Twice in the last 2 weeks, that’s precisely what’s gone thru my head, the instant I’ve woken up. Hardly the way one wants to wake up on a beautiful spring day.
I have missed 2 alarm clocks in my life. Pretty amazing considering I was getting up to an alarm 4-5 days per week for years (and years), waking at an un-Holy time to get to swim practice or to get my training in before getting to work at 6:30 AM. An awful lot of alarms set in my life, very few snooze buttons hit and even fewer alarm misfires.
The first missed alarm, I remember, was in college. It was spring time and we were on a schedule such that we’d run for an hour before the morning session. My roommate, Susan, also a swimmer, and I had both missed our alarm clocks. I remember waking to the sensation that someone was sitting on my bed; that someone was Richard Quick, Stanford Women’s Swimming Coach. We’d overslept and so Richard decided a great place to start the run would be past our dorm room. One heck of a way to wake up…..Richard at your bedside…..I vowed; never again!! He was singing some country song as a wake-up call; horribly off key, of course. The rest of our team peering thru the dorm room door. Didn't take long for us both to bound out of bed....if for no other reason than to make Richard stop singing.
The second time, I felt even worse. It was after I’d graduated from Stanford. I was back home, and working as an intern in New York for the Women’s Sports Foundation. I hadn’t decided what to do with my life really. I wanted to keep swimming, but post-collegiate swimmers weren’t exactly a dime a dozen back then. So while I was working in NY, I was still training with my old club team at the Berkeley Aquatic Club. Because of my work schedule, I’d swim every morning. The team didn’t train every morning, so my coach was coming in specially on a couple of days just for me. One day….I wasn’t there.
I’d woken up to the “Crap! Crap, crap, crap, crap, SUPER CRAP!” and before the age of cell phones (yes, I am THAT old), I tried to call the pool to apologize, and he wasn’t there. I had to catch the train to New York for work, so scramble, scramble, scramble. That was for sure, a bad hair day! (Right, Dede…blame your lack of style on insufficient primp time and not accept reality that it’s a pure lack of style that no amount of primp time would cure!!)
So 2 missed alarms in an entire career….and then in the last 2 weeks, 2 more. Don't know why. I'm using my cell phone as an alarm...it's worked in the past, so either I am sleeping like a bear in winter (which, given my 2 hour nap just now isn't far from the truth), or of all the things Droid Does...reliable alarm clocks isn't one of them.
It’s a lousy way to wake up; knowing you are supposed to be somewhere and knowing that you’ve missed it. Last week, my coach was understanding. This week, he was on a plane, so I haven’t told him yet, but I did go to CVS after hitting the pool on my own and hammering out 6,000 yards as punishment to make up for my stupidity, and made a valuable $12 investment.
It’s always good to have a back up! ...Make that a SUPER LOUD back up!
Yesterday was a valuable lesson in rolling with the punches.
It was somewhat random that my first week here in Austin was a “recovery week”; a chance for my body to absorb the last block of training. With only 21 hours of training planned, it also gave me a chance to get settled for the several weeks I will be here training.
The rest week was to be capped off with a half marathon effort yesterday. Or so I thought.
Months ago, I dug up a race I could do that would fit the bill. The Bearathon, reportedly, Texas’ toughest half marathon. The race started and finished on Baylor’s campus. Entry fee was cheap, and went to benefit their student scholarship fund. Equally cheap, the hotel I found for the night before the race, so all was good.
I got up Friday, had some light training, and headed the 90 minute or so drive north to Waco. I registered, and somewhat shocked the girl managing my registration that I’d come all the way from Massachusetts to race.
Back in the car, I drove the course and MAN….they weren’t joking. The first 3 miles were pretty flat, but then, it was like Boston Marathon’s heartbreak hill on steroids. My poor little rental car, heaving into overdrive going up and over the next 6 miles of terrain. At first, I thought “Oh, my freaking gosh” as my car struggled to make it up some of the hills. Then, I just started to laugh at the absurdity of the terrain. And finally, I thought instead of laughing, perhaps I should cry.
