Standing at the Trailhead of Winter

Tuesday evening I went swimming. I swam a mile in 45 minutes. I was so proud of myself. Too proud perhaps. When I pushed off the bottom of the pool to sit on the side, my left calf cramped to the degree of me leaning over in agony, wanting to howl but not wanting to scare the few others who were enjoying the pool. Hubby tried to massage the pain away, but the muscle had turned to rock. For what seemed like a very long time, though I know it was most likely less than two minutes, I endured what was the most painful experience of my life. And that's saying something after having given birth naturally to a 10 pound 9 ounce baby. Today, the calf still hurts to the degree that running is definitely out; walking alone is an ordeal. Swimming is out since every time I flex my calf in the way I would while swimming, it wants to cramp up all over again. I'm  not sure about cycling--I think I could do that though there would be pain with each revolution. In general, it appears I'm out...

Well, the Bike the US for MS isn't going to happen. Hubby just isn't on board for it, and I can't go ahead with something that he isn't in favor of. I could be petty and snarky and say he does things I'm not on board with, but I won't. Maybe when all the kids are grown and gone, he and I both can do this ride. The upside is not having a two-month ride on the calendar means the summer is wide open for whatever I can dream up. And I like to dream big. First dream: seeking a PR at the Sullivan Sprint Tri. This was my first sprint tri ever, where I got behind some s l o w swimmers and couldn't get around them. The plan is I'm going to start swimming in January and really work on my form and speed. Most of my problem at the tri was my own fault, not having an accurate 400 meter swim time. If I had timed myself prior to the tri, I would have been put into a faster slot, thus avoiding being roadblocked by slower swimmers. Second dream: an event every week...

The bike was brutal today. I had been using the recumbant bike until today. The seat on each, to say the least, is as different as sandpaper and cotton. My bum has been speaking to me ever since, and what it's been saying isn't fit for my mother to hear. How do cyclists do it? Do they wear padded shorts? I'm going to have to figure something out in order to get through the bike training. The swim yesterday went well. I did the 400 meters like I would for the mini-tri, only taking very short breaks at the end of each lap. I was able to finish the 400 in fifteen minutes. I'd say that's not too shabby. My goal is to get down to ten minutes. That might be a bit lofty, and I'll settle for twelve or thirteen minutes, but I do think I can shave off quite a bit of time by not stopping at the end of each lap. After doing the initial 400 meters, I used a paddle board and did another 400 meters. At about the 300 meters mark, fatigue set in on my left side, making me vere t...

No swim yesterday. My training partner had some dental work done and wasn't feeling up to swimming, so we did some bike time instead. I went 13.6 miles in just under 50 minutes. I don't know if this is good or bad, but I'm going to try to do the 13.6 miles several times a week, working to bring the time down. I kind of surprised myself yesterday in completing the mileage without stopping or slowing down. I maintained a 16-18 mph speed the entire time. Another surprise is I'm not sore today. I guess all the running I've been doing is paying off. Who knew? One idea I had is to take a day in a couple of weeks to do a run-through of a mini tri at the gym. I can do the swim, change and get on a bike, then go to the treadmill for the run. A mock trial would give me an indication of what I'm facing come April 2010. I just might find I'm in no shape at all to do something like this, which would be helpful in establishing a training schedule. I kind of what to test m...