race ready

Broken toe?  Check.  Brand new saddle?  Check.  Horrific allergic reaction all over the crotch (I don't even want to speculate how that happened, but I'm guessing goat cheese since I have hives in underarms also)?  Check.  Guess I'm ready to race.  Well, except I have Nothing To WEAR!  Right now I'm waiting on the locusts.  :)  Luckily prednisone is OTC and I'm on 25 mg today and will taper and hopefully be allergic-reaction free by next Sunday.  Gotta remember I'm allergic to goat cheese.  :)  For some reason I thought it was only cow dairy and since we only buy goat cheese when it is on super remate, it is rare to get it.  Only some 8 hours into the roids, however, and the reaction is much improved.  So I'm hopefully for tomorrow's 100 km ride.  This time Jamie's coming along.

I am STOKED to finally have found (fingers crossed) someone to bring me tri shorts.  I had purchased some lovely De Soto Forza shorts (on sale here at Swimoutlet) and had them at Merkalink on 8/20 to get imported.  I finally got the shipment a couple days ago and found the shorts had been left at the Merkalink offices as they were deemed "used" clothing and not possible to import.  ACK!  Also the girls got only tops of one swim suit and bottoms of another as the matching parts were deemed to be used.  So off I headed to the local and triathlon (and eventually even scuba) forums to find a mule.  Dayum, but mules are HARD to find in Septihambre.  FINALLY an angel offered last night, IF I could get the stuff there by Thursday.  Next week.  Yikes!  I TOTALLY spaced on the fact that the HIM is an a week.  For some reason I thought I had another one.

The way Merkalink works, I have to give them the address, they figure postage (plus an $18.00 fee for holding the merchandise they won't import), give me a number, I go to the bank, deposit the amount in their account and then they release the hounds merchandise.  Between answering emails and going to the bank and them mailing, I knew this would be at LEAST a week's worth of procedure and no hope of getting the shorts to Florida, to my helpful mule.  So I found a trisuit (only the 2nd one I've bought this year.  Maybe I'll actually get this one!) at swimoutlet.com for $90.  Pretty steep but I hope to get a lot of use out of it next year.  Today, on Saturday, I was able to confirm with them that they'll have the suit to my mule by the 19th, with only a $5.99 expedited fee.   The previous trisuit I bought (off Ebay, such a deal at $30.00) has been a no-show with MexPost along with my $35.00 Shimano bike shoes.  Maybe they'll show next year.  Who knows with MexPost.

Broken toe seems to be healing but I'm backing down the running this week and the allergic reaction is already on the wane and next week I plan an intensive swimming week and am looking forward to tomorrow's ride.  Oh, and I got even MORE new stuff with the girls swimsuits!  Another angel from a triathlon forum sent me an Adamo saddle and it was muled down by our friend George along with a new pair of running shoes.  I had PF starting to rear its ugly head in my left heel and the shoes seemed to have arrived just in time as after a 90 min run today my heel is good to go.   Jamie put the saddle on in time for Thursday's ride but I unfortunately didn't realize the reaction I had going on for today's ride and while it was uncomfortable, I didn't have the specific pain I've had before.  I'm very hopeful that tomorrow's ride, under the influence of steroids, I'll be much more comfortable.  It's like Christmas around here with all the new gear!

So I guess I should revise that list above.  New shoes?  Check.  New bras?  Check.  I am LOVING bras that aren't like jails.  I got these just for cycling as I figured I really need something SUBSTANTIAL for running, but LOVING these (or is it just the fact that I'm buying new stuff?) for running also!  New swim shirt (better than sunscreen)?  Check.  New (to me) saddle?  Check.  New shorts?  Check (and loving them.  The tempos might be on the way out).  Yup!  Definitely Christmas time.