If CDA is windy and cold I'll dominate.....

Only because that is the ONLY thing I've trained in!! ARGH! If its warm (or God forbid, HOT) I will not know what to do with myself.

It is LATE May....in CALIFORNIA....and today is a high of 56! And wind gusting up to 26mph.........prefect conditions for an "EPIC" training day.

Many Ironmen, triathletes, cyclists, and swimmers have talked about joining us for our last bit of training, so I organized two days and sent out an email including times, locations, drop/no drop policy, etc.

Today was going to be a swim/bike day from a local lake and then bike Mines Rd (which was just raced on by the Tour of California studs on their Stage 4...you can you tube some videos to check it out). We originally had 7 people wanting to swim and 6 wanting to bike. Well, between cold weather (and nerves for some warm water swimmers) and just scheduling we ended up with 2 on the swim and 5 on the bike.

It was 45 degrees when we got to the lake. It was just me and Izzie swimming, so we took our time begrudgingly putting on our wetsuits....
here is Izzie when I said "Do something really cute"

and here is my (mature) version of "doing something cute"


We didn't have an idea of where to swim, just wanted to swim for about 1 hr. The water was warmer than the air...so it actually felt warm. Now, I have a confession. The Ironman swim has been a big fear of mine, maybe even more than completing the run. I have been scared of the swim because of the mass start; and, because I'm a swimmer I'm going to have to put myself out there to swim it like I need to. I think being VULNERABLE to the beating that can occur and open water forces me to race differently than how I pool race. I'm much more of a back half (negative split) swimmer....and you can't do that in open water (especially IM)......so out with the studly, strong men I will ago swinging.

But TODAY - I gained confidence.....in what may seem like the most "DUH" area. The wetsuit. I don't wear my tri wetsuit very often (today was the 3rd time in my life...). And I FORGOT how much of a freaking life preserver it was. So, confidence was gained by thinking, "Even if I get clobbered by some angry ego maniac man b/c a girl is beating him....I CAN'T sink!" and also for the fact.....swimming in a wetsuit is so dang easy. We swam for 1 hr, not fast but not slow....we stopped like 3 times to see the time/figure out where to go. And I cleared my goggle like 50 times, something I probably should not do come race day.

When we came in we had 3 cyclists waiting to ride! We had John (Izzie's husband), Dana (a regular, doing IM Canada 2010), and Karin (the Olympic swimmer I talked about before, but also multiple Kona Ironman, and holds countless records in the pool and on tri courses). They looked FREEZING. Great. We make a "quick" transition by the cars and off we went.

Here is me, Karin, and Dana


This was my first time riding with Karin, she is as beautiful cycling as she is swimming. So, I tried to stay with her. That turned into.....try to keep her in sight. ;) Karin has been having hamstring issues, and with so much climbing she had to turn around a little earlier. The rest of us continued onto the Junction.

Here is Izzie and her hubby John at the Junction


We refilled some water and headed back.....in a headwind. A GNARLY headwind. Like push you off your bike gnarly. I pushed it back. I have mentioned before how much I HATE wind and it USED to just mentally defeat me. During my "think happy thoughts" stage on the ride I acknowledged how much better I was with wind - not only riding in it, but mentally dealing with it. Though, I still request IM CDA be sans crazy wind on the bike. ;)

Epic day #1 done and done. Cold and windy. But felt strong and confident. Going to run tomorrow....don't know how long as I am hosting a bridal shower for a friend of mine. Life goes on even in the peak of IM training right? Roll with the punches....and the wind. ;)