13 Days to go!! Each day I am going to write about what I did that day, something I learned in this journey so far, or even an event I found funny. Today, I went for a run in the new gear I picked up yesterday. I got my first pair of running capri’s and cooling sleeves. Had no idea that such a thing even existed when I began training back in January. I wasn’t sure how I was going to tackle the issue of my extra skin on my arms for months. Through-out all of this I have been faced with challenges, that no one had dealt with in the Tri community. During the swim, my arm skin would regularly swamp my face with water, and I would invariably come up choking. Nearly drown by my own arm skin, are you kidding me! I didn’t have that same problem with the other events, until I began to wear my Tri top during the bike. The next thing I knew, the skin on my arms was flapping back and forth so quickly at nearly 20 miles per hour, that my arm skin began to hurt, and I must have looked like a giant bird taking flight. During the run the skin moved back and forth so much that it 
became a huge distraction for me. Ugh! So how to solve the problem? Finally someone suggested cooling sleeves, like they wore at Ironman this year, to keep their arms cool in the extreme heat. I ran with those puppies for the first time today and let me tell you, *starts singing ‘Freedom.’* It was totally awesome, to not have my skin trying to take flight, and I am super excited to take it on the bike. Seriously if I ever meet who invested these things I might kiss them!!
Lol so anyway today I went for a run for the very first time in my full Tri gear. I have never ever worn clothing this tight in my entire life. I certainly have not run in clothing this tight either. Tight clothing is kind of a requirement in Tri training. Loose clothing can lead to pants stuck on gears, chaffing (not freaking fun), flapping, sweaty armpit marks (also not fun), and general annoyance. I never thought I would wear clothing like this, or be comfortable, especially with the extra skin issue. Though, I will admit, I made my husband run behind me, to make sure my butt wasn’t jiggling to much. I am sure this must be a girl thing. Maybe someone can enlighten me on that? Do men worry about their butt jiggle in their Tri shorts? *G* Not sure.
Today I ran 3.5 miles, actually I ran and walked it, but my leg is getting stronger everyday. So hopefully I will be able to run a big portion of the race. What’s going on with my leg you ask? In January, I started having issues with my left leg hurting, and couldn’t figure out what was going on. I thought it related to the hip flexor injury from 500 lbs, but turns out it was something entirely different. I started to see Tyler at Physio One, who has done wonders with my leg. My hamstring and calf muscles in the back of my leg have become crossed, and they are very tight. I couldn’t fully extend my leg without pain during the run
for months, and was put on limited activity. It’s been both a blessing and curse to be honest. When I started this journey, I thought that on raceday my events would go in this order for strength; bike, run, swim. These days it’s more like bike, swim, run. Never thought I would be stronger on my swim than my run, but the extra time I put into the pool during the injury recoup really helped my swim. Who knew?
High hopes that by race day I am able to run longer distances with less pain. Either way I know that I am going to look better than I have for many years and that according to my hubby my butt doesn’t jiggle too much. *G* Best of all though a Butterfly I might be, I won’t be taking flight with my arm skin on that day. Looking forward to the race!!
