Goggle Debacle

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a debacle is a great disaster or complete failure. This, my friends, is what happened with my goggles today. I strutted in feeling rather confident from yesterday's mini-breakthrough. I selected a lane to share and hopped in, ready to see how different today would be. I slipped on my goggles and started to swim. All was blissful for about 5 seconds, which was the point when water came flooding into my left goggle. I've had some minor leakage before and I'm convinced the classification of fog-resistant was an utter fabrication, but I have never experienced a full-scale, complete failure - or debacle - quite like this. I went back to the wall, took them off and attempted some minor surgery, but it seemed to be a loss. I sucked it up and started my laps. After the one-mile walk to the pool and the effort of just getting into the water, I figured I'd rather swim with my eyes closed than throw in the towel.

My shaky start smoothed out quickly and I felt as comfortable as yesterday. I didn't make any massive advances, but I feel like I'm able to do more with less effort. I feel like I'm at least on the right path.

After my lane-mate exited, I had the lane to myself for a bit before another swimmer joined me. It was a guy in incredible shape that you could just tell was a good swimmer. I'm sure he's a lovely person, but it's not the kind of guy I like to share a lane with. After all, when I choose a lane to share, I look for very slow swimmers or the nice, older neighborhood ladies that paddle with a flotation board. But after observing for a few minutes, he picked my lane and joined. We exchanged niceties and were on our way. I was immediately mortified to have to swim alongside him, and even more mortified when it occurred to me that he likely chose me as a partner the same way I choose my partners - slow and barely swimming. So I not only swallowed my daily quota of chlorinated water, but I also swallowed my pride. I kept swimming and it gave me a little extra incentive to finish up quickly.

Tonight was my JackRabbit group run. We did something a little unusual since we needed to regroup at the JackRabbit store. We ran a long warm up from Central Park to the Hudson River Park (about .75 miles) then did a tempo run down to 14th Street with a long cool down across 14th to the store. I ran with some great girls and we kept up a good pace. However, I likely didn't run hard enough because I was able to chat along the way and on a good tempo run, talking should be difficult. But what's the fun of training with a group if you can't talk?

We ended at JackRabbit for our group shopping night. It was a great opportunity to talk to our coaches about gear and find all sorts of tempting goodies to further drive up the cost of this race. First on my agenda was, of course, new goggles. I got a great pair that I cannot wait to try out tomorrow. Next, I decided to ditch the one-piece tri suit I recently bought and tried on a million versions of tri tops instead. After another grueling half-hour in the dressing room, I found the perfect combo and bought two of everything. But finally, the most fun purchase of the day, and quite possibly for the entire tri, is the Kryptonite New York Fahgettaboutit lock, the mother of all locks that not even a professional can bust open. It's so serious that if you lose the key, you have to contact Kryptonite with your special code and they will make you a new one. I can now ride my bike to the pool and lock it up with confidence. Plus, this thing weighs over six pounds so it doubles as a self-defense tool. And, people will mistake me for a bike messenger, which means they will clear out of the way when they see me riding down the street. A good purchase indeed.

Sport - Swimming
Distance - .5 miles
Time - 45:00

Sport - Running
Distance - Approximately 3.85 miles (loosely measured on gmap pedometer)
Time - Not sure, forgot my watch