Letter to the Editor

By kate on July 24th, 1999

This was written by me and published in the Times on July 24, 1999.

Editor, Seattle Times:
I am writing in enthusiastic support of Seattle’s animal-control police officers. I’m glad to know there are people out there doing their best to enforce leash laws.

The dog owners quoted in the July 18th article seem to think their dogs should be an exception to the rule, that their dogs are so angelic a leash is unnecessary. In some cases, this may be true, but the law does not distinguish good dogs from bad dogs. Until there is a system in place to test dog behavior and issue some sort of off-leash license to the truly well-behaved, all dogs should remain on leashes. How am I supposed to know if the loud, frightening dog bounding toward me will heed its owner’s call? I don’t want my visit to the park to be disrupted (as it often is) by having to be on constant lookout for unrestrained dogs.

Besides, the Seattle area has several large off-leash areas where dogs can be exercised freely. Please, dog owners, remember that many park users don’t like dogs, even your sweet little Fido. Use the off-leash areas, and leave the rest of us in peace.

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The Tricks I Play on Myself

By kate on July 24th, 1999

I keep my watch set five minutes ahead, something that seems to be fairly common. It’s my other timepieces that paint a more complicated picture…

My alarm clock is fifteen minutes fast. My wall and computer clocks are set to the correct time. My car clock is two mintutes fast. There are, to me, good reasons for each. I don’t think I need to explain why my clock, computer, and other incidental clocks are set to the right time. I look at them when I want to know what time it is.

The other timepieces are part of a plot I’ve hatched to trick myself into not being late. The alarm clock is fifteen minutes fast because the subtraction of fifteen minutes is easy throughout the day when I want to know what time it is, yet difficult when I’m half-asleep. That helps to get me up on time.

My watch is five minutes fast because I’m a visual person. The watch is an analog watch, so I see time represented as actual segments of space on the watch face. When I look at the watch, even though my mind knows the true time is five minutes earlier, the visual impression of the time presented on the face is strong enough to leave me feeling I should hurry.

My car clock, too, is in on the conspiracy. It is ahead a mere two minutes, an interval so small that I usually forget about it and assume the clock is displaying the actual time. That way, I’m two minutes less late than I would otherwise be.

While my mind knows, of course, that these timepieces are fast, the deception still works on another level. I’m still not terribly good at being on time, but these tricks keep my tardiness to about five minutes on average.

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Triathlon: Fourth Week Review

By kate on July 22nd, 1999

Current totals:		Other:
Running	14.4 mi / 23.17 K	Hiking	8 mi / 12.87 K
Biking	95.3 mi / 153.37 K	Canoeing	40 minutes
Swimming	2.0 mi / 3.22 K	Soccer	5 games

The big bike ride last weekend ended up to be 33.2 miles. We only rode one way, because my knees started to be sore. However, it was still a nice, long ride, and the rest of me was fine. The next few days, I wasn’t sore at all except, inexplicably, in my elbows. One of my elbows is still a bit sore, in fact. Also in the biking department, Steve has been trying to convince me to get road wheels. Right now, I’m riding on mountain wheels, and supposedly that adds a lot of drag and makes me work harder. I’m still debating the $50-$60ish cost, though.

I’m making steady improvement in swimming. The last time I went, I swam in two-lap intervals, meaning that I didn’t rest between every lap anymore. My time is settling into the 20-minute range. The one part of my swimming experience that’s declining, though, is my equipment. My goggles, so great to begin with, now fog up and let in water. I have permanently sore brow bones from where the goggles sit, and the inside of my ears are sore from my ear plugs. I think I need a new swimsuit, too – one with a “racer” back – because the straps are beginning to loosen and occasionally slip off my shoulders.

I haven’t been jogging this week at all, but I count soccer in the running category. My endurance has improved markedly, and I found myself still fresh at the end of an hour-and-a-half game. I’m also getting less of that instant exhaustion at the beginning of the game (before I’m warmed up).

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Triathlon: Change of Plans

By kate on July 16th, 1999

Letter from Danskin

You can imagine how disappointing it was to receive this letter. I made a personal commitment to work toward this goal, I put a lot of energy into documenting my experiences, and then I find out I can’t participate.

Don’t worry, though. All is not lost. I’m trying to get in touch with the Danskin people to get on the waiting list. I’ve heard about a few (registered) women who won’t be doing it, so maybe there is a chance I’ll get to enter after all.

Just in case, however, I have entered another triathlon, Escape from the Rock, which takes place on September 12. The biking and running distances are slightly shorter than the Danskin triathlon, and the swimming is the same. There is no question I’ll be ready for that one if I keep training at this pace.

