About This Blog

As time permits, in-depth musings on myriad subjects will be posted. Abbreviated adages will be announced via Twitter.

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Battlin' It Out

It was a flippin' track workout tonight, which was kind of a downer to an otherwise stellar day. Still, I can't complain (much) about getting free coaching for improving my run, and, in spite of my continued ill feelings towards them (the monotony more than anything), track workouts are an effective way of getting in a good workout in in a short amount of time.

This morning's swim went well (1500m in 39'00", which is 2'06" better than the HOT Championships...granted, the HOT tri was open water, and in strong currents to boot, but I didn't have to worry about turning around every 25m, either; those seconds do add up), once I got over my upset tummy, but I'm glad it wasn't a race environment. Mental note: ask Gold's to clean their @(%*& pool...soon. Tomorrow is yoga & weights at the gym, with a cool-down swim, time & clean pool permitting.

By the time I made it home, I was beat. That was about an hour ago, which gave me just enough time to shower, shave (legs), and flip through the mail before plopping down here to write my musings on the day. The mail, however, actually contained something other than a bill today: the new issue of Runner Triathlete News. In it was an advertisement for an Olympic-distance race on 04/22 dubbed "The Battle of San Jacinto." It's two weeks after my half, which, I believe, would be an ideal taper race for Gulfman, while still keeping me sharp for the Capital of Texas race on Memorial Day. In any event, I'm going to need to put a little more effort into securing sponsorships. Perhaps I can pick up some tips at one of the club holiday parties on tap for this weekend. But first, sleep. And before that, Harry Potter.

At some point, I'll actually come up with something coherent to write in these little babble sessions of mine, but until then, perservere; bear with me. Tschuss.//d

Monday, November 28, 2005

TGIM

Ah, rest day.

It's one of the very few reasons I can think of for looking forward to Mondays, especially one where I come off from a week of holiday, but the day has really been anything but restful.

Where I spoke yesterday about having completed all of my duties for the bike club, I had forgotten about the last Board meeting; Board meetins are held the last Monday of each month at a chain French restaurant whose saving grace is a ridiculously rich tomato soup, coupled with a vegetable sandwich. I skipped the sandwich tonight in favor of a pasta salad, which was not the wisest of moves; too much olive oil in the salad, I think. Back to the meeting:

I arrived late (whomever said being a teacher was great because you're done with work at 3:30 obviously never spent any time as a teacher, or at least never had to plan for a sub), had my soup & salad and turned over the files and other necessary evils to the new editor-to-be. I could have left then but thought I would stick around to hear what was being discussed and maybe even contribute a thought or two. My only contributions were a cynical response to complaints about coming changes to the newsletter format ("...and if you don't like it, you should have stepped up to be editor, yourself," I believe was how I voiced it) and the "aye" to agreeing to adjourn when everyone had spoken their piece. An hour later, I'm at home, typing away to heaven knows whom and listening to Disintegration. My rest day is finally restful.

Tomorrow starts another busy week of workouts. Mercifully, I'll not have kids to contend with during the day, but I do miss not being in the classroom, where I have a captive audience to listen to interjections on how multisport is so much better than other sports. Then again, I still have you.

I'm off to play Tetris for an hour or two before bedtime. Thanks for reading (as Tyler used to say), and good night.//d

Sunday, November 27, 2005

The Beginning

triathlon: "an athletic contest in which participants compete without stopping in three successive events, usually long-distance swimming, bicycling, and running"
-- dictionary.com

For several weeks -- maybe even months, I have kicked around the idea of creating a blog to chronicle my preparations, nay, musings, on the sport of triathlon, but have put it off for one reason or other. Having completed my final duty as newsletter editor for the local bike club, and being full on in preparing for a half-Iron distance race in April 2006, I can think of no reason to further postpone what will be, with comple certainty, the ultimate blog.

</sarcasm>

Be advised, this will not be a log of what workouts I did on what day; rather, what may be going through my mind during those workouts or as I enter the post. Because of my tight schedule, entries will not occur daily; weekly, if we're (both) lucky.

There could be more for this evening, but I'm afraid I've a house that needs cleaning and a bed that needs sleeping in. Today's ride was of greater speed and subsequent difficulty than intended, and I've not been eating properly the past couple of days. Call it a post-Thanksgiving rebellion for how much I ate on Thursday.

Tschuss.//d