"What? Where?" I asked.
I am so unobservant. Wedding rings? I don't notice them. You lost a tooth? You're going to have to tell me, because I won't see it on my own.
And this is how I was reminded that I could not pursue my dream of being a secret agent or a girl detective... those two jobs require a keen sense of awareness, which is something I definitely do not have.
So back to the other dream/reality: Being an athlete.
Two weeks ago, I woke up with no voice. It had been a stressful week. I lost my job, crashed my car onto the side of a cliff, was home alone and my best friend was in Thailand. All of that toppled on 14-20 hour training weeks and I was done.
"Take a rest day," Josh told me while we chatted on the phone.
"Hahahaha. Right. Maybe I won't swim in the morning," I teased.
"Well, you hate swimming, so that doesn't count," he reminded me.
"Swimming is bad for you anyway," Jason told me the next day. He hates swimming, too, obviously.
Knowing that I was going to sleep in and not swim the next day, I decided to start a movie... at 11:23 in the evening. Bad call. The next day I woke up groggy and feeling even worse.
"Hey, guess what," I texted Josh. "I did not work out today."
"Did you break your leg?" Came his reply.
Then I did something foolish. I went for a long bike ride in 20 degree weather. That probably was not the worst decision, it was more the fashion choice I made. Since I just moved to Oregon recently, I have not purchased cold weather cycle gear. I wore shorts. After only 3 minutes on the bike, I could not feel my fingers. They had frozen over and could not move. I debated turning back, but I was determined to get out on The Thunder. By the time an hour had passed, my legs were wind burned and I had frostbite on my fingers and toes.
My body looked like an immobile stick figure when I got off the bike. Walking like a mummy to the tub, I turned on the warm water and waited for the tub to fill. Then I stuck my toe in. At first, there was no feeling then...
Ow! Ow ow ow!
Tears streamed down my face as I jumped out of the tub. Agonized yells escaped from my mouth. I grabbed at my toes, but nothing helped. I sobbed as I looked at the tub I knew would be the only remedy, the most painful remedy I could think of at that moment. No one was home. No one could help me. It was just me and the tub. I tried again and forced my feet to stay planted, then slowly sank my body into the water. It was one of the most terrible feelings on earth. Remember when you were a wild teenager and thought getting out of the hot tub, rolling in the snow then jumping back in was a great idea? It wasn't a great idea. It was stupid. Take that stupid idea and multiply it by 4. That was the decision I made.
Over it!
But I had a fantastic training week despite the cold weather. I kicked butt on the Strava leader boards and hit all my goals on my swim sessions.
Dear Summer,
Please come soon.
Love,
The cold girl with the cold
No comments:
Post a Comment