Weeks 2/3

The last couple weeks have been busy, busy, busy! Aside from fitting in all my workouts I worked on a lot of wedding stuff, spent a couple weekends at Grandma and Grandpa's, made my way back up to Missoula and took a weekend class at the end of Week 3. I am convinced that things will be pretty crazy from now right up until August 15!

So, training:

Week 2 (seems so long ago now!)
After my very first swim workout (week 1) I set a goal for week 2 to complete all my swim workouts and make some serious progress with my swimming form. After the first swim this seemed like a goal that would be reachable but difficult. Turns out it wasn't too difficult...swimming is interesting. I've decided that being comfortable in the water is the most difficult obstacle to overcome and that just comes with time. By the end of week 2 I was very comfortable in the water and had my breathing down enough to concentrate on my strokes a little more. No more looking like a water polo player! Now that I could swim with my head completely under water and breathe well I asked Jim for some more tips. The main tips I worked on during week 2 were:

• Don't look straight down at the bottom of the pool, look ahead-this helped a lot becasue I think one reason I kept bringing my head out of the water was because I couldn't see where I was going and didn't like that


• My stroke with my left arm was good but the right arm slaps the water-I think because I breathe on my left side so I rotate well to the left but not enough to the right...still working on that a bit


• My legs kind of flail-hmmm...when I get tired my legs are definitely the first to quit doing what they should be


• My strokes cross my body and are too deep in the water-this was the last tip of week 2, kind of a hard one to correct


• Number one tip from Jim I get every day: RELAX

Anyway, swimming is going well and I'm starting to like it more and more everyday. Some days it is awesome and it seems like I just glide through the water so gracefully...other days it feels like I am dragging myself through the water instead (not so gracefully I'm sure). I think that will improve once I build up endurance-which is a process for sure.

Running and biking are still going well-no major issues to report which is a good thing. 60 minutes on a bike indoors is pretty killer though-I'm so ready for spring!

Week 3 was a recovery week so the workouts were basically the same as week one. The week went well and came at a great time because I left Billings for Missoula in the middle of the week. Lots of running around trying to finish things in Billings and then unpacking and getting back into school mode in Missoula, including a weekend class.

On Friday of week 3 I went to the Griz pool for the first time-the pool where the swim portion of the tri will be held. It was a little busier that I was used to at the Y, I had to share a lane which was new, but that's good because for the tri there will be 2-4 people per lane anyway. Better get used to it I guess and it will be good to get comfortable in that pool.

Wedding-wise I finalized the centerpiece designs I want for the round, banquet, and head tables and ordered/purchased everything I could to put the centerpieces together. One weekend in Big Timber we started cutting material for runners on the tablecloths and did some other random wedding things-grandma made an adorable ring bearer pillow, tied lots of ribbons for program fans, and have a pretty finalized guest list-finally! Save the dates can be expected in a couple months hopefully.

Sorry this post was so long-I'm going to try really hard to not have to fit 2 weeks into one post again. My bad.

P.S. It wouldn't be so boring either if Chels would tell me how to put pictures in my posts!