Slacker!

How quickly we forget how difficult it is to go back to exercising after a break. So I am supposed to be training for the NYC Half. Ha! I went on vacation, which was luckily an “active” vacation, meaning hiking and biking. However, I did not run the whole time I was there (about 10 days). Then I got home and immediately got sick. So… a couple more weeks pass by.

We now come to last week, my first week trying to get back into the swing of things. I went to the gym on Monday and was going to run (really!) but I forgot my socks (darn it!). I had just read an article about making excuses and how we need to stop doing it, so I put my shoes on (sans socks) and made my way to the treadmill. However, after about a mile I could feel a blister forming, so I walked a little and then lifted weights instead.

Day Two of “the revival” was spent procrastinating running by doing the elliptical and then lifting weights again. On Day Three an attempt to run was made, but was ended when Top Chef started due to a conflict of interest. On Day Four I committed to running a two mile race in City Park, and almost flaked at the last moment. Instead, I dragged my lazy butt to the park and ran two miles in the 850 heat and 80% humidity (at 7:15 pm!)

I almost died.

My lungs hurt; my legs hurt; I could feel my face burning bright red like a beacon in the night. Once finished, I walked with quivering legs to the line for water and drank about one hundred and forty tiny Dixie cups full of water.

Turns out I ran my fastest mile so far – about 8 minutes. However, this is only the beginning of a very long journey which ends in New York City and lasts for 13.1 miles. So, two miles at a time, day by day, I struggle to reach that path. I have a long way to go before I am ready.

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Why Weight?

I lost 4 pounds in the last two weeks and I didn’t even mean to. My diet plan: get sick, lie in bed, don’t work out and eat a lot of junk food and carbs. I should write a book, right? Seems like everyone and their mother has come out with their version of “how to lose weight”. Don’t eat carbs, eat only carbs, eat only high cholesterol foods, eat only raw vegetables, eat for your blood type, eat for your hair color, eat only in the morning, eat 10 meals a day, eat a big lunch and a small dinner, eat only cabbage soup…the list goes on.

When is the world going to realize (and it has been said over and over) that the secret to losing weight is not any of the above, but is…wait for it…EAT LESS, EAT HEALTHY and…here is the kicker...EXERCISE!!! There is no magic pill; there is no quick fix (well there are but they are dangerous to your health). There is only hard work and dedication. It is like anything else in this world – if you want it, you have to work hard to get it. You cannot just sit on the couch eating Cheetos and watching TV every day and expect to slim down to the size of Kate Moss. You have to actually turn the TV off and get out of your chair and take a spin around the block (at least a couple of times).

Unfortunately, people have become inactive over the years. We used to have to work hard for everything – if we wanted food, we had to grow it, kill it or raise it; if we wanted a house, we chopped down trees and built a house. If you would have mentioned a gym, the old settlers would have laughed in your face. Now we sit in our car, we sit in the office, we sit at home. To get any exercise, we have to force ourselves out to the gym or the park. And inactive people breed more inactive people. Our kids are following in our footsteps. Well actually, they are following in our butt prints, if you want to be literal about it.

Shape Magazine suggests getting a half an hour of “cardio-type” (walking, running, biking, etc) exercise per day. This could be done at lunch, or by walking up and down the stairs at work or home a few extra times, or by parking farther out in the parking lot. But we don’t “have time” for that. We still want a quick fix or a magic pill to make it all go away. We want someone else to take care of it for us.

Are we so busy living that we cannot even spare a half an hour a day in order to save our own lives?

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A Road Less Traveled

I think it was Robert Frost who said, "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and I took the one less traveled." Well I think I understand what he was talking about.

This weekend I went to New Hampshire to visit a friend who is currently living in Portsmouth. This is a very cute little New England town, complete with a central square full of people, a harbor full of boats and foilage which can only be found on the East Coast.

I arrived early Saturday and after having lunch at the Friendly Toast (good stuff!!) we went on a nice walk along Odiorne Point, stopping to pick up starfish, play with the whale bones and ogle the HUGE blue lobster at the Seacoast Science Center. Then we went kayaking along the Portsmouth Harbor and Piscataqua River, which separates Maine from New Hampshire. The weather was nice, about 70; the water was a bit choppy and not warm enough to swim in (about 45, I think), but not too cold when you got sprayed by it.

