Lap Counter works!

I was finally able to use one of my new Christmas toys on Sunday. It's called "Pool-Mate" Automatic Swimming computer by Swimovate. It displays lap count, time, calories, average stroke per lap, speed & efficiency. I did 2 laps to begin with and there on the watch it told me I had done 2 laps. It worked very well. I on the otherhand need to learn how to use it. In between sets you can hit the start button to pause and somehow I pressed some wrong buttons in between sets and had to start again, however, it did store my previous information. In the end it told me what I wanted to know and that is: yardage, number of laps & calories. I think this device will be really nice when I have a workout where I have to do a straight 1500. The only thing I was bummed about is that it is strictly for pool swimming but we really only spend about 3 months open water swimming anyway so maybe someday I'll get the super duper Garmin that I can use in the lake. To find out more go to http://swimovate.com/ Next pool toy I get to try out is my h2o Audio Interval waterproof headphone system. Just waiting for my Ipod shuffle to arrive! Yesterdays swim was 2600 yards (6 x75 wu, 2 200's, 1 100, 2 300's, 2 200's, 1 100, 6 x75 cd) Todays run was 6 miles at Parkers Lake. I experimented with my clothing. Butt warmers, Swix long johns and wind pants on the bottom half. Swix top, Pearl Izumi top and Brooks jacket on top. 2 pairs of sox. Perfect.

Polar Dash

January1st New Years Day I ran the Polar Dash. The theme of the day was "Suck it up Princess"! The weather was our foe. I believe by the start of the race it may have warmed up to 7 above, however the windchill was 15 below. With that said, can you believe I can't complain. The race was well organized. They had us assigned to various parking lots, warm shuttle buses waited for us and dropped us off at the race site, the race site had plenty of potties and tents to stand in while we waited for the start protected us from the elements and were fairly warm. Thankfully my friend Beth had some toe warmers for me and hand warmers. Those toe warmers saved my life. But even then by the start time I couldn't feel my feet. It felt really strange when we started to run because I really couldn't feel my feet. However by mile 3 I got my feeling back and my whole body had warmed up and it was time to take the gloves off, figuritively and literally!

I started the race off with my friends Deb and Beth and it was a bit too fast for me. The first mile was 9:46. I really like my first mile to be a bit slower. So to make up for it my 2nd mile was slower at a 10:03 pace. I lost Deb and Beth but I could see them just ahead of me. I remembered Beth's advice and just ran my own race. Mile 3 was 9:42, Mile 4 was 9:45, Mile 5 was 9:50. It was about this point when I caught up to Deb and Beth and we did that last mile at a 9:32 pace. Official end time: 59:39. The princesses totally sucked it up!

Notes to self about running in a race: Eat oatmeal for breakfast, bring a bar or banana to eat before race, 2 layers on the bottom would've been fine, have boots on during the wait and put in drop bag - duh, start slower then negative split, have toe and hand warmers, don't be scared of the weather report!