Of Moose And Men
The Best Laid Plans Of Both Often Go Astray

All in all a very good Thanksgiving day. Was nice and quiet for most of it. The store this morning was uncrowded and uncharacteristically quick to get out of. The cooking went well, and I took the better of the two batches of cupcakes with me (made 2 dozen). Unfortunately I’ve broken a ring on my icing piper, so it was slathered on by spreader rather than piped nicely, but they did fine.

Side note: I really, really want to make the margarita cupcakes I found in the cookbook while flipping back to the buttercreme frosting recipe.

The dinner itself was fantastic. I took a zucchini risotto as well as the cupcakes (the mushroom selection stunk, so zucchini it was). The bird came out perfect, which the host was rightly proud of. He also thoughtfully saved me a batch of potatoes sans butter/milk, which was much appreciated. The other selections were equally tasty, with lots of good vegetables.

Some Wii was played, and I set Jon’s Wii up (he hadn’t played with it since he’d moved – in June). Next thing you know he’s going to be getting messages via the Wii from a certain someone who will have him registered here shortly. Bwhahahaha. We did warn him what the blinky blue light on the front means now, too.

Got the kitchen cleaned up just now after getting home, so no mess in the morning. Off work early tomorrow, and will plan to stop by the gym after that, swim, and hand in my receipt for the new shoes & lock. Wonder how they’ll do the credit.

Got the news that early registration for the Nation’s Tri opened for DC Tri Club folks, so signed up for that tonight. Hopefully with the stretching I’ve started doing on my feet will keep the PF under control, and keep it from recurring, and I’ll be able to do the race this time around.

Caught up on bills today, and worked through a backlog of mail and magazines (mostly by just tossing the unread magazines since it was highly unlikely I’d actually read the back issues now). Cleaned some in the process, clearing off the couch and the dining table for the first time in a while. Unboxed the new oven and microwave, in hopes the maintenance folks will be able to get to them this week or next (and in any case they look better without the huge boxes around them now), provided we can connect on the phone soon. And actually did some work (for the BGA) today as well.

Otherwise the day was pretty blue for me. Today was the Nation’s Triathlon, which was to be my last race this season, and what I hoped would be the capping race to what started out as a pretty good darned season. As it was, I couldn’t even bring myself to go down to watch it, or do any of the club events surrounding the event. The fact that I can’t run has weighed very heavily on me this year, and it’s not been pretty, nor very easy to deal with. I miss it, a lot. I didn’t realize how much it affected my entire being to be able to get out and just run. The fact that the lack of running has been the fault of fairly consistent pain in my right foot (which just brings the fact to the fore on a daily basis) contributes to this, I’m sure.

The foot’s actually been more sore, which the aftercare guidelines says is normal for the first couple of weeks after the zapping. Hopefully it’ll get better as I get closer to the follow-up appointment on the 3rd, I’m really getting tired of having pain when I get up in the morning and take that first step (or if I end up walking a bit too much during the day, which is pretty much every day for me).

Anyway, what will happen will happen, and I’ll keep working with the podiatrist until the foot’s back to normal, but in the meantime I’m not much motivated for tri stuff.

Oh, and I finally withdrew formally from the IM race in November, too, so I can get the minimal refund they’ll send for it. Much sadness there, I really wanted to finally do one of those and I thought this was going to be the year for it. Guess not.

Headed off to the New Jersey State Triathlon this weekend to see my newbies in their first race. It’s been a good program this year, and a great group of participants. The trash talking on the club forum has been hysterical to read, and I hope they carry it over into the main forum as well – we could use more friendly competition there.

I’ll be doing what I did last year – taking lots of pictures. This time I have extra batteries, so I shouldn’t run out of juice before it’s over. Looking forward to race day, and also looking forward to the end of the heavy volunteer duties (until next year).

Started training again this morning, after a two week mostly-break. Was hot as all get-out, but got through it. My next race is in 4 weeks, in Luray Virginia (pronounced “LOO-ray,” not “luh-ray” as you might think), another olympic race, so I have to get prepped for that. Remind me not to take an exercise break after my next breakup, it’s not worth it, even if I am feeling blue.

In other news regarding the breakup, I seem to have gotten some of my tolerance back. Not that this is necessarily a good thing, but it is nice not being completely worthless after having drinks.