Sunday, we went to Pawtuckaway State Park (man you gotta love these names, huh?) and hiked up one of New Hampshire's high peaks (a towering 1000 feet up in the air) in order to get a "breathtaking view" (according to the website). It really was breath taking. At the top was a fire tower, and you could see for miles and miles... We got lost on the way back down the mountain...because we took the road less traveled (!!)...but were directed by a nice lady with a small horse and even smaller jockey, whose house we just happened to end up at

I made it to the airport just in time to make my flight, only to find out that the flight was going to be leaving late anyhow - damn US Air! 90% late and climbing! Overall, however, it was a very good trip!

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The Latte Factor

“Save now. Fewer trips to the café now can lead to more vacations later,” says Fidelity.

“Figure out your ‘latte factor’, be it your frequent lunches out, your fetish for new shoes, or your everyday coffee, and minimize it or cut it out entirely,” says the man on CNBC.

This seems to be a common theme with the retirement gurus. Skip the coffee, save a few extra dollars for later. It makes sense, right? 5 dollars a day for coffee can lead to an extra 1500 dollars plus in your savings account. To me it does make sense, and to one friend whose dad’s motto is “save today, spend tomorrow” but not everyone agrees with us.

I spoke with one friend who when I suggested she start saving money now, said, “Why worry about later all the time when you should be thinking about having fun right now?” At first I thought, “Wow, she is so naive! She is going to be screwed later!” Then I spoke to my dad, who was the one that first taught me how to save. He said, “Sure, cut out your latte now and then, but don’t deprive yourself of all fun now by always worrying about later.”

Dad saves the day again. Leave it to him to depart some words to the wise regarding finances. Save now, sure, but have fun in the meantime. What is the point of saving all your life if you are not going to get to enjoy it? I am not saying that I am going to die tomorrow, but…what if I did? Would I be happy with my life so far? Would I wish that I had blown a little more money on shoes instead of scrimping and saving for my non-existent retirement?

No way! I am going to do it all! I am going to have fun now. AND save for later. It will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine.

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My Very Own Pot of Gold

Last night I couldn’t sleep and I was watching a show on CNBC on how to “Retire Rich”. There were some good tips and it got me thinking a little about whether or not I am following the correct path. Will I be able to retire rich?

According to the show, 70 percent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Seventy percent! That is a lot! And of the remaining 30 percent who are not living that way, are they investing and saving wisely?

So today I went to Google to find out more about the subject. According to The Motley Fool, it is simple to retire rich. You can do it in five easy steps and here they are:
1. Start now.
2. Save more.3. Take full advantage of employer contributions.4. Allocate your assets to make bank in the stock market.5. Don't rely on someone else to do it for you.

Ha! So it is easy! Then why aren’t we doing it? I think it is because many people are not being educated about this early on in our lives.

Not only did my father teach me to work hard and to put my money in the bank while I was in high school, but I also got much of the above advice when I was 18. I had just started a new job where they had pretty good benefits. At that time, they would match 50 cents to my dollar, up to 6 percent. A good family friend told me to invest 10 % of my paycheck (at this time, I was making about 5 dollars an hour). I wouldn’t miss the money in the long run, it was being taken out pre-tax and my company would match 6 percent of it. What did I have to lose? He also suggested putting part of it in high risk and part of it in low risk (at the time I had no idea what that meant). Luckily, I listened to him. Thanks Mike! Ten years later, I am still investing 10 % of my paycheck and I have built up a fairly good portfolio.

There is still a lot that I have to learn. I am still hesitant to put too much money in the stock market, I sometimes pick mutual funds with the “eeny-meeny-miny-moe” method, I haven’t rolled over my 401K, I am scared to buy property and I am quite conservative, even for my age. However, I think that, little by little, I am starting to learn what it takes to…retire rich.

Do you have what it takes?

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Big Apple Be Ready!

I made it! I got into the New York City Half Marathon! Yay! They drew names on the 23rd of May and I got picked. So did my friend Seth, so...we are raring to go! We just need to continue training...

New York City, here I come...

Stay tuned...the race is Sunday, August 5th...

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When "Face to Face" Does Not Compute

We had a meeting at work the other day and one thing that was discussed was the fact that too many emails are going back and forth. A suggestion was made: instead of shooting someone an email, get up out of your chair and walk over to their desk and talk to them. This made me laugh because our office is not large; when they said get up and go talk to them, they are talking about a 20-50 foot walk. The longest you may have to go is down or up two fights of stairs, or in the case of many, down two floors on the elevator.

Which brings me to something else: I was reading Shape magazine on the plane last weekend and one of the articles was about small ways to start losing weight. One suggestion was to get a pedometer and make sure to take at least 1000 steps per day. To do this, Shape Magazine suggested getting up out of your chair at work and going to talk to your coworkers rather than emailing them. It also suggested taking the stairs rather than the elevator.

