Laxative for the Brain!

¹lax·a·tive     adj.     \ˈlak-sə-tiv\

Definition: having a tendency to loosen or relax; specifically : producing bowel movements and relieving constipation

Origin:  Middle English laxatif, from Medieval Latin laxativus, from Latin laxatus, past participle of laxare to loosen, from laxus.   First Known Use: 14th century

"To loosen or relax".......   yes, my brain really needed a little loosening and relaxing earlier today.  As detailed in my previous post, it has already been a week from hell.  Our house looks like a bomb site:  holes in walls and ceilings; torn-up carpet; bathroom vanity ripped out; doors of hinges - just a mess!   We have had contractors in and out all day (on top of a contractor who was already scheduled to do some tiling in our sun room!); insurance adjusters; remediation guys.   Phone is ringing off-the-hook.   Work is crazy (6 am call with Europe; legal negotiations).  And, on top of all of this, our eldest daughter (whose 11th birthday is tomorrow) is off school with a horrible cough and fever!

Make it stop!   My brain is full and is going to explode!



I guess the only potential blessing is that I certainly haven't had the opportunity to worry too much about my 70.3 race this coming weekend.

Today The Puppeteer had scheduled a six mile run with the pace increasing every two miles.  Really the only time I had to fit it in (I had a swim scheduled as well!) was late morning into lunch time.   I had to rush to get ready and was a bit flustered when I headed out into a cold misty rain and turned into the countryside of eastern Durham county.   Nice and easy for the first two miles....    left, right, left, right....   ah, that's a nice rhythm up the first hill....   seem to be moving well....   I wonder if the wild turkey will be on Kemp Road today?.....      Before I knew it I was in cruise control and my troubles seemed to just fall away.  The rain felt good; I noticed honeysuckle bloosoms (is that normal for October?); a horse ran in the field beside me; I watched a crow chasing off a hawk; damn it I felt good!   I duly finished the run as prescribed, with the final mile a nice steady and controlled 8:03 pace.   I needed that!

I hope that I can capture that feeling during my 13.1 miles of running on Sunday.   Yes, it's amazing how running really can be a laxative for the brain!

Why Now?

My first "half ironman" 70.3 mile triathlon - the Rev3 event in Anderson, South Carolina http://rev3tri.com/anderson/anderson-news/ is now just a little over a week away and, as would be expected, The Puppeteer has been ramping-up both distance and intensity of my workouts to get me ready (or, at least, as ready as possible) for the big day.   Double runs, long rides, four and a half hour brick workouts, lots of laps in the pool....   this week's training time will comfortably exceed 12 hours and, of course, I have to fit it in around family life and work.

Why? Oh why? does it seem that everytime I have an intense workout week work goes crazy and all sorts of other sh#t hits the fan?   This week has been no exception - my work load seems to have suddenly doubled (including all sorts of early and late calls), but worst of all the hot water heater in our attic chose this week to basically explode and pour water down through the walls of my daughters' bathroom and into the kitchen below!   Nightmare!  The house is full of all sorts of fans, blowers and tubing as we remediate the damp and there has been a constant stream of plumbers, other contractors and insurance adjusters calling and coming and going.  Still no hot water either!

With all of this craziness going on I was pretty proud of myself yesterday as I managed to get in two runs (8 miles at lunchtime and 4 miles on the treadmill in the evening) and an open water swim at Falls Lake early evening!   It has been a struggle, but apart from a slightly shortened bike ride earlier in the week I have still managed to hit all of my workouts and maintain a modicum of sanity without getting fired or having the family walk out on me!  Just one more day to the weekend!

Not quite over-the-edge.....  yet!

Small Victories.......

The pool that I usually swim at (Optimist, Raleigh) is closed for maintenance until mid October. so today I headed to the nearby Millbrook Exchange pool for a straightforward 2800 yard "recovery swim".  Maybe it was the time of day; maybe it was because Optimist was closed or maybe it was because Millbrook High School had a load of lanes blocked off, but whatever the reason, it was unusually busy today.....

I have never particularly enjoyed sharing a swim lane, primarily because I am usually concerned about being slow or getting in someone's way.  It has been quite a while since I have had to but today was different....

When I arrived at the pool I was fortunate that a lady was just finishing her swim, so I took her lane.   Within just a couple of minutes, however, a guy asked if he could join me.   "Of course"...      To be honest, he wasn't much of a swimmer and, because I was doing a lot of drills, we agreed to keep to our own side of the lane rather than "cycle".   No big deal and the guy didn't last long.

As soon as he left, however, a very fit looking lady asked if she could share the lane.  Again, "of course"...

This time the lady was putting-in some pretty good freestyle  and churning out the laps, but......   what the heck...     I was the one constantly swimming up on her!   She was apologizing to me for swimming slowly!  Yeah!   Maybe I'm not so slow after all!

Not exactly qualifying for Kona, but it made me happy!

Could have been worse I guess!