Welles Park Pool: Veto

...Yesterday I bought pool pass for the Chicago Park District. For $22 I can swim all summer at any Park District Pool, and there are several all over the city, and three that are within three miles of my apartment.
I went today to the second most promising one. They have Adult Lap Swim from 7:30 to 9am. I left my apartment at 6:54 and was surprised that it only took me ten minutes to get there. They REALLY mean 7:30 and not a second sooner. For a good twenty minutes I was the only person there and I was very happy about that. But at 7:26 people started flooding in. Sick. Everyone plopped in and started swimming. The pool is 25 yards long (standard) and has potential to be 6 lanes wide. However, they make three GIGANTIC LANES. You swim down the pool on one side and have to finagle your way to the other side to swim back. Obviously I didn't have the luxury of my own lane (my cheating pool SPOILED me). It was disastrous. There were just far too many people. The wide lane did allow for passing which was nice unless you were too close to the wall-- then you collide with someone who's trying to diagonally push off the wall on their way back or cut off whoever you're passing... I regret to say that I got so frustrated I just got out and left. Maybe ten minutes into it I put up my white flag. By this time I'd already lost count. I really wasn't going to be able to get in a good workout. I was just getting irritated and I don't doubt people were irritated with me. In the locker room I spoke with a woman on her way in and asked her if it's usually crowded and everything and she said yes. I guess I'm not the only one to take advantage of the $22 swim pass. Boo.

Tomorrow I'll try the more promising pool. We'll see. It's a bit further from my apartment, but if it is a better setup, it'll be worth it.

Now I'm going to spinning. Hopefully that pans out better than swimming!

I wish it wasn't unsafe/illegal to wear headphones whilst biking. I won't deny that the quietness of the forest preserve is nice, but sometimes I just want to listen to music while riding. Unfortunately, safety trumps all. Even though there aren't cars on this trail, there are plenty of other bikers, walkers/joggers, and unaware children (and adults, lets be serious) to be heard. Bah.

I swam in the lake again on Tuesday. It wasn't too bad. My friend and I swam out to the half mile buoy and back. On the swim back I timed myself and was sorely disappointed with a 22 minute finish. It really makes me wonder how legit these posted distances are, both in the lake and at races. Supposedly at the race in Naperville, I did the swim in 11:55. Sooo all of the sudden it takes me twice as long? WTF. Given, race day brings adrenaline and competitiveness blah blah blah... but that is a craaazy discrepancy. Maybe the problem is my watch. Afterall there was a discrepancy with my final time of that race, too... the common factor is the watch. Hmm.. Oh well. It was an enjoyable swim, especially because it was in the high 90s that day and the lake was a cool 60ish degrees. My wet suit DEFINITELY irritated my neck though. There is a bright red ring ALL the way around it, suggesting I was strangled. Try explaining that to patients and their parents! Shoot.

There is a race on July 19th that I really want to do but am scheduled to work that weekend. Someone else had asked me to switch with them so I could work their 25th/26th and they could do my 18th/19th, and I told them I'd check my calendar and by the time I saw her again at work she'd found someone else. Boo. Apparently this is a very popular weekend as NO ONE has been able to switch. In a last ditch effort, I emailed my boss asking if there is any way she can think of (I AM afterall working three weekends in a ROW right now...), and am awaiting her reply. The triathlon season is too short to only do two races. I really hope this one works out!

I went on a long run the other day (before work-- stupid), and my calves were SO sore. Whenever my muscles are sore I think that they MUST look more defined. If I can feel them with every movement, other people must be able to see them. False. If they're so out of shape that a run makes them ache so badly they're probably microscopic in size therefore painfully invisible.

I'm off to ride my bike because it's super sunny. It's also super hot which isn't AWESOME but I am sooo grateful it's not cold. Honestly. But before I go, the photos from the Naperville race were posted but you have to pay a SICK amount to get them and you can't just save them to your computer... so I took pictures of the pictures on my screen... haha.

