Rent a wetsuit or suck it up?

First, I'll admit that my wetsuit still doesn't fit post baby.  Embarrassing, but there it is.  Even if all the rest of the weight was gone, thanks to not bottle feeding RJ, the "up top" portion of me wouldn't squeeze in there anyway.  (ok so there's one benefit to having a baby!)

Official water temp will be taken on Sunday morning, but as of last night the lake was 77.8 degrees, just barely within the wetsuit legal category.  So, do I pay $35 to rent a wetsuit, or just tough it out?

1. $35 isn't exactly going to make the difference in paying our mortgage, rent the damn wetsuit.
2. I'll be even slower than I already am compared to the rest of the field without the advantage of neoprene.
3. The air will be cold, and it'll keep me warm before the race starts.

On the other hand
1. It's only 750m. I'll lose more time getting out of the wetsuit in T1 than I'll gain during the swim itself (maybe).
2. The air temp is only going to be in the 50s or 60s.  Even without the wetsuit, that water will feel warm compared to the air.
3. I don't want to be embarrassed in front of the tri store employees asking for a bigger wetsuit (ah vanity, vanity).

If you were me, what would you do?

Birthdays and Swimming Shouldn't Mix

Well, I'm another year older.  Normally I'm one of those people who adores their birthday.  I mean, ADORES.  I believe in making it last for days and days, lots of cards and emails and preferably presents, too.  I think it should be a law that your birthday is a paid vacation day for you.  That's how much I love birthdays.

This year though, with so much happening surrounding the imminent arrival of McNugget, it sort of snuck up on me.  Stuart was wonderful, with gifts on both Saturday and Sunday, then waking me this morning with a very sweet card.  We left work early for our 32wk appointment with the OB, and got news that all is looking great for both me and the baby.  From there, though, Stuart detoured for my next birthday present. 

As he's been starting to get back into Ironman base training mode, he's been dreading his trips to the pool, and is convinced that he'd like it more if I started going again.  So, we headed for the local swim store to buy an extra extra large swimsuit.  The very sweet college-age girls who worked there were great, and helped me find something that contained all my roundness even if it didn't hide all the newly forming cellulite.

I probably did less than 1500 yards,  but it was my first time in the pool literally since August or September.  All those people who say that swimming while pregnant is great are nuts.  I didn't feel "weightless" and "free" and "unencumbered".  I felt like a walrus.  Granted, a walrus getting a workout, but a walrus nonetheless.  I'm not a great swimmer even when I don't have 25+lbs dragging me down.  No long sleek line in the water for me!!

All in all though, a good birthday.  I got the aforementioned calls, emails, Facebook postings, and presents, including a very awesome and thoughtful gift from my stepson if we can make it happen - entry in next year's Napa to Sonoma Half Marathon.  And my night is ending with a bowl of Coffee Heathbar Crunch -- the gold standard of all ice cream.  No wine with it this year though, but little miss Baby M kicking and squirming is a pretty good substitute for this year.

Aren't Swimming Pools for Swimming?

Got to the pool yesterday afternoon to find an interesting and unusual assortment of characters. The "baby pool" was filled with probably 8 or 10 not petite, non-English speaking adult men playing water basketball. Okaaayyy. So that probably explains why one of the lanes of the regular pool is filled with screaming, splashing kids. There were four other lanes for swimming at the time, all of them occupied with 1-2 people, so Stuart hopped in there. The last lane is reserved for (primarily kids') swim lessons, but the swim instructor likes me so she lets me share the lane.

Start swimming and after about 20min I almost run into the backside of an elderly woman. WTF? "Um, ma'am? I'm here, and because of the swim lesson we can't circle swim so you need to change lanes." She harumphs, but leaves the pool. The coach thanks me, since this lady has apparently done this before. Next time I see her she has again slid into another lane without notifying the existing swimmers, and is again slowly slowly slowly bobbing her way down the lane. Unfortunately, she happened to choose Stuart's lane. sorry, honey!

