Sunday, April 19, 2009

Fits and Starts

A few weeks ago I opted to back off on my running 1. to give my body a break, and 2. to taper for the Dorchester half marathon. The race follows the Eagleman run course so it would be a good opportunity to check out if I want to do Eagleman on a charity slot.

I did not plan on it pouring enough to float an ark on. Dorchester is a good hour and a half away, from both here and really anything (sorry Dorchester, but seriously).
Driving 1.5 hours in the pouring rain to run 2.5 hours in the rain then drive 1.5 hours back in the pouring rain sounded … not fun. And like a good opportunity to get bronchitis to go with my tonsilitis.
I chose French toast instead.

This week was filled with an emotional rollercoaster and not enough ice cream. I did actually buy the single serve kind this time so if I want to eat 500 of ice cream in one serving I at least have to run the stairs a few times. Drama at work and the potential for having to job search made me a little crazy.

Saturday was the tri club bricknic and I was sorry to miss it, but personal life won this round. I had intentions of running the Clyde’s 10K this morning, but the impending emotional meltdown hit and I spent the morning watching 90210 instead.

Eventually I’ll get around to running so I can keep my sanity.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

You’ll go blind!

If I had a dollar for every time I heard that.

Friday I had my second swim lesson, where I learned that having boobs does not in fact help you breast stroke. Kind of gets in the way, actually. I also learned that breaststroke seems to make my goggles leak more than freestyle, and I almost lost my right contact once.

I struggled with said contact all weekend. Sunday I got annoyed and threw it away, the left one got to stay in.

Monday, I put a new contact in, but something wasn’t quite right. Left side, fine. Right side, kind of fuzzy. Double checked the prescription, it was the same as the other one. I managed to drive to work. Threw it away in case it was just a weird one. New contact not better. Tried it in other eye, right eye still weird. I lived with the funky vision for about an hour before I gave in and called the eye doctor. Dealing with it gave me the worst headache all day.

Woke up today and my vision was fine, but I was overdue for my eye appointment anyways. Somehow I remembered not to put on mascara. Mentioned to technician that I’m swimming. I was chastised for not bringing glasses, and then again for not owning glasses. My job has vision benefits but good luck trying to get a claim filled.

A few drops in the eyes to make me look like a blinky Anime character and then back to the waiting room. Meanwhile, inexplicably, the fire alarm went off. The fire department showed up with two trucks and everything. According to the old ladies in the waiting room, the firemen (they were all men) were hot. I can’t vouch for this since my pupils were the size of dinner plates, but I have it on good authority.

Then I got to see the doctor where I was told that wearing my contact overnight was bad, and I needed to get glasses and clean my contacts overnight. Then he recommended that I not wear my contacts while swimming and that contacts are like sponges that soak up all the nastiness and hold it next to your eye. He gave me a prescription which I was supposed to use to get prescription goggles, which I planned on getting filled the 10th of Never. I must have had the "I’m totally feeding these lima beans to the dog the second your back is turned" look, because then I got a prescription for daily disposable contacts to wear while swimming. He also said something about increasing my chances of getting a corneal infection by like 20 times, but by that point I was thinking about cupcakes.

Opening Day

Crew started today.
I didn’t get up at 4am.
I didn’t drive to the boathouse.
I didn’t watch a 20 year old safety video from when they still had wooden paddles that could be used for flotation devices.
I didn’t take an erg test.
I didn’t Simple Green the boat.
I didn’t do all these things before dawn.

Because I’m not rowing this year.

I knew rowing for my own team (snicker) would be a bridge too far.
Annapolis has a Sunday recreational rowing program I considered, but they had a weird volunteer requirement and I like my lazy Sundays.

I’m already thinking next year will be a crew year with triathlon taking the background.

Maybe.

I came, I swam, I conquered

I finally accepted that I am not going to be capable of swimming the IM swim leg unless I get serious help. So I signed up for an endurance lap swimming class through Parks and Recreation.

No, my swim instructor is not Amy Poehler. Although that would be awesome.

The first night there was only one other girl there, did I mention my class is at 8pm on Friday nights? I always forget that while I suck at swimming by competitive standards, I’m actually decent compared to the average American. It was nice for once not to be the worst person in the pool. And it was really, really nice to be able to comfortably complete the drills.

The other girl was really nice and I like her a lot, and the coach is really cool. He told me to kick more and harder which was interesting since my last swim coach told me kicking was essentially a waste of energy. The new coach also taught me this bobbing bubble thing which might be my new favorite thing to do in the pool.

After every lap I’m supposed to bob underwater and blow all the air out, repeating ten times. It gets rid of that tightness in your chest when you don’t breathe completely and properly the way I don’t.

While we were having our lesson the high school(?) synchronized swim team was practicing. It was bizarre and fascinating. All in all an interesting way to spend a Friday night.