Type A?

Studies have shown that a large percentage of triathletes are your typical Type A personalities. While I have an addictive personality; I am generally lazy, don't get wrapped up in my work, and am not nearly as competitive as most people I know in the sport.

But I will say that I'm definitely seeing some situational behaviors in myself that lend me to believe I certainly have some of the Type A traits underneath the surface, specifically in being impatient:

- Impatient with Weight Loss: I weighed 337 pounds on January 1st. As of this morning I'm sitting at 313, meaning I've lost 24 pounds since the beginning of the year. While that averages a little over 4 pounds a month, it's still not anywhere near what I'd hope to have lost by this point. Most of that has to do with a lack of control when it comes to my food intake. I do well for a while, then I hit a speed bump and have to spend a week recovering what I had lost. If I'd been consistent on this, I should be approaching at least 40 lbs lost right now. I'll be buckling down on this even more, especially with the honeymoon coming up and expectations of having to make hard food choices while still enjoying my first chance at European cuisine.

- Impatient with training situations: The weather here has been (pardon my french, I've been practicing) shitty. It rains almost every day. When it doesn't rain, it's humid to the point where you wish it would rain. I'm too big to be willing to risk riding in heavy rain or on extremely wet roads, but I risked it this weekend in order to get the long ride in with Sunny. And I CANNOT STAND the way the BU FitRec pool is run. They have a lifeguard shortage supposedly, and yet they have 4 different classes going on during open swim, taking up about 1/2 of the total lanes available, with a lifeguard or more per class. We wound up cutting our workout short by 200 yards because there were people joining our lane, which would have caused us to circle swim. Circle swim is sorta the literal opposite of a training swim because you can't get any rhythm or tempo to your swim.

- Competitive when I shouldn't be: So, now I find myself measuring my swim not against the clock every time, but also against Rachelle. She generally has better stamina than I do, though because she's short with short arms isn't necessarily the fastest swimmer. When I do outpace her, I don't rub it in or anything, but I feel like it's not the best way to be a supportive training partner and I need to work on that.

- The nagging little voice: Whenever I am tempted to skip a workout, or on days I've eaten a few more points than planned, the nagging little voice comes into my head telling me those points are going to show up on the scale in the morning, or that missed workout will show up in the next race. Some days it's a really helpful thing and has helped me keep the weight off on days when i couldn't resist desert. The problem comes in when I hear the voice on a scheduled off day that happens to be a good day for an outside workout. 

I guess in the end having a lot of these traits is probably what led me to this sport in the first place, even in the subconscious manner in which the direction I got here occurred. 

Notes:

- Last night we had 1500 yards on the schedule, and wound up with 1300 because of the crowded pool. I'm not bummed, because I was happy with my effort. Rach has been a little blue when it comes to her swimming because her times haven't increased as dramatically as she'd like. I keep telling her that she was already quick for her size and she's got all the stamina she'll need. She now just has to work on her stroke to really start seeing speed increases. 

- Tonights a 4 mile run and a 14 mile bike. After tomorrows workout, after tonight I start doing a little less each day until Fridays day off to prepare for Saturdays race.