Oh No....GACK!!!

I may have done a bad, bad thing...I wished that the Side Stroker wouldn't be at the pool. Guess what...when I got there - SHE WASN'T! I am now praying that the Universe knew I only meant 'not there' as in didn't feel like going, or was going later and not 'not there' as in didn't make it because she was going down the stairs to leave for the pool, then tripped over the cat and broker her leg just because the Universe was doing what I bid... Eep.

On the positive side, I got to swim without being nearly side swiped! Yay!!! Of course, the Universe likes to keep my pool experiences interesting...

I was swimming intervals today and felt pretty good. I'm still trying to keep my shoulders pulled down and back, and was trying to do that in the pool. I actually think I swam a little more smoothly and quickly in doing so. That said, I now have a knot in behind my shoulder blade due to some rebellious muscles that are screaming 'HELL NO, WE WON'T GO!'. Hopefully they will work every thing out and realize that being down and mellow is waaay better for them.

I had almost finished my last set of intervals when the unthinkable happened...I went to take a breath and could feel a hair across my lips...oh no...gack...gag. The B horror movie scream that was ready to bellow out my mouth managed to stay internalized in my mind. However, I almost didn't catch the chunder that was ready to explode out of my mouth...it sat there, at the back of my throat while I tried to regain some form of composure as I peeled the long, black, definitely not my hair off my lips and face...I could feel my stomach convulsing as I tried in vain to flick the clinging hair off my fingertips and onto the deck. Waaaaah! Of course I couldn't put it back in the pool for I knew it would seek me out...

I dove back under the water as soon as I could and continued to swim. For the next hundred meters I concentrated on not hurling in the pool. Even now my stomach flips when I think of it....

Finally, I finished my swim and could run to the showers. Ick. Double Ick. Gag. Gack. Spew.

Thankfully my run in the afternoon was less exciting. Well, if you consider running in minus a gillion temperatures not exciting. The evidence:

Notice the red circle around the statement, 'Feels Like - 33C'. You may be asking, what the heck does FEELS LIKE mean??? At least I did for the first 7 years I lived here till I finally looked it up. Bascially it has to do with the wind chill and how fast the wind removes moisture from your skin. So even though it's -23 C out, your skin is going to feel -33 C cause of that darned wind we have...

I really wanted to go for a run, so even with the subhuman temperatures I decided to bundle up and go out. I think I now know why some people think triathletes are crazy. Ah well, c'est la vie! As it turns out, I had a great time! I only had a half hour to do and knew I could suck up the cold for that long. It was sunny out too, which was a bonus. At least it was when I started. I had on my winter leggings, long sleeve tech shirt, short sleeve tech shirt, fleece shirt, windbreaker, buff and ponytail toque to keep me warm. Oh, and let us not forgot, mitties!

It didn't feel too cold when I got out there. I had the buff up over my mouth and nose and was breathing mostly through my nose so the air would be warm. My physio also mentioned positioning my tongue at the top of my mouth (as if I was about to make a clicking sound) as this a) rests your jaw and 2) allows you to breath through the side of your mouth and nose thus allowing the air to warm somewhat. This worked fairly well, until my buff was soaked and I was breathing the material into my mouth. It was somewhat distressing, but I knew if I had to I could pull it down to get a big mouthful of air in.

The pathways were snow covered but not slippery. As I ran through the new construction area a dude in his truck almost drove off the road as he did a double take when he noticed I was out running. You could see the expression of 'WTF are you doing out here??' as I ran past. Oh if he could have only seen the smile that was happening under the buff. I was really enjoying my run even with the cold!! My hip felt pretty good too. I could tell there was a niggly there, but things were holding up. YAY!

My total run was 36:10 minutes. I had a great time and although my eyelashes froze together at one point (I had to pry them apart...) I really wasn't cold. A fun pic from after the run...you can still kind of see my frozen eyelashes. They melted a bit when I ran inside to get my camera...

Apparantly not all of us wanted to test out the cold...some preferred to hide under the covers...such as my furry buddy Mr. Cringely...

So despite being attacked by a stray hair at the pool and the minus-why-the-heck-do-I-live-here temperatures, I got in two good workouts today. Suhweet!

Peace out my friends!