Just over 2 weeks until the race! The original race would have been this weekend and part of me wishes it was this weekend! I'm ready to tackle this thing! It's been 6 months of non-stop training which is longer than I've trained for any other race. I'm in the best shape I've been in and I know that I'm more mentally tough so I know this race has been great preparation for my next challenge...the 2011 Goofy Challenge at Walt Disney World. What better way to celebrate my 30th birthday than to do a 1/2 marathon on January 8 and a full marathon on January 9?? Anyways, this week has been SO hot! We had a brick workout on Sunday and I rode 23 miles and sucked down all of my water. After climbing some of the most ridiculous hills in Central Ohio, we were supposed to run hill repeats. My team made it up the hill once and then called it quits. It was just too hot. I even had to run on the treadmill at the gym this week because of the heat. We have a mock triathlon tomorrow morning so we can practice entering and exiting the water and setting up our transition areas. It should be interesting! There is only one more 6 am swim practice....and I'm certainly not going to miss those....and then it's taper week! The week before the race is about resting and keeping muscles loose. That might be the best part of any training program!!

WETSUITS! The wetsuits have arrived and we had our first open water swim yesterday. The team met at Alum Creek where the water is about 64 degrees right now. I'm a weenie when it comes to cold water so I was glad to have the wetsuit. It was pretty comical trying to get the wetsuits on but we had fun with it and helped each other out. I was starting to feel more comfortable with the swim distance but the open water swim knocked me down a few! It's amazing how much more difficult it is to swim in open water. You can't see anything when you look in the water so its very difficult to swim in a straight line (like I really want to swim any further than I have to!!) but you also have to deal with waves pushing you around. The cold water also takes your breath away and running into the water gets your heart rate up even before you start swimming. Luckily we are going to practice a few more times in the open water. I ran 7 miles today! That is only the 2nd time I've run that far and the 1st time I did it by myself. I had my ipod but it was still pretty boring. The biggest challenge was the humidity. I was dripping about a 1/4 mile into the run. I have always preferred winter training and humitidy does a number on my asthma but I still shuffled my way through it. I finished in 1:22 which is a little faster than previously. Slow and steady is going to finish this race....even if it's last! :)

I'm still chugging along with the training! It's been a busy spring so fitting training in is still a challenge but I'm hanging in there! I had a great brick workout over the Memorial Day weekend. The team met for a 30 minute swim followed by a 30 mile bike ride. We trained in a different pool that had more "traffic" causing the water to be a little choppy and we swam in circles really close to each other. We have gotten used to the calm early morning water of our usual training pool which won't help us on race morning! The coach also got in the water with us and was tapping our toes and swimming right on our hands to help get us used to focusing when there are other distractions/disturbances in the water. The 30 mile ride that followed was probably my best yet. I felt pretty comfortable even though we were on the roads and it was extremely hot. Usually I tighten my shoulders when we are on the road (the cars still make mer nervous) which makes my neck/shoulders/back hurt but the whole 30 miles felt great. The biggest problem I ran into was getting hungry. I'll have to work on my nutrition plan for the first transition from swim to bike. I'm still pretty slow at all 3 sports but slow and steady will get me to the finish line. Again, the goal is to not finish last but I guess I'd be ok with that as long as I still finished!