Is this so hard to understand? Do we need bigwigs to explain it to us in a meeting? Do we need Shape Magazine to tell us? Are 1000 steps really that hard to do? If you have a 2 foot stride, for example, 1000 steps would only be 2000 feet. NOT EVEN A HALF A MILE!!! What is happening to us that we can’t even walk a half a mile a day?

I blame it on technology. Not only is this great world of email, text messaging and Internet robbing us of our friends and a real connection with people, but it is also robbing us of our health. Why go out and date when there is eharmony.com? Why walk over to so-and-so’s desk when you can email them to ask what they want to do for lunch? It saves time, right? If your eharmony.com match doesn’t work out, you didn’t even have to put on makeup and get all dressed up. If your friend has other plans for lunch, you saved yourself a walk. We are getting lazier physically and mentally.

I admit that I too have gotten sucked into this vortex of emails and texts. At this very moment I sit here and blog when I could be discussing this issue with a coworker or friend. I tell my problems to the faceless masses but withhold them from my friends. I send out mass emails asking coworkers what they are doing for lunch. I send texts to people instead of calling them. I too am mentally and physically lazy.

Can we avoid this downward spiral? We are in a constantly changing world and technology is getting more and more prevalent. Kids these days are much more technologically advanced than I will ever be. I just hope that we can continue to teach our technology laden children the value of a long walk on the beach rather than another episode of Friends, a face to face chat with a friend rather than a text, a thank you note rather than an email or…taking the stairs instead of the elevator!!

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The O.C. Tour

And when I say O.C., I am NOT referring to the annoyingly cute teenagers, the huge houses on the hill or the gorgeous beach that is portrayed in the show of the same name. The places we went to had none of the above.

This time, instead of going to the beach, my friend Mira and I took a long awaited road trip from Washington (for those of you back East, that is "state" not "DC") to the great land in the north, Canada. I have been to Canada twice before - once to see Niagra Falls with the fam and once to Vancouver to meet up with some friends that I met in Australia. This time was a bit different than either of those. This was going to be that "active vacation" I have been so looking forward to.

And active it was.

The first day was (unfortunately) spent in the car. We drove from Seattle to Whistler, which is a gorgeous drive along the coast with the ocean to the west and the mountains to the east. However, due to the upcoming Olympics (Winter 2010: Vancouver) there is a lot of construction going on along the highway. They seemed to be widening the road and (very unfortunately) building several massive condos along its sides. After finding a campground we walked into town and scouted out possible activites for the next day. Another thing I have not done in a long time is camping. And it is not too bad... we set everything up fairly easy and then got to the fun stuff - poaching wood and making (playing with) a fire.

The next day was spent hiking and biking and bear watching. Yup, there were bears! I almost ran one over with my bike, then almost ran another over with the car. The day after that was spent hiking, bathing in freezing cold (snow run off - it must have been 30 degree) water and driving to our next destination (a small town between Salmon Arm and Shuswap). Soon, we developed a routine - get up, take a hike, coffee, eat, take a hike, eat, drive, eat, play with fire, take a hike, play with fire again, go to bed. Rinse, repeat. Man I don't think I have eaten so much in a while. The hiking really works up a huge appetite!!

Our route went to Banff National Park (first National Park in Canada), the town of Canmore (about 75 miles from Calgary), Lake Louise, Yoho National Park, Glacier National Park, the town of Kamloops (with a wine region - who would have thunk it?), the town of Banff and lastly back to Seattle, where we happily showered and did laundry. Oh and of course ATE. Again.

THE STATS:

Miles hiked: 50+
Most miles in one day: 20+
Miles driven: 1500
Highest mountain: ~3954 meters/~12,000 ft
Highest mountain climbed: ~2200 M/~6600 ft
Number of men in the hot springs who had man boobs: 14
Number of wild animals spotted: too many to count (4 bear, 2 moose, 12 longhorn sheep, 4 mountain goats, 9 caribou, 10 deer and multiple squirrels, chipmunks and birds)
Bricks of cheese eaten: 3
Bottles of wine drank: 6 (hey we had to try the local fare!)
Cups of coffee drank: 25
Amount of wood poached: a lot
Number of scratches from poaching wood: 15
Coldest night: 2 degrees C (about 34 F)
Warmest day: about 70 degrees
Amount of time spent in freezing cold water: 2.54 seconds

Last but not least, here it is....The real reason behind the name of the tour.

