Going into Hiding

Before I get into the title of this blog, I am going to write about an absolutely FANTASTIC meal we had this weekend.

A few weeks ago I got an email from our friend Lisa. She invited us to dinner at a local pizza place in downtown Phoenix. Now, this isn't just any old Pizza joint - this is THE Pizza place. I've heard about it.... I've even seen a clip from Oprah on it, but I've never been there. What I had heard is that it's about a 3 hour wait. They are open Tuesday-Saturday from 5-10pm. They take reservations, but they are 4 weeks out.

Well, as luck would have it, Lisa got reservations for 8 of us on June 2nd at Pizzeria Bianco.

So, at 6:30pm on Saturday S & I showed up ready to check this place out. Walking up to the place you could just smell how good it was. My taste buds immediately started perking up! In a few mins we were taken to our table in the back of the very small little place.


We started with drinks, and salads.. then on to the pizza. S & I ordered their mixed green salad, and the Tomato Mozzarella. All I can say is this is BY FAR the BEST mozzarella cheese I have ever eaten in my life. It was thick and salty and basically just melted in your mouth. It was sprinkled with fresh basil, black pepper and Olive Oil. The Tomatoes were as fresh as you can find..... If this is what the appetizers taste like.... I can only imagine what our pizza will be like!

Between the 8 of us we decided on 6 pizzas. A couple with meat for the meat lovers, and the rest vegetarian. Myself, I preferred the Margarita - I'm a boring girl.

Somehow there was a misunderstanding and they only brought 5/6, but we decided to go ahead and see if it was enough. About 10 mins later ALL 5 Pizzas were gone! Just like that. They were so stinking good, I think not one of us looked up for air :-) So, we decided to order 2 more.

Guess what? We were SHUT DOWN! Have you ever been told NO when trying to order more food? This place was so busy, that they basically give you one shot to get your order in. Our waiter even asked the chef, but he said no. Crazy, huh? But... if that gives you any indication as to how good this place is. They an actually cut you off of food!

The food settled in a bit, and we decided to head across the street to a little tea house for some dessert. That hit the spot! That also pushed S & I into a 9pm daze, as we were DONE and ready to bed. So, shortly after we were off on our trek home, and straight to bed!

If any of you have not tried this place, it is 100% worth the wait. Absolutely the BEST pizza and fresh mozzarella i have ever eating in my life! My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

Now, I'm going to back-track to earlier in that day to recap my bike ride. We were scheduled for a 5:45/:30 brick. Now, does that sound like a taper to you? Nah, me either. I struggled the whole time. I just didn't' want to be out there. I was BLAH. My HR was fine. My legs were fine. Everything was fine in fact. I was just kinda going thru tho motions. Luckily, so were S, Momo & Sara as well. About 3.5 hours into the ride, S ran over a screw. His ride was over, and the girls & I were headed out for the rest of the ride.

I have to admit, seeing S drive off in the cab made me a little jealous. I know he didn't want to be ending his ride that way... but none the less he was done.

Now, I'm sure all of you have one of those bad influences with your training. Well when momo & I are just not into it, we can pretty much convince each other of anything. Wanna stop? Wanna walk? Wanna do this INSTEAD of THAT? Well, this is precisely what happened. She actually only had 4 hours to ride. The plan was to do a couple loops, then take her home and ride back down to my house for the run. Well, her attitude was about as good as mine.

She was dropping 'hints' about being 'done' and how she could pretty much stop at any time. And, I was taking those and running with em. I finally announced, "I've got a plan." How about, we don't ride all the way up to your house - we can finish these hills, head home...and then I'll drive you home :-) I didn't have to tell her twice...

So, there we had it. Although we hadn't shared this with Sara yet. She was pretty blah, but if anyone is good about doing all the workouts, it's her. I think she's maybe missed 3 total workouts in this entire training. I'm not sure any of the rest of us would say that.

So, as we're heading back home - Sara decided to finish the 5:45 (I never had a doubt that she wouldn't) and momo & I headed home. We just had nothing. I was actually bored. I've decided a long time ago, I do this because I enjoy it. Because I love being out there. Well, I was not enjoying myself in the least bit. I made it home just over 85miles later - 5hours. I didn't do my brick..... I didn't care either :-) I was happy with my decision, and mostly just happy to be done!!!!

