Thanks for all the fish.

Dear Diary, it has been so long since I last wrote to you. Have you missed me?

So, lots to catch up on...

Two weeks ago I managed to get a new gym card. They didn't retake my picture, but turns out the card still works from the pocket in my gym bag so the uglee picture can stay hidden. I did a mini-brick with 25 minutes on the bike and a 10 minute run. It was amusing to see me, since I had forgotten to bring my running shoes and so I did the whole thing in my Keen shoes. (Favorite Brand of Shoe Ever. Seriously. I have 3 pairs; would have more but they are a little on the spendy side.) I didn't do anything on Friday or Saturday, but I did get a nice bike ride in on Easter Sunday. I also purchased my very first pair of clipless pedal shoes! I chose not to get pedals at the time. (Big mistake; see below.) While I was at the bike store I put a super fancy extremely expensive bike on layaway because it was the last day of a sale. I might purchase it! Although I probably should look for something a little less carbon. But it was a really nice ride, for the 10 minutes I had time to check it out. Felt really comfortable, but that probably means the fit wasn't right. One thing stopping me is where I found it; don't think Performance Bike does the serious kind of fitting that I might find elsewhere. (Buying a new bike is really challenging and somewhat discouraging.)

Last week I was pretty good. I got a 30 minute run in on Wednesday, a 45 minute spin workout on Thursday, and a 30 minute swim session on Friday which was my first time back in the pool in over a month. I never manage to get the Monday workouts in and I skipped the Sunday workout.

I took my new clipless shoes with me to the gym on Thursday, thinking it would be a piece of cake clipping in. Well, imagine my surprise when that did not work. I foolishly didn't read the directions, but more importantly, I didn't quite understand that the cleats come with the pedals, not the shoes! I hadn't brought my other shoes with me from the locker room, so I had to force the shoe into the toeclips. Very disappointing. I have not yet gone to get cleats or pedals, so I won't be able to use the shoes until then. I may decide to put pedals on my clunker; it's a mountain bike, so mountain bike pedals might not be terribly odd. I have to see.

Tomorrow I am going to try to do my run outside. I like that better than running on the treadmill. Depends on whether I can manage to do it during the morning.

Felled By The Flu

Well, possibly by the cold. It's hard to know when you've got only about half the symptoms of each ailment.

As you can guess I missed my Sunday workout. I'm sad, because those are the only ones I've been even slightly managing to do.

As for getting back on track... Well, I still need to get a new gym card. Yes, my name is Slacker, why do you ask? Also, it's Spring Break this week so the gym has limited hours.

I would like to remedy the card issue on Thursday, so I may be able to get the Thursday workout done. Also, I'm going to visit my friends in the DC region so I should be able to get a swim and bike/run in! Hopefully S will help coach me again.

To Do List:

1. Email the 2 students who offered to be my swim coach
2. Get new gym card

I should be able to do that, right?

Six Mile Run

My gym card is missing; I fear it may be lost. On the plus side, I really disliked that picture and won't be sad to take a new one. I am irritated about replacing it though. It's been missing all week, so I never did get to the gym for my workouts. Second week in a row... I know that isn't good.

The plan had this past week as a "recovery" week with very light workouts per sport. I guess you could say I took that to extreme. I did want to get a good workout in today as a make-up. The plan called for a 20 minute easy run. I chose to do 6 miles instead. I tried to calibrate my Nike+, but the first time I pulled the chip out right before I reached .5 mile, the second time didn't seem to actually be correct, so I'm hoping the third time is the charm.

My Triathlon & Training Info

This is a catch-up post for those who have not heard the details yet and didn't see them in the about me section.

I have signed up to do the Philadelphia Women's Triathlon here in Philly on July 6, 2008. It's a 750 meter swim (about .5 mile), 17 mile bike, and 5k (3 mile) run. This is considered a Sprint Distance. Sprints can vary quite a bit from race to race. This race has a longer bike portion than others.

The second triathlon I signed up to do is The Nation's Triathlon in DC on September 14, 2008. It is an Olympic Distance tri, and about twice the distance of my first tri. It's a 1.5 k (about 1 mile) swim, 25 mile bike, and 10k (6 mile) run.

When trying to decide what to do about joining a gym, I chose the least expensive option - I joined the gym at my college alma mater. As an alum I get a nice break on the price; a whole year costs about one or two months at some of the other local gyms, and I get access to an olympic sized pool and other fitness equipment. The downside to this is that there are no spinning classes, no yoga classes, no master swim groups (that I know of yet but I still have to check), and since the students are currently on winter break I am stuck with odd hours of availability. Some of the other local gyms do offer Day Pass options, which I will probably use from time to time just to have access to a spinning class or master swim to check my progress. I can find some spinning podcasts (although I haven't listened to one yet) so as long as I know how to do it on my own I still can.

Today was not made of win.

I have been having a hard time sleeping lately. I just can't seem to get to bed at a decent hour, or I can't stay asleep, general insomnia issues. I'm fine if I take Tylenol PM, but I don't like to do that too much. This morning I completely missed my first appointment because I overslept. This did not start my day out on a good foot.

One thing that was pretty positive to note however was that my legs feel pretty good; better than they normally do after a run. I'm thinking the biking first actually was really good for me!

I packed my swim stuff last night and did remember to grab my gym bag. (I failed to bring my ipod for work, and didn't know where I put my regular set of keys.) I was a little worried about how I was going to get into the gym, since it's key-card access only. I had a workaround all figured out but then I found my keys in my gym bag! Crisis averted.

This was my first time in the pool where the purpose was to actually swim and not just cool down from sunbathing. Bought a new silicone swim cap, and new goggles too. I was hoping these items would help me magically be able to swim laps, but alas this was not true. I don't know how many times I actually managed to make it back and forth in the 30 minutes I stayed in the pool. I do know it got my heart beat going, even though I don't yet have a HR monitor, as I had to stop for a bit until I could catch my breath several times. Some laps I did freestyle, and some were breast-stroke, or doggy paddling to get from one end to the other. I was really grateful there weren't many people around to see me splashing and gasping like a fish out of water.

There's a swim workshop I would dearly love to do next weekend, but it's $500! At the moment I can think of better things to be doing with my money than that. I am contemplating getting the swim dvd, drill cards, and book package though. I'm also hoping to maybe get some cheap swim lessons from one of the students, or maybe the swim coach can help me out at least once or twice.

There are so many areas I need to work on before July. On the one hand, isn't that what this process is all about? On the other, it's so discouraging to be starting from zero for everything. I need to watch more of those inspiring Iron Man competitions; if amputees and legally blind people can do this I need to suck it up and stop whining!