One of Those Days

Today was one of those days where I just did NOT want to train.

I slumped on my couch for 10 minutes and pictured how happy I would be to just go back to bed. I didn't want to run. I didn't want to swim. I didn't want to bike.

I compromised with a decision to workout at the Y. Walking the half mile there seemed lazy, so I ran the 5 minutes. Once inside, I did 35 minutes on an elliptical. Then I walked the 10 minutes home.

Overall, a good balanced workout complete with warm up and cool down and half an episode of MTV's "True Life: I'm Deaf".

I'm stating it now for the record... tomorrow, I will swim (and possibly run).

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The closer I get to race day, the more nervous I get about the swim. I know I can swim that length without stopping, but I'm scared that the temperature of the water is going to make me loose my breath and panic.

So I've been doing some temperature research. According to my race website, "Lake Michigan is a large open body of water. Therefore water temperature can vary dramatically from the high 50’s to the low 70’s. The average in the past few years has been 68 to 74 degrees." High 50's?! Oh no.

So I found this website that has the temperatures all across Lake Michigan. I figured out the longitude and latitude of the Foster Avenue Beach, and the diagram estimated it was 66 degrees at 7 am this morning. Well... that's better than "high 50's" but it's no heated pool. The pool at my Y is around 79 degrees, and it takes me 5 minutes to get used to the water temperature. Eek.

So that got me to thinking that maybe I should rent a wetsuit. There is one good website that I found which rents triathlon-specific wetsuits (they aren't the same as surfing or snorkling wetsuits). They rent out full wetsuits and sleeveless ones. They help with bouyancy and warmth.

I definitely don't want to buy one, so this is a good option. However, it's $40 plus $10 shipping. That's quite a bit. They ship it out to you about 10 days before race day (so I would have time to try it out), and then you ship it back the week after your race. Added bonus... if you decide you want to BUY your rented wetsuit (or any of their other used wetsuits), they will deduct the $40 from the cost.

Any thoughts? Opinions? Is it worth it? Has anyone rented before?



(I'd like to wonder aloud why all photos I found of women in wetsuits are posed all seductive-like. Like ANY female triathlete would really be standing around like that in their wetsuit. As for the guy... I think it's supposed to come across as strong looking, but he just looks scared to me.)