Grumble, Grumble...

Well, we are back from wonderfully warm Malayisa....and I've been cold ever since, haha.

Perhaps it's the jet lag, the need for layers of clothes, the fatigue or the fact that my equilibrium seems to be off (jet lag side effect??), but I'm rather grumpy about being home. Sigh...

What can one do in this situation other than plot and plan for another adventure. Next time though I think I'd like to race...time to start surfing the net for early season IM's that are in warm countries!

I did continue my training when I was in Malaysia. I went running the day after the IM around the streets of Kuah. This time I took a different route and follow the road that I had walked back along from the bike turnaround.

As I was running I kept coming up to police barracades. I wasn't sure what they were for, or if I should ask. I did, however, ask if it was ok for me to run through. To which I was met with many smiles and teasing about 'the finish line is that way!' and 'why are you still running? the race is over!'. Oh funny, funny policeman, haha. I didn't bother trying to explain that I had been a cheerleader rather than a participant. If they wanted to believe I could do an IM then run the next day - then who was I to correct them! LOL.

When we went down to Kuala Lumpur I ran in the gym a couple of times. The streets are way to busy to try to run along. Plus the air isn't quite 'fresh'. I managed to get a swim in at the pool as well.

The rest of my training was bascially walking, and walking, and walking. I swear, we walked for hours a day every day. It was nuts, but a great way to explore your surroundings. I wish I had a pedometer to track how far we went. I do know that one day we must have been wandering around for about 6 or 7 hours. Phew!

My one foot took a beating from all this. Actually, more my baby toe. I had blisters upon blisters to the point that it looked like I had a two baby toes. Ew. Greg was teasing me that my foot looked worse than his did after IM. Greeeat. The toe is still in so-so shape. We'll see how running goes tomorrow.

Today was my first full day home so it was time to 'get back in the saddle'...literally. I hadn't been on a bike since I left so was eager to do so, even though my body wasn't sure this was a good idea. That was just the jet lag talking though.

I really want to get better on the bike this season - especially after seeing some amazing athletes (our Greg most especially) at IM Malaysia. So I decided that I need to be a hermit on the bike. No music. No television. No distractions. Just me and hours of focusing on what the bod was doing on the bike. Very exciting, I know! haha.

As I hopped onto the bike I was mighty glad it was attached to a trainer as my head was spinning and if I had been riding on the road I'm sure I would have fallen over a few times. heh heh. (The equilibrium thing again.) I figured I'd go for an hour and a half. See how I felt.

The good news is I had a pretty good workout. I did a 20 min warm up, 60 min steady state bike (at mid/high zone 2 heart rate) and then a 10 min cool down. I felt not too bad - phew! I was pretty worried I'd lost all my bike fitness over the last two weeks. I actually even managed to hold my one legged spinning for a minute with no dead spots in the pedal stroke and with good strength! Go figure.

The bad(?) news is that although I had no distractions like music or the t.v., I'm sure I only focused on my pedal stroke and technique for a minor portion of the time. The duration of time in between my checking my heart rate and cadence was spent reminiscing about Malaysia, coming up with ideas for a career that would take me to warm places cause I realized I'd rather be warm all the time than cold, dreaming about meeting Faris again, and just general future planning. LOL.

One day I will get this focus thing down pat! It was one of my goals for this year and it's obvious it's going to be a challenge. Ah well...if everything were easy - life would be friggin boring!!