The First Appearance of "Tanya"

We've all got them and we've seen just about all of them in our group; however, yesterday was the first official appearance of "Tanya" who is my alter ego. This was the first time they'd seen mine. Of course, Tanya decided the middle of Lake Murray would be a great place to make her grand entrance. I don't know what it is specifically about the swim other than it is the one part of the triathlon that I hate and that bores me to no end. There is nothing fun about it, no scenery, lots of work, etc. Granted, I am a slower swimmer than most of my training buddies and I think that likely adds to my individual frustration with the swim. Halfway through, I decided I would turn a flip so I did. Once I get in my head that I want to play around, it is typically downhill after that. I just wanted out of the water. I wanted the swim to be done.

For those who don't swim, you must realize one key point. When you want the bike to be over, you get off the bike. When you want the run to be over, you stop running and walk. When you want the swim to be over and you're in the middle of the lake, the only way to end the swim is to SWIM! So, I proceeded to backstroke, sidestroke, float, flip, breaststroke until eventually making my way back to the shore. I was very tempted (and even tried) to talk a fisherman into switching places with me. He was curious if we were seeing any fish under us. I gladly offered him my goggles if he would like to get in and take a look. This would mean he'd have to let me in the boat. He was as thrilled at that idea as I was about swimming. I made my way out of the water, somewhat deflated, but I did my best to put the swim behind me and move on for what was to be a long day of cycling and running.

The bike portion of the training day involved 3 30-mile loops of rolling hills and one road of steadt hill climbing out and back. My goal for the day was to focus on nutrition and caloric intake and to be sure that I maintained a consistent HR and pace throughout the entire 90 miles. I am very proud to say that all of these goals were met with relative ease. I had two packs of energy beans and 5 bottles of Infinit along with my standard water/Hawaiian Punch mixture in the front bottle. Average speed for the day was 16.1 mph (great for the route we did and for the distance of 90-miles) and my HR remained consistent. I was very pleased with my bike performance and came into transition at the end first overall.

After the bike, I shifted gears and transitioned into my run clothes. We'd tried to simulate everything as much as we possibly could for this big training day. The three loops would be very similar to IMAZ, the swim would be an out and back and we'd be tired going into the run.

The run for me was very strong. I again focused on maintaining a consistent HR and pace. My HR didn't climb tremendously except for the huge snake I spotted on the side of the road. I did not stick around to see if he was living and breathing but rest assured, my HR did quickly change zones as I was running solo at the time and it was simply me and him/her. I stopped twice along the way to knock over a big mushroom or two. This has become a favorite training thing of mine. We'd passed SO MANY of them on the bike. I just had to stop and kick a few during the run. I did pretty well with right at a 9-minute mile pace (IM Augusta was more like a 12-minute pace...LOL).

Overall, I had a really strong day even with a not-so-great swim. It's a mental game now coming into the final training weeks. This is where the mind helps you decide just how bad you want to be an IRONMAN. Just remember -"You've got to be hungry for it!"