After The Camp...

I feel like I'm recovering from a race! It's hilarious. I went for a massage yesterday and Pat was, thankfully, fairly gentle working on me. There were a few times he had to remind me to breathe. Right, breathe, suuuure! Perhaps if you weren't taking a hot iron to my thigh. What, no hot iron? That's just my muscles? Ow.

I didn't do any training yesterday, but the massage was training session enough I figure. I was working away for a while when I got very sleepy...so I figured I'd go for a half an hour nap. Normally I do this and I naturally wake up right at the half hour mark...no alarm necessary. Yesterday? I was out like a light for 1.5 hours!!! Holy hannah. There's an hour of my life that slipped by in a flash! Good thing I work from home so could make my way back to my office and start working again. I did feel more refreshed though.

This morning I got up bright and early for a swim. What greeted my sight as I opened the garage door was not something to put a smile on my face. Not at this time of year anyways. It was snowing. Sigh. Seriously, this is getting ridiculous. It's been snowing here off and on all day - why do I live in Alberta??? At least it's not sticking and hopefully tomorrow will be better as I would like to get out for a ride.

The pool was busy, which meant each lane had two people in it. (There's only four lanes I should add.) Hey, it's 6am, not many people feel like swimming at 6am! I did though. I got in the lane with Fran, my snorkel buddy. She wears a snorkel and fins when she swims. I love that. She's an older gal and goes non stop for the full hour, so mock her snorkel not! The really funny thing was that she had a young lifeguard say to her she couldn't wear them. Fran asked why and was told it was because they couldn't tell if she was breathing. Fran then replied, 'Well, it's a safe bet if I'm moving my arms and legs I'm breathing...if not, come get me'. Hilarious! Fran is the best!! The young lifesaver didn't know what to say, so let her keep the snorkel. Good thinking.

Another fellow, whom I adore, also showed up today. He's not there all the time, but when he does I always think 'Awwww', as in he's adorable! He has to be in his 70's, is very very frail looking, tiny in stature and has a bit of a curved spine at the top of his back. He also wears these nude coloured pseudo speedos. When I first saw him walking along the deck I was slightly alarmed thinking perhaps he had no swimsuit on! Yipes.

I just love that he swims though! I think it may be hard for him because of his back but he gives it his all every lap and to me that is awesome. He'll start off with the front stroke and do that at a fairly good pace for 1/3 to a 1/2 length, then he'll do a bit of breast stroke, then back to front or perhaps he'll flip over on his back. He has to hang out at then end of the length for a bit before he swims the next length. One of these days I'm going to get his story! Today he was in Leslie's lane. Not to mention he's all business when he's there so I don't want to interrupt his groove.

My swim went well, which was good. It was a recovery swim so I did some easy laps, some with paddles and some with the pull buoy. Ever notice when you go from swimming with the paddles and pull buoy to nothing that you are kinda like Bambi on ice? At least that's how it is for me. I have four limbs all working indepently of each other for the first few 'strokes' till we realize we have no paddles or pull buoy. It's quite a sight, I assure you!

The legs seem to be recovering quite well, so I think I'm getting over the weekends antics. I managed to work through the day without napping miday too! Although I did have a hard 20 minute nap after. The kind of nap you wake up and have to wipe off the drool that's dangling off your cheek cause you were totally comatose and it's amazing you haven't let go of all bodily functions. I think the other name would be 'powernap'.

I am still thinking about the training camp and things I want to work on etc. I was happy with my perceived pace on the flats (I say perceived because my bike computer isn't working), but not too pleased with my hill performance. I think I'll be riding Cochrane hill several times in the next while to try and build that strength. 'Be the mountain goat!'

Oh, I almost forgot to add this little tidbit from the camp. Aside from being an engineer extraordinaire and mighty triathlete, I am also a personal coach. So I got to put on my coach hat and give a little chat about Mindfulness Training and Ironman on Saturday, the night before the big IMC course ride. (If you'd like to read a bit about my talk you can at my coaching blog. The talk was a little more expanded, but this is the gist of it.)

What was incredibly rewarding for me was having some of the athletes come up to me and tell me that they enjoyed my talk, applied my ideas and had a great ride! There is nothing better in this life than to know that somehow you've made a difference, even if it's a teeny one. I'm so grateful for that and for the athletes for providing the feedback!

So recovery is going well, even the chunk of flesh missing from my underside due to bike shorts is healing well, and I hope to be on the bike again tomorrow. Which reminds me, better go stretch now so my legs will be ready for it!

Peace out my gorgeous friends.