I Did It!

Okay, so I did it. Yesterday afternoon I registered for the U.S. Women's Triathlon Series Sprint race. After my swim yesterday morning, I decided I knew I could do it. My total workout yesterday morning was twice as far as I need to swim for the race. And I wasn't dying when I finished. I swam a total of 35 laps which is 1750 yards or 1600.2 meters or for those of you who can't imagine that, .99 of a mile. The best part is for my main set I swam 10 laps straight, took a 45 second break and then swam 10 more laps. That alone was 4 more laps than the race length. The lifeguard even asked me when I finished the first set of 10 laps how many laps I had swam. Since they rotate every 20 minutes, she came in while I was in the middle of swimming and had no clue how many I had already done. I assume lifeguards are good swimmers and can swim for long distances, so I was impressed with myself that she was impressed. I'm probably making a wrong assumption about lifeguards, but I'm sure they have to be able to swim a lot. So my goal is to do the same workout tomorrow morning. Then next week I'm going to start trying to swim the 16.4 laps, which is the length of the race, straight through. That way I know I'll be able to do it and then I'll start working on swimming it faster. Riding my bike to the pool will also help my body get used to the feeling of jumping on a bike after the swim to help me get ready for the transition from the swim leg of the race to the bike leg of the race. I'm excited and nervous. Roger has suggested he rent a kayak while I swim Town Lake so I can get some experience swimming in open water. Of course I think it's a good idea, but I also need to start riding my bike regularly. We didn't get to ride this weekend since he had to work all weekend. I hope we'll get in one ride this weekend.