Endings and new beginnings

I did my fifth and last official ocean swim for the season on Sunday, rounding it off with the 2km race at the Cole Classic. The weather was dreadful, raining and windy. The swell at Manly Beach, where the race was supposed to be held, was huge. So dangerous that the beach was actually closed, and the race was moved to the much more protected Shelley Beach. Which was all good with me!

I had arrived early for the 1km race because some of the less confident swimmers in our group were hoping for people to swim along with them. The weather kept a few of them away, however, so I didn't have to! I was secretly relieved as I was feeling a bit run down and tired, so I'm not sure I would've been especially helpful to them!

It was an absolutely massive day though, something like 4,300 people had registered for the race, but on the day I think there were less than 4,000 finishers as people opted to stay inside rather than brave the rain. My wave - the women 30-39 - was huuuge. It wasn't a tough course, mainly because the water was relatively calm for most of the race, but there were SEVEN cans/buoys to locate and swim around. Gah! It was ridiculous, constantly looking up and trying to see where I was swimming next. Thankfully I don't I swam TOO far off course, although a good extra hundred metres or two.

The finish, however, was the highlight. I tried out a technique I'd read about on a triathlon website, somewhere, about what to do to prevent the jelly legs feeling after a swim. Basically, you kick REALLY hard to get the blood flowing back into your legs, and breathe more frequently, taking in lots of extra oxygen. It worked! No jelly legs for me. I felt like I powered up the beach, feeling great. And the cheers from the CanToo crowd were fantastic! It felt amazing to be part of such a great organisation raising $$ for cancer research. We've recently hit the $4m mark, how awesome is that!

I cheered on my friends and training buddies, feeling somewhat bittersweet about it all. It was like "yay, we've finished" and "damn, we've finished" because there is no more swim program. Boo hoo. We had a BBQ at Manly Wharf afterwards and I think we were all feeling very emotional, such a relief for it to be over but we were sad that we weren't going to see each other as much. I'll admit, that I went home, had a shower and sat on the couch in my PJs for the afternoon. Something I rarely do! Made the somewhat catastrophic mistake of watching some Disney-esque family movie with Tom Selleck (helloooo) in it, with a very happy ending ... baah, cue waterworks. Managed to pull myself together though. Damn hormones.

So, that was the ending. I am still feeling sad about the swim finishing, despite the fact that in about four hours the run program starts! With the CanToo crew again, I am addicted! It's quite obvious, ha ha. A lot of my former running and swimming buddies will be joining me and I am looking forward to really challenging myself. I mean, every half marathon program is a challenge but I really think I can have a good running year if I can stay healthy and injury-free. My goal is to run four half-marathons this year, and at least one in under 1hr 55mins. My closest was 1hr 57mins and I nearly killed myself in the process. Well, no, not true. I actually was running on target until the 13km mark when I was hit by a terrible case of ... self loathing I think you could call it. I caught a glimpse of myself in a shop window and a range of horrible and negative thoughts flooded my brain.

I would also like to lose a good 5kg I think. I was analysing myself this morning and I think 5kg will put me where I'd like to be. It's healthy eating 101 here. No junk, just wholegrains for breakfast, fruit, salad etc and all homemade stuff. Slight slip up this morning with vegemite toast on turkish bread ... and just had a low-fat smoothie which I probably didn't really need.

Also going to start doing at least two spin classes a week plus three Bikram classes. Both in the mornings to free up the evenings for running and Pump. Let's see how we go!