It's upsetting how beastly one looks while swimming, biking, and running in spandex. Sigh.

-I found a new Craig's List Bike Guy who came to fix my junker. For a ridiculously small fee he reattached my brake and claimed to fix my derailleur, but didn't. It's okay I don't expect miracles from Craig's List. Overall I am grateful to have a somewhat functioning bike again. But this clown that came to fix it doesn't wear a helmet, AND he wears headphones whilst riding on the streets in Chicago. I said to him "Oh, you forgot your helmet?" and he replied "oh.... um, no I don't wear a helmet." Then I asked "Oh, you don't value your cranium?!" Then he shot me a weird look and an uncomfortable laugh and skidaddled right out of my back yard. Nut job.

-The next day I rode said bike to the gym to SWIM. This is the first time I've used this gym's pool, and I'm not at all impressed with it, but wasn't quite as mortified by it as I thought I would have been. Upon leaving and riding home, the biggest monsoon/tornado watch/thunder and lightening storm struck. Go figure. I got sooooaked. I think it was God's way of telling me I should have swam longer. I also learned that my brakes don't work when it's raining after almost hitting two cars because I couldn't stop.

-I am off to swim in the lake (dry heave). Then back home to take a nap, then to my last night shift for... at least a month! Thank goodness.

CONFLICTED

baaaaaaaah

-My Craig's List Junker bit the dust yesterday. Whilst on my way to work, the front brake (the only functioning brake) just FELL OFF. Something metal snapped in half, so it's beyond repair. Conflict: I need a bike I can ride daily around the city, but don't want to pay for aNOTHER bike!

-I need to figure something out for training for the Chicago Tri in August. Conflict: Is it too late to sign up with Team in Training and have a practical expectation to raise $2000 by early August??? I emailed the people there asking if there's any alumni discount or something I could do to lower my fundraising total (heinous, I know), and the lady emailed me back saying 'no.' I really am not in a place to make up for any lack in fundraising due to big plans in the fall. And I hesitate to take on a $2k commitment when a) I didn't meet the goal last year and b) it's already the middle of June.

-I was supposed to go to a bike maintenance class tonight at the store I bought my fancy pants bike from. I was told to not ride that bike in the city, but in order to get it there... I'd need to ride it. To twist the knife: it's RAINING. But I already RSVP'd. Boooooo. Conflict: Should I stay or should I go now? (haha I don't even really like that song, but so often it's very fitting).

My indecisive-ness is NOT my favorite trait.

"Do you need some help, ma'am?"

Well today was the day. The US Women's Triathlon Series: Naperville, sprint triathlon.
The morning started at 0230 because I have to be dramatically early in order to avoid/have enough time cushion any potential panic-causing situation (getting lost, unexpected disaster, etc.). So I woke up and my first thought was "VETO." I'm on the night shift right now, so my affinity to waking up early has decreased significantly. Fortunately, I had prepacked my bag so only had a few things to do before my departure (0315-0330). I ended up renting a car. After weighing all my options, this seemed like it would bring the least amount of stress and chaos come race day, so I bit the bullet and just did it. Lesson learned: don't sign up for races outside the reach of public transportation. I signed up for the smallest car available, but somehow ended up with a PT Cruiser. My apologies if this is the vehicle you own, but I think it is perhaps the ugliest automobile in all of Creation. Ugly or not, it worked, and that's really all I cared about. So I loaded my fantastically speedy steed into the back, filled my water bottles, and was off. Transition opened at 0500, so I wanted to get there at 0430 (it's a problem... needing to be early). Only at 0346 in the morning can you snap photographs WHILST driving down Lakeshore Drive. The beauty of my ealry morning trek to Naperville: traffic was not an issue whatsoever. I only had to turn around twice (the first time shouldn't count, it was me being stupid like a half mile from my apartment...and neither time was a dramatic loss), so I arrived by 0435. Still plenty of time to ease into it all. I unloaded The Ugly Cruiser and then realized I had no idea how to get to transition from parking. I remembered the website saying 'allow 15 minutes to get from the parking lot to transition' but never thought to look up how to get from A to B. Being that I was heinously early, there were very few people around, so my usual fall back plan of 'follow the crowd' failed. I spotted a woman walking through the parking lot and asked her, and she said 'good question! I think it's this way.' So I walked with her (don't worry, she was very mom-ish and not threatening) and we eventually found where we needed to be.

