Tidbits...a glimpse into the scary mind of a triathlete

Pittsburgh Triathlon July 2007, AG 25-29, 4th female overall

I have quite a bit of different things swirling around in my head right now. Its been this way for a couple of days. Unfortunately, work has taken on a life of it's own because I am traveling to Philly this Sunday for our national school show which seems to happen on the same day as the Pittsburgh triathlon for oh.. the last three years or so! Most of the time, I do the race, grab an award, take a shower and get on the plane (in that exact order, well, throw in putting on some clothes and eating also I guess).

Back to the things swirling around. The first one is called:

The Taper - A tribute to things I get to do during the taper that I wouldn't otherwise

• Paint my nails


• Clip & paint my toenails


• Plant flowers
• Water the newly planted flowers (note, other flowers died from lack of H20 & attention)


• Stay up later (ie it is now 10:35pm, would I ever see this on a training eve, I think not)


• Eat dinner at a normal time (aka between 5pm & 7:30pm)


• Deep condition my hair (not a chance of this happening normally, although my hair feels like straw, and might fall out from all the chlorine)


• Stay at work later than usual to finish things up (things I should be doing on a regular basis (shhhh.. be very, very quiet)


• Talk to my friends (well, I do this other times, but more so on a taper week, I do the infamous scroll of the cell phone and say.. humm.. who has called me and I haven't called back in ages... whoops! Sorry!)


• Shave my legs (I also do this normally, don't fret, but I was sitting next to a co-worker who last week said "girl, don't you shave anymore!" I promptly responded "No, I'm not shaving until the Ironman".... KIDDING

So, that covers some of the main ones. I certainly don't need to do all of these things all the time, so I'm fine with the fact that they seem to correspond with the taper. I love the taper. If you don't love it, your weird. I'm kidding, I know there are plenty of you out there who forget how to sit around. I don't sit around much, but I do I re-discover personal hygiene and "girly" practices I have long since forgotten due to running around from pool to work, to home, to running, to sleeping to 5:00am again. You get my drift.

The other thing I have been thinking about is my gym bag. I know, I'm a bit strange. If you're like me though, you have a real relationship with the gym bag. First of all, it's my Big Ten Conference Bag, that you only get when you actually attend a big ten conference championship meet in college. Since we were able to get to two a year (cross country & track) I really racked up the bags. I have a gym bag, a garment bag, a back pack and something else that I may be forgetting. Anyway, it's old, at least 5 years old, and it's not the most organized (no pockets inside, well, one small one, other than that, it's a big old tube). So, here's to you gym bag.

Ode To My Gym Bag

You get pushed around, shoved in trunks with smelly clothes rotting all day in the hot sun. Every night, you suffer through getting packed with multiple sport equipment, you try not to smell (but you have to work on this part). You never complain, as many times as I throw you around, or kick you when I forgot underwear at the gym, again. You just keep on trucking, or gym bagging it...or whatever. Someday I will want to get more organized, but for now, I'll just throw everything in a massive heap inside of you. You do me proud gym bag. You rock. Thanks.

Someday I won't have to plan out my entire life the night before, but that day is not now. Now is a time of looking ahead on the schedule and seeing what I need a few days in advance. How I will get things in, what I will wear, is it clean you ask.. probably not.

In other news, I will be racing this weekend at the Pitt triathlon and I am excited about this race. It's small (probably 400 people), but well run and it's great to sleep in your own bed prior. I've been tapering with the best of them, so I can only hope for a good day for everyone, a safe day for everyone, and a fun race. Here we go!!