Another biathlon......aka anaerobic nirvana!

Ouch!

Brrrrrr! Glad to get out of the water!

Erin and me prior to start

Ok, I haven't done anything anaerobic in several months building up for Kona. So, today was the race formerly known as Strangeman's Biathlon. A grueling 2 mile run, 1/3 mile swim (brrrrr) and 2 mile run. I thought it would be fun, silly me. My goal this winter is to HTFU against the cold and get out in it, embrace it and get faster. This was day one. It would figure that we had record breaking cold weather this week to boot, enough to cool the Gulf down below 70 degrees. No wetsuits here, we're running first, no time for such luxuries. The weather this morning was much nicer, 60 degrees, as opposed to the 40's during the week. The Dane decided to run to the race site (Clearwater Beach) and cheer me on instead of racing - waiting to unleash his new found fitness on the AG next year! I was out here for fun and a good workout so no goals as usual. That said, I wanted to win depending on the competition. Ironman 70.3 World Championship is next Saturday at this very site so I felt maybe a great age grouper or pro might show to sharpen their form. Lucky for me (not the men, congrats Darby from Finland), that didn't happen. I went out hard on the first run and felt I could survive in the water, however I never actually got in the water to see how cold it was! I lead at the beginning with two gals not far behind. Into the water, it was COLD! I almost couldn't function and certainly couldn't dolphin out because when my face went into the water, I went into a full spasm. When we got past the sandbar, it was swim time so I dove in and went. Wow, it was cold. The swim was uneventful otherwise but I could see the second girl, Erin K, not too far behind. She is a solid swimmer so I couldn't slack and claim hypothermia. Got out and had trouble putting my shoes back on because hands were numb. The Dane was letting me know that Erin was "right there" so I ran scared. I am not in shape enough to run scared for short distances but I managed to pull it out for the overall womens win. Whew, it was indeed painful and cold. The winter of HTFU is in full force! Some friends are currently surviving IM Florida as I type, best of luck to them and I can honestly say, I'm glad I'm not there (even though they are having record-breaking conditions). I'm done. We will do Turkey Trot in a few weeks just to keep the running going and it's super fun. We'll be out at Clearwater Beach next Sat to cheer everyone on as they fulfill their dreams of competing in the 70.3 World Championships - it's actually much more fun to watch!
Cheers and race with Aloha!