Another day, another workout

There's a lot of days that I just don't feel like doing my workout, to be honest. I'm working on getting into that mindset of "I am a triathlete, this is what I do". But it takes some effort to get to that place! Today the biggest chore of all was rolling out of bed at 0515 and heading downstairs to get my first cup of coffee. (Especially after attending to a session of screaming and emergency babyfeeding at something like 0415). I'm sure I could never do it without a programmable coffeemaker!

Today's workout. I was on the treadmill at the gym by 0630 and ended up just about duplicating my workout on Tuesday. 3.25 miles total, with 2 of those miles running at 11 to 12 minutes per mile. That's about the pace I'd like to do for the Cherry Blossom Ten Miler in Washington, DC that I'm running next Sunday, but I felt slow and tired. I tried my best to concentrate on the other people in the gym to avoid my own workout, but the treadmill still turned over at the same speed for the same number of miles.

Some of the people I see there amuse me, and it does help me pass the time on the treadmill. Powerwalker Lady got on the treadmill adjacent to mine today. No problem there - except she does this weird punching-her-arms-into-the-air thing. One *punch* per step. Every so often she smacks the display on treadmill. *THWACK* I find it a little distracting when the person on the treadmill next to me is punching wildly and periodically smacking their treadmill display. Go figure.

Then there's Anorexic Girl. She's there almost every time I'm there. She's frighteningly skeletal under her baggy clothes, and stays on the stair climber for 45 minutes at a time, climbing up those stairs constantly on her little stick legs. Then off to the the treadmill to do the same. Then off to the Lifecycle... you get the picture. Maybe next time I go to the gym I should bring her a sandwich.

Today I was most intrigued to watch Jumprope Lady. She's a middle-aged overweight lady (I can relate) who was working with one of the trainers on jumping rope. Except she didn't know how to do it. Every time she'd attempt to jump rope she'd get stuck after about 3 revolutions of the rope, and trip, and stop. Then she'd have to start all over again. At first I was kind of embarrassed for her. But 10 minutes went by, and she was sticking to it. One, two, three, trip, start over. The trainer kept trying to demonstrate how to jump rope, but how do you teach a middle-aged person to jump rope who obviously just doesn't know how? But he did his best, and she kept trying and trying. She impressed me with her persistence. One, two, three, trip, start over. Finally she got it - and made it up to ten full revolutions of the rope before she tripped. I felt like cheering for her!

Time to head down to the pool, though. Another 22 laps for 1100 meters, all freestyle. Not any faster - the first 500 m took 15:25 (including a stand up and cough session), slower than Tuesday. I worked on bilateral breathing and keeping my head low in the water. The guy that I shared my lane with was doing 3 lengths for every 2 that I did - I tried to watch him as he went by to see what he was doing differently - he looked so balanced and smooth. I felt slow and awkward in comparison - that is, until I saw the guy in the next lane trying to flail along, doing slow laps Tarzan-style with his head out of the water. My technique is somewhere in the middle of those two. Oh well - practice, practice, practice helps, I hear.