Less than a week to go...

I'm actually not nervous or anxious yet about the triathlon but it's Monday. I expect as we inch closer to the actual date the butterflies will appear. In the meantime I continue to slam whatever training I can into my schedule. I did another OWS at Del Valle on Friday. My goal was to make it to the white buoy that was pointed out to us at our first Del Valle swim. As with anything outside, the conditions had changed some. Instead of balmy summer temps with minimal wind we were hit with another cold snap and a raging head wind. It made for choppy waters. The water temp wasn't too bad and I actually got in with ease (ah the benefits of a wetsuit). The swimming was tough. I tried to control my breathing and focus on the target but all I kept noticing that was, despite my efforts, I was getting no where. The timing of my breathing perfectly matched the waves so instead of air I kept inhaling water. Wonderful. I managed to fix the problem of the lake draining into my ear by pulling my swim cap down more but now I had water draining down my throat. The head wind took it's toll on me and I opted for some breast stroke and back floating. I managed to make it to the buoy and then, after popping my head up to spot to the boat dock, floated 10 feet back to the start. I would appreciate the push home. :-) I did discover that floating on my back in choppy water results in sea sickness. I've been sea sick twice in my life thus far. Once on a shark dive at the Farllon Islands and once diving in Hawaii. Apparently it happens in local waters too. I managed to keep breakfast down but did have to sit a bit after exiting the water to regain my balance and stomach muscles. My friend asked if I wanted to do the swim again. Thanks but I think I'll pass. I'm barely prepared for 400m of swimming on any given day right now.

After beating no world record times for the 400m I got the bike ready for a spin on Mines Road. The headwinds hadn't let up so it made the bike ride a challenge as well. In two days I would be doing a century ride so I didn't want to go to hard or too long on the bike. Mostly I just wanted to get the body acquainted with the change in activity. It took some time for the legs to warm up but otherwise was just like any other ride.

Next up was the Diablo Century on Sunday. The group opted to do the metric century since Thomas was struggling with a hamstring issue, Rod was still recovering from Monday's ride and Thomas thought me doing a brick workout would give me more of a fitness boost for WF. He wanted me to go harder on the 60 mile ride and follow it with 20 minutes of running. We met some of Thomas' friends at the JCC and headed out. One of the guys was a 30 year old CAT 2 racer. His warm up pace on the flats was a push for me. At the first rest stop Thomas told me to grab someones wheel and hang on. Yeah, nice in theory but I couldn't stay on someones wheel once I grabbed it anyway plus we had the hill coming up. I was pushing hard just to keep the group in sight which was nice since I appreciated the motivation to push harder than I would on my own. Micah and Rod hung back a bit with me but once we got to the hill Micah wanted to 'bite into it'. He and Rod took off. I used other cyclists as targets and pushed until I caught up and passed them. It was a good challenging climb, relentless at times but nothing too hard. At the top we met up again and prepared for the 9 mile descent. I'll appreciate a new road bike because I don't like descending on my current Trek. I gave the boys permission to go as fast as they wanted and I'd slowly poke my way down. We met up at the stop sign at the bottom on the hill and continued on to the next rest stop. Thomas set a nice pace and the group drafted. It was a good hard push on my part without killing me.

As we came to the finish I stopped at the car to put the bike away and take off on the run. I wasn't really sure where I was so I stayed local and ran the streets around the JCC for 20 minutes. That's about how long it takes for the legs to realize we are no longer cycling and should be running. Unfortunately, that's a longer time than I'll be (hopefully) running at WF.

Outside of trying to stay calm on the swim, I haven't decided what a realistic goal is for WF. I've looked at the times from last year and expect that my bike leg will be my strongest of the three. The hard swim at Del Valle took me about 17 minutes which will leave me about 5 minutes behind the last person to leave the water last year. Lots of time to be made up. I guess I can hope for a second to last place finish then. :-) Whatever happens I hope to have fun, learn a lot, meet some new folks and just enjoy the fact that I have a body that goes along with these crazy ideas my mind comes up with.