So I made it home from Brazil. Sounds simple enough. All you gotta do is sit on a plane, right?

Not when traveling with “The Travel Gods Must Hate You Griesbauer”.

Somehow my travel plans called for a 10 hour layover in the Sao Paulo airport. Clearly my travel agent (me) wasn’t thinking when I booked these tickets. Still, facing a 10 hour layover, I was armed with the most valuable asset a traveler could have; an Admiral’s Club Membership!

Prior to my trip, I’d consulted with Admiral’s Club staff (both the customer service call in center, and in person at the Miami club on my outbound flight…..I’m anal that way – like to double check EVERYthing. Not proud…..just sayin’….) Because the Admiral’s Club is on the other side of security, and because the American Airlines employees don’t get to the check-in counter until 4PM, I needed to figure out how to pass security so that I could sit in the far comfier Admiral’s Club, complete with free wireless, and more importantly, free food and drink! Both my sources confirmed; so long as I had pre-printed my boarding pass, I’d be fine to clear security and relax in relative tranquility.

Pre-printing a boarding pass seemed easy enough, but because the travel gods hate me, our hotel had no internet access the last 24 hours I was there, so I dragged my new favorite friends, Justin and Jason, to an internet café at 11:30 PM (I wasn’t real thrilled to be wandering out alone that late at night) to procure said boarding pass.

So with boarding pass in hand, I could nearly taste the delightful little finger sandwiches they serve in the Admiral’s Club. I was off the core for the week, so for once, I was anticipating getting to eat what looked good, instead of laboring over the CHO content and how eating whatever I was contemplating eating would throw my numbers for the week.

And as quickly as I could say “finger sandwich”, my plan was thwarted. The security guard looked at my boarding pass and started saying in Portuguese, “No free food and drink for you.” At least that’s what it sounded like to me.

I was turned away. I went to the AA ticket counter and was met by the most rude woman I think I have ever met in my life. I explained my situation to her and despite the huge sign in the ticket office that said “Admiral’s Club; available all day”, I was made to understand that what the sign really meant was “Available all day, but here in Brazil, “all day” means only after 4PM, so despite the fact that you've paid a hefty membership fee to utilize this service, it's a service we are going to provide you access to only sporadically, even though we've told you otherwise, so settle in, sweetheart. You are stuck in the plastic chairs, without internet access, and there’s a McDonnalds in terminal 2”.

Right then.

I was pissed. And I sent a strongly worded email to the Admiral’s Club (for which I paid nearly $10USD for internet access in an internet café). That didn’t make me feel that much better, so I wandered to McDonnalds and had a McFlurry and that helped soothe the beast a little.

I did ultimately make it home, after some 27 hours of travel. My bike arrived after some 33 hours of travel.

My “down week” which wasn’t “down” as in sad or bad, but down in terms of training which means not off, but light, was busy. Wednesday, I took a nap and did laundry. Thursday, I re-assembled my bike, did more laundry, and in general, got stuff put away. By Friday, I was on the road again; off to the Rev3 Quassy race where I’d been invited to do live commentary on the women’s pro race.

The travel gods kicked in again in Connecticut, as when I arrived, I found that I didn’t have a hotel room. “Clerical error”. I wasn’t on the list, and was told there were no rooms, when in fact, there were 9 available. While I was slightly panicked, as after calls to 6 other hotels, I was still shut out, I tried to look on the bright side; at least I could speak the language. Getting out of a travel pinch when you are fluent in the language you are trying to speak is loads easier than when you can’t speak or understand what is being spoken to you.

In the end, the travel gods took pity and I found an available room in a hotel that was a mere 3 miles from the race site. Happy day!

The Rev3 race was fun; though I learned I much prefer being a part of the action and not describing the action!
And before I knew it, it was Monday; back on the core (no more McFlurry), back to a full training load. In honor of day 1, I was greeted with 5 x 800 in the pool on Monday morning.

It’s amazing to me how quickly it feels like the fitness disappears. When a mere week before, I clobbered the swim course in Brazil with complete easy, yet during my 5 x 800 main set, I got suddenly panicky after 3, looking nervously about the pool deck for a life guard.

Day 1 got a little worse when I headed back to the gym to start our heavy lifting phase all over again. The 3rd exercise on the list? 3 x 3 chin ups. Or in my case, 1 chin up, and then the hang. Oy. A wake up call that we are firmly back at square one!

But after day 1, there is a day 2. And while day 2 has met me with a soreness from day 1, rendering me near useless, I have to laugh (well, not really, because my abs are so sore, it hurts to laugh)….we have to start somewhere! And it’s all about the journey!