Cardio

Some people like lifting weights but hate cardio. I'm the opposite. I do pushups every morning, and I hate them every morning. We have a weight set in our house, yet I don't use it too often, because it's not fun. But cardio is something I enjoy. I had a triathlon this week, so I tried to get some last-minute training in.

On Monday, my ward played kickball, and I participated, because I thought it might be fun to try again. I'm fine with kicking and running. But every time I'm in the outfield, I'm super stressed out about it, dreading that the ball is going to come to me. It's not even fun. At one point I caught the ball and dropped it, and I felt so bad I let my team down. That's one reason I don't like sports. I don't like competition that much. If I don't win, I feel bad that I'm not great; if I do win, I feel bad that I made other people lose.

On Tuesday, I didn't want to get on the trails, because it was muddy. So instead, I took my bike down and rode about twelve miles on the Jordan River Parkway Trail. It was a great night, and I liked being so close to the river. But I felt weird biking through Rose Park, and I didn't like crossing Redwood Road.

On Wednesday, I had my last session of tutoring for the Tongan Ward for the rest of the school year. They were having a garage sale thing for that ward, and I found this weird DVD:

Talk about a strange element of Mormon culture! Remember those Baby Einstein videos for babies and toddlers? This apparently was a Latter-day Saint knockoff. So many things beg for attention. The ugly baby. The unrelated locations (Kolob, Iowa, and Aspen?). The lowercase "am" in the title, even though it should be capitalized because it's a verb. The concept itself.

On Thursday I ran on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. It had been two weeks since I had been running, due to my recent sickness, and it was harder than usual, but maybe that's because of kickball and biking earlier in the week. I did see some tufted evening primrose, a wonderful flower with huge blossoms. I am disappointed that I've been sick and it's been rainy, because May is the best month for trails, except for maybe the fall months.

Friday, May 10, was the 150th anniversary of the transcontinental railroad, and This Is the Place did some major events for it.

That meant we had to work from 9 a.m. (early meeting) until 8 p.m. It wasn't as busy as we expected, but it was still busier than a typical day. I was assigned to be in the bank, but there were two of us there, because it was expected it would be very busy. My coworker was in the print shop, but he was busy helping with the cannon and other things, so I had to do the field trips in that site, and I was back and forth all day. It was a busy day.

Then Saturday, I got up early for my triathlon, which I also did last year. It was less intimidating this year, because I already knew what to expect. But I was nervous, because I had done less training. I hadn't been to the pool in more than a month, and my recent sickness certainly didn't help.

The swimming part, which was first, wasn't great. I passed one person, but many others passed me. I didn't do as well as I had done in my practice swims; I had to do an extra lap of breaststroke to catch my breath. I think I did more freestyle swimming than I did last year, yet somehow my time was worse. But the time includes time in and out of the pool, and I didn't hear the volunteer tell me I could get in, and maybe I was slower getting out?

They changed the bike route on the morning of the race. I don't know what it was originally supposed to be, but it was certainly different from last year. Last year's course was completely flat, but this year it involved more hills. Good thing I often go on hills when I go biking! It also involved being in more traffic, and I spent a long time at a red light.

I only have a mountain bike, which means my biking is really slow, and I didn't pass a single person. Also, I think the gears were poorly designed. The lever that shifts up on the left is the lever that shifts down on the right, so I can never remember which lever does what. I still cannot come up with a conceivable reason they would make it that way.

The run was only three miles, which is a short run for me, but it just seemed extra hard this time around. But since I am a runner and not so much a biker or swimmer, not a single person passed me running, and I passed many people.

I ended up eight seconds worse than my time last year, and honestly I'm surprised that's all, since the bike route was so different. I might have made up for the time in the transition area.

I had three friends who also did the race as a relay. Their time was eight minutes slower than mine, but they finished earlier because their swimmer got in the pool first. They took a picture of me, and then we went to breakfast, after I put my pants on.

This time I was #197, "O Savior, Thou Who Wearest a Crown." Last year, I was #319, "Ye Elders of Israel."

I spent the rest of the day buying new shoes and weird cereals. Since I already showed you the weird Baby Mormon find, I want to show you this unfortunate decorative sign I saw at Walmart:

Do you see that? "Land where my father died"? They missed one letter, and it entirely changes the meaning. In this case, the context means it's not even an issue of singular vs. plural! This is why nobody likes you, Walmart!