The Adrenaline is Flowing

After a full day of rest (my last one was the day after Triple T), I still felt pretty shelled when I got up this morning, in that "I've been training for this Ironman for how long?" sort of way. But it was beautiful outside and cool, and I hoped the outdoor pool would be cool as well.

I got on CF and rode to the pool, and was slightly chilled on the way there, and my legs felt heavy. When I got to the pool and stripped on deck, I moseyed over to a public lane and dipped some toes in. It felt chilly, but in a good way. I figured they had finally turned off the heaters since there was a big swim meet last Friday. Someone claimed it was from the rain, but it's been raining nearly every day for weeks now, and the water was almost hot last week, so I'm going with the heaters being turned off.

I swim much better in cold water despite my (relative) lack of body fat, and I was enjoying the hell out of the swim until when I was about 2100 meters in and this woman who thinks I am her friend swims right into my head and hits me with one of her paddles! I managed to avoid screaming at her, but I did ask what the hell was she doing? She's a good swimmer, and I just couldn't imagine how the hell she ended up slamming into me. She said she was passing someone and thought I was heading to the center of the lane? WTF???? I was right on the lane rope, dear. By the way, not only does this woman think I'm her friend and that I want to talk to her (I don't), she has freaky looking nipples, and I just can't get over it. So now every time I see her, I have this image burned into my brain of her being naked. Cover those things up!

Well, good thing the water was cold, because it erased the knock on the head I had taken just like ice would have, and I kept going, and when I got to 2600 meters, I had to get out and go stand in the hot shower for a few minutes because I was so cold! When I got back in, I finished up another 700 meters and was glad to hit the showers. I heard some other girls from one of the swim teams talking about how cold the water was and their legs cramping and stuff. Mine were, too, so I felt good that I wasn't the only one who thought it was cold. But I am not complaining! I would like it to be that cold all the time! Makes you swim fast!

I rode CF home and the day continued to be beautiful. I suited up to head out and bike about 11:00AM. I decided to ride LGL, just because, well, why the fuck not? Can't hurt me to be on a road bike once a week--I'm very used to aero position on Bitchie. Well, I thought I was tired, but I guess not because I knocked out some really good power for once! That's what a day of rest (on a Sunday, no less) will do for me. And then I ran for :40, and I ran well, and I realized it's time for me to get my head in the game, and I could just tell the switch went on today. Because this is it now--my last big, hard week, and then taper begins. So it's time to start putting myself into the race. I could feel a little extra adrenaline today, and it's good. Maybe that's why the extra caffeine on Saturday was a little too much at the time (I'm going to use it again for this Friday's 100-mile ride).

So I've put in almost 4 hours of training today. On a Monday! Now I'm just trying to decide whether to ride CF to my massage later or not. I think I will. It's not as far away as the pool--maybe 2.5 miles? So I should be able to manage that. Tomorrow, I'll swim another 3300 meter workout and do a short run. I hope the pool is icy cold again!

Oh yeah--I suppose I could list today as a NothingMan, although my transition time between swimming and biking was 3 hours...