Wednesday May 19th

Its been a long time since i've updated the blog, but I've kept busy. I completed the first of a series of three triathlons at the same location just after my last post. Bonelli State Park in San Dimas is a gorgeous location for a triathlon, with a lake swim and beautiful (but big) hills. The swim portion was horrible for me. I couldn't put my head in the green, murkiness and I swam with my head out of the water the entire 500 meters. Not a good showing. Then, I managed to make an extra turn, going up a ginormous hill and costing myself a good 10 or 15 minutes on the bike. It wasn't pretty. It was a good ego check, however, and I trained to overcome my open water demons.

There's nothing better than swimming out into the Pacific Ocean to get over your fear of open water.

We're fortunate to live close to the beaches, so we took the family down to Santa Monica for the day. Tim kept the kids while I walked my orange capped self to the life guard station to inquire about the rules of open ocean swimming. I made it past the breakers after my second attempt. I only swam a few strokes back and forth while the surfers watched. It was kind of nice swimming near them. I felt like they would rescue a fellow wetsuit wearer if I got into any trouble. The waves were pretty big, but I felt pretty tough walking out into the water. The calm waters of Bonelli Lake were nothing after that swim.

We made another trek to the ocean on Mother's Day, this time to meet up with the LA Tri Club. There were about 20 people out for an 8 am Sunday morning swim, which was very encouraging. We broke up into groups by distance and hit the water. I probably swam about 800 meters when all was said and done, but my main goal was to get into the open water again.

Last Sunday, I worked out longer than I ever have before. In 3 hours, 3 minutes, and 41 seconds, I swam 1000 meters (a little over half a mile), biked 40 kilometers (24 miles), and ran 8 kilometers (5 miles). That's almost 30 miles, folks. Feels very good to have accomplished that. The bike portion and run portion were VERY hilly, but I managed to finish 9th out of 15 in my age group. I need to ramp up my bike and run for the next race.

The next one is an Olympic distance on the 13th of June. 1500 m swim, 40 k bike, and a 10 k run. I'm confident that I can complete this one, but I'd like to have a better bike and run pace.