I Got Nothing

My life has been fairly uneventful for the past few days! I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Drama is bad, but at least it's interesting! And provides for some interesting blog postings. I'm not shining my own shoes, I mean other blogs.

I just finished running. I did 4.3 miles. I know what you're thinking...you're thinking "Why stop at 4.3? Why not just suck it up and run another .2 mile to make it an even 4.5?" Well I'll tell you why: the plan was to do 4. Only 4.

So you see, by doing 4.3 I exceeded my own expectations. 4.5 would just be overkill. I didn't want to set the bar too high. Because then next time I hop onto the treadmill I'll be expecting myself to do 4.5 or maybe even 5. But now, since the plan was only to do 4, and that extra .3 mile was extra, I'll be happy settling for my 4 miles next time.

So 4.3. Word.

Since I have nothing better to talk about, I'll provide you with an update on my mad triathlon training. I still don't have a bike. And I haven't used a stationary cycle in years. So no progress there. I've cut my running back to 4 days per week, and I'm actually seeing improvements in my endurance and motivation. And no more shin splints/stress fractures. And no more fake bone spurs on the top of my foot. This is all good stuff.

I'm "swimming" for 45 minutes, 3 days per week. And I use the term "swimming" very loosely. It consists of pushing off the wall of the pool, stroking (is that what it's called?) once with my right hand, then my left, then my right again while trying to come up for air and put my head back in the water without drowning. That's as far as I get. I tend to stay in the shallow end of the aqua jogging lane. I travel a total of about 10 feet. Then I stand up and walk back to do it again.

Don't laugh, but it's taken me about 3 or 4 weeks to get to this point. I can go back and forth from one end of the pool to the other just stroking (?) my arms and kicking and keeping my face under and holding my breath. Then when I run out of breath I break form and doggie paddle until I'm ready to "swim" again. I can doggie paddle like a madwoman. I could totally do that for half a mile. And kick all those freestylers' butts. They'll come up to take their precious breaths and gulp down the water from my speed trail since I'd be way ahead of them. And laughing as I doggie paddle my way to the finish line. Because I could.

But this brings up another point. I have this horrible fear of being in non-chlorinated water. I don't like the idea of the possibility that a fish or some other water creature could come up to me and touch me. I'm getting chills just thinking about it. And I'm terrified I'll step on an eel or a turtle or something.

And I'm not just talking about murky swamp water. I'm talking ANY water that is not enclosed in concrete and smelling like bleach. Or in my bath tub. We went to Aruba for our honeymoon. The water there is GORGEOUS. Clear as day. And we went on this adventure thing where we ended up on the beach (big surprise there!) with snorkels. I put my snorkel on and plunged in. It was really cool to see everything under the water. And the water was so clear I could see everything. And as I'm taking in this beautiful scenery, this huge fish swims by about 2 inches from my face. I freaked out, remembered where I was and ran out. I never went back in.

I don't know where this fear comes from. I was stung 3 times on my arm by a jellyfish once. And instead of feeling sorry for me, my father thought it was appropriate to take countless pictures of me as I had my arm treated in the first aid station. Maybe that scarred me. That was my first beach experience, at least that I can remember.

Wait, I had a point.

Yeah, so once I get the whole 'breathing while swimming without swallowing toxic amounts of water' thing down, I'll have to figure out how I'm going to compete in a triathlon involving immersing myself in yucky non-pool water.
That will be an interesting series of postings, so keep an eye out for that!