Eileen Swanson's Tales

The past several days have been amazing. I have had breakthrough performances on all 3 sports. I will start off with the swim. On Tuesday, I again led Lane 2 and had a super strong swim set. I was leading my lane and pushing all of my lanemates to catch me. It was so much fun, but such hard work. I was hurting really bad half way through the set, but I held on and fought hard and bettered my times by the last set. I was so stoked, as were both of our coaches on deck. I also had a hard ride on this day and felt so great until I flatted 2xs. But I did not let that ruin my ride, I was left to ride on my own, which was totally fine as I learned to push myself just as I would in racing. Another great lesson learned.

On Wed, we had an early morning run (5AM) and our surf life saving swim (5:30AM) in 3-4 foot waves. This is such a hard workout, since we have to run on the sand, dive and duck under waves, swim out to some buoys and try to catch waves back to shore without getting too pummeled AND do it over and over again! The ocean was much more calm this time and so much fun. I followed one of the junior life saving champions, Molly, a couple of times on the way in and we caught a couple of awesome waves all the way to shore. So cool! And I only got pummeled twice this time. Each time I learned to relax and let the wave pass and then try to come up for air It worked and I did not freak out. It is so much fun learning so much everyday, having amazing teammates that push me, and working so hard every workout.

Later Wed afternoon, we headed out to the grass track to do our much anticipated 8 x 1 mile repeats. We were pretty nervous about this workout as we wanted to make it on the interval Coach had given us. As we were warming up, a couple of little girls came up to Coach to tell him that there was a hurt bird on the track and asked if he could call animal control. He said sure, but seemed preoccupied with our workout. For those of you that know me really well, I’m sure you could picture the look on my face. I was bummed, but knew Coach would call someone soon. Onto the workout. I felt flat and sluggish on the first couple of repeats and my mind was not fully focused. Each lap, I would look over at the hurt bird and hear his cries of desperation ;-( On the fourth repeat, I mentioned to Coach that he may want to call animal control. He got a little annoyed with me and said if you have time to worry about the bird, then you are not working hard enough. So, as hard as it was, I blocked the bird out for the next 4 repeats and had great strong splits. By the 6th one, I was feeling so great and finishing 10 seconds too fast. Oops! I did this on the 7th one too. On the final mile, we all stayed strong and still finished a little faster than goal pace. Coach was happy with our workouts! This was definitely a breakthrough run for me I am super happy!

Before our cooldown, I walked over to a guy on the track who said he would call the vet right away. Yes, I was still thinking about the poor lil’ hurt crow on the track. I finished my cool down and the guy came up to me and gave me his phone to call the vet. I called Oz info and got the number of a nearby vet. They told me that I would have to bring the bird in as no one would be able to come down there. So I asked Coach if I could pick up the bird and bring it in to the vet and he said no since we were already running late. But within seconds he changed his mind and said I have 2 mins to get the bird. So Janet and I ran across the track and with 2 T-shirts managed to scoop the bird up. He struggled a bit, but soon relaxed. I think he knew we were going to help him On the way to the vet, we named him “Miles.” I know, some of you may think I am nuts, but this is me being me. I am such a huge animal lover and will do everything and anything to help an animal. We got to the vet and they took Miles in and said they would check him out. They were so thankful and said “thank you, we appreciate people like you.” This made me feel so good inside!

What a great end to my day! Oh, one more thing, Coach even bought us soft serve ice cream on the way home……

Love,
E

I did it, I made it through one FULL week of our Australia training camp! This has been the most amazing experience of my life! I have never in my wildest imagination thought that I could handle one super TOUGH workout after another, after another…….. I did not think that my body could handle more than 14 hours a week of triathlon specific training. I was so wrong, I underestimated myself. I keep learning that I need to BELIEVE in myself. I think I truly do now

This week, I had the longest bike ride of my life, the most meters ever swum in my life, the most quality miles I have ever run in one week, and the most rough water swims in open ocean ever. I also had to ride my bike to and from swim practice, and to and from the grocery store. Wow, I overcame many major lows and mental obstacles and kept pushing forward. I did not give up, even though I literally felt like I could not make it through another workout. I had to believe in myself and know that my mind would work wonders and my body would have to follow. I spent many days on the phone with Reid, crying, and I have to thank him so much for making me stick with it and believe in myself. He is the most amazing husband and best friend. I also hit many highs. I had amazing moments in the pool where I felt like I was on top of the water, hydroplaning, on the bike where I felt like I was flying up hills, and on the run where I felt like I could go on forever I am so stoked and so happy that I am growing everyday as an athlete and person. I continue to learn from everyone of my amazing roomates and teammates here in Oz and of course from my great Coach Paul.

AND THANK YOU to everyone who has sent me such sweet and inspirational notes to keep working hard!! I love all of you.

P.S. Total training hours this week, just shy of 30.

E

Sweet, Thursday in Oz went really well! I had an awesome morning swim which consisted of lots of drill work and a little bit of speed. It started off a bit slow, but quickly turned into a positive workout. As I am learning, I just need to stick with it no matter how exhausted I am feeling. Positive, positive, positive attitude will go a LONG way Later that morning I had a metting with Coach. It was great! We covered alot of things that I was hoping we would cover and be on the same page. I was a happy girl!

In the PM, we did hill repeats and I surprisingly felt super strong! I was so stoked to be feeling good on the hills. It was a great set, where we could cheer each other on. My teammates are Awesome! I will take that one and remember the great feeling

Our day was topped off with a trip to the grocery store, by bus since we were too tired to ride our bikes HA! We had so much fun on our “little field trip” as Wee likes to call it! We all had a great dinner together filled with loads of laughter as usual!

Thanks so much for all of the words of encouragement. I will write more later today when we finally make it over to an internet cafe. Pics will be posted too

Love all of you so much…..

E

Well, my body finally decided that it had enough! The past couple of days I have been feeling fatigued but have still been pushing through each and every one of my workouts. Today was another story. After a 90 minute ocean session this morning, with 6 foot waves, getting pummeled and tons of beach runs, I finally hit a road block. After not sleeping well the past 2 nights, and training more than I have ever trained for this sport, my body screamed to stop right in the middle of track practice. NOT GOOD! I think my legs were in shock. How could they take another tough workout with 2 bad nights of sleep and already being trashed? It was just not my day and it was not happening. I can push through fatigue, pain, and just about everything, but this was different. My quads literally locked up and said nope, not today! Yikes, OUCH! I am not going to lie, I was seriously bummed and frustrated. And of course when you are so far away from home, it makes things worse. I was not only feeling lousy, I was now more home sick than ever.

Coach made me run a base run on my own. Total bummer. But I knew this was the only thing I could do that made sense and would keep me from getting injured. It was hard to go out on the roads on my own while my teammates were on the track. But I had time to contemplate and check out some new areas. It was not so bad, I felt ok going slow, and I even avoided a major meltdown by telling myself that I am super lucky to be here and so grateful for everything that I have at home waiting for me. I love you Reid and Belle!!

Good night, tomorrow will be a better day!

E