Here we sit, the last day of camp.
Beth is stretching, Ness is doing online research about how to build her own Stretch Station. It’s important to note that she is also hooked up to a muscle stimulator machine and her quad just started twitching. Chris is downloading his Power Tap. And the three of them together are awaiting their….
Pizza
I opted out. I’m the anti-pizza and though I’m outnumbered in my own house I’m ok with that. I’m thoroughly exhausted and the proof is in that I completely lost my social skills about 3 hours ago. Sorry, when I’m tired my social system is the first to shut down. Better that than my legs.
Where did today begin…
It started early this morning around 6 am. A little oatmeal and coffee before masters swim. Boss read blogs…
He’s a big fan of Rachel Ross. After we got caught up with blogland we went to the pool for masters. Things were going ok until Coach Steve showed up on deck. He’s a young guy – and when I say young I mean 23 or so – and I believe he gets great pleasure in punishing us old folk that think we can swim. Let me state for the record – we cannot swim so please stop torturing us with 5400 yards of mostly IM.
I assigned Ness to Chris and Anwar’s lane. It was time for her to step up with the big boys. When I saw that the workout would be mostly IM, I knew my fate would be mostly free because Beth doesn’t do IM. That’s ok because neither do I when the interval is 30 seconds, repeat about 20 times.
I’m not sure what else to say about the swim. That’s because during it nothing could be said. I remember briefly saying to Beth I just need to breathe but it never did happen. The mainset was proceeded by a second mainset. And then by the time we were offered a third mainset Beth and I looked at Steve and said no thanks.
Afterwards I demanded food. I am too old to get on a bike without food. Plus I’m not training for Ironman. Beth was ready to start her 4 hour ride with nothing but a saltine and a bottle of water but I insitsed a stop at the bagel shop.
We drove about an hour north to Marengo for the ride. The day was beautiful. Beth and Ness were up for 4 hours while Chris and I had a shorter ride. We set out on a 20 mile loop so I could show Beth and Ness the way. The hour goes by and I sent them on their way. I worried about their safety. Actually I was more worried about Ness bonking at hour 3 of the ride. Her longest ride in her life was 4.5 hours. Last night she told us that the 4.5 hour ride included about a dozen stops to retrieve a water bottle that kept falling off her bike. Because she threw it. Anyways, I hoped for the best or at least hoped Beth would revive her with a saltine if she stopped pedaling at hour 3.
Finished my ride, went for a run, stretched then fell asleep in the car. Ness and Beth rolled in an hour later and to my surprise no one appeared to be missing a body part nor a crank. In fact, both reported they had a strong ride. Not only that but Ness has announced that next year she will be training for Ironman and can’t wait for her 5 hour trainer rides this winter.
We stopped at the Road Ranger for snacks then headed home. Now there is a pizza on the table and Ness is trying to convince me that her nutritionist told her she could eat all the junk she wanted (pizza) as long as she washed it down with milk.
The photo below sums up the week. Let me point out a few things…Ness is wearing pink hottie socks that I gave to her. She now officially owns something pink (Jen Harrison just smiled). Ness is hooked up to the muscle stim machine. She says she feels good now. But give a few days, Ness. She’ll be sending me SOS e-mails and little does she know that next week there will be a Guest Coach who will be automatically answering all of my e-mails with the following response: it’s because you’re slow. And last let me draw your attention to the tan lines. She actually worked on those. Avoided the sunscreen just so she could get a tan. One more thing: on her laptop screen are the instructions on how to build a stretch machine.
Beth threw us for a loop when she ate almost half the pizza at dinner but 1 gel on her 4 hour ride. But I think I found her secret to riding long on little fuel. Look:
That would be one Diet Pepsi in her hand and another one on deck.
There is talk now of how to bring Boss back home. You see, we brough Boss to Chris’ parents house for doggie day camp all day and no one has brought him back. Chris went over there to find the parents are having a big party. So he came back empty handed. I suggested Ness run in to grab Boss in cognito since no one would know who she was. She asked if we had a balaclava to which I had to laugh – it’s Chicago of course we have balaclavas. Regular or fleece-lined?
As you can see, triathletes lead very exciting lives. They swim, bike, run, eat pizza, drink diet soda and plot on how to steal back their own dog. I will miss the company of Beth and Ness when they leave. Little Boss is usually good company but he doesn’t say much.
More later, Chris and Ness just left to abduct the dog…
