Congratulations FAST for being the USA Triathlon NCC Swim benchmark Winner!

Not only did we hit 500 miles first - we did so in 192 hours, or just 8 days! No other club is even at 500 miles as of this moment - as we are well over 600. Way to go to my Trithlon Club for all of the gret swimming miles!

Mike told me yesterday, after hearing that I was on my way to the pool, that he may very well have to buy a boat, a poll and a shiny pink lure. I asked him why - and his reply? His reply was so he could fish me out since I am ALWAYS swimming now.

Awesome! But I have not grown gills. (I keep hoping!)

Today wass typical - get to work, have a few meetings, go play Whirly Ball for 3.5 hours, visit friend in new apartment, head home. Oh wait... did I say Play Whirley Ball for 3.5 hours? Because that is what I did in the middle of the day. It amazes me how sometimes I just stumble into abolutely funny things in the middle of my day.

For instance - there is this man at work who drops f-bombs like none other. Not quitely and not always in a funny way. He literally swears at everyone. My money is that he used to work at a plant before comming to corporate America. A typical conversation with his boss/customer/supplier/college friend/grandmother goes a little something like this:

Well hey there, F*&$ you! ... You have got to be F*&^ing kidding me you C**K sucker! GO F*&^ yourself A$$hole! ... OK, motherF*&^ing jerk*ff. See you Tomorrow! F*&^er!

So I have been keeping atally of his curses. In a 3 minute mini conversation I lost count.

We also have this otehr gentleman from Russia who has worn the ssme sweater every day for 45 days. I know this because yet again we have a tally, ok a game really. We have determined that the sweater worn for prolonged periods of time results in a molecular layer being formed which can conduct heat away from the body, yet keep the occupant warm all winter long. Just a theory... or he could just be that nasty.

Don't even get me started on all the banter about boobs. Fun times!

Today - no tally's, just good oldfashioned Whirley ball with the engineers. The girl team won, just so you know. 'Cause girl Enginerds... we sorta rock.

Have a great weekend all! I am of course swimming in the AM then heading north to FLIN-TOWN (say it like "Eight Mile* from the movie...) to see a very preggers Chritina (she was supposed to find out the sex of the baby today... I am thinking that it is a girl) and hang out bit.

Well, I am off to din-din to the Lazy Lizzard Cantin for some good pre-swim food stuffs. READ:Margaritas.

Post #405 - The Changing of the Guard...errr...clothes

How is it than in less than 6 weeks I can go from this as a staple of my wardrobe:

to this?

The numbers are in and the RED team of my tri club is only 79 miles away from winning this session of the USAT National Competition Challenge, AKA the NCC.

Each month is a different focus: December is swim, January is bike, and February is run.

And since FAST is a swim club that transformed into a tri club - we have a lock on swimming. So much so that in 8 days we have collectively swam over 446.42 miles. That is nearly 64 miles a day. Between 75 people.

I am currently 344 out of all 1,000 participants in the challenge, and 22 out of 75 in my tri club's Red team.

So my friends, I am feeling great! I have switched over from runner to swimmer and average 4 hours a week in the pool. Come January I will be adding additional time on the bike, and then come February I will be ready to run again competitvely... I mean in races... not that I ever compete!

My confidence about the triathlons I have chose to do is at a high. And I realize that my goal for Half Iron will be met only when I am at my peak performance for those miles, because as my growing time in the pool has taught me - strength and endurance is just as important as technique and adaptation.

I am ready for a sprint right now. I am almost ready for an oly. If I keep this up and push myself this season, I will be ready for the Half IM in 09. BUT - I am not into the game of pushing myself to accomplish something that I am not ready for... so time will tell when my body is ready for iron. Half iron that is.

And with the changing of the guard... errr... clothes, comes a complete overhaul of my schedule.

A day in the life of Jenn looks a little something like this now:: 5:30AM wake up, 7:00AM get to work, 4:00PM leave work and drive to gym, 6:00PM arrive at gym, 6:15PM swim/drills 7:30PM leave to go home, 8:00PM get home make dinner, 9:30PM go to bed.

Weekends do not look much different! 5:30AM wake up 6:30AM leave for pool, 7:00AM hit the pool and work on swimming and drills, 8:30AM complete workout, 9:00AM head home to get on with day

So if I am late with the emails or whatevers... it is really beause I am either at work, driving, or swimming.

