Two For Two

Guess what? Easy recovery days are the bomb. :) Yesterday I did exactly as I planned... 2k flop/choice swim that included some kicking and some sculling and even a bit of IM... all very relaxed effort and that was just what I needed.

Today I got up early and drove out to Waimea Bay for the 2nd swim of the North Shore Swim Series.

Just like I did before the first race, I jogged a super easy 5 miles, keeping HR <140 for the first mile then <145 after that. Felt fine but wasn't judging it at all. #JustTrot

Usually Waimea Bay is full of really nice clear blue perfect water, but today it was all brown. There's a river that flows into the bay (from the mountain) and it must have poured rain overnight or something bc that river was just dumping brown water into the bay and it was gross. The race director did the best he could changing the course trying to keep us away from the mouth of the river, but it was so brown all over... Tough to avoid completely. This is the course, according to Heidi's Garmin. The only place it was clear water was at the far corner where we rounded a couple of big rocks.

I found this picture on Instagram. This is the women's start, as seen from the top of a big rock in the bay! I was somewhere out in the middle of this group, near the front but not at the front. (These are real swimmers, not triathletes.)

So the challenge with the brown water was that we couldn't see each other as well as we normally can. Given that, it felt more aggressive at the start. I don't think women were pulling and pushing at each other on purpose, but since we couldn't see each other as well it was harder to intentionally avoid hitting others who were around you. Whatever. It was fine. I swam hard, sometimes near other swimmers but not directly drafting off anyone like I normally try to do. I kept checking in with myself like is this as hard as you can go right now? And every time the answer was yep I'm happy with this effort. I felt strong and in control but like I was really working. No lazy strokes at all.

As is my policy, I swam until my hand hit the bottom (don't stand up early!!), and then a really little wave came and beached me on the sand (like a whale!) and it cracked me up b/c I knew my suit would be full of sand (it was!)... I stood up laughing and ran up the little hill to the timing mat. I couldn't find Nalani, which was weird, but then I turned around and saw her come across the line behind me (What?? That never happens!) with Kathryn right on her tail. Last time the 3 of us finished within like 15" of each other and this swim today was similar spread even though we never saw each other. That confirmed to me that yep the effort was as strong as I felt like it was. I ended up winning my AG again (I'm two for two in the series now!) but was 34th Female OA (vs 19th like last time) b/c a young swim team showed up and crushed us all. Seriously. The winner was 13 years old!

Afterward we hung out for a bit, then I went running again. 8 more miles and I started to do it as a progression until mile 6 when my hip started yelling at me (it was whispering earlier but I ignored that). That was a bummer b/c for once I actually felt really strong and solid, like a machine! I had been nailing the descend each mile and I'm pretty sure I had 2 more faster miles in me but I did what I think was the smart thing and shut it down and just jogged the last 2 miles trying to not further piss off my hip. I'm stretching and rolling it now and will have to see how it responds overnight. Kind of a lot of running- 33 miles in the last 3 days (between the 20 miler Thursday and the double run today)- so if my hip said that was enough for now, I'll listen. It's the exact same pain that took me out for a few months in Feb/March so I don't want to push it. Getting greedy is always how I end up hurt.