Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Wipeout

I am so happy to be writing this right now.

Call me melodramatic, but I had a close call this afternoon at practice! We met at Crystal Cove, the site of the triathlon this Sunday, so that we could familiarize ourself with the swim and the run course. The surf was pretty choppy, possibly because of the hurricane down south, and the waves were pretty darn huge. In fact, this was the worst I've swam in so far, and I really thought 2 weeks ago at Corona del Mar was as bad as it gets. We were all frightened, so we buddied up and took it slow on our 1/2 mile journey. If you want to call it a day out there, tough! There's a reef, and it only breaks away after a half mile....so you basically have no choice but to swim it once you are out there. Anyway, we survived the swim and turned to come in. I was looking over my shoulders at the waves coming at me, trying to make sure I wouldn't get hit by one. Rode one a little bit, ducked another, and then.....I got nailed. Damn thing was twice my size and broke right on top of me. I saw it coming, but I just froze. It pushed me forward and down, then backwards, and then kept pushing me down while trying to tumble me every which way. When I didn't think I could possibly hold my breathe anymore, I put my feet down and stood up. (Yeah, can you believe I was that close and had no idea?) Scared the CRAP out of me! I walked out of the water in a daze, not caring that we were being timed and that for once, I wasn't the first group out. 1/2 mile in 16 minutes....slow as flippin' molasses! But I guess between the cussing on my way out, the stopping and talking about seaweed and waves throughout the swim, breastroking on the way in because I didn't want to see the reef below, or getting my rear handed to me by a wave....well, it could've been worse.

Crystal Cove has these huge, steep ramps that go from the parking lots to the beach. Pure HELL to walk up, let alone run. I decided to time my walk, as I don't expect that I'll be running up it on race day. 1.5 minutes up. Hey, could be worse! If I tack my transition from Santa Barbara onto that, I'm looking at a 4 minute transition. That means I need a 15 minute swim, 44 minute bike, and 30 minute run (plus 2 minute transition 2) for 1:35. That is my lofty goal time for this race. With the ramps, I'll be lucky to make that run at the end. I looked at my age group from last year, and those robots were so fast in the run that a 30 minute run will put me 2nd to last!!! Holy cow. 7-minute milers, most of them. Mind you, most can't swim for shit, but still......it's funny how they creep back after the swim and kick your rear in the end. So unjust. :)

Anyway, to finish up our swim, we went up the ramps, changed in our cars, and then ran for 30 minutes. I met up with a few girls and we did a slow run through the trail, which was pretty darn flat. I actually didn't mind the run, but I usually don't after swimming. It's my favorite brick and the only time I enjoy running. Who knows?!

So Sunday is race day. I am carpooling with a girl I sort of know.....I think we get along well, so it'll be fun to have the pre-race jitters together. Packet pickup is Saturday, so I'm going to go just so I can have a full weekend of triathlon. The race is in my backyard, after all!

Why does work have to get in the way of triathlon? Shoot, I'm only doing sprints and already complaining about this!

I guess that's it. I'm going to go over to Weightwatchen now and shut down for a while. I can't keep up with two blogs, and I'm not exactly trying to lose weight. I don't think I have anything to add in the food category these days!

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