Patience Grasshopper

I am not naturally endowed with vast reserves of patience. What patience I do have has been developed and molded over years - half a decade of yoga and breathing techniques, years and years (and years) as admin/exec assistant, volunteering on a non-profit society's board of directors, and who knows what else. When I'm in the right frame of mind I can take a breath and stay calm and deal with whatever is testing my patience and get through it. When I'm not in the right frame of mind, say I'm suffering from a sinus cold and can't think straight or at times walk straight, then patience is a little harder to come by.

And I while I may be an inherently lazy person I'm a highly active lazy person, if that's not too much of an oxymron (I'll go for a run to get out of doing the dishes). It took me over a year to really grasp the concept of resting in my training - that I couldn't go for a brisk hour and a half walk to Granville Island after doing my long slow run or pick up for a game of ulti on my off day. Three days without exercise makes me cranky and a week without a good run leaves me twitching like an addict.

So it's been seven days and I'm still sick. My patience wore thin at day three. The twitching kicked in at day five. Not that I'm counting or anything but I've missed three swims, three runs, one Pilates class AND my tri club's year-end party. Yeah I can't breath but I really, really want to lace up my Nike's and run to the anchor at Locarno. And what about packing for my move this week? C'mon, I've slept all day, made a permanent dent on the couch, gone through litres of orange juice, done all the right things so I should be through this by now, right?

Sigh. So, I'm going to pack those runners in a box then take a deep breath, pour myself another glass of OJ, pop the Battlestar Galatica Season II DVD in the machine and become one with the couch for the evening.

First Post - Packing, Procrastinating, Head Colds and Ulti Updates

Not an auspicious start to my blog - I'm recovering from an horrific sinus cold and haven't been able to work out for a week. I'm supposed to be packing in preparation for my move but somehow I'm creating a blog instead.

It's a beautiful day and I'm itching to get outside and do something active - must take care to go easy and as I don't want to get sick and sit out another week.

Aside from recovering from a cold, where am I now in my training? I'm not being terribly scientific at the moment, I'm calling it "base building" as I'm trying to maintain fitness and build a bit of skill/strength. I'm in a masters swim program two days a week with a fantastic instructor, Paul Cross, and am loving that. I'm doing Pilates once a week to keep up my core strength and trying to get out to run three times a week as I'm doing a half marathon in November. Somehow biking is the one thing I miss out on, and that's really where I'm weakest. I really should be in the gym doing some stregth work too (where do people find the time??). Once I'm moved and over this cold I'll be back out on my bike and better able to figure out my schedule.

In non-triathlon news - big shocker at UPA Club Championships as Fury beat Riot. The Seattle powerhouse finally goes down! The Open final is 8-6 Sockeye over Furious. C'mon boys, bring back another title!