Travel Griffin Ironwoman - A Journey About One Girl's Dream to Become an Ironman: August 2014

Pier to Pier Swim

This past Sunday was the Dwight Crum Pier-to-Pier swim challenge. It is a 2mi Open Water Ocean swim from the Hermosa Beach Pier to the Manhattan Beach Pier. It was fantastic.

http://www.surffestival.org/Swim/SwimIndex.html

Now... I have wanted swim this race for a few year now, but unfortunately, I never have. I have either been traveling for work or vacation or forgot about it until it was too late. But this year, I was able to compete.

Knowing that my swim time up at Vineman was pretty decent for a 1.2mi swim, I was confident I would finish the swim within the 2hr window. I was however slightly nervous as I had never swam 2mi before. But hey, no time like the present, right?!?!

So with that in mind I swam the race. As I dove into the water, my goggles were knock off, luckily, I was wearing them under my swim cap, so they stayed on, but they were all wonky and water was in them and in my eyes. So needless to say, it was a rough start. As I started to swim, I see Tracy, my TNT buddy who is super fast and agreed to do the swim with me. I am barely getting my breath right and there she is doing the backstroke with the biggest smile on her face. It was amazing and hysterical and just what I needed to see to remember that this was suppose to be fun! So.. I took a deep breath, got in the rhythm and swam... and of course peed 9 times, LOL.

The water was amazing. It was pretty warm, i think it was close to 70 degrees and it was so clear you can practically see the bottom and with that see all the fishes and the sharks! Yes.. I said Sharks. Of course, when I was swimming and saw the dark shadow below me, I convinced myself that it was seaweed or something, because as I looked around, No One was panicking or getting out of the water, so I thought I was imagining things... I wasn't. :-)

http://www.easyreadernews.com/85803/time-sharks-surf-festival-dwight-crum-pier-pier/

Overall, the race was awesome. Of course I was not a fish like some of the other swimmers that finished it in half my time, but to be honest, I was pretty happy with my 1:21:46! Not too shabby for my first time! WAHOO!!

With some proper coaching from Adrian, I am sure I can cut that time down in time for Cozumel.

BRING IT ON.

Me and Tracy - she finish 2min ahead of me

AMAZING TNT Cheer Squad - Dani, (me, Tracy), Kelie & Chrystine

Anni, Me & Theresa

Me... a little out of breath after crossing the finish line. :-)

Post TNT Training

I have to tell you, I miss training with my TNT buddies.

It is a completely different experience training on your own. My first week back after a recovery / work week in NY, I jumped back on the saddle to handle my training. I went to the pool for a nice swim, I did an easy bike around Santa Monica, i aqua jogged for 1.5 hours on Thursday night then an amazing open water swim on Friday and even did a 50mi Bike ride up the PCH to the strawberry fields in Ventura. It was awesome. but it was so lonely. :-( I had the motivation to keep me going, but I miss the constant laughter and GO TEAM to keep me going.

i did however experience pure happiness after my 50mi ride, I did a 1.5mi transition run and I managed a 11min pace with 3-1 intervals and my knee did not hurt! I was so excited. But I didn't want to push it, so I aqua jogged for 2.5hrs on Sunday. Thankfully, there were a few TNT people there. Not from my team, but from the team doing the Chicago Marathon or SF Half Marathon. So it was actually nice to have a few people to talk to. :-)

Last week I joined up with Adrian (my new coach) for his Cloud 9 Endurance Brick on Tuesday. I was super excited for it. I arrived a little early and was ready to go. Of course this new group consists of multi-finisher Ironmen/women, marathoners and then me. LOL. I was the slowest one on the bike. Granted my front tire was stuck in the break the whole time, but I would have still been the slowest. Thankfully, Rich, who was new to the ride too, was at my pace, so we did the route together and had a great time. And another fun fact, after that 12mi ride, we did a 4mi run and my knee only slightly hurt!! WAHOOO!!! I think ole righty tighty is getting better!! :-) my plan though is to not go over board. I plan on introducing some more runs into my mid-weeks, but still aqua jog on the long runs, until they even out. Slow and steady wins the race, right!?!

The rest of the week was kinda magoo. LOL. I did another pool session and light run. and on Friday I met up with Laura, Jose, Riz and Heather (from Ironteam) for a nice OWS.. it was great. it was fun and totally chill... we basically just pitter-pattered in the water for an hour. it was perfect!

And Saturday.. Kelie from TNT saved me...I had ZERO motivation to get on my bike but she was there for me and got me on my bike for 3 Amalfi Loops and 1 Golf Course Lollipop... a total for 25mi.... not the original 50-60 I wanted to do, but a ride all the same. THANK YOU KELIE!

Vineman Wineries

After after race comes the recovery... and lucky for us we were in Sonoma. I really don't need to add anything else.

See below pictures from our amazing wine tasting.

Rachel