Around the corner...

Change, temptation, hope: find them in the ordinary and the extraordinary taste of salt enhanced 70% bitter chocolate.

The training continues, though the reality of potentially drowning in open water surfaces and resurfaces. I don't like my local pool and have been travelling across town to another site that shall remain nameless so as to prevent traffic jams of folks heading out there to swim in near perfect indoor conditions: competition size, practically private lane swimming. Haven't I become the swimming diva...an irony of olympic proportions given my utter lack of skill and endurance. Still, though, how is it that the newbie is the only one observing proper pool etiquette?

Also, for the record, I'm paying an outrageous amount of $$ to rent a bicycle and helmet for the bike segment of the triathlon. No doubt, this is equivalent to a local Indonesian's monthly salary and I hate getting hosed like that. I'm happy to contribute to the local economy, but not in this particularly odious, foreign-run way. I'm sure the locals aren't seeing the $70 U.S. it has cost me to have a bicycle and helmet for two hours. Anyway. I continue to train past this and understand my absolute privilege in being able to participate in the first place.

In the meantime, thankfully I've remained injury-free. I've moved apartments, finished a second job and submitted the final grades for my day job...almost.

Departure for Indonesia: three weeks. Ready or not.

Cheers.

Soundtrack Pace

This was the last song of today's run, and perhaps I should show more restraint in sharing it.

My taste in running music usually runs a little less mainstream (arguably) and a little more house, i.e. faster, louder & less lyrical. What do you listen to?

The overall training continues, but I can't seem to do split shifts on this. By the end of the day, I'm too tired and unmotivated. I work at 8:00 most days and just can't get up at 4:30 to run before teaching. I make it out most days doing some combo of running, cycling and/or swimming, and this will have to do for now. And since I'm never in contention to win and/or become professional, it's all good. The miracle, thus far,  really comes down to how my body from the waist down really hasn't had to deal with any major injuries or strains recently, considering that I'm not endowed with what anyone would call a runner's physique. I wish.

A friend recently suggested that the internal script of not calling myself a runner might have to do with my consistent lacklustre results. Maybe I'll have to commit to something. She's a pretty smart person too.

This week, though, Paul and I had great fun registering for the ING Miami Half Marathon coming up in January 2013.

Lots to do between now and then.

Happy training.

New Perspectives

Chasing Rainbows...

There is nothing quite like a sports cliché.

*putting the miles in
*getting your face wet
*taking it to the limit
*hitting the wall

Whatever.

As in training, I seem to get all of these things mixed up. Last week, for instance, my husband and I travelled for a three day weekend to Los Angeles for the Hollywood Half Marathon. I trained religiously as I always do, or as I always think I do. Something happened there, though, that forced me to examine how I do what I do. This added self-consciousness is signature for me, and practically ruined grad school and most of whatever it is that I've attempted to write over the years.

However, training requires this, I'm learning. What you think you do, versus what you actually do  seems to create a mysterious gap that manifests itself in the middle of a competition. You hit the wall. You get injured. You experience pain in new places. You don't have a very nice time, in other words.

I trained and trained for that race. And basically died there. I'm not really a sports person, but it does also seem to me that there needs to be a post game/post competition analysis and so in (after)thought,  I had a kind of Joycean epiphany, hopeless as it is, that I'd never be able to improve. It wasn't so much a conscious aha moment, but rather an overwhelming sinking feeling: you are running up the wrong hill with this training regime. I called a professional. I mean I got in touch with an old highschool friend who is basically a world-class athlete. I don't give up that easily.

A Sign on the "Walk" during the "Run"

I haven't had such a brutal finish or recovery in years. My legs ached and ached, during the race itself. And, with a two-mile uphill finish up Cahuenga hill, you'll forgive me for saying that the darn thing turned into a walkathon and that I actually felt anger. As I flew down that same hill two hours earlier, I knew exactly what was coming. Yet in a classic Breaking Away "I-am-as-good-as-the-best-without-knowing-it-talent," I really wanted to be the one to charge up and over in a moment of absolutely stunning personal victory. This did not happen. There was nothing left in me and my shame grew as finisher after finisher approached from the other direction, casually running (still!) down this same hill with their star medal in full shining glory. I had (at least) another 30 excruciating, humiliating and painful (double blistered baby toe) minutes to go. I could barely walk. I had trained for months and months. I have a blog! What the hell?

Anyway. I am persistent, though that might be the wrong word. It occurs to me that I could have a contest for a better one word description of this type of behavior.  I will dig myself out of this apparent training and perceptual rut, starting today. No bricking for the moment and I will try to train twice a day for shorter duration. I have another half (the Scotiabank Montreal) in two weeks and I will report my progress. It might be that I'm training for two very different types of events (half and sprint tri), but I'm not sure. Muscle confusion or just straight up confusion.  Remember: I am not a runner. This is what I tell myself all of the time.

* Also, got a really nice running belt, which is awesome. No more safety pins. Definitely a new beginning there.

Bricked

This little story requires a bit of a soundtrack.

A funny thing happened on the way to the pool today, especially if by "on the way" I mean two months of worrying about swimwear and appearance and getting kicked in the head and drowning. None of this has happened, of course, except maybe the worrying. The open water start for the Bali Sprint Marathon is another thing, but that's at the end of June and I have lots of anxiety time between now and then.

I wore my new freaky past-the-knee swimskin thing to the pool today for the first time. But, before I did this, I tried it on for a friend over my clothes last night. Within two minutes of prancing around in this very tight suit over my jeans and dress (you had to be there), the door bell rang...as if on cue.  I wasn't exactly ready for my "close-up" so to speak.

The person at the door was very gracious.

Me, I peeled the suit off along with a little (just a tiny bit) of my dignity. I figured if I can live through this humiliation, why not wear the darn thing at the pool. So, I did. So there. I lived to tell the tale and no one even noticed.

So much for self-absorption.

Let the bricking continue: before the 20 minute swim today, I ran for 50 minutes. I wore the skin-tight-swimming-thing under my running stuff -- felt like a girdle, though not terrible. I can live with that.

And this sign would be a relief to anyone, don't you think?

Happy training or whatever.

The Ides of March

Pre-spring training

This is what I ran past in Toronto today.

Let it spring.

I went swimming earlier this week at the Archie Dillon Sportsplex in Timmins, ON, my hometown.  I haven't lived there in decades, but during this visit to Timmins,  I reconnected with an old friend whose story and athletic abilities truly inspire. Thank you very much, Laurie.

Of course, I have a lot to learn in the next few months, and oh gawd my sore neck. Hours and hours and weeks and months are ahead of me in the pool and on the road, all in service of not getting my head kicked. I'm nervous about that open water start of the Bali Sprint Tri...though we'll be heading to Los Angeles for the Hollywood Half Marathon April 7. Let the taper (almost) begin. And begin again.

 But, swans? What a bonus.

When in doubt...

Register for a race:

Montreal Half Marathon

This race is coming up April 29 and it's good for a few reasons:

a) it doesn't start at 6:00 a.m.
b) it's local!
c) it's a great procrastination device.

Also, I miss Gil Scott Heron:

All the best.

Commitment

...a morning run full of surprises like this one:

Winter on Mount Royal: Montreal February 28, 2012