Only a few minutes more pass and it's time for the dreaded water aerobics. That's right. A dozen or so women bobbing up and down in place claim ownership of three lanes of the pool. We usually try to time our workouts to be done or close to done before this happens, both because the principle of water aerobics annoys us and because it means only two lanes are available for swimming. But....don't forget all those screaming, splashing kids. They now run over and jump in one of the two available lanes....where three women are already trying to do their workouts! I finally stop swimming to watch the carnage. At this point, there are now SIX adults swimming in one lane, 4 kids playing in one lane, a dozen or so "aerobics" people, and me in the instruction lane. I got a bit more of my workout done, but to be honest, Stuart couldn't take it so I agreed to leave with him.

Needless to say, I'll be talking to the pool management today. Seriously, why are we paying for access to a swimming pool if swimming is the activity that the management seems least interested in accommodating? The poor onsite manager is just a teenager - she was ill equipped to get the adults out of the baby pool and the kids out of a lap lane. I struggle as it is to get myself to the pool and try to pretend that I enjoy it. Why do they have to conspire to make it that much tougher?

Water watch has begun...

25 or so days until the Kinetic Half. I check online the water temps at Lake Anna. As of yesterday, they are still a charmingly chilly 55 degrees. brrr....

Sticking with it

Yesterday, I missed my first scheduled workout in three weeks. I've been very disciplined and focused in this final run-up to my first race of the season, but last night I was exhausted. I practically fell asleep driving home from work. So a nap rather than spin class and a run was the right decision.

Tonight was a tough swim workout I'd been dreading all week. Stuart and I went together -- his second time in the pool since January thanks to his shoulder. After Monday's awesome swim, I should have been prepared for a rough night. I just could not get in the rhythm. 50yds and I was out of breath. I was supposed to do 8x300's at faster than race pace on only 15-30 seconds of rest. Tough work! And I just couldn't get it moving. I was pausing for air and a drink of water after every 100yds. It was miserable.

Stuart hit 1500yds and was done. I was so tempted to call it quits and get out of the pool with him. Instead, I sent him to the store and told him to come back and grab me when he was done. That way I'd have nothing to do except stay in the pool and swim. Eventually, after what felt like an 1800yd warmup I started to get in the groove. I still only swam 2500yds, but that last 800 or so were the best of the night. My form felt on, my speed had improved, and I cranked through a couple of those 300s feeling good and proud.

Something I've really focused on the last year or so is my mental toughness. When I think of myself, I always want to describe myself as tough, strong and assertive. Yet, deep inside I know that I can easily talk myself out of or into anything. When no one is looking, it's easy to cut corners. I'm realizing, though, that I'm letting myself down. And even if they don't know it, I'm letting down my Girls on the Run, friends, colleagues or others who might claim to admire or respect me for some reason. I owe it to them, not just to me, to not quit. Workouts like tonight are ones I need to remember. Just because the start is slow, awkward or tough, doesn't mean that workout or that race or even that day are a waste. Finding the strength to push through the rough spots is what bit by bit reinforces that original strength. The ultimate "do loop" in the words of my husband.

Unexpectedly great workout

Long story short -- I almost blew off today's swim workout. Late getting home. Felt the dogs needed attention and a walk. Just generally lost my mojo. Tried to tell myself that I'd get up at 5am and do it. While walking the dogs though, I knew I'd be mad at myself if I didn't get it done tonight. So when we got back to the house I threw on my swimsuit, and raced to the pool.

I had less than an hour, so knew I wouldn't get the entire 1,600yds of warmup and cool-down done (!), but had faith that I could do a short warmup and the main set. Mondays are the long aerobic workouts. Good steady sets, a mix of 75s, descending 25s and a series of 200s. Out of nowhere they were all solid. My form felt good, my head was down and although I wasn't really closely watching my splits, I could tell they were faster than they were just a few months ago.

As I sit here I realize that's an experience I could have missed. Sure, I might have gotten some paperwork done. Played a few rounds of websudoku. Seen what my friends are up to on Facebook. And somehow I'd have justified to myself that the short time frame I had tonight wasn't worth the effort to make it to the pool. And yet I would have been wrong and deluding myself.

At the end of the day, it's almost always worth it. If nothing else about this day I'll have the knowledge that I achieved something and did something for myself.

