here's that update
I have officially sent in my registration form and $52 entry fee for the Tucson Tinfoilman Triathlon on October 15. This is an 825 yard swim, 12 mile bike, 3 mile run event. I'm not quite ready yet, but last night I went to the gym and biked 8 miles in 30 minutes and ran 2.66 miles in 30 minutes, so I moved by body 10.66 miles in one hour, a feat that would have been cardiovascularly impossible for me even a mere month ago. Also, I officially timed myself at 12:02 for a 825 yard swim.
I read this book called 'Triathlon 101: Training for Multisport Success' and it said before you devise a training calendar or start keeping a training log or anything, you should make a 50 item list of all the reasons why you want to compete in a triathlon. I don't think I can be bothered with fifty, but here's five at least:
1. I love the way my body feels empty and elongated when I'm done working out. I love the way my shoulders ache comfortingly when I'm done swimming. I love peeling my swim cap off my head when my head is overheated and slightly throbbing. I love the stiff pain that momentarily reveals the entire muscle network in your legs when you climb off a bike and start running. I love the shaky-leg feeling you get when you climb off a treadmill after several miles, so it feels like you're floating above the gym floor. I love the sudden realization that you've been already running 2 miles and you don't feel any pain at all.
2. I love physical activity so much that it almost feels like an indulgence, not so much in the summer, but during the semester, it's always problematic that I'll almost always sacrifice the gym for stuying an extra hour. Training for a triathlon justifies it as a priority.
3. I've been saying I'm going to compete in a triathlon for a year now. I started 'training' last fall (and by training I mean running a mile a week) but conveniently got sick mid-semester. I started 'training' again in the spring (and by training I mean running a mile a week) but conveniently got sick mid-semester. So basically I owe it to myself.
4. It's pretty hot to casually toss around the word triathlon. I ran into my friend Levi at the pool the other day, and we were complaining about how many people were there. He said, 'yeah, all the little kids everywhere ... and some people actually use the pool for serious swimming, to train for triathlons and stuff,' which is when I said -casually- 'oh yeah, I'm training for a triathlon.' Then at some point you can start truncating it to merely tri. 'Oh yeah, my tri is in October.' That's hot.
5. This is the first totally-new-for-me thing I've done in a long time. And although a sprint tri is no ironman tri, when I first started training, I still wasn't totally sure I could actually do it. Doing most things for the first time is kind of exciting, but doing things for the first time that expand your notions of what you -can- do is thrilling.
In other news, I'm headed to California!!! for a week. And not merely California, but specifically Santa Monica!!! iconified forever as the plastic paradise of the beautiful in the Savage Garden song. Yet whenever I hear the name, I get the image of a pier leaning into a wrenchingly romantic sea-sunset, a lone fisherman in silhouette tossing his line over the rail into the waves. Maybe under his canvas hat, he'd be Nick Nolte. Either way, Santa Monica's one of America's mythical places. That and San Francisco. And Los Angeles, I suppose, although I've been stripped of illusion about it. I wonder why California gets the monopoly on mythicalness (mythicality?). Either way, I'm excited.
Also, I have started a story. A coming-of-age story, the only kind I seem to know how to write. I set the story in England to explain away the rain that triggers all creative impulse in me and the reference to the mom as 'mum.' Now that I've actually started writing again, I remember how to spin stories even when you're not sitting in front of the computer and how to put on the writing cd (currently it's 'My Solo Project' by Mates of State) pull up the rocking chair and dissolve instantly into ... I'm not sure what even ... but a good place. And, most of all, I remember why I want to be a writer.
To packing now.
I read this book called 'Triathlon 101: Training for Multisport Success' and it said before you devise a training calendar or start keeping a training log or anything, you should make a 50 item list of all the reasons why you want to compete in a triathlon. I don't think I can be bothered with fifty, but here's five at least:
1. I love the way my body feels empty and elongated when I'm done working out. I love the way my shoulders ache comfortingly when I'm done swimming. I love peeling my swim cap off my head when my head is overheated and slightly throbbing. I love the stiff pain that momentarily reveals the entire muscle network in your legs when you climb off a bike and start running. I love the shaky-leg feeling you get when you climb off a treadmill after several miles, so it feels like you're floating above the gym floor. I love the sudden realization that you've been already running 2 miles and you don't feel any pain at all.
2. I love physical activity so much that it almost feels like an indulgence, not so much in the summer, but during the semester, it's always problematic that I'll almost always sacrifice the gym for stuying an extra hour. Training for a triathlon justifies it as a priority.
3. I've been saying I'm going to compete in a triathlon for a year now. I started 'training' last fall (and by training I mean running a mile a week) but conveniently got sick mid-semester. I started 'training' again in the spring (and by training I mean running a mile a week) but conveniently got sick mid-semester. So basically I owe it to myself.
4. It's pretty hot to casually toss around the word triathlon. I ran into my friend Levi at the pool the other day, and we were complaining about how many people were there. He said, 'yeah, all the little kids everywhere ... and some people actually use the pool for serious swimming, to train for triathlons and stuff,' which is when I said -casually- 'oh yeah, I'm training for a triathlon.' Then at some point you can start truncating it to merely tri. 'Oh yeah, my tri is in October.' That's hot.
5. This is the first totally-new-for-me thing I've done in a long time. And although a sprint tri is no ironman tri, when I first started training, I still wasn't totally sure I could actually do it. Doing most things for the first time is kind of exciting, but doing things for the first time that expand your notions of what you -can- do is thrilling.
In other news, I'm headed to California!!! for a week. And not merely California, but specifically Santa Monica!!! iconified forever as the plastic paradise of the beautiful in the Savage Garden song. Yet whenever I hear the name, I get the image of a pier leaning into a wrenchingly romantic sea-sunset, a lone fisherman in silhouette tossing his line over the rail into the waves. Maybe under his canvas hat, he'd be Nick Nolte. Either way, Santa Monica's one of America's mythical places. That and San Francisco. And Los Angeles, I suppose, although I've been stripped of illusion about it. I wonder why California gets the monopoly on mythicalness (mythicality?). Either way, I'm excited.
Also, I have started a story. A coming-of-age story, the only kind I seem to know how to write. I set the story in England to explain away the rain that triggers all creative impulse in me and the reference to the mom as 'mum.' Now that I've actually started writing again, I remember how to spin stories even when you're not sitting in front of the computer and how to put on the writing cd (currently it's 'My Solo Project' by Mates of State) pull up the rocking chair and dissolve instantly into ... I'm not sure what even ... but a good place. And, most of all, I remember why I want to be a writer.
To packing now.