An Update

Awhile back, I decided I would try and post about twice a month.  And I did.  Except in August.  But I posted 6 times in July, so I said that was okay.  It's now about time to post.  So, what to write about . . .

Going to see the PhD Comics movie?
The triathlon challenge I'm working on?
Having just finished reading Bleak House?
Having watched A Series of Unfortunate Events and being surprised at how much I enjoyed it?
Taking 226 impact points on an aluminum I-beam?
Convincing my sister's family to come join us for a reenactment?
The coupons I just found for Halloween candy which don't expire until after Halloween, which means that I can combine them with the 50% off sales?

I mean, it's all so exciting!  Okay, so it's really all pretty mundane, except for the candy coupons; I mean, what's not exciting about candy?  And it was exciting to have my sister's family come out, but she's already posted about that.

I guess I'll start with the triathlon challenge.  My friend, Sara, is really athletic, and she competes in triathlons regularly.  She's also part of the university triathlon club.  Knowing how much I bike, she started telling me about a triathlon challenge going on in October.  During the month of October, you have to bike, swim, and run (or walk, as she repeatedly reminded me) the distances of an Ironman triathlon.

I balked at the idea of running.  I haven't run a mile since 1999.  (I still haven't.  I ran 3/4 of a mile one evening, but I've gotten the rest of my distance with walking.)  I had never gone swimming for exercise.  The most grueling swimming thing I had probably ever done was when I had to tread water for 20 minutes.  (Was it even 20 minutes?  I don't remember; it would have been back in 2000.)  And even though I bike a lot, I would have to do 112 miles.  That is significantly more than the 80 miles that I might reach in a month, if the weather is really good.

David proposed going swimming one evening in late September, and we went.  I actually did okay!  I decided that maybe I could do this.  Then, I tried biking all the way from my lab to campus (5 miles).  I normally would hop on the bus to get to campus, because I hate riding up hills.  But I made it!  So, I decided to go sign up, and commit myself to biking 112 miles, walking 26.2 miles, and swimming 2.4 miles.

After the first week, I was feeling great!  I had done 39.6 miles of biking and 6.2 miles of walking (with a little, itty bit of that being jogging).

Then, I went swimming.  I told myself that I had to do at least 5 laps.  When I had done 4, I decided that if I could get to 8, I would be doing well.  At 8, I went for another.  At 9, I was feeling a little worn out, but figured that I ought to make it an even 10.  Bad idea.  My foot started cramping, and that last lap was a lot of work.  But I made it.  And in my mind, I remembered an email saying it was something like 69 laps to reach the 2.4 miles.  I was feeling okay.

Then, I actually calculated how far I swam.  500 yards.  0.3 miles.  (The pool is 25 yards x 50 yards, and they had the lanes set up the short way, in order to provide more lanes.)  And that 69 that I was remembering?  It was 169 lengths, or 85 laps.  At my current rate, I would have to come back 8 times to get to the 2.4 mile distance.  I was feeling a little disheartened.

And then?  I got sick.  Which means I didn't do much.  So, in week two, I biked 4.0 miles, walked 4.6 miles, and swam 0.3 miles.  I have a long way to go.