NOT home for the holidays

Yesterday was a very epic day. After renting a car to get to the Santa Barbara Airport, fighting with the ticket agent to let me on the flight to LA with my driver's license as ID, going through the hoopla of flying into one of the busiest airports in the USA (let alone it being the holiday season), taking shuttles to and from two different terminals in LAX (LA airport), being refused entry onto the Air Canada flight to Vancouver (because I didn't have my passport), losing my baggage with security, arguing with both Air Canada and United Airlines for a credit on my account, getting a new ticket back to Santa Barbara, and then renting a car to get back to Lompoc: I was beat up, emotionally worn out and mentally wiped. Going home for the holidays was a lost cause.

This was all because my passport didn't arrive in time for me to come back home to Canada for the holidays. It is in the mail, so I was told. No such luck. I knew before I left that I would have some difficulty, but I was hoping because it was the holiday season I'd be able to at least make it to Vancouver where I could talk with customs officials to let me enter my home country. I did call the Canadian Consulate here in the USA but the service they were able to provide would have made my renewed passport null and void. I have to be able to make it back to the USA to train! Uuugh...

So, I'm in Lompoc for Christmas, where snow is highly unlikely! I was overwhelmed yesterday (physically drained, emotionally wiped, and mentally out of it) so now I'm just trying to rejuvenate. I already took one nap and another is on the agenda. Thanks to Chuckie, who was able to drive me back to Lompoc, I'm feeling much better than I did yesterday at this time. After 8-hours in LAX, and feeling stranded with no place to go, all I want for Christmas is a nice warm bed to sleep in.

I blame myself for this mess. I procrastinated a bit too much in getting appropriate passport pictures done. I tried 3 times to get the correct pictures and my passport was returned twice because of "out-of-focus, blurred" pictures. Nowhere in the US (not Boulder, not Denver, not Los Angeles) did I find someone who knew what they were doing in terms of Canadian passport pictures, except a small box shop here in Lompoc (another reason Lompoc rocks over anywhere else I've been in the US). The worst of it is the money wasted in renting cars, the taxes I don't get credited for, and the loss of baggage fees and airline tickets.

Another big Uuugh....

Either way, I do have something to be proud of this week: I swam over 56,000 yards! I finished my last epic week of swimming for December (January is another month. Chuckie may just have another week or month of more swimming planned). Plus, my eyebrows are slowly growing back! Apparently the bromine levels were off the charts last week (I spoke with a lifeguard and got the inside scoop: bromine levels for the pool are suppose to be at a "level 3." For three day last week,they were at a level 14!). My skin is still in one piece but I'm still itching. I was afraid I may have turned into a leper. Luckily, that's not the case! At least for now, that is.

This past month I've had two weeks of huge swimming, a week of easy training and now I'm in a week of transition/holidays and recuperating (much needed after yesterday). If I leave for Canada in the next few days (a possibility if I can get a cheap flight and my passport arrives), training won't start up as quickly for the New Year. I'm in a mood of feeling sorry for myself, lazing around and doing nothing. I'm sure in a day or two this will change.

I hate to be a scrooge for Christmas but all I'd like to do now is watch movies, sleep in and stay away from humanity. Travel, airports, and the in-humaneness (rude travel agents, airport bureaucracy, stressed out people and selfishness) that happens during the holiday season is too much for me to even think about entering again. Under the covers I go.

I think I have a problem...

Does Bromine cause hair loss? More particularly, eyebrow loss? From all this swimming I think I may be losing my eyebrows...no joke.

I looked in the mirror after my 2nd practice of the day and couldn't believe what I saw (better yet, what I didn't see!) My eyebrows are losing hair by the day!

I hope I don't have to be one of those people who have to draw on their eyebrows. My high-school chemistry teacher had to do that every morning...all we did was make fun of her as kids. Yikes!

HIKE!

Yesterday my coach had me go for a walk. That was it for the day! A measly little walk. Then I read the rest of the schedule.

The plan was to walk for 7 hours! "And that means walking for 7 hours," he wrote. "Breaks aren't included." Plus, he wanted me to do it with everything I needed on my back…lunch, dinner, clothing, sunscreen, headlamp, map, and water. Water is not light.

It was a beautiful day but because it was chilly out, I began with with a SKINS thermal top and bottom, then my AVIA running pants and top and windbreaker. After the first 30minutes, I stripped down to the tights and light t-shirt. It was getting toastier by the minute....which made for some easy hiking since I started drinking. Water is not light.

The route I picked took me to the La Purisma Mission, through the Burton Mesa Ecological Preserve, and then back. It was entirely on dirt and sand. Almost all the trails here are sand. They're not just sandy…they're sand. It was tough to walk on and within just 3 hours I was completely wiped out. There were still 4 more hours to go.

I stopped for a bite to eat and to take some pictures...and to take some of the weight off of my back, anything to alleviate the pain I started to feel from shoulders to toes.

In the end I managed to walk for a full 7 hours throughout the beautiful hillsides of Lompoc. What a glorious day it was...after I made the final turn to home!

Podcast Interview by Ben Greenfield. and Update

Yesterday a good friend of mine, Ben Greenfield, interviewed me on his Podcast. Check it out here! I sound like I'm 10. I am not 10.

Since last time I wrote, I've been recuperating from my epic week of swimming. Chuckie has me swimming a little less, and chilling a bit more. It is still the 'off-season' but looking at the calendar, it's only 20-ish weeks from Wildflower! Christmas is just around the corner and I'll be heading home for the holidays. I'm planning to ski, make snowmen and play with my neice and nephew!

Laziness Long Gone

To think that I was worried about not training in my last post, a little more than a week ago! Not any more. Those worries have been replaced with new and improved ones. Now my biggest worry is dealing with what Chuckie is throwing my way! I've swum more in the past 6 days than I have in the past 2 months! I've learned one lesson: Worrying is a waste of time.

My shoulders are beginning to ache and my neck can only move so far to either side. My intercostals are sore to the touch. My skin smells like chlorine and my eyes are starting to have permanent goggle marks around them. My alligator-like skin is getting thick and I've learned to deal with the stomach cramps that always seem to go along with swimming a lot. I've drunk my share of pool water this past week. Don't remind me about the pee in it.

The goal by tomorrow is to reach 50,000 yards, but only yards! I'm personally trying to get in 50 kilometres. (Us Canadians, we go by the metric system! Enough of this yardage and feet stuff! Unfortunately though, I'm swimming in an American-made pool so I have to calculate it all in yards. But since I'm here in America I guess I shouldn't complain but how stupid is it to work in the imperial system. Americans do a lot of stupid things!)

My 50km goal would mean I'll need to swim 54,680 yards, though I would still be 1.99 inches short. I'm already at 47,600 yards for this week, or, more correctly, 43,525.44 metres. I have 2,400 yards left to reach 50,000 yards, or 7,080 yards, 1.99-inches to reach 50km. With only one swim session left (1.5 hours long), I'm thinking I won't be able to get in the full 7,080 yards. The pool here in Lompoc is only open from 11:30-1pm on Sundays. I have no choice but to swim during that time. The facility is unreal but so are the hours that it's open.

Either way, whatever yardage/meterage I get in tomorrow, I will be hitting Chuckie's weekly goal for me of 50,000 yards. All this swimming is going to do one of two things: make me a better swimmer, or a worse cyclist and runner. I hope for the former!