That which doesn't kill you, makes you stronger (I hope)

For some reason, I’ve been having trouble getting up early this week. Even though I’ve been going to bed at a decent hour and I’m sleeping soundly, it has still been amazingly hard to drag my butt out of bed and get going. I’m having those sleeps where you look at your bed the next morning and it still looks made except for the little area where I slept.

Other people have been making the same comments this week. I know I’m still pretty worn out from Monday’s race. I exerted more effort than I thought and my body appears to be saying, “Whoah sister. It’s o.k. to chill a bit.” Perhaps it’s the humidity and allergies right now in Austin. Whatever the reason, I feel like I’ve been in slow mo for the last couple of days.

It was raining yesterday morning which helped clear some gunk out of the air. I was going to go to 5:45am spin class, but couldn’t get up. I ended up going to the gym around 7am and doing a 50 minute interval workout: 5 min on the spin bike, ½ mile on treadmill, 20 situps, 20 pushups, repeat 4 times. Nothing too strenuous, but it was good to have the variety.

This morning I actually got up early and was at Barton Springs by 6:40am. Originally, I was going to meet Amy from T3 there to practice open water drafting. She rightfully expressed concern that after a rain, the natural Springs can tend to get…well…icky. Well, she was right and probably the smarter of us to postpone the swim. I got in the water and all appeared to be ok. I could see some algae, but really nothing more than usual. I took the fact that the pool was open and people were swimming as a good sign. I started my first lap and as I got towards the end of the pool where it spills into the lake, things started to get really murky and for about 20 yards, I was swimming in a haze of green fuzz until I reached the end. It took me by surprise and I just focused on keeping my mouth shut. It made breathing a slight challenge, but I tried not to ingest excess water when I took my breaths…yuck, yuck, yuck…I told myself that if I encounter this during the race, I’d have to keep going. Suck it up sister!! Making the turn wasn’t much consolation since I had to swim through it again. By the time I got back to my starting point, I had told myself that I wasn’t going to die. I may sprout a 3rd arm, but I would be ok. Besides, people were still swimming and I wasn’t going to wuss out. I proceeded to swim 4 more laps for a total of 2000m total.

Coach Chrissie was actually starting her swim as I was getting out and we discussed workout strategy for next week. I’ll do a full workout Monday and then a shorter one on Wednesday. We leave for Maryland on Friday so I hope to get a small practice swim on Saturday at the race site. Nothing more than about 15-20 minutes.

The sun was coming up on this beautiful, non-humid morning, so I decided to follow my swim up with a 45 minute run around Town Lake. I popped on the PodRunner music and let my mind go. I also did something I’ve NEVER done before. I ran with just my shorts and sports bra, leaving my abs exposed for the world to see ! Usually, I’m waaayyyy too self-conscious to have my belly goo jiggling, but I just didn’t care this morning. Actually, I cared, but I realized that at 7:30am, most of the hard core runners were already finished for the morning so I probably wouldn’t see anyone I knew. Fortunately, I was right. Even if I would’ve seen someone, I was in such a trance from the music that I probably wouldn’t have noticed. The 45 minutes ended quickly. I felt strong enough to do more, but it was late and I really do have to give myself permission to chill.

Plus, my sinuses were a little achy. Shit, hope it’s not the Revenge of Barton Springs algae!