Old Memories

I have found that these beginning weeks of training have continually brought back a flood of memories from college - so bear with me.

As I've mentioned before, I was not physically active before I went to college. I swam on my high school team during my sophomore and junior years, but I was never fast or in particularly good shape. For some reason when I left for college, the idea of rowing was in my head. I went to the first informational meeting, then the first practice, then the second practice. I kept telling myself that I'd do it for another day and see how it went. Soon enough, I found one of my true passions in life, and continued to row for the next four years.

That first semester of rowing was much like the beginning of my training now, only worse. Perhaps, that's why it keeps coming to mind. I was in terrible shape - in fact, I was in no shape at all. I had never run or challenged myself physically - not really. So I found myself, on a hot September afternoon, faced with the "campus loop." As the name suggests, it was a loop around the outer edge of my college campus. Some say that it was 2.5 miles, Hubs says that he doesn't believe it was even 2 miles - at this point, I don't really know or care. But back then, I cared. A lot. I hadn't ran that far - ever. Well, I was off - straight up a long treacherous hill (and by long I mean it seemed like 1/3 of the loop). By the time that I finished that hill I thought I might die. My hands were over my head, my lungs felt like they might explode, my chest was heaving, and I was walking. Eventually, I could run the loop twice as light second workout. The contrast is still startling to me. It is only when I think about the contrast that I realized how much I achieved.

That is part of the reason that this blog is so important to me personally. When I signed up for this triathlon, I had hit a recent low regarding my perception of my physical abilities and body. I want to remember where I was, where I am today - to be able to see the immense progress that is made.

I need to be off to bed now. I'll post today's and tomorrow's workouts sometime tomorrow. It was a good run though - so I want to spend some time thinking about it.