Crabbypants, Party of One

Just in case anyone ever thought training for endurance sports was all rainbows and puppies…I thoroughly dispelled that myth yesterday. Exhaustion from the weekend, facing a tough Monday at work, and other events all conspired to create a perfect meltdown wherein I spent the afternoon nauseous and/or in tears.

• I did not discover till Sunday night what my long ride that day had done to me. Knowing that my tri top rides up in the back, I always put sunblock on my lower back. Well, I missed a sliver. More like a wide swath. I sunburned so badly on my lower back, you would think I have a huge tramp stamp tattoo. It's huge, it's very dark red, it's painful, and it scares the crap out of me.
• I woke up tired and not well rested enough (in part, I'm sure from the shivering I was doing from the sunburn), yet couldn’t drag my sorry butt out of bed in time for my morning swim.
• I went to the office, where the feeling of being overwhelmed hit immediately, and that was BEFORE my boss started proposing some new projects for me and I completely freaked out and told her ACKITSALLTOOMUCHNONONONO!!!!
• I ate crappy fast food for lunch because I was craving red meat too much and had no time to buy and make something of higher quality.
• My high school reunion invitation came. This is where the shit really hit the fan for my day. I’m not attending as I’ll be racing that weekend anyway, but many classmates who live out of town or have children or are teachers expressed disappointment that it is scheduled during the school year and not in the summertime. What we didn’t know until the invite came was that it will also be AT the high school, and yet still cost $45 per person. My high school experience was about what you’d expect for an all-girls Catholic school, not too bad (though there were a couple incidents that happened to friends that I will not forget) and not the best 4 years of my entire life (how sad would my life be if it were?). I don’t hate my alma mater, but I don’t feel any sort of undying affection either. It’s where I took classes for 4 years and that’s about it (my sister was going through cancer treatment for most of my high school years and there really wasn’t time for much in the way of extracurriculars, slumber parties, sports, etc). I understand that other people regard the place as a significant influence in their lives – OK, good for them. Anyway, a flippant remark on Facebook about the setup for the reunion made by a cranky tapering triathlete led to World-Freaking-War III as apparently that meant I was insulting everyone ever associated with the school (again, can you tell it was an all-girls school?). And it more or less ended with the implication that I’m not allowed to have a public opinion on the subject. Good grief.

Thankfully, I put at least some semblance of a positive spin on the day with a dog walk in the sunshine, half a beer (I can’t seem to get past the halfway mark anymore), agility class with Max (who was still very tired from the trial also), and steak dinner prepared by the World’s Best Husband.

Onward to today, where a much better day was had. After all the weeks of drill swimming I’ve been doing post-Boise, I finally got to go back to masters!!!! And my lanemates claimed I was faster. OK, I paid them to say that, but still!

So there you go, kids, don’t ever assume that training days are all fun and games. And…perhaps it’s best to stay the heck away from me when the IM taper begins?