The Countdown Continues ...

Only 12 days left until the Tri for the Cure and I'm feeling okay about it. I don't think I'm going to end up being as competitive as I'd like to be or as one of the trainers at work (also doing the tri) thinks I'm going to be (she thinks i'm going to finish in 1:45 ... yeah whatever), but I think I'm okay with it. Sure, my competitive nature is struggling with this somewhat-acceptance, but I've made enough strides along the way to say, "Quiet, you!"

My swimming, which was total crap four months ago, has picked up fairly well. Each time I'm in the pool I can do my laps quicker. Granted, I still can't do many consecutively (or really, any), but I've always had issues with endurance. I haven't yet done an open water swim (this weekend! a little late, but one is better than none, right?), but I've been logging pool time when I can manage ... which means waking up over an hour earlier than normal to swim before work.

While I've never considered myself much of a runner and have claimed to hate the mere activity for years, the more I run, the more I'm okay with it. Though it's not much, I've been logging around 6-8 miles a week for the past month. True, that's about one-fourth of what I should be logging, but for someone who can't stand to run and whose lungs feel like exploding half the time when she does run? That's not bad .... especially considering that I've done the Glendale Farm loop twice in just about 30 minutes (so doing just a tad longer than a 5k faster than i've ever officially raced a 5k) WITH a small stretch break in the middle. How I'll do after swimming and biking is another story, but in general, I'm starting to actually enjoy running, if only a little.

My one main issue now is the cycling part. While I never focused on it much, thinking it would be my strong point, I'm now thinking I may have screwed myself over (go figure; this is a typical t trait). When I did my somewhat-crazy long bike ride a week and a half ago (so the last time i posted), I did have quite a bit of leg burn that wasn't happy at all. I do just fine on a stationary, but put me outside and really, what I'm doing isn't quite as nice as I'd like it to be. I'm sure actual hills and wind and other such factors help with the added pain, but y'know. Still, I think I need to somehow try to squish in a few long rides this week.

So, for the most part, everything seems to be coming together. There's a few key things I haven't quite gotten to yet (open water swim, brick workouts, scout the course, learning general bike maintenance (next monday)), but compared to where I was a few months ago? Light years away.



Of course, that tells me that if I was doing what I'm doing now back four months ago, I'd be totally awesome right now, but I think I'd also be more bored with doing the same three things than I am now. As much as I was apathetic about the elliptical before this training, I'm really looking forward to hopping on one again because it will be something DIFFERENT. This boredom is also another reason why I'm playing hockey again, even though it's probably not typical triathlon cross-training.