O Canada!Our home and native land!True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,The True North strong and free!
From far and wide,O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

(to listen, click here)

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Practice Makes Perfect

Tomorrow, Saturday May 12th, at 8:30 a.m. I will be standing in a group of people, getting ready to run. This is a small run; we can't run very far in New Orleans in the summer without falling down from heat stroke or dehydration. It is only 3 miles, which is roughly 5K, which is a good distance for a practice run. Ha - a 15 dollar practice run, where I will get another "free" shirt (I love it - pay 15 dollars and get a free shirt! Or sometimes it is more like - pay 50 dollars and get a free shirt!)

I have started training again. I dont know if I am going to get into the NYC Half or not, but if I do get in, I plan to have at least 12 weeks of training, which is what I had for the Mardi Gras Marathon. This way I am keeping up a steady schedule of running, keeping in shape and training all at the same time. If this week were week 1, I would have a 13 week training schedule.

Luckily this week I only have to run...lemme check my schedule...16 miles! What?!

So. It has begun. Again.

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Men At Work Part Deux

A while ago I wrote about the funny nicknames we give the old guys at work. This is an update to that blog... I am still in the same office with a lot of the same people, but we have made up more names. I have also added a few acronyms (we can't help it; it becomes a habit to use them!) that we have learned and/or made up since the last post.

THE PEOPLE:
1. The Loud Talker (LT): When this guy got here, I thought he was sooooo rude. Then I learned that he doesn't hear very well...oops!
2. Grumbles: Yup, he is back! I don't sit by him anymore so I don't get the brunt of it, but he still lives up to his name!
3. Multi Meeting Man (MMM): ALWAYS in meetings. Always calling everyone into meetings.
4. Big Mouth Bass (BMB): Guy who never stops talking. Ever. Even when he is eating. He probably talks in his sleep.
5. Sour Krause: Actually a nice guy with lots of things to say, but he doesn't smile very much.
6. The Manatee: I can't really say much about this guy. Let's just say he doesn't move very fast. And a guy named Seth that we used to work with does a dead on impression of him.


THE ACRONYMS:
VIM: Very Important Meeting (usually called by MMM - above)
BFE: I always thought of this as Butt F Egypt, meaning "a very far ways away", as in "The parking lot is packed! I had to park in BFE today!" However, in this business it means "Base Flood Elevation". Not as fun, right?
SAC: Sav-A-Center, a grocery store (there is also WF: Whole Foods, and TJs: Trader Joes)

more to come later...

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Walk to the Water

The Bay to Breakers: A 7.5 mile run from the Embarcadero (the Bay) to Ocean Beach (the Breakers). Some people actually run the whole thing. Others walk it, dressed up like cowboys, with a wagon full of beer trailing behind them.

This is what we are going to do. We are going to walk along, with the tortilla throwing naked guys wearing only fanny packs and sneakers, with the men dressed up as the Baywatch crew, with the frat boys dressed in togas riding on a float full of beer... We are going to walk past house parties that have gone on all night, past Alamo Square, through Golden Gate Park, past the Civic Center...

We are going to tackle the Hayes Street Hill!!

For more info on the Bay to Breakers, click here.

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My Two Cents

I won twenty cents! Yay! Today I went to Churchill Downs and over the course of 3 hours ended up...twenty cents ahead. Not bad for 3 hours of entertainment. For those of you who have never been to the track, lemme tell you how it's done. This was my first time; I had a blast. It's not about the horses, well at least for me it is not. If you OWN one of the horses, I am sure you care a lot who wins. If you are a big better, you care a lot who wins.

But since I am neither, it is just a fun way to pass a few hours. First of all, I only bet 2 dollars each race. I know, you can't win big unless you play big, but I am not about to waste a bunch of money (just in case!) I am happy when I win a couple bucks and am not too sad if I lose a couple.

You can pick win, place or show. Win is self explanitory. Place is 1st or 2nd and show is 1st, 2nd or 3rd. I was not brave enough to pick "win"; although the payoff is better the chances are slim. I picked "place" all four times; I lost the first two and won the second two, hence the 20 cent gain. But the fun I had in the few hours I was there was worth a lot more than twenty cents to me!

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Running On Empty

I arrived in Louisville at 11:50 p.m.on Friday. My flight was late. It was supposed to arrive at 11:15, which was already bad enough. All I could think was, "I have to get up in...a little over 5 hours." As I walked to the entrance of the airport, took the cab and then finally got to the hotel, I couldn't stop thinking, "5 hours of sleep"..."4.5 hours of sleep"...."4 hours of sleep". I finally got to bed around 12:50.

