This Sunday Justin and I will be participating in the Jamestowne International Triathlon - 1.5K swim, 40K bike, and 10K run. It will be our first event of that distance, our first event together, and our first night away from our kids in two and a half years since our son was born.
A few months ago when we registered, I naively thought that I'd get myself into some sort of training regimen. I didn't learn my lesson from the half marathon and really thought that excitement and good intentions would make it happen.
The plain truth is that it. did. not.
Do I have excuses? Oh sure! I have lots of them. Here are just a few:
1. I tore my hamstring my freshman year of college. I deserved it really - I was making fun of a group of spritely little cheerleaders, jumped into my split, laughed with my friends as I hoped no one noticed me hobbling back to my dorm. I then spent the next three days in my loft because I couldn't move. Nearly 20 years later, I still have a lot of scar tissue that occasionally wreaks havoc on my hamstring (right), my left hip, my left knee, my right foot, etc. For the past couple of months I've been participating in an after school fit club with some co-workers, and several of the exercises have exacerbated my hamstring. I've iced and stretched and woken up in the night and done it all over again, but it's definitely been a nuisance. I cut down how often I was going to fit club, and I started modifying a lot of the exercises, but the girl leading it is a great girl, and I wanted to support her, so I kept going when I could. The result has been an overall decline in regular exercise since so much of the time I was hurting.
2. I've been working on the diet changes and have given myself too much credit and leeway to do nothing because I've suffered horribly from chocolate omission.
3. Some days have been rainy.
4. Or they've been too hot.
5. I haven't wanted to go by myself.
6. Cleaning and organizing random areas of my house suddenly becomes very important right before I am able to leave for the gym.
Recently I've been able to add two more:
7. My son spiked a 104 fever on Friday and has been attached to me every day until today. I realize that this wouldn't have been my time to train, but it's definitely bumped me from "tapering" to "slothing around". Until last night, I had come to accept that this would be Justin's race and that I would either take the boy with me to watch or we would stay home and wait to hear about it. Now he seems fine, so we're back to our original plan.
8. I woke up Monday morning with a crick in my neck and have been moving like a robot since - particularly driving the car. I can't even imagine bilateral breathing right now...
Are there more? Probably. Yes. Certainly.
Does it matter? I'm not sure.
I loved the half marathon most because I gave myself permission for whatever happened to happen. Everybody knows that I'm not in this to win it, and when I start thinking about competing I turn into my freaked out stress case state. Instead of getting ready for this race, I'm choosing to just look at Sunday as a fun day of exercise and will make me healthier and stronger than I am right now. Can I swim a mile? Yes. Can I bike for 25? Yup. Can I run for six? Um... after the prior two? I can probably shuffle and schlep my body the distance. Do I see myself on a podium? No. Does that matter? NOT IN THE LEAST.
On Friday Justin and I went for a 50 mile bike ride, and it was great. We casually talked about our upcoming triathlon, and I told him that my "training" is all for the day that he and I take a weekend to bike the C&O Canal to a bed and breakfast. It's for our recent trip to the zoo with the kids when I didn't get tired and could walk around for the entire day without resenting him or the kids for making me move faster. It's for all of the extra steps that I take that I wasn't taking a couple of years ago.
So... 1.5; 40; 10?
It sounds like a good way to spend a Sunday to me.