I’ve finally managed to break out of some of the isolation I’ve had especially in this two week period, but also to a degree since having moved down to southwest. I’m trying to be more active about getting myself out of the apartment and around folks, and spent a good part of the weekend doing just that. And that’s been fun. I’m not quite sure how I’m going to work in training for all three sports in the tri, but I’ll muddle through somehow. In the meantime, I’m enjoying getting out of the house more, and look forward to more of this.

Running a little slow this morning. Last night was one of those “my brain will not shut off” kind of nights, with melatonin and exhaustion finally kicking in around 3-something. It wasn’t all a bad thing – the brain was going over some conversations I’ve had over the course of the weekend, and thinking a lot on what it is I want to be doing with myself, and with other people.

I did miss going out to take photos of the training tri this morning with the club, but I’m headed out to brunch at a friend’s house in a little bit, then a potluck birthday thing this evening over in Virginia with one of my body electric buddies.

I did decide that I’m not going to do the IM this fall. It’s not to say that I won’t ever do one, but it’s not the right time, and I think I signed up for it for the wrong reasons. I still have two races I’m currently signed up for, and I can find one or two more for the fall here locally. And perhaps this year I won’t end the season completely burnt out and unmotivated to do off-season fitness maintenance.

I also think I’m going to attend the local Celebrate the Body Erotic course in November. I need the refresher, and I’d like to go back to an earlier plan of mine, to attend one of the week-long intensives next summer. I also need the renewal of my ties to this particular community. I’ve been disengaged from the energies I need for long enough now, it’s time to get them back.

I think I finally pinned down what it is I’ve been feeling for the past day or so, and that’s lost. Something I considered an anchor (though whether I clung to that anchor for the right reasons is a whole other story) is gone, and I’m doing the usual soul-searching that comes from such an upheaval.

And it’s not particularly fun.

This on the heels of just having had a “what do you want to do with your life” talk with my supervisor, going over advancement possibilities, and thinking about what else I might want to do with my career. I’m fairly happy with my job, though I will admit these days to being somewhat bored with it, too. Same old issues, same old fights, and in some ways a new crew of managers coming in (not in my office, but in others I deal with) who are not quite as pleasant to work with as the ones I deal with daily now. Do I want to stick with that? But what else would I do? So frustrating.

It doesn’t help me that I’m horrible at cultivating a support network. I don’t reach out to folks as I might, and I don’t really go outside myself when dealing with a problem (save for venting here). “My problems are my problems,” my little brain says to me, “and they’re for me to deal with, alone, until they’re taken care of.” And that’s not always the best solution. In fact, it’s probably rarely the best solution. I work, maybe I go exercise, I come home, I veg, I maybe chat online, but that’s it. And I don’t think that’s enough for me.

I’m also very seriously reconsidering the IM in November. My parents are iffy, because Dad’s going to have some surgery around then and so they don’t know if they’ll be able to travel out. BC won’t be coming, obviously. And frankly, the idea of going out there for a week and coming across that finish line for something that big with no one there to greet me, celebrate with me, or just to see it happen is just not an appealing one. Yes, I wanted to do it because it’s a challenge, but I’m not sure if I like the cost at this point.

IM training started this week. It’s been okay so far, but then again, at two days in I should hope it would be okay. Did light weights tonight for the first time in forever and a day. I’m sure I’ll feel it tomorrow, though I didn’t do terribly much, in keeping with the long hiatus. It’s the whole trying to fit in 3 workouts per sport plus weights, plus have time to cook food, work, sleep, and perhaps even have a small social life. When push came to shove, weights went out the window. Going to try and not succumb to that in this cycle.

This past weekend meant two days headed over to the local festival in BC’s home community, which meant two days of festival food. Mmm, grease. The art and what not was fun, though, as was wandering through with his parents, and assorted friends we ran into.

On the gaming front I picked up Halo 3 when I was at home, because I found it on sale for 1/3 off. So far it’s kicking my ass on “normal” mode. I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it eventually, but for the nonce I’m dying a lot. Still haven’t beaten Overlord, though I’m getting toward the end. I started getting a bit better at SSBB while home, and still stink at Mario Kart. That’s about the extent of it, I think – everything else is in abeyance.

I think I’m going to take the red cross CPR/First Aid classes this winter, after the IM. I need the refresher for the first aid portion, and if I ever did learn CPR it’s long forgotten now. Useful skills to have, and requirements for some other things I’m contemplating, but don’t want to discuss quite yet.

