Right now I am plotting my escape to Tucson.
The call just came in from Sherpa oh Sherpa Thomas. The plans were formulated. Will Arizona be ready is the only question left to ask.
Many have asked: I am not going as part of any organized camp. Unless you call myself, my husband and my Sherpa an organization. In that case, we are organizing ourselves for something much bigger than you know.
And I am not at liberty to reveal our top secret taking over the world in one organized swoop plans.
We arrive on Wednesday and shall begin with a long run on Thursday. I am not sure how I will handle long running without tights, mittens, vest, shirt, hat and wool socks. I might remember how to run in shorts and a t-shirt. I might remember how to fuel myself in something above 20 degrees. I might even have to complain that it’s too hot.
Wait, if I do that, will my Sherpa or my husband just slap me. Hard.
Then we shall ride a lovely social ride at a conversational pace to talk about things we like. In Chris’ case: bikes. In Thomas’ case: hot tea. In my case: anything above 20 degrees.
On Thursday we are climbing Mt. Lemmon with the Trisports.com group. Yes, we are really going out there to participate in TriFest! If you don’t know about TriFest you should check it out. I am going to find out all of the secrets to running a 6 minute mile at Ironman and when I find out…
I am not telling you.
Really, Trisports.com has organized a great festival of all things tri as well as this ride up Mt. Lemmon complete with police escort to the base of the mountain. Obviously they have heard about my dangerous climbing ability and cannot trust me to ride alone on the roads. Sherpa Thomas and I have already denounced the climb beyond 7000 feet. At the first sight of snow we are turning around because I know snow, I know what it looks like and I know it’s cold and I am not going to Arizona to look at snow.
Plus I really don’t like to descend.
All of this means I really should just climb all 26 miles to the top because that which I don’t what to do in sport is probably that which I need to do. But we will see. I can always blame it on “Thomas started crying so we had to turnaround” and that will be my out.
We will also swim but I’ve heard pool access can be sketchy so if I don’t make it to a pool out there, I will not cry about that.
On Friday if I can still see straight after climbing 294932 hours (how long does it take to climb 26 miles?) we will go for a run and another ride. I’m going on a bike bender! I can’t wait. It’s going to be like Ragbrai minus the corn and beer gardens. But still I’m pretty excited about getting on a saddle every day and riding outside. Yesterday I rode 2.25 hours indoors. That’s pretty weak as far as trainer rides go but it was farther than I have gone in a long time. I rode the Computrainer and as Chris was setting it up he said:
“Liz, do you want the pacer riding next to you?”
I said no to which he said “but at least you would have someone with you on the ride.”
That is how you know you have gone 100% winter crazy – when you start to really believe that the little person on the screen next to you is really there.
(just the other day I heard Chris talking to the man on the screen saying, “ok little man, now it’s game on”)
Crazy.
So, if I ride like a complete jackhole this weekend it’s because I have been used to racing a 2-dimensional man on a screen. He is actually “Two Second Man” and every two seconds he does what you just did. So he’s either drafting right off of me or surging ahead. It’s disheartening and can really get your heart up because no matter what you do you cannot drop him.
Speaking of Chris, right now he is in bed with the stomach flu. He thinks it is food poisoning but we pretty much eat the same things so I’m not sure how he was the only one poisoned. Funny thing is that we went to a family gathering this weekend and his uncle thought he had food poisoning for 3 days too. I’m guessing he got the flu there and you know what that means – it is only a matter of time until it gets to me. I am wearing a full HazMat suit right now and plastic gloves. Typing is a bitch but at least I will stay healthy.
I’ve a got a lot to do before we leave on Wednesday. On top of my list today is to figure out how to extract the mail from our mailbox without the key. “Someone” allegedly “misplaced” the only key we have. The solution was “suggested” that I stalk the mailman to get the mail.
My “answer”: no.
Tomorrow I’ll be in the city to work with the Well Fit IronMoo athletes. Before that I’m hoping to do a V02max test on the New Leaf equipment. That will mean 15 minutes of incrementally harder running that concludes with vomiting in a plastic mask.
Come to think of it, I might steal that mask to wear while I’m around Chris for the next few days.
I better wrap this up because it is 11:38 am that usually is the time the mail comes.
I just wanted to report that I went outside to stalk the mailman but did not see him or his little white truck. But I did see snow, so I turned around.
I guess you could call that training myself for Mt. Lemmon on Friday.
