No Social Life

Every month, a group of girls I work and used to work with are getting together for dinner and chit-chat. I haven't made this outing for the past three months. For a get-together with another group of girlfriends, I suggested the week before Mitchell (aka taper week) for an evening out, because I expect to have a really low volume training week. Seriously, I don't have a social life these days.

I am not saying, that it wouldn't be possible or even good for me, to take a night off from my schedule every now and then. I even pencil these get-togethers in my training plan, so that no workouts are getting scheduled during that time, but a lot of the time stuff happens and the social plans are falling to the wayside right now. Possible stuff?

1. The weather was bad previously, so I am using my "free" evening to catch-up.
2. I haven't seen my husband all week, due to my training schedule and his work schedule.
3. I am tired. Got up at 4.30 that day and will get up at 4.30 the next day.
4. I cannot close the door of the laundry room anymore, because there is just too much laundry.
5. All of the above or a combination of some of these factors.

Last Sunday morning, I skyped with my mom and one of my aunts. I was tired, had a blazing headache and ran a slight fever (it lasted a couple of hours and then everything was fine again) and it showed. You know that you look bad, when your 70 something year old aunt (that has only 20% vision left in one of her eyes and a little more in her other eye) notices that you look like you are having a rough day.... over a grainy web cam. The first thing my mom said was: "Have you been out drinking?" Yes of course, because I sorta have a reputation for that... NOT... at least not since my party girl days have been over. Anywho, I actually had a drink the night before... one beer (a victory beer for my 100-miler - oh the irony!)... and I felt like I was doing vodka shots all night. Awesome! Another proof of my non-existent social life. While my bike training is going well, my beer lifting arm is pretty much out of shape, but something's got to give.

Besides them mocking me, the conversation after that mostly revolved around me missing out on fun stuff and why I do this to myself and if I don't miss free time, when the last time was, I had the nerve to read a book (obviously audiobooks didn't count for them) and when I will finally take a break, how in the world I keep up with my housework (answer: awesome husband and a good dose of ignorance)... yadi, yadi, yadi**.

**I can complain online about them, because a) they don't speak English or not enough to understand this and b) the number of times I troubleshoot their internet connection from 7,000 miles away makes me feel pretty safe! ;-)

Outside my circle of endurance athletes, I get a lot of head shaking and "you are crazy"s and that's okay. I would have done the exact same thing a couple of years ago. Quite honestly, I have athlete friends that do stuff (running a marathon, doing an ironman seriously people, get a life! ;-), that I still can't wrap my mind around.... But I also come to understand, that everyone is choosing their preferred "crazy". A friend of mine told me that I was crazy for doing Mitchell... she did an Ironman last year! Go figure!

To be honest, sometimes, I ask myself the same questions. Sometimes, I feel so run down, tired and worn out.... Sometimes, I have to remind myself, that all of this is just temporary and that I have to keep my eye on the prize. This too shall pass! ;-) And I know myself well enough, that once this is all said and done, I will be craving the next challenge. I talked to a girl at the Y yesterday and she volunteered for AOMM in the past and said that people get addicted to this ride and do it over and over again. In my mind, I just want to succeed this year, so I don't have to go back for more next year! But we'll see.... Never say never.

To be fair, while my social life in terms of dinners dates and beer drinking seriously lacks these days, I do spend a lot of time with awesome friends and get to meet new awesome people all the time while getting my training in. Even if this is a different kind of socialzing, don't call me a hermit quite yet! ;-)

PS: The pictures in this post are from last night's ride... You see? It's all worth it!!!