Vegas, Yoga and Iron-Nightmares ~ Oh My!

Well, as is usual in my blog cycle, there has been a bit of a lull since my last post.

That said, I feel like it was with good reason this time around ~ a Vegas vacation!

It was planned way back in July, Shane and I would jet off to Vegas with our good friends, Sean and Kelly (not coach Kelly, but ‘Sweet-Kel’ Kelly), for our first taste of Sin City, in between my yoga training weekends. After we booked our flights, I kind of put the adventure out of my mind and didn’t really even start thinking about it again until a few weeks before our departure date, when Sean contacted me about booking a hotel. It was like, “Oh yeah, Vegas. Right.”

I usually research and read and plan for trips, but with Vegas, every time I started doing any sort of reading I just got completely overwhelmed, and so, I headed to “The Entertainment Capital of the World” with very little knowledge or expectation. I knew I wanted to see a Cirque show and I knew I wanted to go for a run along the Strip, and that was about it.

Arrival in Sin City. Matching sweaters, matching hats.

What a crazy land of EXCESS. It was fun, but it was exhausting. We walked, we shopped, Shane gambled, (I played roulette once, won $50 and cut my losses), we ate, oh and did I mention we walked? We saw a Cirque show (two, in fact) and I got in not one, but two “early” morning runs along the strip.

Frrrrozen Hot Chocolate - Sooo Goood!

Walking + Taking Photos = This Masterpiece

I imagine that only in Vegas can you be running along, and in the short span of an hour:

1) High five two drunk guys with guitar shaped drinking glasses who have obviously not been to bed yet (and feel like you totally made their day with a simple high five).

2) In the next block, have Elmo cheer you on and fake run beside you.

3) Shortly after, have a 300-pound(ish) drag queen with sparkly boob tassels (and a very big tummy) actually run with you for a block. (It may have just about killed him).

4) Capped off with a lovely serenade from Elvis.

Not my Running Drag Queen friend, but he may have been this sparkly.

I may have done some running, but this is about as close as I came to swimming.

All in all, it was a pretty fun experience. Crazy, but fun.

Upon our return, it was back to work for two days before getting nailed with a cold just in time for the Remembrance Day long weekend and the Thetis Lake relay.

Friday morning I woke up feeling like death. Like DEATH I tell you! But, I figured the run at Thetis might help loosen things up and make me feel better – and it was a relay, so I couldn’t really not do it, and let down team tskk-tskk (Tyler, Shane, Kirsten, Karyn – creative, non?).

In the moment, the run, it did not help. It was possibly the worst run around Thetis I’ve ever had. I walked – and not just on the big hills at the end – and felt like every part of my body that is not supposed to cramp, cramped. It hurt, and not in a “hurts-soo-good” way.

Thankfully, my teammates (ahhh, family) realized it was all just for fun and they didn’t hold my slow time against me… and we still managed a 3rd place finish in the ‘Family’ division. Mind you, if I had run like I know I can, we would have got 2nd. Next time I suppose, next time.

Following the relay it was time for Yoga Teacher Training. I didn’t know how I was going to make it through a full weekend of YTT feeling like I did, but thankfully we did a tonne of gentle restorative style classes and I awoke Saturday morning feeling quite a bit better. There is something to this yoga thing afterall ;) Oh, and I even nailed my “mid-term stances” exam on Sunday! Yay me!

Of other note, I’ve returned to the world of being a coached athlete and will be back training under Kelly’s (not Vegas Kelly) guidance from now through NZ.

I feel an odd sense of relief not having to worry about coming up with my own training schedule and knowing there will be someone there to hold me accountable to skipped workouts, etc. (Not that I really ever skip workouts, but if I did, well, you know).

Although, happy in my decision to be coached again, oddly enough, I had my first ever Ironman nightmare last night. WTF?

I didn’t have an Ironman nightmare in my entire lead up to IMC 2010 and yet, last night, I tossed and turned as I dreamt about not packing my transition bags and special needs bags correctly and not getting to the start line on time because I was dealing with these effing bags. Feck. IMC 2012 is still 285 days, 14 hours and change away and I’m already having nightmares? So much for it “not feeling quite so scary” this time around.

Also, I saw this photo today. I love it.

My new mantra perhaps?