Pool Noir, green hair threats and assorted tales from the road

This week I had my first crack at attempting to maintain some semblance of my training program while traveling for work. I thought I had everything worked out to fit everything in; sadly, though, my own stupidity led to the demise of one of my swim workouts.

There aren’t many times I indulge in pampering or salon-type niceties, but I decided to get some highlights in conjunction with a much-needed hair cut on Tuesday night. Turns out highlights and chlorine are a bad combination, especially for blonde hair (maybe if I wasn’t a blonde, I might have actually thought through that on my own), so my Wednesday swim workout turned into a quick core workout instead. My stylist basically told me she couldn’t guarantee I wouldn’t turn my hair green if I dunked my newly highlighted hair in the pool Wednesday—while I’m not opposed to living on the edge, green hair and business trips are typically not a good combination. So, my trip started with me one workout down for the week—didn’t make me too happy, but, as I continue to read in my IM books, life happens and I shouldn’t beat myself up too much about missing an occasional workout.

I flew to New Jersey Wednesday morning and had work stuff and a work dinner that day, so Wednesday ended up being basically a rest day—fine by me. Thursday morning, I hit the hotel fitness center at about 5:45 am (no easy feat for the non-morning person accustomed to the central time zone) to get in my run. The treadmill was in metric units, and at that time of day, my engineering brain was not wholly up to the task of converting kilometers to miles, so it was interesting—but I ended up getting in my 4 miles (4.05 to be exact). After our meeting Thursday, the rest of the work gang headed back to Chicago, but I stayed through Saturday to spend some time with my friend Jenny, who conveniently lives close to where our meeting was.

Jenny is also a triathlete, and I took full advantage of her local training haunts, including her slightly scary and very interesting pool for my swim Friday morning. When she told me it was part of a hotel, I was a little surprised, but I was totally unprepared for what awaited me. For starters, the pool area was approximately the same temperature and humidity as Kansas City in late July—really freaking hot and about a million percent humidity. The water temperature was measured at a whopping 89 F—basically bath water. Better yet, though, the whole area had a “film noir” look to it—bare concrete (except the lovely indoor/outdoor turf on the floor) and really sketchy lighting—I kept expecting a single lightbulb to be swinging from the ceiling and flickering on and off. Hence, the “pool noir” reference in the title of this entry. And, it was a 70-ft pool—which we didn’t find out about until the end of my workout, so I ended up about 400 meters short of what I was supposed to do. Nonetheless, though, I can’t complain—if it wasn’t for Jenny and her pool membership, I would’ve missed two swim workouts instead of just one, and it was a decent workout. Plus, Jenny’s a strong swimmer, and she gave me some hints as to how to improve my form—always much appreciated.

After the swim, we headed into Manhattan and hit the Metropolitan Museum of Art (I love art museums and Jenny can’t ever find anyone to go with her) and had an awesome, laid back kind of day. Saturday morning, I took off running around her neighborhood—she gave me a ~4.5 mile loop to start with, and I added another 2.5 miles to make it an even 7 miles. Conveniently, my 7-mile mark was the front door to a Starbucks about a half-mile from her place, so I grabbed coffee for both of us and enjoyed a leisurely cool-down walk back to her place to enjoy my latte. After meeting another friend for lunch, it was off to scenic Newark airport to sit around while I kept watching my flight delay add up…but at least I didn’t get back too late—plenty of time to hop on my trainer for a quick 40 minute bike ride.

While I was at the airport, I got a call from Chris at the Bike Shop—my bike is ready to go!!! Unfortunately, though, he gave me the wrong price on the race wheelset we had discussed, so I need to rethink some things about what I want/need and what I’m willing to pay. Also, looking at my schedule for the upcoming week, it looks like I may have to wait until Saturday to check out my shiny new bike…a bit of a bummer, but at least it’s ready to go!! I’ll post pictures when I get it…