It's been close to a year since I wrote anything on here, so a quick look back to 2014: In January and February I was a complete couch potato because I got tired of my leg injuries. In March I started training again, slowly. It was really horrible. I was barely able to run 4 miles or swim 30 minutes easy. It felt so weird, but from zero fitness it's pretty quick to get back to having "some fitness". In May I was already in decent shape, but I didn't have any plans to compete in the summer because we the family took a two- month long trip to Europe and I didn't want to complicate it with competitions. I wanted to take it easy.
Those 2 months included a perfect 4 weeks in Switzerland hosted by a very generous relative. I brought my cycling shoes and kit with me and bought a mountain bike in Switzerland but it turned out to be a completely wrong choice because all the roads were paved (and there were small roads everywhere), but it was the cheapest way to go. First couple of rides actually felt quite difficult, because there were small towns about every mile almost, the roads were narrow and had a lot curves and hills to reduce visibility, it was weekend and there was a lot of traffic, and it was like I had to make a decision where to go next every 5 minutes, and I got lost a lot. It was not like in Oklahoma where almost all roads go straight north, east, south or west. After a few rides I got adjusted and knew where to go for better riding. Switzerland indeed is a great place to ride. There are cyclists and bike lanes everywhere, and drivers are used to them. Not to mention the natural beauty and being able to choose flat rides or mountains everywhere, at least in the Bern area where I was. On my first ride I was sure I saw Fabian Cancellara, who lives in the area. Can't really mistake his face. Having the cycling bug, I had to drive the Giro d'Italia's famous Passo Dello Stelvio and Passo Gavia on a rental car trip to Italy. It was definitely worth it: you can't really appreciate a place unless you've been there. I also got to see two stages of the Tour of Switzerland; a mountain stage and a time trial, which was quite a spirit booster.
After Italy and Switzerland, driving in Finland felt like a vacation because there was barely any traffic.
So in the summer I rode a lot, ran sometimes, and did no swimming.
Back in Oklahoma, I continued with a slight cycling focus and joined intense group rides two times a week. Lawton does not have nearly as many competitive cyclists than Tyler in Texas, for example, but it was still hard enough to drop everybody : )
At the end of August my throat got really, really sore for 10 days. Then I wanted to race a local triathlon, but the alarm didn't go off that morning. Two weeks later I wanted to race time trial state championships, but got really sick the day before, and again throat hurt for a week, but I also had fever and threw up. I was again healthy for about 3 weeks, and got really sick again for a week. It was just really hard being sick so much. I had never really been very sick while being in the U.S.
In December it was time to leave Oklahoma and move back to the city in the sky, La Paz. Currently living at 12,700ft or 3870m. I was a little sick for the first days. On December 31st I got a message at 1pm that there would be a 5k run at 3pm on the main street of the city. The race eventually started at about 4.15 with the traffic still going strong, but after the first 1k lap the police stopped the traffic : ) This was my only race in 2014. I don't know how exact the distance was, but my time was 19.34 and I got 3rd place. Soon after that I got another flu but it was not very bad.
On January 17th there was a 10k race in the neighboring city El Alto, at 13.350ft or 4050m. From the registration a few days earlier, I got a little map explaining the course. Before the race I was a little worried about getting to the front at the start because I knew it would be a very big race with a lot of people. Anyway, I was warming up away from the crowds, and when the start came closer I approached the start line from the front, from the direction where the runners would be heading as they start. I was happy I would be at the front starting the race, but soon realized that I was actually the very last: the direction of the race had been changed! I had about 10.000 people in front of me...the first third of the race I was not even able to run fast because there were so many people there. My time eventually was about 44.40. Oh, and the next day my throat got really sore and I needed to rest for a week.
