The weekend is here!

What a whirlwind week it has been. It was rest week, but I really did not rest much.

I work in accounting and this week was month end. For those of you that don't know, month end is kind of crunch time for us accounting folk. Deadlines and more deadlines piled up on top of each other plus any "new" projects that the people we support figure out they need NOW... the last day of the month. And of course they needed it by yesterday... Go figure.

We got back from MN on Sunday evening after a very short an busy weekend. We saw family, friends, visited some places that brought back memories and got new tattoos :) Todd's cousin is a tattoo artist, so we always go to him when we get our new art. My new drawing is so little it literally took him longer to prep than to tattoo me (all of 5 mins). Megan's sleep schedule was all messed up the entire weekend, so by the time we got home sunday we were all crabby and super tired.

Rest week also saw me retesting on the 3 disciplines. I actually did 2, the swim and run, the bike is scheduled for today when my daughter is taking her nap (she got up at 5.30 am this morning, and yes, it is SATURDAY!). I think the other 2 went really well. 

The first time I did the swim test Coach had me do 10x50 with 10' rest in between. She had offered 10x100, but said that 10x50 would be ok too, since she did not know what my swimming endurance was. I replied along the lines of "I will stick with the 10x50 since I do not want to be an overachiever from day one". She replied: "Oh really? Next time is 10x100 then. You will learn to love me for things like that" Let me say, lesson learned. So she stuck to her word and prescribed 10x100 for my swim test. I was able to keep a consistent pace compared to when I did the 10x50. She said that was great because it is not easy to do, but I still felt a bit disappointed. Here is my dilemma. I want to get faster at swimming, and I know it will require extremely hard work, which I am ok with doing. I know nothing good is easy, but at the same time I am scared. The water is super intimidating to me, and that has a BIG role in my ability to swim (or not). I know it is all in my head, and I am working on overcoming my own self set limitations.

When I did the run retest I thought I had killed it. I knew I gave it all I had and was hoping I had gone a much longer distance. It turns out that I didn't. My HR was a lot higher than last time but my distance was the same. How you ask? Well, when I did the test the first time I could not get the HR monitor to work properly. It would not pick up my signal. I had to stop and restart the test at least one time. So this leads me to believe that the data I got the first time was all wrong and I have been training in WAAAAY lower HR's than I should have (I have since changed my chest strap and I am now able to get a HR read as soon as I turn my watch on). I started thinking (maybe over thinking... one of my pitfalls) that all the training I had done this past 4 weeks didn't make me improve at all and actually made me weaker/slower. I was really upset. Coach said that now we have ACCURATE data and I will be able to run faster since the data we had before was super wrong (over 20 bpms difference). I decided to forget the past and focus on working harder going forward. What's done is done and can't be changed, but I can affect how my training goes next week.

I am officially signed up for my first Tri this year. It will be June 7th and it is just a nice little sprint. I am looking forward to it. I know it sounds crazy, but I am looking forward to feeling the butterflies in my stomach the morning of (I ALWAYS get nervous before a race, even if I have done it numerous times... I think it has to do with the swimming). I can't wait to get my season started. Fun times are coming.

I discussed with my Husband and after we get some minor bills paid off, I will be able to get a new bike!!!! I am already drooling over a couple of nice looking ones. Like the Quintana Roo Dulce, or the Orbea Ora Ultegra, or the Quintana Roo Chicqilo. Todd even said I might be able to have it before my 1/2IM distance tri at the end of september. Can't wait! When reading bike specs I have no idea what it all means, so I will have to ask Coach to share her expertise with me, so it helps me make a nice informed decision.

Speaking of decisions, I have made up my mind to do an IM in 2010. I do not think I will have the time or be physically ready to do it in 2009, so I gave myself some extra wiggle room and came up with 2010. Which one? Florida. A fellow blogger said she would do it with me. Anybody else game?