Clown pants or the boob-smasher?

I own two wetsuits.

Actually, three. One for SCUBA diving, but you can't swim in those, so I'm not counting it.

The first one is the wetsuit that Team In Training issued me last year when I signed up to do Malibu.

The second one is TYR Hurricane Cat 1 that I bought with a team discount (courtesy of the Pasadena Triathlon), because I'd gotten a decent tax refund and it seemed like a good idea.

I spent most of last year using the TNT wetsuit for the main reason that I have boobs, and the TYR wetsuits aren't really cut for women who have much over an A-cup (and even that's probably pushing it). Imagine trying to swim with two softballs strapped to your chest, so tightly that you can't breathe, and that was my TYR experience.

So, instead of having the chest-mash going on, I used the TNT wetsuit, which, since I was between sizes and ordered one up, was always nice and comfy, if a bit loose.

Which was great, and worked for me quite well.

Until this last week, when the ocean here in Los Angeles just warmed up enough to finally start some of the organized ocean swims.

I pulled out my trusty comfy TNT wetsuit, took it to the shore, and pulled it on,  only to have it be too big - and not a little bit too big, either.

It was like wearing neoprene clown pants. I jumped into the water and felt like I was wearing hip waders. When I exited the surf, the suit was hanging off my shoulders, with the torso and legs loose and full of water, which was sloshing around since the ankles were tight enough to keep it all in.

Passersby were pointing and laughing, as were my swim buddies.

So, yesterday morning I dragged out the boob-masher.

It fits much better, almost everywhere. Legs? Good. Arms? Good. Abdomen? Good? Boobs? Bad. So, so bad. Neck? Gaping open, probably because the suit was straining to contain the girls.

So I dove into the surf, and about 10,000 gallons of water rushed into the loose neck of the suit, thus increasing the 'pressing on the chest' feeling, just when the waves started coming so fast that I couldn't get a breath in between them.

So I started to hyperventilate, and then I started to panic.

Panic + Ocean = super bad.

I got enough of my wits about me to turn around and stagger back to shore. Once I got there, I waved the swim group on, since they were waiting for me.

After some fiddling with the neck, I managed to get to where I could dive under the waves without so much water entering - thus alleviating the 'boulder on the chest' feeling. I never got past the surf because I was too busy trying to get the suit adjusted, but I think I finally got it dialed in.

Friday is the next organized ocean swim, so we'll see how it does. I currently can't afford to buy another wetsuit, so I'm going to have to make this one work.

Two months until Vineman!

As you can see from the widget thingy down there, it's now 60 days until Vineman 70.3. My first half Iron distance.

I'm setting very, very low expectations, as I just want to finish, and preferably not dead last, but I'm actually feeling pretty good about it.

I've not gotten in the long rides that I probably should have, but the hill repeats are going nicely and I feel like the bike's doing fine.

The run is doing well - I'm still not going very fast (at the moment I'm averaging 10 minute miles), but I'm confident that I'll at least be able to finish.

I need to get in some long bikes, so I'll make an extra effort to get those in before the race, but I'm feeling pretty good!

The only thing that's worrying me is the logistics of parking at the race start and finishing 17 miles away. If I can hitch a ride to the start with someone so I don't have to leave my bike in T2 while I shuttle back to get my car, that would be freakin' stellar.  Or maybe I'll live rich and spring for a taxi, if I can find on in Napa at 4 am on a Sunday.

Also, of course, tomorrow is bike to work day and I'm going to have to drive because I'm going out to a site 30 miles from my house.

Oh, well.  I've been biking to work every day for almost three weeks.

I'm so glad I drove my car today

I've hit that mid-training cycle slump where I hurt, I'm tired, nothing's funny any more and I can't sleep. Small slights become worthy of a three generation long blood feud, and even worse, I've stopped caring about puppies and kittens. And rainbows.

Fuck 'em all.

So I used a Groupon for a massage - usually these can be a waste of time at best, but lucky for me, the awesome masseur was a hiker and really knew where to put the pressure to get all the gunk out of my muscles.


I didn't even consider riding my bike the 7 miles to the massage place. Well, okay, I did, but dismissed the idea as silly as I'd be undoing any good of the massage right away.

One has a much different perception of traffic when one hasn't driven for almost three weeks. Sitting in gridlock with the A/C running, listening to music, not having to dodge doors and road debris. Awesome.

I got to the massage place, and met the masseur. We talked for a few minutes about where I hurt, and he got to work. 

He used a lot of pressure and it hurt like hell while he was doing it, but I feel really great now. Even the glute that's been sort of sore for a few weeks feels fine, and the Achilles tendon's finally stopped bothering me, although I don't think I can chalk that up to the massage.

I feel so good right now I'm not even dreading the hill repeats on the bike tomorrow.

I'm so glad I didn't drive my car today

Lately, I've been on the early shift, which means I'm getting off  work around 3 pm.
This is great as I've got swim practice from 5:30 to 6:30, so the plan today was to ride the bike to work, then come home, shove the gym stuff into the panniers and head out.

It's 6 miles to the gym (downhill there, uphill back), and when I left work the wind was blowing so I almost talked myself out of taking the bike.

"Oh, it's windy. I'll be hurting coming back, and I have to run tomorrow morning."

It's close enough to summer that the trip home is in the daylight (not that riding in the dark ever stopped me, but it does make a handy excuse), so eventually I won (or lost, depending on how you look at it) the argument with myself and rode the bike to the gym.

I'm so very glad I didn't chicken out and take the car.

The wind was dying down a bit as I headed out, so it certainly wasn't unmanageable and I had a lovely ride under the blue spring sky (the sky in LA is normally sort of a taupe color - the winds blow all the smog out) down to the gym, where I had a wonderful swim with the new coach.

Then, I sat in the steam room, hit the showers and headed back home.

The ride home was just before sunset, so the sky was turning that nice orange color, and the mockingbirds were starting to sing - I love mockingbirds when they're not imitating car alarms outside my bedroom window at 3 am - and these were singing their hearts out (or warning other birds away from the tree. It's all good), treating me to a car alarm-free tune.

I had enough of a tailwind that I didn't even notice the gentle hill, and got home just as the sun set.

Just think what I would have missed had I driven. 

A very pleasant surprise.

Since the run has been my weak event, well, since forever, this season I've really been focusing on running.

I've been using the Adidas MiCoach App - set to half-marathon - for my run training instead of the standard 70.3 triathlon training plan.  I'm also doing a run-centric weight plan from the same website.

So far, it's been a good choice, as my run has improved greatly, but unfortunately it's come at the expense of the bike. Somethings gotta give, right?

I've not been getting in the bike workouts that I should, so today I went into work early with the idea of leaving early and getting in a bike this afternoon.

Despite leaden afternoon skies, I headed out to do a few hill repeats.

To my utter astonishment, not only have I not lost any bike fitness at all, but I'm actually going faster and stronger on the hills than usual.

I don't know if it's the run or the weights or the break.

I'm fatiguing a bit sooner - I was beat to shit three repeats in instead of four, which is what I can normally handle, but I'll chalk that up to not having been on the bike consistently in six weeks.

I'm very happy right now!