good news!

I went to the pool today and was able to swim!!! My shoulder was slightly tweaky — not quite right all the time, but not off all the time, either — and I was able to swim my full distance. *whew*

Even going slow and taking care of my shoulder, I'm swimming 100m in about 3 minutes, which is much faster than I was a week before the first tri. I am hopeful to meet my 2-hour goal this time. Between my swimming getting faster, spending a lot of time spinning, working on form in all three disciplines, this bike ride being 1.4 miles shorter, and learning more about how to effectively use my heart rate monitor, I think I can take 16 minutes off my time.

I'd like to get in to swim two more times this week, just to re-acclimate to the water. It's been a long time since I swam more than a couple hundred meters.

So I have Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. The plan is to spin and run Monday (tomorrow), swim Tuesday, swim Thursday, spin and run Friday, rest on Saturday.

Woo-hoo!!!

two weeks til race #2!!

I'm on the downhill until the next race. According to advice I got from a very seasoned triathlete, this is what I should be doing:

No weight lifting for the last 10 days before a race (the muscle doesn't grow fast enough, I think)
The week before the race, taper time spent, but don't reduce speed

The 10-day mark is Wednesday.

This is the thing, though, and I didn't mention this to him: I don't lift weights explicitly to help me race. And I don't spend a lot of time running or swimming.

So this is what I'm thinking.

Today I'm going to do some more interval work on the treadmill and then see if I can swim. My shoulder is still a little sore, which by this point is just plain pissing me off. I have an appointment with the physical therapist tomorrow.

Tomorrow I'm training — my last session with my trainer before he moves across the country. *sniff*

Tuesday I'll spin.

Wednesdays from now through April are built-in rest days. I have a meeting after school and rehearsal early in the evening. I barely have time to eat dinner. I thought about getting up early on Wednesdays and going for a swim before work, and then I decided that rest days are good and mine will just always be on Wednesday.

Thursday I might spin again.

Friday, treadmill and light lifting.

If my shoulder feels better, there will be some swimming in there.

Saturday, a cardio mix, I think, including some stairs and rowing. I'd like to get up super-early and go to the gym, just to sort of let my body know what it's in for. The race starts at 6:30. My wave won't be first, but I'll need to be there and have my transition area set up by 6, I'm sure, which is earlier than I wake up for work. Ugh.

We'll see how it goes... Despite losing my trainer and this shoulder setback, I'm excited about this race!!

week of 8-30

Well, last week didn't go as planned after Tuesday.

I trained on Monday, as planned, and Tuesday, my left shoulder hurt like mad, right in the front. Right shoulder was sore in the same place, but left shoulder hurt. Couldn't lift a glass to drink. Over the course of the week, it's gotten better, to the point where yesterday it twinged once or twice but that was all. I have been careful not to use it at the gym at all, soooo....

Tuesday I went to spin as planned.

Wednesday my whole body was sore and tired, so I went and used the steam room and the hot tub :) I've never gone to the gym with the intention not to exercise before, so that was kinda weird, but it was a good, relaxing, healthy thing to do.

Thursday I did some interval training on the treadmill.

Friday I did just the stairmaster. I'm close to being back where I was before monitoring my heart rate, which feels good!

Yesterday I did nifty 50s on lower body and core: ball squats, calf raises, crunches, oblique twists, back extensions, hip flexors.

Today, I am going to do more interval training on the treadmill and also use the steam room and hot tub.

Tomorrow, I am going to train. Tuesday, I'm going to spin. After that, it all kind of depends on how my shoulder feels. If it's not feeling better by Tuesday, I'm going to call the PT who worked wonders on my hamstring and see if he can do the same magic on my shoulder. In the meantime, my trainer did give me some exercises I can do for my shoulder, which I have been doing.

We'll see how it goes. The tri is four weeks from today!!

week at a glance

I thought I posted last week, but it's been two weeks!

The plan is to blog once a week about what's upcoming (and make amendments to anything that didn't get done according to plan from the previous week).

This morning, I went to spin.

Tomorrow, I'm going to run.

Monday, I'm with my trainer.

Tuesday, I'm going to spin.

Wednesday, I'm going to lift if I'm not still sore from Monday. If still sore, I'm going to swim.

Thursday, I'm going to do whatever I didn't do on Wednesday.

Friday, I'm going to lift and run.

Saturday, I'm going to spin.

Sunday I'm going to swim.

I swam on Thursday. My upper body is just tired, though, so I decided no more upper body anything until I train on Monday. Last night I did a good long set of foam rolling and half an hour on the stairmaster. Not resting entirely, but resting the parts that feel like they need to rest. I like this plan.

