Sick and bored

I hate being sick. I hate being laid up, not being able to do anything. I like being able to do stuff. I really hate not being able to train. I'm usually against taking drugs, too but I am because I'm miserable. I was doing really good this year, too. I haven't been sick in several months. Last year I was sick about every two months. I think it was because of stress/gluten/trying too hard, and I've had a lot of down time compared to how hard I was working this time last year. I'm actually getting enough sleep for the first time since, well, middle school I think. I'm really not sure it's going to be worth going to Chicago tomorrow if I can hardly move. It's actually getting to the point where I want to go to a doctor and find out what I have and see if I can get something for it. I hate being sick!

I feel awful and it's mostly my own fault!

I felt something coming on yesterday. You know, the feeling you get when your throat just isn't right and it's scratchy and I totally kept blaming it on something at work. I work in what amounts to a chemistry garage. A huge rented garage that a very small ( I mean like 4 employees, total) research type company works from. Oh, and it's run by a Russian. Not dissing on Russians or anything, just saying. Most days I'm one of three people there and I'm the only American (and, well, girl) to top it off. But I kept blaming my scratchy throat on something that they were working on and kept opening the large garage door a bit to get some fresh air. Which didn't help, but I did it anyways. I'm not much a fan of working with stuff that might screw up my lungs, even if it's "diluted in the large space." Don't care. There's not much of a breeze and I'm basically paranoid.

So I rode to the pool to do my usual swim, figuring that in case I did have something coming on that I would take it easy and get something done, but slow and easy. You know, to help loosen up and not to make myself sicker. That's where I failed. Big time. I walked into the pool and Steve, the swimmer I met a few Tuesdays ago said hi, invited me to come swim with the Master's team there and since I clearly cannot pass up a social workout opportunity, I did. Had a great workout too. I was keeping paces that I don't remember ever keeping. Which is a stellar sign for my swim for this year. However the problem was that a lot of it was sprint sets, and that's like the exact opposite of what I shoulda done. But I was having fun (and swimming circles around a couple guys, which I love doing hehe). After I got out of the pool, I knew I really screwed up. Went home, ate, and went to bed. Woke up with a fever. Can't move today, can hardly breathe my throat hurts so bad, and I can't decide if I'm going to be better enough to go to Chicago on Friday. I barely have a voice. I really wanted to go to Chicago. I'm going to have to wait and see how I feel tomorrow, I guess. Until the fever breaks, all bets are off, right?

I applied for yet another job yesterday. Because although where I'm working isn't bad (and pays pretty well) it's technically only a 6 month gig because he works from US Government research grants. Which means that as soon as something more permanent comes along, I'm outta there. The place I applied to is a bike shop, the only real-looking shop in town, actually. They need someone for their women's section, and while I'm no bike savant, I certainly know what it's like to be a girl and a cyclist/triathlete. And I can fix a flat, tune a bike, etc. It sounded promising yesterday talking to the guy there, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this one doesn't go haywire like the chiro gig did (the chiro called me in to "test run," then never returned my calls, only giving me answers when I went in and asked, saying I was 'too over qualified'). Could happen again. But I hope not. Ultimately I think I would enjoy a bike shop gig. We shall see.

It's been one of those days

I hate the days that never seem to go right. Nothing went wrong, per se, but nothing really went right. I guess it started yesterday. I had an awful long ride because I bonked. Again. And then I had to change the oil in my car. Ok, not that hard, right? Well, no, it's not. But it was the first time I'd done it on my own so there was a bit of a learning curve mostly in trying to find the stupid drain bolt from the oil pan. Found it after a few phone calls to dad and a good let's-laugh-at-aubrey session from my sister and brother-in-law. Then this morning I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed, I guess. Went to work and had to deal with a typically very nice turned completely obnoxious boss who felt it necessary to hover over what I was doing, demand different parameters that wouldn't work, distract me from the program that needed to be changed because of a slight interference, and thus accidentally bend a perfectly brand new nozzle. Which really pissed me off. I hate breaking things. I hate being given ambiguous projects, too, which seemed to be the idea of the day. Do you want me to do THIS or THIS??? Pretty simple answer, no? I guess not.

Then, to top it all off I called my grandpa who's in the hospital following a heart attack. He's very sick, he's had cancer for a number of years now and the latest round of chemo is taking its toll (when previous rounds had seemed to have been no problem for him). It's not sounding good.

On a more positive note, the weather is going to be warm tomorrow and I'm going to be able to bike to work without having to worry too much about ice. And there's a bike shop in town looking for a women's dept person that I'm going to go talk to to see if that might work out better than where I'm at now. That would be nice because I have wanted to do bike stuff for a long time now.

And I got some lovely flowers for Valentine's Day. That makes everything better, too :)

Back home, freezing my ass off again!

