Busy week

This week has been an epic week. It has been filled with a lot of workouts (did anyone say lots of swimming?). It has also been filled with lots of exam studying and summer homework assignments (Yes. I have homework in the summer! My school is retarded.). It has also been jammmed-packed with a sinus infection that has me consuming large volumes of Day-Quill and has my nose running like a faucet. I also got an award in Social Studies during this epic week!

Okay, I will start with the massive workouts, since that is the first thing I mentioned and this is a triathlon blog. After my 4,400 yard swim on Saturday, I just couldn't get enough of the pool. I decided to swim again on Sunday. This swim was 5,300 yards in length. What can I say? I love to swim and once I start, I don't feel like stopping.

On Monday, I swam again. This time I swam 5,700 yards. I was trying to go for 6,000 yards but I had to leave(my parents decided they had enough of the pool after 2 hours and they were my only ride home). I left with only a 300 left to swim. I was a little upset- but I will get a 6,000 yard workout before this summer's over.

All these swims were done over the Memorial Day weekend when my swim team was not practicing. They were all done in the indoor pool of my local gym. I enjoyed every minute of those swims! I hope to eventually swim to 6,000 yards and beyond.

Following the Memorial Day Weekend of Epic Swims, I swam for another hour on Tuesday with the swim team since practice was again in session. Practice is only for an hour this week (and next week) because many of the swimmers (including me) are still in school. We can only get the pool really late in the summer. Instead of normal practice time of 7:30-9:00, we have practice from 8:30-10:00 in the summer. Practice ended at 9:30 so that we wouldn't be exhausted the next morning for school that starts at 7:30 in the morning.

In addition to this swim, I also ran up and down my street on Tuesday for a total of 3.5 miles. I repeated the hour swim and 3.5 mile run on wedesday. This was before I got sick.

On Thursday (yesterday), I woke up with a runny nose and sore throat that I think has become a sinus infection. Of course, I didn't work out Thursday or today because I feel like crap; however, I feel better this evening after taking plenty of Day-Quill. I hope I feel well enough to work out tomorrow.

I also have a butt-load of exam studying to do. I exempted (meaning I don't have to take) my math exam, which should free up a lot of time otherwise spent studyying. I also do not have to take exams for the two art classes I am taking. We had final projects as opposed to final exams. We did those projects in class, so now we don't have to take final exams.

Since I am exempting math, I do not have to go in for the last day of school. My last day of school will be Wednesday as opposed to Thursday. I also only have to take 4 exams this quarter-as opposed to seven. Don't think I have it easy though. I have to memorize over 300 vocab words for Social Studies! I already got some studying done tonight. I am planning to spread my studying out over the weekend and next week so that I do not have to do a whole bunch of studying at onece.

I also have a boat load of summer homework I have to do before the first day of my next school year. THIS IS ALL DUE BEFORE AUG 26!

English: I have to read 4 books (one of which is Shakesphere-ugh), write 2 essays,and read and summerize a whole bunch of articles.

Chemistry: I have to read the first chapter, and do 2 packets (about 20 pages in length- front and back) which include notes on the first chapter, and lots of math problems. I also have to memorize a whole bunch of stuff for the quiz given on the first day of school over the table of elements,and many other things I already forgot.

History: I have to read 5 chapters in this huge textbook. Each chapter is about 30 pages in length. I have to take notes (a page in length) on each chapter. I also have to take a take-home quiz on each of these 5 chapters, fill out a worksheet on each of the 27 ammendments to the constiution, and memorize each of the presidents and their political parties.

Math: I don't think I have any math homework this year (like I did last year) but my new math teacher might get evil the last week of school and suprise us. I hope not. I hope my new math teacher will be nice. He is pretty nice. I had him 2 years ago for geometry. I am not sure how nice he will be with the summer homework this year.

I will have no summer this year!

Oh, in other good and intresting news, I got an award yesterday at our yearly awards ceremony. It was for social studies and only one other person in my grade got the award. I got a medal too and went up in front of the entire school to get the award.

Am I boring you with school stuff? I would rather not think about school either. I am just so excited that this year is finally comming to a close! I am looking forward to whatever little summer I may have.

