Prioritizing

This week has been a new challenge for myself. I have started my summer class, which means the need to reprioritize everything in my life. Summer classes at DU are short, four weeks, and therefore very intensive. By August 13th, I will have attended 8 classes, probably read about 800 pages worth of comparative politics, written two 4-6 page papers, and still have a final due on August 20th. So, I have had to reorganize my life as the following:
1. School. I pay enough money for my education that school undoubtedly comes first.
2. Internship. While I am not making any money with the internship, it is invaluable experience. However I am not able to bring work home anymore, everything must be done while at work.
3. Training. This has been bumped down the list in priority. During the weeks it is even harder to get all my training in. I still run with the dogs in the morning, because I know it's best for the dogs and myself. I try to keep swimming in the afternoons after my internship, it depends on where I am with reading for school. Tuesday and Thursday training sessions are going to be harder to make, with the new schedule. I will continue going to the Saturday sessions, they should always fit into my schedule. At least in the next few weeks we aren't going to have our Thursday swim practice anymore; we start open water swimming on the weekends after we get our wet suits next week!

Today's ride was really nice. It was south of Denver and west of Castle Rock, starting out of a town called Sedalia. From the beginning, I was still having technical difficulties with my clips. I know they were on right this time, I made sure of that after they were on backwards AND upside down last week. But for the life of me I still could not clip in to my pedals! I went roughly five miles on the hills still attempting to clip in; it was getting rather frustrating! Finally Justin, one of the coaches, stopped and fixed the tension on the pedal part of the clip, and I was able to clip in! It was such a relief. Now I just had to deal with the trick of teaching myself how to ride while clipped in. It changes the way I keep my knees and my feet on the pedals, and that took some getting used to. I think it should help in the long run, but today it was really hurting my knees.

Last week I had also asked Justin the all-important sock question. What I had asked was whether we should change socks in between biking and running, he said that he didn't wear socks while riding. He said that he didn't wear socks on the bike ride! Well, I decided to go with that route today. Well, not exactly decided...I forgot my socks. So I went sockless. I don't know if I need to break my shoes to barefeet, or if I just need to go back to trying to remember to bring socks at a really early hour on a Saturday morning, but my feet definitely needed some getting used to it. It also probably didn't help that this is only my second time wearing the bike shoes, and the first time while actually clipped in to the pedals. I'm sure it was just the combination of everything, but regardless I am pretty sore today.

Well, here's the route I did:



Not entirely sure of where the turn-around point was, but this looked somewhat accurate. All I know is that the turn around point was at the end of a ridiculously difficult hill.

My other fun way of training in general, not necessarily for the triathlon, is with my new toy. I just got a Wii system, and got the Wii Fit with it. I am loving it! It offers yoga, strength training, aerobics and balance exercises. Needless to say, I have a lot of improvement to work on in many different fields. But it is still great fun, and I am really feeling the workouts.

Wash Park bike ride

This morning I took a nice little bike ride over to Washington Park. It's not too far away. I was supposed to meet up with my friend Nick. There was an event today called Donor Dash. I had not been able to sign up for it, I missed the deadline. Unfortunately I could not find him. It was still a nice bike ride.



I feel like what I wrote above could have been written by a third grader. I have started reading for my summer class that starts next week, and that has apparently shut my brain down. Or maybe it's the heat. I don't really like the hot weather. I prefer my air conditioning.

First brick workout

Today was my first brick workout. Of course it had to be in Boulder. That means waking up at 6:00 am on a Saturday morning. Making sure I really did pack everything last night. And taking off at 7:00 am so I could make it there by 8:00 am. Of course once I get out there, I realize we weren't supposed to meet until 8:30. Oh well.

The first thing that I discover is that I obviously put the clips on my shoes wrong. Backwards AND upside down. I'm smart like that. So I spent the better part of the ride unsuccessfully trying to clip into my pedals until I finally just gave up and rode on the flat side. I have something called campus pedals, which means that they have the clips on one side, and regular flat pedals on the other so I can still use it to commute short distances such as to school. I also apparently did not put my odometer on correctly, but to be fair I did try putting it on at 10:30 last night.

