absolute insanity

I don't know how you people north of the border do it. I haven't been able to even think of a run or ride in this weather. All I can do is huddle in my folks' RV, park myself under a heater and wait for the day we go home. The sky is grey, there is no blue, there is no joy, it is depressing as hell and I think I'm slowly going insane and I've only been 'in country' 2 days. I don't even want to THINK about exercise and going outside in that frigid weather - how do you people stand this? I'm frozen at 20C - I'm not sure how the temps compare because the US is not metric but the rental car shows mid 50s - OMG I just want to huddle in warmth and count the days until we go home. Luckily I'm working so I can excuse my lack of exercise with work but hell, at home, I was counting the hours until I got my first bike ride or run in and midday meant swim (with my 14yo) and hope no rays or cuddas but now my clock is all messed up (we went from Central to Pacific) and I'm depressed as hell. And it rains All The Fucking Time.

Geez, you people are gods to exercise in this weather. I need to find some motivation and figure something out as my ass is just spreading wider and my belly is growing to meet my "desk." One of my daughters said something cute the other day - our first day? - as she filled the bath (which she hasn't had in over a year) she remarked that "Aunty Chris must be really rich to use drinking water for a bath!"

el otro lado

Gawds I'm scared to death. It has been FREEZING here (15C one morning) and I wore a down jacket all day today (I don't think it got over 25C and I even wore a turtleneck and knickers on the bike - if I'd had tights I would have had those on too. I FINALLY saw the dead coral snake today on the road. We have a LOT of road kill - snakes, raccoons, dogs, bats, birds - but the coral snake was an enigma to me. I kept missing it over and over. Today I decided if I had to go back to see it, I'd turn the damn bike around and do just that. Thankfully I didn't need to turn the bike around as the wind was WICKED today. It was so hard - we had wind both ways - and demoralizing. But since I'm injured (I tore my calf muscle REALLY WELL last week) I don't worry about anything but getting my butt in the saddle. Today I took it super easy and really did not push much at all.

But yeah, I'm scared. We're headed to el otro lado tomrrow and while it won't be snow we visit it may as well be. Most Mexicans go to the beach over vacaciones. We are instead headed for frozen California. I am scared to death I won't leave my sister's guesthouse the entire time we're gone, too afraid of the frigid, frozen freezingness of coldness.

Pic is from my last run - the one where I tore my calf muscle. Yet afreakingain.

Oh, and if you see a family without shoes (who needs shoes where we live - SERIOUSLY WE DON'T HAVE SHOES) but chanklas and a dog and shivering, huddled under a heater at either DFW or SFO, throw us a blankie, K? And I may as well apologise for our return - this is our stock up trip so we're heading out with empty suitcases and will bring them back full (although the last 2 years here have brought so many changes you can get so many more "things" than ever before, but you can't beat thriftstores for clothing 4 kids). Now I guess I'll see how all of you guys deal with training in the winter (ooh, I'm so SKEERED!)

la virgincita otra vez

So, for some reason I figured everyone would know exactly what I'm talking about but I guess I've been out of the US culture too long. :)

Here are photos from 2007 (I think) You will note that the weather was much more normal. We might have just hosted a conference on global climate change and everyone complains about the heat storms but we have had very mild summers and wicked cold winters for the past 2 years. It is disconcerting at the least.

My friend Joanna just posted on celebrations in Merida for la virgincita and here is my post from a few years ago with even more virgin links.

This year I got very few pictures but I attached one here - the camera sucks so you can barely see the group huddled at the side of the road. Our last ride we saw a giant group with ropes and they were walking but by the time we'd gotten to our retorno and headed back they were long gone. I suspect they were headed for Pto Adventuras and not PdC.

It is FREEZING here. More freezing than freezing on el otro lado as we don't have any source of heat other than the sun or the car heater. So we are freezing. Frozen. Icicles. People in the jungle die from the cold, so it really is serious and we're lucky to have 4 walls we can huddle in. That reminds me to check and make sure Don Beto has blankets.

la virgincita

Every time we get out on the carretera (pic is Jamie headed out ahead of me to the carretera) I'm reminded how lucky we are to ride here. Even though the roads are FLAT and we're only able to ride the carretera (only paved road for hundreds of kilometers) the drivers we share the road with are amazingly polite. The doble semi-remolques (I'm not sure what they are in the US - 2 18-wheeler like trailers pulled by one semi) will always pull into the next lane to pass us and oncoming traffic will wait for us to pass at retornos before making their retorno (so as to not interrupt and make us stop). We're always given wide berth by all cars and it is hard to imagine the rage that cyclists in the US get.

