Princess Runner

Today was my last swim workout before Sunday’s triathlon. I had hoped my last swim would be calm and relaxing. Unfortunately it was not to be the case. The “open swim” area was filled with about 10 children and adults who did not understand the concept of “inside voices.” They screamed and shouted and splashed and made my 32 minute swim quite unbearable. I could not even hear the cheesy pop music that the pump through the loud speakers. How can I swim properly without hearing “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”?

Over this past weekend, I had a second go at the bike time trial, but settled for 10.3 miles instead. I just got too frustrated with all the people on the path since I had waited until too late in the morning to go (around 10:00 am). There were people walking and talking on cell phones, people walking and smoking (??) and way too many rollerbladers for my comfort. Then there was the man who actually steered his daughter and her bicycle from the side of the path into my lane, despite the fact that I was moving along at a decent speed and had run my little bell. People annoy me. (Are we sensing a pattern here?)

I did my 5k run time trial on Sunday and I actually made myself run quite a bit more than I have been during my run/walks. I initially thought that I would get up and go participate in a 5k race in a neighboring town, but I decided when I woke up at 6:00 that I would rather sleep another hour and save the $30 entry fee. I managed to finish the humid 5k in 44 minutes which is slow based on my past, but pretty quick based on where I am at currently.

I think I will be pretty good at the transitions. I practiced both transitions on Thursday, even using the apartment complex’s mini pool to get soaking wet in my trisuit to simulate race day conditions. (By the way, I have no idea why that pool is heated when it is the summer and it gets direct sunlight. It was about 85 degrees and almost completely unbearable. I thought most people used the pool in the summer to cool off, not as a sauna). I have decided not to wear socks on the bike after trying it out. I hope that I don’t regret that later. I also think that I may have to put post-it-notes on my stuff to remember certain things like putting on sunscreen.

I have emailed with Running Jayhawk about this weekend’s event and asked her lots of nervous energy inducing questions and she has been so patient to answer them all! It has really helped me relax about lots of the little details hearing more about what things will be like.

For fun later this week (perhaps on one of my two “rest” days) I will post some pictures of all my stuff that I will be taking. It really adds up to a lot when you have three sports to do. The days of running only seem so simple now.