Updates and anecdotes

I'll start with the anecdotes, and I have one for each activity. 2 involve kids, and one, weirdly, involves an old man. None of them have anything to do with technique or fitness.


Running anecdote: Sometimes if I need to be to work earlier than usual, I drag myself out of bed at an ungodly hour for a run. Last week, I started my circuit around the neighborhood at around 7 am (I have a one mile loop around the block I use for shorter runs). 7 am happens to be the time when all the kids are out on the various corners, waiting to be picked up by the school bus. Down on one corner, a group of boys ranging in ages from about 8-12 were clustered up talking and punching each other and generally acting like little boys do. They stared at me as I ran by on my first loop. They punched each other and stared at me as I rounded the corner for the second time. The third time I made an appearance, one of the boys was pushed out from the group to stand in front of me. "You're really fast!" he said. "You just ran around the whole block in like, 5 minutes!" I laughed and said thank you, continued on my way, and allowed him to think I had really just completed a 5-minute mile. Hardly anyone ever calls me fast, so I wanted to revel a little in the undeserved glory. But I was also left wondering why these kids had been waiting for the bus for 20+ minutes. I'd be really annoyed if I had to stand outside every morning for 20 minutes...

Swimming anecdote: This is the one that involves an old man, and if anyone can make sense of it, please let me know, as I am dying of curiosity. Every Tuesday when I go to the pool, there are 4 or 5 men doing laps during open swim (I'm almost always the only woman, except on the occasions that B is giving me a lesson). One of the men, who must be a regular, wears a Speedo. He is very large. And he is very hairy. Which is all well and good. I noticed some time ago that he kept a pair of white tube socks at the edge of the pool, by the end of his lane. I thought it was a little bit strange, but dismissed it pretty quickly, thinking he probably didn't have sandals, and just wore his socks in the pool area to avoid getting athlete's foot. Until last week. Last Tuesday, he was in the lane to my right, and when I was finishing up a lap, I happened to glance over just in time to see him putting his socks on. In the pool. Under the water. Hm. I kept watching, and he proceeded to do a few laps, while wearing his tube socks, before he took them off and replaced them at the edge of the pool. Baffling. This past Tuesday, sure enough, the big, hairy, Speedo-wearing man was there, as were his socks. The socks were different this time, they were ankle-length Hanes athletic socks, but his process remained the same. He swam some laps without the socks, put them on and swam a few laps, took them off and swam some more. I'm stumped. Is there some sort of benefit to swimming in your socks that a newbie like me should know about? I'm to embarrassed to ask him outright...

Biking anecdote: I went for a 10-mile ride a few days ago, on local neighborhood roads. As I took a left turn and crossed a road, a little boy, probably around 3, started shouting at me. "You're not supposed to ride in the road!" he said. I smiled at him. He turned around to his mom, who was locking the door of the house. "MOM SHE'S RIDING HER BIKE IN THE ROAD!" he told her. The little tattletale! I was gone before I knew what her response was, but it's funny that little kids think the rules their parents give them apply universally. Although I have to give him points for knowing proper safety procedures. And, as my sister pointed out, I'm quite small, and may have looked like a little girl riding a pink bike...

On to the updates.

Running: I managed to screw up the training plan that I printed out for myself for the marathon, which resulted in the initial thought that I had added in an extra week. So I skipped a 3-miler last week, and then realized I hadn't, in fact, added an extra week. Therefore, I was 3 miles behind my target mileage for last week. Oh well. It's the long runs that are important. I have my first double-digit long run (10 miles), since my stress fracture in January, coming up this weekend! I will soon be experimenting with fueling - Gu, Clif Shots, Luna chews, and all that jazz.

Biking: Not too much to report here. I've done a few 10 mile rides, a few 5 mile rides, and my longest ride, 14 miles. I'm not sure if I should count the 14-miler though, because I rode alongside my sister while she ran, which made it a slow ride. Plus, when we came to an intersection, I attempted to follow traffic rules by sticking out my left arm to indicate a left turn, and I fell off my bike. And then walked through the intersection. And all the subsequent intersections. Oops.

Swimming: The good news is I can now swim 75 meters freestyle without stopping to pant and catch my breath!! The bad news is, that's still over 2 miles away from the distance of an Ironman swim. Er...at least my form is getting better. I think. Well. Practice makes perfect.