Wow...the last 8 weeks have been crazy busy! I do apologize for not blogging sooner.
Over the course of this time, we have come so far...each one of us. Let's see the last time I blogged it was pouring rain and I got 2 flat tires in one ride. I am happy to report that I have not gotten another flat while out on a ride since then (knocking on wood) and well the rain has been still a wee bit of a problem. The first part of March we were faced with rain...and more rain...and more rain. Needless to say our training, especially hill training, as a team has suffered slightly. The training on my own however has been overall pretty good. I work hard to swim at least one of the 2 days on the schedule, spin class twice a week, track practice, and Saturday trainings. My hardest days are Sunday runs, I just can’t seem to get my butt out of bed after a week filled with training, work, more work at night, and the normal house routine. I am proud of my training though. I have become more comfortable in the pool and with my swimming, I feel more comfortable on the bike with clip-less petals, and while I am no gazelle my running is going well too.
The last weekend in March was Practice Weekend...Yippeee!!!! I was so excited for this weekend and to learn more about the course. Brian and I drove down Friday afternoon and set up camp ready for what was about to be the hardest two days of training either of us have ever had.
Saturday started out with an Open Water swim in Lake San Antonio. Wet suit and all I got into the water and thought to myself "I can do this". The water was cold, but not unmanageable. We swam out a little and then swam back for instructions. On the way back I decided I needed to put my face in the water....hmmmm, maybe I wasn't quite ready for that yet. (Start freak out) I panicked because I could not see the bottom or very far in front of me. Yes, seems crazy, but this is truly a fear I have. So...then I started feeling like I couldn't breathe, I was having an asthma attack, and this just wasn't going to work out. Brian came over to try and calm me down, but he needed to do his swim, so a coach took over. Richard stayed with me the whole time as I ventured out away from the comfort of land. He had me put my face in the water and take a couple stokes...success! Then I opened my eyes...damn it!! Back to square one. He sang songs to me to calm me down and made me smile. We were out there for about an hour and I did a few segments of swimming face in, eyes closed. The key is I can't open my eyes or I start to panic. Luckily, the coaches are FANTASTIC and have added more open water swims to the schedule for those who want additional practice.
After we were back to the comfort of land, we got ready to head out on the bike...56 miles here we go! This was the part I was most nervous about going into the weekend, but after that swim experience my thinking changed slightly. ;o) The scenery was absolutely spectacular, green fields, wineries, pastures, hills...gorgeous. It really took away from the difficulty of this ride. The support staff was awesome, too. Brian and I took up the rear and Robert was our sweeper. He was great....encouraging, helpful and great company. We were also joined by a coach, Barney, who is phenomenal as well. Together we rode the entire course, Nasty Grade hill and all. For those who don't know anything about the Wildflower course, here is a description of Nasty Grade via the triathlon website: "Nasty Grade, a nearly five mile grade which climbs 1000 feet from bottom to top" This hill is no joke!!! I rode the entire distance on my bike without stopping on this hill....YAY!!! So proud of that! By the time we made it back to camp my tushy was sorer than ever...going to the bathroom was a challenge. Ouch! I know this all sounds horrible, but in the bigger picture is I had just finished a day of 'firsts' and was so happy about that.
Sunday continued our adventure with a half marathon (13.1 mi). We ran the half in 2:50 and felt good about that time. There were a lot of hills, one of them pretty steep and on uneven trail terrain. When we finished we were exhausted, but so proud of ourselves and all our accomplishments of the weekend. :o)
This past week brought more hill training at track, swimming and a 53 mile bike ride on Saturday. Our ride on Saturday included the infamous Old La Honda road. Again for those who are not familiar here are some quick facts about Old La Honda:
- Distance: 3.37 miles
- Elevation gain: 1290 feet
- Average grade: 7.2%
- Max grade: 15%
I can now proudly say I have completed this climb...YAY. Will I ever do it again? I certainly hope not!!! However, you never know as it offers great hill training for cyclist and triathletes. I will say this; I will NOT be doing that climb again any time soon!! In fact, I don't want anything to do with that hill right now. I have bitter sweet feelings about this hill....on one hand I appreciate the training it provided me and am thankful for that opportunity; the mental and physical challenges I had to overcome to accomplish this was amazing. One the other hand, it is not something I considered fun and I just didn't like it. I did it and I am amazed that I did!!! Go Dena!
Fundraising Website: http://pages.teamintraining.org/sj/wildtri11/dzlatunich
