Countdown to Triathlon - 293 Days to Race Day

Goodbye Lake Tahoe.  Hello training.  What a Difference a day makes.  Going from "0"exercise and training to ? And see below, installment 3 of "The Journey". (To see the first installment, click under my picture in the red jacket, on the right and click on "While we're waiting to begin". )

Yesterday I was enjoying the beauty of Lake Tahoe - today I was in the pool.  My first day!  I think that the last time I swam laps was 1964 when Bob and I took a scuba diving course at the YMCA in Sacramento. 



That's what I looked like back then.  Sweet young thing - now I'm a 65 year old grandmother of 10.

293 days seems like a long time, but I'm sure it will be here before I know it. The goal for the race is:

Swim .62 miles; Bike 17.5 miles; Run 3.4 miles

 Here's how the training went on my first day:

 I thought for sure I'd only be able to swim to the other end of the 25 yard pool.  However, I really surprised myself.  I swam up and back (1 lap) to the tune of  8 laps or 200 yards, (.114 miles) .  At the end of each lap I had to rest and at the end of 200 yards my chest was heaving but I did recover quickly.  It took me about 20 minutes.  I stayed for the one hour conditioning class and met a lot of really nice ladies.  I have always thought that the water aerobics classes were a waste of time and that they couldn't really do much good.  Let me tell you - by the time I got out of the pool, my legs were weak and I felt as it my body weighed ten times more than usual.  I felt as if I were walking in slow motion all the way to the showers. 

Now I will begin my daily one half hour walk with Roxi. I plan to walk every day for at least one half hour and eventually do a walk/jog.  Here's Roxi and I on our first day out.  You can see I'm not going out for a beauty contest.  We walked 1.5 miles in 38 minutes.  Not setting the world of sports on fire, but it's a beginning.  If anyone knows how to figure out how fast that is, let me know.  Not very fast - certainly not a 4 minute mile.  But,  I'll improve.

While I'm expending all energy and thoughts to training, the neighbor was having trees trimmed.  We have a huge Privet tree in the back yard and decided this is as good as any to take out the Privet and Plum trees. The tree service said we have the biggest Privet in town.  It is such a pesky and drops leaves and berries all year into our fountain and all over the yard.  Good riddance, I say!

 The Journey - Installment Three

About three weeks later, horror of all horrors, a letter came in the mail from Focus on the Family.  I was expecting that it would say, “Thank you for your application but all places in the northern California ride have been filled.”  When I read the letter it said, “Congratulations!  You have been accepted….”  At first I only read that beginning sentence and I had a sinking, sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.  I then proceeded to read the remainder of the letter. I had heard on the broadcast that January day, that those participating in the ride would raise $3000 for the ministry of Focus on the Family.  One thing stood out in the letter of which I had not been aware was that a two hundred dollar registration fee was required to hold my place.  At that time I felt I couldn’t afford to send the fee to Focus on the Family.  In my mind there was absolutely no way I was emotionally, physically or financially prepared to begin such a ride.  Immediately I began to think of how I was going to get out of this situation.   Since my husband of 35 years (in 2001), had not heard a thing about the ride, I decided to call him at work.  I just knew he would say, “You’re right! We don’t have the money right now and how in the world do you think you are going to do a ride like this?” Then I could say, “Well, sorry Lord, but my husband doesn’t want me to participate in this ride.”  Can anyone even imagine that I would do such a thing – as if God didn’t know even before the thought entered my mind what I was planning to do? 

I called Bob at work and told Him the entire story beginning with hearing the broadcast, God telling me to participate, my submitting the application and that very day receiving the notice of acceptance.  I was so sure of what he would say.   He did begin his comments by saying, “You’re right!  We don’t have the two hundred dollars right now.  But if you embark on this ride, you have to complete it because you will be taking a spot on the team which could have gone to someone else.”  His reaction was totally different than I expected.  I was really stunned because I was counting on him being my way out of this situation.   Bob had recently become a Christian after many of us had prayed for his salvation for eighteen years.  Before his acceptance of Jesus Christ as his Savior, he would have put have told me not to embark on this bike ride. 

(To be continued)