why is it that i was so obsessed with buying christmas cards for next year at 50% off? i found myself walking into all the stationery stores in two malls to see if i could find some worth buying. and the entire time, i kept thinking to myself, "why am i doing this? i don't want to go into another store." and yet, i kept going. why is that?
also, i was supposed to run today. did i? no. why? i made up some lame excuse about not having running tights. here's the thing: i have running tights. well, tomorrow is a new day... swimming.
there were only about 10 of us on the bike ride today, including 2 coaches and a mentor. 2 other riders from the la tri club joined us as well, and we did a route called mandevilla. we rode east on san vicente then up on 26th, across sunset and onto mandevilla ave. today's ride was almost all uphill. from the point we turned on mandevilla, it was entirely uphill. it never even leveled out at any point. it was a pretty tough ride, and we didn't even make it up to the top. we were told that mandevilla is 5 miles, all uphill.
about 3/4 of the way through the ride, i noticed that a bunch of my teammates were stopped in front of a house. i thought, "oh nice! this is the end of the ride." unfortunately, one of the la tri club riders got hit by a car on the ride. she got bounced because of a crack in the pavement, and she got clipped by the sideview mirror of a car that was driving by. she said she was ok, but that her tailbone hurt. so 911 was called, and she got put on a backboard for precautions. even though she's going to be fine, it was a really scary moment. because i really started noticing how close cars were driving by us. bikes have as much right to the road as cars do, but i'm pretty sure a majority of drivers don't know that. there was a car that drove within about a foot and a half of me as i was rolling down the hill. and i was going at a pretty good clip, too.
at the end of the ride, coach ian mentioned that we were going to do that ride again soon - and get all the way to the top, "so be mentally prepared." shya, ok. because that's all preparation i'm going to need.
so joel was watching terminator 3, and i can't remember ever being ashamed to live in california - until tonight watching our governor say, "desire is irrelevant. i'm a computer." and, "you are terminated."
i have a ride tomorrow. not sure how well i'm going to do, since the last training i did was on monday, swimming. i haven't run at all this week, and i have been eating like there's no tomorrow. i'll let you know how i fare.
since our house got broken into this past summer and a bunch of jerks stole all of our stuff, we didn't have any christmas music. so after church with joel's parents (which was the second time we'd been to church for christmas - we went to midnight mass with my family last night), we stopped at starbucks... and bought some. i forgot how much i love christmas songs, especially the charlie brown christmas special whose soundtrack starbuck was selling. i remember how much i used to revile starbucks for its ubiquitous presence in all aspects of urban life here, but today i thanked them for being open on christmas and giving me back something that was stolen from me this summer (even though it was overpriced).
lights, please.
"And there were in the same country shepherds, abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them! And they were so afraid... And the angel said unto them, "Fear not! For, behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all my people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ, the Lord."
"And this shall be a sign unto you: Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." And suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of the Heavenly Host praising God, and saying, "Glory to God in the Highest, and on Earth peace, and good will toward men."
"That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."
-Linus Van Pelt
so since i've been training for the triathlon, i've been learning some new things... such as the meaning of "circle swim." swimming at the community pool in westwood - which is a pretty nice pool - means that it tends to get a bit crowded. so it's normal for a lane to have 2-3 swimmers in it. when you have more than two people in a lane, it's customary to circle swim, meaning that the three (or more) people swim in a circle - down one lane and up the other. swimming pool etiquette dictates, if you swim faster than the person in front of you, you're supposed to tap her on the foot, so she knows to let you go in front of her once you get the wall. today my lane at one point had FIVE people in it. it was insane. and i was the fastest of the bunch. so i moved over to another lane - the "medium" speed lane where there were only two men swimming. one whom i see all the time and have named, "the slapper" because he slaps at the water as if it's caused him some kind of personal afront, and another dude that's pretty fast, too. so they're both faster than me, but not insanely faster, just faster. at one point the slapper just passed me up as we were nearing the wall. that pissed me off, and i think it's plain rude. there was no tapping on my foot, and we were close to the wall. he also kinda looks like dr. romano from e.r., he swims like he owns the pool, and he's an asshole. therefore, i think i'm renaming the slapper to "dr. romano"... dick.
8am. rode 6 miles then ran 3. i was ok for most of the day. right now though, i am wrecked. sleepy time.
oh yeah. remember my flash class? i got an A! :)
so i finally got back in the water today. i've had a cold for the past week, and i just couldn't bring myself to get out there to train. i didn't run. i didn't ride. i didn't swim. so i figured that i was going to die in the water. but to my surprise, i did ok. i did feel lightheaded at one point though. i guess that's to be expected when you're doing 4x100s in a set.
i have to say that've been really disappointed in myself though. i thought that i could at least get out there and walk or do something, but i didn't. i got lazy, and that's something that i can't afford to do. it just seems like there are so many other things that i need to be doing as well. i just can't seem to keep up.
btw, i finally saw pirates of the caribbean. i really enjoyed it, mostly because of johnny depp. my favorite part: in the beginning when he steps off his ship and directly onto the dock. comedy.
this weekend just flew by, and i should have spent way more time studying than i did shopping. how many christmas gifts did i buy? none. that's right. ugh! what kind of an idiot am i? i shopped almost all day today, bought no christmas gifts, and didn't study for my final that's on wednesday. talk about using my time wisely. i did however go on the run that i had been avoiding all day. i just got back. it's 11:15pm. do the math.
we had a yard sale today, and we made out pretty good. we had all this stuff that we had accumulated over the years since joel and i got married, and we sold a ton of it today. we actually cleared out an entire area the size of a closet that was packed with stuff that we never use. it amazes me that people were paying good money for what we considered junk.
we got up at 630a today. and we went to a party last night, and didn't get to bed until about 1a. and i had a ride today - that i was late for. i was lucky though because lily and greg were running late as well, so we three rode together. we went the same general route that the rest of the team rode - kind of. we got lost! and it turned out to be a really fun ride. we went down a residential street where we practiced drinking while riding. lily dropped her water bottle! so there was laughter all around.
i think i've taken the idea of recovery a little too seriously. i haven't been setting aside time for my training this week, so i have to scramble to find the time to get in some training. i fear that i'm becoming a little too lax with the schedule. hopefully i'll get back on track next week because we're going to start building again. and at last night's swim, koach konrad kept talking about piling on the yards soon. that freaked me out a little. we'll see how i fare....
here's last night's workout:
150 warm up
6x50 - skating drill down, freestyle back
4x50 - finger tip drill down, freestyle back
4x50 - stroke counting, one less on the return
6x25 - breathing pattern work. 1-3-1, 1-5-1, 2-3-2, (breath-stroke-breath)
total yards: 1000
so this flash class is really starting to weigh me down. it's almost 2 in the morning, and i just finished a part of my homework. that's right, part of my homework. i haven't even done the exercises that they did in the class that i missed last week. who has class the wednesday before thanksgiving? ridiculous. in the spirit of thanksgiving - thank god this class is almost over.
and, one more thing to be thankful for - thank god this week is a "rest" week for tnt. i only had to swim for 20 minutes today. but ali and i swam for 30 minutes. that's the good part. here's the crap: the showers were cold! i mean really cold. it was as if water from the refrigerator was coming out of the shower head. it was miserable. ali said that there was a rule in washington that a pool couldn't have customers if the showers were cold. something about being unsanitary. where the hell is that rule for california? what? are we cleaner because we live in california? au contraire. i know some really dirty californians.