Psyching Up For the Weekend

Trying to get myself figured out for the next year has been great as far as re-motivating me. Also, reading "Going Long" has really got me thinking very hard about Ironman and all of the stuff that I want to do with triathlon in the coming years. I really love that while the book has a lot of beginner level stuff, it also has advice on training as an elite/age grouper.

I keep seeing old friends of mine, from high school through early college, on Facebook (lame, I know) and lately it seems like more and more are getting engaged, married, moving in with respective significant others, having kids, having cats, etc. And it feels weird. Especially when some of the people are ex-boyfriends. It's strange to realize that when I stopped hanging out with certain people, their lives didn't freeze at the point in time where I left them, they've grown up as much as I have. And being in this very transition-y point in our lives, it makes sense that so many people are really starting to have that kind of change happen. It's funny, I've lived with Robbie for a year, and we've had our own place for a couple of months now, but I don't feel particularly grown up. But when I see another friend moving in with his girlfriend, I think that he's getting to be a "big kid." All I know is that Facebook has made life a lot stranger because we see all of our friends transitioning into different things- in particular, I was a little punk kid back in the day:
Now, my friends are mainly Robbie, his brother, my sister, my parents, and other athletes. And a lot (not all, thank God!) of my old punk friends are slowly turning into relatively mature adults. Of course, some of them still are getting more and more tattoos and piercings, living in show houses, and touring with their respective punk bands, but for the most part, a lot of us grew up. It was a very very good thing for me, but it's strange to realize that everyone else changed too.

Anyway, end of yet another pointless nostalgic rant. I think finishing with undergrad college has taken a huge toll on me and I'm just freaked out about being an adult that has to pay rent and worry about health insurance.

So, back to triathlon... this weekend I'm hoping to get in some solid training before yet another tapering week- I'm planning on doing a 24 mile bike ride that will cover part of the time trial I'll be doing next Saturday, followed by a 6 mile run on the path next to the Delaware river, potentially with a stop at Dilly's afterwards for a veggie burger and fries... Hopefully Sunday I can convince Dad to scope out the Steelman course with me, but maybe not. We may save that for next weekend and go on Saturday after my TT, since the TT is actually nearly halfway there. Plus that way we can do packet pickup- I hate race moring pickup, especially since my morning tends to consist of: get in bathroom line, use bathroom, get in bathroom line, use bathroom, repeat...

I admit, I really like having races so close together- it's nice to have a second chance and fix all the mistakes I made last week while they're fresh in my mind. Besides, racing is just fun! Now that the open water swim doesn't freak me out, it's actually not too nerve-wracking. Then again, maybe I should get a bit more freaked out- I was too comfortable last week and ended up with a slow time!