Sunday am momo came over and ran with S & I. Well, with me really. S & the dogs were too fast for us. We did a 90min hilly loop to start. It was a little rough at first. Just having a hard time making the legs move. Our HRs were low... everything else felt good.. it just took a while to get into our rhythm. We finally did though, and we ROCKED! We were running under 10min miles UP hill, and even down to like an 8:30 pace going down. With GREAT low HRs It was crazy. We finished the first 9.5miles in 1:30. That's including walking to gel4 times as momo & I have different Gel times. All in all it was a FANTASTIC run. Probably the best we've had this whole training season.

Maybe I have a new pre-long workout fuel. Fresh pizza. Fresh Mozzarella and a half a bottle of wine :-) Oh, and chocolate dessert?!

The weekend ended with a massage and then bed at 7:30pm. It wasn't even dark out..... My massage therapist told me, as she was doing a hamstring release, that I was like a trampoline. I don't think she appreciated my tight leg muscles....

So, onto today. I've decided that I need to find a bubble and go into hiding for the next 3 weeks. I need to stay healthy, no sick people, no germs... no nothing! Most of all, I need to stay injury free. I'm a first class klutz. If there is a pothole, I'm going to find it and run over it on my bike. If there is a divot in the road, most likely I'll stick my foot in it. If there is some slick floor, most likely I'm going to slip and fall on it...

Unfortunately for me, something happened to me this am. I was out on my 1:15 run. I actually drove to a park so I could do some hills that I love to run on, and so the dogs wouldn't freak out when I left them behind. They ran the 9.5mile loop yesterday and were pretty tired. They needed a rest day. So, I headed out for my run at about 6:45. It was a little hot, but I was slow getting moving this am, so I deserved it. The hills went great. My legs were stiff, so I wasn't breaking any records, just a nice slow & steady trek in my low HR zone.

Things finally started to look up about half way thru the run. I got into a zone... I was on autopilot. I was about 2.5miles from my starting point when all of a sudden I rolled my ankle over. I felt something kinda 'snap.' I FREAKED out. Stopped running, sat down.... tried to move it around. It felt sore to touch, but wasn't swelling up or anything. I could put weight on it... it was just sore. I kinda looked around in circles trying to figure out what the heck to do.

All I could think of was I am 3 weeks out from my IRONMAN! Damn it... Damn it.... F@!$%$!!!!!

There also happened to be a school bus there, it had just picked up a group of kids. I started walking over there... not knowing what I was going to do. A man asked me if I was ok. I said, "actually - do you have a phone." He replied, "The ONE day I don't have it...." He offered to go get it, or actually that his wife would be coming thru any second & I could use hers.

About 5 mins later the car he described shows up. She was driving right by me. Finally she rolled down her window and in a very annoyed tone said, "Uh.. my husband said you need a phone." I graciously accepted her cell phone, racking my brain trying to come up with momo's number. I tried about 6 different combos and the girl was looking totally annoyed with me.

Finally, I called Shane. I got his voice mail. I was crying. It wasn't because of pain. I was frustrated, I was scared.... I just didn't know what to do. I explained where I was at, and asked him to try to reach momo. I said I would start walking back to my car.

I walked for about 20mins before momo found me. It was a quiet walk. I turned my headphones off and just kept quiet. I walked slowly. It felt ok..but I'd feel a little soreness here and there. I hopped in momo's car and she drove me the last mile to my car. I was still a little freaked out, but calm for the most part.

I got home and made a sink full of ice water to soak my foot and ankle in. I sat there in the painfully cold water while I ate some grape nuts and toast. The dogs were looking at me like a crazy women.

Then, I plopped down in my office where I've been writing this post ever since. It's starting to hurt a little. I just looked at it. It's only slightly swollen, just on the outside, under that bone on the side. I can walk on it, move it around... It just hurts when I roll it around clockwise. It's a little sore to the touch.

S has already called me & emailed me. He is worried I will do something stupid. Like go run. Or pretend nothing happened. He knows I'm stubborn. Mostly with training. I was hurt for long enough. I can't be told no. I can't be told my body won't allow me to train. It's not an option.

However, he will be happy to know that momo & I have already made plans to skip our bike ride tomorrow and go swimming at a lake instead. Wed, I will play it by how I feel if I do my speed run or not....

I know that I will be fine, I know that it's not a big deal. But, it's just a bump in the road. A sore little one....