Actually when I got home the weather was only a little bit colder than NM and I managed to get a super awesome (and ambitious) ride of approximately 65 miles in a couple of Sundays ago (like not yesterday but the one before that). I say approximately because I don't have a computer on that particular bike and estimated how far I went after the fact. I did, however keep track of the time it took, and it was about 4 hours 45 minutes. Stellar. I mean, slow. Ok whatever. I don't care because it's all base miles and it's flat, which SUCKS. I don't share the opinion of most people that hills suck because I actually like them because I can go harder, then rest on the way down. It's nice. Plus, I'm a pretty good climber. On long climbs I can destroy big men that own me on the flats. Just saying.

I have been accepted onto the Well Fit Elite Team (well, technically the "Development" team because I don't live in Chicago and can't make 2-4 practices a week when I live 2 hours away so I got downgraded just a little bit but for most intents and purposes it's the same). What that means though is that I have people to train with who are just as serious (I was going to say crazy....well you know what I mean) as I am! That's awesome. And theoretically people to travel with and stay with to races/training/camps/whatever.

Yesterday was a great end to a recovery week: 20 minute bike to the gym, 45 minutes weights routine (from which I can barely walk today), 35 minute easy swim to make 2200 yards, bike 20 minutes home, spin on the trainer for 1:30, then run for 15 minutes. All without much of a break. Yay for brick days! Didn't feel all that bad. At all, actually.

Starting to really look forward to racing. This year's gonna be good!

Oh Green Chile How I've Missed You!!!

If you meet anyone from New Mexico and they have spent any amount of time outside of the state, and ask them what they miss the most, 99.99999% of the time the first thing they will say is the chile(unless you're my brother-in-law, in which case you're just weird). New Mexico chile isn't like getting a regular poblano pepper or jalapeno pepper (though those are spicy and can fill the bill in a pinch) it's got a distinct flavor that makes it unique and addicting. If you can take the heat, that is. My aunt from Florida can't take the slightest heat, and there's something about the tolerance for heat that makes it better; if you can't taste it through the heat, it doesn't taste like anything. But the heat is what makes chile, chile. It's a daily part of the diet in New Mexico. I've had it in jam, apple pie, cheeseburgers, burritos (claro!), coffee, beer...yes, beer...and just about everything else. Pizza, too. It's just what you EAT here. Fast food places offer green chile as a topping. So I'm back here for a week, and I've just about finished a jar of green chile that is more than a liter. Granted, some of that went into enchiladas, but I'm dumping it on whatever by the glob. I had some red chile sauce that I made in Illinois from powder, and it was good, but the green stuff is juicier. It's not dried first like the red. I'm going to have to figure out a way to get some green stuff home...

So happy belated holidays...

I can't believe it's been a month since I've updated. Sorry. That totally doesn't jive with what my pledge to myself was some time ago, to update almost every day. Oh well. Truth is through December I was working full-time (which is hard when you're trying to train, and function). I need more sleep than is possible when training a lot and working full-time. It's hard. BUUUTTTTT good news is that I got a new job. It's not 100% perfect, but it's a ton better. I have the flexibility to work 6 hours a day (which is just perfect to fit in training and food and sleep and a little down time). But the catch is that it's a chemistry lab and the safety to me seems a bit questionable...gonna keep looking for a different job, but it's a huge step up from what I was doing before. Which was grading standardized kindergartner tests. Painful, painful days when that's done for 8 hours.
The holidays were great. Went to Calgary which was fun. Came home shortly before New Year's Eve to near 60 degree temps. Strange, and ALL the snow melted in a rainstorm. Go figure. Not that I was complaining or anything since I could bike outside for a short period again, but still was strange. I'm used to the snow melting in a day, and usually the same day that it fell. Not all 8 inches in a night a month after it fell.

And then, Monday January 3rd my niece was born. I still haven't met her yet, that's this Saturday. I get to go home to meet the newest addition to my family. Kudos to my sis to making it through a tough labor. I'm so excited to meet her!

And on a side note, I rode to work Monday thru Friday last week! Every day last week! Never mind that I haven't ridden this week. I needed my usual day off this week, and then it snowed. Boo to snow. I probably wouldn't mind if I could actually PLAY in the snow, but this town isn't conducive to anything of that sort of fun. Boo to this town. Can't wait to go home for a visit (and a ride or two).

When three is just too much

Sometimes I think to myself, gee, life would be easier if I just chose one sport and decided to work at that one and get good at that one, whichever that one may be. I wouldn't have to split my time between three sports and be running around all the time trying to get to the pool on my bike (which hasn't happened more than once since I've started working) and for that matter, I would have a lot less crap to carry. 1/3 the crap, to be exact.

But no, that would make life boring, I guess. It would be easier though if it wasn't scary to me to ride my bike when the roads are icy. Then I could get it all in and use bike commuting as a workout, too. But no. I'm either a chicken or smart and don't think it's a good idea to ride on icy roads with cars that may or may not be in control of themselves. It's not me I'm worried about. So I'll drive and make my own time all that much less and get myself sick by trying to do too much.

So I'm spending the day in bed today because I got myself sick because I wore myself out and people at work come and cough on me. Oh well, at least I can listen to music at home.