City Girls Out in Nature

"Holy cow, Ellis Mary, did you see that?"

Note:  I may or may not of replaced "cow" with another more colorful word.

This morning, these two city girls were running their normal Friday trail.  Last Friday, I got super excited about a little lizard that crossed our path.  He was about 3 inches long with a fresh neon green tail.  I tried to stop to show my miniature running partner, but she was less than excited, and the lizard was too fast. 

This Friday, we got an even cooler brush with the wild side.

What's the matter, you can't see anything?  Well, I didn't see (or hear) anything either until there were three large deer leaping across our path about a foot in front of us.  I nearly peed my already sweat stained shorts.

Ellis took it in stride.  I can't get this girl excited about anything.

P.S.  This is the first time I've ever seen a picture of my third born that I thought looked like me.  Whoa.

There was the mom again, slowly walking away so I could get a better picture.  I realize there are deer everywhere these days, but jeez louise, I've never in my whole 32 years been so close to three of them at one time.  The thought that they might be sick certainly crossed my mind.  I realize most City Girls wonder this when Nature ventures out into the suburbs in the middle of the morning, but we can't help it.  It's what our parents always told us so we wouldn't try to touch the cuddly looking raccoons in our backyards.

"Mom, deer don't bite.  Seriously.  Chill out."

Things I Like

My Peral Izumi tri top.  It is not flattering, but it is the least unflattering tri top I tried on.  And it is pink and black, to match my helmet.  I never, ever thought I would be a person who would think wearing one of these was a good idea. 

My sweet running shoes.  They have flowers on them.  FLOWERS on running shoes.  Can you imagine my excxitement when these arrived in the mail? 

My six-year-old jogging stroller with my one-year-old chub riding in it.  Ellis and I discovered a "new to me" trail near our house and managed a six mile run together while the other kiddos were at school.  My husband had been telling me to try this trail for years but I was never sure how far it would take me.  I am the type of runner that HATES not knowing exactly how far I've gone. 

This trail has mile markers.  Duh.

Open Water, Take Three.

I did another open water swim last night.  Thanks to my awesome sister-in-law for watching my three kiddos, cooking them homemade pizza, and feeding me an amazing post-swim flatbread/gourmet cheese/artichoke hearts/sun-dried tomato creation.  She's such a domestic goddess I just can't even compete.

The swim was...better.  I anticipated where the swamp monster underwater garden was going to be, so I just did the breast stroke through the vegetation.  I guess I wasn't clear in my previous post, but these plants aren't just floating innocently a few feet below me.  They are tangled in my goggle straps, wrapped around my neck, and clinging to my toes.  You have to swim THROUGH them, not over them. 

My husband put it in perspective for me, though.  He described swimming in the ocean (a half a mile out or so) and seeing a giant shadow flicker below him.  He also described how sometimes, in the ocean, the tide shifts a bit and for a moment, you can see ALL THE WAY DOWN to the sand at the bottom.  You get a brief glimpse of how super deep the water is around you.  Yes, that sounds worse than some innocent lake plants.  Note to Self:  Stick to midwestern triathlons.

So now I have to work on my "sighting".  This is how you steer in open water swims.  Although my anxiety level was lower, my swim still felt super slow.  Mostly because every time I looked up, I found I was angled too far to the right.  I would then have to swim a few extra strokes to the left, and then check myself again to make sure I was on the correct path.  It was a total waste of energy and time.  I had no idea I had such terrible aim.  Near the end, I realized if I just swam to the left on purpose, I was actually going fairly straight.  I still felt inefficient like this, but I guess I'm learning? 

Open Water.... Purgatory?

So I jumped back in the water (literally and figuratively) and tried this whole open water swimming thing again.

Pros:

I got to swim the actual route that I will be swimming during the Kill Creek Triathlon. 

Kill Creek Lake truly is a very pretty lake, very clean, and fed by an underwater spring.  The temperature was perfect and the water was clear (see cons).

I finished the full 500 meters, and it didn't seem very far.

I swam after already biking and running for the day, so I actually completed a full triathlon for the first time. (Spread out over several hours, I know.)

Cons:

The water was clear. 

As I got 20 or 30 feet from shore, I could see the lake plants beneath me.  This seems so benign when I write it, but in the moment, it made me panic.  Bad.  To the point that I had to swim with my head out of the water a few times, just so I couldn't see the damn plants.  I also tried to close my eyes when my head was underwater, but this made me too disoriented.  I can't explain what about these plants made me panic.  There were no fish hiding in them (that I saw), and they were just cute little lake plants, doing their thing...

I was very upset by the reaction I had.  I called poor Patrick on my way home from the lake and bawled my eyes out.  I was upset that after all the hard work I had put in at the pool, my swim time was going to be screwed by my own anxiety.  I don't like being so controlled by panic.  My whole career is based on my ability to NOT PANIC, and here I was, worrying baselessly about water plants.  And the kicker is, I freaking love plants!  I even had a water garden in my backyard at one point!

So, I'm trying to draw from this experience to make my next open water attempt better.  I've googled "How to Overcome Open Water Swim Anxiety" several times today.  I always feel better the more I read.  I feel more in control of my situation.

