Melissa - Vain Triathlete

6.2 Miles:43:20. One whole minute slower than last year. Not sure why. Could be the humidy, my weight or my hard bike workout on Thurs or simply low mileage. I was hoping for a PR but it wasn't my Great day. It was a good day nonetheless. I was 5th master overall and beat my rival in the last 400 meters. Plus, Kathy and Fergie were there, my club members were there. They did awesome, especially Andy and Melissa B. who beat her son ( I know that tickeled her to death) . The Ramble always has a good band and great beer!

On Saturday I took the plunge. I spent at least a 1/2 hour getting ready for my first bike ride outside this year. I must admit I was a little nervous. After months of training indoors on the trainer, I was not sure about how things would go outside. After all it's much safer inside and there are no elements to deal with. No cars, no worrying about getting off the bike in time, no hills unless you put them in there, blah blah blah.. Well, after the first 200 meters I realized I am in love with biking. I can't believe I waited so long. It was a beautiful day. I was well prepared and I had a great bike. I biked 26 miles by myself. Got lost only once. Fell to the ground only once. It was fabulous and I can't wait to get out there again. Did I say I love my bike? Thank god for the women who shoot for hirer goals than I do. Today I went to the Women's Olympic Marathon trials. They are so inspirational to me. I used to wonder why people would be so impressed with me when I ...

I have about two months to get my swimming up to speed so that at least I won't be last out of the water. My friend Mary recommended the "total immersion" book and cd for learning how to swim. I am grateful because I already like how the new technique feels. The small issue I have is that I am usually only good for about 10-20 minutes of reading per day. Althought it's an easy read, I do not tend to read a lot at night. This means I have to get through this book and apply all the drills that are before me in two months. Not only that, but I must master the drills before I actually incorporate them into actually swimming long distances. It's a journey that I am happy to be on. This triathlon is going to be very interesting regardless of the outcome.

I recently looked up my running weekly mileage for the past 11 weeks. I have run a little over half of what I used to run for the past 11 weeks, approximately 26 miles per week. My usual weekly mileage when not traning for a marathon was around 35 miles per week or 40-60 when training for a marathon. I am in utter disbelief that it took me this long to learn how to get in shape the easy way. I mean seriously. Twenty six miles per week and I'm still running as fast, if not faster, than when I was running forty miles per week!!!!! I wish I knew this before logged all those miles. I can only sum it up in these words. EVEN AFTER RUNNING FOR DECADES, YES DECADES, THERE IS STILL A LOT TO LEARN ABOUT RUNNING!

This seems to inflict many people who try to switch gears so to speak. It seems I keep turning my regular buds down for running dates. Not that I'm running much less either.. it's more that my schedule is so specific that I can't manage the meeting time that I used to. This makes me feel a little guilty. Who would have thought that just because I want to do a triathlon I would feel this way. I have to tell myself that 'this is my goal for now. It doesn't mean it will be forever, just for now. I am coming out of my comfort zone a little bit by doing this so I have to give myself some space.' I'm proud of myself for taking this plunge. It's not easy. It would be WAY easier to just run as I usually do and have plenty of running buddies. I hardly even have training buddies now when I do do my triathlon training. I see Mary for a second or two at the pool but that's it. Even tomorrow. I had to say "no, sorry, I have to do a brick workout...