After lots of racing in the beginning of April, I was worn down and desperately in need of a step back week last week. My training up until this point had very heavily focused on running to get me ready for my half marathon and 10 miler, but with long distance races out of the way, the plan was about to transition to more tri-specific workouts and two-a-days.

I knew I needed a week in between of some lower volume training before getting into the heart of tri-training, so that was my focus last week. Step back and recover a bit before the final push of training.

Week 11 Numbers:


Monday: Rest

After my 10-mile race on Sunday, I was tired and in desperate need of sleep. I came home from work at 4:30 and was snuggled up with my Technogel pillow and asleep by 8 p.m. I woke up feeling on top of the world Tuesday morning! (P.S. You still have time to enter my Technogel pillow giveaway!)

Tuesday: Brick - 60 minute spin, 2 mile run

I was feeling kind of unmotivated Tuesday when I get home from work, but I hopped on the trainer, knowing I could at least get a little bit of spinning in. About half way through the ride, I started feeling pretty good and decided to round things out with a little run off. The run off ended up being pretty speedy. I was happy about that.

Wednesday: 2 miles of torture

I set out for a nice and easy run on Wednesday, got to mile one and ended up walking the rest of the way home. It was warm, and I was horribly dehydrated. My stomach hurt, and nothing felt good about this run, so I turned around and walked home, feeling rather defeated. Then I had a good cry and felt marginally better.

Thursday: Strength training

Strength training workouts with Emily are quickly becoming one of my favorite workouts of the week. It's nice to get away from our desks and get a workout in over lunch.


Friday: Rest

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: 5K and Open Water Swim


I kicked butt in my 5K on Sunday and set an awesome new PR, shaving exactly one minute off my previous time!


Then I met up with Zach for my first open water swim ever.

And with that my step back week came to a close and I was mentally ready to tackle the rest of triathlon training. Nine days until my first tri!!!

Holy crap the Chesapeake Bay is cold.

That's what I was thinking as my my training buddy Zach and I waded into the water Sunday afternoon. The air temperature was in the low 60s and the water was somewhere in the 50s.

Brrrrrr.


Open water swimming was extremely humbling.

I'm a strong swimmer in the pool. I don't tire easily and my form has improved tons in the last few months. Swimming is the one sport in triathlon where I have a very clear edge over Zach. At least in the pool.

In choppy bay waves, it's totally different.

Zach destroyed me in the open water.


I've been referring to Sunday's open water adventure as an epic failure. Zach more kindly prefers to call it a learning experience.

It didn't bother me that much to not have a lane line, but I really, really struggled with sighting the buoys in the distance. It took a while for me to get into a rhythm of breathing and sighting. During my first couple of laps I had to alternate between freestyle and breast stroke to sight, but by the end I had gotten used to picking my head up out of the water in the middle of my freestyle stroke.

My form though was all over the place. I was having a hard time getting used to swimming in a wetsuit and I felt a little restricted in my arm movement. I kept swinging my left arm super high out of the water trying to improve my range of motion. Not only did it look ridiculous, but it wasted a lot of energy.


I was also having a hard time figuring out how to breath. With the waves coming in I could only really breath on one side without getting a face full of water. I ended up swallowing a mouthful of bay at one point. It was fairly disgusting.

Toward the end of our swim, Zach decided to swim behind me and swat at my feet so I'd get used to being bumped in the water. That didn't bother me too much. But then I started to veer off course a little bit and all of sudden Zach was swimming over me.

Right onto my back.

My first instinct was to throw an elbow, but I didn't. He correct pretty quickly, and he didn't swim over my head or anything, so it wasn't quite as scary as I expected it would be. But I can totally see how stuff like that would cause someone to panic in the water.


I have no idea how long we swam for. We ended up taking a decent amount of breaks to get out and warm our hands and feet up. We eventually called it quits when neither of us could control the movement in our hands anymore since they had started to curl into claws.

My fingers were useless for the next 20 minutes. I couldn't get out of my wetsuit, nor could I tie my shoelaces after changing. The water was definitely chilly.

I'm really, really glad to have done at least one open water swim before my race. It was a humbling experience. I'm not used to moving that slowly through the water. I seriously felt like I was crawling.

The waves made me miss the nice smooth water in the pool.

If you've been following along with my whole triathlon journey, you may have noticed that I have not been sleeping well throughout this training cycle because I've been having major freak outs and nightmares about the race.

First there was the dream where I parked my bike at my friend's apartment and when I got back all the parts where gone except for the seat and the handle bars. It was like my bike had been to the chop shop.

More recently, I dreamed that I got to the race late and my wave has already started or that the race has decided they aren't going to use timing chips or that I can't find the tent for body marking.

I have woken up from all of these dreams in a horrible cold sweat, and have had a hard time falling back to sleep.

So sleep lately, has not been my friend.

However, when I got the opportunity through FitFluential to partner with Technogel to test out one of their amazing pillows and host a giveaway for my readers, I jumped at the opportunity.


I know that a pillow isn't going to banish my anxiety dreams, but I figured that maybe if I had something comfortable to snuggle into after waking up from one of my dreams, I'd drift back to sleep easier.


Guys, in all seriousness, this is the best pillow I've ever slept on.

Technogel makes several different style pillows and I opted for the Classic, which is their thinnest pillow. I absolutely hate big, fluffy pillows, and tend to snag my pillows super cheap and super flat from the pillow bins at Ikea. Big, fluffy pillows are annoying and hurt my neck, but the Classic was the perfect height.


My favorite part though was the blue gel on the inside that feels slightly cool to the touch when you put your head on the pillow. I like sleeping in the cold and having that chill factor was awesome.

Sleeping on this pillow has been amazing. And lucky for me, this week the triathlon nightmares have stayed away. Sure, I know that is not a direct result of the pillow, but it's sure been a nice coincidence.


The best part of this whole thing is that I get to share the wealth! Technogel has offered to give away one of their amazing pillows to one of you. All you need to do to enter is leave a comment answering this question:

How do you deal with bad dreams, especially anxiety dreams about races?

I'll pick a winner on Friday morning.

FitFluential LLC compensated me for this review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.