I was swim-ming!

Well, I was pretty sure I could swim 1/4 of a mile but, in all honesty, I really had no clue.  So
Thursday night, while the girls were in their swimming lessons, I took advantage of the open lane, lap swimming to give it a shot.   I had figured out ahead of time that the Y had a 25 yard pool.  Which means that a mile is like 70 lengths of the pool and a 1/2 mile is like 35 lengths which would make 1/4 mile 17.5 lengths.

Am I dazzling you with my mathematical prowess?

I certainly was not the picture of confidence.  I kind of waited against the wall until no one was looking at me and then I gently slipped into the water as inconspicuously as I could.  There was someone else in the one and only lane that was open.  I honestly didn't know what to do.  What is the swimming pool etiquette here?  Am I allowed to swim in the same lane as she is?  Do I yield to her when passing?  Am I supposed to stay on the right like I'm driving?  How does this work?  Never have I felt so ridiculous and insecure over something so relatively silly.

Finally, I sucked it up and when she came back down to where I was I said "Hi! This is my first time doing this" and she said "swimming?" and I said "No, swimming during lap time"  I said "am I allowed to swim in the lane at the same time you are?" and she said "oh sure, you just stay to the right like we're driving" and I immediately felt a bond with this beautiful woman wearing pink goggles.  So, off we went.  She and I in our one tiny lane, staying to the right like we were driving.  I started out on my first lap and felt OK.  I quickly realized I was not going to win any awards based on my exquisite form, but I was moving from one side of the pool to the other and I was staying afloat.  What else matters, really?

After the first length, I felt just fine.  It wasn't too terrible.  Obviously my lack of ability to do the cool little flippy thing to go the other direction meant I just kind of stopped and then started again.  (I doubt I'll need to worry about those valuable seconds of time unless Michael Phelps shows up in which case I'd probably run and hide anyway) I did 2 and then 4 and then 8 and thought "Wow! I'm really not tired at all!"  According to a website I was referencing called "Tri Newbie" I needed to be able to do 8 lengths in order to be at the level where I can start training.  So, I was glad to have made it there at least. 

I felt good after 8 so I thought, well, I might as well go ahead and go to 18 which is a quarter mile (and the race length) So, I did!  I just kept going.  I did stop between laps and caught my breath for a minute...but really, I felt great.  I wasn't yearning to jump out of the water and onto a bike for a 12 mile ride, but I felt great! 

So, it was in that moment that I decided I was going to do it!  I'm going to start training for the Sprint Triathlon!  I notified my "personal trainer" via text who responded with an "Oh, it's ON!"

Here I go!!!!!!!

Should I or shouldn't I?

So, I've been toying with the idea of attempting a sprint triathlon in July.  I've thought triathlons sounded like something my attention span could handle (since a 26 mile marathon sounds like 5 to 6 hours of mind numbing, boring nothingness to me)  In case you don't know (I didn't!) triathlon races vary in distance. Sprint distance is a 1/4 mile swim, 12 1/2 mile bike, and a 3.1 mile run, then there is the Olympic which is a 1 mile swim, 25 mile ride, 6.2 mile run, next is the Long Course at 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, followed by a 13.1 mile run and lastly there is the Ironman which is an insane 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and a marathon: 26 mile run. (I think it should be called Iron Screws-are-lose-in-your-head Man but that's just me.

I am fairly certain that I could do the 1/4 mile swim....at least at one point in my life.  Funny story actually....I was a goody-goody when I was young.  Really.  Never disobeyed my parents.  Always followed the rules.  Never smoked, never drank, never had sex.  I didn't realize anyone at my high school did any of those things either because none of my closest friends did.  It wasn't until a class in college one time that I took with a high school friend where we were discussing our hometowns and I started talking about how mine wasn't the stereotypical high school because people at our school didn't do any of that kind of thing when my friend chimed in with "Uh....Molly?"  He said it kind of in the same tone as my parents when they told me that our beloved dog Smokey didn't actually go to live with Farmer Smith and his 3 adorable children out in the country with a big open yard where he could frolic and play but instead got smashed by a semi.

Don't worry, that wasn't the funny part.

So, when I was 16 and at Senior High Church Camp at Epworth Forest in North Webster, one of the big fat rules was no swimming outside of the designated swimming area and absolutely no swimming to the island that was waaaay off shore.  I don't know exactly how far it was, but it was FAR.  You know what, here's a picture from Google Earth to better illustrate my point...

The yellow line would be the line that I swam ILLEGALLY with some of my church camp friends.  That's right, folks.  I swam about a half of a mile in the forbidden, unforgiving, open waters of Lake Webster!  There are all manner of trout and bass and seaweed in that lake...but I braved it.  Now sure, I was at church camp and, ok, we did take life vests with us to pass back and forth, and yes, we did ask one of the younger, more fun-loving counselors to sit on the pier and watch out for us to make sure none of us drowned.  So what? We were responsible rebels, but we were rebels nonetheless!

Why, yes, I do have a point, thanks for asking.

I am pretty sure that given that shining example of my bravery from almost 20 years ago, I could replicate it with a little bit of training.  So that takes care of the swimming part (in my fantasy world...dream with me, people.)

As for the running part, I completed the Couch to 5K training program last year with my good friend, Shantell (ironically also from my high school....dang, grow up, Molly!) So I know I can run that distance even though my fastest time ever at the 5K level took me quite a bit longer than what the snobby training plan told me it should, but I think that plan had it out for me from the beginning.

The cycling part is the newest addition to my ever expanding skill set.  I have never been a biker.  Ever.  In college, when all of my roommates would ride their bikes to class and back, I either had to drive and park almost as far away as I lived to get to my classes, or I'd just hoof it.  I could not handle the intricacies of cycling.  I would be OK as long as I was on, say, a 2 lane road with no one behind me or coming towards me, but put me on the tiny paved path reserved for cyclists and force me to pass anyone and all of a sudden I was that unsteady 4 year old with the training wheels freshly removed....all wobbly and out of control.  It was like a comedy routine.  Since then, however, I have started cycling in cycling class.  The benefit there is that the bikes are actually bolted to the floor.  I look like a normal person.  The little readout on the cycle at the end of a 1 hour session several months ago, told me that I had ridden exactly 22 miles.  I would like to think that I'm even faster now, and I'd further like to think that given my new found confidence on the bikes, that I'd be able to ride a real bike, outside, with people around me and be able to do only 12 miles in a reasonable amount of time!

So, the sprint triathlon in question that I'm possibly thinking about considering is on July 10 here in Muncie.  If I follow an 11 week training plan, that will get me to the date fairly easily, if not in much better shape!

Why am I posting this here for the world (and by world I mean the people who read this blog (and by the people who read this blog I mean the same people I talk to on a daily basis)) to see?

Yeah, I don't know either.