Yes, I am Fast

In transition!

So, we had our annual Christmas party for our tri-team this past Friday. A fun event, although not everyone showed up so it was a pretty small group. (OK, there were 70 people, but that seemed small) We ate our dinner, then waited around for the year-end awards. In retrospect, I shouldn't have expected anything. I'm one of the better swimmers, but there were a few faster than me. I am pretty quick on the bike, but in practice, Jill is faster than me. And on the run....well, take your pick-- there are oodles of women who can get me. So there wasn't a chance for an individual award, but I was thinking all-around, I'm a pretty consistant top 1/3 - 1/4 finisher here. Maybe??

Nope! Yours truly gets "Fastest Transitioner." Ugh. It kind of took the wind out of my sails. Anybody can transition fast! Argh.... While I was flattered at the thought, it did motivate me to get even better next season. I'll be fastest biker if it KILLS me. Coach told everyone I was getting a new bike, too, so now the pressure is really on to drop the cash and get fast.

From the sounds of things, everyone took "off season" literally. People have lost their fitness already and are only managing a few gym classes a week, much like me. You can tell we are newbies. After reading all these triathlon blogs, it has become VERY clear to me that although you all talk about an off season, you are liars. You aren't resting. You aren't casually strolling through the woods on your mountain bike. This is an extension of your yearly training, and you all aren't losing one bit of fitness. I hate you! (OK, just kidding here....I wish I were as focused)

We spoke about the schedule for next year, and oddly enough, only 2 others have signed up for Barb's Race. Coach has taken it a step farther with me, however. If you are going to do Barb's Race and you hate running, why not just do the full Aquabike and be done with it? I fell out of my chair at this point. The FULL Aquabike? As in, 2 of the 3 phases of Ironman Aquabike? Now, the 1/2 Aquabike I was all over. I can swim 1.2 miles in my sleep and the 58 mile bike, although sucky, would be infinitely attainable on more than a half a year of training. But the Iron distance? Holy wh*ref*ckBatman! I seriously need to sit down with myself and think this through.

Coach says we need to have a fire burning inside of us to do this. I don't know if you can define my desire as "burning." It's not even a fire, really. I just want to prove to myself that I can make my body do something I never thought it could possibly do. I want to break down this perception I have of myself of not being particularly athletic. I mean, I did sports as a kid, but I always thought endurance sports were for the cross country running team. So I want to prove to myself I can do it. THEN perhaps I can go back to my bread and butter and try to get faster.....because I think I may very well be a sprinter at heart.

On a sad note, the last of my childhood cats was put to sleep yesterday back in Colorado. Cocoa (aka "Beans") came to us as a kitten in December of 1991. We begged and pleaded with my parents for us to get him, as he was so precious with his seal point marking and little white boots. After many trips in and out of the shop, my parents gave in and he was ours. And boy, was he a crazy boy! We lost many, many rolls of toilet paper that winter. The Christmas tree nearly fell over several times. Our jeans were lined with punctures, as Cocoa loved to take a flying leap from the ground and "stick" to your leg. Cocoa also loved Easter. There was something about eggs and the sound they make when they hit the floor that was irresistable to him. When Cocoa settled down into adulthood, his favorite pasttimes turned from troublemaking to sleeping and eating. Cocoa never met a shrimp he didn't like. You so much as cracked a cocktail shrimp tail and he would come running, SCREAMING, from anywhere in the house, as though his life depended on getting that shrimp. Christmas after Christmas, Cocoa would raid the stockings looking for teriyaki beef jerky, his other "must-have" in life. It became a tradition--- setting the stocking up with beef jerky so Cocoa could "break in" and steal it, even though it was all rigged.

I suppose Cocoa didn't really start to get sick until this past summer. He was nearly 17 years old, and it was just time for his body to start shutting down. My sister eased him into this transition in his life as best as she could....being a vet tech, she had all sorts of drugs to treat his thyroid, kidneys, and joints. Yesterday, when he could no longer eat, she had him on a heating pad until it was time to have him put down. I was sad I could not be there to say goodbye, but good ol' Beans was there for Thanksgiving and I had a chance to spend several days with him then, knowing full well that this would be the last time. So Beans is gone, and with him, a piece of my childhood. He's got some great company at the Bridge, though, and he will always hold a very big piece of my heart.

Happy trails, my buddy.