Picked the wrong day to rest...

So, considering how much these trail races have been kicking my ass (aka taxing my central nervous system) I thought it might be a good idea to take a rest day. Really I should have taken Monday off considering how beat I turned out to be when I showed up to work out. But last week on what should have been my rest day I couldn’t help myself from a hot yoga session (in my defense my shoulders were very tight prior to that), and so this week I promised myself I would take a complete rest day on Friday.

So I slept in which was quite nice, as was checking the horses that chill on Signal Hill in the morning. Is there any place as cool as Tamboerskloof? Of course I had to go out to the balcony anyway … the last few days I’d been risking my neck craning over three stories of pavement to turn the water on and off (there was a leak and I wanted to be a responsible citizen and conserve water when I was out or asleep). Well, hey, if it’s not a little bit dangerous it’s not South Africa.

Then the shower curtain collapsed in the bathroom (who cares, right?) but somehow this combined with large amounts of water everywhere managed to delay me to the point where I was nearly late for work! I did not want to be late since the woman in charge of CSI for SA Breweries was coming in to talk to us. And if there’s one thing I [used to] like, it’s beer. It’s just … well, when Amstel is a premium beer, there is a real problem. That and the carbs. What I wouldn’t do for a case of Harpoon IPA right about now. I’ve been listening a lot to the Jack Parow song I Miss so here’s a couple things I miss from the States (in no particular order, and I’m not including people in this list for obvious reasons):
• Good beer :-P
• Amazon.com
• Dunkin Donuts
• Decaf coffee & tea, in general
• Google Maps (the real stuff…being able to search for things like ABSA Cape Town would be a real boon, thank you very much)
• Google Maps on the iPhone
• Reliable mail order
• My cat Hector (and also Tiger, T2, and Ellie!)
• Stores that sell Mizunos … I am hoping my mail-order ones arrive in short order, reliable mail order notwithstanding….
• Oddly enough, Spanish!
• Banana flowers
• Properly-raised turkeys

I did manage to find rosewater and fish sauce, so things could be worse. And you can get whole warthog legs around here which would be great if I ate pig.

After the talk the morning started off with a laugh as I got some work done while our CEO announced my role change to a room full of people (according to him he told them I was “considering” this role change, but that’s not exactly what I heard from the people coming out of the meeting … who knew I was so popular anyway??). So much for 24 hours to consider it. Well, whatever, I made this decision on the spot a few nights ago in the parking lot talking to him and we both knew it. I don’t generally take a lot of time to decide things, like when I was 18 or whatever and decided to drop out of school to go work for Jeeves. But I think it is only just now sinking in what I have gotten myself into … most definitely the red pill. Off topic but as far as I’m concerned the Matrix is not a trilogy but a single movie.

So Friday was a heart “play day.” We spent part of the day in team-building activities, which consisted of trying to solve a murder mystery invented by our lovely and talented Christina. I am pleased to report that our team won the competition (of course since the prize was a plate of home-made brownies this doesn’t matter all that much to me since I don’t eat such things… maybe I will have a tiny taste!).

One of the interns from Norway who observed my business coaching session at Purple Heart the day before was full of praise. She told me that I was “glowing” when dealing with these girls, that the two seemed really to trust me, and that I was really good at explaining things (like how much money to keep for oneself vs investing back into the business, and the importance of keeping records of the two) without being condescending. I bring this up not to toot my own horn but because it’s interesting because you can never see yourself through other people’s eyes. Working with these two girls is definitely one of the highlights of my week and it’s nice to get some external validation that it’s working because sometimes it’s difficult to see the progress from week to week.

Friday evening I went to the opening event for Masizikhulise, which is a Shawco initiative (Shawco is sort of a community service organisation under the auspices of the University of Cape Town; all of its projects are student-run which is really great for a number of reasons). Masizikhulise is a training academy for grassroots would-be entrepreneurs; four of whom are now in the Purple Heart program, and two of whom are the girls that I do business coaching for. Little did I realise that agreeing to go to this event would involve me being singled out in front of the entire crowd.

On the way out I was very tired so I resisted the temptation of beers with the rugby team (this is what I get for parking near the sports center!). Plus, like I mentioned above …. The beer in this country is not so good. What is funny though? I didn’t realise that both Castle and Black Label were SAB brands. Despite Castle being the premium brand, Black Label sells more than Castle in SA. Makes sense to me … premium or not, it’s cheaper, has more taste, and higher ABV. That’s what we call a triple threat.

So back to the subject of this post, I woke up Saturday morning to discover the WOD which was in teams 400m walking lunge with every 3 steps you had to stop and do 3 thrusters. Even in teams this is one hell of a leg workout for someone planning on as 12.3km run the next day! If I had half a brain I would have rested another day or gone for a jog or something. Unfortunately, I don’t have half a brain so I went over to CCF. Oddly enough, there were really only two of us there (I don’t count one of our coaches who really had no choice but to be there).

So we were given a choice between doing that workout and pushing the prowler around the parking lot. We chose the latter and well, let me just say that was a humbling experience and we will leave it at that. My goodness, after like 4 rounds or so I couldn’t even do the 50cm wall jumps in between without risking injury … my legs just couldn’t take it and so I had to step up which was even hard enough! Somehow a 50cm concrete ledge is much more intimidating than a 40cm box! Sad, sad, sad …. Hahaha, well clearly I need to start doing some extra practice running hill sprints up the Carstens Street cul de sac. In any event, this was still not the smartest thing to do in anticipation of a difficult race the next day but, like I said, I clearly don’t have half a brain. If I did, well, I would have done some things differently.

I spent the next few hours shopping …. Stocking up on some grass-fed meat, nuts, veggies to supplement my bag for this week which was quite fruit-heavy, and some home goods that I needed. I broke down and bought myself a new Wusthof … there is only so long I could survive without a proper chef’s knife.

After that, you guessed it, I caught up on work and caught up with some friends. There is still much more work to be done but there is only so much that is humanly possible, especially when distracted by sunset over city bowl, friends on chat, and Pirates vs. Chiefs.

So Sunday has dawned overcast and pouring (well, it was pouring a few minutes ago and seems to have stopped for a bit). This should make the run interesting, now I like running in the rain quite a lot but even I have my limits, and also mud is hard to run through. Apparently the only part of me sore from yesterday’s prowler extravaganza is my hip flexors and that may just be from excessive foam rolling in anticipation of today. But that doesn’t mean my legs won’t be tired 100m into the first hill …