Ok I'm A Thief But It Was Totally Justified

Ahhh. I finally ate enough food to feel satisfied. I swear, I've been like a bottomless PIT this week. It's ridiculous.

So yesterday was the last swim of the North Shore Swim Series. Normally this is my favorite one... maybe because it is the longest, but also because more than any of the other swims, the point to point course requires knowledge of the ocean and navigation skills.

There was an unusual west swell yesterday which caused some decent shore break that made simply entering the water and getting to the start buoy challenging for some. Before the swim I was talking to Robin (my age group rival this summer!) and I told her that best/fastest route along this course requires staying on the inside, hugging the rocks to whatever extent you are comfortable. But then in the pre-race meeting the lifeguard got on the loudspeaker and said not today... today it's better to be on the outside he said... he also informed us about an extra buoy they placed past Waimea Point (around that last point before the bay) and said we needed to go around that on our left shoulder... Then he made us all put our hands on our left shoulder to make sure that sank in. Normally there's no buoy there but I guess the idea was that since sets were rolling into that point maybe it was best to make us all stay pretty far from those rocks we normally hug. Anyway, then I felt bad thinking maybe Robin thought I was trying to steer her wrong by telling her to stay inside when the lifeguard just clearly said it would be better to be outside... argh... so we talked again before the gun went off and I didn't know what to do and told her it was a crap shoot- maybe best course of action was to just swim with our people and hope for the best??

I could make this a really long story... but I'll do my best here to just hit the highlights... I swam hard. I swam strong. I was in a good solid pack of mostly girls but Lectie and Robin were also in my pack so I knew I was in good company and swimming with my people... I fought like hell for Lectie's feet when a couple people tried to steal them from me... um, I don't think so. Our pack was very aggressive which was fine by me. You want to play like that?? I can play like that. So I threw some elbows and kicked rather forcefully a couple times to make my point and eventually I won the battle for Lectie's feet. Robin was on my feet. I never even really looked up the whole swim (only at Lectie's feet!!) but I knew we were farther out than I've ever been because I never saw the series of rocks we normally swim right over. The water was deep the whole time. Then around Waimea Point I finally saw that last orange buoy and I remembered putting my hand on my left shoulder in the pre-race meeting so even though I watched my whole pack skip that buoy (instead making a beeline to shore), I headed for the buoy. I figured I was either going to lose to that whole group or else there would be a lifeguard forcing them all to go back around it in which case I would be there first... in the end, no enforcement of that last buoy at all so I got beat by ~a minute by my whole group. Oh well. I got what I came for which was a good solid/sustained ocean swimming effort. Robin sent me a nice note later and said she appreciated our competition this summer and that I should have won in her book by choosing to go around that buoy. In the end I was officially 2nd. I let that bug me for about a minute and then got over it.

In the end our whole group got our asses kicked (they were mostly 1:01; I was 1:02, 9 minutes slower than last year!) because people who didn't listen to the pre-race meeting and swam inside like normal beat us all by minutes. And the total newbie people who listened to the lifeguards and swam really far outside ended up like 30+ minutes off their expected times.... the current was definitely worse the further out you went so those instructions were totally off. I heard that ~40 people got pulled from the water because they just weren't making headway at all. Yikes! Anyway, so that's a wrap on the swim series. I'm bummed it's over!

Then I went and did the type of bike workout that makes your legs burn when you walk up the stairs later. O.U.C.H. I don't do those much. Totally different type of riding/fitness required for that type of riding! But definitely fun to do something different and to ride on different roads for a change.

Today I had my first real bonk of the year. Bonking sucks! I'm usually super careful to avoid it because, well, it sucks! My problem was that last night we went to a concert (ok the concert was not the problem- the concert was fun!) but it was lawn style seating and no outside food/drink allowed so we had to eat the crap they were serving and I'm sorry I'm just not going to eat those deep fried chicken wings... so my dinner last night was rather small. I knew I was hungry but made the choice to not eat enough vs eat the crap food. The short version results of that decision had me sitting under a shade tree ~13+ miles into my run this morning (I say morning but it was almost noon and ridiculously hot by then) having thoughts like I suck at this I should just go home and clean my house like a normal wife/mom I have completely craaaaacked because I have just flat out trained too much I'm so tired this sucks. I ate a GU at that point but had the thought that there's not enough e21 vespa gu or inifinit in the world to save me now... I swear to you if I would have had my phone I would have called Scott and just sat there under the tree until he came to get me. But since I had no phone, eventually I convinced myself to stand up and I started jogging toward home. A few miles later I found myself at a corner looking at a McDonalds that I've never previously stepped foot in... I had no money but I thought maybe I could either bum some of somebody (surely I looked pathetic enough- like a drowned rat really) or convince the teenagers behind the counter to donate some Coke to save a poor girl's life... I carried my empty bottle in there, saw how crowded/busy the place was (really?? That many people eat at McDonald's for Sunday lunch??), and walked out with my bottle full of Coke. I swear I am not normally a thief but in this situation I was desperate! I totally justified that in my sugar-deprived mind anyway. I stood there in the parking lot and downed ~20 oz of fully carbonated Coke, burped, then ran home feeling like a million bucks. That stuff is seriously magic.