no DNF for me!

For the second time that I can remember in recent history I didn’t even start. Saturday I was supposed to race a local DU. Long course. But I made (a surprisingly tough) decision to bail. Back up about a few days and the culprit becomes somewhat clear. Coming back from my japan trip was a bit of an ordeal. And well come to think of it, the trip itself was a pretty big deal. We were up and around for the better part of the day. and not a lazy saunter thru the park by any means. We saw some stuff. A lot of stuff. Add on my attempts to run in the AM and well I can’t say my lower half was much too happy about that combo. I was crawling into bed every nite and passing out. (and NO I barely had (much) sake…) And honestly on little sleep I’m not so good with dealing. Shocker. I thought I had mastered the art of avoiding jet lag (as I’d been successful in previous trips home from OZ) but maybe not. Add in some complete incompetence from the airlines, another (unexpected) full day of travel and well that got ugly really fast.

I spent the early part of the week cocky that I had come thru the time zones unscathed, but still avoiding the hard facts of feeling tired to the core and wanting to just sleep (at all hours, not just the wrong ones). By Thursday nite I was pretty much what one might consider an “(un)hot mess”. Commence passing out about 8 pm. (for you madness folks, that’s way before Ohio had trounced G-town) Friday was even worse. I kid you not when I say I was full on sleeping at 7 pm. Waking up Saturday I knew something had caught up with me, jet lag, the flu that is going around or just too much of a good thing (ie vacation!). so the decision was made. No race. the other time I had said that was 2 days after spending the night in the ER.. so for me it’s not easy thing to do. And both times I was fighting with bobby to go. But he is the sane one and says don’t do it.

So yep back to bed. Sad I know. I got up mid day and decided to join bri for a little ride around Jordan. We ended up with a bit of good tempo in there and I felt better as the ride went on but was still really feeling the fatigue and the soreness. We had an impromptu wedding reception to attend that afternoon, our neighbor had gotten remarried and was having a BBQ. Nice. So I put on my smiley face (and honestly a pretty cute black dress) and we headed over. Ended up getting into a conversation about ben (her family is from Pittsburgh) with her dad and it felt a little like home. Nice. After that little energy expenditure it was back to the couch and some UT action. But mainly just back to the couch. I made it out for drinks with some good friends sat night and by Sunday morning wasn’t sure if I am that lame and had a hangover or was still sick.. nothing a few miles at umstead to cure that. but my dumb luck I run into bri AGAIN and as she so artfully put it “you are my cat toy this weekend”. Um yep. So I turned around and did “a little tempo” with her. Well bri’s tempo at umstead is what I would envision navy seal boot camp to be like. Full of pain and curse words muttered under your breath. At one point she is like “so how you feeling?” I answer “crap, you?”. I did my best to stifle my Darth Vader breathing but I was sucking wind pretty bad. Blah. Yep right back to the couch after that one.

So its Monday and my new leaf has not turned over yet. I had bouts with good this weekend but the stiffness and soreness and tiredness has returned once again. I’m doing my best to hibernate until I leave for camp on Wednesday.