It's gettin' real

We are leaving for California in two weeks.  Two weeks from today, actually.  I am starting to freak out, on the inside, where it counts.  I think I can make it, but honestly, I'm most worried about the run.  And my knee.  Will it hold up?  I've been afraid to run the past week.  What if the IT band is painful?  What if I re-aggravate it and cannot run?  Will I be able to make the cutoff if I have to walk the whole thing?  I could probably walk it in a little over 3 hours at a hustle pace.  I guess we'll see...

On a brighter note, I had a swimming lesson on Sunday, which was very helpful.  We worked on streamlining my stroke and on 1-beat kicks instead of flutter.  The kick makes it so I don't become so winded when I go hard.  And I can reliably do 1:12-or-under 50s.  I even got a 1:02 on my last 50...hooray!!!  She's really nice, but always looks a bit confused after I stop swimming, with her head cocked sideways.  If she had a beard, she might stroke it.  We had a good laugh about my uncoordinated breast stroke.  Apparently, the coordination of my kick and stroke is a bit off, and it was funny watching me try to put them together correctly :)  I feel much more confident that I'll be able to shave some time off of the swim over the next few years.  I'd like to be able to get out of the water and not have to chase people down on the bike in order to not be last.  Ultimately, I'm going to have to work on my body tolerating looooooonnnnnnnngggggg bikes and runs if I am going to be able to do a full Ironman.  But, I should probably get through this Half first...