11 weeks in, 9 weeks left!

9 weeks until the triathlon!  That means 2 things: 1 week before the first open water swim at Coney Island, and about 6 weeks until the fundraising deadline.  Thanks to YOU and all your generosity, I have been able to raise 69% of my goal of $4,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  They have provided fabulous coaches through Team in Training to ensure that I, and everyone else on the team, will do our very best on race day. Because of them I’ve gotten more confident with my swimming, learned how to repair a bike tire, and am always one day closer to accomplishing my goal of becoming a triathlete.  I may never be a doctor and cure cancer myself, but I can use whatever I have to raise awareness and funds that go toward finding a cure. And I have feet that love to run, legs that feel at home on a bike, arms that (are learning to) like swimming, and a hankering for adventure! 

For those of you who have donated:

If you have not, please consider it. Every dollar helps!  Visit my fundraising page, and feel free to pass it along to anyone who might be interested: http://pages.teamintraining.org/nyc/nyctri14/Meredith

This week is going to focus mostly on swimming – lots and lots of swimming – in preparation for that open water swim in 6 days (with the usual running, biking, Muay Thai, and ballet mixed in).  My wetsuit should arrive by Wednesday, which I am really excited about, and I’ll have the chance to swim with it in the pool with the team before we jump into the Atlantic!!  I have a feeling I will love wearing the wetsuit much more than my nerdy one-piece bathing suit.

Just wait and see what happens!

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee!

I guess you could say I’ve always been drawn to odd combinations. The poetically tragic, the beautifully damaged, the hopeful cynic, the compassionate criminal. As a kid I was a girly tomboy – I loved my easy bake oven and creepy crawler machine equally. I had just as much fun with my stuffed animal collection as I did with my remote control cars (and that one remote control John Deere tractor!).  I loved playing baseball in the street or speeding down hills on my bike or getting grass and mud stains all over my clothes as much as I loved the drama club or playing with paper dolls or cheerleading. And the right hip hop song can amp me up just as much as the right classical piece.

I guess it only follows suit that I have a love for ballet and boxing?

Today was a cardio day on my triathlon training calendar (well technically it was a running day, but I’m switching things up this week since I have my half marathon this weekend) and I took my Muay Thai class, which was amazing as usual. It is impossible to leave that place without a trail of sweat following you. (Which I also love!) I got to kick and punch guys and pretend I was in the octagon with them. (In my head I am the biggest baddest fighter in all the land. In reality, a squirrel could probably beat me. A really big squirrel.)

After Muay Thai, Katharine and I – drenched in sweat and ready to fight anyone – headed off to a ballet class. Not quite the place most people would go when they want to fight, but luckily we are not most people! The teacher for our Sunday ballet class had talked us into joining her pointe class (it really didn’t take much convincing – we jumped at the opportunity!) and today was the first day.  We didn’t do much, just started to get reacquainted with pointe shoes.

It’s quite a change to go from boxer to ballerina, grappling to graceful, but I think we can make it work!

Tomorrow will be less of a contradiction – I’m just swimming with the TNT team, and then tapering off until half marathon day on Sunday!  Swimming might be less of floating like a butterfly or stinging like a bee, and more of flailing like a whale (whales can flail, right?) but whatever it looks like, it will be a little better than it was last week! 🙂

Week two: check!

First thing first: I finally got around to looking at pictures from the half marathon I did a few weeks ago and immediately realized 2 things:

1. My favorite running sneakers really do accentuate my big “flipper feet” (as they’ve been called).  I hadn’t really noticed before but there it was in photographic proof right in front of me – those big ol’ size 9s.  (Sometimes 8.5, depending on the brand.)  Here is a picture of the sneakers when I first got them last summer.  I don’t think my feet look particularly clown-y here at all, but I guess when those babies are in motion it’s an entirely different story! Maybe I’ll just pretend that every single picture was taken at a bad angle – my feet are small and dainty, damnit!  (But these sneakers are seriously amazing and flippers or not, I’ll run in them until their soles can run no more!!)

2. I looked as bad as I felt!  It was like looking at pictures of the living dead.  100 years from now my picture from that half marathon in Queens will be in history books as proof that the Zombie War began in Flushing Meadows.  Sorry, future students of the world, for the misinformation but the Zombie War did not, in fact, begin on that day.  (I’m all about having my picture in the history books one day, but hopefully it will be a slightly more flattering one.  And it won’t be because I’m a zombie.)

