Friday is Tri Day

My Fridays off are getting more and more packed as my training progresses. It used to be that I slept a little later, did some training, and ran errands or did things around the apartment that I don't have time for during the week. But now that my training has progressed and I'm getting closer to my busiest weeks, my Fridays consist of very little outside of tri focused activities, which is not a bad thing. I had a client call today at 9 a.m. so I did 40 minutes of my trainer ride, took a break for the call and did the final 50 minutes after.

I had to go into the city for my long swim so I decided to have a look at wetsuits while there. I had my eye on the Helix, Blue Seventy's top of the line suit. I have a sleeveless suit and while it's been good thus far, I don't like wearing it for long swims due to the risk of arm chafing. I figured the Ironman was a good reason to upgrade. If I were a normal swimmer I wouldn't need a suit as premium as the Helix, but with my shoulder injury and ongoing issues, the Helix was recommended due to the flexibility.

I went to try the suit on before my swim to avoid being sweaty and smelling like rubber after my swim. It took about 5 minutes to get into and the sales guy helped me with the final adjustments and zip. It felt like a perfect fit but you never really know until you swim in it, which is the hard part about buying wetsuits. And this is where one of my coolest NYC shopping experiences began. I had tried on a demo model and this store has an endless pool for training sessions. No one was in it so the guy asked if I wanted to give it a try. I was in my underwear under the suit but figured I could just go without after the swim. He asked if I had a swim cap and I said no, but then realized not only did I have a cap, but I had my goggles too since I was on my way to swim. I grabbed them, signed a waiver and hopped in. He had me lay on my face and back at first to feel the buoyancy of the suit, then he turned on the pool and let me swim in it. I've never been in an endless pool before so it was a pretty fun experience. Plus I was blown away by how great the suit felt. I didn't even feel like I was in a wetsuit because it was so flexible. I was sold.

Since I was sans towel, I used a small cotton bag I had inside my other bag to dry off a little, then solved the no underwear problem by putting on my dry swimsuit with jeans over it. I looked in the mirror and noticed something on my chest. It was a faint impression of the mirror image of the word "Demo" which had been written in marker inside the suit and transposed on my chest. Just another great reason to have done the shopping before my swim!

My swim was good today. I did 3,200 yards at my Ironman race pace, which is pretty leisurely. I felt like I could swim forever at that speed. There were a lot of idiots in the pool today so I got kicked and hit a few times and a couple people entered the lane without announcing their presence. Nothing makes me more angry, it's a huge accident waiting to happen. But I outlasted all of them and eventually got the lane to myself. My swim was It was 6 sets of 500 with a 30-second rest interval so it was almost continuous. I haven't done many long swims so I really enjoyed it.

I paid for my Lake Placid training camp today as well and made it official. I haven't finalized my travel dates yet so for now my plan is to swim 1:15 and run 4 miles Friday, ride 112 miles and run 5 miles Saturday and do the half Ironman distance on Sunday if my legs can handle it. I am really looking forward to this. It's going to be the hardest training I've ever done and it's a unique way to celebrate my 34th birthday. It will remind me of how far I've come in just one year.

Biking
Distance - 23.3 miles
Time - 1:30:00

Swimming
Distance - 3,200 yards
Time - 1:02:48