My big problem with races, I think, is having to use the bathroom ALL THE TIME. 'They' say you should hydrate like crazy, which is all well and good, but shoot, when I have to urinate every 20 minutes because of it, it really becomes a problem! So I stopped by the port-a-potties before setting up my transition spot. It was definitely one of four encounters with the bacteria filled fecal bins. Ick. I set up my spot. By this time it was 0515. A little over three hours until I would start the race and I was ready then. Gooo figure. I saw a bike maintenance tent not too far so I decided to get my tires pumped up. I would do it myself with my little hand pump, but the tires on my fancy pants bike are apparently so crazy high pressure or something that I couldn't dream of achieving it with the hand pump (I learned this at the maintenance class..), so a floor pump is necessary. I walked over to the tent and was the only one there so they did it for me! Yes please, Strong Man, pump my tires. I KNOW I would have looked like quite the tool doing it myself. One of the guys said 'NICE BIKE!' and I looked behind me to see who he was talking to. Then I realized it was me! No one has EVER complimented me on my bike before. This was an exciting first. I returned to my spot and my co-worker called to tell me she'd arrived and was on her way to transition. When she got there, we set her stuff up and then 'walked transition.' Then it was like 0545... So we obsessed over how crazy we were for not training appropriately and how terrible we were going to do blah blah blah, then decided to just go out to the starting area.
The swim took place in a crazy body of water. It's not a pool, but was very pool-like. There were walls with markings of how deep the water was, there were lane lines... the bottom was smooth sand... but it wasn't chlorinated. Comparatively to Lake Michigan this was wonderful. I was in Wave 26 out of 30. Wave 1 started at 0700, and another wave left every four minutes. So I went right around 0840ish. The swim was something else. It was a 'snake-like' course, so we went down the 'non-pool' around a buoy and back to the shore to round another buoy, down and back down and back three times. The swim start is something that will always terrify and conquer me. We started standing about thigh deep in the water, so the majority of my 75 person wave was like running in the water until it was like chest deep. It's so much more efficient to SWIM even if you can touch, so I took a few steps and then flopped on my stomach and tried to swim. Unfortunately my logic couldn't overcome my 74 wave-mates and their 'running' foiled my swimming. ...All this is to say that the swim start was uglier than I anticipated, I could feel myself getting panicky and wheezy and not exhaling. Oddly, I am glad I've experienced that before because I knew how to handle it and knew that it would pass once I could get past the wacko's out there. It did thin out a little, but people still got in my way. Regardless, I finished the swim after swallowing a lot of air and cursing at a lot of people. And peeing in the water. Couldn't help it.
On toward the bike. Ahh the bike. First of all getting my silly wetsuit off was quite the chore. It got caught on my darn timing chip so I was hopping around like a goon and an old man that was 'monitoring transition' said "Do you need some help ma'am?" I muttered something about being clumsy and said thanks anyways and finally wriggled out of that thing. I strapped on my fancy bike shoes clipped my helmet and lifted my bike off the rack-- one handed, it's sooo light. I got up on my throne and had quite an interesting time clipping my shoes in, but once I did it was magic. I got passed twice on the bike, but passed MANY people. Oh it was glorious. I thought back to Chicago last year and remembered watching people on fancy bikes fly by me on rickety old IH (RIP..) ... it felt good to be the passER, not the passEE. The bike leg consisted of two laps of a loop they created. Pretty uneventful. Towards the end of the second lap I saw an ambulance, fire truck, and cop car at a minor intersection. I thought it was kind of overkill for that particular point-- they didn't need THAT many people directing traffic, then I saw a motorcycle in SHAMBLES on the side of the road. There had been an accident! I asked a cop if the driver was okay as I went by (had to slow down...) and he said 'they should be fine.' Scary stuff. So the bike was done. I hate dismounting....and I hate the way my legs feel for the first mile to mile and a half off the bike. I fumbled to get my running shoes on, took a swig of gatorade, clipped my number on and took off. More like tropmed along. My legs were HEAVY. I could lift them up a little, and they'd fall victim to gravity IMMEDIATELY. Thud thud thud. I felt like I had more vertical movement than forward movement. Thud thud thud. People passing on my left and right. Thud thud thud. By the time I saw the Mile 1 Marker I thought I was closer to 2 miles in and exclaimed "MILE ONE-- ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" A girl next to me looked over and glared. I let her pass. Thud thud thud. A few minutes later I felt my legs coming back. Praise the lord. By no means was I going quickly or at an anywhere near decent pace, but I was getting better. By mile two I felt confident that I'd finish without keeling over. There's a water station about a quarter mile from the finish (weird placement in my opinion), but from that point on people cheering would say 'ALMOST DONE!' or 'TWO MORE BLOCKS!' This would be helpful if it were accurate. When I heard 'two more blocks,' I 'kicked it in' but it was actually more like 0.2miles... Which isn't far, given, but it is farther than you want the last sprint (hahaha sprint is really a STRONG word) of the race to be... Anyways. I finished just seconds behind my coworker (she was in Wave 24) and it was good.

