8 Blocks Round Trip

Today I succumbed to the illness and called the doctor who called the pharmacy with a rx for one of those flu drugs.  Advil wasn't doing it and I WANT to go back to work (new job, what can I say). I called the pharmacy to arrange for delivery and was told that, yeah, no, they don't do that.

Initially I panicked.  Its 4 blocks there and (obviously) 4 back.  There is no parking near the pharmacy and, even if there was, my car is located 2 blocks away, making it not really worth it.  Everyone I knew was at work and wouldn't be home for several hours meaning I had to get there on my own.  By foot.  So I came up with a plan.  And seriously, I think I might have devoted more time to this than my average triathlon.

First:  Pre-pharmacy meal.  I had some left over rice and sweet and sour chicken from the thai place with a lot of water (yeah, I know that its a Friday during lent but I'm SICK).

Second:  Pharmacy-day outfit.  I opted for minimum makeup - just a bit of under eye goop to not alarm random people on the street.  T-shirt and sweatshirt that I've been wearing for the past 2 days (why mess with a good thing?), flex lined wind pants, sneakers, baseball hat (my hair it OUT OF CONTROL), big scarf, hooded jacket, gloves.

Third:  Pharmacy nutrition.  I put water in my bag.  Stuffed my pockets with tissues and ... sport beans in case of any lightheaded-ness along the way.  If you think I"m kidding, I'm not.  Not even a little bit.

And with that plan I made it.  4 blocks there and 4 block back.  And I achieved my goal ... to avoid a DNF.  And post-pharmacy?  I needed a 3 hour nap. Seriously.  This sucks.

8 blocks?  Last Thursday I ran for 1:15 after a long day of work and didn't even give it a second thought.  And today?  Today 8 blocks nearly did me in.  Do people recover from the flu?

Things I don't want to be when I grow up

1.  A water polo player.

2.  A mermaid.

Okay.  But why come to this realization now, you ask?  

Well, first, last Saturday my swimming workout called for 3,350 yards*, 600 of which were "head up swimming, aka water-polo swimming."  Doesn't sound too bad.  I mean many people out there swim with their heads up regularly and water polo players do it while trying to throw and catch and avoid getting the crap beat out of them.  Well, you want to know something?  These people?  They're on crack.  That stuff is SO hard.  Seriously.  I was huffing and puffing and not going very fast and had to talk myself into just ONE MORE FIFTY every single time.  But I did it and realized that yeah, water polo?  Not in my future.  And, I also realized that there is a little muscle or ligament or something in the back of your head where your head meets your neck, and water polo swimming makes it hurt1

Then, the next Monday (that would be two days after the epic Saturday swim, for those of you keeping track at home), my workout called for 300 yards of cross legged swimming.  This might not sound that hard (it didn't sound that hard to me ... could it really be that different than pulling) WELL let me tell you.  That shit is hard.  My legs were at a 90 degree angle to my body and I really thought I was just going to sink.  Straight down to the bottom of the pool.  It made me feel for those people (ahem, dave) that are prone to sinking.  It makes swimming a lot harder.  And with that I realized, that I'd be a really bad, BAD, mermaid.

*Potentially the furthest I've ever swim, and definitely the furthest I've gone since sometime in HS.  ROCKstar;)

I've got a fever ... and advil is like crack

Yeah, sadly not some sort of weird triathlon I can't stop working out fever but a full on flu, stuffy nose, chills, night sweats feeling like you might self combust fever.  And all I've got to say about that is advil/tylenol really is God's gift when it comes to situations like this.  I'll be approaching the four hour mark and feel myself heating up and getting sweaty, I'll pop a few pills and then wait a few minutes and start to cool off.  If I could stay awake long enough I'd probably be amazed at the science behind all this ... but, alas, I keep falling asleep.

