Just keep swimming

I've had a pretty good training week :) I missed a couple of runs, but other than that, I've been really good about consistantly getting my work outs done.

Chris has joined me in the pool the last couple of times. Swimming with him is much more fun! Plus, I feel like I'm getting a lot better with him there because he's been helping me with the Total Immersion techniques. I moved up from only kicking on my back to sweet spot yesterday and to the fish drills today. Kicking and getting somewhere without fins - nifty! Maybe swimming isn't evil after all :)

Usually in the pool I just feel like I'm fighting with the water the entire time. I look at the other lanes and there's old ladies just cruising along lap after lap after lap. They look so effortless and relaxed while I'm gasping and frustrated. It's like they're graceful little dolphins and I'm lumbering, fugly mantee. I know that I'm doing something (well, probably more like a lot of things) wrong but I don't know what. I'm naturally a floater (poor Chris is a sinker) but when I start to stroke I feel like I have to fight to move forward and struggle to stay afloat. Even after taking swimming lessons at UO during the winter, I made some improvements (putting my face in the water, rythmic breathing) but still struggle to even finish 2 laps. So I read the Total Immersion book and got the freestyle DVD. I feel like I'm making some big improvements lately, maybe I'm not getting any faster or going any further but I'm feeling much more relaxed. Once I get the hang of a drill, it feels stupid easy and like I could keep doing it all day. I actually want to go swimming now. Crazy! Watch out old ladies, I'm coming for you! lol (btw, this is a really good article for Total Immersion - "Why is Swimming So Hard?")

To also help get me in the pool, I ordered some new suits. I was able to find another website, swimoutlet.com, that had the Speedo Flipturns suit I really, really wanted. I can't wait for it to get here! My old suit is looking pretty raggedy and the new one is going to be so cute. Since the cute suit has a strappy back that doesn't look very supportive for running in, I also order a blue Tyr suit for my tri's next month. (Sky blue has become my official triathlon color. My bike is blue and white, my helmet is blue and white, I have an old pair of Asics that are blue, my new bike shoes are silver and blue. Even our Passat is light blue. I didn't mean to start off all matchy-matchy, but now using another color like red or yellow would look really weird.) I gave up on ordering a tri suit because I've been biking in my swimsuit and running shorts just fine and I have no clue which tri suit I should get. Along with my two new suits, I ordered two new swim caps (one's sky blue and the other is pink) and two new goggles. I scratched up my current pair of goggles when I put the anti-fog in them (I read the directions that say to clean your goggles then apply the anti-fog after I used it - d'oh!), so I ordered a pair exactly like my current ones (which are also sky blue) and a pair in raspberry pink. The website also had some cheap but fun suits, like one with sushi and another camouflage, that I'm probably going to order as practice suits next time.

Other than training and spending money, this week has been a lot of fun too. We had Jason and Erin, Chris's brother and soon-to-be sister-in-law, over for some BBQ and sangria Tuesday night. (I'll post the sangria recipe below.) Wednesday we met our friends at a local bar for trivia night. We missed stupid easy questions like who played McGyver on TV and what do you say in Cribbage when you have no cards to play? (Dean Anderson and "go". If my mom knew I'd missed the cribbage one, oh lord lol) But I did score with who played the Scarecrow in The Wiz and what movie did the characters The Blue Raja, Mr Furious and The Bowler appear (Michael Jackson and Mystery Men). We ended up winning a couple of gift certificates and t-shirts - sweet!

We don't have much planned for next week. Chris has finals in some summer classes then starts two new ones. I'm going to try working up to the under-switch drills, pushing my long bike ride to 12 miles, and tomorrow's long run is going to be 5 miles.

I'm off to statisfy my pizza craving :)










The Best Red Wine Sangria (from RecipeGirl.com)

Simple and delicious...

2 large juice oranges, washed; one orange sliced; remaining orange juiced
1 large lemon, washed and sliced
¼ cup granulated sugar (I like to use superfine sugar)
¼ cup Triple Sec
One 750 ml. bottle inexpensive, fruity, medium-bodied red wine, chilled


1. Add sliced orange and lemon and sugar to large pitcher; mash gently with wooden spoon until fruit releases some juice, but is not totally crushed, and sugar dissolves, about 1 minute. Stir in orange juice, Triple Sec, and wine; refrigerate for at least 2, and up to 8, hours.
(Becky's note: We found that waiting at least 12 hours makes the sangria much more mellow. The sangria also seems to stay pretty fresh for at least a couple of days, so definately the longer you can wait, the better.)

2 Before serving, add 6 to 8 ice cubes and stir briskly to distribute settled fruit and pulp; serve immediately.
(We found that mashing the fruit completely then straining to get rid of all the extra pulp works best. I also read somewhere that the fruit soaks up the alcohol, so def. mash that fruit up! lol)

Servings: 4

Cooking Tips
*Cook's Illustrated tested this recipe with more expensive red wines too and they found that the cheaper wine tasted just fine. It really is ok to buy an inexpensive bottle for this recipe. I used a Spanish wine... anything like a Rioja or the like is ok.
**The longer sangria sits before drinking, the more smooth and mellow it will taste. A full day is best, but if that isn't possible, give it an absolute minimum of two hours to sit.
***You can easily double or triple the recipe- just switch to a punch bowl instead of a pitcher.

Recipe Source
Modified from Cook's Illustrated