Fast Forward to Friday afternoon - what a glorious day I spent at my "country club" - sun, swim, read, chill, chat...so nice. I don't know if I got on and off the floaty thing I was lazing on all afternoon too many times, or if I picked up my heavy beach back incorrectly, or if I just had a streak of plain bad luck, but no matter why or how, my lower back started to spasm as soon as I got in my car to head home.
The only thing I can compare these back spasms to are labor contractions; I can't talk 'cause they take my breath away, I can't move because it makes them worse, and you never know when they're going to start or stop.
Despite this, I had a few errands to do and no back spasms/labor pains were going to get in the way. So picture my pathetic ass walking first into CVS, finding water & advil, 3 minutes spent trying to open the water without twisting my back, popping 4 pills like it's nobody's business and making my way slowly back to the pharmacy. The gals were helpful and even though the didn't think they carried the Body Glide I needed, they did take the time to check their master inventory list. No Body Glide. Minor glitch. Except, I need this for tonight, because I'm swimming tonight. At this point I'm starting to really question whether I'll be able to get myself home, let alone swim, but I was determined and kept going.
Next stop, a few doors up at Olympia. Opening the door was quite a task in itself. I found myself breathlessly asking the "nice lady" a/k/a teen sales person, for "the stuff that helps prevent chafing in a wetsuit" - she pointed to it - on the lower part of a hanging rack. I'm seeing myself looking at her with puppy dog eyes telling her my back is bothering me and asking to please help a sister out. No problem. She's sweet and seems to understand. She grabs it for me and asks what else I need. Heading over to find thin and non-cotton socks; I'm so particular about my socks. Gotta be just right. So she's helping me look at the materials and I'm asking her to hand me a number of different packs of socks that were, of course, on the bottom of a display. Remember, they couldn't be cotton, had to be thin, my preference, of course, was something cute...O, and I don't want to spend $20 on socks. So this nice girl probably thought I was a freak show because as I said, those back spasms take my breath away and I lose my voice as they come and go all the while I'm trying to find the perfect socks on sale. Finally, success, I find what I want and they are on sale (I had to dig to the back to find them) $12.99 for six pair. I hope I like them 'cause they're going to last a while.
My next thoughts are of my open water swim, I'm super psyched about it - been looking forward to it all week...I'm finally gonna get in the water! Not once did I consider not going, but I had made a deal with myself that if I was in pain I would stop and try again the next day.
Fast forward through more back spasms, more frustrations and making it home.
I suddenly get the idea that I should put my tri suit on as "practice" before I go out for the swim with Ali. My "sudden ideas" are rarely sensible. In fact, they never are. But, I didn't want to put it on for the first time in front of anyone, even my dear Ali, for fear of humiliation. I followed all of the directions (it comes with directions of how to put it on!) and was really careful. Everyone says putting the suit on is the worst. Me to myself "How bad can it really be?" - Hmm, let's see, between Rich and I it took a good 1o-15 minutes of hopping around, coaxing/pulling/prodding that stinkin thing on.
Oh, back up to ordering the VORTEX. As I was shopping on line I realized I was right in the middle on the size chart so I asked some pros "should I go up a size or down" ? They all (except one) said go down. BAD choice. BAD Bad Bad. This tri suit is insanely difficult to put on and the XL would have been just fine. Trust me.
Fast forward to present day, I have to scoot now to go do my second open water swim followed by the bike route with Richy. I will finish the post soon. Here are some pics!
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