Right Side

A lovely 4:30AM wake up call is just what I wanted this morning. It wasn't too bad until around 8 o clock when I wanted to take a nap at my desk.

I hit the pool about 4:45 and no one was in sight. The workout place had about 20 people or so in it which still amazes me. The pool was glass. Not a ripple but it was cold when I hopped in. Man, I sure hope that a wetsuit keeps me warm in 68 degree water or so because just shorts in 83 degrees is cold at first.

Today was my attempt to breath from the right side. It seems all the people I ever saw swim always took breaths from the left side. It's all new so I figured I'd try to learn a good habit in all of this. I started breathing from the right side and it seem twice as smooth for me. It was like my natural position. I think overall I was slower but more relaxed. I started doing a lap from the right side and a lap from the left. I even worked on switching mid-lap which was hard. You have to swim 2 strokes with your head in the water to switch. I can't seem to figure out my exhale so it's easy. I seem to be working my butt off just to breath out under water. Plus the air bubbles go right up my nose which tickles.

I swam 500 yards but overall I was slower as I'm still trying to get a nice rhythm. I swear my legs just float behind and offer no help to getting down the lane.

I hoped out the pool at 5:15 and still no one else had shown up to swim. Interesting...

I changed into my running clothes and hit the treadmill. I was just cruising along. The treadmill is pretty easy because you basically just have to pick up your feet but it's very boring and hard to stay focused on something other than the minutes slowly ticking away. I figured the boring side effect would be good training because running 26.2 miles definitely gets boring around the 15-20 mile stage.

I had my first stomach problem about 30 minutes into my hour run. It's the first time I had stomach issues since I started running again. I need to start watching my snack intake so no more pepperoni sticks the night before hard or long runs. Again, good training as I ran with it for as long as I could. I made it to the 54 minute mark and 7 miles before I couldn't take it anymore.

If the Ironman is anything like the marathon, it's 90% mental on race day. You have to mentally tough to deal with any adversity and of course the suffering. You just need to will your body to keep going.

I get to sleep in til 6:30 tomorrow morning before doing a 20 minute swim followed by an 80 mile bike ride. I get to work on my nutrition on the bike and what the body will feel like after swimming. Running after the swim this morning was so bad except for shoulder pain. I think being in the aero bars should be even easier tomorrow.