Directions: Unpack, Pack, Repeat

Sometimes I forget which way I’m going with the pile of clothes in my arms…Did I just pull them out of a suitcase or are they going into a suitcase? I know, I know…I travel the globe competing in triathlons and getting pampered, How hard can it be??…but sometimes living out of a suitcase can be a bit tough.
After getting off my nice flight home from Japan last Tuesday…I had 3 ½ days left at the Chula Vista OTC before we started driving back to Colorado Springs. With training, eating, sleeping, and studying…that leaves just enough time to unpack, do a load of laundry, and then pack everything in the car.
Jaz, Jess, and I departed Chula on Saturday around 3pm. We went to swim practice that morning, ate breakfast, loaded the cars with bags, rode our bike workout, loaded the cars with bikes, ate lunch, and then hit the road in a northeastern direction. We were hauling butt out of California…and we had a crazy tailwind to help us…sometimes the leaves were passing me going 85mph! Of course our dinner stop was the In & Out burger joint in Phoenix, AZ (that place is delicious!!) and then Flagstaff, AZ was our sleep stop around 10pm. Jaz and I did a nice hour run in the morning on an amazing gravel running trail right outside the hotel. After the continental breakfast, we hit the road again and finally pulled into the Springs at 9pm. For one last treat, dinner was a Chipotle burrito in our room…the treat was actually being in OUR ROOM, the burrito was just an added bonus!
Have I told you about the beds that we got last year at the training center? Well, a quick recap: Queen-size Serta pillow-top-mattresses, down comforters, down pillows…you get the picture. It’s the ONE thing that I really missed when I was away from Colorado Springs…so you can imagine how well I slept on Sunday night:)!
Monday morning, in the freezing winds that decided to blow through Colorado, Jaz, Jess and I unloaded the bags and bikes from our cars. I did a light swim, bike, and run workout on Monday to loosen up from sitting in the car all weekend. My lungs and heart aren’t letting me forget that I’m back at 6000 feet above sea-level. I also got the brilliant idea to rearrange all the furniture in my living room. It was good timing because all my belonging were sitting in bags in the hallway…so moving couches was pretty easy:)! During a 9pm trip to the Barnes and Noble to pick up a copy of the Outside Magazine Buyer’s Guide because there is an article about Jasmine inside…IT STARTED TO SNOW! Nice! It’s the end of April, we just came from sunny California and we are going to sunny Florida this weekend…and we have to deal with SNOW! Perfect!
Ignoring the light dusting of snow on everything, I ran all over town this morning doing errands…Wal-Mart for some toiletries, the mail room to send packages, finding gifts for my home stay families in Florida, etc. Between 2:30pm and 5:30pm I squeezed in all of the following: chiropractor appointment, swim practice, treadmill workout, leg massage!
Now it’s Tuesday night and I just finished UN-packing my last bag from Chula. Oh yeah, and I just started PACKING the same bag for my Thursday morning flight to Orlando! So are you following all this? Here’s the recap: Tuesday – unpack from Japan; Wednesday – laundry; Friday – pack for COS; Monday – unpack from Chula; Tuesday – laundry; Wednesday – pack for Florida!
I’m looking forward to my week in the Sunshine State. It’s been 4 months since I’ve been home and I can’t wait to see my family, the beach, our pets, the DBS team, people in DeLand…darn it, I keep forgetting that I’ve got a triathlon race too! More about St. Anthony’s soon!