Am I really only going to work out a max of once per day for the next 10 days? It just seems wrong. I really enjoy working out in the morning and again in the evening. Well, most of the time anyway.
This morning I did squats, Romanian deadlifts, Swiss ball crunches holding a medicine ball, weighted step-ups and kettlebell swings. Then, 20 minutes on the stair climber with 3 x 2 minutes of intervals. I was soaked with sweat at the end of the workout, as usual.
Tomorrow morning, I'll run 8-9 miles with intervals. I think I'm going to do 5 x 3 minutes tomorrow, rather than the 2-minute repeats I've been doing.
I got most of my equipment packed yesterday for the race. I still need to get my running clothes packed up this week. I put the Velcro for my gaiters on 3 pairs of shoes yesterday - glued on so it will stay in place. I still have to portion out my Perpetuem into bags so my crew has an easy time mixing things. I think I packed about 7 or 8 lights for the trip. I use a headlamp and handheld at night. I have an extra headlamp to put at Last Chance, in case I'm at risk of getting to Michigan Bluff after dark. I have a back-up of each type of light in case one fails. Then, I have a few more lights for my crew and back-ups for my pacer. I should own stock in battery companies.
I did learn 3 years ago to not start the race with a light. Going uphill at a slow pace at the start, it gets light fairly quickly. If anything, I'd want to use a very small "throwaway" light at the start, but I'll pass on that this year.
My biggest worry right now is travel. I deliberately paid a bit extra for plane tickets that were only 2 flights rather than 3, and that avoided the Denver airport and the risk of afternoon thunderstorms. But, the airline has changed our flights about half a dozen times, and we are now going through both Chicago and Denver on Saturday. Because car rental prices are higher now than when I booked, I worry about getting gouged on our rental if we don't get in our original flight or to our original airport. That happened to us in 2005 and Enterprise doubled our rental fee because we arrived after midnight - on a separate calendar day. We are flying to Oakland, but San Francisco or San Jose would work just as well if there are issues with our primary flight. But, my car rental is set for Oakland.
To be perfectly honest, between the way airlines are struggling and treating customers, and the way TSA personnel treat passengers, flying simply isn't fun any more. For years, I flew a lot for business and I loved flying. I just don't enjoy it much at all any more. On my flight to Massanutten last month, some TSA dude spent about 10 minutes examining my passport with some sort of microscope, while everyone else in line kept streaming past me. Two Canadian passengers who went through the X-ray area close to me were treated very rudely by TSA staff. Even though we don't need the information, we are traveling with all kinds of identification for the kids and back-up forms of ID for my wife and me.
1 comment:
I ceased liking to fly a few years ago. I see it this way: back when I was in college (1978-1981), a round trip ticket from Austin to Washington DC was about 250 dollars; those were 1980 dollars.
By today's dollars:
What cost $250 in 1980 would cost $705.36 in 2007. Currently, it costs about 210 dollars.
Hence, flights are cheaper now, hence more crowded flights, less customer service, etc.
Folks choose flights by price, hence there is no "reward" for good customer service.
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