The Trip (Part 1)

I made it out here all in one piece today(west coast time)/yesterday(east coast time). I can't sleep. My body is all screwed up for what I made it go through on the trip. I consumed mass quantities of junk food and excessive amounts of caffeine.

The weather was perfect well almost perfect. There was just one stretch of I-80 which had some dicey conditions as I was driving in Wyoming.

Let's go back a few days to Saturday. I just got done seeing Golden Compass with my buddy Andrew. Check out his review here. I got the phone call from Swift. They asked if it would be okay to pack my stuff on Sunday. I said that would be great as I had been monitoring the weather on the route I was going to take and Monday and Tuesday looked great through the plains.

I had linner(somewhere between lunch and dinner) with my friends Eric, Tracey, Dylan and Susan at the Olive Garden with Elena as well. It was good fun eating and seeing them. I'll miss being able to hang out with them way out here in DC.

On Sunday the movers said they'd get there between 12 and 1pm. I was able to get in a good swim and decent run and still have time to get the last things in order. I packed up the car with all the stuff I wanted to have with me since I wouldn't be seeing my stuff for possibly 2 weeks or more.

The movers didn't arrive til 2:30pm and they look like I should've spent more money on the my trip. I start out being a little worried when the truck is medium sized and only one speaks English. They have all the appropriate documents so they start packing. At first they say it will be a snap and then they get to packing up the TV. The main dude actually packed it up awesome. I actually think it has a chance. It got packed better than my previous TV which was damaged when I moved from California back to Oregon.

They packed and packed and packed. I figured it would take them a couple of hours to pack so I didn't run any of my last minute trip errands before they arrived. I figured it would help pass the 2nd half of the day if I ran the errands afterwards as I would have no furniture or comforts after they had left. I was wrong. It took them 6 hours to finish packing up all the stuff. I was shocked. It just kept taking longer and longer.

I found out that I could saved a bundle on "my car insurance"...oh wait if I had just packed some of my stuff myself. They charged by the box. If I had bought some simple boxes and just packed my clothes I could've saved probably $300 to $400 dollars. Live and learn.

I left before they had even driven out of the parking lot desperate to get some windshield washing fluid, deposit my Oregon kicker check( YES! ) and eat. I also had to use my $25 Fred Meyer gift card. I had won the gift card for paying my rent on time. I lived in the complex for 3+ years and finally my luck came through. Not bad considering I had the rent on autopayment through my online billpay. I love online banking and haven't written checks in eons. I'm still gonna just keep my bank account rather than re-open it in Maryland. Woohoo out of state banking. I feel like a gangster except I don't have a lot of money, don't whack people for skimming, and really don't have an offshore bank account. The only problem with bill pay is you have to be careful. Last month I accidentally paid the wrong credit card. I was frantic as credit card late fees can kill. Luckily it seems since I had been paying regularly I called and they hadn't charged me. We'll see if that's true when I get my statement.

This blog is long I haven't even got to the part of leaving. I got home from my errands and slept on the floor. This was going to be the best night's sleep I would be getting until I reached Maryland(even though it's 2am here and I can't sleep in the soft bed).

I woke up at 4am and headed off for my last workout at 24 hour fitness. I had planned to do 200yd intervals in the pool. If things went well I was going to 5 sets with 30 seconds rest in between. I've found that's a nice magic number for rest. I warmed up with my usual 200. Everything felt okay so I took off for the first interval. My goal was to go low 1:50ish per 100 and maybe even sub for each interval. This was difficult. I did manage to hit the first hundred right around 1:47 for all 5 with the second hundred being 1:50 for all five. I finished with an easy 400 yards.

I just wonder about my swimming sometimes. I have to be stronger but I also wonder how much is technique. It's hard to tell at this point. All in all a great workout. I showered and got in the car for the trip of a lifetime.

I had previously only driving 10 hours straight before on my trips up from San Jose to Portland when I lived in Cali. My first day of a 3 day trip was going to 16 hours. I had set my plan to drive the most on the first day when I was fresh. My goal was to make it to Cheyenne, WY 1100 or so miles away in the first day.

Will he make it? Will his new GPS work? Is the weather gonna hold out? What does the song "Breakin the Law" by Judas Priest and eastern Oregon have in common? Find out tomorrow on another exciting edition of Al's blog.

Oh and if you made it this far one last fun tidbit. I got my body fat checked on Friday morning after swimming 2200 yards in the pool my longest and just over a half-iron effort at 42:34. Woohoo half way home. I usually get my body fat checked twice a year by the same person with the pinch test. It's a rough estimate and within a few percent of one of those scales. I came it at 5%. This is one of my lowest yet. I weigh just 6lbs more than my lightest running days when I would usually hit 7%. All in all great news. I was also quite excited that I know I won't drown for the half-ironman since I can swim 1.2 miles. I just hope it's not too much more difficult to swim 1.2 in open water with 2000+ other folks.

I really need to find some way to get out into some open water and get a feel...