Perspective
Friday, July 06, 2007
This is a few days belated, but wanted to get it down lest I forget.
On Wednesday, July 4th, I was scheduled for an open water swim, a 2-hour easy ride, and a 30-minute run (on the elliptical).
About 7:30 a.m., Chief of Stuff and my wonderful sister, Lindsey, got up with me to head to the lake. They didn't want me swimming by myself, although they later admitted that when I reached the opposite side of Lake Wingra, they couldn't tell my swim cap and arm flailing from the little bitty waves. In any case, it made them feel better, gave them time to take in a little coffee to start the day, and gave the dogs -- mine, Leonard, and my sister and brother-in-law's, Nolan -- time to run, swim, and play.
The swim went well. Right around a mile, and I felt strong. My arms weren't fatiguing nearly as much as they had been when I first started swimming in my wetsuit. And the only stops I made were brief ones to readjust my annoying, leaking goggles.
After the swim, it was on to biking. While Lindsey took the dogs home for naptime, CoS and I got geared up for a two-hour ride.
We headed up the bike path toward the Military Ridge Trail, stopping in Fitchburg to pick up some fluids. The temp was great, it was a beautiful day, and I was (finally!) biking new territory. But I couldn't relax. I had my whole family (mom, dad, sister, and grandmothers) plus four to six others, coming for a cookout at noon-thirty-ish and I still had to bike, another hour or so, shower, and run to the store before then. It was 10 a.m.
"I can't do this," I told CoS. "I want to just go back and get things organized." (am a little type-A, mostly at very inopportune times). He convinced me to do a bit more, and then we'd turn around and head back.
Riding back into the parking lot outside the Vilas Zoo, we spotted 1/2 of a couple who had been swimming with a different group that morning and had taken off on their ridiculously pimped-out, fancy, matching Trek Equinox TTX 9.5's just before we set off on our ride.
I was feeling guilty about not getting up earlier (notice a trend?) and about cutting my already way-too-easy ride short.
"Well, that's good. I swam longer than their group, and they biked just about as long as I did, today," I commented about the ultra-fit Equinox TTX 9.5 couple. "So maybe this is okay. I mean, I got a workout in, and I can always sneak out for a short ride this afternoon before or after I do the elliptical."
CoS said that he thought it was fine. But I kept prattling on, wanting to assure myself that I wasn't a wuss, and that I had some kind of business being in the Equinox couple's realm.
"Maybe this is their tough day," CoS offered, I'm sure wanting to end my obsessing.
I told him I doubted it. They looked like serious kids. Probably an easy day. But I was scheduled for sort of an easy day too, so maybe it was okay. Again, more prattling.
Finally, CoS found just the right thing to assuage my guilt and obsessing: "Erin, it's only Wednesday." He reminded me that this was good training for a mid-weekday, and that I didn't have to hammer out 100+ miles just because I had the day free from work (but thankfully left out the part of having to do that tomorrow).
"Let's go have a fun cookout, and enjoy the day. You're fine," he said.
And, I decided, I mostly was.
Posted by Erin 12:42 PM
1 Comment:
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- Krista said...
7/06/2007 4:45 PMOK, wait. Did you seriously ride 112 miles in less than two hours? Because if so, holy cow.