I also do better the more I talk about the situation.  Hopefully rehashing it a couple of thousand of times will get the panic out of my head.  Thanks for listening.

Open Water Hell

The husband and I took our three small children on a mini-staycation this week.  We stayed at an adorable, fully equipped, AIR-CONDITIONED cabin at one of the local lakes.  It was such a fun trip and we made some sweet memories in our two short days there.

Except for one thing.

Swimming.

My kids had a blast, don't get me wrong.  They are still at the age where a too-warm lake and some fish bones floating by are interesting, and not gag-inducing.

I, on the other hand, nearly cried. 

This was to be my first practice at open water swimming.  It was just me and my non-judgmental family, the beach was completely empty of other swimmers.  I had never been one to be freaked out by bodies of water, no matter how murky or fishy they might be.  I floated the entire length of a dark Mexican River in a life jacket on our honeymoon, surely I could handle a little Kansas lake.

The first problem was the temperature of the water.  It was so HOT.  It made me feel like the water was too stagnant and shallow.  Then, the foam.  Every few minutes some dirty frothy stuff would float ashore and my kids would exclaim "Look mom, more foam!"  I then would yell frantically at them not to touch it.  I have no idea what this stuff might of been.  And if you know, don't tell me.  Unless it's something innocent, like baby shampoo wash off or something. 

So I waded out with my pink goggles on.  I looked back at my husband on the shore and yelled out "I can't do this!" and he, ever supportive, yelled back "Then don't!"

I swam out a ways, how far out I'm not even going to guess (it was not far).  I looked up like Patrick taught me to sight my buoy, and saw that I was nearly perpendicular to the direction I was wanting to go.  I knew it was easy to get off course, but seriously?  This made me even more anxious.  I felt out of control.  I was swimming in random directions in the middle of a large lake of cappuccino.   Complete with the frothy foam on top.  I was so anxious I could not focus on my strokes or breathing and was seriously getting out of breath.  I redirected myself back on course once or twice and then ended up turning around and swimming back with my head out of the water.  I was super disappointed in myself.

My husband told me (I don't know if he was lying or not, I don't care) that if it made me feel any better, he would not of swam at this particular beach, either.  Yes, dear, that did make me feel better.  He says that the lake that I will be required to swim in on race day is fed by an underwater spring and is a little cooler and clearer.  That also makes me feel a lot better.  I have not given up, but it is going to take a lot of practice to get over this new obstacle. 

One Kilometer

So my very good friend, Hillary, who is into her third year of triathlons, has three kids, and works as a PICU nurse, has kicked me into gear.  She signed up for the same Olathe Triathlon as me, at which time she will be roughly five months post-partum from her third sweet baby.  That, my friends, is amazing. 

I was chatting with her the other day, asking novice questions like "What should I wear?" and "What if I have to pee?" and we got into a conversation about swimming distances.  I know that I have to swim 500 meters for this race and had pretty much set my training goal right at 500 meters.  When I first started, I was doing well to swim 50 meters without stopping, so 500 as a goal seemed just right.  Well, Ms. Hillary said that HER goal before her very first race was to be able to swim TWICE the distance that she would be swimming at race time....1000 meters!  So this made me think I needed to kick my butt into a higher gear. 

So today, at the gym, I forced myself to swim 1000 meters.   One whole kilometer.  Twenty back and forths.  Forty pool lengths.  For me, that is a huge amount of swimming.  But I did it and I feel...fabulous.

On another vein, my husband gave me just about the best compliment he could of ever given me.  We were getting ready to swim side by side at one of our weekly lycra dates.  I was asking him about drills I could do to improve my form and this is what he said to me: "Your form is pretty much fine; now you just need to work on your speed and endurance."  My form is okay?  Really?  God bless that man.  He has no idea how I cling to the smallest things to keep me going.

I Love My Bike....and My Husband

I love this bike.  It is SO fast.  I was scared of it at first.  I felt like it's speed was too much for me to handle.  But I now understand the attraction to fast bikes.  The wind in your face, even on a 95 degree day, can't be matched.  I've become a bit of a bike snob.  Which is sad, because the furthest I've ever ridden is 10 miles.  When I see a fellow biker, I secretly judge their bike brand in my head.  Usually my untrained eye decides that mine is cooler.

I was very intimidated by the shifting at first.  My poor husband tried to explain the correlation between the small right shifter and the back gear blah blah blah.  This in turn served to make me a whole lot more nervous.  So he made me this simple reference guide, printed it up and taped it securely to my handle bars.  I love it so much.  Even though I feel quite a bit more comfortable with shifting gears, I will never take this guide off.  When I look down, I smile a little bit, because the man knows me.  And loves me anyway.

It's like the time he marked a turn-around point with a big brown rock.  He was out running with his fancy Garmin mileage thingy and stopped to lay a rock at the two mile point so when it was my turn to run (we go in child watching shifts) I would know where to turn around.  I picked that big rock up and carried it home with me and keep it on my dresser.  It makes me smile and keeps me going to know how supportive he is.