:30, then at 10:15 we headed to Wash Park where I could do my long run and my husband could run with the boys in the jogger.  When we got to the park I realized I had not eaten anything except a pumpkin scone since 7:15 this morning.  Yikes!  Luckily, I had brought a Gu to eat during my run, but I knew I might be in trouble.  Oh, and it was HOT this morning too...nice!  I started my run and was feeling fine.  I took some swigs out of my handheld every once in awhile and ate my Gu around mile 4.  I was sweating like crazy and was getting really hot.  Around mile 6, things started to turn.  I started cramping really bad and knew that there was no way I was going to make it to 8 miles.  I tried to regulate my breathing, but the cramps just started getting worse and eventually led to back cramps.  I made it to 6.5 miles and finally had to stop and walk.  I walked to the playground where my husband and boys were and called it a day.  This is another one I can chalk up to dehydration!  I feel so stupid for letting it happen, but for some reason my brain just wasn't functioning properly today (see bee post below for a possible reason why).

Hot and red post-run.  My husband joked that the white sweat marks on my visor looked like the Rocky Mountains.   Ha ha.

Other things too:

So, last night around 11:30, my youngest son woke up crying and calling for me.  I went into his room and he was sitting up straight in his bed.  I asked him what was wrong and he said he saw a "buggy" that was buzzing and flying around him.  I turned on his lamp and looked around and didn't see anything, but he was so scared and was on the verge of tears.  Then, I remembered how there were a bunch of bees swarming around our flowers earlier and how we watched them at a safe distance until they flew away.  So, I thought maybe he was just imagining the bees.  Anyways, I tried to lay him back down, but he wanted his daddy, so I called my husband in.  Again, he kept asking if we could see the bee, and we never saw anything or heard anything.  We would get him calmed down, he would fall asleep, then wake up a little while later crying about the bee.  This went on ALL NIGHT.  Finally, after a 3AM cry, he went to sleep for good.

So, here's the kicker.  I got back from my swim and my husband hands me a glass jar and says, "Look what I found in his room this morning."  I looked, and there inside the jar was a tiny bee.  OMG!  I felt so bad, but honestly we never saw/heard the bee all the times we went in there.  We just assumed he was having a bad dream about bees.  Poor little guy!  We made a point of letting the bee go into the flowers so he would know that the bee was no longer in his room.  But, he's probably going to be scarred for life!

*  My oldest has his last week of preschool this week.  I can't believe how fast the year just flew by!  It's crazy to think that it's almost June.  Wow!

*  Our peonies finally bloomed yesterday.  We have two big bushes of them in our backyard and I absolutely love them.  I look forward to them blooming every year because I just think they are so beautiful.  :)

* I had to get another new training watch.  I'm pretty sure the watch I got from Amazon was a total dud.  It fogged up the first time I wore it swimming and has since lost all of its waterproof abilities.  Ugh!  I contacted Timex warranty and they said I had to send them a $7 check with the watch so they could mail it back to me.  And, they said they couldn't guarantee that they could fix it or replace it!   Are you kidding me?  So, instead of dealing with them, I went to REI which is having a 25% off sale on Timex watches.  I talked to the guy and ended up getting this lovely watch:

 Yes, it's pretty much the same thing I had, but I love the design so much better.  It actually reminds me of my honeymoon in Kauai!  And, because REI has an awesome return policy, if anything goes wrong with it they will replace it, no questions asked!  Yay!