My longest OW Swim- Death Valley 3K

Lake Hartwell Pre Race - Clemson University

This week was a recovery week leading up to the Clemson 3K on Saturday. It was a really strong training week for me but even given that, I was really freaked out about swimming a couple of miles in the lake, especially with no wetsuit. Yes, I know Ironman is 2.4 miles but it's still 5 months away so mentally I wasn't confident in this distance in the lake. Take a look at Saturday's writeup for details. Cool thing was I met with a sports nutritionist this week who told me I'm not eating nearly enough so green light to eat more, woohoo! Here's my training:

Mon: 2100 swim. Loved this swim, it made me miss short workouts. Here was the drill - WU 400, as build by 100 (0:30 RI), 4 x 100 as descend 1-4 (0:20 RI), 4 x 50 sprint (1:00 RI), 200 Moderate (0:20 RI), 4 x 50 sprint (1:00 RI), CD 100

Tue: 18 mile bike, 1 mile run.

Wed: 2800swim in the am. Still swimming in the am vs pm with the team. I had to facilitate a late meeting at work so couldn't have gone in the pm anyway. Miss the team!

Thu: 7 mile run. This was a GREAT run. Ever since I met with the nutritionist Tuesday I've been really trying to up my calories (good calories, not junk) and I've felt so much stronger. I took a gel pre run and kept water on the treadmill with me so I finished nice and strong and happy.

Fri: Off day to rest pre swim meet. Retail therapy with a teammate and picked up some new goggles (barracuda tinted)

Coming out of the water at the end of the race

Sat: 3000m/1.86 miles Time to face my fears. Loaded up the family at 6am and drove to Clemson University to meet the team. Even though we've had swims longer than 3K in the pool, they're (a) in the pool, (b) broken up with drills and short rests so I was really not feeling confident going into this swim. This race was my 3rd open water swim in 7 years which also was sticking in my brain. Our race started at 10am so tried to stay hydrated and fueled from 6am til 10. I entered the water and was still swimming up to the 'official' start of the race when the cannon went off, whoops. Had no problems with panic, yaya! It's crazy what your mind will do for that long. Thought about work, thought about my family on the shore, thought about my teammates and LLS, repeated my affirmation - all that I need is within me now - and of course, Beyonce's 'Who run the world, Girls!' was on a loop non stop. Brooke LOVES this song now so I kept picturing her singing it laughing. The course was an out and back and the lake was pretty flat until the turn and part of the swim back. Got a little nausea with the rocking but kept it together. No ocean swims for me apparently. Took it very slow, really in hindsight probably too slow as I had a good amount of energy left at the end, especially since this wasn't a tri, just a swimming race. I haven't heard my time yet, I think it was around 1:15:00. You couldn't wear watches and I didn't see the clock when I finished so we'll see. Definitely slower than normal but I got the whole distance in feeling really good so that was my goal. Mentally it was a boost for sure.

Sun: 50mile bike. Did it on the trainer again. Brooke started swim lessons on Sundays at 10am so I've got to get my workouts in before her swim lessons.

Ramping back up this week on the training.Thanks for your continued support everybody!