Swam at Lucky's Lake for the first time

Here in Central Florida there is a well known weekday and Saturday morning open water swim at "Lucky's Lake". The lake is actually called Lake Cane and is located within a stones throw of Universal Studios Orlando. "Lucky" is a local doctor that has a very nice house and piece of property that he opens up to whoever wants to come swim the lake. He is a former competitive swimmer and still swims on the Masters level I think.

Anyway alot of local triathletes head out there because its a safe group swim and it gives you a chance to get some open water experience. Weekday swims typically start at 6:30am and Saturdays start a little later, 7:30 or 8am I think. Today was my first day swimming there. Amy has been out there numerous times as have some other of my friends. To one side of the lake and back is around 1k. Most folks just swim up and back but those training for longer distances will go back and forth 2 or 3 times.

Normally I am faster than Amy in the water but I must admit, today keeping up with her kicked my butt. We swam in wetsuits because the water is still a bit cool but for some reasons my arms were really tired and I was breathing hard. Probably because I havent done an open water swim since November. Oh well, Amy did good today and I sucked wind. I will live to fight another day at Lucky's.

Going to try taking time off again

I am getting desperate again with my foot. I am going to attempt to take some time off of running again for a few weeks. I will focus on my bike and swim. I have been sleeping in a night splint for at least a month now and it seems to not be helping except feeling better in the morning. Other than that everything is still the same with the whole plantar fasciitis thing. Its very frustrating,,,,I am tired of pain.

As a spectator

Yesterday was the first time in about 5 years that I was out at a race as strictly a spectator. Typically I am in the race or I am not there. Amy raced yesterday at one to the Tri-America series races in Clermont, FL. She did the long course which is a new distance that falls between Internation and Half Iron. It was a 1.2 mile swim, 60k bike, and 15k run. Anyway the weather was not in the racers favor yesterday. There was literally a squall line of weather that came through bringing lightning and heavy downpours for about 45 minutes and this was the time they were on the bike.

But what left an impression on me were the folks that quit or couldn't finish. Particularly the ones that didnt make it out of the swim. Since I am usually in the race I dont see who gets pulled out of the water, I just hear about it later. I really felt for those that had to come out of the water. You could see the disappointment on their faces. Assuming they thought they prepared well enough it was a crushing blow to be pulled out. One man especially left an impression as I watched him walk up to his wife and kids who where waiting for him to come out of the swim finish. His wife's eyes said it all as she looked at him feeling so bad for him as he explained to his young son and daughter why he couldnt finish the race. I watched his wife put her hand on his arm and just to give a little reassurance. His kids looked really let down. I wanted to walk up to him and shake his hand and tell him that most people never would have even started the race and that I was sure he would be back another day to complete what he had begun. It was really pretty heart wrenching to watch.

The good part of the day was that Amy finished the race after enduring alot of adversity. The winds were really bad, the rain and some lightning (that actually forced some to stop), and to top it off she had 2 flat tire with only 2 miles to go on the bike. She only had one spare tube so ended up riding the last mile or so on a flat. That part is hard for her because she was having a great race up to that point. She still ended up catching and passing a couple of her teammates on the run that passed her while she changed her flat. So although she was disappointed with some bad luck, I was proud of her for enduring.

I am usually not one to endorse quitting but if you had seen how bad the weather was you would have agreed, no shame yesterday for those that quit during the bike.

Not Dead,,,,Just Busy

No I am not dead and I have not given up on triathlon. Just really busy with some pretty big things on the horizon. More to come later.

Feeling Less Pressure,,,,its a good thing

I received my deferral from St. Anthonys so I will not be racing there this year. Admittedly I am feeling very good about the decision to put off racing until later in the season. In one sense I am feeling a bit slack because I see others that have already started racing this year and I feel like I am just sitting on the sidelines. I am still training but it has been nice to be able to feel like I can take it slow to get back to where I need to be rather than rushing my training and risking injury just to make the St. Anthony's deadline.

I am looking forward to racing later in the season, but I will probably not until August at the earliest, unless I feel like trying to squeeze in a sprint. Aside from the training set backs at the beginning of the year, I have been going through possibly a very big career change and that has affected my finances. As we all know, training and racing in the sport of triathlon is not always cheap. Lately I have had to be very careful about where I spend my money and how much.

This morning was a good one. I swam with Amy and we were in the pool at 7:45am so it was nice to be outdoors on a beautiful morning. Although the sun was up it was still rising so it was great after we got done swimming to sit in the sun for a few minutes. Thats one of the parts I like about training. The time when you are done and you can just relax a little outside.