So, I may end up doing two triathlons this summer, or maybe only one. But in any case, for my birthday (on Sept. 14), I’ll be able to tell myself, “Congratulations, you’re in shape!” And give myself the gift of not having to workout every day anymore.

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Triathlon: Third Week Review

By kate on July 16th, 1999

Current totals:		Other:
Running	14.4 mi / 23.17 K	Hiking	7 mi / 11.27 K
Biking	54.8 mi / 88.19 K	Canoeing	40 minutes
Swimming	1.59 mi / 2.56 K	Soccer	4 games

When I started training for this triathlon, I expected my performance, endurance, and enjoyment to have a steady upward trajectory. Maybe not a steep slope, but moving consistently upward, anyway. As it turns out, my progress is nothing like that.

During my first outdoor jog, I enjoyed myself. When I went again this week, I had a lousy time and spent most of the time thinking to myself, “This is so boring. I’m moving so slowly. Bored. I wonder how far I’ve gone? Bored.” Real runners tell me they enjoy running because they can let their mind wander. I wonder how I set my mind free to do that?

Making matters worse in the running department is my new pedometer. Frankly, it sucks. I ran for 50 minutes and it said I only went a mile. I think it must go by impact, so when I run on grass or gravel it has a hard time sensing every step. Anyway, now I have to retrace my steps on my bike so I can figure out how far I ran.

Swimming, on the other hand, is greatly improving. I remembered my gym (24-Hour Fitness, formerly Hart’s) has a pool, so I went there instead of the public pool. It was much nicer for several reasons. First, the pool is available for laps all the time, so it was much less crowded than the public pool which only allows an hour each night for lap swimming. Also, the water smelled and tasted nicer. It was several degrees warmer, too. Finally, it was five feet deep the whole way, and for some reason that makes me feel less tired. I have no idea why this is, but I’ve noticed that I feel more tired (in the public pool) when I swim in the deep end. It’s purely psychological – I don’t ever touch the bottom except between laps.

The gym employees told me that there were 22 laps to a mile, but I think 22 laps to a kilometer seemed more accurate, so I assumed that was the case. This time, I was markedly less tired and was able to swim every lap without resting. (Before, I would rest after one length; now I rested after a lap.) My rests were also much shorter, and I felt generally better. My time went down another 7-8 minutes.

I found that feeling tired when swimming can be partially overcome by willpower. (This may be related to my asthma.) Toward the end of a lap, I often feel like I’m not breathing often enough. Today, I tried relaxing when that happened, and trying to convince myself that I had enough air, and it helped.

An unexpected side effect of swimming regularly is that my fingernails are stronger from all the moisture.

I’m aware that during the triathlon, I’ll be swimming in a cold, deep lake instead of a warm, shallow, clean pool. Sometime I need to make that transition and practice a bit in a lake. But I’m going to wait until I shape up a little more.

A 50- to 60-mile bike ride is planned for this weekend – the longest bike ride I have ever done. I’m a little worried, but I think I’ll make it. After all, I’ll be sitting down the whole time – how hard could it be? Our destination is the Bite of Seattle, so we’ll need the long ride to compensate for all the food we’ll eat.

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Triathlon: I Look Like a Bug

By kate on July 14th, 1999

Current totals:		Other:
Running	10.6 miles	Hiking	7 miles
Biking	51.1 miles	Canoeing	40 minutes
Swimming	6425 feet	Soccer	3 games

Yesterday, I finally got a swim cap (those of you who know me won’t be surprised to hear that it’s black, to match my swimsuit), and headed to the pool again with my head securely waterproofed. I never realized swimmers wear so much on their heads – swim cap, ear plugs, nose plug, goggles. And those swim caps are really hard to put on! It took me ten minutes (at least) to get all my hair tucked inside.

I can’t decide quite how I feel about swimming at this point. When I first got in the pool, the strokes felt familiar. I worked on making my strokes more efficient rather than wishing I could breathe. But soon enough, I started resting after each lap, raising my torso out of the water so my lungs could breathe more easily. For a while, then, I hated swimming. I was bored and I kept having to avoid the other guy swimming laps in my lane. The laps seemed to come slowly: six… six and a half…seven…

Toward the end, though, I seemed to reach a plateau where I found a good pace and wasn’t so tired. I rested less, and shaved 5-8 minutes off my time from the last pool visit. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I was enjoying myself, but I wasn’t miserable either.

I guess I just need to keep going, keep doing the same thing, and wait for it to get better.