Last Long Run before the Half, and some OWS-ing

Friday 7.0 miles/1:00:11/8:36 average pace

It's been really hot lately and on Friday it was already pretty warm at 6:30 am. I found a route that was shaded and had a good run. Purposefully ran a quick pace with the last mile at just over 8:00.

Saturday 11.5 miles/1:41:59/8:52 average pace

Then suddenly yesterday it was very cool out. Okaaay! So we took our sweet time and started running about 10:00 and enjoyed great temps with a nice breeze the whole time. I think it was only about 70 by the time we finished. The high (low) light of the run was when I thought my water tasted weird, and discovered it was kinda soapy towards the bottom and all frothy. Dumped it out and rinsed it real good at a fountain, then refilled, trying not to vomit at the thought of drinking all that soap. It was in my head though, I felt fine and pretty much forgot about it right away. Note to self: rinse the freaking dishes better (I wouldn't even pretend to blame Zach, that was fully a Jen move). Anyway, I struggled a little through the early miles and just felt generally tired. But I got a second wind, well really it was my first wind, about mile 8 and cruised to the end. This has happened with my past few long runs. Something to look forward to at the half marathon!

Later in the afternoon I was bored of sitting around, so went out for a short bike ride. I wore my Garmin to track my speed and distance, and made a point to ride hard. I ended up riding 5 miles in 21:17 which is 14.1 mph average. The only obstacles I faced were a strong headwind at times and, well, running 11 miles earlier that day. It was hard, but it boosted my confidence to ride a somewhat good "race pace" (for a beginner!) for more than a short stretch. The Tri is 11 miles so I will work on getting in some hard rides up to that distance.

This morning (Sunday) Zach and I woke up to a warm day (wtf!) and finally got down to the little lake for an Open Water Swim (OWS). It would be Zach's first ever and only my second after last month's Mission Bay adventure. We went to the lake where our Tri for Fun Triathlon will be held August 19.

The lake is a little slimy, but the water was comfortably warm (the race website says around 75) and there is actually a swimming lane marked off, you weren't allowed to swim outside of the designated area. It followed the "deep end" boundary of the swimming area and was 140 yards long according to the Park Ranger. So technically not open water really. I'm not sure how strictly that is defined, but it was a lake and the lane was at least 15 feet across, so you still had to sight. There were a couple people swimming and quite a few people were just hanging out at the park already. I liked it- since I wasn't wearing a wet suit I might have been nervous, but I felt very safe due to the proximity of people (drinking and non-English speaking, but potential life-savers all the same).

We waded in and swam up to the lane, then we started swimming. I wore my new watch (I got my own Timex watch and we threw out the old one which literally fell apart on me) and timed my splits. It took me about an average of 3:30 ish to swim the 140 distance each time. Took Zach about 2:45 average, so he did quite a bit of waiting. At first we stopped after each 140 yard length, but finished with three lengths straight - 420 yards straight. Cool that means I am ready for the triathlon, which has a 400 meter swim. :) In total I swam approximately 1120 yards in 28:15 and was probably in the water about 30-35 minutes. It flew by and I was never too tired. Very fun! For the 6 dollar parking fee it was a pretty sweet deal- they have showers and changing rooms and everything. There is another lake where we can do a real OWS, or there is a group you can join at this lake that does long swims across the whole lake, so we are going to check out those options. But we'll definitely come back and do the lane thing again soon.

Here's a backlit pic of me after we're done. You can see the buoys that mark the lane behind me. It was pretty much the distance of what you can see in the picture.