Week One Day One

Hi. It's Laura.

It’s been a long time (forever in technology days) but, unfortunately, shit happens.

After a rough January and February, March is off to a rocky start.

Where to to begin? December is probably the best place to start. The Saturday before Christmas, walking around the apartment in bare feet, I slammed my pinky toe into one the cubes in our living room. OOOH the pain!

We left for a week long ski trip the next morning. Although the pain was severe in regular shoes, I was able to put on ski boots and ski the entire week. Once we got back, a visit to the podiatrist proved the toe was broken. I was on strict orders: no running for at least six more weeks. Of all of the things that I like to do, running is on top of the list. Imagine my disappointment. I knew I had until the end of March before I had to start training for the triathlon so I was not overly concerned. There of course was the need to stay in shape and build cardio endurance without running.

I swam, I took spin class, I boxed and then, finally after six weeks, I was given the nod to start running again. I immediately signed up for a half marathon in April without a whole lot of thought as to my upcoming schedule. I figured I can run 13.1 no problem! I have done it before and I thought I would have plenty of time.

I did have the time until I looked at my calendar for March. The second week in March I was at a fitness conference in Las Vegas. Everyone says, Woo-Hoo Vegas. Uh,no. It did not work like that at all.

I flew into Vegas on Monday afternoon in order to get settled in and orientated to my environment. I have been to Las Vegas once before and that one was a hazy blur (tequila anyone?) So I thought it in my best interest to walk around and find everything before class starts at 7:30 AM on Tuesday.

I found everything I needed to find. I moved my dinner reservation up to 5:15PM since it was originally 6:45 but, being on East Coast time, I was never going to last that long. I ate at Gordon Ramsay Steak, (where is my expense account please?) had one glass of wine and tucked myself in at 7:00PM. It felt strange to be going to bed in Vegas of all places at 7 but it was 10 at home and I had an early start. I was exhausted and passed right out. I was well rested by 6:00 A.M.Pacific time (when is the last time you had 10 hours of sleep and slept through all of them?). As it turned out, I was going to need it.

Tuesday’s classes started at 7:30AM and ended at 7:30PM. When it was all said and done, I was a Schwinn certified spin instructor. It’s a lot like getting a driver's license. I have the license with no on road solo experience. That will change.

Wednesday and Thursday were pretty much the same. Workouts started at 6:45AM classes with workouts and workshops running all day with no scheduled break until 7:45pm. I was never so exhausted or in so much pain.

Red eye home Thursday night. You would think after all of that sleeping on the plane home would be easy. Nope. Perhaps because it’s not natural to sleep sitting up.

Home, Yay! I was grateful to be home, even for a short period of time. My time here was only 24 hours before we left for our ski vacation. This sounds great right? An intense conference for four days to be followed immediately by a ski vacation for one week. It was great but now I need rest!

Ski conditions started great (hard packed, blue bird skies) and then it snowed and snowed and snowed and snowed. We skied through it all which, if you have never skied or have never skied powder, is a lot of work. There was plenty of napping après ski. We could not have asked for better conditions for our ski vacation. Last year, we were gone the same week and we played golf but only because it was 85 degrees every day.

Now we are home and back to work and today is the first day of official triathlon training.

In my mind's eye, the day did not start the way I would have planned it. If I could have designed the day, it would be at least 10 degrees warmer and sunny with no threat of snow (I love snow in VT not so much in NYC). I would have had a better night’s sleep. Sadly, I tossed and turned. I was hot, I was cold, I had to pee and I was thirsty. Let's also add to the list, some girl stuff.

5:30AM time to move, first the dog, then me. The first workouts of the week are a 45 minute run and a 1500 meter swim. There is only one problem with that. The pool at the JCC is closed for its annual maintenance (Passover apparently is a good time to do pool work).

What to do? I could do nothing but I chose to row instead. Rowing utilizes a lot of the same muscles as swimming so I thought it would be the best option for me until the pool reopens next Wednesday. The run was good. A little windy but the park was empty and the temperature was not all that bad.

Overcoming so many obstacles on day one, I am taking as an omen that things can only get better from here.

Play hard!

Laura