Nothing to see here

I haven't been doing much training, so I really don't have anything to report.

I took a few days off after my last race for the Memorial Day holiday, and spent an extra day or two catching up on sleep instead of hitting the pool early. I did get up early yesterday to get on the bike trainer, and today to hit the pool.

I'm going out of state in two days for about a week, and I'll pack my running clothes and a swimsuit or two, but I'm not expecting to get anything serious done.

I'm totally OK with this. There's still nearly three months until the 70.3 I've been eying, and I feel like I have a good base from the winter to carry me through a longer stretch of off days.

Once I get back, I'll buckle down. Until then, I'll enjoy a few easy days and maybe even some off days.

Week of May 19-25: Race, then rest (with a new chart!)

For fun, a new chart.

I took it a bit easy leading up to my first race of the season, and although I haven't done a thing since I still logged a decent week.

Swim: Two normal morning pool swims of about an hour, and 34 minutes on race day. That worked out to 2 hours, 28 minutes.

Bike: Two normal morning trainer rides of 1 hour, 15 minutes, and 1 hour, 33 minutes on race day. That worked out to 4 hours, 3 minutes.

Run: Two easy runs of about 50 and 30 minutes, and 55 minutes on race day. That worked out to 2 hours, 13 minutes.

Other: One long dog walk for about an hour.

Overall: 9 hours, 44 minutes. This is a slightly lighter-than-average week for me.

I felt fine after the race, but I still wanted to take a break for the Memorial Day holiday because I had a ton of family in town. So far there has been zero swimming, biking or running, and lots of card games, stories and barbecues. ☺

Island Lake Olympic Triathon race report

I'm somewhere in there.

I honestly didn't know what to expect going into this race.

I'm in a new age group this year, it's only my second Olympic-distance race, and since my first was last summer, I've obviously never kicked off a season with one. Would all my training over the winter translate to a decent race?

I would have loved to make the podium (prizes at this race are bottles of wine, guaranteed to be used in this house), or set a PR, and my ultimate secret goal was to qualify for Age Group Nationals. As it turns out, I did none of these things.

Still, I learned a few important lessons:

Swim: I need to practice sighting in open water. I got lost in the lake at least once, almost to the point of panicking. However, my time wasn't too shabby for me, so I also need to keep chugging away in the pool. It was reassuring to see that my work is paying off a bit.

Bike: More time on the bike. This discipline is my weak point and I need to work on it. I also need to get comfortable with things like downhills, reaching for my water bottles or nutrition, and riding in aero.

Run: I didn't do too badly on the run compared to the rest of my field, but I could tell that I've lost some of my speed. Speedwork needs to get back in the rotation.

However, it was a beautiful day, some of my family came out to cheer, and it felt good to shake off the dust and see where I stood. And, I got some cool spoils of racing:

Now, to build off today's race for a strong summer!

My own personal polar bear swim

I've got a race in three days.

It's been cold.

The lake in which the swim portion will be was about 57 degrees over the weekend, according to Fishing Notes.

Yet, Sunday was my last chance to hit the course beforehand, so I knew that if I wanted at least one lake swim, I had to toughen up and jump in.

I was going to chicken out and swim in a shallower (read: probably warmer) lake at the same state park, but there were already people swimming in the race lake, and I didn't want to hike all the way to the shallower lake. First, I walked down to the beach, kicked off my flip-flops and dipped my toes in.

It was like ice!

I knew I had to do it, though. So I struggled into my wetsuit, put two caps on and my earplugs in, and started wading in. I screeched out loud when I let water in at my neck. My face and hands went numb pretty fast.

But what was I to do? I waded out to the buoys and started to swim.

Except for the numb hands, feet and face, it actually wasn't THAT bad. Of course it was cold, but once I was moving I was OK. I did a few laps around the buoys and called it a day. My Garmin (under my cap) read 0.72 miles, and I was fine with that.

I finished out the day with a 36-mile bike ride, three loops of the park (the Olympic distance is two), and a 2-mile run. Not too shabby.

Until then, I'm hoping for a few 80-degree days to warm up that water just a bit. I now know I handle it... but that doesn't mean I want to.