Rain Delay

More accurately, lightning delay. The storms here in FL are absolutely fabulous, however, the lightning does interfere with my swimming laps in the outdoor pool. I was stormed out last night and was going to combine that short swim with today's longer one, but lightning stuck again and ruined my plans and left me with two other options: running or swimming. To be perfectly honest, I didn't want to do either! I'm sure you're shocked - Ms. Lacking in Self-Discipline Related to Exercise not wanting to do a workout?!?!? 

It was true. But I mobilized and headed to the somewhat sauna-like, poorly air-conditioned fitness room at the old apartment complex and got it done. I RAN of all things! And I ran 11 of the 13 minutes of the "short run" for the week and spent some quality time on the elliptical while watching a particularly great episode of "What Not to Wear".

And so it was that I made it through another day of the training plan. Just 5 billion more to go. Don't worry, I'm totally up for it! Or at least I am pretending I am..."fake it till you make it" as my friend Karin is fond of saying :)

Sicko...

Since I've been sick the last couple of days (yes, I suppose that is an admission), I haven't been able to keep up with my training schedule. Yesterday I was forbidden to run, and today I was way too tired and gross-feeling to get up to swim and bike at 5:30 this morning. I certainly wasn't sad to miss the swim this morning, though I seriously need the practice, but I must admit that I missed the run yesterday. Unlike Becky, I actually enjoy running and am looking forward to that part of our training. Too bad I can't trade my swimming leg of the triathlon for Becky's running one. Becky tells me that you can compete as a team in the longer triathlons with a different person doing each leg of the event. Maybe Becky can do the swim, and I'll do the run. Anyone up for the biking part? We can be a team! Anyway, I'm feeling a bit better today. I hope that after tomorrow I'll be back at full strength, and I can get back into my training. I suppose I should try to get today's short swim into my schedule sometime this week so that I don't get out of practice, but we'll have to see if I can get that motivated. Wish me luck!

The LONG SWIM...sounds menacing, huh?

Tonight was our first long swim and it was SO LONG! Ok, 20 minutes isn't that long in the grand scheme of things, but for me, 20 minutes of swimming seems like an eternity. Becky came to town for the weekend since she had a few days off, so we went to the pool together tonight to do our swim. Having her in the lane next to me made me feel a bit better about swimming. I mean if I started to drown, at least Becky could save me rather than the 16 year old lifeguard looking at me like I'm crazy from his chair nearby. Becky gave me some tips on my technique during our swim which I'm sure will prove to be helpful once I get over this whole being terrified of having my face submerged in water thing. Yes, I recognize that most people get over this fear when they take swimming lessons as kids, but I'm not most people. So, in the meantime, I'll just swim a lap or 2, notice that I haven't drowned, catch my breath, and swim on.

Post Run Blues

How is it that I can be on the freakin' elliptical for 45 minutes with no problem and not even run for 12 minutes straight? Does this make sense to anyone else? I KNOW it uses different muscles and all that crap, but I feel like the endurance part has got to transfer between activities somehow. Doesn't it? 

I'm not one of those girls who doesn't sweat or perspire or whatever, but I was totally drenched after my 9.5 minutes of running and my 2.5 minutes worth of walk breaks. I couldn't even finish the short run running. How pathetic is that? And I"m pretty sure I hated every minute of those 9.5 of running. Well, I guess the first 3-4 weren't completely horrible. I'm pretty sure that my aversion to running might somehow be more mental than it actually is a physical inability to perform the activity. My roommate, Sarah, suggested I read a sports psychology book. Maybe I should. I also was telling Erin I need to give myself a limit to the number of negative comments I can make about running and/or myself in relationship to running in any given week. I really should do that, but then what else would I write about? I wouldn't be able to complain about my 20 minutes of running I have to do on Sunday that there's no way in #*@^ that I'm going to be able to finish. Really, I will work on my attitude. And if anyone has any running secrets, I'm totally open to trying them and maybe even to not hating running anymore...

Tomorrow's a day off!

I'm not sure that starting training for the triathlon and my new job in the same week was that good of an idea. That said, I'm really looking forward to the day off from training tomorrow. It's sad that it's only 2 days in and I'm already SO excited about a day off! My run this morning was good. I'm not really worried about this part of the triathlon--unlike Becky, I don't think I'll die while running...swimming, however, is a different story.

Running

Most of you who know me know how much I absolutely HATE running!!! I really don't like it and generally have little use for it unless I'm being chased by someone scary. There are only 2 situations I have ever (almost) liked running in: a light to moderate drizzling rain and on the trails along the Chatahoochee River in Atlanta following a crazy day at work. Running in FL where it is approximately 5 billion degrees and 99.9% humidity most of the time does not fit either of those categories and therefore, I have to rely on Erin to tell me that I will not actually die while running and the teensy tiniest bit of self-discipline that I can muster.

12 minutes. That's the SHORT running day for Week 1. Are you KIDDING ME!?!??!?!?!?! I have to do that tomorrow? Eeeew! And then 20 minutes for the long run over the weekend. I have only a few times in my life ever run for that long continuously, one of which was when I ran my  first and only 5K a few years back. Thankfully there are some months between now and said triathlon - perhaps enough time for me to gain a bit more self-discipline and endurance for running. Time will tell, I suppose. 

Erin's first sports injury*

This is quite a momentous occasion--on the first day of my tri-training, I got my first sports injury. No worries, my injury is not serious and will not derail my training. I was swimming this morning before work and the pool was much more crowded at 5:30 am than it really should be so I had to share a lane with another swimmer. People who have ever walked anywhere with me know that I can't walk in a straight line to save my life. Well swimming apparently isn't any different--I can't swim in one either. In my attempt to stay clear of the super-fast swimmer who was sharing the lane with me, I tried to stay really close to the side of the pool and scraped my hand on the side. The cut is small, but hurts just the same. I'd like to use this injury as an excuse to stop the swimming portion of my training since I hate swimming, but I'm sure Becky wouldn't go for that. So, I will live to swim another day, injury and all. *I must confess that though I thought this was my first sports injury my mother reminded me that it wasn't; I broke my toe in gymnastics when I was a little girl. I will, however, claim this as my first sports injury as an adult. Here's hoping it's also the last!