New Goggles Suck, Bicept Muscles Are Sore, Newfound Love for Old Wheels, and Other Adventures...

It wasn't meant to be such a busy tri day, but it was.

Yesterday I had ambitiously planned to hit the gym just for a quick "Oh, yeah, so this is what it feels like to swim laps" swim and to test out the spiffy new goggles. I don't believe I mentioned it here, but recently I got me some new goggles. It was long overdue, as my old ones are leaking, so I was excited to get going. Now I ended up purchasing said goggles while in the midst of thrift store shopping this weekend. My friend needed to hit up a pool store and these goggles I found were the best ones they had. They are kiddie size, but looked big enough, and black with hologram fish on the lenses. SEXY. So I got them, and today I zipped over to the pool to give them a whirl.

Started off with a four length warm up. Stopped to adjust goggles and found that the foam had almost completely peeled off each side of goggle. I couldn't even believe it. Frustrated, I resorted to the old goggles. I took the leaky guys and readjusted them tighter. Wouldn't you know, it worked! The suckers don't leak any longer. Hallelujah!

Then I was left to worry beyond my goggles. My swimming was less than stellar. Lead arms all the way. I felt slow. Well, I felt like my arms were slow. Other than that, the experience was wonderful and somewhat similar to what I'll experience Saturday. I shared the lane with a pleasant elderly fellow who swam slowly and innocently took up more than his side of the lane. His lumbering along paired with my equally slow and splashy neighbor simulated race-like conditions. The water was actually quite foggy, which was again great because that was race like too. I danced (or rather, swam) the fine line of wanting to kind of push hard and get a good swim in (since it had been so long) or to honor the fact that - HELLO! race in a few days!- and anyway, it all went well. Felt nicely winded and slid over to the hot tub where I sat with 7 elderly men, massaging my aching biceps all the while.

Next I had to rush off to the bike shop for a last minute tune up. I was anxious to get the bike in TODAY for repair so I could have it ready on time. It was there that I had the most pleasantest of experiences. The employee treated my bike like it was a true beauty instead of an old beat up thing. He suggested I not tape up the handles but keep the peeling foamy bits on so it retained that "I just pulled this out of the garage" type look. It was my first bike shop experience here in G'ville and I loved it. Previously I got the whole "Ooo, this is your bike? Ewww" feeling at shops. Maybe I was imagining it, but I am sure there was a little of that vibe there since I wasn't spending a measly $500 to purchase one of their 'lower end' bikes. Naw, this place was different. The guy even gave me a website to check out other old school bikes that had been suped up by their owners. I left feeling a little bit more love towards my old "American Made" wheels...

When I came home, my new Acupuncturist Without Borders t-shirt had arrived. I anxiously opened the package, worried the shirt would be too small. It was on the smaller side, but nothing a little stretching can't fix. :)

Lastly, I checked my email to see some solid advice and encouragement from some friends I'd made on a tri training website along the way. It gave me a warm fuzzy feeling and a little bit more confidence to get out there and DO IT!

Hope this confidence lasts tonight...just an hour away from the Webinar that will tell us all about the race. Hope that doesn't make me more nervous. ;)

Till next time....
xoxo,
K
P.S. PLEASE PLEASE when you donate, find a place in the notes field and add my name! Kristin Althea!