I checked into my cheap-o hotel. The check in woman, while very nice, was not the brightest bulb. The first room I checked into had a small refrigerator. Score!, I thought, only to find that it didn’t work. So I returned to the lobby and said, “The refrigerator in my room is broken.”
“Wha?” she said.
“I said the-refrigerator-in-my-room-is-broken. It doesn’t work. It’s warm.”
“You say the refrigerator in your room don’t work?”
“No,” I said. “It don’t.”
“Oh. Well try this one.”
So I went to the new room only to find it didn’t have a refrigerator at all. Didn’t seem worth explaining it all to desk clerk all over again, so I just settled in. I had about 6 hours before bedtime, and not a lot on the agenda.
Luckily, what the hotel lacked in refrigerator service, they made up for in pay-per-view movies. I tuned into “The Blind Side”. Predictable, but a heart-warming story and a good waste of a couple of hours and I actually forgot about the Everest-esque course that lay before me the following morning.
I woke on Saturday and immediately checked the Doppler. The forecast had NOT been good, and the Doppler confirmed. Not only was it going to be a brutal course, it was going to have to be done in brutal conditions. 38 degrees, 30 mph winds, rain, thunder, lightening. Perfect!
I got my pre-race breakfast down and headed over to the start line. There were huge lines in the gym for people both registering and picking up race chips. I was worried; with only 40 minutes to the start, I wondered if I’d make it thru the chip line in time. My line neighbor told me they’d postponed the start time by an hour, both for the weather and to make sure they got everyone processed.
At first, I was psyched……maybe the system would blow thru and we’d just have the brutal course to contend with an not the weather. But then I realized that my pre-race nutrition would be off by a full hour. Oh well…..no sense wasting time worrying over something that can’t be fixed now.
With chip in hand, I was shuttled over to the student center to wait it out.
In my head, I couldn’t really decide what I preferred…..to do the race in the most miserable conditions imaginable….or pray for lightening!
We’d been told that we’d roll at 9AM, but if there was lightening between 8:30 and 9, they’d have to cancel.
And so we waited.
I got chatting with a couple; both racers. The guy didn’t say much. The girl seemed most concerned as to whether we’d get our race t-shirt if they had to cancel. I, myself, was most concerned with thinking up ways that this race could be worse….let’s see; it could have been a full marathon, or it could have been an Ironman. It could have been a key race that I’d trained out of the ordinary to prepare for, like many of the racers that day. I could have lost a lot more money on entry fee and hotel. Yep, there were lots of ways things could have been worse, so running Texas’ toughest half marathon in the world’s worst conditions really wasn’t so bad afterall.
At 8:55, a race volunteer came into the student center;” NO RACE TODAY. Sorry. BUT WE WILL GIVE YOU YOUR FINISHER T-SHIRT IF YOU WANT IT. Just give us 10 minutes to set up.”
With zero interest in a race t-shirt, I started to bust a move out of there. With no race on the agenda, no doubt, coach Jesse would make full use of my now empty day, so I had to haul back to Austin to figure out just what he would have in store. As I fled the student union, my line neighbor yelled after me, “But you didn’t get your t-shirt!” “Don’t want it,” I yelled back. As I disappeared out the door, I heard her yelp, “Can I have yours?”
No time to deal.
Back to my cheap-o hotel with lousy refrigerators, but good pay-per-views, grabbed my stuff, and back on the road heading south.
A quick call with Jesse, and we had a new plan for the day; an ass-kick treadmill session first, then the rest of the day as planned; 2 hour ride, strength. The tready session would be as long as the half would have been and at higher quality, so Jesse was sure that we’d get the same benefit from it. 80 minutes of grunting, sweating and snotting all over the treadmill, I think he was right and while the day turned out nothing like I thought…..all was not lost.
When I quit my job exactly 5 years ago to the day (happy retirement anniversary to me!), one of my biggest concerns was, "what am I going to do with all my free time??" I mean, I imagined that there were only so many hours in a day that I could train....and what to do with all the rest of the hours of the day? HA! A LOT has happened in the last 5 years, but one thing is for sure....sitting on the couch eating bon bons, watching Oprah ain't one of 'em.
