Gettin My Swim On

The time has come for me to get over my stupid fear of water and start practicing my swimming. It's probably been about 12 years since I've taken it on seriously. Last year I tried to go snorkling but had a near drowning experience. Not fun. So this should be good for me and it will be me one step closer to completing a Tri.

So Friday I went out and bought a swim suit. Not a beach swim suit. but one I could use to train. I picked a good time cause they are now about 75% off at Academy. (yes!) Got me some goggles too. And headed to the Bally lap pool.

Swimming again was actually kind of like picking up a bike after 10 years. You don't really forget how. Maybe you're not so good at it, but all things take practice. It helps that I can stand up in the pool. =D

Thing I need to work on: breathing.

Aiming to be ready for a Tri by April next yr. Here we go.

Du the Bear Duathlon

Sunday was my first try at a real USAT (USA Triathlon) race. It was a duathlon held at bear creek park (2 mile run - 10 mile bike - 2 mile run). Not a charity ride where I can go slow or fast at my own leisure. I needed to try to go fast all the time, and I needed to pace myself so that I could finish the whole thing. It was a beautiful day, no wind and about 65 degrees the whole morning.

Results:
Run 1 - 17:20 for a 8:40 mile
T1 - 1:18
Bike - 34:07 for a 17.6 mph pace
T2 - 1:17
Run 2 - 18:00 for a 9:00 mile

Overall I had about a time of 1:12:03.
I ranked 184 overall and 2nd in the 20-24yr age group.

Better than I expected, so I feel good.

The runs were the hard part. I never really practiced going as fast as I could for 2 miles. I am not really a runner, but of course that is where the half of my race was so I should have practiced and maybe my time would have been a little better. During the second run I just had chest pain and heavy breathing the whole way. But then the sprint finish was like cake. I guess I didn't push myself enough?

I was really fortunate on the ride. There was hardly any wind so I got a great ride time. My calves started to cramp up within the last 2 miles, which has never happened to me before. I was kind of scared they would totally cramp and I wouldn't be able to finish but getting off the bike helped.

I realize better now that my pedal stroke is uneven because now my right butt cheek and my left quad are sore. But nothing else. haha.

Can't wait til the next race. Gotta start swimming so I can do a tri!

Hatha at Red Foot

This little yoga studio is right behind Cafe Brazil on Westheimer. I've passed by it a few times and finally had time to give it a try. I really like their website. It's clean and easy to navigate.

When you walk in, you can tell it used to be a home but just converted to a yoga studio. This place is TINY. I think it could fit maybe 8 people maximum? So this makes classes very intimate and you can get lots of one on one attention. It was weird at first because I'm used to big yoga classes where I can just hang out in the back, but eventually it was comfortable and everyone was friendly. Reminds me of why I like to trust people.

Anyway I had a good workout. We did Hatha yoga which is different from the flow/vinyasa I usually get. There were plenty of positions I wasn't familiar with, and Aaron, the instructor helped me correct my tendency to invert my shoulder blades instead of making them flat. Also, we tried inversions. Ahhh scary. Eventually I hope to be able to comfortable do hand stands, but I don't think I have the strength in my shoulders right now. Something to work on.