Never fear – I have the More Fitness Women’s Half Marathon next Sunday so there is yet another chance for the elusive amazing in-race photo!  Since the half marathon is in Central Park, I headed over there yesterday for a quick run to remind myself where all the hills are (like I could ever forget!!).  It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and my sunglasses were on, and I was doing the usual linking satellites dance with my watch.  I was relieved when everything was linked and ready to go because I was getting a bit chilly waiting around.  But to be fair, if it is less than about 85 degrees outside, I feel like I live in a perpetual state of cold.

Ok, satellites were linked and I had my Jekyll and Hyde Pandora station on.  Seriously.  Broadway tunes will get you through any workout, I promise.  For example, during  one of the tougher hills This is the Moment (from Jekyll and Hyde) came on.  If that doesn’t motivate you, I don’t know what will.  So I ran to some J&H, Beauty and the Beast, Les Miserables, Rent, and Wicked, (lip-syncing my way through, of course) and was just about to stop at 6.2 miles when Phantom of the Opera came on – my grandma’s favorite!  I took it as a sign to keep running, and ended up doing 7.3 miles before calling it  day.

Not too shabby!

Today was a quick ballet class earlier and then a 16 mile bike ride on the little pink stationary bike while watching In Time with Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried.  (Totally loved it – watch it if you haven’t.)  In the next couple weeks I should have a real bike of my very own.  I’m fairly certain that I’ll get run over by several cabs before the triathlon, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see!

Paul Reiser got me through my workout. (and other weekend updates)

Ok, maybe I went a little overboard this weekend but when subconsciously trying to avoid swimming, the only thing to do is fill your schedule with everything else humanly possible!  Aside from regular weekend festivities (which kept me plenty busy anyway!) I sprinted, Muay Thai’ed, danced, and biked my little heart out.  Here are just a few things that the workout parts of my weekend taught me:

1. Sprints are killers.  I’d rather run for days than do a few sets of sprints.  (But my love for PRs will keep me doing drills to get faster. It’s a vicious cycle of love and hate.)

2. I will do anything for a free t-shirt.  (I first learned this when I was in college and got suckered into opening up credit cards or listening to Army recruiters because of the promise of a t-shirt that was usually a size XXL and would then sit in my closet for years.  Sometimes they gave away water bottles though – those were good days.)  Anyway – Katharine and I went to a Muay Thai class and ended up signing up.  We’ve done Muay Thai a couple times before after hearing our friend Katey rave about it, and loved it.  Yesterday I punched, roundhouse kicked, and front kicked my way around (along with intermittent squats, jump rope, and sit-up drills) and after a personal session, free gloves and wraps and TWO free t-shirts, we were members!  I’m a big fighting fan – UFC, Glory kickboxing, Lion Fight, boxing, whatever – and have been wanting to do Muay Thai regularly for a while.  What better time to start than in the midst of triathlon training, right?  It’s good cardio, right?  It’s a totally rational thing to do, right?!  (Some professional fighters who I follow train at that place, which may have slightly influenced my decision.  Celebs AND free shirts?! Keep going – you’ve got my attention!)

3. Ballet makes me feel like I’m a kid again. I did ballet for 10 years when I was younger and got back into it in December and go every Sunday.  (Don’t worry, family – it’s just for fun.  You won’t be dragged to any recitals or performances of The Nutcracker like you were yearly for a decade. I had always assumed you loved those performances just as much as I did, but years later the truth came out! I think the word torture was even thrown around.) There’s something about the smell of the studio, feel of the ballet slippers and the music that makes you forget it’s a workout.  Oh, nostalgia.

 4. Biking while watching Mad About You makes the time fly.  Yes, Mad About You – that old sitcom from the 90s with Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt.  There’s something about that show that I love.  Paul and Jaime, man – they’re the best tv couple.  So I had 2 episodes on my DVR (yes, you read that correctly – I DVR Mad About You) and flew through 16 miles on my bike.  It was great – my legs barely felt it.  (I might need to invest in padded bike shorts, though!) 

And now with week 1 of triathlon training officially in the books, I am ready and excited for week 2!!