ironman canada | week seven

This week’s mantra: Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Three examples…

One: Thursday’s swim test nearly drowned me. I swam with crazy fast Sonia, and I pushed myself harder in an attempt to keep up with her (which obviously didn’t happen because she’s an insane swimmer!). Following a warm-up and some drill lessons, we tested with a 3 x 300. I went out way too hard on the first one, and by the time I hit 200 on the second, I panicked; the water felt claustrophobic and I could barely breath. After standing up for about 10 seconds to get a grip and reassure myself I wasn’t going to drown, I finished out the set 12 seconds slower than the first.

Freakout aside, I’m super happy with my times! I cut 50 SECONDS off since I first tested about six weeks ago.

Thursday’s test times: 4:48 / 5:00 / 4:55. (Compare to February 4: 5:38 / 5:30 / 5:29.)

Two: Aero position is hard + uncomfortable. Different muscle recruitment, higher heart rate, sore shoulders + neck. Saturday’s 75-minute stacker spin hurt (don’t let the smile in the pic below fool you). Ten-minute intervals at FTP… yeeeeouch! But, new wheels make it a bit more bearable 🙂

Three: Static yin yoga postures are fight or flight. While my body had been craving some mat time all week, staying in butterfly and dragon for six minutes each makes me squirm.

The moral of the mantra… Ironman Canada is gonna be a whole lotta hurt. No better time than now to start getting comfortable with uncomfortable! And, in a weird way, I kinda enjoy it. It’s been pretty cool to see just how far I can push myself, and I’m excited for what’s to come training-wise.

Other training highlights…

Post-swim, waiting for Nick to finish up his treadmill run. I should probably remove those old timing chips and get new kicks…

And, the beauty of a half-day of work = a vitamin D-filled Friday afternoon 6.15-miler.

In non-training news…

After my run, I spent the rest of Friday with these two peanuts (and my fab sister) 🙂

Saturday night consisted of lobster rolls at the dive 1029 Bar, catching up with the lovely Emily who was home visiting from LA and bowling, which is way more fun in neon. (Is anyone else loving ’80s neon as much as I am?!)

Weekly stats: 11 hours, 13 minutes.

Swim	6,900 yards, 2:51
Bike	34:28 miles, 2:17:28 (trainer miles)
Run	25.14 miles, 3:38:43
Yoga	two classes, 120 minutes
Strength	20 minutes

Next week: More the same… lots o’ swimbikerunyoga! Bring on week eight!

Have a wonderful week, friends!