Sporty Update

I'm working on more secret projects (also, I've taken pictures but not uploaded them to Flickr), so will have to talk about my athletic endeavors.

In list form:

1. Running

You may recall that I thought it would be a good idea to run a marathon for my birthday. Now that my birthday is this weekend, I'm not so sure--and I suspect it's going to go badly. This will be my 6th marathon, and I'm pretty sure I'll be able to finish it somehow (I'm fairly confident in my ability to keep chugging/walking/crawling along, almost no matter what), but I'd rather not do worse than my first marathon (4 hours, 40 minutes, 17 seconds). The 4000-5000 miles I've run since that marathon ought to count for something, right?

On the other hand, I'm not sure about my training this time around. I did all the long runs like you're supposed to, but I think I averaged 4 days of running a week, not 5-6 (meaning I often skipped a short run). And I didn't run yesterday or the day before (although we did bike for a couple of hours each day), which probably won't have any effect on my actual performance, but which makes me feel guilty.

2. Biking

That tandem bike really is miraculous, in that it's finally gotten us to start bike training for the year. Kevin is signed up for a 1/2 Ironman in early June and he'd kind of decided that he wasn't going to be ready (it's in New Hampshire, and very hilly. There's a guy in a devil costume and everything.) But we've sprung into action and it seems to be going OK. We haven't tipped over yet, which is a definite improvement over last year. And we're actually riding.

This is good news for many reasons... we're riding the Lake Placid Ironman course with our triathlon club in the middle of June, and as much as our cardiovascular systems might have been ready to jump on a bike for the first time in 8 months and ride for 112 miles, our butts would not have been. And we're going to a weekend bike camp in 10 days (doesn't everyone celebrate having run a marathon by spending the next weekend bicycling?), which, again, would not have been the best time to readjust to our bike saddles. It occurs to me that I should probably try biking on my own bike at least once before then, so as to avoid tipping over.

3. Rowing

Last week I rode along on the launch with the coach during crew practice, and it was really great. Although it did remind me that one day I'll have to coordinate my rowing efforts with other people and somehow get the oar in and out of the water. And not capsize. I'd blocked out all of that, and was completely amused by not being terrible at erging.

I'm still completely amused by not being terrible at erging, honestly (I know I run a lot, but my very best running is consistently twice as slow as the people who win, so realistically, I'm pretty bad. I'm not looking to win, but twice as slow is almost a different activity!). But I am kind of looking forward to rowing on actual water (which can't happen till the water temp is above 60 degrees... maybe they've heard about my learning curve with the clip-less pedals?)