I came to work on Tuesday after my first morning swim and would tell anyone who would listen, "I did three sports in three days! I did three sports in three days!" I never thought I would exercise six days of the week, even on the weekends. I never thought I'd do more than one sport per season. And I never thought I'd work out more than once per day. Welcome to the week of firsts!
This week I took my first steps to truly becoming a triathlete. I worked out 7 times in six days. One day I even did two sports! And I found out this is going to be harder than I thought.
Swimming:
Yeah. So I hate morning. You can ask anyone I've ever woken up with (from sleepover buddies to camping friends to my own mother), I hate waking up. It is, without a doubt, my least favorite sport. But something about swimming makes me think I have to do it before work. And when you're spending three hours a night hunting for (and losing out on) apartments, you DO have to do it before work. So on Tuesday I woke up at 5:00 am to go swimming. And I actually enjoyed myself. Our swim workouts this week were only 30 minutes long, so though I was having flashbacks to the Crystal Lake Nadiators, the practice was not nearly as hard as those. I learned a lot about pool etiquette (when there are only two simmers, you split the lane rather than swimming in a circle), damn near crashed into a dude with a Lance Armstrong bracelet on (before I learned about pool etiquette), and realized that swimming is a really good workout. Halfway through the swim I noticed my arms were getting really tired and sore. "Gosh" I thought. "I am really out of swimming shape." Then I remembered that you can kick while you're swimming. When I stopped dragging my limp lower body through the pool with only my arms, things got a lot more pleasant. And my second swim of the week happened in the evening, so all was well.
Running:
I had three really nice, quick runs this week, with excellent weather, excellent company. Monday Jake and I took a house hunting break to run through the new neighborhood and check it out. Wednesday was a running club day and because it was only a 30-minute run, we got to skip the hills! Matt of course kept running because he likes pain. Saturday was our first official Team In Training workout of the season. Though I am going to switch teams since I'm moving into the city, it was wonderful to meet half of the people I'll be running the race with, and to get some triathlon basics from our expert coaches. This is going to be such a different experience from the winter season, with a larger group and a diverse set of activities. But I am so excited. We ended the morning's triathlon clinic with a quick 25 minute run through Fairfax, VA. I'm right in the middle of the pack for speed and endurance, which is a nice place to be.
Biking:
It is abundantly clear that this will be the hard part of this program for me. Bikes are scary. Riding in a city is scary. Biking up hills is hard. But I finished my biking on Friday faster and farther than Sunday, and tackled a pretty horrible hill in the process. I'm still getting used to the weirdness of my triathlon bike, having to move handles to shift or break, unclipping from the pedals to stop, and leaning down while riding. But it makes me feel super badass, so we'll go with it.
Next week I'm nervous that I'll be in Seattle for a wedding (yay Seattle!) so I'm trying to plan out my workouts and see if I can't get most or all of them in. Megan the bike tutor (who is also a triathlon tutor) says "when in doubt, go for a run." So if you see me running up and down the hilly streets of Seattle, invite me over to your pool! Because I don't like running THAT much!
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