All in all:
-People irritate me. They get in my way. I'd like to see what my time would be if I were the only one on the course. I won't deny the dynamic that is brought by the competition and other race participants, but they got in my way a LOT, especially in the swim and bike.
-My goal was to finish in less than one hour and thirty minutes (the Olympic Distance last year took me 3hrs and 1 minute (two LOUSY minutes over my goal for THAT race) so I figured this race was half the distance of that one, so it should take me less than half the time...). I looked at my watch and it said I'd done it in 1hr and 22 minutes-- I was elated! I actually felt good about the race that I was dreading because my preparation was essentially non existent. When I got home, I checked the official results and they say 1hr and 27 minutes which is upsetting-- 5 minutes is huge. I don't know how the discrepancy came about, but I will be happy that I was still under 1hr30min.
-I have a lot of work to do before August, and I still don't know how I'm going to do it better this time. I need to really focus on running (obviously) and running off the bike. That is what killed me last year and I refuse to make the same mistake twice.
-It went better than I anticipated, but I can't deny the insane amount of room for improvement.

Official Results:

Overall place: 113 out of 1709
Division place: 11 out of 57
Gender place: 110 out of 1709
Time: 1:27:09
Swim: 11:55
Trans 1: 3:30 (stupid wetsuit!!!)
Bike: 42:36
Trans 2: 2:56
Run: 26:14

I came home and played soccer which was probably somewhat masochistic, but I miss that game so much, I couldn't turn down the rare opportunity to play in an organized game. It's crazy how much my muscles have changed after not playing for a year and a half. I was never the most agile individual, but now any exercise I do is moving forward; very little-- if ANY-- is side to side or 'bursts of speed' (honestly I chuckle.. speed was my Achilles heel...). Trying to sprint back to goal or make the run for a breakaway or change direction on a dime today was ...awful, but it was a lot of fun to just be out there.

I could write more, but I get irritated when people are too wordy and this is already far too wordy.

