Give me a couple days, or, How I Make Decisions

Me at 4am Sunday morning: No way am I ever doing this triathlon thing again! I have to remember to pack way too much stuff, there are too many transitions, too much gear, and running races are just an assboat load easier.

Me at 10:15 am Sunday morning, after the awards ceremony: Maybe I'll do it again next year, but I don't have time to get in all the bike rides necessary for that tri I (stupidly) signed up for in October.

My text to my Mom today at 9:45 after reading this http://tridiesel.blogspot.com/2011/09/so-you-wanna-be-triathlete.html: Hey, so I am actually doing that sprint tri in October...

Yes, I caved. Or, more accurately, I sucked it up. Yes, my bike workouts may take a bit of a backseat to the swimming and running training I am doing for the college teams I want to walk onto (that is a whole other post...), but I have never just completely bagged a challenge without at least attempting it, and I am also craving that feeling of accomplishment that I had at Sunday's finishline. I paid the money, I have the endurance, so I might as well get my little tush into the big, blue-ish green Atlantic Ocean on October 9th and swim myself to victory (or the finish- whichever is more plausible mid-race).

Side note: Guess what? I have totally been slacking off in swimming and (running) the past two months and am now paying for it. I can see that is going to be a long journey on the road to being able to swim 6,000yds in one practice (what they do in D3), as in no more days of just "settling" for a 3200yd workout, but after today's set, I know I am at least mentally, if not almost physically,there. My coach had us doing 2x( 2x200 pull, 8x50 pace, 2x500) with the second set of 500's descend. When he said this, I wanted to punch him in the face a little, but after the first 500 I felt AWESOME. Descending the distance actually made it mentally easier to handle, and I was able to push through all my bodily fatigue and really go all out on the last 50. Afterwards, I was beat, and contemplated just cooling down and calling it a day, but I really wanted to 4300yds, and as my coach said, if I want to swim on the team I have to get used to sets like this, so I channeled the explicit mash-up music booming from the underwater speakers and got in the zone for the last 500. It totally paid off, and while my triceps are so sore that sleeping on my arms is a wee-bit more than uncomfortable (because yes, I took a mid-morning nap. Don't judge), I can say with confidence that this crazy Ginger athlete is back, and she ain't goin' nowhere.