Ironman of a Week

It is Friday evening, and the first full week of 2010 has come and gone...and it was the worst! Work was a total nightmare, and the cat coughed up a fur ball on my new Snuggie. In spite of my best efforts to start each day anew with the hope that it would be better, quite the opposite was true. Each day was more stressful and frustrating than the day before. Were it not for my training, the week would have been a total wash.

I swam on Tuesday and Thursday morning after completing my run on the treadmill at the YMCA. I am always nervous on my first day at a new gym. Morning gym people are particular, creatures of habit...I should know, I am one of those people. I run on the same treadmill at the base gym every morning. One day when I got a late start, I arrived to find someone else using my treadmill. Mind you, there were 18 open treadmills, but that one is MINE! I didn't want someone else looking at me and thinking the same things I thought about the poor woman who had inadvertently ruined my run that day by taking the mill in front of the TV with ESPN...and reading on her Kindle the entire time! What gives?! She should have been on the one in front of the infomercial TV, but I digress.

Back to the swimming. I am now the proud owner of a swim cap which saves me at least 20 minutes of post-swim hair combing. I do love the quiet of the water. There is no gym banter. There is no gym grandstanding. There is only swimming, and I love it! I am still no good at it, but I completed 2 of the workouts Neil gave me to begin getting me in shape to train. I didn't have to pull up gasping for air mid-lap, and my arms only felt like lead at the very end of my set. Good times.

This morning, I tried out my new bike shoes, and I must say that I enjoy the clip-in factor. I am definitely going to have to get used to how to clip in and out while in motion, but it is nice to not have to worry about my feet slipping off of the pedals whilst I ride. If it ever warms up/gets less windy/stops being icy/snowy, I look forward to riding outside again one day. I have yet to ride outside since I took my little spill in October, and I am looking forward to getting that first spin around the block out of the way and off my mind.

Running has always been a form of therapy for me. I can get out on the road, listen to Adam Carolla, and either solve or temporarily forget all of my problems. I must say that after my first week of combining my Boston Marathon training with a bit of swimming and biking, I think that I may really be on to something. I was worried that the newness of the other two disciplines might eliminate the therapeutic training effect, but it is quite the opposite. I like the variety, and I have to admit that I am starting to feel like a little bit of a bad ass.

I know that I lost my mojo after the Chicago Marathon. I had wrecked on the bike, and as a result of my rib dysfunction, I did not run as fast as I know I would have otherwise. I had to take it easy for a few weeks after Chicago. It rained/snowed a ton in November/December, and the holidays came and went before I really got to enjoy them. Between a bunch of crummy workouts, no lifting, Washingtonesque weather, and work stress, I think I had a touch of the SAD. However, the corner is in the process of being turned. Jersey Shore and Modern Family are back with new episodes, and I am not a completely incompetent swimmer. The sub-freezing temperatures are giving me the opportunity to try some of my new cold-weather gear for my outside runs, and I have an excuse to sleep in as I wait for the sun to come up. If I can just get through each work week without committing a felony assault on someone, I may just make it to Louisville.