In the early part of week 3, I caught a bug that quickly flatlined me. I tried my best to work through it — meaning, I worked from home for as much as humanly possible. I tried to stay coherent on work phone calls, and I hope my emails and data analyses made sense. I’m pretty sure I zoned out a few times at my desk. After about 11 or so days, endless capsules of generic Dayquil, bottles of Mucinex, and many boxes of tissues later, I headed to the doctors and I got some prescription-level medication for an ear infection and an upper-respiratory infection.
I’m definitely on the mend and feel a lot less foggy.
In my cold/flu-stupor, my wellness ebbed and flowed. Every other day I got better and then I got worse. On one of my better days I signed up for an open water swim clinic. My cold/flu took a turn for the worse but unfortunately, the clinic was upon me and I headed there anyway.
The clinic was AMAZING. It was hosted by Swimlabs of Highlands Ranch, located at Grant Ranch. I know it is available seasonally, so if you’re hitting this blog or link sometime after summer, it may be broken. However, if you ever get a chance to attend for a first-time open water crash course, or to brush up on your skills, I would definitely recommend it. It was only $45 for a two-hour session! I learned so much. I also learned that if you forget your trash bags and put on a few pounds, you will not be able to put on your wetsuit. (Funny enough, I tried it on in January and it fit just fine…I guess that was five pounds ago though.) Overall, my goal was to see if I remembered how to swim in murky water and lo and behold…I REMEMBERED! Huzzah!
I didn’t get a chance to snap any photos while at Grant Ranch, but I do plan on swimming there more frequently after my sinus infection clears up and before my race in September.
Speaking of which…now that I’ve taken the clinic, and now that I’m feeling slightly better, I am debating whether or not to sign up for the Olympic or Sprint distance. I know I should sign up for the sprint, but a part of me wants a scarier, stretch goal of the Olympic. I know that I could probably finish all of the distances. It’ll probably be uncomfortable, given that I’ve just been flatlined for the last few weeks. It also makes the four hour one-way drive seem more “worth it” I guess. Why drive for only a two-hour finish time, when I can at least drive out for a four-hour finish time? Class does start next week, and I will be out for five days because of Erik’s birthday holiday…so maybe a sprint is better. Maybe I should flip a coin? Or gauge after this week is up? Ugh! So many decisions!
Either way, I should not let this decision sideline me from all the other races I’ve got coming up:
- Desert’s Edge Triathlon (sprint or Olympic?) – 3 weeks until event
- Rock n Roll Montreal 13.1 – 5 weeks until event
- Rock n Roll Denver 13.1 – 9 weeks until event
- Rock n Roll Savannah 13.1 – 11 weeks until event
- Rock n Roll Las Vegas 13.1 – 12 weeks until event
- Rock n Roll San Antonio 13.1 – 15 weeks until event
- Honolulu Marathon – 16 weeks until event
- Surf City Half Marathon – 24 weeks until event
- Rock n Roll New Orleans 26.2 – 25 weeks until event
- Rock n Roll San Diego 26.2 – 41 weeks until event
I’ve also been eyeing Ironman 70.3 Ohio for next year too. After reading some race recaps and listening to a few podcasts, I think it’s definitely a contender! I believe it is a summer race, so it would work with my schedule. It’ll give me time to save up for the race, and also time to slowly build my base and train for it.
Okay, so now that I see all of my races listed out, I’m now thinking that I should just sign up for the sprint distance…but oy vey…! I suppose a part of me wants to register for the Olympic so bad because I had such a lackluster last Olympic race. I came in DFL (dead f’ing last). It wasn’t sad or anything, but I just remember there being such a sad crowd at the end. I also remember the SAG wagon rolling around a few times asking if I was okay. I had no clue I was the last one on the course! I do remember some guy who kept hitting on me though, which was weird. I also had a very disastrous sprint tri – it was so bad that I didn’t even write a race recap for it, which makes me sad because it was my last one four years ago. The results weren’t even that bad — it was actually one of the better ones I’ve done. What made it so bad was that I did no open water training, and a few hundred yards in, I grabbed for a kayak and nearly begged to be pulled off course. The kayaker pretty much egged me on to keep going because I seemed fine (I guess!). So I guess I have both distances that I want to redeem and maybe that is why it is so hard to choose. I wish I could just do both. Ironically they do have both distances — one XTERRA version on Saturday and one road version on Sunday. I have zerrrrro business doing mountain biking trails so I will just have to choose the right version on Sunday. Unless, of course, I go on a registration binge and find another race before then!
This week’s mantra:
Amara in Training 