Canoeing is the best race recovery

So far, in my limited experience, recovering from 50Ks is easier than marathon recovery (knock on wood). The distance may be longer, but the slower pace, breaks at the aid stations, and soft running surface are all kinder to your body than 4 hours of pounding the pavement.

On Monday I didn't exactly bound out of bed feeling fantastic, but the diaper rash cream (the best cure for chafing) had done it's job, so I was no longer covered in burning welts. Now, my upper body just appears to have been mauled by a bear. 

I live in a flat, third floor apartment, which can be deceiving in terms of detecting soreness. My walk to the kitchen to get my coffee might feel fine. The true test is always when I leave for work, and go down several flights of stairs. I was running late (due to blogging, that's how devoted I am) and so the trip down the stairs didn't even register as anything unusual, which was a good sign.

I am on a committee to turn my school into a Maryland Green School. Monday, the committee took a trip to an environmental nonprofit organization in Annapolis that works to preserve the Chesapeake Bay (Baltimore and Annapolis are located along the bay), looking to get some ideas on how to make our school more environmentally friendly.

The trip involved touring the facility and the grounds, and I felt a bit stiff after the hour long ride, especially on the stairs, but not too bad.

The trip also involved touring the bay. In a canoe.

Learning how to get the canoes in the water

 I ended up being in charge of steering, which was a lot more tricky than I expected. Our canoe traveled in a similar manner to my open water swims: zigzagging all over the place and covering approximately three times the distance we actually needed to.


This morning, I attempted some swimming. I was doing pretty well until I hit 1,500 yards and then got really nauseous. Probably because instead of hydrating, I spent the whole day after my 50K sweating my ass off (seriously, a grey shirt was a bad choice) outside. Then I came home and was working on my grad school project, and sat for hours thinking "I'm so thirsty!" but was too lazy to get up to get some water. 


Usually I'd try to push through for at least a bit, but I was all "I'm recovering! I don't even have to be working out! This is extra" so I did another 100 yards and left. But the guy who was sharing my lane stopped me and asked how long it took me to get to the point where I could swim for so long. For a second I thought he was being sarcastic, but then I realized that was stupid. So while I'm fairly certain I'll be one of the last swimmers finished in my triathlon next weekend, some random old guy at the YMCA thinks I'm special. It's all relative.


I needed to go to my friend's house today to work on our grad school project. She only lives about 3 miles away, so I decided it was time to start project "stop being a lazy piece of crap who drives everywhere even when it's totally unnecessary" and make use of my bike. 


I locked the door from the inside, then went to lock the deadbolt. Turns out the key I took off my key ring to put in my bento bag on my bike was to my mom's house. Extremely helpful. I called Eric, who was fishing on some dinky boat, and he told me it would take him hours to get to shore and get home. When Eric isn't working, he spends pretty much every spare second either at home or at the gym, which is like a mile away. So managing to lock myself out the ONE time he was actually unavailable was a bit of a feat.


However, Eric reminded that we live in an apartment complex, and all I had to do was go to the rental office and ask them to let me in. Duh. Crisis averted. I rode to my friend's house, and all was well.


Tonight is the informational meeting for my 5K training program! I'm terrified to address adults - hopefully I can sound legit!


What's the latest dumb thing you've done? I'm not sure which was dumber - bringing the key to my mom's house, or freaking out that I was actually locked out instead of just going the quarter mile to the leasing office right away.