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October 8, 2008
Dog Sitting
I have been dog sitting for six days. I have two days left. I think it's looking like I may survive, but nothing's certain yet. I will tell you what, taking care of two dogs, and working, and trying to do some training, is exhausting! The dogs do not like it if I leave the house at 6:00 am and return at 7:00 pm. They seem to prefer my being gone for less than eight hours at a stretch which with my schedule is almost impossible. And they are so cute that I feel bad if I leave them alone for a long time!
So life has been really quite crazy lately. I have been in meetings almost non-stop all week, which means that I sometimes have to get actual work done outside of my normal working hours. I also have to be way more disciplined when I am at my desk and I cannot be messing around or chatting too much. I have also had two work lunches in the last two days which means my days are booked solid from beginning to end, with no breaks to get out and relax (or train!).
I have continued to be pretty mellow with my tri training as I am still in physical and mental end of season recovery mode, but I am pleased by my swimming right now and everything else seems to be just fine. I am focusing on lifting twice a week which is really fun - I love getting fully jacked!! I am working on increasing my weights a little bit. So far I cannot say that it's going that well but I am having a pretty good time with it regardless so I don't really care.
A few cool things have happened recently, namely signing up for Timberman!! Oh I am so excited. I went to college in Maine, which is close to New Hampshire, which is where Timberman is, and I have not been in New England (outside of Boston) in probably four years! I love it there so much. It is going to be great. A group of us is all signed up and we also found a cottage to rent which is going to be totally awesome and also cost effective. I can't wait to give the 70.3 distance another shot when I have actually trained for one appropriately (i.e. when I have actually ridden 56 miles or possibly more in training). I am also excited about my prospects for qualifying for Clearwater which I think would be fun.
I am also in the throes of decision making about Age Group Worlds. When I initially qualified at Nationals I thought there was no way I would actually go and I actually assumed I had given up my spot as I did not tell anyone I wanted it. But I just got an email from USAT saying I could still have my spot. So I am thinking about this a lot right now. Here are the pros and cons as I see it, hopefully putting it in writing will help me decide.
Pros:
- Being on Team USA would be cool
- Going to Australia would be cool, and if I don't have a good reason to go, I would probably otherwise never go
- Competing at Worlds would probably be really cool
- I could go to Sydney afterwards, that would be fun
- My bicycle would be very well travelled
- Olympic distance races are fun
- If I don't qualify for Clearwater I will have another cool race to do
Cons:
- Australia is very far away
- It is hard to get to
- It takes a long time to get there, and I imagine it takes a long time to get acclimated
- It is very expensive to travel there
- I do not have a ton of vacation time to take 2 weeks there
- I could potentially get totally schooled by all the fast chicks at Worlds
- The race timing is not awesome, I believe it is only 3-4 weeks after Timberman
Well, that is some good food for thought. I have until October 20th to contemplate my existence and decide.
Now it is time to get back to my productive frame of mind, and to have dreams of Kona! Clearly I am a true tri geek now as all I really want to do this week is obsess over Kona and hear awesome stories about all the famous triathlete sightings!
Posted by barb at October 8, 2008 3:38 PM
Comments
Hey Barb!! Timberman will be a blast!! :) As for Worlds, going to Germany last year was one of the best experiences I've ever had. It is really cool to be a part of Team USA! You will meet so many great people!! Of course, as you said, it is very expensive and time consuming and the timing doesn't appear to be great with Timberman. Still...if you can...I would highly recommend you do Worlds at least once in your tri career!! Where is it after Australia? Maybe that would be a better year to go? Either way - good luck with your decision!
Posted by: Beth at October 9, 2008 11:07 AM
I really think you should go to worlds! You would know Danny and Charlotte down there and what a great life experience to go to world tri's!
Posted by: Matt at October 9, 2008 10:54 PM