We did a nice route, just north of Boulder, in the area where Zach used to work. We almost went by the greenhouse, but it's on a dirt road. It was a nice 23 mile ride, although it was really hilly! Most of the hills I could get momentum from the downhill, but there was one that was particularly nasty. I also used my first energy goo. It's really gross, has a consistency similar to warm yogurt, but it certainly did the trick. I took it either just before, just after, or during the really nasty hill, I don't remember where anymore, but it definitely gave me the second wind that I needed.



23 miles later, we get back to the parking lot, and are told to change our shoes and go running. I can honestly say I have never felt so physically awkward as I felt this morning. Trying to run after riding your bike for two hours is so weird! My legs wanted to keep going in the cycling motion. My brain kept telling my legs that they were supposed to be running. My legs did not want to listen. It took about 10 minutes of really weird-feeling running to get over the mental/physical dichotomy I was experiencing.

But I made it and have now experienced my first taste at what the triathlon will be like. Of course, there was no swimming at the beginning. But we also rode 7 hilly miles further than the flat 16 mile course we will be doing. And ran about the same distance.

Two months to go? I think I will be over the weird leg/brain issues by then. Maybe. Hopefully. :)

First Goal Accomplished!

I am very pleased to announce that I have made my fundraising goal for this event! Despite only needing 35% of the total by the recommitment deadline, which is July 21st, through the help of my wonderful friends and family I have managed to reach over 100% by the recommitment deadline! This makes me feel really great. Not only do I have to no longer worry about raising the final few dollars, but I also feel the love and appreciation from everyone who helped me out, either through monetary donations, or help with fundraising events.

The other thing I am looking forward to is that next Tuesday we are doing a 5K race as a group. I think this will be very interesting to see how far I have come from the race I did back in May.

Back from the Big Sky

Things have slowed down a little bit for me, as far as training goes.

Last week Zach was in town. Late nights, sleeping in. Not too conducive for training, but it was fun and worthwhile. It is always great getting to spend time with him!

We were in Montana over the weekend, for Zach's friend's wedding. It was a great time, but there was very little free time involved. I even brought my running shoes up with full intentions to go running, but we were staying in a ranch house out in the middle of nowhere (gorgeous nowhere, I must add) and in all honesty, I was scared to death of getting lost in the middle of the Montana wilderness, so I ran maybe a mile, up and down the driveway, but was reluctant to venture out much further.

Yesterday I was not able to go running in the morning because we had to pick up the dogs from the kennel before my internship! I did go to the gym after work and go swimming; I got 1200 meters in. Plus rode my bike to and from the gym, so got about 4 miles of riding in. I know it's not much, but it's a start, right?

I have to officially do my swim assessment on Thursday. Because I got sick halfway through it two weeks ago, and was not able to make my swim practice last week, this is my last chance to do so! I have to swim somewhere between 400 and 600 meters without stopping. I say that because we really only needed to do 400 meters (half the distance of the race), but two weeks ago our coach decided we needed to swim 600 meters instead. I heard that last week, as a result of the previous week, they had to swim only 500 meters. So I don't really know how far I need to swim, but I also don't doubt that I can do it. We do almost 2000 meters in practice (with stopping), and I think I should be able to manage somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 mile.

Riding my bike to and from the gym yesterday, I have realized I have not ridden my bike nearly as much as I should have. I really have not been able to get to a Saturday riding practice since May (!!!!) because every weekend we have had practice I have been out of town, and the weeks I have been in town, we haven't had practice! I need to get on my bike more often, regardless of whether or not I have gotten my new frame. I have a tear in my frame, and fortunately Trek has a lifetime warranty on frames, I just need to get to the point where I have time to make my way out to Aurora and get this taken care of. Needless to say, that has not yet happened, and I am a little skeptical of riding my bike too much, because, as the guy who tuned my bike said, it could explode at any minute. (I don't think those were his exact words, but it was definitely his point.) Well, this Saturday we have a brick workout up in Boulder; a bike ride followed by a run. It'll be two hours of physical activity, I just hope I am up for it!

I am back on to my schedule of running with the dogs in the morning and swimming in the afternoon. I have also included riding my bike to and from the pool to help out a little bit with the bike riding. I know it's minimal, but anything helps, I suppose. Next week we'll see how much I can keep with my schedule I have been doing so far, since I start summer classes. It's only two days a week, but I go to my internship after class. I'm sure I'll be able to figure something out somehow.

