Last week, final June and beginning July, our rural Kansas weather was really quite nice, given that it's summertime. It rained ~ 3" (Sheesh. I have always hated when folks talk about rain gauges, and here I am, doing it.) The mornings were cool, and the days were overcast, with spits and spots of precipitation hither and thither.
Last Friday was a pretty great summertime day in my books. I was happy. (There are lots of summertime days when I am burrowed under, in a summertime ennui, and I can't seem to surface, physically or mentally.) But I was a happy camper last Friday.
So much so, that when I read online about a mini-triathlon being held in two weeks...
I was in my happy place: a cool, overcast day with no wind or dust. Initially, I called that Spouse o' Mine and told him about the mini-triathlon. Did he want to enter with me? No?
But he encouraged me on, and so I mulled over the prospect the rest of the morning and into the afternoon. Visions of grandeur frolicked in the cool, overcast day. There might have even been Rocky music playing.
Yes, I did.
I signed up for it.
I have been swimming laps at the university natatorium (read: swimming pool) for nearly ten weeks now. I can ride a bike. My running is pretty sketchy, especially in temps and humidity which make that trickle of sweat head south - oosh! My skin crawls.
And so here I am, two weeks before a 200-yard swim, 6-mile cycling, and 2-mile run.
I can do all the three independently. Yesterday as I climbed out of the pool, having timed myself TWICE on a 200-yard swim, I asked myself, "How do you feel? Feel like a really fast 6-mile bike ride?"
The answer was "ungh...I don't think so..."
A couple of days ago I practiced some cycling sprint intervals and eight miles of riding, after which I asked myself, "Are you capable of putting on running shoes and going down the pike two miles?"
The answer was, "Well. Heck. Maybe a walk/run???"
And so it goes, this first week of mini-triathlon training. I looked online for some training tips, and what I found were training regimens for twelve weeks out. Surely they were for real triathlons? If not, then I am in for a big surprise/disappointment, come race day.
4 comments:
I'm waiting to hear the results of this mini-triathlon. I am nineteen years older than you and this just sounds like a death wish to me. My sister did a fast-walking marathon and came in before some of the "runners."
You are ambitious! :) Good luck!
The way I view it? If it's hot, I can always not go. If I crap out after the first two elements? I can always walk away. Ha ha! I am not a quitter by nature, but in that I am having so much fun this week (and hopefully next), getting prepped (instead of twelve weeks?), makes all the difference in my summertime ennui. I wake up forward-thinking, and not "Oh, another hot-awful day".
We're all baked out here. No storms except lightening hits in dry places. Half of Antelope Island is on fire (on the shores of the Great Salt Lake).Summer is not my favorite season anymore.
Post a Comment