Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Conversations at the bike shop

Last evening I picked up my bike from the shop as it was getting a tune-up. A lady there asked me if I were doing triathlon races and I said yes. I asked her the same. She said no she doesn't; she wanted to, but her husband says no. She actually looked sad when she told me this.

Another friend of mine is doing the same training I am and he has three children and is a single dad. He says the training is making family life very hard. He wants to stop to enjoy more time with his kids. His kids are also very young.

Another friend of mine says he needs marriage counseling because of the time he spends away from his wife with early morning swims and long weekend workouts.

I will sometimes complain about being single, but other times I feel that singleness has so many blessings and I really have no reason to complain. I train as I please and get up early or stay up late and no one cares. I don't feel like my training is being selfish to a marriage or taking precious time away from children.

It simply makes me eat all the time and for that I REALLY can't complain because I do like to eat.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Weekend Update

Friday night I spent swimming laps at the pool. My friends all had dates or went to the movies and I swam never-ending laps and went to bed early. Such is life and it is my choice to spend my Friday evening at the gym.

Saturday I did a 3.5 hour bike ride and felt really out of it. I was in some kind of funk. I had a brick scheduled with a quick 6 mile run afterwards, but had to wait a while to recoop my energy level to do the run. So tired and weird feeling. I think my electrolyte level was too low.

Sunday I participated in a 4000m open water swim race. If this is any indication of what is to come, I better get my armor set up and practice swimming with fists. I was clobbered and hit and kicked so hard my goggles came loose and knocked my contact out of my eye. I treaded water to blink it back in. At 1300m, I threw up from an excess of water intake, suffered from 2000m to 3000m, and then from 3000m to 4000m, I swam my heart out as fast as I could. I don't know how I placed, but it doesn't matter. I did the best I could.

The race director said anyone not wearing a wetsuit is called a swimmer, those with wetsuits are called triathletes. That is fine with me. "Jennifer" and "swimmer" do not belong in the same sentence.

My wetsuit worked fine and didn't split open. Success!