How I roll

In the last three weeks, I've crammed more information about the human body into my head than I have in the past 10 years since I took my first Wilderness First Aid class, and thus far, we've only covered the trunk. My first exam was yesterday, so I enjoyed a well deserved day off, and of course, decided to do a triathlon. You see, after my first week or so of class during which I did no exercising whatsoever, I realized that lifestyle wasn't going to fly. I am at a decent fitness level and find that I only want to get better, and really believe that I can. But how to fit it all in when my priority is studying, and I'm a complete overachiever who won't settle for less than an A? Well, luckily I'm in school with some creative athletes who are inspiring me to make it work. So my training these days is a bit haphazard, but I'm getting it in. I bike to and from school every day, about 10 miles round trip. Not a great distance, but done every day, I get a minimum of 50 miles a week. There's also some great bike routes that head out of the city so on the weekends I've been fitting in a 25 or 30 mile ride. And to top it off, since my baby was stolen, I've purchased a city commuting bike, basically a hybrid. It's heavy, upright, and no clipless pedals, so my quads get some decent training in. As for running, one of my classmates is an insane runner, so once a week on our lunch break, she kicks my ass for 4 miles, giving me a great speed workout. And then another friend in school is training for her first 10K, so with her I get some nice, long slow distance in a few times a week. Thus far, I've managed to do some form of running or biking every day.

Swimming has been the tough part since I haven't been able to join a gym yet (although that will change this week)...hence the triathlon last night. I blogged about these free weekly tris that take place on the north shore of Boston and yesterday, to celebrate having a Thursday night off and exam one behind me, I drove up there, through weekend beach traffic, to do the race. The swim was short, 1/4 mile, and there were only 6 of us, but I was second out of the water, litterally on the tail of an Ironman (who I later confessed to that I'd given him the swim since I wasn't sure of the bike route). I beat everyone else out of the water by about 3 minutes. Not bad... The bike started great, despite the clunker I'm on these days and I would have maintained second, but I got lost and had to stop and wait. Oh well, it's a good thing these are just for fun. Unfortunately, one of those great New England summer storms blew in during the bike with winds strong enough to knock me over and fill my eyes with sand, so we skipped the run and grabbed some beers instead. The best part about it all was meeting some local triathletes and having someone who could really understand that part of my life. I was bummed to miss the run since it would have made for 4 days in a row of running, the most I've done in almost 2 years, but the tradeoff was ok too! Today was a planned day off to catch up on some work, nurse my hangover from late night dancing, and watch the Pops and fireworks in the city, but tomorrow I'll get my ass handed to me again by my fast classmate. All in all, I think I'm starting to make it really work as a student and endurance athlete. It's taking discipline of course, but I'm lucky to have motivation in the form of training partners again. In fact, I've rallied about 10 classmates to do a sprint tri in September.

In other news, I've officially registered for the Vegas marathon and am determined to qualify for Boston this year. And I've registered for a tri I did last fall. It was one I did well in, but know that I can do so much better. I'm psyched for the challenge, and now have plenty of reasons to get my training in.

Here's a couple pics from Mooseman. They aren't the greatest, but I think they capture the day pretty well. I parcticularly like the pensive wetsuit pose as I contemplated the hell I was about to do :)