On Saturday I woke up at 4:30.

I got ready, ate a powerbar, drank a liter of water and then walked to the Louisville Convention Center, where I picked up my bib, stretched, ate another power bar and then boarded the bus to Iroquois Park, where the race would start. It was 6:30. It was freezing (it is all relative of course; it was probably about 50 degrees).

The race finally began at 7:30. I had decided that, in lieu of a partner (Mira, I miss you!), I would join a pace group this time. By joining a pace group, you maintain a steady pace of...say..10 minutes per mile... the whole time. I had two choices. There was a 4:30 pace group (these are measured by "marathon" time - a 4:30 would be a 2:15 half *which is what I ran at the Mardi Gras Marathon*) and a 4:15 pace group (2:08 half). I had planned on being in the 4:20 pace group, therefore striving for a 2:10 half. However, in the absence of a 4:20, I decided to join the 4:15. That would put me below my goal by 2 mins + and get me that much closer to my ultimate goal of 2 hours flat.

The pace leader explained to us that if you needed to go to the restroom or if you were tired, you could slow down/stop and then catch up to the group later. He suggested taking at least a mile to catch back up to the group, as you don't want to tire yourself out right by trying to hard to catch back up.

I ran with the pace group for the first mile. Then, oh horror of horrors, I felt the need to pee. So I ran a little faster (and actually at a more comfortable pace) than the group, thinking that the next porta-potti I saw I would stop at and then it would give me a chance to catch back up to the group. Around mile 2, I finally saw a bathroom so I stopped. There were about 8 people in line. I weighed my options. GO. Stay. Go. Stay? I stayed. Until the two bathrooms that were there never emptied. There were 8 people in line. We waited. Finally I could wait no more. I ran again. Into the bushes.
I ran up hills and down hills; My legs were burning; My ankles were sore...and I was only on mile 4. It took me 5 more miles to catch back up to my pace group. By this time we were at Churchill Downs. From there to the next mile seemed to take hours..then all of a sudden I saw mile 11 up ahead! Only 2 more miles to go! I sped up and raced to the finish as fast as I could go (which, by now, was not very fast at all!)

I made it to the end at 2:04...only 4 minutes slower than my goal, but 11 minutes faster than my last half marathon!
If only I hadn't had to stop and pee...

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Music! Makes the People! Come Together!

Yeah. It is that time of the year again. Jazzfest.

This is a 6 day event (starting this Friday) that we attend in order to see hundreds of bands that we could normally see for free at any time of the year. We also go to eat hundreds of different local foods that are double in price as any normal time of year. Oh - and to spend more money on one beer than we normally would on four.

Having said that, I am still mysteriously drawn to it. There are 8 or 9 different stages and usually the two or three bands I really want to see are all playing at the same time on three different stages that are the farthest amount apart. Again, and I don't know why, but I am mysteriously drawn...

So...I will go. For two days probably. I will pay 50 bucks to run back and forth between stages, eat 18 different kinds of food and drink way too much beer, causing me to fall asleep around 7:30 (music ends at 7). GOOD TIMES!

THE LINEUP:
Friday, 27: Van Morrison, Subdudes, Bonerama, Kermit Ruffins, Astral Project
Saturday, 28: Rod Stewart, Norah Jones, Ludacris, Rebirth, Groove Academy
Sunday, 29: Brad Paisley, Bonnie Raitt, Jill Scott, Jerry Lee Lewis, Theresa Andersson
Friday, 4: ZZ Top, Counting Crows, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Ellis Marsalis, Better Than Ezra
Saturday, 5: Galactic, Cowboy Mouth, John Mayer, John Legend, Allman Brothers, The IguanasSunday, 6: Allen Toussaint, Steely Dan, Papa Grows Funk, Anders Osborne, Joss Stone, The Radiators, New Edition, Taj Mahal

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If it Seems Like Nothing is Happening...

In case you forgot, there are more posts/photos (race related) on my other site (http://cankyriarun.blogspot.com)

Upcoming endeavors:

Saturday, April 28: Kentucky Derby Mini-Marathon

Sunday, May 20: San Francisco Bay to Breakers

...and newly added today...

Sunday, August 5: NYC Half Marathon

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New York City?

Call me crazy, but I just put my name in the lottery for the New York City Half Marathon. The race is August 5th so if I did get chosen, I would have plenty of time to train. They pull names sometime between May 15 and 21 and announce the "winners" on the 22nd.

