Swim! Bike? Run.

The GATORS swimming class at my gym started up again this week, just in time for me to make that my regular weekly swim for the month of January. Let me just say that it is amazing what peer pressure can get you to do. I went instantly from doing maybe 600 lazy yards on my own to 1,500 yards of focused workout. (It was hard on my shoulder, though, so I’m glad it’s just once a week.)

I know I could get the same effect with biking if I took a spin class, but I’m still really not sure I want to. A friend gave me some recommendations for classes that are less intense and screamy, so I might try one of those on Monday. If it causes misery and grumpiness, then I guess I’ll just go back to phoning it in for a while. I’ve been thinking I should see if I can borrow my sister’s trainer again and set up my real bike somewhere in the house. Those workouts were the stuff of nightmares from my Ironman training days, but I have to remember I’m not going to try to do, like, FIVE HOURS on the stupid thing anymore. Plus, now I have podcasts!

I’m trying to figure out running, too. My philosophy lately has been that I should only do as much as feels fun and easy, and that I shouldn’t get stuck in that “run forever really slow” pace. So I’ve been walking for a while, setting the treadmill for 6 or 6.5 mph (which is fairly easy but not a go-forever slog for me) and running until I feel like stopping. Then I go back to walking until running sounds fun again. I end up running less than two minutes at a time, but I think that will increase as time goes on. Hopefully enough to have me running a respectable 5K by July.

I really want to do that sprint triathlon with Mik this year, and it would be super-fun to be decent at it. I think I’m over being okay with coming in dead last.