Eileen Swanson's Tales

Well, I am sitting here writing this thinking about a million different things. I will share a few. I have had the pleasure of working with many first time Ironman athletes. This year I have more than a handful of first timers doing several IMs around the globe. I always get super exited to coach newbies. They have so much energy and fire and it is so contagious. I love it! A week ago, I had several athletes compete in Ironman CDA. As a coach I get nervous, excited, and basically at times feel like I’m racing for my athletes. It’s so much fun! After a full day of following my athletes and feeling like I was right there with them, I was super happy they all did amazing! All 3 of them kicked butt and met and exceeded their expectations. It was such a great feeling to share in these experiences and to see how much happiness a great IM race experience can bring to athltetes. It is AMAZING!!

I would love to say that I am doing so much better with my injury, but I am not. It’s ok though. I am having a great time swimming and cycling and enjoting my coaching jobs and working at Lululemon. Everytime I get sad about my injury, something great comes up. I have had some great opportunities open up, that I could not even imagine If I was all caught up in just training and racing, I know that I would have missed out on these great opportunities. Sometimes we need to look up, step away, move outside of our box AND incredible things will happen. We, as triathletes get so wrapped up in the sport and people that we look up to in the sport, that we miss out on LIFE. There is so much more to life than swimming, riding, and running. Don’t get me wrong, I love triathlon, but I realized that I was only thinking, eating, reading, sleeping triathlon and that is not healthy. Thank goodness for my awesome friend Paige who brought me on board with Lululemon. It truly has been a life changing experience. Since becoming an ambassador, then employee of Lululemon, I have grown so much as a person and athlete. Life is about challenges, in and out of our comfort zone! Life is about helping others, being self less, discovering so much more about yourself and others. Everyday is a blessing, an opportunity, take it on full speed ahead!!

After so many countless weeks of major foot pain, 11 to be exact, I have decided to get “the shot.” My doc calls it the plasma injection.  He says that it is going to be super painful and you know when a doc says its going to painful, that means it REALLY is GOING TO HURT!  But I am so excited to get this foot healed, so I will do anything at this point.  I will keep everyone posted for sure. 

In the meantime, life has been super busy this week with everything from work to parties to hosting a good friend for the weekend.  Oh and I have to mention Reid’s AMAZING 200 mile bike race.  He is incredible.  After hosting our friend for dinner on Friday night, Reid got 5 hours of sleep and drove to Sebastapol at 3:15AM and rode for 13 staright hours and 16000 ft of climbing.  WHAT A STUD!  I am always impressed by my wonderful hubbie!

More Team Lemon news, we will have our first event on the 4th of July, Run San Ramon race 5 and 10K.  If you are motivated and competitive and want to join us in full on Lululemon gear, please post a comment and I will get you hooked up   You will have to commit to racing with us as part of Team Lemon for this race and many more to come.  We will provide you with a free training program and LOADS OF FUN!!  Also, come join us on Thursday nights at Lululemon Walnut Creek at 6PM for a 2, 4, or 6 mile run. 

See you out there!!

Amazing experiences at the EFA race yesterday!  This was the first time I have raced this unique, highly competitive race without having run much (9 times in 9 weeks) and without feeling like I had to compete.  I wanted to actually race for FUN!  How funny is that?  Shouldn’t it always be FUN?!  I know I race as a pro and it should be my job, but I have 4 Part Time jobs so that I can keep my house and pay the bills in beauitful San Ramon.  I thought I would be able to train full time, but things change.  Who would have thought that our economy would get this bad?! But it’s all good and we are enjoying life and everything we have….Life is FUN! 

Back to the race, the swim was crazy choppy and the lead boats were all over the place, not being able to hold a straight line.  They overcorrected a couple of times and we were all over the place.  Even though I have done this swim 72 times now, I still felt like I didn’t know where I was going.  I couldn’t see a single person in front of me because the waves were so high, so I just followed my gut and swam a conservative line.  Which put me a bit farther back than I had anticipated.  I was 9th coming out of the water and needed to make up 90 seconds.  Well, I knew with my lack of running shape that the 1 mile run to T1 was probably not going to get me closer to the lead girls.  I did what I could and LOVED all the cheers from friends and lots of spectators that somehow knew my name.  That was pretty cool! All the energy from the crowds made me feel good and light on my feet.  Once I got on my bike, I felt great.  It wasn’t until about 5 miles and 3 hills later that I started to feel the sluggishness from my week of hard swim/bike training.  Since my goal race is in August, I had to train hard last week and of course continue this in the upcoming weeks.  I got passed by a couple of girls and just had fun out there and did what I could.  My body was tired and I knew it would be and I knew I was going to have to adjust my goals.  It was so beautiful out on the course and I was just loving being out there and being able to do what I do.  Off the bike and onto the run once again I felt great!  But 2 miles later I was hurting.  I had to walk some of the hills but felt SO MUCH better when I heard Reid cheering for me and seeing him about 50 feet in front of me.  I didn’t even realize that he had passed me.

