Happy National Running Day!

Yes, you read that right. No, we don't get the day off work, but today is National Running Day. Go out and run, yo. To get more info on the day and search for local events, click HERE.

With that being said, here's this week's tri - training update.

SWIM

I did my first swim workout yesterday. Egads. I felt every cigarette I have ever had in my life. Lung capacity is at ZERO. How to work in breathing, I have no idea. After 30-40 minutes of going back and forth, I got to where I could do 6 strokes before coming up for a breath, but when I did take a breath, my swimming nearly came to a standstill. Oh yeah, and I am SO slow. I've read all sorts of stuff online about how to get faster, but I can tell this is going to take lots of practice. I may be buying a second pool pass when all is said and done! My 7 visits are going to run out fast fast fast. I did make it through about 40 some odd minutes in the pool. I also ran to and from the pool, so I guess in some way I actually had a brick workout!

BIKE

I get up Monday morning and decide to take an 8-10 mile bike ride. I get all dressed, head outside and get ready to load up the bike. Back tire is 100% flat. I pump it up, I hear air gushing out of the tube. Great. It's memorial day, so the bike shop is closed. I opt for a run instead (see below). Yesterday afternoon I took the bike into the bike shop near my office and they showed me where the dry rot on the tires had split and punctured the brand new tube. Awesome. The bike is in the shop AGAIN and getting brand new tires. Another $75. Lovely. But, I get it back at 5pm today and if the thunderstorms stay away, I plan to do an 8 mile ride followed by a 2 mile run. In summary, the initial idea of "buying a used bike cheap" has tripled my bike budget, and I haven't even officially bought the bike yet. I am trying to trade 2 nights of lodging and continental breakfast at my house in exchange for the bike from an up and coming Ohio triathlete. Here's hoping she agrees!!!

RUN

I haven't been running a ton here lately. The reason I wanted to do the tri thing was so I could do other stuff beyond running. But thanks to bike failure on Monday, I did make it out for a 3.5 mile run in the muggy spring heat. And it felt GOOD. No iPod. Just me and the trail for 3.5 miles. It was slow, but I pulled it out and it felt pretty awesome. Two miles on Saturday should work out fine.

My first Triathlon** is on Saturday. I am excited and nervous. The weather report is predicting storms at some point that day, but I jsut hope from 8-10am on Saturday it's warm and beautiful. Please, please, please, weather - I really want to do this!!!!

**Triathlon = super short mini length event where I will swim bike and run in distances so short that REAL triathletes could probably complete the course in about 35-40 minutes.....