Throwing Down the Gauntlet

About a week or so ago I got an email about the Adirondack Half Marathon and thought: "I should just train like I was going to run that." Then I was talking to my friend Amy via FB about it yesterday and somewhere along the way she asked me if I was serious about actually doing it and I said yes. WHAT?! I did, it is in writing. I looked at it a few moments ago just to confirm it wasn't some chemo-steroid induced dream, but I really did. She already registered!

Tonight I thought: "I should probably start running if I am going to run 13.1 miles in September," because you all might remember my earlier post about my last attempt to do such a thing. (For those who missed that one, it wasn't pretty.) I found and tossed on my running gear, grabbed my iPod, and headed out for the first time in well over a year for a run. I opted not to wear my watch. I am going to go timer-free this time, which if tonight is any indication, will make me twitch a great deal. Anyhow, let's just say I made it for the full distance I wanted to go, but I have quite a way to go before September.

But, then there is this other event. An open water swimming event in August that I had decided I was going to try to do, no matter what. It is a cable swim in Mirror Lake in Lake Placid, NY. There is a 2-mile version I completed two years ago and also 1-mile version. I planned to do the 1-mile version this year (I am a little practical) and emailed my coach a question about it last night. The next thing I knew a certain individual with the initials DDD emailed me to inform me I was registered. That will teach me to ask questions, won't it?

In one day I managed to sign up for both a 1-mile open water swim and a 13.1 mile run. I think chemotherapy makes me nuts.

If you care to join me (and some other great folks) on either endeavor, here are the links to register. And don't let me hold you back ~ try the 2 mile cable swim or the full marathon!

Betsy Owens Memorial Lake Swims:
https://www.clubassistant.com/club/meet_information.cfm?c=1538&smid=3960

Adirondack Marathon Distance Festival:
http://www.adirondackmarathon.org/

No Walls

One of my favorite sets in swimming used to be a "no walls" set. For the non-swimming folks, what that means is that you swim to right before the wall, do a flip turn, but instead of having the wall to push off from you essentially have to work against the current you just created and rebuild your speed. (Think of a salmon swimming upstream...only we don't do it to reproduce...at least in MY lane we don't do it for that!) I loved these sets because they really increased my endurance - a few times isn't too bad, but over and over again can be exhausting - working through the set was satisfying.

Today I was swimming solo and there was a long no walls set as part of the workout, and it was just tiring. I missed the little post-flip turn boost I get when pushing off the wall and it was frustrating feeling like I was struggling to even move, not to mention not even coming close to a passable stroke.

There is a very obvious analogy here to everything that is going on in my life lately. I have always liked a challenge, I have always liked to push myself harder, but right now I am tired. I would like a few moments to rest at the wall, to mourn Cora, and then push off again to battle these cancers, but there are no walls for me right now.