No More Training

The Olympics are over, the bachelorette party was awesome, and I don't have to travel back to Minneapolis for three weeks!  

On Saturday, I took my first bike ride in over 32 months without a pending race on the calendar.  It meant riding for no reason.  It meant riding because I wanted to ride and not because I needed to ride or should ride.  And, despite only being an 18 mile ride, it wasn't easy as my body just hadn't done it in awhile.  I'm not going to say it was hard.  But it was a swift kick in the butt.  I had been on the trainer, but hadn't ridden outside since Vineman.  

And...I joined a gym!

I have been without a gym membership for awhile.  I kept my gym membership when I lived in Mountain View because it was so cheap.  But in reality, the outdoors had been my gym for the past two years.  When I moved, I canceled my membership.  And, since I don't have any races on the calendar, it was time to finally join a gym again.  It means I am now "working out" or "exercising" and I'm no longer "training."  As a sidenote, I always thought it was funny when my mom would leave me a voicemail on a Saturday morning and say, "Hello.  Where are you?  You must be exercising or something."  Yes, Mom.  I guess I was just exercising on that 78 mile bike ride.  

Anyway, I find it ironic that the first thing I did as soon as I joined was take a spin class.  But, you know, sometimes you just have to start somewhere and that just felt like the right segue for me.  It's not that the gym is scary.  But it's change. And, it will take awhile to get back into that gym groove.  

Awhile back we took engagement photos...something I did not want to do.  I thought the whole concept of engagement photos was silly and just another one of those wedding industry "must haves" that someone made up randomly one day as a way to make people spend more money.  However, our photography package included the photos.  She said that it was just as much for her as it was for us.  When couples don't take photos, they find the wedding pictures more awkward as the couple is not as comfortable with the photographer or the camera.  I cannot believe I actually took engagement photos wearing lycra and spandex.  But I did.  We actually had a lot of really cute bike ones, even a few of us riding, but these are the two we liked best.  

Olympic Swims

I was hoping the Olympics would inspire me to feel like swimming again, but nope.  Not yet.  I am avoiding Facebook to prevent spoilers.  I am quite glued to the TV and staying up late every night to watch.  Swimming and gymnastics are my two favorites and they are almost over.  Although, I am grateful to the invention of the DVR and how efficient my Olympic watching has become!  

This post is really about something that happened three years ago -- after Phelps broke records in Beijing and his pot smoking scandal debuted.  Santa Clara Swim Club, the club that taught me to swim, has been hosting the Santa Clara International for the past 45 years!  It is a great swimming facility for little ol' Santa Clara.  As a sidenote, Sedonia swam here, too, but we didn't know each other during those swim days since she's such a spring chicken.  

Anyway, my friend, Dennis, volunteers at the event and scored two coach's passes to be on the pool deck.  Nick and I were not dating yet, but he was the obvious choice to invite (probably my only friend that even cared about swimming at the time).  

Since I have swimming on the brain, I figured I would head to the "archives" and pull out some pics from this hometown event.  

Nick showing off his pass

Stephanie Rice

Kirsty Coventry in the Longhorns cap

Getting ready to warm up....that's his body guard in the black shirt not really paying attention to him

Phelps in the warmup pool

Walking out for the 100M free (there is no zoom on this folks!)

My highlight -- Ryan Lochte and Brent Hayden

Notice how much buffer he is these days compared to 3 years ago.  If you saw any of the interviews, he said he was so disappointed after Beijing that he changed his workout and began focusing on strength training (and it shows).

Thank goodness he grew out of this silly mustache phase

Summer Sanders interviewing Phelps (he got silver).  When is Summer going to replace Andrea?  I'm tired of her dumb questions.

Phelps and Hayden on the podium