I wrote this on her FB page, but decided to pair it with a photo of her.

She embodies every bit of what a role model should be: fearless, confident, passionate, committed, realistic and smiles in the face of adversity.

Girly tough!

I've had a few tough days getting my training in this week, but I was determined to redeem myself in the pool today.  I even painted my toenails blue last night to give me a little extra motivation.  Silly, I know, but it kept me thinking about it all morning and couldn't wait to get to the pool.  Whatever works?!  I'm thinking I'll end up with blue-painted toes for Ironman Texas now, too! :)  And, of course, wore my girly-skull swim cap (available here) to keep things fun.

Blue toes for the pool

So, this was a big deviation from my training plan, so I apologize to Don Fink and accept full responsibility if I crash and burn because of my non-compliance to your carefully crafted training plan.


2.4 miles - 85 laps.   The furthest I have swum to date is 60 laps.  Crazy? Maybe.  A huge mental boost?  Abso-freakin'lutely!  

I had missed a couple of lunch time workouts due to work functions this week, so I used some of that time to get this swim in.

It went awesome!  I was lucky that there were a couple of decently good swimmers that came and went during my swimming time-  thank you gentlemen for swimming with me when you didn't know that you actually were...  The laps went by fairly quickly. I started to feel a little slow at around lap 70, but then I realized that there were only 15 more to go, so I got my head back in the game.  Especially when I knew I was going to finish faster than my conservative guesstimate swim time of 1:30.

I finished in 1:24.  Looking at the swim pace, I think I may have double counted a lap or two, but I'll take it.  When I finished, I was alone in the pool.  I kind of wished I had someone there with me, because I really felt like I did after I finished my first marathon.  A little on the emotional side - because I had just accomplished - what was to me- a big goal.  So, yes, I shed a couple of tears.  Only a couple - and only out of the left eye.  It probably had more to do with the pain that the goggles had caused from sucking to my face for that long, but nonetheless, I was excited.  For someone that had only learned how to really swim 2 years ago (for my first sprint triathlon), achieving a 2.4 mile swim was a big deal.

Can't wait to get a few more of these done and especially some in open water.

I pulled out my HomeSwimmer last night, for the first time in awhile and realized just how much I missed using it!  The resistance of the spring really added a lot to the short workout and I could feel my shoulders really working.  Plus, it was such a treat to swim outdoors and in a 2-piece suit.  (Both of which I can't do at work.)  I used it before I went on my 4-mile run, but I think I'm going to start switching that up! A post-run swim sounds much more refreshing.

Back to the HomeSwimmer story, though.  When I first started training for triathlons last year, I didn't know how to swim freestyle. I've always felt comfortable in the water and love snorkeling, but typically my pool experiences were relegated to floating on a lounger with a margarita in hand.  In high school, I was a diver. The extent of my swimming was from my splash in the pool to the ladder.  I don't think I even attempted to swim a length of a pool.
 
Last April I didn't have a membership to the gym at work yet, so I was trying to figure out how I was going to go from lounger to Phelps-fish style-swimming in a couple of months. We have a great pool in our backyard, but the length from end-to-end didn't allow for much practice. Maybe three to four strokes and you were at the other end.

So, after a little internet research, I found the Home Swimmer.  For $89, I ended up with my own lap pool at home. I love this thing. So much that I even sent a review to their company and they published it on their web site.  It's an ingenious, portable little contraption, that I would highly recommend.  (And no, they're not paying me to do it either.) It's just one of those finds that I like to tell people about that might not know it exists!

I ended up getting a gym membership at our hospital, which gave me access to an indoor 25-yard lap pool. I asked a lot of questions of the swimmers there and ended up with a great swim coach, when I hired our web manager- (he's a high school swim champ..) and watched a lot of YouTube videos.  I went from barely being able to swim one lap to being able to finish over 1.2 miles without being exhausted.  But, I have to give some credit to the HomeSwimmer, because it really allows you to focus on your stroke, kick and breathing properly and I know that using it made me a stronger swimmer.

I was thinking that I might just have to start using it in the winter to get used to swimming the longer distance (2.4 miles to be exact) in my wetsuit.  Whether or not I'll be able to talk myself into getting into the cold water - when I really don't have to - that's a different story.  Brrr..  I'll continue to enjoy my warm pool for the time being.