Hi all,

been a long time since I've posted. It has been a busy summer, and my once aggressive tri schedule was whacked months ago, due to a new house purchase. Well we are moved in, finally, and my big bike ride which eats up basically all of late june/july training is done too, and went quite well so I am pleased about that...

A few weeks back I picked out a tri I wanted to do in mid Sept thinking, Ok, now I can snag a tri. Fitness wise I am all set for a sprint. It is a women's event, a longer swim than a sprint but a shorter bike (I would like more bike miles but whatever) and supposed to be beginner friendly... I figured this way I could still get in my goal of a tri this season.

Anyway, all was pretty good as of a few weeks ago - I was doing swim workouts to offset my riding days and even did some OWS in Cape Cod Bay if you can call it that- first time with wetsuit, yucky salt water etc - which now I understand COMPLETELY why people freak out, even without having a thousand or so others around... My tactic was just try to spend a decent time in the water (that is 20-30 minutes) even if I wasn't swimming every moment, and I found I could not swim into the waves at all, so I'd backtrack and do laps swimming with the waves. It also took some getting used to the flotation (but cool) and the lack of a nice clear line to look at... Anyway, I want to try again this weekend in a lake which is fresh water and this is a lake event anyway. We'll see how it goes.

Pool swimming distance I can comfortably complete a longish swim (defined as 50-75 lengths of 25 yrd pool) with pretty good time consistency and comfort. Thanks, BTW to an old thread in which some of you helped me find a good lap counter...

But OWS definitely adds some wrinkles to the swim and I could stand to do more of it. I have a new respect for those who are comfortable with it...

Here's my other concern, I've been having some leg issues with a tweaked foot and now knee. Pretty sure I know what is going on with both (foot traces back to long unplanned walk in clipless shoes from a late July training ride, and is aggravated by running, and knee is 2 days old issue but probably triggered by a pavement run on Monday, issue surfaced on Wednesday). anyway long story short I still want to do it, but I may have walk the 5k if these pains don't go away.. and the only way I can think they'll go away is by not running for a few weeks which leads up to the event...

I need to decide if I will enter soon. If I don't get this event, I'm pretty out of luck due to schedule, and colder weather coming soon, for the rest of the year. There is one duathlon I could probably do (the same one I did last year). Of course, I will still be riding for a while...

what do you think? I hate to have to shelve the idea but I really might have to walk if I enter... BTW swimming (Wednesday) went well even with above issues though I took it somewhat easy. I am planning to bike on Sat with a friend and don't expect a problem there either (also not weight bearing).

anyway, thanks for reading the ramblings. feeling a little discouraged after having set this as a goal for this year and unsure if I should take the gamble of entering.