Schedule

Well...i thought about it. And even though my life is making me nutty at the moment and at times I fear that a focused training schedule could make me crabbier and crazier, I've thrown a bit of caution to the wind and I'm going to focus on a June Oly in 14 weeks from now. I am thinking it might be possible for me to do Ashland(even with my friend's wedding the day before)...so i've created a schedule to do Ashland Oly...and a 1/2 mary two weeks before.

Oi...

it all could push me off the deep end...or it will keep me going off the deep end. Who knows.

I find creating tri schedule for myself entirely entertaining because in truth...i have NO idea what i'm doing. I've read some books/websites and it is my 4th true season of training so I have the gist of what's going on...but still...i think i feel a little silly at times assuming I *know* what the heck I'm doing. Prior to my first true tri season 4 years ago i had never done a sport where scheduled training was part of the deal...i mean I played Ultimate competitively (somewhat) in college and soccer in high school...but nothing ever in a fashion where I had this schedule of work outs aside from showing up to practice so this whole tri thing has been a source of bumbling and entertainment.

So I took the first part of the 'intermediate' Oly schedule from www.trinewbies.com chopped chunks out of it added more running since i'll be doing a 1/2 mary two weeks before, dropped some swimming...added a brick...made it required that I do do one day of yoga a week, and IF i so choose, i can do a second day although then that means yoga on my rest day...not the end of the world. So my whole 'schedule' looks somewhat different than the beginning of the schedule. But I figure that since my longest bike will be 45miles and i'll be doing PLENTY of running...the swimming will be adequate (nothing stellar that's for sure), it'll get me through the finish line strong.

Happy daylight savings!!

Learning to fly...

Birds fall from the window ledge above mine.
Then they flap their wings at the last second.
I said birds fall from the window ledge above mine.
Then they flap their wings at the last second.
But unless I get up,
Walk across the room
And peer down below,
I won't see their last second curves
Toward a, a horizontal flight.
All these birds just falling from the ledge like stones.

Now due to a construct in my mind
That makes their falling and their flight
Symbolic of my entire existence,
It becomes important for me
To get up and see
Their last second curves toward flight.
..lyrics taken from .Mr. Mastodon Farm by Cake

Flying...someone once told me that this whole graduate school 'process' is similar to flying. People can only help you so far. You grow to a point where you start to think or believe or realize that maybe you can actually fly off that ledge. They can encourage you up to that ledge where you have to trust that you have the wings to fly.

For me right now, I feel like I have lept off the ledge and i'm in a free fall stage prior to actually flying. I've jumped and I see where i'm headed....AKKKKKKKKDOWN...and i'm flapping those wings. Somewhere along the way I believed enough that I could fly off that ledge, but right now I am not *actually* flying yet...i am in the free fall stage of the jump where my heart has sunk to the pit of my stomach, and I feel like I am going to throw up, I am flapping my little wings as hard as I can and I am starting to wonder when these 'wings' are going to actually work. When I get outside my brain for a second I can rationalize that will work at some point, but being in that free fall stage of the flight i'm having that seed of doubt and I'm starting to wonder if that was such a good idea to throw myself off that ledge back there. But the reality is it is too late to do anything else but fly.

Therefore I will learn to fly.

consistency

My goal this past week was to be consistent in my training, and I was consistent in not doing any of my training...argh. OK over exaggeration...in the last 7 days I got 4 in...but I totally missed from tuesday to thrusday. My major problem was that by Friday I was SUPER keyed up due to not having exercised the previous 3 days. Note to self: exercise DOES help with the stress levels don't forget that.

I'm at a point where I'm a borderline stress case (understatement)with all the work going on so I can graduate this summer and so I have this INTENSE desire to be at work all the time...and well that is good because I need to be there...and I"m getting lots done, but it can be not good all at the same time. Getting some training in helps immensely with my basket-caseness yet sometimes I forget that. Why is that so easy to forget? Why oh why?

Anyway I did get on the trainer on friday night. And I went for a GREAT 6 mile run today. Last week I was running 10:30 miles or so and this week many of my miles were sub 10. At the moment the focus is supposed to be base building so i'm not supposed to be worrying too much about how fast i'm going, but I still like to know :-)

I'm still trying to figure out what tri's i'm going to do this summer. I had thought I might do an oly mid june...but that is proving difficult to schedule due to a friend's wedding...so...hmmm...i donno. Still working on that.

The goal this week...get off my butt and actually go and get my swim pass...my goodness it's MARCH...and I have no swim pass which means I have not been to the pool since Dec. oops.

happy training

seasons

Four seasons in one day
Lying in the depths of your imagination
Worlds above and worlds below
The sun shines on the black clouds hanging over the domain

Even when you're feeling warm
The temperature could drop away
Like four seasons in one day...



Ah... Crowded House...it's not quite four season in one day right now in New England, in fact as I was out for a run this morning I realized that New England doesn't have four seasons...it has something like 8 or more depending on the year.

There is fall which everyone thinks is absolutely beautiful...and it is.

And then there is early winter where the snow has come down, it's not yet christmas, it's festive, snuggling in front of the fire with a hot cup of tea is quaint...it's quintessential New England.

Then there is post christmas....itsfreakingcoldmakeitstop season...that's usually from about Jan to some time in Feb. That's the season where you try to figure out how to put on more than 20 pieces of clothing all at once, look like a giant walking marshmallow person and try not to let it bother you that your boogers freeze when you go outside and it's so cold it makes you cough when you breath.

Then there is pre-mud season I have recently named "gross season". This week was the epitome of gross season. Friday the weather report called for a 'wintery mix'...aka gross wet coldness. It snowed 3 inches or so thursday night and then proceeded to pour rain on friday leaving us with a nasty slushy muck. Although the nice and quaint New Englandness of this season is the cute little maple syrup buckets attached to the maple trees. They are cute.

Soon after gross season is mud season where it has sorta stopped snowing and now it's just raining trying to get rid of the snow.

Then SUDDENLY (typically Memorial day weekend this happens) it is 'summer'. It's the nice part of summer, 75-80 degrees not too humid, making you enjoy the season and thinking how great being in NE in the summer is...and then it becomes...

Hot and gross summer...80-90 percent humidity with no air conditioning and temps in the 90s. Even hot and gross summer doesn't bother me that much...but people sure like to talk about it a lot.

So...i'd say that in a typical year there are 7-8 seasons...there can sometimes be some more seasons mixed in there. Like this year we had 'pretending not to be winter' season where there was no snow and not very cold.

But hey that's how it goes I guess. I am trying to be all giddy about these seasons right now as soon there will be less of them...maybe when my socks stop getting wet I'll be happy with all the seasons...