Letters, I get letters.....

The comments and questions are just pouring in, tumbling over one another in their rush to partake in my particularly erudite brand of wisdom. One yesterday, another today......it’s just madness around here, as my little site becomes known as the blog that stormed the nation. So as to not get too far behind this veritable letter tsunami, today I’ll tackle this gem of a comment:

“Annette is from S. Africa, not Australia.”

Now really, folks. I mean like WHATEVER. Aren’t they pretty much the same thing? You've seen one "land down under," you've seen them all, right? Both hot and dusty, both have their own cute bouncing/loping animal – kangaroos in Australia, ostriches in S. Africa. I have biked many times past the ostrich farm near Delavan, WI, with those huge creatures racing along the fence as I go past, so I know of what I speak. Really, as if I could possibly make these things up! Sheesh.

Then of course we have this comment from Deanna:

“I have been assured by Nancy that there are actually no 15% grade hills. Something about the DOT only allowing 10% or something. But I am not sure I trust her judgement as she has been known to run 150 miles across the Gobi.”

I didn’t see this comment immediately because I was doing some research on those anti-altitude sickness pills that people take before they go to places like Tibet which were created on top of a continental shelf and are only suitable for yaks and slow-breathing meditating monks. Or places like Ohio – same thing. I’m sure that’s why I felt like crap last night as I was doing the Triple-T course on the computrainer – I swear I heard the bleating of mountain goats next to me as I attempted to traverse some of those hills. So excuse me if I’m a bit skeptical when we’re supposed to take Nancy at her word. Is she suggesting that the good (albeit sadistic and cruel) people who organize the Triple-T and who made the courses available online......that they’re LYING to us? Or perhaps that I, the consummate professional in all my athletic endeavors, the purely fact-based writer, the person known to her friends and colleagues as “attention-to-detail, always serious Tasha”.....that I might have somehow......exaggerated???

Well.

I would like to note that Nancy, who is Deanna’s coach, is a perfectly lovely woman – I’ve met her, she’s sporty and athletic but with an edge - or if not an edge, at least she’s not the type to go spouting Successories at one all day long: “Dream it and you can achieve it!” Thank god.

So she’s the kind of person I like, and seems to know her stuff, but quite frankly, she’s also crazier than a loon. Oh yes. I’ve heard Deanna talk about the insane workout and training schedule, which doesn’t come close to mine in sheer volume and ambition, but is daunting nonetheless, especially to foist onto someone like Deanna, a veritable babe in the woods with this stuff compared to me. Sure, the plan seems normal, until Nancy throws a random 11-hour swim workout in there. Plus having Deanna swim something like 3 times a week now, already, and it’s only March. Wha?!!! Everyone knows that for an IM, you put off the swim training as long as possible, until the last minute panic sets in. Then there’s the fact that Nancy is known for doing these crazy ultra-marathon-triathlon-skeet shooting races in places like Death Valley, that go on for days at a time. So you tell me, who are you going to believe: the elite, championship-winning well-respected coach who’s been training people for years, or me, Tasha the Triathlon Goddess? I rest my case.

P.S. I had Bridget there on the computrainer next to me as proof that the grades really were 15%.........