A Slam Dunk Moment...

I had one of those moments last night where it couldn't have worked out better if I had planned it. The universe was in alignment, the clouds dispersed, and everything that normally would have gone wrong didn't. It amazes me when these moments happen because usually the opposite holds true for me. As I'm sure quite a few of you have had found it holds true for you also. This is not the norm. This is unusual, and well, I was WOW'd with amazement. Thus, I refer to these few and way too infrequent moments as a SLAM DUNK! But anyway, here's what happened....

I was waiting in the foyer area together with my fellow BCC cyclists waiting for a table at a local restaurant. We had just finished doing the regular weekly Thursday night bike ride. As I was waiting I notice one of the servers looked like a plumper version of my ex-brother-in-law's wife. She was always a sweet gal so I thought I would go ahead and say hello. Her family nickname was the Magnolia Queen. She's from the south and was always just a nice easy going gal that was easy to talk to.

When she got closer to the foyer area, where I might add, I'm standing with 4 male fellow cyclists, I wave. She comes over,"OMG! You look TERRIFIC! OMG! How are you? What have you been up to?" I proceeded to tell her that we had just got done doing a bike ride, and that I was doing some training for a triathlon. Her eyes just got big,"OMG! Wow! What Tri are you doing? You REALLY look terrific!" I tried to quickly explain the SLOW SALTY DOG to her, as our table was announced. We gave each other a quick hug, and then I walked off to the table.

It had been over 8 years since I had seen her. Here I am 75-80 lbs. lighter, tan, with long hair, and with 4 men standing in a restaurant. A SLAM DUNK moment! What are the chances? Now I can just imagine the conversation she had with her husband later that night when she got home. AND then a further conversation that might be taking place right now as my Ex is learning about the run in. Needless to say, I was in VERY high spirits as the meal progressed along last night. It made my night! The only thing was I had a bit of guilt that I didn't ask more after her, but I was thrown off and didn't know what to say.

Still Struggling....Towards SLOW SALTY DOG

Early this morning I struggled through another swim training. Ugh! I've switched it up a little with the training schedule. It's been getting lighter later and later in the mornings. Running at the park alone in the dark is not a good thing. I think I may have improved my speed partly because I've been imagining a serial killer chasing me around the park trying to slay me~! OH, NO!! Run, Forest Run!! ;-) So thus I switched my training schedule around a little.

But I was also hoping that doing the swim earlier in the day would make it --possibly-- a little easier? Well, no such luck! It's all the same. But I will admit it was rather nice having a lane all to myself. At the same time, I wonder if some of the swimmers that were joining other lanes were avoiding me for fear that I would slow them down; or bring them down?

I'm actually looking more and more forward to the SLOW SALTY DOG Triathlon, if only to seeing an end to this swimming laps thing. Isn't that terrible, but I am not finding any JOY in this part of the event. I find myself concentrating SO hard on the strokes. I try to be constantly working on my form that sometimes I almost feel like I'm getting worse on the whole as to better. It's like taking one step forward and two steps back. Yikes! Maybe I should be working on my backstroke!

A date has been set for the SLOW SALTY DOG event. September 26th is "D" Day! I have a month to pull this whole thing off. I'm progressing on the running quite well. I'm up to 7.5 miles, and hoping to push towards 8 or 9 miles this weekend. We've been working on a t-shirt design, and some medals have been ordered. A whole month... It's almost here, and I have to admit I'm getting just a bit of stage fright. Or should I say performance anxiety? But I keep telling myself to just breathe, and concentrate on the training for now. That's half of the battle, or maybe more.

A month-- seems like a such a short amount of time...

Not Drowning & a 10 Min. Mile...

Well, I wasn't a drowning victim last night during my Wednesday swim training session. I am however drinking more than my fair share of chlorinated pool water. Ugh! It was my first training since the panic attack that I had last week. I got to the pool a little sooner than normal and there were more open lanes(the master swimmers hadn't showed up yet), with---now get this--SLOW swimmers like me! Wow! I managed to get in a lane with two other slow swimmers, and it worked out pretty well. I swam my 1/2 mile in about 28 minutes. Of course, I still need to work on my crawl stroke that goes without saying. My breast stroke is getting better and better. I even did a little work on my back stroke without running my head into the wall; wonders never cease!

But what really has gotten me all pumped up today was this morning's run. I decided to take a lap this morning and go as quickly as I could manage. I timed myself and I actually ran a 10 Minute Mile! WOW! I was surprised, and I tend to wonder if I might have done a little better but I kept on having to pull up the capris that I was running in. With all the inches I have lost, I found myself having to safety pin the waistline this morning. I continued to run the lap, and periodically would grab with one hand (or the other) pulling my pants up. I'll tell you this is not an easy feat. I don't want to even imagine how this was appearing to others that were running/walking/biking at the park this morning. Or the effect it may have had on the young University of Utah ROTC that were working out. " Hmmmm... must be a new workout? A pants fire drill?" But all that stuck with me---- a 10 MINUTE MILE!! YAHOO! I'm getting faster!