Running (and more) Update

So, as you know, I've been 'training' for a (sprint) triathlon.  It's been interesting.  Since a quarter of 2010 is over, and the tri is less than 2 months away, I thought I'd give an update on how everything is going.  It's kind of a lot of blah blah blah, so I don't blame you for skipping over it.  I want to document this journey for me though!

Running is going GREAT.  I've been keeping track of my mileage on dailymile.com since I initially had a goal of 500 miles in 2010.  I'm still a little below my goal, but barely.  I 'should' be at 125 miles running right now, and I am at 123.41!!!!  That is 37 miles in Jan, 34 in Feb, and 52 in March!!  I am pretty excited at the ground I made up in March.  I'm running over 6 miles now on my 'long' runs, and for me that is LONG!  I don't think I'll add much more mileage to those long Saturday runs between now and the triathlon in May, since I need to also focus on swimming and biking, but after that- who knows?  (I may be considering a half marathon  .  .  .)

Biking.  Not much to report here, because, unfortunately, I haven't been getting in much biking.  The truth is that I am not very comfortable with riding before Joel goes to work in the morning because it's still dark.  (That's when I generally run and swim.)  He hasn't been getting home before nightfall either, and I also don't feel good about having the kids come with me for several reasons.  I know that the bike ride will be tough and I will regret not being stronger, but the truth is that I do feel like I am doing all I can do right now.  I know I will be able to do it, I know I can finish, I'm just concerned that my running (the last part of the tri) will suffer because the bike ride will wear me out.  Hopefully during the next SEVEN weeks I can improve in biking!  I did get quite the road bike when I was in Idaho last week- so I need to get that in the shop and get it tuned up.  Hopefully that will help me have a smoother, more efficient ride!

And, swimming.  Wow.  I am not a strong swimmer.  I can do it, and I can tell I've improved a lot in the past several weeks since I started.  But I'm not good at it.  I have some sort of mental block about putting my face in the water and breathing correctly.  So I do some sort of weird modified thing where I don't put my head in.  I wanted to take some private lessons, and so fart that has fallen through.  So I need to decide if I'm going to embrace my weird style and just GO FOR IT and be okay with however that works out in the end for me (like finishing last!  Really, I think that is a real option.), or if I need to figure out another way to get lessons and get over my intimidation of the water and swimming pool.  There are days when I finish swimming and I feel really good, and days when I'm really frustrated.

My initial goal was to finish a tri.  To get in the habit of working out, to jump start this lifestyle change, and to achieve something new for myself.  Then I revised my goal- to finish AND to not be the person that people pity while I'm doing it.  I don't want people to say, "Hey, at least she's doing it!" or, "Aw, good for her!  Bless her heart!"  But now I'm swinging back towards just finishing.  I guess really, my goal is to finish strong and feel good about how I did for myself.  I need to get over how I do compared to everyone else, I know this!  I feel like I've been working hard, as hard as I can right now considering this season of my life, and that in itself should be enough for me to feel good about.

But still.  I really hope I'm not last.  (Someone has to be though!)