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April 20, 2005
some final thoughts
So here I am, four days before my event, 36 hours before I leave for Florida. The last week has been a mixed bag of emotions. Sometimes when I think about this weekend, I find my self feeling anxious and hesitant about the event. Other times, that anxiety has transformed itself in to an anticipation similar to the feeling a child gets on Christmas eve waiting to see what Santa will bring. But more often than not, I find myself thinking about the race and wave of calmness washes over me. It’s almost euphoric. Knowing that I’ve put my time in training, and that I’m in the best shape of my life has helped shift the emotional balance in a productive direction.
The single source of my anxiety is the pressure that I’ve put on myself to perform well. I feel I have an opportunity to race well and put down a quick time. A lot of that hinges on the swimming portion of the triathlon. I have no doubts that I can finish the 1500 meters, but a large part of me wants to well so that strong times on the bike and on the run will mean more. I try to balance this pressure by telling myself that even though this is a race, I always have the option of taking it easy and just enjoying the experience. Of course I come back with the knowledge that if I don’t give it my all, I’ll be regretting as soon as five minutes after I cross the finish line. But I know that there will be other races and regardless of what happens on the course, I’ll be able to take away something.
Even if I never cross the finish line in Florida, or even set foot in the water, I’ll know that I’ve made some great friends, and we’ve shared some amazing experience. I have no doubt that this weekend will be a fantastic culmination of the past six months. Looking back at this time, I’ve found more in Team in Training than I had ever expected. And most importantly, I have a great feeling knowing that my time spent training and fundraising is benefiting those who are facing challenges that far surpass mine.
It’s been one heck of trip. Thanks to my fellow teammates, coaches and staff for making this an experience that I won’t soon forget. Wish me luck!
Posted by ksmith at 06:54 PM | Comments (2)
April 19, 2005
new online donation page
I’ve been a little tardy in letting everyone know, but Team in Training has fixed our personal pages by transferring them to a different company. The new link to make a donation is.
www.active.com/donate/fundraiser/tntmiKSmith
I just want to thank you for support in helping the lives of blood cancer patients and their families. And hopefully with additional research, there will be less of these patients in the future.
Due to the switching of webpages, my total on the new website isn't quite right. As of the time of this post, I have just under $600 left to raise. My final deadline is May 31st.
Posted by ksmith at 08:02 PM | Comments (0)
long time, no see
So it’s been a while, actually, a long while. All I can offer as an explanation is that I’ve been busier than normal with training and getting ready for St A’s. That combined with the fact that my personal computer decided to take a dump three weeks ago (and it’s still not fixed, maybe after my tri) hasn’t helped matter either. You get the idea.
So instead of giving you a day-by-day account of what I’ve been up to since my last post, I’ll just give you an executive summary of my training. Part of this is because I don’t have enough time to write it all down. The other part is because I probably can’t remember all the details.
On the running front, I’ve been logging around 25 miles a week over the course of three or four runs. A couple of times I’ve done some longer runs (8-10 miles) on Friday afternoon’s at some of the metro parks. That always makes for a good start to the weekend. I’ve also been running at least one morning a week before work. It works just as well, if not better, than coffee for waking me up. Plus it frees up your afternoon for general putzing around (like playing volleyball or cycling). My most recent run was yesterday afternoon at the Arb in Ann Arbor. It was a nice four miles through some woodsy areas. It reminded me a lot of running though Hawthorn park back when I was in college. I’ve also picked up some new running kicks for the race. My old shoes were in sorry shape.
Cycling has been a lot of fun as well. I think I’ve gone out on my triathlon bike at least four times since I’ve picked it up. It’s a sweet, fast ride. Three of those times have been group trainings on the weekends. Once was a bitterly cold morning with freezing rain. I cycled through 24 miles of that crap. The other trainings have been much more enjoyable to say the least. It’s an absolute blast to be on a bike outside again. I’ve also been doing some riding around town on my road bike. It’s much better suited for the stop and go nature of urban cycling.
Today, and once last week, I cycled in to work with our TNT coordinator, Anika. It works out well because we live about a mile and a half from each other and work about two miles from each other. It’s been nice to have someone to watch your back and call 911 if you get run over by a Mack truck. I probably shouldn’t be joking about that, but until I get my first close call, I’ll continue. The ride in is nice because you can take it easy and it’s still pretty cool out, so you don’t work up a sweat. But then I can drop the hammer for the 7.5 miles home and get in a good work out. After St. A’s I’ll be biking to work a lot more frequently.
Swimming has always been my weak spot, although I’ve made considerable improvement in the last month or so. I feel like I know what the proper stroke technique should feel like, and I’m able to emulate it a lot better than before. This has gone a long way to boost my confidence, which has benefited me even more. The challenge will be to continue swimming after my tri. But hopefully I’ll be able to find some friends to do it with. Anybody in?
And who could forget about the fourth sport of my triathlon, fundraising. Things have been looking up recently. The website being down was a bit of a bummer, but I have some very generous (and way cool) friends and family members who have my back. Thanks to them, I’m less than $600 away from my goal. I have until May 31st to finish up, so if you want to help me (and more importantly, blood cancer patients), you can make a donation at the following website.
www.active.com/donate/fundraiser/tntmiKSmith
So as you can see, I’ve been a busy bee lately. And even though I’ve been tapering this week by cutting back on my training, I’ve managed to stay just as busy by getting everything ready for the race this weekend. Such is life, and that’s just how I like it.
Thanks for hanging with me thus far. Even after the even this weekend I’ll continue to keep you updated with my exploits. Also, look for another post from me here in a couple days on what exactly is going through my head at this point. It should be a good read. In the mean time, Take ‘er easy.
Posted by ksmith at 07:31 PM | Comments (1)