Thursday, July 12, 2007

Back on the Horse




Well, the shoulder is pretty much healed - some stiffness, but nothing like before. And the water tests came back clean. And it was a beautiful evening. So, I jumped back on that open water horse and I rode that bitch for awhile. Only 400 yards cuz, you know, taper. I have no idea what my time was but I wasn't really getting passed or passing anyone, I just sort of swam with the other fishies in the muddy water, found feet bubbles now and again to draft off of and knocked out my little swim. There were a couple of moments where I felt the panic start to creep in but I talked myself out of it. I realized that the natural thing when you are swimming in water of unknown depth is to fight sinking. You start thinking about the bottom and fearing getting sucked down there. But when you relax and really pay attention, you realize that the water is holding you up. All you have to do is move yourself forward. So I concentrated on that - feeling the water hold me up and moving myself forward. I thought about how warm the water was, how blue the sky was and how good it felt to be free in the lake instead of cooped up in a lane.

It was all good.

6 comments:

21stCenturyMom said...

Sounds lovely. Are you wearing a wetsuit for your Tri or no? Sounds like no.

Once again, I can only conclude that you are so ready for this race. So very ready. It should be fun.

Bolder said...

holy.nebula.batman.

my senses spontaneously combusted!

400 yard baybee -- you're ready!!

Donald said...

OK, catching up here ... it looks like I've missed a lot of fire pictures. And I can't get your Fire Woman song to play, but I LOVE that song. And the Cult - they were together way too briefly.

Good luck with your tri preparations. The nice thing about first time experiences is that there shouldn't be any pressure - so I hope you enjoy it!

Anonymous said...

Good luck on Sunday. As a recent finisher of my FTE (St. Peter's, MO), I can tell you that you will love the feeling of being on the course. Looking at your training totals to date, you should be good to go for Ballwin. I had similar totals (a few more miles on the bike) and I could not believe how much fun I had. I am a West Countian as well, so if you ever want to meet up for ride, let me know.

Tryan

Larissa said...

Tryan - where in West County are you? Send me an email - maybe we can ride one of these days.

Eric said...

Good luck this weekend. Looking forward to hearing about you loosing your triathlon virginity.