We're deep in the season of pilgrims for La Virgin and they're all over the carretera going both north and south, running and cycling. I hope to get some pictures tomorrow assuming my leg will hold up to a cycle since I tore it pretty badly last run. It was acting up and I decided to stretch it, but a stretch was the WORST decision I could have made. I then walked around on it all day today at the COP 16 climate change exhibition and that was another bad idea. Since Jamie absolutely trashed himself today trying to attain a 22mph average I'm hoping he'll be tired enough tomorrow for an easy day on the bike. I'm not sure what this calf has in it for cycling when I'm hobbling on foot.

lessons in either futility or patience

Wholee fuck but I was pissed during the ride today.

Running wasn't bad. (pic is from my only run route)

How is it possible that I was regularly hitting under 1:18 for the ride, getting faster and faster each ride the first two weeks and plateauing a bit the 3rd week, but this week has been just AWFUL. I had a 1:30 ride and yesterday just squeaked under 1:19 and today was 1:21. I'm getting slower and slower and I Do Not Like it Sam I am.

I've decided to run out towards Janten again even if I can't run my usual mileage (I stuck to 10 min runs this week), even though I have to pass the palaperos each time (and I'm sure they're wondering WTF this gringa is doing running out and then (seemingly) turning around immediately and going back. Is she too much of a pussy for a REAL run? Gawds. They probably don't even notice me.

So Jamie says from now on, no timers allowed on the bike. I tried today to make it Not About The Time and really succeeded until I got near cenote row and realized just how slow my time was going to be and lost it. I had planned to enjoy the ride, look down the dirt paths (off the carretera), wave to the taxistas, wave to the vigilencia at the compounds (they must be at compounds, I mean really, what ELSE are they there for?), find the coral snake (road kill) Jamie saw last time and ignore the clock. I think I would have been a LOT more successful had I not STARTED the damn clock to begin with. And I did pretty well for the first hour. I waved to the taxistas, waved to the vigilencia, missed the fucking snake (but saw all the dead raccoons) and then got pissed.

I can't figure out why I'm going backwards but Jamie says I'm not. He also says the wind patterns have changed and we're getting a constant headwind all the way back and the week I was doing 1:13 and 1:14 was an anomaly. I'm not sure I believe him. Oh, and my legs are ALWAYS sore. Ugh.

I guess I could concentrate on taking pictures and ignore the fucking clock. I hate being so slow. Hmph.

I got my ass back! (in more ways than one)

I didn't have to ice my ass after today's ride!!! However, I've been eating us out of house and home and my ass is bigger than ever (as evidenced by the 2 kg gain this past month).

I honestly thought I had something wrong with that sit bone but either it is converting to standing desk (last week only) or just time in the saddle - either way I'm no longer in pain. Such sweet relief. Unfortunately I had a horiffic ride on Thursday (just slow and no reason for it) and tried to redeem myself today but could only squeak out 1:18:50. Sigh. at least it was 10 min faster than Thursday's epic but nowhere near my fastest at 1:13ish.

Jamie says I've only been on the bike almost a month and not to worry about it and that I should be getting a new feel for the bike and not even thinking about time. So that's what I'm going to start doing - not even starting the timer and just go with heart rate. We'll see how that goes.

I got 3 runs in this week (10 min each) but slacked seriously on Wed and Fri - I did NOTHING (but stuff my face) both days. I just had no desire to swim, yoga or run. I need a serious kick in the ass. The weather has been so cold lately that I just loathe to get out in the water and since I'm only running 10 min it just doesn't seem worth it to even go, but I know that will get me nowhere. So sigh double.

Both boys are sick with the death cough, fever, aches and yuckiness and I am hoping the girls and I can avoid it. Course, we'll probably come down with it right in time to travel (going back to the US for Xmas). Pounding the vitamin C and getting lots of sleep and hoping for the best.

Se me lo perdio el animo.

Seriously I have NO IDEA what was wrong today. My affect was depressed the whole ride and my legs were sore but not the deadest they've been - I just had no animo, no heart, no ganas. So have a new personal worst. It didn't help that the wind was BLASTING at us coming home (but that is par for the course) but I rarely went over 30kph going out. It was an awful ride and I would have turned around 100 times if Jamie had not been with me. I have no idea what to blame this awful performance on. Well, other than myself. Ugh.

Oh, I almost forgot - it was FREEZING the whole way - 22 or 23C and I just wanted to curl up and die.

BUT, the new Pto Adventuras Chedraui looks OPEN! I've never seen such construction here in Mexico. They worked Saturday afternoon, Sunday AND MOndays! We're looking forward to checking it out and only going 6km (one way) instead of 15 for market.

The weather has turned - it was lovely for the IM at Cozumel but now it is dreadful and 23C. UGH. I fear a repeat of last year's winter and am depressed just at the thought.

Now that I've sat a bit and thought, I think I'll do my run later this afternoon. It is only 10 minutes so I hate even getting dressed (which is why it is perfect after a bike ride) but now that I've gathered strength there really is no need to lop it off the schedule entirely. Just need to get the 14yo going on his algebra first. :)

My legs are ALWAYS sore. I wonder what to do. I started taking magnesium about a week ago but that's really not doing anything.