Eileen Swanson's Tales

Tuesday in Oz was another spectacular day! Today we were up at 4:30AM, rode our bikes to the pool by 5:15AM and had another hard swim practice. But not as tough as yesterday’s, PHEW! I led lane 2 again, which is super cool and I am happy to say that I am hanging tough and making every interval AND with some rest, too This is definitely an improvement for me!

After swim practice, I got a nice massage by Toby. He is Laura and Greg Bennet’s massuese and cook. He is amazing. I had him go a bit easier on me since I was about to head out onto a 4.5 hour bike ride. It still felt awesome!

Our bike ride was sweet. We had interval/pace work and rode on roads that none of us had ever been on. Coach gave us maps and off we went. One of our teammates, Janet, led us out of town and onto more secluded roads. She has been here before so she knows Oz better than any of us. Bree, Katya and I had an awesome time, working hard and having fun at the same time. They are both so strong! Before starting our 3rd interval, Bree made a point to say that I was going to work my bootie off and push myself super hard no matter what and not give up (note-my legs have been thrashed since I got here). She is so awesome. She made me WORK and when I would back off when my quads, hammies, calves, arms, and just about everything was on fire and cramping, she would literally yell “you are not giving up, put your head down and work.” WOW, Bree was tough! So there I was sweating, grunting, clenching my teeth, hurting SO bad with each pedal stroke, but moving forward and making progress. All of a sudden I started to feel better. I was overcoming my fears, working harder than I have ever worked in beautiful Australia, with awesome teammates, and I began to pick up the pace. Now Bree was all stoked for me and she started working a bit and then I wanted to race her. HA! She yelled at me and said “Bit__, now you wanna race?” HAHAHA! It was classic! She is hilarious! I am so THANKFUL that she made me push myself and overcome a HUGE mental obstacle of getting to that next level. Thanks Bree for being an amazing friend!!

Miss all of you tons…..

Love,
E

It’s Monday here in Australia and the past 2 days have been tough but great. The race on Saturday was super fun and really tough at the same time. The swim went really well. There were a couple of Olympians and superstar ITU girls in the race. I was happy that Bree and I came out just seconds after the top couple of girls. But then the run up the beach and through transition onto the run was not so pretty. The blood in my upper body didn’t want or know how to move down to my legs! OUCH! I felt like I had lead weights for legs, that just wouldn’t move. It HURT! But this is all part of the experience that I am supposed to be going through. I got passed by 4-5 girls and on the first run and it was pretty much humbling at that point. But I stuck with it and learned so much and finished in the top10 and won of our teammates took 2nd. Congrats to Lisa! *Key positive note – my swim has improved and I got to race with some of the best in the world

Sunday, we had a great surf training experience. We were very fortunate to be able to work with lifesaving champion and guru Max Pettigrove. He is absolutely amazing. He taught us about beach starts, running into the surf, swimming in the surf and catching waves back to shore. I have to admit, I was super anxious when I saw the 6 ft waves, but Max made me feel super comfortable and calm. It was truly a SUPER awesome time! Later that day, we had a great base run in Tewantin forest. Supposedly kangaroos are abundant there, but no sighting for us. I ran the entire long run (my longest by far this season) with Kim Loeffler. She is an amazingly fast runner, but luckily we were only supposed to do an easy base run. Phew! We had so much fun running, chatting and laughing together. Oh and we only got lost once in the forest! Every trail and turn looked identical

This morning, we were up at 4:45AM and off to masters swim practice. I was so tired getting up, but once I was up and moving around a bit I felt better. Thanks to Bree for motivating me to get my butt out of bed by turning on the lights and saying “come on, get up” HA! At swim pratice I swam in lane 2. Lane 1 is the really fast lane with the World Cup athletes. I led lane 2 for the first part of the workout and through the middle part and almost to the end. I was hurting so bad, but worked so hard to suck it up and tell myself that I can do it! The intervals were the fastest that I have ever done and the length of the workout was 2xs as much as I have ever done in one workout. WOW! I did it. I was so exhausted and hit so many mentally challenging moments during the workout, but I am happy that I held on. This is just the beginning. We have lots more swims this week!!

Towards the tail end of our swim there was thunder and a huge downpour. We were supposed to ride 90 mins outside, but we ended up on the spin bikes at the aquatic centre. It all worked out and we had a good workout. Now off to eat some more and get ready for yoga tonight

I miss all of you so, so much! I have tons of pics but can’t download them since we have super slow dial up here. I’ll try to head over to an internet cafe tonight and download some….

Love,
E

Wow, after a crazy long 20 hours of travel, I am in Oz. I arrived on March 7th at 10AM Australia, which was March 6th , 4PM CA time. I went straight to the Noosa Aquatic Centre as Coach suggested. I got there and jumped right into the swim workout. It was pretty cool to see all the amazing pros there including Laura and Greg Bennett and Belinda Granger. I have to admit I was overwhelemd with excitement. After my first 50, Coach had to slow me down. He said ‘let’s not get too excited, there’s more to come.’ So, I slowed down and tried to relax But how could I, being in a lane with some awesome athletes!!

After practice, we headed over to get some groceries and I got to drive the rental car. So weird driving on the left side of the road and getting into the car on the right side. Luckily all the girls in the car were helping me out with directions and all…. Kind of funny. I was the jet lagged one and the one Coach let drive the car. HA!

After groceries and stuffing my face with some much needed fuel, Katya and I ran down to the pool for another swim workout. Our run was about 10-15 mins only, and our swim workout was about an hour. Later that night we had a fun BBQ with all the girls and Coach. Super fun stuff, so cool to be here and so excited for my best buddy Bree to get here.

Today, Saturday, we had a nice spin in the AM, and tonight we are off to race a swim, run, swim, run……More to come soon. I MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH! I get pretty homesick at times, but I know this is so good for me.

Love,
E