Weeks like this! (aka I'm doing tris again)

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Sometimes you have a week that goes like this:

On Saturday, you are standing at a wedding, telling people you haven't seen in a while that, oh no, you aren't training for any tris lately, you've been working a lot, and that was a whole lot of stress in your life.  These days you're just enjoying life and the occasional barre class, thankyouverymuch.  Maybe you'll do a 5k.

On Monday, you're in Bermuda.  It's beautiful, there's a beach and a pool, and you decide to do absolutely zero workouts.  You snorkel one day, and it's the most swimming you've done in almost two years.  At first when you put the flippers on, you zoom around until your  boyfriend pops up to exclaim, "Hey, you aren't even snorkeling, you're just swimming!  Slow down or you'll miss all the fish."  He's a snorkeling nerd, but he's right.  You were enjoying the nearly-forgotten feel of cutting through water.

On Wednesday, you're on the plane home.  For the first half of the flight, you read a Runner's World that has a pretty awesome 5k training plan in it.  OMG, you think, I am so smart and so prescient, when I was telling Ruth and Becky that I'd do a 5k do you think I knew the future?  Can champagne make you psychic?  Anyway, you figure if you start running for a few weeks, you can jump into the training plan and do some cross country races in the fall, too.  It sounds good.

Later on Wednesday, you see an old tri coach's Facebook post.  You read it.  It's a link to an incredibly moving organization, for whom he is fundraising and competing in the New York City Tri.  The tri is on July 16th.  It starts outside your door.  It's your favorite race.  And he has another spot on the team.  You reply with just a one-emoji answer - the raised hand.

And that's it.  In the span of a few days, I came back to triathlons.  I had felt good about not doing them and felt bad about not doing them.  I'd missed them and also remarked at how little I missed them.  But when I told Ben I wanted in, my heart felt light.  I was thrilled to the tips of my toes, eager to take on this absurd challenge (fundraising and getting ready for the tri in *8 weeks*).  I know, too, that I can't go too beserk with expectations or pressure - I have 8 weeks from eating fries on the beach to jumping in the Hudson, so I just have to try and:

  • have fun
  • raise money for a good cause
  • get to the starting line
  • get to the finish line
  • and remember that this is a privilege.

Should be easy, right?