I added this race to the races I someday want to do. It is a 24 hour triathlon held in Colorado. It's far away from where I live, but I can always fly there (duh!) I've never been to Colorado before. It would have to wait untill at least 2010 though because I have to be at least 18 to do it. I wouldn't be ready to do it sooner then that anyway. It's like an ultramarathon of running except it also involves swimming! Oh, and bicycling too. You basically try to cover as much distance as you possibly can in 24 hours. The course consists of a .24 mile swim, an 11.2 mile bike, and a 2.6 mile run that you repeat as many times as possible. They aslo have a shorter 8 hour race.

Everyday it seems, I am finding out more really intresting events to do. It seems impossible that I would ever get sick of triathlon and endurance sports. I am getting sick of writing though. Bye for now!

Me and my Schwinn are friends

Note: I actually found a picture of my exact bike on the internet. Isn't it pretty? (If you are a triathlete with a $1,000,000,00000 high-tech bike don't say anything!)

I rode my bike (my blue Schwinn) for almost 3 hours yesterday! (2 hours and 55 minutes to be exact!) I didn't start out the bike ride wanting it to be that long. I was originally planning only to do a 2 hour bike ride. I wanted to get some bike riding done because I want to get ready to do an olympic distance triathlon this summer.

It was a beautiful day outside when I rode my bike. It was sunny and almost 70 degrees! We havn't had a nice day like that for at least 3 weeks! Normally, I don't enjoy riding my bike as much as I enjoy swimming and running. Yesterday, however, was the best bike ride EVER.

I basically just rode around the streets near my home. I rode up and down 3 times this really long street, and up and down some cul-de-sacs several times. I was loving every minute of this bike ride! Untill I got home, I didn't realize I almost went 3 hours. I thought I went just a little bit over two hours. Time flies when you are enjoying yourself!

I am guessing I covered at least 20 miles. My cycling computer is broke, so I am not exactly sure of the distance I covered. Howver, with my average speed about 8 miles an hour, maybe a little slower since the ride was so long, 20 miles would seem about accurate.

Don't laugh at my slowness. Laughing at people is not nice! It's okay to laugh if you really feel the need though. I will probably laughat my slowness when I re-read this blog in a couple years.

The only thing that really hurt on this bicycle ride was the muscles in the tops of my legs (quads?) about 2 hours into the ride. I am a little sore today, but not a ton. I slept very good last night!

I have also realized that all this working out and everything has become a part of my life now. A year ago, when I first started doing triathlons, I would have never realized I would continue with the sport so long. I have done workout routines before, but have always quit after a couple of months. With triathlon and swimming, however, I am enjoying myself so much that I don't want to quit.

If I don't get in my daily (except for one day a week I take off to recover) workout, somehing feels very weird. Working out is starting to feel as natural as brushing my teeth.

I have also realized that although, I love doing races, they are not the most important thing anymore. When I first started doing triathlons, I worked out mostly so I could get ready for the next race. Now I enjoy a good workout as much as I enjoy a race.

Speaking of races, there are two races coming up that seem really awesome. The first one is the Columbus International Triathlon and Sports Festival which takes place July 19-20. On July 19th, there are 3 open water swims. The swims are distances of .75K, 1.5K, and 3K. They have the swims staggered out so that you are able to do each one and the swims do not overlap with one another.

They also only charge $25 for the first distance you swim and $5 for each additional distance. That pretty much forces you to do all 3 distances! You could do only one distance if you wanted, but who would do that?

The next day of this fesival, you have a chance to do a choice of various distances of triathlons and duathlons. Of course, I would like to do the international distance triathlon. A whole lot of swimming and a triathlon! How fun does that weekend sound?

Speaking of fun weekends, on the third week of January next year, just a couple of hours away from home in Indiana, there is the Chili Hilly which is a two day race cosisting of five distances. On the first day you get there, you would do a 10K race, and later that night, a four mile race.

When you wake up the next morning (in one of the awesome camp-style cabins they provide) you get to run a 5K race, followed later by a 10 mile race, and a 1 mile race. That sounds really cool to me! I would definatly have to train a lot to do this race-but the training would definatly be worth it. As a bonus, you get a free sweatshirt when you register. Sweatshits are the best thing ever. I'm always freezing cold and they keep you soooo warm. I wear sweathsirts all the time (except in the summer when its actually warm outside!)

Wow! That was a long post. I think I have finally said everything I wanted to say today. I really hope I can do those two races.