July 19 2015
Slept in until 7am. Not quite 8 hours sleep. (0)
Got a good start on my morning work, in fact by 9am I was done everything urgent and ready for breakfast.
Meat Muffins, berries & coconut milk, cranberry juice (+2)
Sunghee & I tidied up a bit before departing. I guess I was excited to get set up for today’s event. And that’s where I made my first critical error. Sunghee drove me to CrossFit, we loaded up the car with gear and then she went to pick up Kaelin from my Mom’s place. Eager to get started, I began rolling the tractor tire up Dunbar Street toward Chaldecott Park (-2).
It was shaping up to be a hot Vancouver day. And I was early. Way too early.
Arrived at the park sweaty with time to kill but I had a book in my backpack and thought I could lay in the shade and read. But depositing the tire in the grass beneath a tree I found myself amidst a white cloud of bloodsuckers that had materialized around me rising from the grassy depths.
I struggled to defend myself but each mosquito I swatted three more were landing on me. I abandoned my fight instinct and instead embraced the second option: flight. I sprinted away into the sunlight a white cloud trailing and buzzing savagely in my ears as I tried to swat off those still clinging to my exposed flesh.
But as I ran, each foot step seemed to alert a new cloud of winged vampires adding to my growing trail of venomous tormentors. I zigged and I zagged until I discovered that only the dark brown patches of dried grass were free of hidden attackers. So I stopped centre field where the grass was driest and turned to battle off those pursuers that had followed me this far. I killed many, the others got their fill and flew off and soon I was safe standing in the middle of the field under the hot sun. It was 11:30am. The event was to start at 1pm. I looked longingly at the tractor tire slumbering peacefully in the shade. I was stranded.
I texted Sunghee to warn her. I am resilient, 80-90% of my mosquito bites heal up completely withing 15-30 minutes but she and Kaelin react much worse. “Bring repellent”, I warned them, “If I don’t survive, remember I love you!” I had been badly bitten. It was an itchy 30 minutes. That night I had at least a dozen bumps still itching. If that represents 20% of my initial bites, you can imagine what my limbs looked like at 11:30am. It was grotesque.
Dangers arrived around 12:30pm then Sunghee & Kaelin with insect repellent. I hate the stuff. I hate the smell, the feel, the idea. I am loathe to use it. I lathered it on liberally without hesitation. And it worked. It really seemed to keep those blood thirsty mosquitoes at bay.
Soon everyone was turning up and it was time for our Pony League event. The Touch & I refereed and it was fun to watch but I’ll let you see for yourself by watching the video. Food followed with Dangers, Magnum & The Touch working the grills. I played some Hoover ball with The Calm, Adventure & Music Man (-1) but by this time my skin was turning lobster. I’d been so focused on bite prevention I’d neglected to shield my skin from the sun.
I retreated to the shade. Ate some chicken burgers, salmon salad, blueberries delivered by Boomer and her newborn daughter and a coconut water from Magnum (+1).
Things were winding down. I summoned up what strength remained to me and rolled the tire back to the gym (-2).
All told I was outside a long time which could have given me sun credits but as I had overdone it and received my first sunburn since Thailand 2010 I feel that there should be some demerits. Too much of a good thing is a bad thing. Our scoring didn’t take too much sun into account.
When we got home I showered then did a whole lot of nothing. Bathed in skin moisturizer. Ate a billion blueberries in coconut milk and ate two identical dinners.
Meat Muffins and even more berries with coconut milk.
Very disappointed with myself. I work so hard to take care of my body but today I really miscalculated and ended up inflicting damage that was totally avoidable. Went to bed burnt and bitten all over.
Daily Total
Sleep 0
WOD -1
Walk -2
Food +3
Sun way too much
Balance 0
Leave A Comment