20 minutes better. Racing the Columbia Triathlon 2008 I managed to shave 20 minutes off my previous olympic distance triathlon time (Mooseman 2006 – 3:53), which I’m sure says more about my lack of preparation for the previous one than my admittedly more able participation for Columbia, but regardless, it was a happy, happy thing to see.

The day started out a bit out of sorts. I’d not gotten to sleep as I’d have liked to, so I woke up almost 40 minutes (!!) after my alarm started going off. Thankfully I had set it to give me an hour to get ready, so I was only about 10-15 minutes later out the door than what I’d planned. Packing the night before was a huge help for that.

Got all set up in transition in plenty of time to get out and drag my stuff over to the club tent. Get wet-suited up, and hopped over to the dock to get into the water for the swim start. It had been so long since I’d been in my wetsuit I’d forgotten how much more buoyant they make you. I’d been practicing swimming out into the pool to tread water for a bit, then start swimming without a wall to hang onto, and in the wet suit the treading part was a heck of a lot easier. The announcer told us to go and off I went. The leg to the first buoy was interesting – I was swimming pretty well, when I decided to try flipping over into sweet spot for a brief rest and orientation. Mistake! Flipped over and immediately got dizzy. Dunno if it was the waves or the cold water in my ears, or maybe I was a little dehydrated, or what, but that was not exactly fun. Just like Diamondman last year, though, once I was about halfway through the swim I found my groove and it was great after that.

Oh, and this time I had prescription goggles for the first time at an open water swim. Best. Thing. Ever. I could actually see where the heck I was going without having to guess based on the other swimmers around me. That alone was a major factor in calming me down in the water. Result: I shaved 9 minutes off the swim time and came out of the water much more relaxed than I ever have.

Calmly went into transition, got changed up and out on the bike (lost 1.5 minutes here). I have got to work on uphills this year because those all kicked my butt. Downhill and flats I was flying along – I’m much more comfortable now at faster speeds, especially on downhills, and it showed. But man, put me on an uphill slope and I’m down to barely a crawl. Regardless, I shaved 13 minutes off my bike time, a large part of which I attribute to the better, more relaxed swim (though riding the course two weeks before helped a lot with that, too.

Once in off the bike, I changed quickly (made up the minute and half I’d lost in T1), and headed out. Did a run & walk, but more confidently than on previous tris. Again, having run the course two weeks prior I knew I could do it, and I knew what to expect. Saw a ton of DC Tri Club folks out on the course, both running and as volunteers, and that was a huge boost. Getting and giving high-fives, thumbs up and/or shout-outs was wonderful. Funniest moments were entering and exiting the neighborhood north of the park, where neighbors had set up an aid station for the “Dollys” – all of them were dressed out in blonde wigs and/or fake chests, a la Dolly Parton. Absolutely hysterical to go past, and another great boost on the run. I actually lost 2 minutes on the run from Mooseman (which surprised me), but didn’t consider it a bad run. I might’ve been able to run a bit more and walk a bit less, but I’m still happy with the results. Finished in 3:33, as I said, a full 20 minutes better than my last olympic distance race.

And I wasn’t dead at the end, or injured, so all in all it was a great race for me. I know some things I need to work on that’ll make the next race even better, and I’m very much looking forward to that next one, the Nation’s Triathlon here in DC in September. Gonna be a fun one.

Haven’t done up the full race report, but it went very well – I shaved 20 minutes off the time it took me to do my last Olympic race (Mooseman in 2006 – did that one in 3:53, did Columbia in 3:33). So I’m quite pleased with the results, but haven’t had any time to write up the race yet!

In 12 hours, hopefully I’ll be done with my swim and be out on the bike course.

Popped up to Columbia this afternoon for packet pick-up, bike check and back racking in transition. I have a hospital bracelet plastic wrist band on, so I can get into transition in the morning, I’ve laid out my gear and gone over transition in my head. Tried on the wet suit again (it still fits, thankfully), got out the bags to haul stuff out there. The car is full of gas, so I should be all ready to go.

The goal is to finish in less than 4 hours. Doesn’t look like I posted a race report for the Mooseman two years ago, the last Olympic race I did, but I seem to recall I was just under 4 hours there. Or maybe it was 5 hours, I don’t remember, past that I was sloooooow. In any case, I feel better prepared this time around, especially for the swim. And having biked and run the course two weeks ago, it’s not an unknown quantity this time, which should help a ton.

In any case, it’s about time to crash here. I’ll try to remember to post a race report soon.