It's been a whirlwind few days to say the least.
Thursday started as a blur and ended like a tornado. For starters, I had to pack for 6 week trip, including my first race.
Then, I had to drop Riley off at the vet for surgery. My furry friend has some bad teeth. As such, she now has many fewer teeth than God intended. By my tally, 10 teeth yanked in the last 3 years. Now who could imagine that a face this pretty could have teeth rotting inside? My poor girl.
Adding to Thursday's madness, I had 5 hours of training to get thru; long swim, tabatas on the bike and hill bounding, strength...... Plus, I had to pick up new hot bike. (you sexy thing)
For those who can't see fully, that'd be a 2010 Kestrel Airfoil, complete with Shimano Pro aero bars, shimano wheels, John Cobb V-Flow Plus saddle, Fuel Belt saddle bag, Shimano pedals, shoes, SRM, and best of all? Di2 group. My bike is THE BOMB. 'Nuff said.
Anywho, Brian, my mechanic was frantically building my bike on Thursday so that I could get it home, pack it and be on a plane on Friday morning. So I camped out at the shop, chipping in where I could (I took the water bottle cages off the old bike....that's about the extent of my mechanical abilities) and offered moral support.
Got home with the bike, tried to be a good wife and enjoy dinner out with my hubby, but realized I am a lousy wife....or at least not a "normal" one, but realized I also have an exceptional husband who knows his wife isn't normal. So we scrapped dinner plans out and enjoyed some snacking on odds and ends while I ran around like a crazy person, packing up.
Friday arrived too soon, and instead of enjoying breakfast with my patient husband, instead, I dragged him to the pool for some "together time" over training. Had a quick run, then it was off to the airport for an 11am flight to Philly.
I got to hang out with my Kestrel friends, Chris, and of course, Sally (aka, Steve Harad). Typical bike sponsor stuff; a trip to Lowe's for lighting for the Kestrel booth at the expo, with a quick stopover in Target for a table cloth.....pretty heady stuff. No really....you try to corral a bunch of bike guys in a big mega-plex store full of bright colors and shiny objects. NOT EASY! Then, Sally nearly had me killed making a left turn for some petrols. Crazy Pennsylvania drivers. The good news is that Sally's truck would have kicked the 4-door sedan's ass, had there been physical contact. The bad news is that my right leg might have been a small casualty of the war. Other than nearly wetting myself out of fear of being squished like a bug (sorry Sally's custom leather seats), all was well, gas was procured, and we headed off to dinner.
During dinner, Sally enjoyed a Sally-special and was the recipient of appropriate amounts of teasing, not only from me (that's a given) but from Chris, and our waiter to boot. Sorry, Sally....if the shoe fits.....Let's be honest....it screams "chick drink". Seriously....Google "Chick Drink"....you tell me what happens! <
Wonderful turnout at the Philadelphia Endurance Sports Expo. I managed to get thru my speaking gig without throwing up from nerves. People laughed politely and at the appropriate times.....of course Sally holding the "applause" sign up when cued helped some too.
Then it was off to the airport again. Flight delays, luggage delays; your staples of traveling in this day and age, and I finally made it to my homestay in Austin and was tucked in a bit past midnight.
Whew.
Rolled straight into a 5 hour training day on Sunday, 8 hours at the office on Monday. Stop the world....I want to get off!! Good times, though. No.....great times!
As we head into the start of the competition season, I am struck, every year, by how hard it is to remember how to pack. Ever realize how packing for a race or a training camp takes almost as long as the race or the camp itself? The amount of crap we, as triathletes lug around the world? It’s staggering. It makes me long for the good ‘ol days of “suit, cap, goggles, towel”…...good to go. Aaaah, simpler times. Now, as a triathlete, the packing list reads like something just short of “War and Peace” and even then, you always forget something.
