Taking the plunge

I’ve decided that it’s time to transition from my extreme dryland training to actually getting in the pool once in a while, and so this morning I headed to the gym to brave the arctic waters. After tossing the baby harp seals a few sardines, I get in and crank out a few laps, totally smoking the 8-year old child who’s taking a swim lesson in the lane next to me. Hey, he’ll need to learn how it feels to be crushed and humiliated at some point, might as well start now.

After my swim, I meet up with Colleen in the locker room, who bemoans the fact that she’s not a very good motivating force for me, lollygagging her way in as she is. However, I assure Colleen that her jesting comments on the blog (“you have to actually get in the pool to do laps, you know”) combined with the continual encouraging emails (“hey Babylungs, do you think you might be able to get your fat lazy ass out of the house to meet me at the pool one of these days?”) are a key source of motivation. Okay, so her emails actually say “Hey, I’m swimming at 9:15, want to meet me there?”, but I’m able to interpret them within the larger global context.

Another primary motivator for me, and the one that finally compelled me to get into the pool at such an early stage in my IMOO training, is of course Deanna. Who has now asked me several times if I’m using the plan from my Be Iron Fit book again this year, and then informed me that “I got that book and looked at the plans, but the swims I’m doing now are already way longer and harder than the “peak phase” swims for the “competitive” plan,” accompanied with a mocking laugh. Okay, what she actually said was.....no, wait, that’s what she said. So while I have the utmost confidence in my dryland training and visualization methodologies, I decided it couldn’t hurt to do an occasional lap or two.

Deanna is also the one who talked me into doing the Triple-T, aka the “What are you, nuts?” Race. It consists of 4 races in one weekend: a sprint on Friday, 2 olympics on Saturday, and a half-IM on Sunday. And then death. Naturally, it’s all uphill. For once, this insanity did not emanate from me – nope, Deanna’s idea. I think she’s trying to kill me, to eliminate the competition before IMOO. She senses the inherent superiority of my Thighmaster Training Plan, and is panicking. Tonight I’m going to Bridget and Colleen’s to use their Computrainer to ride the first Olympic course. I tried looking up the profile on the TTT website, but this is what I found:



I plan to write the RD later on today, letting him know that he accidentally posted a chart of someone going into cardiac arrest rather than the actual race profile. I hate when that happens.