A Bump In The Road

Well, I've had an interesting few days. I won't go into the details but on Friday night I started experiencing some symptoms that worsened enough by Saturday morning to send me to urgent care. I was told that until we know more, no exercise. NO EXERCISE?! no exercise? No swimming, no biking, no jogging. I have a follow-up appointment tomorrow morning. Ugh. Next week (now this week) is my last week with Jean at the pool. We were going to have me start swimming the tri length (400 meters + 100 just to be sure) to see how it goes. Now I can't, at least not with Jean. Wahhhhh!!! I figure if I'm all better by Thursday I can swim at least one last day with her, but to be honest, I'm not feeling too optimistic. I know my body and I don't think things are getting better that fast.

The neat thing was the nurse I had at Urgent Care is a cyclist and she was giving me all kinds of advice on how to handle this. It made me feel hopeful that I would indeed come out on the other side and still have a life. When I hit a bump in the road I often get scared it's going to derail me entirely. She reminded me that these things happen and we have to get up and carry on. And don't worry, I don't have some life threatening illness, just not something I want to be broadcasting on the 'net, ya know?

So I came home and packed up for Sonoma trying very hard to keep my spirits up while packing for the spa. Instead of meeting my mom in Sonoma she came and picked me up, which was nice, especially since I'm on pain meds and probably shouldn't be driving. We arrived at about 4pm and the place really is beautiful.

The weather was absolutely perfect too. We put our things in our room (isn't it pretty?) and headed down to the pool. We lounged for a while and ordered a late lunch/early dinner. I had an SLT, salmon, lettuce and tomato sandwich. It was yummy. With fries. We lounged until the sun went behind the buildings and then spent the rest of the evening watching bad TV in our room.

On Sunday we got up for brunch. I ate a ton of really good (bad) food. Bacon, French Toast, Butter, Biscuits & Gravy (!!), Crème Brûlée, etc, etc. But I did put Splenda in my coffee so it's all good. Oh, and can you see the Watermelon on my plate? I was trying. That plate is actually deceptive, it makes it looks like I'm doing good with my portion sizes but what you don't know is that was my second trip! Followed up by desert. Oh well. After filling up we went back to our room to rest.

Then it was off to the spa for our treatments.



I had a massage and Mom had a massage and pedicure. It was very hard to relax during the massage but I tried my best, though trying to relax is sort of the antithesis of relaxing. Still, it felt really good and sort of forced me into a state of relaxation. In between we rested by the pool. I recently ordered a book and it arrived on Saturday morning, Your First Triathlon by Joe Friel. I read it while resting poolside. I think it really kept my spirits up and I just realized that the book arriving when it did was a real stroke of luck. Mr. Friel is very encouraging and positive so while reading it I felt my tri is still a real possibility. I should get to reading it again because I'm feeling so doubtful today.

So I'm going to close with a few more pictures from Sonoma. First, here's a picture of the main room/lobby. I love the style.


Alright, I decided you needed to see what my first plate of food at brunch looked like. That French Toast was so good and I ate everything on the plate except the sausage and the potatoes (because they weren't that good).


For desert I had one of these and another little mini desert. I tried the flourless chocolate cake and a lemon cake but those weren't worth finishing. This Crème Brûlée was delicious. I reigned myself in and kept to just two deserts.


And finally, a picture I snapped just before my massage. It was a nice peaceful room with the faint smell of lavender and peaceful, meditative music.


So, I'm off to see a specialist tomorrow morning. I'll find out if I need outpatient surgery then. I'll be reading my new tri book to stay motivated and I'm going to eat as healthy and clean as I can the rest of the week to balance out the foody weekend. I hopped on the scale this morning and I was up 3 pounds (!!). I'm motivated to stay in the 160's if at all possible. I'm going to be honest, this really bums me out. It scares me a little too. Momentum is a big part of my program and without it I get afraid I'll fall off the wagon. So if you see a big empty wagon going down the road grab it for me and slow it down so I can hop back on!!