On Saturday I am turning 47. Same age group though, ho-hum!! I've never been a big celebrator of my birthday but rather prefer to celebrate every day in some small way.
However, since first identifying with the term "athletic", I admit I have enjoyed marking my birthday in some physically meaningful way. It started in 2009 when my trainer suggested birthday reps of 135 lb deadlifts (sumo style, my fav). I kept that up for two more years before I morphed it into more triathlon-related workouts.
- 2009 - 42 deadlifts of 135 lbs
- 2010 - 43 deadlifts of 135 lbs
- 2011 - 44 deadlifts of 135 lbs (video)
- 2012 - 4500y swim, 45 pullups (video), 45 mile bike (done over three days)
- 2013 - 46k birthday triathlon: 3k swim + 19k run + 24k bike.
This year, I wasn't feeling quite so inspired, and my schedule this week is not allowing for anything super epic, so I almost skipped the birthday week workout. Then Monday night at about 7 pm, I suddenly decided to knock out a consecutive 4700m (2.92 miles) on the Vasa Swim Ergometer. In my birthday tiara.
I discovered I could put the iPad under me so I put on some back episodes of The Amazing Race, season 11. (Try doing THAT in a pool!) I had to move it forward after I started dripping too much sweat on it, but otherwise it worked great! (Normally Swim Erg workouts are shorter and more intense so watching something isn't really doable/)
Time: 1:29:30
Average power: 58w
I finished that up close to 9 pm, then at 6:40 am the next morning I was at the pool for another 3000 yards. Combined total for the 12 hour period? 8140 yards or 4.625 miles! Yay!! I only had a hint of soreness the following day.
If I may switch subjects entirely -- a USAT All American certificate arrived yesterday. Yay! That designation now goes to the top 10% of each age group. That is a subtle change from prior years where All American was top 5% and Honorable Mention All American was the next 5%. I kind of liked the old tiered system better in terms of it serving as a motivator for me, but whatever. I landed 39th out of 1935 qualified athletes (3 or more races). Pretty cool, considering.
This year my goal is simply to race again, and race healthy...whenever that needs to be.
