Friday, May 25, 2007

Rock Gap Approacheth

So, only two weeks to the Rock Gap Sprint Tri. Who's in? Anybody want to go just to watch? I'll have to consider that.

Today I saw, as I dropped off a sleeping bag at a friends house, a clip of killer whales training at Sea World, and it occurred to me that the water might be where I can make up for my size. Killer whales don't seem to have any trouble getting around. They are whales, for the love of Pete. They can get their entire several thousand pound bodies flying completely out of the water. They can catch seals in the water, and seals aren't slouches when it comes to swimming either. So I think I am going to assume the mindset of a migrating whale, able to swim for thousands of miles with nary a second thought. Thinking in this way, I will be able to motivate my significant mass with leisurely effort, yet with the grace of a creature who calls the seas his home.

On another note, I did a new endurance exercise today, which was that I took a walk outside with my trusty 20 pound dumbbells, and I ended up walking for 50 minutes. This definitely made the walk more challenging, as it was destroying my shoulders and forearms, and also adding 40 pounds to my load. This is sort of what I want the swim to feel like. I want it to be as if certain parts of my body are being taxed in ways that many people wouldn't like, but that does not get me all out of breath. I can sweat up a storm and work like a dog all day long (and use idioms like nobody's business) but I just don't like getting very out of breath. I like breathing! Call me crazy.

1 comment:

CSquared said...

I will be at Rocky Gap. I do not know if I am as in as good of shape as last summer when I did one in Morgantown, but we will see. I have done more sprint/interval stuff in the run, but not as much distance. We will see how that works. I have done a ton more swimming and feel stronger in that, but that probably will not equate too much time in such a short swim event. My bike should be the same. I currently have the bearing tore apart on the front wheel of my road bike and proceeded to lose a couple bearings. Looking to fix this weekend.

Tamara and the girls are not going to come watch, but Levi is coming. In addition, a friend, his wife, and son (Levi's age) are coming with me. They are all just coming to watch. Then after the tri, we are going Geocaching in Rocky Gap state park. For those who do not know, Geocaching is a cache hunt with a GPS unit. People hide boxes in the woods and give you the GPS coordinates, and then you go find them. We should have a nice day.

Oh, by the way Tamara is not going because they have a retirement party for her mom (all grand parents will then be retired, increasing my babysitting possibilities by at least 25%). Well she claims she wants to go to the party, but I secretly believe she just does not want to get up 6 am to travel to a race on a Saturday. They scheduled the party last minute, so I opted not to change my plans. The Kids, my wife, my car and church can get in the way of my training, but a last minute "we want to have a party" will not.

Shawn, I know my friend Bill would not mind if you wanted to Geocach too.