Saturday, August 06, 2005

I'm Gonna Tri

This week I made the decision to finally do a triathalon. Ok--not like the Ironman or anything--just the Danskin, which is much more realistic for me! What stopped me from wanting to do it in the past was not really thinking I was a strong swimmer (that and I really hate swimming in lakes). But over these past few weeks, I've been taking advantage of the olympic sized swimming pool at my gym and swimming 32 laps twice a week (32 laps = 1 mile). I'm still a little slow--about 1:15 minutes/lap--but like running, at least I'm pretty confident I can cover the distance.

Unfortunately my decision to do the Danskin is a bit too late for this year--seeing that the Seattle Danskin is in two weeks and registration closed way back in March; but this will at least give me enough time to train and have fun! I still plan on doing half of the Seattle Marathon this fall and maybe the Whidbey Island marathon next May. I ran a 9 miler today: down Stone Way to the Burke Gilman trail, around UW up to Ravenna Park, through the backside to Cowen Park, to Ravenna Avenue to the top of Greenlake; around the top of Greenlake, along 99 (Na and Pa drove past me on the way to lunch--lucky dogs!) back down to Greenlake Way/Stone Way.

I wish I had this much energy for my manuscript. I haven't picked it up at all this week, but once I'm done posting this entry, I'll open it up. I think my stalling is due, in part, to reading War and Rememberance. I'm somewhere toward the end--where two characters are in Terezin and as I'm reading, I keep thinking, "Hey...my characters go through THAT" or "Dammit, I was gonna have them do THAT..." and so I feel like even though I had thought these elements through before even picking up Herman Wouk, I feel like I'm lifting ideas. Sigh!

I guess that's the price I pay for reading books similar to mine. I can't help it though, I love reading this stuff as much as I love writing about it.

3 comments:

princess kanomanom said...

Congrats! So ambitious... And hey, I hear that Whidbey race is stunning, scenery-wise. Go for it!

Anonymous said...

Are you kidding me?? You (we) may have missed the deadline but, you have alot to do this year!! I thought maybe you could do some recon work! Check out the numbers, the run and see how the transitions go..get some inside scoop! I'm really very excited again and that is helping to push me!TRI TRI again!

LeFemmeMonkita said...

Yeah, I've thought about scoping it out. Maybe I will!

Thanks, K! I hear Whidbey is a bit on the hilly side--but crossing Deception Pass is pretty darn cool! It's either that or the Vancouver. Have you done Vancouver?