Cinco de Mayo
5 May 2023
On the train to Yverdon-les-Bains today. Tomorrow is my 35K warmup race for Vesuvio in the Jura mountains. I strategically injured my back yesterday to make the race extra hard. Just kidding. For many years now my lower back erupts in pain and makes me physically useless for a few days. I have found that this can be mitigated with an agressive re-engagement with yoga. The fact that it's re-engagement should be a clue that I need to better make that practice a part of daily life. Balance is ever hard. I'm not worried about the distance of this race; I did 33km no problem in 9-10 hours with a full pack in Spain last month. The challenges will be to do it at a pace around 7km/hr and cover 2km of vertical. And there might be some scary cliffs like the Eiger 51. Maybe the cloud cover will be there to delude me again.
The week so far has been an interesting one. Monday we hosted dinner and a game night. Wednesday I was in Lausanne celebrating an early Cinco de Mayo with some American colleagues. We found a place with decent Mexican food and live music. Supposedly some nights they have wrestling. And we had proper tequila shots with salt and lime. It's been a long time since I had one of those! Sadly only Cuervo not Patron. I was interesting to hear fellow Califorñeros argue about whether living here is great or they can't wait to get back to the states. I wonder how much experience they have with California taxes and the squalor present in the cities. But home is home I suppose.
