July 30, 2008

[ No Subject ]

Sometime this evening, I had a witty, brilliant thought about a title for today's blog post. But three pints of beer later, I cannot remember. I've been sitting here racking my brain to no avail so I've settled for the generic [No Subject] like you see on so many emails. Emails that in fact have subject matter, but nothing worth declaring.

I had a great swim this morning. The pool was sparsely populated yet again, which is always a nice treat. I did a warm-up and then a half-mile, what I'll be swimming in my race Sunday, to see how I'm faring at that distance. I have been historically averaging 20 minutes, but today I did it in 18:22. This is still pretty slow, but a tiny bit faster for me. Even though I felt like I had worked harder, I still had the energy to continue. So maybe swimming is like running after all, where I've finally reached a point that my usual seems easy and I can push harder and swim longer.

To digress a bit, I rode my bike to the pool, a whopping mile. I usually do this in about 5 minutes or so, depending on traffic lights. I hopped on my bike and was swiftly reminded that I bought a new saddle. I felt as though my "sit bones" were bruised. I hovered above the saddle as long as possible and finally sucked it up. I think the ride took about 10 minutes since I only pedaled when necessary. It was painful and uncomfortable to say the least. Good thing I didn't have a ride planned today.

After my swim I ate (yet again) and then headed out for a run. It was pretty hot and humid (yet again) and I hadn't run since the half marathon so I planned just 4 miles. My goal was to run a faster pace and this went generally well. I was faster in the first 2 miles, with stretches below 8:00/mile. I slowed a bit for the second half and had a good average overall. I felt a little dehydrated from the swim so I had to drink a ton from the drinking fountains and put even more over my head, down my shirt and on my arms because it was hot! I need to start being more consistent with my running and I think it will build nicely. I've made a commitment to run more in August to help with motivation.

My training was done early today so I took advantage of the opportunity to do something social and civilized, sans spandex and any hint of tri gear. Wednesday nights are a big gathering night at my local bar so the timing was perfect. Even more perfect is the fact that my 5-week beer moratorium ended on July 20 after the NYC Tri so I can enjoy my beer guilt-free. So this brings me full circle to where I lost my blog topic and ended up with no subject.

In closing, here is a pic from the NYC Half Marathon, back in the spandex and most certainly miserable. This was taken somewhere in the final 3-mile stretch along the West Side Highway when I was praying for the finish line to appear.


However, this second photo shows how much I really wanted to enjoy this race. Despite my misery, I crossed the line with a smile. That's all I can ask for.


Swimming
Distance - 1800 yards (1 mile)
Time - 40:00

Running
Distance - 4 miles
Time - 32:39

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