I grabbed the bike and went out on literally my fourth ride. Ever. What milestone?

Over 50 miles on the bike!

That’s right: the Go The Distance ride on 5/15 just became a training day.

Don’t get me wrong: 50 miles wasn’t easy; it was a good long workout. But it wasn’t tough.

Tough was getting off the bike, changing clothes and shoes, and THEN going for a run. That was tough. But it’s why I’m here, why you’re here, and why folks are donating to REED Academy to support the school and these efforts.

I’m just getting started.

Does this helmet make me look fat?

You’ll note that I have toe straps; I haven’t yet moved to the clipless pedals/shoes that everyone talks about. Soon. Soon.

This ride turned out to be 12.06 miles, acc’g to MapMyRun. (Can you tell I’m new at biking?) I covered that in a total of 59:13, giving me an average pace of 6:32 per mile (for reference, and I’m almost ashamed to write it, that’s about a 2:51 marathon pace. And yes, the folks who win Ironman championships run in that ballpark. I guess I really, really have a long ways to go.

Lunch/dinner was a burrito at Chipotle (I probably shouldn’t eat there too much, but I feel like it’s a good amount of food and the veggies are good in the burrito.) I splurged and had chips and salsa too, because…

my first swimming class was Tuesday night. I lost track of how many laps I swam, but it sure wasn’t enough to brag about! The best thing about it is that I have already improved dramatically over my two days of swimming — as long as you grade on a curve, I’m doing great.

I had a funny thought as I was catching my breath after one of the exercises. I flashed back to the second or third week of basic training, when I was thinking “I may have made a mistake.” But I didn’t want to quit, and wouldn’t have, but I remember thinking that if I just happened to twist my knee or ankle, then I could probably pop out and just forget the whole thing. Then, a few years later, I had a similar thought a week or three into Ranger School — I’m not sure I’ve ever really told anyone these stories — but I knew that the feeling would pass and then it would just be generically miserable, in the way that Ranger School is.

I had popcorn as a snack late after swimming, during a long call with a California client.

I left the office early for a meeting with my son’s teacher and grabbed a large pretzel as breakfast/lunch. I’m looking forward to a quick sandwich at home.

I called the Ridgewood Y today to inquire about swim lessons. I have a sort of tryout tonight to see if I can fit into the class that has an opening. Kinda funny, isn’t it?

I went  to the Y tonight to see if I “qualify” for the intermediate class. Considering that the intro class is titled “Chicken of the Sea,” I was going to be pretty bummed if I didn’t get past that — heck, I passed my Ranger swim test, and isn’t that all you need (unless you’re training for an Ironman, that is)? Swimming class starts in earnest tomorrow. I feel like I need to run so I can get in shape for swimming!

I guess I swam 8 0r 10 lengths, short ones, in my short workout. Not an impressive beginning, but I’m satisfied with the notion that beginning is impressive. I’ll know more tomorrow night.

The good news was that my technique wasn’t as sucky as I thought. Oh, it sucks all right; it’s just that I actually have some non-trivial amount of technique, meaning I can breathe from the side multiple times while attempting to swim a length. I think I was going too fast at first because I was getting sort of tired pretty quickly. I would much rather be running: it seems so much easier to just crank out the miles. The bad news is that I have a lot of work to do.

But I knew this was going to be work, a real stretch goal. What’s the point of setting goals you’ve already accomplished?

That reminds me of how I tell people that I could go back to Ranger School pretty much any day in any shape and sail right through — because after a week or two or three, everyone is beaten down physically and so that advantage goes away, as does any disadvantage. Then, knowing that I can do it eliminates virtually any doubt; thinking of myself as one who believes that “surrender is not a Ranger word,” eliminates the rest.

Being = Knowing = Doing

Dinner was pretty much a big ham sandwich 750 cal (5/8 loaf of French bread -600 & 5 slices ham -150 & mustard -0 cal.)

For a snack/dessert, I had a Sbux strawberry & blueberry yogurt 300 cal
Grande awake tea latte w/ just 2 pumps and whole milk — ??? (I suppose I should figure this out — it’s my preferred free drink when I get a coupon from Sbux from my gold card membership.)