Two Weeks to Go! OMG!!

I'm getting solo nervous about this HIM.  I know I can do the bike (as long as I don't get a flat, knock on wood) and the run should be fine…but the swim just kills me.  It's all so based on how the water is that day; churning water is no fun…but I'll hope for calm and smooth!

My workouts have been going well, for the most part.  I did slack off a bit this week by skipping a swim and today's workout was just blah.  I got up this morning and headed to the beach to be a watchman to someone else who needed to swim.  I was there from 0900 to 1000 and intended to do my short brick of 60 minutes on the bike and then a 90 minute run.  I got the 60 on the bike, but when I went to run, my body said, "no."  And not just a "I don't feel like doing this," but a flat "nope.  Not gonna happen," feeling.  I don't do that often (I love the challenges of long workouts!) but I guess sometimes I just have to listen and take a break…and a three hour nap.

My brick yesterday was fun though.  Three and a hours on the bike and then what should have been a 60 minute run.  I got in about 30 minutes of running, but then Minoo (my chocolate lab) was with me from miles two to four and she just couldn't do any more running after about a mile and a half.  I started to worry that she would overheat, as it is starting to get pretty warm now, so I backed off to a fast walk for the last 30 minutes.  I probably just should have left her at home, but she does love a good run.  And she's a lab, so she needs some movement to be happy…but she's also got one heck of a fur coat and isn't outside a whole lot, so I need to ease her into warmer weather running.  Slow and steady, but she'll get it…and I'll remember to only take her in the mornings or evenings.

I lathered up with sunscreen yesterday and still managed to get a burn on my back.  I have the most random patterns back there because of all of the different shirts with various strap locations, lol.  I would say I'm striped, but stripes look better than what I have going on.  ;)

I did get to do a bit of what I call "age-shaming" yesterday.  I rode for 2.5 hours and then met up with some peeps for a workout.  These guys are in their early 20s and I absolutely smoked them then got back on my bike and did a whole lot more.  I pointed out afterwards that they were slim, 22 y/o men in their prime and that they just had their asses handed to them by a heavyset, middle-aged woman who had already done two and a half hours on a bike.  I gave them the, "REALLY??" look and hope they got the point.  They looked embarrassed, so I'm hoping they'll get off of their gaming systems, out of their rooms, and actually do some stuff outside now...or their next PT test is gonna suck and I'll have a different lecture then.

Random thoughts while swimming...

Have you ever swam laps in a pool?  And I mean a lot of them, just back and forth...back and forth...stroke, stroke, stroke, breathe...stroke, stroke, stroke, breathe...?

Because I gotta be honest, I think about the most random stuff ever while I swim. This morning, for example--I arrive really early at the Y (0500) so I can get my swim done and it's, not surprisingly, fairly empty at that hour. The lifeguard was there, then me and then two gentlemen I see there regularly came in. I'm moving, staring at the tiled line on the pool bottom (black, white, grey, white, black) and notice that both of the men I'm in the pool with are black. The lifeguard is Hispanic. I'm white. 

Why does this matter?  That was my point--it doesn't. I'm trying to visualize life before equal rights and why on earth it mattered who did what where?  I'm so glad I was born today, here, and not somewhere else or in another time. 

Then my thoughts drifted elsewhere--sometimes about work, sometimes about what I should get my sister for her birthday, sometimes about my dogs, and sometimes I was making lists of words for no real reason.  

Seriously, it's weird to swim for long periods of time.