Europe

Well, I'm back but man what a really long week of work.  God I hate work travel such a pain.  I never really got on the time schedule over there so I'd wake up about 1am and toss and turn for an hour then take a 4 hour nap until 6am.  I was running just 30 minutes every morning trying to get my calf to get stronger.  It didn't work.  I ran when I got back again only 30 minutes but my calf hurts again.  I think walking through the airport and sitting in the airplane just made it sore.

The flight home was crazy because before I left I noticed that DC was going to have high winds and rain.  Sure enough tons of turbulence the last hour of the flight.  Big time roller coaster which had people using those air sick bags.  I guess they work.  The only benefit of going to Europe is I had some tasty food and decent beer.  I'm sure I'm all fat though as I even tried a few morning pastries in Switzerland.  Mmm...the land of chocolate.

Of course, it was always amusing when the sales folks would just start talking in either German or French(what they speak in southern Switzerland) while I'm just sitting there.  Good times!  The autobahn is always fun.  No speed limit and our sales team have very decent BMWs, Audis, and Mercedes automobiles.  Fast, fast and faster.  The Euro is so strong against the dollar everything is quite expensive over there.  Gas is roughly $6 a gallon but most of the cars over there get at well above 25 mpg.  So it probably is very similar in monthly price to drive over there as it is to drive over here.  The funniest thing about driving in Germany is the word "Exit" for the freeway is "Aushfart".  Good stuff!  I'm such a teenager but I laugh everytime I see one of those signs.

It was cold over there but it's fricking cold here.  I didn't feel like going out on the bike yesterday because it was 45 degrees and 10mph winds.  It started to rain later in the day.  Oh joy...today doesn't look any better.  I can't run because I'm going to rest the calf again and see if I can get rid of it completely.  So based on past experience 7 days is not enough so I'm going with at least 10 this time around.  The trip to Europe did put me back on my pre Ironman sleep schedule.  I'm waking up just before 5am and going to be a decent time.  So I need to start hitting the pool to have a hope to keep the winter pounds off.

I got my will in the mail before I left but I need to get three non-family members to sign the damn thing.  Oh joy!  I don't even know 3 people here.  I'm thinking about rounding some of my neighbors in my building to help me sign it.  My building is full so I have people living below me.  I think they work at a hospital because I saw them coming home at like 8am from work.  This will make my winter indoor riding a problem.  Last winter I just rode without worrying about how much noise I was making.  I think I'll have to use our fitness center room to setup my trainer if I can get dedicated.  I still remember the intervals I did on the trainer last winter.  Ugh..what a pain.

Did I say I hate winter...