My Ironman Cap

Thank you so much for your sweet comments on yesterday's post! One, in particular, about made me cry, and it wasn't even from someone I know. I get in these "nobody likes me" moods sometimes even though those are supposed to go away once you graduate from high school, right? Sometimes I just wonder why anyone would want to read my blog, and I want everyone to like me. I tell myself that I doesn't matter what people think and that I should do what I want, but I think I'm thinking that just because I think it's what other people would want me to think! Haha I'm a little crazy like that. Anyway, it really means a lot to me whenever you comment and I can see people are actually reading and enjoying my blog. I guess I'll just keep doing what I've been doing, but I will try to add more pictures like this one of George being my coach while I rode on the trainer yesterday:

He seriously sat there and watched me ride for 45 minutes! Isn't he the best? I really love this kid!

This morning I wore my Ironman swim cap to the pool. I haven't worn it since the big day for sentimental reasons, but I couldn't see the one I usually wear in my bag. (Turns out it was in there, but I couldn't see it because it was dark.) I knew this one was just hanging on the wall so I grabbed it. I didn't want to seem like I was showing off by wearing a swim cap with "Ironman" on it, plus it still has my race number written on it in marker. How tacky. :) But I decided to use this swim cap as inspiration for the day. To remember why I was there, what I've accomplished and what I hope to accomplish this year. And I really think it worked!

My workout today was 4 x 75 with the last 25 in each backstroke to warm up, then 3 x 400 (easy, medium, hard) as my main set, and 200 cool down. So a total of 1700 yards.

My first 400 took me about 8:06 (counting stopping to fix my goggles once).

I did my second one in 7:42 and I thought, "Wow, that was quite a bit faster! I wonder if I can knock 20 seconds off again." So that's what I tried. It was pretty much all out for the whole 400, and I tried to cut at least 5-6 seconds off the clock each lap. I decided I really like doing 400s because it's long enough to use some endurance, but short enough that you can really push it!

I finished in 7:13! What?! That made me really happy, I'm pretty sure I've never done 400 that fast before! I was excited to have finished one in 7:50 last week!

While I was swimming, I thought a lot about how excited I am to be doing a half ironman this year, which I've never done. When I was training for the full Ironman, it was all pretty much about getting to where I could finish before the time cut off and not die. I didn't really worry about speed very much. Now I've done that so I know I can do the distance and I can really work on some speed this year! When I get a little farther into my training, I'm going to set a time goal, and make it a hard one.

As I was recovering from that awesome 400, the guy next to me (the same guy who told me I was fast last week) asked me if I knew how to do flip turns. I told him I kind of did, but that I never do them because I get water in my nose. I tried to kind of teach him how to do it, but I'm not a good teacher for that since I don't really do them my self. It did make me want to try a few, though. And, yes, I still get water in my nose when I do them!

What about you? Do you do flip turns? If so, how much of a time benefit does it give you? I've always justified not doing them because they don't really help me out in a "real life" situation since you don't do flip turns during a tri in open water.