Things from the Deep

I'm still struggling with my fear of open water and my imagination. This weekend I couldn't get it out of my head that there were creatures below me, so I started thinking creatively--engaging a little mental training. The biggest trouble with the fears is that they aren't motivating. Instead of speeding up to get away from them, I pull my head out of the water and look around to assure myself everything is okay and I know where I am. I needed some way to keep my head in the water and my momentum moving forward. So, I turned those creatures into the Little Mermaid! It really worked. I felt like I was playing--singing with her in my head. Hooray for cartoon heroines!

Hills of Hades

Stone Mountain Park is a well established icon of Atlanta recreation. Its main attraction is the giant mound of granite rising from the earth like a prehistoric artifact. It is surrounded by a lake, walking and biking paths, camping sites and a newly established amusement park. In the evenings, they project a laser show on the side of the mountain where the portraits of Confederate Heros are carved. If you ever visit Atlanta, you must experience it.

Stone Mountain is also a favorite location of exercise enthusiasts who like a challenge. You can hike up the granite mound and back down again, or you can walk or cycle around the base of the mountain on rather rigorous and hilly paths. On Saturday, Rachel and I joined our team for a 20 mile bike ride around the base of the mountain. Then, we walked 3 miles. It was intense. When I say intense, I mean, I think I visited Hades. At least, a few words that belong in Hades may have escaped my lips. It was well over 100 degrees outside and hilly and... intense.

On Sunday, we met our team at Mary Alice Park on Lake Lanier for more open water swimming and a chance to try a full transition (swim to bike to run). The first thing we discovered that morning was that our tires were low. We rode the entire 20 miles at hilly Stone Mountain on half the air we needed!!! We'll just call this drag training. So we added air to our tires and the ride was much better. We swam 1 mile in wake filled water (the boats were out and about, making our swim rough), biked 10, and walked 2.

We're learning some great tricks for transitioning, like have an extra bottle of water handy to rinse off your feet after the swim so sand doesn't tear them up the rest of the day. Isn't that smart? Or, lay your towel out with all of your gear lined up in order so you can stand on the towel and change without having to think too hard. Or, check your bike to make sure it's in good shape before you start the race. :P

I wish I had a picture of Monday night's swim practice, but I don't. Monday night we met the team at the pool, where the coaches had removed the lane lines. They set up three buoys so we had a practice course to swim around in the pool and asked us to practice the race by swimming around them at race pace for 20 minutes. It was so crowded and there were so many bodies touching, at first I was confused about what was going on, but really, it was sabotage! The coaches had recruited former Team In Training triathletes to attack us. They swam right in my way. They grabbed my toes. They grabbed my legs and tried to pull me down, but I kicked the heck out of them! This was to simulate what it may feel like at the beginning of the race. We should expect it to be crowded and for people to be very pushy, trying to get their advantage, so they were trying to prepare us for the mental competition on top of the physical. I feel sorry for whoever those people were that grabbed me, because I really kicked them. That's what you gotta do! After that, we had a relay race around the buoys. It was so fun!

Tuesday was Rachel's birthday, so to celebrate we went on an 18 mile bike ride with our friends Karen and Bones. (Yes, we are gluttons for punishment.) We rode on the PATH that leads to Stone Mountain Park from Decatur. We didn't have time to do the whole route because we waited for evening, when the temperatures were soooo much cooler!!! While on the ride, I rubbed the sweat out of my eye with my bike glove. Wednesday morning, I woke up with pink eye. I don't know if it came from the glove, the pool, or the lake, but that blessed pink eye gave me two days off from work!!! Because it's highly contagious, I was not permitted on the hospital premises for a full 24 hours after my first dose of eye drops. :D I'm much better now. And well rested.

Fear of Open Water

To creep you out, or not? When I swim in the pool, I'm mostly okay. When I swim in open water, it's a different story. I've made peace with some open water. Dale Hallow Lake is so clean that you can see your toe nails when you're treading water. As long as I'm swimming close to a boat and can get out of the water when I want, I'm fine there. In the ocean, as long as I can see some of the shells on the bottom (and see that there's nothing creepy by my toes), I'm okay.

It's a different story in lake water that is murky. My imagination takes me to places I fear would be unfair to share. The things that lurk below that water are reminiscent of creatures from Jacko's Thriller video, or the "Passage of the Marshes" from the Two Towers (the book actually calls it the Dead Marshes). I think this is enough info. I have included links to photos of these images, so if you click on the lime green, you'll see an example of what I imagine. If you'd rather not see, don't click the lime green.

So, we've done our open water training in Lake Lanier, which I consider to be very murky. I hate it. I love swimming! I hate Lake Lanier. While I'm swimming in this lake, I sometimes have to sprint to run away from my imagination. Sometimes, I come up for air, shriek a bit, shake my hands like I'm shaking something awful off of them, then force my head back into the water and keep going. It's kinda funny, really. I'm sure the people in the kayaks laugh at me!

I've been able to distract myself twice. Once by turning my brain onto the topic of organizing the thank you notes I'm writing, and once by thinking about my grandma's spaghetti. I haven't had her spaghetti for a long time, but when I was a kid I loved it! I'll need some topics to capture my imagination race day, so if you have any ideas, please share!

For good laughs, call...

As an act of charity, in case you have not yet had a good dose of laughter today, I present you with my pool portrait. Don't I look like someone's escaped yard gnome? Yeah--it's a good look.

Gnome, or not, I swam 1925 meters last night. (That's more than a mile.) WooHoo! (Oh, and, I aced another class!!!!)

Serenity

This painting is titled "Serenity," by Bill Davidson. It is a painting of the lake at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, GA.
I haven't posted in a while because I'm in another intensive summer class and I am exhausted. Just two more days, two papers and a project left (oh, and a major paper for CPE...). But, today, though exhausted, I am also renewed. Today I went with my class to the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, GA. We met at 5:30am and rode together to the morning prayers. The majority of the morning was in silence--unless we were praying. We prayed the liturgy with the monks and received blessings during Mass, then ate breakfast of cereal and fruit in silence together. It was wonderful.

Another wonderful discovery today was the results of Mary Crist's CAT scan. Her tumor is 1/5th its original size! Yesterday, she had the stint to her pancreas removed and today she received her 5th round of chemo. She has one more round after this, but her prognosis is looking good! I am tired, but I feel serene.