It was a run/swim day today. Met up with Leslie this morning in front of the coffee shop and off we went. It was so nice to have a 'short' run to do. Our task was to do 15 km with some faster paced intervals thrown in for fun.
As is the norm for Les and I, we were dressed like twins without even having to call each other. I didn't bother to comment on her light blue jacket that matched my light blue jacket when we met up. However, when we both got too warm for them and removed them, well I just couldn't keep my mouth shut about the fact we were both wearing the same Policemans Half Marathon tech shirt!!! What can I say, great minds think alike! We shouldn't be surprised about this by now, but we still burst out laughing every time we do it.
For the intervals we were to use a pace that we ran in our half ironman. I seemed to have forgotten to read all this and look it up, but luckily Leslie did. At the 8 km mark it was time to throw in an interval. So we picked up the pace. 'Are we at pace yet?' I asked. 'Not yet...', 'How about now?' 'Nope' 'Now?' 'No dear.' 'HOW FRIGGIN FAST DID WE RUN AT STONEY ANYWAY????' I said, somewhat loudly, and while laughing of course. Apparantly we ran fairly quickly cause I was huffing and puffing a bit! With the three intervals done it was just a matter of heading back to the coffee shop. The run felt great, even with the intervals.
Next up was a swim. A group of us headed to Arbour Lake to do an open water swim. It had been cold the last few days here, but when we saw the sign indicating the lake was 22 C, we were all hopeful that it was going to be a good swim.
As I gleefully plunged in I realized with horror that someone was playing a nasty joke on us crazy triathletes. 22 C my fanny! I muttered several explitives in between trying to catch my breath as the freezing cold water seeped in the zipper of my wetsuit. Aiyaaaaa!! Only one thing to do - start swimming and pray I will be able to feel my hands and feet later.
I had hoped to do 5 laps of the lake, but only managed 4. My calves were cramping from the cold...something that's never happened before. Thankfully I didn't get a 'slurpee' headache as some of the others did. I managed to get through the cramps and swim on.
For the most part the swim was rather uneventful...well...except for the first lap.
I tend to hug the shore a bit when I swim there. For two reasons really, one I can avoid the weeds that hide the lake monster and two, I don't have to sight as much. On this day however, I was reminded why I should practice my sighting. I merrily made my way around the first bend, with water feature, and managed to look up enough to avoid the rocks that jut out into the lake. Unfortunatley though, I seemed to have missed the rather bright blue paddle boat moored to one of the docks.
CRUNCH! KLUNK! Unfortunately my wrist and forearm hitting the side of the paddle boat were not enough to slow my momentum. However, the top of my skull seemed to do the trick. Ow. Right, mental note: START SIGHTING YOU EEJIT!! haha. I had hoped no one saw this little blunder, but this is me we are talking about here. I never get away with these kind of mishaps and sure enough my coach was coming up behind me.
As I made my way around the boat, I also noticed that there was a man sitting on the dock that the paddle boat was tethered to. Heh heh. Afternoon! Don't mind me, silly triathlete swimming into your wee boat. No worries eh. I'm sure I didn't damage it. I'll be moving along now!!
Urgh. Needless to say my sighting for the other 3 laps was somewhat flawless. haha.
At least at IMC I won't have to worry about paddle boats...I just have to worry about the 2399 other triathletes swimming. Gulp!
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