Regaining my mojo

I've been woefully negligent about participating in blogland the past couple weeks! First there was my week-long trip to Oxford, UK where I was a worker bee at the Skoll World Forum. And I mean work: 7 am to 11 pm every day. I managed to get in 1.4 hours of training that week. But on the plus side: I escorted Desmond Tutu to his car, brought hot tea to Queen Noor of Jordan, and briefly met Jude Law (who is, in fact, just as good-looking in person but unfortunately he knows it.)

I got home late Sunday, had one day to unpack, fit in a bike ride, do laundry, repack, and then fly out on Tuesday to St. Louis. I spent a day with my best friend from 6th grade, and we had a great time catching up on exciting things that 12-yr old girls do... like re-enacting Xanadu almost every day on roller skates in my driveway. Fun times. Ha.

Then I drove 1.5 hours to Southern Illinois University to participate and speak in a conference for 2 days, drive back to St. Louis to hang out at the airport Holiday Inn, and attempt to fly home the next morning. Things didn't exactly go as planned... thanks to thunderstorms through the midwest, I missed my connecting flight in Chicago and barely got home in time for my hot date. My planned swim got bagged, along with a few other training sessions that week. I have no idea how people manage to train and travel.

So... about 8 hours of training for 2 weeks, and no swimming to speak of. My first swim back was titled "this swim will kick your ass." Yep... that it did. It's amazing how much 2 weeks off will push your swim fitness off a cliff! I have a lot of work to do.

Last week I just did not have my training mojo. It was ridiculously hard going from a dead stop back up to full training... it felt a bit like trying to ride uphill in the big chain ring from a complete stop. The only thing I was excited about doing was a 55 mile ride this past weekend... it was by far my longest ride, and the weather could not have been nicer. So my legs are actually still a bit trashed, but that ride gave me a bit of momentum.

Then today was my first open-water swim of the season. I finally bought my own wetsuit this weekend and was ready to try it out... in 53-FREAKIN'-DEGREE WATER. O#*%#%$&! I'm not good with being cold, and only lasted about 20 minutes. What a relief to get that over with! One thing I was really happy about: I didn't have the physical effects of cold water that I endured last year (like asthma as soon as my face hit the cold water.) This time around, my body actually remembered that it's not going to die in cold water, and it didn't take long to acclimate and start swimming. The other good thing...

I got my mojo back.

As much as I dreaded doing this swim, I confess... I felt a tiny bit bad-ass. I enjoyed struggling into my new and very tight wetsuit. I loved the sun, the salt water, the slight chop, the sound of a seal barking, the tourists watching the crazy chick swimming in Aquatic Park. This little swim got my mindset back into the world of triathlon, and it was actually pretty fun. I just wish it weren't so freakin' cold.

Then tonight was a trainer session that I had to abort due to (more) glute problems. I'm pretty sure my hip is out of whack again, thanks to walking all day through airports after losing a heel on my right shoe. So I'll be putting in an emergency call to my magic man who fixed me up last time, and have my fingers crossed that he can get me in quickly. I have some much-needed hill training to do this week!