Yay for friends like Erin

Major props to Erin today for reading my blog and throwing my words back at me. Stuart finally had his MRI this afternoon, so we drove in together but I brought my bike for the commute home. I had an awesome ride today, averaged over 16.5mph which included all the deceleration and accelerations at lights and road crossings. Temps in the mid-60s. I think I had a bit of a tail wind, because I spent the majority of the ride in my big chain ring, even on the sections of the trail where I normally drop it back. My legs are getting stronger, but not that strong yet.

Got home and grabbed a snack, prepping to meet Tom and Emily at the pool, until Emily called to cancel. Unfortunately, I hadn't yet changed into my swimsuit, so there was lots of disincentive to head to the pool by myself. Luckily....Erin came to the rescue!

She was calling to say that she wasn't going to make it to Girls on the Run in the morning. But when she heard I was about to cop out of the swim, she reminded me that even 30minutes counted. That the motivation and "just do it" would make me happy on the back side. A few more encouraging words and when we hung up I quickly changed my clothes before I could change my mind.

It was a short swim. More of a recovery swim than a workout. But I did make it to the pool, and I'm glad I did. And that's really all it takes. 30minutes here. An hour there. A quick 10 or 15minutes to throw down a few hundred core reps. It's not sudden, but over time that's how you see results. More fitness, more endurance, less fat, more muscle definition, more speed. Nike was right, there are no excuses so Just Do It. So today I'm grateful not just for the sunshine and early spring warmth, but also for Erin.

Coldest Night in Ten Years

That's what I heard on the radio tonight on my way home from the pool. It's already only 10 degrees, and should be potentially close to zero by the time the sun rises tomorrow morning. This is ridiculous. I mean, Virginia fought as part of the South in the Civil War. South means warm, right? So why the heck is it 10 degrees here!?!?!?

Despite the Minnesotan cold, the =PR= run last night rocked. Amy (the official caboose) couldn't make it, so I unofficially took on the role and ran with Christie, who only started running this past August. We ran through the neighborhoods of Maywood and Cherrydale, so it was fun to see all the architecture and keep ourselves distracted from the wicked Arlington hills. And tonight I almost bailed, but managed to drag myself to the Wakefield pool for a 60min swim session. Yorktown was closed due to a high school swim meet, so I drove down to South Arlington and hopped in. 100WU, 10x50 kick, 4x300 easy, CD. It actually felt pretty good, and it was fun to watch the Wakefield swim team practicing. The down side is that even though I brought a change of clothes, the one block walk to my car was horrible. The tip of one of my fingers burned for over an hour -- seriously, I think it was a mild case of frostbite!

I'm working from home Monday and Tuesday, so my plan is to spread the workload over the next four days. Which also means I should have the time to log in a pretty goodly number of hours of workouts. Stay tuned on that one.

Cold weekend workouts

The holiday weekend is over, but the holiday season is officially upon us! In between wrapping presents, addressing Christmas cards, and decorating the house this weekend I managed to sneak in a few workouts. But cold was the operative word!

Saturday, I headed over to the pool mid-afternoon. It was surprisingly busy, lots of people feeling the need to burn off that second helping of mashed potatoes or stuffing, I guess. I'd talked myself into going by thinking about how nice and warm the water would be - it's usually in the mid-80s. Tepid bathwater, but still warmer than the 40 degree air. Except the pool heater was broken! The water was about 8 degrees colder than I'd expected. Yikes! It could have been an excuse to cop out, but I knew I'd never forgive myself. So, I did my 2500yds as quickly as I could and got the heck out of dodge.

Yesterday never even really dawned, it was so gray and rainy all day, so it's like the sun never rose at all. Around noon though, I piled on the layers, including my trusty pink running jacket and headed out the door. Nick really wanted to come along, but the thought of wet dog all day in the house was just too unpleasant, so the poor guy got left behind. It was too dreary to try and stay motivated on the trail, so I wandered the neighborhoods of Arlington instead. Not quite 6miles, but it felt good. I saw only two other people and we nodded at each other - that acknowledgement of a little bit of toughness. The knowledge that we were out there working when we could have been home, warm and dry, instead.

I like to think of myself as tough, but inside I know that I wimp out more often than I should. And so it's good to have those chances to prove to myself that I can be as tough as I want to be. But like everything, it takes hard work and commitment.