Week #17 - Build #2 Starts

I am getting stronger. I feel great, both mentally and physically, and I am looking forward to the Wildflower Half in just two weeks. Personally, I've never done the Wildflower course before, but have been down to Lake San Antonio and know MANY folks who have attempted to complete it - most of them have. I do know that it is one of the most challenging half ironman courses around. As I continue to prepare for this milestone in my training, I'm surprised I am not nervous. Now, maybe that's because it is still 2 weeks out. We'll see what happens as time gets closer.
I was very proud of this week's workouts. Specifically, Saturday's open water swim and double brick. The recent rain cause the water temp to drop a degree or two. The water was about 52 degrees and felt colder than 2 weeks ago. As I was getting in the water, I could feel the water cold through my booties and wetsuit. That's when I knew it was gonna be a tough swim. It took me a good 10 minutes before I could even put my face in the water and even then could only swim about 5 stokes and had to raise my head. The returning lap was much better as my hands and face were numb and it didn't hurt as bad. This was the first time in a while that when I stood up to get out of the water, I was little dizzy. It went away within the walk back to our transition area.
There we got into our bike gear and on our trainers for some interval work. Why is that important? - to get blood flowing back into the feet. It worked and after 40 minutes of trainer work, I was feeling pretty good and getting warm. At that point, it was time to go on a 20 minute run. I actually walked it with some teammates because on one of the intervals, we were in our hardest gears and I could just feel the tension on my knee. Needless to say, my knee didn't like it and I knew I had another bike and run to go for the day. I made a good decision.
After a 10 minute out and back on the run trail, we got back on our bikes. This time we were heading out on the road for hills repeats. Now, two weeks ago, we climbed out of the park and the hill was a few miles long so this was what I thought we were doing. Good thing I was wrong. We went the other direction and repeated this much shorter hill. We road up and down this hill for 40 minutes, practicing good technique with climbing and descending the hill. It was actually kinda fun and because it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was gonna be, I had a smile on my face the whole time. After 40 minutes of hill repeats, it was time for another 20 minutes run. Again, I walked this but the important piece is that I was on my feet for that time.
Sunday was a nice long/easy run for 1 hr and 45 min. It was such a lovely day with the sun out shining bright. It was great to just be outdoors to enjoy it.
Have a great week.
Cheers,
Dana