If I thought my arms were sore this morning....More interesting work with Jason and the Masters' class. Pat kept grabbing my ankle and John kept splashing my sensitive face...It's like grade school all over again. Still struggling with my breathing now that Jason has forced me to change it. I am getting stronger and if I can get my breathing right, I know I can just sail through that water...It'll come!

Killer workout with Brendan. Lots of wacko arm stuff...skipping, tricep pulls, boxing...medicine ball throws. I can't feel my arms. Perfect for the swim at lunch.
I felt strong though!

Focused on trying to stretch out the pain from my achilles tendons on the rollers. There were some serious lumps in there!

Quick little run...it was supposed to be leisurely. Felt pretty good. It was miserable out, but good for a run. On last leg of run - return home- I came close to bonking...I got that ralphy feeling...walked it off and then ran again. No worries.
HRM up to 240 again and wouldn't come down. I turned it off and started it up again...6 minutes lost...but voila! it worked!

Both Achilles tendons are very , very sore...but only started hurting after the run. I'm stretching now...no ice in the house.

Stretching painful Achilles.

Fairly leisurely ride out to weigh station and back. Felt good to be on dirty girl. Legs feel much better. Got out late because I was waiting to dawn to break...it was dark! Cold too, I had tights, winter booties, winter mits, polar jersey and velux top...brrrr.
Good, ride to get the cobwebs out.

Ridiculous HRM (Timex) shot up to 240 again! I'm not counting it. Most of my ride was in Z2-3 and I did Z4 for maybe a minute.

I can't count and swim while I'm in the middle of changing my entire technique!
600 wu (technique, kick)
400 decending
300 decending.
This is all new language to me.
My technique is coming around, but my breathing is in the crapper right now.

By the way, I broke 2,000 kilometres on my cyclocomputer today.Hooray!

Somewhere coming back from the the weigh station. I had a big swig of water and patted myself on the back...Next year I'll have a better sense of what my real total mileage (all three bikes) will be...Of course there is all the spinning too, which I don't cound.

So I bought these bib tights at IMC for a really good price and I'm dying to try them out.

It's 6 degrees (of separation?) out there. I might just take the dirty girl for a spin. She needs to air out a bit, it has been so very long. Let's see if I can get out of the house!!

First one on one with Jason. Lots of side swimming drills, lots of on deck stuff and it was all filmed. One thing for sure, I gotta shave my back!

Great lesson. I was wearing flippers and when I took them off I could barely move! hmmmmpf!

I think this is going to go well, if he doesn't make me do too many things at once!

A couple of quiet, pensive moments today on 9/11

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I must have worked hard on Sunday. I'm still sore. Very sore. Legs and lower back are tight. I should have had a massage.

My first swim lesson is with Jason today. He's already started breaking down my style. He had me breathe every 4th breath instead of 2. I got so messed up that I couldn't count my strokes. Lets' see what excitement he has planned for me - I think today is video day. I'm ready for my closeup Mr. Demille.

I've also posted my goals. Keep in mind that these are in progress until I nail them down.

Masters' class with Jason. He has started to change my breathing and stroke. He has made me breathe every 4 strokes, not two and push down at the end of the stroke - a lot like Starcorp is always going on about.
Jason also wouldn't shut up about the improvements made by trisportnick! Although personally, I wouldn't want anyone talking about my stroke.

I see potential for some real learning here. My breathing is better, but I'm so focused that I can't count my strokes...I'm sure I'm around 20, but I'm counting something like 45....
It felt good on the sore muscles to be in the water!
lap count is a guess.

Trying to stretch this pain out of my legs and lower back.

Some new race photogs are up on my album and my race report

It's a little bit funny.

All the goals I put up, I put them up sometime in January and I never changed them...except maybe adding the half-ironman that I wasn't supposed to do till next year.

As it turns out, in addition, I completed every goal. This is either good planning or luck. Probably both. I didn't do any duathlon, though (although I did do an aquathlon) There just were not any that were held near here - there is an off road one at the end of the month, but I'm volunteering for that.

Anyway. I'm going to take a good hard, long look at these goals and marvel that they were all achieved. In the next few days, they are all coming down and some new, perhaps more concise stuff, is going up.

Oh yeah, and I'm really, really sore. My calves are killing me and the rest of me is just generally grumpy. But I had a good sleep!

Queen City Half Marathon
Felt good and strong started a little fast, but kept consistent.
Got a little lazy near the end and felt like I had to walk and did briefly. Sprinted last 750 and full out last 250 hitting top speed of 16 kph. and pace of 3:45...obviously I didn't need to walk...I had lots in reserve.

Had ipod in different place and I still got an initial HRM reading of 220 and then 4 spikes at about 220 for no reason...I don't think I was even running quickly...Maybe it is my heart!!! I'm ignoring anything over for the max below.

Stretching while watching Port McQuarrie Ironman on TV.

Post race update...

 Race Report is Up!

Okay, personal best...thanks to all who got me here. I started to whimp out with 3k to go and walked a spell, but I kicked my own @ss and started running and sprinted the last 750m...thanks for al the support gang...

Average Pace 6:25 so way bettered my previous 7-plus minutes per K

2:19:26...Previous was 2:35 or something....

Chip time 2:17:24!

Here we go!

One more annoying race to go and then the fun training begins. Can't wait.