Tragic Sandwich

But I’m not. However, that still is one of my goals for this afternoon, while J is off on a road bike ride in Malibu.

It’s been a busy weekend, and it’s barely Sunday afternoon. Yesterday we decided to see Iron Man, so we headed over to the theater to buy tickets. However, we soon found that between us and the theater was a huge traffic jam, due to a nearby car show. We decided to continue with our errands and go to a different theater once we were done. The next stop was at the Goodwill donation point, where I gave away the first item for the 29-Day Giving Challenge–a lawn bag full of clothes. Now, there were probably more than 29 items in the bag, so I suppose I could have doled them out over the course of the Challenge. But that doesn’t seem to be in the spirit of much of anything, so I’m counting the bag as one item.

Next, we went to the pool, where I swam 900 meters and J swam 1100. I’m hoping to be swimming twice a week, and doing 1000 on one of those swims for at least a few weeks before the triathlon. We also need to do some ocean swimming, and I still need to get on the bike. Well, not this weekend.

After the pool, we ate at The Stand. This is probably the fanciest hot dog stand you’ll ever eat at. J had the Chili Dog and I had the Kraut Dog. The sauerkraut didn’t have the tang I was hoping for, but the hot dog and bun were quite good. This is a little splurgy for hot dogs, but I’d come back. Oh, and they have Thomas Kemper cream soda on tap, which is very nice.

We made a brief stop at home, where we learned that the car show was over, and headed out for Iron Man. The movie was a lot of fun, and Robert Downey, Jr., did a great job as Tony Stark. I’m still not all that taken with Gwyneth Paltrow, but I think the problems I had with Pepper Potts had more to do with the writing than with Paltrow’s performance.

Back home again, I said, “How do we not own Raiders of the Lost Ark on DVD? Check TiVo and see if it’s showing tonight.” J did and said, “Believe it or not, it’s starting in 10 minutes.” So we watched Raiders (as edited for television) for the umpteen-millionth time. It’s always good.

Today has been a little slower, although of course there was plenty of laundry to do. When J left on the bike, I headed out with a grocery bag full of movies on VHS. We’ve been replacing our VHS tapes with DVDs wherever possible, and the stack of outbound tapes was getting pretty high. This seemed like a worthy second day of giving for the Challenge, so I dropped them off at one of the local libraries.

I’m not sure how I’m going to fulfill the Challenge during the work week, but I’m sure I’ll figure something out. I do know that I need to get up off the couch and work out!

I’m starting to think that’s what got me into this triathlon. Sure, I did two last fall (one as a relay, in which I only did the swim). So logically I could do another. But somehow I’ve done almost no training, and I’m starting to wonder just how badly I may do, when the race is only a month away.

I’m not too worried about the bike and the run portions, because the race distances are so short. Still, I need to get on the bike a few times before the race, and I ought to do some walking.

The swim, though, is another matter. We’ll be swimming 1/2 mile, which is manageable when I’m training properly. But right now I’m not training properly. On Saturday we went to the pool, and I finished 600 meters. I’ll have to do 800 in the race, and that’s assuming that the course is accurate. To be on the safe side, I should be doing 1000 in the pool. I also need to get in a couple of ocean swims, although the 58-degree water temperature is not very inviting.

Now, I hope you’ll excuse me as I eat a vanilla cupcake from Sprinkles.

So if you go to Google and type in “Tragic Sandwich,” guess what comes up first! Of course you didn’t need to know that, because you’re already here. But I think it’s pretty cool, because the old Tragic Sandwich, which was on the Google-owned Blogger, never came up at all. Now I feel famous.

Last weekend was fun, although I still wish I’d been healthier, so that I could have enjoyed it even more. This coming weekend will also be busy, because we’re getting together with friends who moved out of town recently and are back for a visit, and we need to actually do more swimming. The triathlon isn’t coming up immediately, but we’re behind schedule in our training. Lousy colds. But by this weekend we both should be healthy again, and ready to swim…well, as many laps as we possibly can.

We’re training for the Redondo Beach Triathlon in June. The race itself is pretty short, with a 1/2-mile swim, 6-mile bike, and 2-mile run. The bike and the run portions should be fairly easy, but I do need to work on my swimming

Yesterday was my first time in the pool since training for the Catalina Triathlon in November. I did 400 meters in my usual swim-100-gasp-for-a-minute style, and feel pretty good about it.

It was hot yesterday, but nothing like today. The temperature was supposed to be 97 at one point, and I can believe it based on how uncomfortable the apartment is. I stayed indoors, but J went for a mountain bike ride and the heat hit him pretty hard. Fortunately the heat wave is supposed to be pretty short-lived; for the rest of the week the highs are supposed to ping-pong between the mid-60s and the upper 70s.