Thursday, October 17, 2013

kitchens and rest

Since I seem to have loads of extra free time now that I'm only allowed to swim, I've been catching up on blog reading.  Some of the expats around the country are sharing kitchen photos and I'm jumping on that particular bandwagon (since it is the only jumping I'm likely to be doing in the near future).  I'm really having a hard time with this imposed "rest" as I should be in a huge build right now, training 15 to 20  hours a week and all I think about is how my ass is spreading and how life is going to suck so badly going into the IM half assed.  Blah, blah, blah.  But really, I'm very disappointed.  Not sure if I'll go back to the doctor Friday...

So, back to kitchens...  Here on the peninsula, most all kitchens are outside.  It really is quite logical to have all the heat producing outside your sleeping area and whenever we go to Cozumel and stay in a house I'm once again reminded how weird it is to have all your heat producing activity inside the house where you want to be cool.  But then again, I'm always FLOORED at the shock of warm water coming out of a faucet anywhere, so there is that.


The kitchen is at the back of the palapa  (keeps the dust and dirt and malathion or DDT or whatever they spray) a bit removed from the food.  Actually when the spray trucks come by, we cover most of the kitchen with towels and move the moveable stuff (anything on counters) into the girl's recamera.  The big white fridge is not dirty - that is rust and, yeah, likely some dirt also.  Funny story about that fridge.  We had a very small (for our family) 6 cubic foot or something fridge and a neighbor was upgrading their fridge so they put that one out on the road.  It might have been there 10 minutes and I grabbed Jamie and we wrestled it into our palapa and 4 or 5 years later it is still working like a champ.  We have only one shelf in it though, so all the tall stuff goes there.  We really needed a 2nd fridge as, with 4 kids, you can imagine we needed more than 1 shelf for fridge space so we got the silver fridge on deep discount at Sams.


this is what is the other side of the counter looks like.  We (obviously) have no doors on the cupboards - how would the jungle animals get their snacks or the cockroaches get their homes or the spiders get their meals?  We're thoughtful that way.  Down here it just doesn't make sense to have cupboard doors as stuff inside the cupboard will mold and rot without the air flow.


Saturday, October 12, 2013

and the long stuff begins


So I've actually been able to drag Jamie out with me on the longer rides this year.  We did a 125 km ride the weekend before last, out the road to Coba from Tulum and it was really nice for him to ride on a new road.  I've ridden out that road a number of times before and honestly I don't like it.  There are dogs out there and the road surface sucks but it was really nice to listen to him oooohing and ahhhing over all the new stuff.  When you have only 1 road for hundreds of kilometers, you get excited by the smallest things.



then last weekend we were aiming for 5 hours and ended up headed down past Tulum a little south of Muyil.  We passed a lot of newly developed cenotes once past Tulum and I have an itch to go check them out.  Might have to wait until after IMCOZ.  Might be good to check out with the folks.  The road was SO QUIET out there- no dogs, no cars, just the road, the sun, the jungle and us.




a very hot Jamie with 45 km left to go on his longest ride yet (150km). stopped in Tulum for cold drinks


I had a 14km trail run scheduled for Sunday (tomorrow) and had been wondering how I was going to fit in work Saturday, the run Sunday, taking Ellen for nail polishing, more work, and a long ride.  I inadvertantly found a way on Thursday night after my bike ride.  I've had achy hips for probably a year now but only on the bike and figured if it was a real problem I would have them on the run also.  Made sense to me...

even the bikes had shade in Tulum.  So after my usual Thursday ride (and I'm getting better and better keeping my HR at 85% on those short rides) it really hurt to get off the bike.  My left hip has been off and on waking me at night and bothering me but not enough to really call my attention.  This got my attention.  By bedtime I could barely move and was in enough pain to take tramadol (which allowed me to sleep fitfully).

i figured it would be better by morning but it wasn't.  Google and the guys at Slowtwitch didn't really narrow the diagnosis down much so Dailene gave me a referral to a doctor who treats Los Tigres in Cancun and Jamie and I headed off last night to see what he said.  Apparently it is trochanteric bursitis and he gave me a few meds to take since I declined the injection.

Honestly, if you want your patient to get an injection, don't describe it as "a really, really long needle and I'll try to aspirate what I can, but the fluid is gelatinous, and then I'll inject a TEEENY TEENSY TINY, just the SLIGHTEST HINT of steroid".  Really?  that's your pitch?  Immense pain followed by more intense pain followed by the slightest hint of pain relief? 

But this morning I'm thinking I might just take the bus up there sometime next week as the clinic is SUPER close to the bus station and get a nice injection.  He said last night 3 weeks before I can train again.  I have 7 weeks to IMCOZ.  Ramping up my training from running injury.  Honestly, I can't afford the time off.  BUT, since I can't train this weekend, you will find me glued to the computer (either working or watching IM Kona coverage) and taking my youngest to get her nails done.  I should have no excuse to hit 12.5 K swimming next week now that my shoulder is back to normal.  Dayum, bodies tend to break down when you get old, eh?