IronBear 2019: Running Is Like Broccoli, the Accidental 5K, and Other Thoughts

I finished IronBear 2019--with almost a week to spare.  This both pleases and surprises me.

I started off strong.  I calculated a work out load that would portion out the miles evenly over the weeks so I didn't get stuck in a jam at the end.  Then all that planning got shot to hell when I was laid low with bronchitis in February.  My lungs couldn't tolerate anything in the way of exertion.  Even a single flight of stairs was exhausting.  I really thought those two weeks off would be my Iron Bear undoing.  But no!  Surprise, surprise!  I still made it!

Iron Bear is 114 miles cycling, 26.2 miles running, and 2.4 miles swimming over a two month span.  This baby triathlon is a friendly competition put on by the college where I work and this is just my second year participating.  I think I am hooked.  I'd sign up again next year in a heartbeat.

--If for no other reason than that it makes/forces/encourages/inspires me to run.

(Or, really, let's be honest:  I jog.  What I do is probably too slow to be called running.)

I really want to want run.  It is like eating broccoli.  I know it is beneficial for me and over and over again I keep trying to get into it, to fall in love with it...but I just don't like it.  I really want to!  But I don't.  I've had spells where I thought, yeah, I could be a runner...I even got "runner's high" that one time...but, for me, running never lasts.  My running habits would be described as highly sporadic at best.  At least with IronBear I'd get one marathon in a year which, I figure, is better than nothing.

I accidentally ran a 5K one day though.  That was sorta cool and surprising.  I didn't know I could do that.  I had just set out to run from our house to Matt's brother's house (to meet them there)... and it turns out it was further than I thought.  The funny thing is:  I think it would have been harder if I'd know that in advance.  I didn't realize it was a 5K until afterwards.  I think I would have let the number scare me off from even trying if I'd been forewarned.  Mostly I run one or two miles, max.

The cycling portion is, as I said last year, a snap.  That is if the weather cooperates even a teensy bit.  My typical weekly commute is 23 miles a week which over the duration of the contest easily meets the goal.  As it is, since February was a winter wonderland (and I don't cycle in snow), I did have to step it up a little bit in March.  I cycled home for lunch with Ginger in addition to my regular commute.  This bumped it up quite a bit and I quickly made up the lost time.  I racked up almost 40 miles the third week of March alone.

Swimming I knocked out in five half-mile session.  I can swim a half-mile in about 30-40 minutes and swim laps over the lunch hour at our campus gym.  It is quite the workout, too.   Full body, great for the arms, and no sweat.  I love swimming all around--in any capacity.  Swimming laps isn't quite as radical as hitting a hot spring or lake of course, but still.  I love the water.  I always have.  I really enjoyed the camaraderie with the other noontime lap swimmers, too.  (Though my lack of eye glasses on the pool desk made it tricky to recognize people at first.)

Of the 27 participants there were 9 finishers.  I am pumped to count myself among them this year.

Photos are all sorts of yummy foods I enjoyed during March and April: Fancypants Stuffed pepper from The Grotto, green Ramen noodles for St. Patty's, Asian tofu bowl and elephant spice cake both from Kelly's Thailand BonVoyage Brunch,  Hemp sourdough artisan bread we got at the co-op in Bozeman on a daytrip, pineapple pilaf with toasted almonds, my current favorite homemade cheese which is (incredibly) made from potatoes and carrots, a loaf of Matt's beautiful homemade bread, The Parm on toast is another current non-dairy cheese obsession, a coconut squash soup with blueberries and herbs from The Grotto.