Ooooopen Water

I swam in the lake today! The sprint triathlon is nauseatingly close (--single digits close), and I haven't swam in open water since last August. I wouldn't have gone if it hadn't been for my coworker who is also doing the race this weekend. This will be her first triathlon, and she wanted to get in the open water at least once, but not by herself (smart). So I said I'd go, too. We were planning on going yesterday afternoon, but there were tornado warnings and while I could almost stomach being 'that moron' who is in arctic waters this early in the season, I definitely couldn't be the moron who swims during lightening storms. Gotta draw the line somewhere. But, of course, the weather turned out to be perfect and we totally could have gone. Boo weather.com.
I woke up this morning and checked the weather. It would be chilly in the low 60's but there was the little graphic of the sun and most importantly 0-1% chance of precipitation, depending on the hour. Since the weather wasn't going to bail me out this time I started getting ready. The panic attack at my spandex last summer PALES in comparison to the attack I had as I wiggled, jumped, stretched, and squatted into my spandex this morning. I don't want to talk about it. As I opened the door to leave, I was greeted by nothing less than PRECIPITATION! Strike 2. It wasn't pouring buckets, but was a heavy mist that made the streets wet, so for all means and purposes it was raining (my time away from Oregon has made me quite the pansy when it comes to rain). My coworker was patiently waiting, though, so I grumbled and sat on my wet bike seat and we left.
The bike ride was much longer than I remember. Which just reminds me how PAINFULLY out of shape I am.
We arrived and not shockingly were the only two crazy people there. People passed on the lake front trail just kind of staring, undoubtedly thinking Who are those clowns?! How crazy do you have to be to swim TODAY?! Whatever. We donned our wet suits... a whole new rendition of hopping around, tugging, pulling, squatting, grunting, and praying that it would still fit. Once all suctioned up we feebly locked our bags to our bikes, hoping that people are inherently good and wouldn't just take scissors to our bags and take off with the contents.
As we inched towards the water my anxiety grew, shocking I know. I remembered my past open water experiences and cringed. Would my wet suit choke me again? Would I swim across the lake on accident? What if I DIE OF HYPOTHERMIA?? We put our toes in and started shrieking-- it was SO COLD. Painfully cold. No way. I was NOT going to make the news for being the tool that swims in hypothermic waters and dies in the middle of the lake. Had my coworker not been there, too, I would have went home and chalked it up to a good bike ride if nothing else. But she was there. That kind of accountability can really be a bear. So we waded in waist deep and just kind of stood there. As my teeth started chattering, I resolved to just doing it and getting it over with. It was SO DARN COLD. It took my breath away. My wetsuit WAS choking me! I was forgetting to exhale while my NUMB face was in the water! I was swallowing air and starting to feel nauseous! PANIC. I stood up and belched. I got pissed off. No way did I wake up early to bike down there IN THE RAIN, get IN the water just to suck at it and look foolish. After a brief but necessary 'pull yourself together' pep talk, I got back to it and it got better. My ears hurt REALLY BAD because it was so cold. I've had some shoulder issues for the past couple of months which wasn't a treat, but I hope when I get disciplined about lifting again it will go away. We made it to the buoy and then went back. Just a half mile. A feeble one at that, but we did it, and now (after a long hot and sanitizing shower) I am glad we did. And I am glad there were no major issues involving lifeguards to report.
The race this weekend is going to be uber humbling.

I'm really considering signing up with Team in Training again for the Chicago Triathlon. Apparently I'm not as self motivated as I thought I was, as evidenced by my lack of preparedness for this week's race. Part of the fun of doing the race is the preparation and if I can't get my act together enough to prepare then it will be super miserable to be out of shape for an OLYMPIC distance race! My hesitation is solely in the fundraising. While LLS is a fantastic organization that I'll enthusiastically support, I really can't afford to make up any difference if I don't meet the fundraising minimum. I'm torn. I HAVE to figure out something for training for Chicago though, because my current plan has failed miserably.

The Iron Horse has been stolen! It is okay, I kind of wanted it to happen. Since I got my Craig's List Junker (which I am more and more dissatisfied with each time I ride it... almost makes me want IH back!), I hadn't been riding IH. There was no room in our basement for it so I left it in the backyard... not locked up. It took awhile, but someone finally snatched her. While it wasn't my intention to draw crime to my place of living, I was too lazy to take it to a co-op on the south side to be restored and sold. She served me well. I'd wanted to get the tires off before it was gone, but didn't. Darn.

That's it for now. I have reflections on my lack of motivation but will save them for another time as this post is painfully long already.