I guess Reid passed me in T2 and never looked back until a switchback where he finally saw me and yelled at me to go harder.  I used Reid as a goal and tried my best to catch him.  It was so cool to have my best friend and hubbie yelling for me while he is racing too.  I finally caught him at the base of the Sand ladder and worked my way up it, walked a bit too.  Surprisingly I had the fastest pro sand ladder time!  How funny is that, I wasn’t trying for that, but I guess having Reid next to me really helped!  My foot was really killing me at this point and my good leg was hurting really bad since I was kind of overcompensating.  But I just plugged along and had the best time out there thinking about how cool it was to be racing the best in the world in my hometown race.  You can’t beat that!  I managed to hold on to finish 10th.  This had been my goal for years.  I wish I would have gone faster of course but it’s all I had on this day and I’ll take it.  I made it on the podium in this big race and that was super sweet!!

Patrick (Vanessa's hubbie) another Lululemon couple working at the store!

My Lululemon Peeps at our store party, we all have so much fun working together

Yesterday marked an amazing turn around point in my thoughts and ideas   I had one of those amazing revelations where I realized that LIFE IS GOOD!  Really Good!  What can be better than having an amazing, supportive family, great friends, awesome jobs, and a healthy, fit body!   I was all worried and upset about a foot injury and that clouded my vision of what great things I have going on.  I have always had so much support around me, I just failed to see straight.   Now I’m back on board to living it up )

I had a super sweet PR at the popular Lake Berryessa 2 mile open water swim yesterday!  I swam against lots of pure collegiate swimmers and finished 6th overall and 1st in my division in 46 mins.  It was an extremely FUN, semi choppy, beautiful swim!  What better way to exit the swim than with my best friend Reid and Belle cheering and yelling for me!  Belle was so Happy to see me and I even got to cool down with her, she is the BEST Lab ever!  Ok, I’m a bit biased

We left the Lake pretty quick after the swim since Belle had her AKC Canine Good Citizenship test.  She is training to be a therapy dog.  She PASSED!  YAY, super cool!  We are so proud of her.  I have to admit I was a bit nervous for her and Reid (he was the handler) during the test.  I was watching like a worried mom   But they did awesome!!

After all of that, we headed home for a quick bite to eat and then ended the day with our Grand Openining Conga Party at Lululemon, Walnut Creek .  SUPER FUN PARTY!  We all had a blast and had tons of guests….We even had a red carpet entrance for that extra added fun and flavor.  All of our guests had so much fun and danced the night away…..

I am exhausted today, but super stoked about how great life is…ENJOY EVERY MOMENT!

After our cool down together

John and I, my lanemate at masters, we came with 11 seconds of each other in the 2 mile race

What a whirlwind month it’s been!!  May started off a bit rough and kept getting rougher.  I am talking about training, racing and health.  Everything else has been great!  I am LOVING my new job at Lululemon and working with Reid and Belle is AMAZING!  Everyone on the team is fantastic to work with.  So why I am bummed?  Because athletics defines me and probably shouldn’t (I’ll figure it out one day )  I have had this foot injury for almost 2 months now and it just doesn’t seem to get better.  There were days where it felt great to just run with a slight ache only to stop the run and realize that the pain was more than just an ache.  Then I was forced to stay off of it for another couple of days.  Walking, standing, sitting, everything hurts my foot.  It is such a bummer but I am hoping and praying that soon it will get better and I’ll be back at it again.  *For now, swimming and cycling are the sports that I can do and they are going well.*

At least right now I know that my foot injury is mostly nerve damage and some plantar fascitis.  I was given a cortisone shot on Tuesday in hopes that it would calm my nerve down and relieve some of the pain.  Wow, that shot was excruciatingly painful!!  I felt the sharp needle enter my skin, then felt a burning sensation run all through my body and I was squirming, clenching my fists, doing everything to stop from punching the poor doc , HA!  Dr Hiatt was amazing though.  He is the BEST foot specialist out there and he took really good care of me all day.  He even saw me twice in one day and squeezed me in to get an MRI on that same day!  I am hoping his plan of attack to get rid of this nagging injury will work.  I am almost certain it will!  I just need to calm down, relax and enjoy life for what it is.  I need to stop worrying about what I can’t control and focus on what I can control.  I need to stay positive and enjoy the other great things that I have going on in my life right now! 

Thanks to all of you who have sent get well wishes!  You all are true friends!!  Back to the drawing board…I’ll defintely be back!!