Fear

I've decided that I've going to be doing the Portland Marathon this year and because of that I'm started running on a more frequent basis, but the last couple of runs I have noticed a little pain in my left ankle. I really don't think this is anything to be too worried about as the pain comes and goes and in never that intense, just to be safe though I took the day off and have only stretched the ankle and haven't really put any stress on it, tomorrow I'll try it out for 6 miles and see how it goes. Like I said I'm not really that concerned about it but it makes me think and leads me to my biggest athletic fear, what if I actually get injured while working out and it sets me back weeks? I really don't have that kind of time to recover and rebuild. I guess there really isn't anything I can do if it happens but it's definitely one of my fears. Another fear is that I will come down with some kind of sickness at some point with only weeks or worse days before an event. That would basically have the same effect as an injury.
Then there is the ever present "super-virus" fear. First let me explain what the super-virus is. Genetically Doug (my brother) seems to be plagued and I managed to catch it in a foreign country. Basically its when you get diarrhea for no apparent reason at all. Laugh or gag all you want but this is a legitimate fear. If this were to happen in the middle of a race what do I do? Odds are it won't happen but odds are that planes won't crash either but it happens. One such experience happened to me yesterday in fact (not a plane crash). I had about half a mile left on a 6 mile run and was feeling pretty good when all of the sudden my stomach starting turning for no apparent reason. With 50 yards to go it was as if someone hit the emergency release button and I was serious trouble and now pain. It took all I had left in me to luckily make it to the restrooms that were located at the park I had ran from, but what if this would have happened about a mile earlier....not pretty. So you can see why this is an actual fear for me.
Well I guess if something happens whether torn something or something less sanitary I'll just have to deal with it when it happens....life's kind of that way.

Just some quick stats

After all I'm a baseball fan so here are some of my running stats
Miles ran:
February 20.4
March 30.0
April 25.3
Total 75.7
I bought a pair of running shoes March 11th and they cost me $92, so they have really cost me $1.81 per mile. Unfortunately I haven't done as good of a job with my swimming and biking stats but they basically would reflect the same thing, increasing monthly. I expect my running total for April to be at least 40 miles.

Still Here

So its been quite a while since my last entry but that doesn't mean that I haven't been working out and training for triathlons. In fact I've been doing some pretty decent workouts and I really feel like I'm making some progress. Today I actually signed up for two triathlons: the Stansbury Park Sprint Tri and the Burley Idaho Annual Spudman, which is an Olympic size race. The Stansbury Park is on May 23rd and consists of a 750 meter swim in open water in a man-made lake, 20 kilometer bike ride, and then a 5 kilometer run. This will be my first time at an actual race type triathlon and just thinking about it makes me kind of nervous, but I'm really looking forward to it. Some challenges I have to face besides actually doing the race are, what I will use for a bike, and what I will use as gear for the event ie: wetsuit, ect.
The Spudman is the last Saturday in July and consists of a 1500 meter downstream swim in a river, 24.9 mile bike, and a 6.2 mile run to kill you off at the end. By July I hope to be in really good shape and kind of have a decent idea as to what I'm doing.
I haven't really decided yet but I think I'd really like to do the Portland Marathon this year too, I just have to see if I can fit training for it and the actual race into my schedule. But those are my plans so far, the two tri's are a go already.