I love it when I smell of chlorine and Heavenly. It is down right hawt. ;)

Oh - and we are throwing party (virtually) to celebrate. Today... well... guess what I did? Go ahead... guess!

})i({ Jenn

Maybe.

Maybe.

Just maybe I am getting the hang of this swimming thing.

Maybe.

:o)

I still need to slow down, but a funny thing has happened. I feel comfortable in the water. I remembered to keep my head down, and this has helped me so much in maintaining that streamlined feeling.

When my head is down I feel slippery and smooth. I feel aquatic. When my head wonders up a little I feel disoriented and draggy. I feel like I have a parchute strapped to my feet.

The past few nioght I have felt comfortable in the pool, comfortable in my stroke, aand comfortable in my breathing. I really am getting the hang of this swimming thing!

And to show my invetment in myself - I have a lot of pool training toys now, fins, pull buoys, kick bords, and a new sweet-arsed blck and pink swimmy-swuit taht actually fits me nicely. Oh, and my biggest and bestest swimming investment? A coach.

I did it! I have a real bonafide swim coach! All to myself even! We will meet every Monday for 1 hour on my lunch break. She will give me homework an when we meet back up she will see how I am improving.

So with the decision to hire a coah, I made the decision to NOT do Masters Swim during the week. This decision was made not for any other reason but because I do not have the technique I need quite yet. I am waiting until I meet with my coach and I see some personal improvements before I go to 1.5 hour long swim practices 4 times a week.

Why reinforce bad form and technique? I will still be at my Saturday AM practices with my tri club of course. I would not miss them for the world now!

What I end up with in terms of pool time is 1 hour on Monday, 3 half-hour practices solo during the week, and 1.5 hours on Saturday - which means that I will be swimming 4 hours a week now. That is good. That is doable and good. That is leading me to forward motion.

So, what makes K a cool coach? 1-on-1 time all the time. 100% avilability to answer any and all questions... and the coolest thing? She used to teach syncro. I wonder if she will teach me some sweet syncro moves to stun people at the pool. Oh wait... that only works if there are more than one person swimming... oh well. That is still sweet.

Oh... oh.oh.oh... wait until you hear this! I can now swim 3/4 of a lap semi-decently! So my 30 day goal of swimming 1 full lap (50 yards in my case) is almost achieved. I feel that my endurance has improved a lot in the past month. :o)

I did 1/2 mile last night, and 1/2 mile tonight. All on my own. I realized that swimming is just like everything else - some days you rock. other days not.

Last night? ROCK. I was kicking, pulling, sculling, and swimming. I was in the z-o-n-e zone.

Tonight? NOT. I was kicking, pulling, sculling, and attempting to swim. But something was just off.

No worries though. I did a good 1/2 mile of drill work, and I am ready for another go at Saturday AM Swim practice. My goal is to make it the entire distance, which I think that I can do. 1.58 mile or a little more.

I hope that working with K will get me to see my own swimminess (totally made up words rule!), and to own my own stroke and breath.

I am looking forward to actually learning the correct stroke and see how far off I am from it already. Next Monday will be our first lesson, and here she is just going to get a benchmark for where I am in order to design a program that is right for me.

I am SO geeked!

USAT NCC UPDATE:

FAST now has two terams in the competition! Our lead team is #1 in teh swim rankings, and #6 overall. Our b-team is not ranked, but only haas 9 people on it. Becaause of dual teams, I have started an IntrFAST challenge. Different goals for the two teams, but a deadline to see who hits theirs first.

How exciting!!!!

})i({ Runnergirl aquatic

Woo hoo!

Well the USAT National Challenge website finally started to work today, and with that I was able to enter in all of the data for my tri club.

We are now #1 in swimming, #4 overall mileage. :) Way to go FAST!

The balance of yesterday was spent relaxing... man swimming wears me out if I do not stay active afterwards!

I decided that I will be meeting with a coach next week, and in addition to that I will be swimming over at Oakland Masters Swimming in the evenings three nights next week. Not only will this help with getting in the distances that will help my club and ultimately myself on the base-building adventure I have set out on, but there is actually a former Olympian present as the coach to help out.

I like swimming in the group setting as I can get help and tips as I go along, but knowing that there is a coach present will do wonders for me, I hope!

