Update from the Beach!

(On a mission.... to get to the beach!)

Well It's day 3 of our beach adventure. Day 1 was spent traveling down, about a 9 hour camper pull. Day 2, let the triathlon/marathon training begin. I wore myself plumb out... it was my day for a long run so I ran 12.5 miles... mostly in the sand... yikes! by mile 11 I was begging for mercy. I started about 6:30am but by 7am it was really really getting hot. I'm sure it was already approaching 90 or hotter as I finished about 8:30am. The sand was really tough too. There's a big difference running in the sand. I ran on the wetter harder sand but still, whew, it was tough!

I recovered from the run though in about an hour and it was time for the ocean. This was my first time wearing swim goggles. Man do they make a difference. I am so much more relaxed with the goggles on. I can swim much further with them on. It sounds silly but it is true. I don't have to wipe my eyes every time I come out of the water to see where my girls are at. The first wave I road though ripped my goggles right off my head into the ocean and they were gone. I got out of the water and said we have to go get me another set of goggles now! So we went to one of the million beach shops and I got a pair of performance speedos. Bring on Summit Lake!

I swam with them in the pool and I could swim and swim. I'm not saying I'm ready for 1/2 mile or even a 1/4 mile but the goggles really helped me swim farther. Later in the evening (yes this is still day 2) we went back to the ocean and I did some swimming there as well. I was trying to swim about 1/10 of a mile up the beach against the wind/current. I got out past the breakers and started swimming. I swam and I swam and I swam and then I stopped. I had swam for maybe 2 or 3 minutes. I was right where I started! So then I tried a little harder and made a little progress. I ended up swimming some more and tried swimming with the wind and current and that of course was much easier.

Day 3 I let Audrey have the premium running time of 6:30-7am while I stayed with the kids. When she got back after about 30-40 minutes. I ran 3 miles. One mile of warmup and then two at about a 7:30ish pace in the sand. That was tough. Man was it hot. By noon today one of the bank thermometers said 101 F. We're having a good time and are getting ready to head back to the water now. I plan to do more running of course and a couple days I'm going to throw in a short ocean swim with a bike ride followed by a run. I'm going for it all!