The Journey to a Texas IronMan

Hi Everyone,

I was thinking today during an open water swim session at Lake Grapevine that it was exactly two years ago this weekend I ventured into the lake in a wetsuit for the very first time. It was Easter Sunday 2009 when I met up with fellow running club members Marty and Gary. Gary was in the kayak and Marty was swimming to train for upcoming triathlons which eventually led to his first IronMan. I remember taking three strokes and if lucky making it to five strokes. I was very afraid I was going to drown. Note, I was in four feet deep of water. I laughed thinking about how silly I was (and of course ingested lake water…bleh) since I ended up standing in the water more than swimming that day. Even then, I knew I was going to go for an IronMan.

Today, my husband sat in the kayak and my daughter hung out on the shoreline watching and taking pictures. Even with my wetsuit filling with water since it is now too big along with the non stop wind and lake water with a steady current, I swam. Instead of fighting the water, I glide through it. Instead of stopping, I kept going. I made it. I focus now on getting better and not just surviving. That my friends is pretty special.

In other news, coming off of a two week travel, race, travel, camp period, this weeks workouts were pretty typical yet strong. There was another activity that increased and that was sleep. I napped everyday this week which is quite rare and slept well at night except for one (but that was just a busy mind trying to solve problems that I ended up realizing I could not instantly fix...duh). Being tired is to be expected at this point and it feels great to have that down time. Taking 15 minutes out of your day to put your feet up and stare at the inside of your eyelids is magnificent. Waking up and being recharged to knock down the rest of the day is a perfect stress reliever. So I am off for a nap…try it out sometime and I am sure you will see the difference!

Talk to ya next week,
Janet