As I sit here typing this, I feel proud in that I am no longer running away from my weaknesses, but attacking them head on to get better and turn them into strengths. Who knows, maybe swim will end up being my best activity in the next few years.

In a way I am tired. Not physically, but mentally. I am tired of settling for not really giving things my all. I have some pretty big ambitions, but until recently have not really backed those ambitions up with the actions it takes to meet them.

No more my fine friends! Why settle for mediocrity? If I train hard and finish last... at least I trained to finish. I cannot be afraid of failure anymore. I cannot afford to be honestly. Really can any of us afford that?

So I am happy with my decision to start giving more to myself. I could go out today and participate in a triathlon and finish. I have no doubts about that. But right now that would not be fun for me. And that is my new outlook on health - fun and fitness... not competition. I guess my only real competition is myself.

This weekend at swimming practice, I realized that no one was judging me, and they all accepted me as I am and for my abilities. It is about time I do the same, right? Right!

Keep on giving back to yourself!

})i({ Jenn

3 days to the start of a beautiful thing...

Although this video has NOTHING to do with this post - I love it. Daft Punk rocks. And this video just goes to show that practice can pay off.

So Saturday starts the USAT National Challenge, and my tri club has 40 people signed up already. Woot!

I am excited because I cannot wait to hit the pool with my club.

Did you hear that?

Oh yes, I said that. ME. Excited to meet people that I have never met before. Excited to swim in front of said people.

A little rest and some deep thought really puts things into perspective. I feel refreshed and ready to get on with it already. I am putting aside my nerves on this one. The worst thing that will happen is that I may struggle a bit after not being in the pool for a few weeks. The best thing that will happen is me getting involved with a top tri-club, and improving beyond my wildest expectations.

So in reality - isn't the worst thing that can happen still pretty darned good? :)

I am motivated to get in shape once and for all. Everything just sort of clicked for me over the past few months. I want to eat healthy. I want to burn the remaining pounds off. And for once I see it as completely doable. It is completely attainable. And I am doing it. Not GOING to do it... but AM doing it.

Like a butterfly breaking free of the cocoon... I shall spread these wings and fly!

~ })i({ ~

Ready? Steady.... Go!

Over the past few weeks I have learned a little bit more about listening to my body, and at the end of the day that is always a good thing. Forced rest, while not fun, is often exactly what I need. I just need to get to the point where rest will not be forced, but welcomed! So I have been doing that... resting, and attempting to break out of it a little slower than last weekend's crackboxing experience. :)

This upcomming week I WILL be swimming over at West Bloomfield HS with a coach, and then in two weekends I will be at Livonia with FAST. About. Freaking. Time. I know. Trust me, I know.

My Tri club is something special. 225+ members strong and offers something for everyone. Swimmer - come right on in! Runner - let's get together and do a few laps on the track. Cyclist - meet us over here and we will get in a good ride. LOVE it.

I joined in the middle of this year to get the feeling for the club. I was not ready to partake, but now. Now I am ready. And of course - it is off season!

Soooo.... what is a triathlon club to do in the off season?

How about compete against 35+ other USAT member clubs across the US for fun and fitness? OK! Sounds good to us! So yesterday evening I registered FAST Swim and Tri club into the competition.


So, why did I register the club into the competition? Well, after a discussion with president Dave, I volunteered to be the organizer for this year's challenge. I figured that it was a good way to participate in the tri-club and to get to know more of the members. He agreed.

:)

So again, Thank you Dave for this opportunity! I am excited, however I know that it will be a lot of work getting the info together and submitted. But at the end of the day I am happy to take the time to make sure FAST gets the credits that they are due. Because seriously - these fine people kick major butt every day in a multitude of events.

The challenge starts December 1st and lasts for 3 months. Eash month has a benchmark, and the first club to reach the benchmark will win a prize from the challenge sponsors. If a club is the first to hit all three benchmarks, then they get something extra special at the end.

• December 2007 - Swim 500 miles
• January 2008 - Bike 5000 miles
• February 2008 - Run 2500 miles
  

This is a perfect fit for my base-building adventure! I know that every mile I log in will help my club out, and each month there is a new emphasis. I like that. A competition of fitness... and fun!

So if you are a member of a USAT recognized triathlon club, see if they are going to partake in the challenge. If you are not a member of a club, then you can register yourself as an individual.


RunnerGirl })i({