Riding, running and swimming. Oh my!

The Bay Area has had a very unusual dry spell this winter.  We have had perfectly beautiful weather for months.  So beautiful that I still have a tan line on my legs from wearing shorts on my rides and runs! 

This nice weather came to a complete halt, however, once my Cinderella training began yesterday.  We had very gloomy skies when we started out at 8:00.  The sun threatened to come out but never really made an appearance.  It was cold and windy but not unbearable.  Just a drastic change from what we've been having. 

There were 12 girls and 3 ride leaders for our ride.  We began at Club Sport and rode out to Alum Rock Park in San Jose.  We had a couple of very good hills to climb and I am happy to report all my girls did awesome!  I love their spirits.  On one hill that I was afraid they would have trouble, Ewa was the first one up.  I was thoroughly impressed with her.  One girl had to stop half way up but I think that's because she was in a very low gear, spinning too fast, before she even started climbing.  I talked to her about it on the return trip and I think she will be better next week.  One girl ended up dropping from our group, saying it was too fast for her and she didn't want to hold us up.  Unfortunately, we were almost half way through the ride so one of the other ride leaders stayed with her while the rest of us went ahead. 

We stopped for coffee in Milpitas and had to make it short because as we were all standing around I could feel myself getting too cold.  I was concerned for the other girls so made a 15-minute limit and gave them a warning when we had 5 minutes left.  The way back was into a horrible headwind.  We tried to stay as tight as we could though and everyone was pretty quiet as we just tried to hold on to the wheel in front of us.  At one point, mile 26 of 35, the rain came.  A hard, cold rain.  We were getting pelted.  We pulled off onto a side street under a tree and let the cloud pass over.  After a few minutes we took off and finished our ride.  It was slow going into the bad headwind though. 

We all finished strong and I could tell they all felt good about themselves.

I am beginning to get into the triathlon training even more now.  I make sure to do one of the three disciplines every single day.  This past week I was able to complete 3 runs, 2 bike rides and 1 swim day.  And to my credit, I tried to get a 2nd swim day in but one pool was closed for maintenance and the other one had a bad accident near it that closed the road in and out.  So, that day I just ended up with a long walk with Boomer. 

I'm mainly concerned about the swim for my upcoming triathlon.  And actually, it's not "the swim" I'm concerned about.  It's the open water part of it.  So, my focus for training is really getting my confidence in the swim. 
My swim work out consisted of 16 50's, 8 100's, and 4 200's.  I rested 20 seconds between each set and did not let myself "push" off walls.  My goal is to be able to swim 100 lenghts without stopping by March 1st.  Swimming 3 days a week is what I'm shooting for.  Since the pool I go to is indoor and available nearly 24 hours a day, I have no excuses.

One of my runs was a trail run with Kristi which was FUN!  The other two were flat, on the road.  It's nice to know I only have to "work up" to 6.2 miles on the run.  I'm not going to train for anything more than that, what I am going to do is work on getting faster for the 6.2 miles.

On the baby front - now at 12 weeks, the baby is 2 inches long, about the size of a lime, and weighs half an ounce.  I went to Sara's sonogram appointment Friday and saw the heart beating again and this time we were actually able to hear it.  :)


Until later.............