Does working out lead to public nudity?

Thursdays are just not my days.  Last Thursday, after a workout at the gym, I took a shower, got dressed and then realized that I had no shoes to wear to work.  I spent the entire day in my nice blouse, professional black slacks, and white sneakers. 

Today I decided to wear a dress to work.  I packed my undergarments, shoes, two pairs of stockings, incase one pair got torn, and no dress!  When I got out of the gym shower I didn’t know what to do.  I put on my sneakers and the sweaty pants that I worked out in, but there was NO WAY I was going to don that skin tight sweaty work-out top.  So I covered myself with my down, three-quarter length coat, zipped it all the way up to my neck and drove home with no top on.  I changed into my dress at home and STILL made it to work on time!

My team just met for an outside run. It's 18 degrees out. I'll go to the gym.

I’m freaking out!

I’m freaking out!  I’m absolutely freaking out.  I looked up the bike course for my intended triathlon and there are three peaks on the course with an elevation of 1000’ and above.  How am I supposed to train for those hills?  I am not starting my training as a strong, fit athletic person.  I struggle with just the slightest elevation grade.  We are expecting snow accumulation tomorrow, so I have no idea when I will be able to ride outside again and even if it is soon the highest point on Long Island is about 400’.  Pray for me.

Either my heart went into ventricular fibrillation during spin class this morning or I was having a problem with my heart rate monitor.  I'm hoping for the v-fib as heart rate monitors can be really expensive.

A note about fundraising

As happy as I am to be training for this triathlon and to receive the excellent coaching and support from Team in Training there is a catch.  The catch is that I need to raise over $3,800 for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society.  It’s not such a bad catch as it is definitely a worthy charity. 

The trouble that I have is fundraising.  It SUCKS to ask your friends and family for money.  I have raised money for the LLS in the past.  I sent letters to all of my friends and family.  I figured that I’d send one to everyone on my Christmas list.  If I like someone enough to send them a Christmas card, hopefully they like me enough to donate.     The response was touching and overwhelming.  I was expecting $10 and $15 donations.  What I received was $100 and $200 donations.  I had a much smaller goal at the time and I far exceeded it.  Now after such generosity how do I ask people to donate again? 

This year, as soon as I committed to this triathlon, I posted my plans on facebook and sent out an email blast.  I received a very favorable response as I do know so many kind and generous people.  My mother even asked for donations to my cause in lieu of gifts for her 70^th birthday.  I still have reached only 52% of my goal. 

So in comes fundraising events.  I contacted every mall, bookstore and toy store that I could think of to offer to wrap presents during the holiday season.  The gift wrapping is free, but customers can choose to make a donation as thank you.  Barnes and Noble was the only one that had any availability.  So I got off of work early one night and met a team mate at the store ready, willing and able to earn tons of money for our cause.  We set up, bought some tea at the café, and sat there…and sat there…wrapped a couple of gifts…got more tea…and sat there.  In five hours the two of us made a grand total of $9 to split between our fundraising efforts.  We spent more on the tea.  To make matters worse we were obligated to wrap gifts two more times.  Luckily they cancelled on us one of the times.  We made about $35 the other time. 

I planned a B-I-N-G-O party with some other team mates, but they cancelled on me. 

I started a Super Bowl Pool a month ago.  I brought the boxes around to absolutely everybody I know.  So far I have only 25 boxes full.  Apparently I don’t know too many people. 

I had cool triathlon t-shirts made up.  I have sold four so far. 

On Saturday my mentor offered me a Kindle Fire to raffle off.  Hopefully that will be more successful.  

just keep swimming...just keep swimming...

I want to give a shout out to my swimming coaches! 

When I first met my swim coaches the head honcho, Joe, asked me about my swim experience.  I very proudly informed him that I was the most valuable member of my swim team.  Then I had to admit that I was eight years old at the time and have not improved since. 

In this quest to be a triathlete swimming was the one thing that I thought I had down pat, the mechanics of it at least.  I knew that I still had to work on my fitness level.  Well, as you may have read in one of my previous blogs I was wrong (about the mechanics, not about the fitness level).  At the beginning of the season I could get from one end of the pool to the other, no problem.  Doing it often took some effort.  Doing it often and fast exhausted me.  I have enough working against me.  During my triathlon I have no desire to come out of the water exhausted and still have two thirds of the event left to complete.    

I am so fortunate to be working with super, fabulous, patient and fun swim coaches, who also happen to be great instructors.  Every Tuesday night, they stand at the edge of the pool watching my stroke, my head position, my body position and my breathing.  Then they give me drills or tips to make my swimming more efficient.   Everything they say to me improves my stroke and makes moving from one end of the pool to the other easier.  When I am swimming alone I feel like I am actually gliding through the water with little or no effort at all.  I am still the slowest swimmer on the team, much of which has to do with my fitness level, but Thanks to Joe, Damian, Nick and Tom I am getting better every day.  Tuesday swim is now my favorite part of the week.   I just with that I could keep them with me for all of my other workouts.