I finally got back out in Lake Michigan this weekend as I’d been hoping to do for about a month now since the ITU race. I am not going to lie – I went out to the lake expecting to crush it, but that is about the exact opposite of what happened. As frustrating as it is, I had similar issues this time as I did in the tri. I wouldn’t say they were as bad, but they were the same and prevented me from performing as I’d liked. I got out there and would swim a bit, then have to stop – but couldn’t really figure out why exactly it was I was stopping.
In my mind I’ve decided it has to be an overall dislike for being unable to remedy my uncomfortable-ness in the water. Yes, the water is cold, but it is manageable. Yes, my wetsuit is tight, but I can still breathe just fine. But, what I can’t do is grab onto the wall or just stand up if I feel like it, or if I get a little winded. In the lake, grabbing the wall is not an option and it’s too deep to comfortably stand on bottom. So therein lies my issue, I think (hope). My goal for the next time I go to the lake is to make myself better focus on just simply swimming, and not stopping as often. I think if I can just get to a point where I go (rather than the start and stop thing I have going on now), I’ll do a lot better – because if I’m going it won’t matter if I need to grab the wall or touch bottom – because I’ll just be swimming instead!
Also – side note. At Ohio Street Beach – training central in Chicago for open water swimming – they have buoys set up for you to track distance swam at a quarter-mile and half-mile from shore. It really puts into perspective the distance one has to swim in these races. Looking out to that half mile buoy and just thinking, “man, I have to go there and back?!” Eesh.
So that was Saturday AM. After the swimming excursion, not a lot else happened that day. Although Mark and I did start watching The Wire on HBO Go (well, we actually started with an episode last week, but picked up this weekend) and by Sunday evening we were already two episodes deep into season two. Usually I am the one encouraging the TV binge-watching, but Mark is driving this one all on his own!
Sunday morning Mark and I used as an opportunity to go for a bike ride. Like I said – only four weekends left so you have to make them count! We figured since the Rock and Roll Half Marathon was going on downtown, the Lakeshore path would be pretty empty. We were right for the first half of the ride (got out there about 8am), but by the way back up the path at 8:30 we were dodging people as usual. The life of biking in the city! I don’t want a car, really, but I want a car so I can take my bike riding elsewhere (like the burbs).
Overall, I’ve decided that biking is hard – but it’s easier to go fast when you are in a pack of other bikers going fast. It also helps when you are not dodging casual strollers left and right. While I don’t think the bike portion of the race is going to be easy by any means, I am more confident in my performance there than the swim. Somehow I’ve managed to nail the run portion, which is funny because prior to this summer I hated running. Now I actually find it enjoyable. I’m still not very fast, but that is mostly because I am not trying to be. I just want to concentrate on completion for now. Next summer I’ll care about time :)
Oh, and did I mention I finally officially signed up for the Chicago Half Marathon in September? Just one more thing to add to the ‘summer of feats of athletic ability.’ I am actually really looking forward to this race.
Before I go, and as the title says - here’s my Pinterest fail of the day. My two ingredient pancakes (the eggs + bananas things that are all over Pinterest these days) did not go so well (and I added blueberries, so technically they were three ingredient pancakes I suppose). From across the room Mark so lovingly decided to tell me they looked like turds on a plate. I ate them anyway (and they were not too bad, but definitely not pretty like the pictures).
And since I had a fail - here's my win. Blueberry muffins, healthified....mmmm!
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