This past weekend was chock-full of Team in Training, and I loved every second of it! Between training and fundraising I've had a few very busy weekends.

This past weekend started with a mini-tri set up by our coaches, mentors and staff. It's not just the physical part of a triathlon that's a challenge...switching immediately from swimming to biking to running is not an easy thing to do. Especially when all of those transitions should only take you about 5 minutes total. There's a lot of planning that goes into it, and prepping for that is almost as important as the physical preparations. So this weekend, we practiced. Complete with bike racks, wetsuits (more on that later), and a "swim", bike and run.  It was great to have a chance to set this up and do a dry run, pre-race day. Major lesson learned: the two seconds it takes to make sure your socks are all the way on before you start your run are well worth it... blisters are no fun, my friends.

My transition area, all set up and ready to go!

 
After practice, I went down to the mall with a few teammates for a very, very simple fundraiser - we sold water on the National Mall. We went into it having no idea how it would go, and were a little afraid we'd get kicked off the Mall for not having a permit. But, surprisingly, it was super effective! We sold 100 bottles of water in about 2 hours, and even had a ranger compliment us on a good idea halfway through. So successful in fact, that we're doing it again this weekend, with even more water. I guess there are some perks to living in a tourist town!

The signs make us legit, right?

To add to all this, we had our first open water swim on Sunday afternoon. Swimming a mile in a pool is one thing. The water's clear, there are lanes, there are black lines on the bottom of the pool to keep you straight, and you get to turn around every 25 or 50 meters. Swimming in open water is different, to say the least. And, as I learned, so is swimming in a wetsuit.

Neoprene's a GREAT look for me.

 As it turns out, wetsuits are tight. Really tight. And for someone who still hasn't really gotten the hang of that whole breathing and swimming thing, adding in a tight suit on top of it is not the best idea. The first few 100 meters of the swim were not pretty. I didn't know how I was going to finish it (we were doing about 1700). Thankfully, I didn't panic, and I had some coaches in the water to talk me through it. I made a few adjustments, kept at it, and slowly but surely finished the whole swim. We 3 laps of a small course, and each lap actually felt stronger and stronger. The best part was that I wasn't totally exhausted afterwards. Which is good, because come Sept 9, when I get out of the water I'll only be about than a third of the way done with the race. So I guess all those early mornings in the pool really are paying off!

Needless to say, after a weekend like that I slept very, very well on Sunday night. It was a busy, awesome weekend, but I'm not done yet. With just under 4 weeks until race day and 50% of my fundraising goal left, there's plenty of work to be done! That includes two fundraising events in here in DC, so if you're in the area, stay tuned for details!