A Little Bit of Everything and Nothing...

The above pretty much describes the last couple of days of my training (and present emotional capacity).

First and foremost, the Nike Human Race 10k was a blast and I'm glad that I decided to run it at the last moment. By now, the world knows that Lance Armstrong, Matthew McConaughey and Olympic Medal Swimmers Brendan Hanson and Aaron Piersol all made yummy appearances. Of course, Lance is in yellow and Matthew is in the brown bandana behind him and to the left.

We didn't make national headlines, but Austin hotties "Skud and Sapp" also strutted our stuff across the finish line with a smile on our faces. No PRs were set, but a good time was had by all. The goal of this race was to have millions of people across the world running at the same time. Pretty cool concept, but 6:30pm on an August night in Texas is probably the WORST time to stage a 10k for 15,000 people! Put it this way, the famous dudes mentioned above weren't the only "hot" ones. Instead of collective cheers, I think I heard collective wheezing as people were attempting to chug up the hills. Not a pretty sight...

On Monday morning, I had the distinct pleasure of being a bike course volunteer at the Austin Olympic Triathlon. I wish I would've snapped a picture of my sexy self wearing the reflective safety vest and pointing my light saber in the direction of the upcoming sharp right hand turn. I thought I might have some regrets about not signing up, but it didn't happen. No regrets at all! In fact, it was fun walking up to the transition area with ZERO nerves...While the athletes were finishing their last minute bagel and gatorade consumption, I was sipping on coffee and a breakfast taco awaiting the course leaders to come screaming by. Congrats to all who finished this race under some hot conditions! I had a blast cheering for you both personally and anonymously. As usual, the T3ers had a great showing!

The above image pretty much describes my T3 Swim Workout on Tuesday morning. I decided to try to play with the "big kids" and had my butt handed to me by speedsters Erin, Jess and Laurie. I'm still playing and experimenting with my stroke a lot and have trouble going from 80%-85%-90%. My 90% effort is their 80% effort so while I was able to hang on for the first couple of sets, I couldn't last as their efforts and speed grew. You know what? It's all good. In order to continue to get faster, I have to swim faster...that's all there is to it. If that means being "the slow one" in the pool then so be it. I still completed the 3200m workout even if I did have to wear paddles for the last set in order to keep up! I'm still averaging about 15 seconds faster per 100 than last year.

So while I may have sucked gas at swim yesterday, I hauled ass in Spin Class last night and in this morning's 10 mile pace run. Being off the bike for a week helped me mentally and physically. Coach Pain had us spinning like maniacs last night and it actually felt damn good (except for the part when I thought Little Miss Runner Pants was going to puke on me)!

I wasn't sure what to expect with my 10 mile pace run this morning, but I couldn't be happier with the execution. Amy and I decided to do this by ourselves today since we missed Monday's workout because of the triathlon. In regular fashion, our first 2 miles were pure warm-up (20:28). Over the last 8 miles, our goal was to average 7:40s or better overall. Amy was having a "do we have to?!" whiny moment, but I promptly shut it down with my "no excuses" pep talk (which I'm sure sounded more like a condescending lecture than a pep talk). In any event, we set off:

Mile 1: 8:07

Mile 2: 8:05 (slight panic that we were running too slow when it felt really fast)

Mile 3: 7:31

Mile 4: 7:15

Mile 5: 7:21

Mile 6: 7:28

Mile 7: 7:21

Mile 8: 7:07

Overall: 1:00:19

7:31 pace for 8 miles (and 66ft!)

That's what I'm talking about people! This is my 3rd marathon pace run and my fastest yet. Instead of feeling completely spent at the end, I still had some gas in the tank. A lot of it had to do with starting off at an easier pace and easing into the pace instead of trying to hit it immediately and hang on for dear life. I am just LOVING the run right now!!

Now--if I could just translate that into my swim stroke...