Blurred and Wavy

I am ashamed to admit it, but I actually texted Erica the following message Tuesday night as I was preparing dinner:

Help! I want to drink wine instead of swim tonite!

To which she responded:

Bad day at work?

And I answered:

Not really. Just have to wait til 7:30 [for pool availability] and the temptation is too great.

Followed a few minutes later by:

Forget it. I am so pathetic. Will swim tonite and have wine ltr.

And she said:

Well, think of it this way: if u do that u wont have 2 get up as early so u can drink more wine :)

I'm pretty sure talking an athlete out of drinking is not in her job description.

(Sheesh. How much did I feel like a loser?)

The thing is, now that summer is over, the pool I'd been swimming at after work (the lavish 50-meter outdoor pool) has closed. Sigh. So I am now beholden to my regular pool, and if I swim after work, it has to be after 7:30.

But I must have food before then! And not some crumbly protein bar. I want real food after work. And with real food, I want my end-of-day glass of wine.

Still, you have reached a new low when you text your swim coach because you want to drink instead of swim. I realized that as soon as I hit send.

So I sucked it up, drank lemonade with my dinner, and got to the pool around 8:00 for a short, but hard-effort practice.

I never did wind up drinking wine that night. I was too wiped out.

Next morning I woke up at 6:00 for a bike/run/bike/run/bike brick. I strapped my running shoes to my back, pedaled up the hill to the roads behind my house, set up my stuff by a stop sign, and sweated profusely for an an hour plus.

This particular neck of the woods is whisper quiet. Few cars travel the roads, houses peek out from behind trees, and neighbors can't really see to the next property. Nonetheless, anyone who might have been watching my antics would have thought I'd lost my mind.

Here's my workout, written on my arm because it's too complicated to remember:


Here's my bike leaning against the stop sign at the corner of Winding Road and Mink:


And my stuff:

(I know, this is all quite fascinating.)

And here's how I felt by the end:


Note the blurred and wavy pavement. Probably how I would have felt Tuesday night had I chosen to drink that glass (or two) of wine.

But I wouldn't have felt nearly as virtuous as I did after putting those two workouts in the bank.