Livin in Fast Forward

I’m not the only one who comments how fast time is going, but I am the most recent. This event in November is coming up so fast I can hardly imagine being able to complete it. Today’s triaTHlon THursday was the best yet, but I’m so far from being excited about it. This week in the pool all I did was practice the drills. If I swam a full lap, I did accidentally. Two and a half hours of making mental connections really helped my swim today. The last of my 30 laps (lengths) was 20 seconds for 25 meters. All that meant was that I still had gas in the tank after swimming for 1/2 mile. That made me feel good.

Next came the run. I ran counterclockwise today (I had to unwind). My pace was 8:02 mile average. Breaking the 8 minute average  is a hurdle for me. That’s only seconds away! I wasn’t thinking about that goal, but came close nonetheless. I practiced running pretending as if I had no shoes on, I wanted to land on the ball of my foot instead of my heel. It’s pretty difficult and looks like I’m shuffling. I have to get it through my head that by taking longer strides, I’m actually slower over a long term . It’s like hitting the brakes with every stride because my heel hits first and have  to roll over before I can move forward. The run took 24:06 and certainly felt much longer.

At 57 degrees and 18 mph it gets pretty cold. I knew it would be, but refused to wear long sleeves. I rode with Don this morning. He’s got a ‘give it your all, for as long as you can’ attitude. That’s the kind of riding partner that keeps me pushing (so he doesn’t show me up). Twelve miles took 40 minutes. That translates to 18 mph! I know it may not sound impressive, but it’s 1 whole mph faster than I did last week. That means I will go an extra mile in one hour! A mile. That’s pretty far ahead. Let’s race, and you give me a mile head start. See, doesn’t it sound far now? Overall I went 18 miles (in exactly 1 hour). A little farther than I was planning, but I felt good, so I kept going.

My observation for today. Life moves so freaking fast, except when you are exercising, then time stands still. My mental trick for today was, push myself for a little bit harder, try to go a little bit faster, because the time will go fast. Now, almost 12 hours later, I have a scant memory of any kind of struggle I went through today. In a blink it’ll be 24 hours, then a memory (maybe). Might as well (minus well), give it your all and crawl home if you have to, because life goes so fast, you’ll never remember it tomorrow (which was years ago).