Getting Better
One of the things that I love about training is seeing progress. Not only am I getting better in individual sports, but I can see that triathlon training is helping lead me to start to come together in other ways as well.
Swim
Swim breakthrough this morning! Today at Masters we did a snake where the fastest person started and people followed in order based on pace. I naturally stacked myself towards the back because I’m anxious and have only been swimming for a few weeks. I was ordered to pass people and I ended up fourth! And there were more than 4 people swimming! Behind a dude who competed at Kona and another Ironman competitor! I still have a long way to go, but I also want to hold onto the little things because otherwise this will be a tough journey.
Bike
I thought that trainer rides blew and then I did a trainer ride after a day of skiing and that blew the most. The only redeeming feature was eating half a chicken pot pie from Costco and sleeping like a baby that night. Otherwise, it’s felt like -15 here for the last week so I haven’t been able to ride my new bike yet. Lame, lame, super lame.
Run
Last week I was doing a tempo run on the treadmill and was pretty psyched to see my pace improving. While trying not to die of running-induced hypoxia, a friend’s mom came over to say hi. Running at tempo pace + turning around to “talk” + trying to breathe? I can’t believe I didn’t someone seriously hurt myself or someone else.
Skiing
I took a lesson at Breckenridge this weekend, learned to carve and skied black moguls. I could barely ski blues this time last year and it is so cool to see my progress. Less cool: having a big kick set Monday after a ski weekend:
Coach: Kick harder!
Me: I went skiing this weekend!
Coach: I don’t care! I want your legs to burn!
She didn’t realize they already were. Sob.
Other
My Uncle sent us this for a wedding present! He wins for originality.
This is obviously a chrome-plated zebra skull from Jim Fowler plated with a new chroming technology that is less toxic for the environment. Duh.
It’s now in our liquor cabinet because I’m not sure where else it will be safe from the dogs. I’m also not sure what it means that our liquor cabinet is our safe space to put valued, irreplaceable objects.
My boss was on Dr. Oz!
While this blog is mostly about the outdoors and physical activity, I’m also improving professionally and was just invited to submit a full grant application after a competitive review of my proposal. Here’s to getting better at sports and science!