Well, I hereby promise to never complain again about how my luggage weighs more than I do. I got a post from an old high school friend who is preparing to climb Mt. Everest. And I thought I was nuts. Jamie and I went to high school together. We didn’t know each other really well, and had not kept in touch since high school, but thru the crazy world of Facebook, we reconnected and I’ve been fascinated with Jamie (I guess he’s “James” now)’s journey every since.
Jamie has climbed every major summit, and up next is the big one; Everest. In his most recent post, Jamie outlined what it’s like to pack to climb the world’s tallest peak and it makes my triathlon gear bag look like a wussy little fanny pack!
Here is Jamie’s post:
"I have spent the last 3 days under piles of equipment and expedition clothes making sure I have not missed anything. As I will be flying Emirates and Jet Air to Kathmandu, I know that the 31 Kilo limit will certainly be exceeded, so I have been working to ship a barrel to Kathmandu airport ...
Today it will leave--- exciting! Its a long list of things, totalling 42 Kilos and value is probably in excess of $3000.
So here is the list:
Down Jackets (2)
Down Pants (2 pair)
Dark Star -40 degree sleeping bag
Ice Axe
Crampons (2 pair)
Various ropes (prussiks, slings)
Harness
Carabiniers (5 locking gate, 3 non-lockers) Jumars (One left handed, One right handed) Thermarest Down Booties
3 insulated Nalgene Bottles (Filled with Power Bar Energy Drink Mix) Regulator & Mask from the 2005 expedition Gels & Power Bars (Power Bar & Cliff Bars)--- donated by Great Outdoor Provision Company Pack Towel Light Polypro underwear --- donated by Great Outdoor Provision Company Socks ( 8 pair thick, 5 pair wicking light layer) Fleece gloves (3 pair) Fleece Jacket Fleece Pants Goretex Top & Bottom Medium weight underwear (2 pair) Julbo Glacier Glasses (2 pair) Mittens, Hats, Balaclavas
2 Expedition Duffels
1 90 Liter Backpack
1 50 Liter Backpack
1 Basecamp tent --- donated by Great Outdoor Provision Company Solar cell--- charging batteries, cameras, and computer Stove Lantern Everest Millet Boots La Sportiva Trekking Boots One down Yeti sleeping bag -30 degrees
Electronics- Computer, Camera, Videocameras (2), Headlamps (2), GPS I will buy a base camp/ ABC Mattress in KTM ...
In total, all the equipment weight is 60 kilos...but I am only shipping 42 kilos.”
Right then. So if nothing else, I have learned that there is a sport that is more gear intensive than triathlon. That makes me feel better as I begin the packing process for my training camp which will include my first race! Leaving in a week. Tickety tock!
For more on Jamie’s progress, you can follow him at http://www.jamesdewittwilde.com/ and what’s more cool, you can support Jamie’s foundation, The Wilde Foundation which supports Global H2O, http://www.globalh2o.org/, a Clean Water Intiiative….because Jamie doesn’t have enough to worry about climbing Mt. Everest, he’s trying to use his expedition to bring clean water to the world.
I got to hang out with my Kestrel friends, Chris, and of course, Sally (aka, Steve Harad). Typical bike sponsor stuff; a trip to Lowe's for lighting for the Kestrel booth at the expo, with a quick stopover in Target for a table cloth.....pretty heady stuff. No really....you try to corral a bunch of bike guys in a big mega-plex store full of bright colors and shiny objects. NOT EASY! Then, Sally nearly had me killed making a left turn for some petrols. Crazy Pennsylvania drivers. The good news is that Sally's truck would have kicked the 4-door sedan's ass, had there been physical contact. The bad news is that my right leg might have been a small casualty of the war. Other than nearly wetting myself out of fear of being squished like a bug (sorry Sally's custom leather seats), all was well, gas was procured, and we headed off to dinner.
During dinner, Sally enjoyed a Sally-special and was the recipient of appropriate amounts of teasing, not only from me (that's a given) but from Chris, and our waiter to boot. Sorry, Sally....if the shoe fits.....Let's be honest....it screams "chick drink". Seriously....Google "Chick Drink"....you tell me what happens! <