Sports amnesia, and a start

After one year and nine months, I went out for a bike ride this morning. I have this affliction, the opposite of childbirth amnesia- where you forget the pain because of the wonderful outcome. With sports like biking and swimming, I remember the pain or inconvenience and forget how much I enjoy them. Once we started I remembered how much I enjoy being on my bike- although being on it for over an hour did make me a bit uncomfortable- I've got to investigate seat options. It was not a speedy ride, 13.3 miles at 11.8 mph. I was with a couple people on mountain bikes and I wasn't really interested in pushing too hard anyway. I nice warm up. I've got seven weeks left, I'm hoping to get in at least two rides a week. We'll see how that goes. If nothing else, it's a start.

Next week. The pool.

I must have been dehydrated

For some reason this morning I stepped on the scale again, back to 152.5. At least I don't have to feel guilty about signing up as an Athena anymore, right? Ha,ha. In all seriousness, I'd love to get back to 140 pounds, but I don't have the motivation right now. I had forgotten about a work obligation that meant I needed to be at my desk by 6am this morning, so the swim did not happen. I can get ready for a sprint tri in only seven weeks, right? Oh, that bike is gonna kill me. And, maybe I should run again soon. Whatever.

Laziness Reward?

I've been quite uninspired for the past few weeks. After the ugly 5-miler, and then the ugly swim last weekend, last week it was all I could do to drag to the gym and slog through some half-hearted workouts. I've also just been so, so tired again, this morning I was up from 3-4:25 and then when I looked at the clock and thought "I'll get up in five minutes", I fell asleep until 6am- the start of my class at the gym. Oh well. I'm planning a pool swim tomorrow at 5am, I've got my fingers crossed that it happens.

Anyway, Saturday morning I stepped on the scale for the weekly home weigh-in, expecting about 152. I looked down and saw 149.5. I stepped off, stepped back on- 149.5. I picked up the scale and moved it, stepped on again- 149.5. Really? Finally, for the first time since probably 2000, I'm below the 150 mark?! Woohoo. Maybe that's the motivation I needed to get me back on track. Maybe not, given that I slept through this morning's planned workout, but maybe it will work.

Last week I signed up for my August triathlon, though, in the Athena category. I'm only 0.5 pound under now, and I just figured maybe I wasn't going to lose any more weight. I guess if I do, I'll contact the race director and switch to the open category.

I've organized a group ride for this Thursday morning, it will be interesting to get back on my bike. I'm looking forward to it, except for the obvious drawback of seeing how very far out of biking shape I have fallen.

I'll take the whole pie

Humble pie, that is. I got up this morning and experienced the most unpleasant swim of my entire life. There were a few contributing factors, though:
- Yesterday I was busy most of the day with my sister's wedding shower.
- Last night I attended her bachelorette party at a local casino and didn't get to bed until 1:15am.
- I was up at 5:45am with Cutie running a fever of 101 degrees, bringing the grand total of sleep to four and a half hours.
- The tide at the race was so low that for almost the first 200 meters and then again for the last 100 meters or so, it was impossible to swim. The water was not even as deep as my knees for much of that distance.
- Finally, and the part that was the most disturbing, I experienced my first swim panic.

Literally, I got into the water to start swimming, took a giant swallow of water and thought- "I've forgotten how to swim". I felt pretty sure I was going to have to swim with my head completely straight up out of the water at first. Then we stopped swimming to walk again, I was able to catch my breath and I calmed down a little. I started swimming again, was still very much out of rhythm, I could put my head in the water, but I had to breath every right arm stroke. After I rounded the first buoy I calmed down and was able to swim the longer leg, still only every third stroke breathing, before walking in from the final buoy along with everyone else. It was ugly and it was a wake-up call.

Time to swim, run and bike- the race will be here in less than two months. There's a smack from reality.

Swimming's like childbirth

I've been wondering all week whether I should try to find my wetsuit before Sunday's triathlon swim. I'm hoping that even though I haven't been swimming, at all, I should be able to cover the half mile in under 20 minutes. That's about the pace I was at when I started training for my '06 triathlon, and that was after about 15 years off from swimming. I was talking with another woman in the locker room and she equated the question to the whole natural vs. drug-assisted childbirth. Did having a child without drugs earn me some sort of reward? No, not other than having a baby, which would have happened even with drugs. It didn't really make me tougher than anyone else, it was just what I wanted to do. Would swimming with no wetsuit mean I'm tougher? Not really, maybe just stupid. The water temp is in the mid 50s, and I haven't immersed myself in mid fifty degree water for 20 minutes and tried to maintain a swim. I think I'll look for that wetsuit this afternoon, the epidural of swimming.

Last night Hot Wheels moved up to Level 2 for the last night of swim lessons. Not sure why they moved him for only the last day, but now at least we know what to work on over the summer. He was so proud that he completed Level 1, and he's really taken to the swimming. Superman will likely be a level 1 for a few more sessions. He'll have to float on his back, float on his stomach and demonstrate a seated dive before he moves to level 2. Even then, he can't move up from level 2 until he's 5 years old, still a year and a half away. So there's no rush. I'm just glad to see them enjoying the swimming lessons. Some day soon I'll get Cutie in the pool, too.

Another reminder

I am aware on a daily basis how lucky I am to be living my life. A very good friend of mine gave birth to her son back in March, 12 weeks premature. He's been such a fighter since then and things were looking good and then this week he took a turn for the worse. He's likely not going to make it more than a few more days, his little lungs just haven't grown to support a growing baby. The staff at the hospital are at a loss because they haven't had a child with this condition live more than a few days. I've heard that they are just waiting at this point and hold very little hope that he could ever recover. But, miracles happen, so if you've got a prayer to offer up for Fletcher, he could use it. His family could use some prayers, too, he's the youngest of four children, the oldest being only 5, so it's a tough time for all of them.

Who needs practice?

I was determined that this week I would start my swim workouts again. Then, yesterday, I was talked into swimming the 0.5 mile leg of a triathlon- this Sunday. My sister's bachelorette party is Saturday night and the last actual swim workout I did was in November. Of 2006. Should be fun. I've decided I'm not going to do any workouts before then, I'll just swim it cold. We're a very relaxed team, so my team mates are fine with that, they're just happy to have a swimmer. I'm shooting for under 20 minutes, under 18 would make me happier, though.

The boys went to "buddy night" with some friends that take karate. Hot Wheels was so excited to be there and he really took to the whole class. Then I found out how much they want to sign up- $189- a month. He was so disappointed when I told him it just wasn't going to happen. That's more than I pay for his preschool class. I told him he's got swimming for now, and he seemed okay with that. I was so sad to see his disappointment, though. I would love to sign up for karate again myself and I've thought about getting a family membership somewhere when the kids are older. At that place the bill would rival my mortgage. Oh well, we've got other luxuries, the kids will learn they can't have, or do, everything.