Seth, a friend from NYC that I worked with in Baton Rouge, also has his name in the pot. So hopefully if one of us gets picked, both of us get picked...

So - stay posted!! Keep your fingers crossed!!

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There is Something in The Way You Move

Maybe I am tired of moving. From Hotel to Hotel. From Desk to Desk. From City to City.

Or am I?

For a long time I have been living out of a suitcase. Carrying my belongings on my back. Not really having a place to call home. Except that I have always been told that home where the heart is. Well, I left mine in San Francisco...

I get a kick out of going to new places, seeing new things, trying new things, meeting new people. I love to travel; I travel light; I travel for extended amounts of time. But when does enough become enough? A friend of mine told me that at some point we would all have to "be responsible". He defined that as owning a house, having kids, having a steady job, settling down...

By his definition, I may never be "responsible". What if you have one or two or three of those things but not all four? Are you then only "partly responsible"? Why can't I just be partly responsible for the rest of my life?

I still want to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, to see the Amazon, to go to the Pyramids, to see if Iceland is really green and Greenland is really icy, to see the Northern Lights, to go to the South Pole, to go Salmon Fishing in Alaska, to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, to wrestle a Kimodo Dragon, to see a Rhino....The list goes on and on.

Having said that, I have made a few descisions:

1. My heart (and home) will always be in San Francisco.

2. I will always be only "partly responsible".

3. I am NOT done moving.

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Countdown to Kentucky

Whew. I think I mentioned in my last post that I only had 4 weeks to train for the next half marathon - the Kentucky Derby Mini-Marathon... Well, now I am down to...4 days. Ouch. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, I spent a total non-fitness week at the beach last week, where the closest thing I did to "training" was to walk to the cooler for a beer or to the water to cool down.

Having said that, I have not done a very good job at training this time around (if you can even call it that at all!) However, it will be interesting to see how I do on Saturday. Perhaps I will finally prove that training is not the answer! But then what would I do for the next few months?

After this is over, I have decided to do a couple of things:

1. Next vacation: ACTIVE vacation - aka. hiking, biking, rafting, kayaking, tree climbing or all of the above.
2. Run the NY City Half (if they will have me - this is done as a lottery) on August 5th
3. Triathlon - still TBD

If anyone knows of any fun activities I have overlooked, let me know!

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Going Swimmingly

When I got in the pool, I was not sure what I was doing. I have swum before. I can swim. But I had no idea how far or how long I could swim. I didn't even know how far you could go in what amount of time. In an attempt to find out, two weeks ago I started swimming at the gym.

The first time, I swam for 10 minutes. It went something like this. Minute one through minute five was easy. During minutes six to eight I had a little difficulty because my arms were getting tired (damn useless sticks!). I struggled with my tired arms as well as my breathing through minutes nine and ten and finally came to a stop at the end of the pool. I had done 10 laps. Ten long laps. I felt like I had swum miles. In fact, I had only swum about a third of a mile.

I have a long way to go still.

I have always been a swimmer; I grew up by the river; we swam every day in the summer time and even some days in the spring and fall. My cousins and I would race each other from one side of the river to the other, often going back and forth many times. I have swum far; we used to see how far up the river we could swim. However, I have never swum for an extended amount of time. And I have never had to swim while being timed, or when it mattered at all. I recently decided to train for a (so far un-chosen) triathlon and so now am swimming not only for fun but for braggin rights.

Luckily, I am getting better.

I went back to the pool last week (I am only going once a week right now) and swam for 17 minutes. 16 laps. 800 meters. HALF A MILE! Which is what I will need to do (if not more) for a sprint triathlon. So...all is not lost. Now I just have to try and build my endurance. And figure out how to get from the lake to the bike to the road without hurting anyone or myself... I guess I still have a long way to go.

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And They are Off!!!

Next Up: Louisville, KY
What: Derby Mini-Marathon
When: Saturday, April 28, 2007

This half marathon marks the beginning of Derby season. The first Kentucky Derby will be on May 6th with many to follow after that. Before the weekend of the Derby, there are week long festivities, one of them being...the mini-marathon.

Part of the race, and the most exciting part for me, is run around the track at Churchill Downs!!

This time I only have four weeks to train, rather than twelve like last time...So I have kicked it up a notch, am running more and am trying to clock as many miles as possible in the next four (well, more like three from today) weeks. Which is hard because for the last month, I have been completely slacking.

So we shall see how it goes, shant we?

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