I made a resolution last year.
After the crazy number of hours that I spent training last year, I wanted to feel like a "regular person".
I wanted to wear clothes that are not made of dri-fit, water resistance, or worry if the material would cause any chafing. I wanted to wear shoes that were not retired running shoes and ride a bike that didn't even have clips.
I wanted to wash and dry and style my hair, not pull it up into a wet ponytail.
I wanted to wear a hat, not a visor not a cap.
I wanted to wear big FAT J-LO sunglasses, not Optic Nerve.
I wanted to meet people who have no interest in "training" for anything and have never heard of GU or knew what an M-dot was.
Over the past few months, I have met the most amazing people at my gym. A couple of them have been tri-athletes, but the ones who have become my friends are not. At first, I was "the woman who swims". Then one day they saw me putting on running shoes and asked, "Are you going to try to run?"
I've found it so much more fun to listen to their stories and to ask questions about their workouts than to talk about pace, mileage, or recent races.
As much fun as it was talking about my sport a few years ago, lately, I don't want to talk about it so much. I want to be a "regular" person. I want people to know that I have interests outside of triathlon. I want to spend my weekends doing things other than competing and training like crazy.
Today, I woke up before everyone, not because I set the alarm but just because I always seem to get up with the sun. I got my 2 hour ride in. As everyone else was waking up, I was putting my bike away. I showered and put on shorts, a regular shirt, my "walkabout" hat, J-LO sunglasses, and comfortable walking shoes.
Then, we all head down to a small pub in Denver for lunch. While we watched the rain pour down, we laughed and had a great time and great food. Afterwards, we head over to the Arts Festival where we walked around for 2 hours in the pouring rain, all the while joking around, examining the most amazing lifesize sculptures, and staring at amazement at what some people are capable of creating.
When it was all said and done, we went home and Mike made the best GI-NORMOUS plates of nachos, and we all sat down to watch a movie rental.
I can honestly say today was better than the best day of training.