Time to be a Geek

Ok, I have a little time on my hands, so I am going to be a geek. There is a website called mapmyrun.com, which I discovered last year while training up in Longmont, but I have just rediscovered it. So my training runs and rides (not swims though, that might be boring) will get logged in here, both with TNT and on my own. The first is the short run I did yesterday morning with the dogs.



I need to find some way to make the puppies easier to run with, they just pull so much! I talked with Charley, one of our coaches, and he said that there are waist leashes or something like that, although I could see that being a disaster in the making with these two dogs! Maybe what I just need are some well behaved dogs :)

Did not get out this morning; I had some technical issues in my apartment. You may say, I had a shitty morning. (My toilet backed up and overflowed.) So there went my morning run, I took an hour to fix that problem and by that point it had started warming up. So back to cleaning and more cleaning. At least my apartment is coming through quite well, and I think once it's cleaned and organized I think my overall attitude will improve. It's funny how that happens, especially when you don't have to climb over things in order to get around the apartment. I already feel much better in my bedroom and my spare room, just need to accomplish my living room!

So yes, I will continue logging my runs and bike rides on here, and you can follow my progress! And maybe once we get to the open water swim I'll start adding those too! :-D

Swim Assessment Failed

No, the reality is not as ominous as this title may make it sound.

Last night we were supposed to do our swim assessment. It was either last night or next Thursday. Well, since I am apparently going to be in Montana next Thursday (my type A side of me is coming out and going crazy by not knowing the details of our trip next weekend), I needed to do my swim assessment last night.

Yesterday I tried to eat light (note back to my "Chipotle for lunch on a swim workout day is not a good idea), and I thought I did so. But whatever was in my light eating upset my stomach. By about 3:00 pm it was starting to get angry at me, and I just tried to ignore it. I did a good job of ignoring it (after warning one of our coaches that I had a stomach ache before practice) until 6:00 pm, half an hour into our swim practice and 200m out of 600m into my swim assessment. To make things a little less graphic, let's say I jumped out of the pool at the 200 meter mark (1/3 of the way through!) and hugged the toilet for a few minutes. Needless to say, swim practice was over for me at that point.

So yes, I technically failed my first swim assessment because I only made it 1/3 of the way through. The reality is that I was good, and could have kept going, minus the whole upset stomach thing. I know I would have passed the swim assessment had I been feeling well. Now I just have to reschedule a time to do the swim assessment, since I won't be here for next week's practice, although I might even be able to do it during the swim practice after Montana.

And with Zach coming into town next week, I hope I keep up my routines. I am never good at waking up in the morning, but even more so when he is in town. But I have been good and running in the mornings with the dogs, although no longer on the days I have run and swim practice in the afternoons (I learned the hard way this past week...) and probably not on bike days, since those are so early. So an early morning run four days a week, swimming on my own four days a week, then track practice one day, swim practice one day, and I swear bike practice one day. I have not actually made a single bike practice since May! It's not my fault, it is just that every weekend that I have been in town, we have not had bike practice! Obviously there is none this weekend, so the next bike practice would be next week, which I am once again missing due to the wedding in Montana. But after that I will be able to make all the rest of them, I swear!

Realizing My Limits

I have come to terms with everything, and realized that, at this point in my life, staying with the shorter, local race is going to be in my best interest. To begin with, I am already competing in a triathlon, which is one of my goals. Due to circumstances that are in my life right now, traveling to Washington D.C. for the week, as amazing and fun as it would be, just isn't the right thing to do in my life right now. I have several reasons, some personal, but it is not because I am underestimating myself and my abilities. I feel confident that if I were to participate in the longer, more challenging race that I would be able to finish the event. That is not why I am staying with my original plan. But, knowing that I had originally signed up for the local Oktoberfest Triathlon for a reason, I got swept away in the bright lights of the big city, only to face the reality of the situation as it gets closer to the time before my recommitment.
Recommitment is in the next two weeks. It will give me a little more time to validate my decision, but I think this is what needs to be done. It is a difficult decision to make, but it is for the best.
But watch out DC: Next year I'll definitely be there!