Survival

I was thinking about how the past week has been about going with the flow especially when the flow sometimes gets clogged up.  Isn't that just what Ironman will be like.  You can prepare every waking hour, but when the day arrives, you just have to go with the flow.

We took a road trip with my parents to Vegas to start off our summer vacation after spending the weekend in Prescott.  We were just going for a quick 2 night stay at Mandalay Bay to hang out at the pools and to see a few shows.   Our morning started off at 5 am with a quick 1 hour bike ride before taking off.  Sometimes when you are in unfamiliar territory you get carried away with exploration and when we returned we threw off my parents itinerary causing a little beginning of the day stress.  My son had been running a fever and we had no medical care available due to it being the Memorial Day Holiday weekend, so he sucked it up and the road trip began.  We stopped at Willow Beach which was on the Colorado River with Nevada on one side and Arizona on the other.  I had hopes of doing an Open Water Swim, but my courage crawled under a rock when I found out the water temperature was 48 degrees and my sleeveless wetsuit would not come out of the bag.  Instead we enjoyed lunch with a view and proceeded over the new bridge that goes over Hoover Dam.  It makes for a faster drive into Nevada, but the new bridge impedes your view of the dam and the river.  We headed straight through Boulder City right by Lake Mead when I started salivating wanting to get my wetsuit out, but we had show tickets for that night and wanted to take a dip in the Lazy River, so I held onto hope that I would get an OWS in on the way home.

So we arrived at our hotel and managed to get a quick swim in.  My son was not a happy camper and started complaining about not wanting to be there.  He was not feeling well at all, but all I could do for him was give him motrin and throat lozenges.  My throat was sore too.  We just had to tough it out.  We made it to the show which was the Cirque de Soleil, Beatles LOVE show in the round.  It was amazing watching very talented dancers, acrobats, extreme skaters, etc. entertain us to Beatle Music.  The next morning I decided to take my day off and we spent the first few hours taking my son to a walk in clinic at a Walgreens for medical care.  I decided I would find out if he had strep throat before having myself examined.  He had 103 fever and double ear infections along with an inflamed throat and cough.  The nurse practitioner did not learn after the first time he stuck a stick down his throat gagging him and causing him to vomit, he yet did it a second time to get a throat swab.  He did not have strep, so I did not get checked out since I managed to not get a fever.  We left with antibiotics, cough and throat medicine and took Jeremy up to rest in the nice comfy cozy hotel room, while my husband and I enjoyed a few hours poolside.  After letting my son catch up on rest, we headed to the Elvis show, another Circ show watching more performers flip, jam, sing, and defy gravity to Elvis music.  Fun, fun, fun!

Oops, I got a little off track with all the Vegas stuff....back to training....I managed to fit my "speed work" in on the strip the next morning, but by the time I figured out how to navigate Las Vegas Boulevard, my workout was nearly over.  I had to keep climbing up and across 2 bridging to cross every main intersection in town, so my first step workout I guess.  We only had a few hours to fit in a quick swim, stop off at The PAWN SHOP, where the reality tv show Pawn Stars is filmed that we love to watch and lunch in Boulder City....again just a few miles from the shores of Lake Mead.  My parents had to go pick up their dog and I once again was deprived of my OWS!  When you take a trip with other people and you  don't have your own car, you lose a little bit of control.

We spent the remainder of the week in Prescott to enjoy the cooler weather.   Now I could get back on track with workouts.   On Thursday, Scottie (my bike) got his first flat.  His tires comes off super easy and the only area I struggled with was getting air in the tube.  I wasted another CO2 cartridge...so back to the old drawing board with flat tire clinics now that Scottie is officially broken in.  He is actually ready for his 90 day tune up as he his clanking and talking back!  Got a few pool swims in at my parent's community fitness center in hot water (ugh, I hate hot water).  My 12 mile run was on a scenic path that used to be a railroad track around a lake, through large rock formations and through some ranches.  I was greeted by one mule deer and a few giant jackrabbits.  The next big ride was today on the other end of the Skull Valley Loop ride in Prescott.  We went out with the bike shop owners of our favorite bike store in Prescott called High Gear.  We went through downtown Prescott on Highway 89 through a scenic mountain pass and down to a town called Wilhoit and then back up and continued up a few more climbs to Thumb Butte, a popular rock formation that can be seen from all over Prescott and surrounding towns to complete a 3 hour ride.  The second weekend in altitude and climbing was a lot easier than the first, but 12 hours later, I am officially sore.  The temperature was perfect this morning in Prescott and then sadly we had to return to the Valley.

I did spend the afternoon on Friday reading the book IRONHEART about a young high school swimmer who who survived a terrible car accident several weeks after he graduated.  He had earned a college scholarship in swimming and he was on his way home from a swim workout when his car was struck by a dump truck.  It was about his journey from a Coma to Kona.  It was a fascinating story about survival and as a health care provider it was really enlightening to read about the patient's perspective from his first memories of waking up and trying to put the pieces together.  He was truly a survivor and another inspirational story for us Ironman wannabes and how the race has so much more meaning to most people that take it on.  It is rarely just about the race.  I could not put the book down, but if you are not interested in the medical miracles and are expecting the book to be about Ironman, you may want to choose a different story.  This books was about survival and second chances and not giving up.  Sometimes you cannot change the circumstances that surround you and you just have to go with the flow until you have the opportunity to make your move, continue on your journey, and cross the finish line.  You can probably bet that once you finally achieve your goal, there will be something new awaiting you around the corner.