It's A Numbers Game

March #s:

Swim = 22,275 yds or approx. 12.7 miles
Bike = 22 hrs 5 minutes or approx. 397.5 miles
Run = 13 hrs 55 minutes or approx. 94.4 miles

Cumulative:

Swim = 78,425 yds or approx. 44.6 miles
Bike = 60 hrs 5 minutes or approx. 1,002 miles
Run = 35 hrs 20 minutes or approx. 213.6 miles

Whew, that makes me tired just typing and thinking about those cumulative numbers! I guess that's why you need to break down the training into sizeable chunks and not look at it as 1 whole.

Now that it's past and I look back on March, I'll just say good riddance. It's not that it was a terrible month, but I was definitely good out of the gates in January and February, but lost some mojo somewhere along the way in the middle of March for a couple of weeks. I'm happy to say I was able to find it again and have been going strong again for the past couple of weeks. I haven't yet, but if you go back and reread an earlier post I think I alluded to thinking that this IM training wasn't going to be too bad and didn't know what all the whining (that's too strong of a word, but it fits to give you the picture) was about from some others when it came to getting through it mentally as much as physically. Well, I guess this is where I insert my apology to those who have come before me and warned me this might happen. There were a few days when I just didn't want to get in the pool and justified any excuse not to - "getting up at 5 a.m. is too early, I'll go during lunch", "gas prices are too high and the pool's too far away", "swimming is such a small part of the overall race I can afford to miss a workout or two", etc., you get the picture. This really did only seem to be affecting the swim portions, you can see that in the totals comparing month-to-month. I think the main reason behind that is because biking in my basement and running are easy enough to do and don't require commute time. That's a pretty lame excuse.

A lot of my March workouts were also done alone. This didn't help. As introverted and comfortable with just being with myself as I am, even I need social interaction. I got to thinking about this during one of my longer spin sessions on a Saturday morning. It started out with just thinking how hungry I was at the time and how nice it would be to have someone there who would have a nice, big, hot breakfast waiting for me once I got done (and no, before you go all "equal rights" on me, I don't think the only place for a woman is in the kitchen...they're also allowed in the bedroom). Kidding, I'm just kidding!! Anyhoo, back to my thought...it would be nice to have a meal waiting and actually wanting (needing?) to have a conversation. From there, I delved back into my "reasons" for not currently having a girlfriend - not enough time to pursue a relationship, not enough $$, I'm focusing on the kids, I'm putting myself first, etc. Once again, lame excuses. I want someone there I can talk to, I want someone there in Madison I can share this experience with (outside of family and platonic friends), I want someone there I can show off to/for.

I think part of my problem is that I'm not truly grown up and I'm still "stuck" in my younger years. Let me explain. I'm 42 years old. Because of this active, athletic (if I can be presumptuous enough to call it that) lifestyle, I feel younger than what I envision a 42 year old should feel like. Because I feel younger than what I think I should, I'm inadvertently attracted to women who are younger and not necessarily my peers. The problem is, the younger gals aren't attracted to the older guys, but I don't "see" myself as an older guy. When looking at online dating profiles of people in my age range, 38-45 yrs, almost all the time I would've guessed they were older. If I'm thinking my peers look older than what they are and I'm dismissing them because of that, then I've been fishing in the wrong lake. I asked a close friend for an honest opinion of how old I look and no, I wasn't expecting to hear something in the 20s (and didn't). She came back with maybe a year or two older than what I actually am. So, here I am, an older looking guy looking for a younger looking gal just because he feels younger on the inside. Am I really that shallow? I think I'll need another long bike ride to get to the bottom of that, good thing the workouts are getting longer (or is it?).