Yeah, so this sucks.  I haven't been this sick since sometime in college and I guess I knew it was coming because EVERYONE around me at work is sick, but still I thought I could mind over matter it.  But apparently not.  And I'm going to be REALLY PISSED when I start to workout again and notice the de-provement (is that a word?).  Because I was doing SO WELL.

Arg, maybe at least I'll get a chance to catch up on some of those blog posts that are rattling around in my head.

Stay healthy kids.

Support

I swim at an engineering college.  I'm not sure that this is related to the fact that there are hardly every any boys I'd want to talk to at the pool.  But it might be. 

Tonight was different.

I shared my lane with a cutie.  Additional swimming pool perks were that he was wearing a bike shortish type bathing suit (no banana hammock) and had normal amounts of body hair (unlike the gorilla in the lane next to us).  He was super considerate ... he would go under the lane line to the next lane to get out of my way if he was resting when I was coming in for a flip ... and, since he appeared to be doing 50s on a 4 minute interval he was hanging out often when I came into flip.  I wondered why he was resting so much because he had decent (swimming) technique.  

After awhile, the gorilla got out and cutie moved over to that lane.  I took this opportunity to sneak some glances at cutie and I think I know why he was going so slow ... either he was excited to see me or those bike shortish type bathing suits have no support.  Because it was sticking straight out.  Not aerodynamic at all.  After seeing that, there was no way I could have talked to him (not that I could have said much in my ten, tiny, short second of rest).  I was afraid to stare or worse yet brush against his drag.

After 2500 yards and 3 beers ...

This is sort of how I feel.

I love this sport because of the people it connects. 

Goodnight.

Eastern Force Rep Promises

What?  Yeah, I don't know either.

At my new work, we're having an oscar pool.  This is fine and all but I haven't been to the movies since I was dating 1x.  Its sort of like a thing now, me and the movies.  As if I need more things.  I don't have the time, desire, person to come with me to see most of the nominated movies but ... some of them are on demand.  So I decided that I could watch some of them while I ride my bike. 

Brilliant, you say!  (right?)

Maybe.

I chose my first movie based on the fact that it, Eastern Promises, was only 100 minutes long.  I could watch the first 60 minutes, go to the gym for my run off, and come back and stretch and have a snack for the last 40 minutes.

Perfect.

Except the movie was largely subtitled and the rest was all spoken with a heavy eastern european accent.  And my schedule called for force reps ... and I had to watch the time and cadence and heart rate and I couldn't really focus on the subtitles or the eastern european accents.  And when I got back from my run and thought I might at least get the gist of what happened ... well, it was so gory I couldn't really get beyond the gore.  Some guy was in a parade (or a riot) and stopped to pee on a grave and some big dudes come over and slashed his throat ... basically beheaded him.  And then some other dude was getting the crap beat out of him in a sauna (?) and he was all naked with his parts flopping around while he tried to avoid the knife wielding guys that were trying to kill him (same guys from the cemetery??).

So, yeah.  I might just accept my cultural ignorance and stick to bad tv.

Oh, and force reps?  Don't believe them when they say they tax the legs not the heart rate.  Lies.  All lies!

Life is Good

Happiness is:

• Committing to a share house for the summer.  The beach!  New peeps!
• Feeling yourself get stronger.
• Seeing yourself get stronger.
• Liking your new job.
• Cooking dinner more often than not.
• Realizing the error in your taxes and that you're getting a lot more money back.
• Completing almost all of your workouts in a week.
• Not having to spend your Saturday in a stupid continuing education class.
• Getting a manicure and pedicure.
• Planning your run so that while you stop to get your heart rate in check, you can accomplish an errand.
• Sushi dinner with your sister.
• New tv shows!
• A good massage.
• Taking advantage of a warm spell to run outside.

Happiness is not:

• Completing all of your workouts in a week and worrying that you will be hungry for the rest of your life.  Unable to be full, ever.
• A good massage (ow!).
• Coming out of a good massage to realize the temperature has dropped 20 degrees and you are NOT dressed appropriately.