The next race is in 5 weeks! Four more weeks of good solid training, a week to taper, and two hours to show off all my hard work :)

goals

I was swimming yesterday and came to notice that I can do 800 meters about five minutes faster than I could two or three months ago. So I was thinking and plotting and planning ...

My current goal is to trim 15 minutes off my old time. I'm sure I can take 5 minutes off my swim. My bike time will be shorter if for no reason than the bike course is shorter ;) (by 1.4 miles). But I'd like to bike faster anyway. And my run time last race was awful, so I'm sure I can clean that up a bit.

So: 2 hours. That's the goal time. Yes, that's actually 16 minutes faster, but that's just details...

Today I trained with my trainer. Plan for the week is: spin tomorrow, swim on Wednesday, lift on Thursday, land cardio on Friday, lift on Saturday, swim on Sunday.

I'm getting excited!

tri #2 is officially on it's way!

Well, the title of the blog is my first triathlon, but since I'm still triathlon-ing this season, I might as well keep on blogging about it!

I just registered for my second triathlon, another sprint tri at the same place as the first one. The bike course is apparently different (a little shorter and a little hillier), but the swim and the run are exactly the same. There is also an olympic-distance tri at the same time and place (two loops for each of my one), but I don't really want to do anything longer. The last one took me over two hours to complete, and for me, that's plenty of time to be exercising.

I went to see a cardiologist regarding my exercising heart rate, as it easily climbs into the 180s, and with some exertion, hits 195. That's high. So he did some tests and said that it looks healthy and strong and not to worry about it, but for regular long-lasting exercise, to keep it around 165. I struggle with that, but I'm working on it.

For training now, I'm doing 1 or 2 spin classes per week, training once a week with my trainer, swimming 2-3 times per week, lifting weights 1-2 times per week without my trainer, and once a week doing other land-based cardio (treadmill, elliptical, stairmaster, rower). Things are varied enough that I'm never bored, and my body is getting stronger and stronger!

I have my weight and measurements checked roughly once a month by my trainer (scale, tape measure, calipers). According to those measurements, I've gained 7 pounds of muscle since March! Woo-hoo!

Training for the previous tri was hindered by a long-lasting hamstring injury. That's not happening again. Every time I go to exercise, I use a foam roller on my legs, which has been great. No problems so far...

I am very excited about this second tri, and I'm anxious to see how much better I perform!

gettin' closer!!

The tri is in 10 days! Holy cow!!

Yesterday, I worked out with B. It was a good, hard workout, and I'm sore today from it. We've been talking tri stuff (he's done a few), and it's been good. I'm feeling more and more confident. I know I can finish it — it's just a matter of how long it's going to take me to do it.

I'm going to do another mock-tri tomorrow evening — swim in the pool, go to a spin class, run on the treadmill (or maybe I'll run outside). Lifting on Friday, not sure what's up for the weekend. Training on Tuesday again and after that, everything is light light light.

It's coming!!

mock tri and open water swim

Last night, I did a sort of mock-tri at the gym. I swam 750 meters, then changed and went to a spin class (55 minutes — I left before the cool-down), then jogged for 25 minutes on the treadmill. I felt great when I was done! Woo-hoo! Happy happy happy :)

I went this afternoon and bought skins.

Tonight, there was an open-water practice swim at the lake. I've decided not to wear a wetsuit (I found it too constrictive in the shoulders — the buoyancy wasn't worth it). The skins were quite comfortable to swim in. I felt pretty exposed — I don't typically walk around in clothes that are all skin-tight — but the self-consciousness mostly wore off (and was not with me at all in the water this evening).

Swimming in a lake is way harder than swimming in a pool. I was surprised. First of all, the lake is kinda gross. I put my head in and could barely see my hand out in front of me. Ew. Otherwise ... it's hard to explain why.

The swim tonight was just up-and-back. On the way out, it was easy to go in a straight line — I swam by the wall and kept my eye on that when I came up to breathe. On the way back, I swam way crooked and ended up swimming quite a bit farther than I needed to. 's OK.

I took off too fast off the line. My stroke was nothing like what it is in the pool. Adrenaline? So it wasn't long before I was completely wiped out. I stopped and caught my breath, but the rest of the swim wasn't great. Now I know and can plan for it. They warned us to start out slow, and I thought, "I always swim slow!" but alas, I did not. I'm glad we had a practice swim :)

Tomorrow is a rest day. Sunday, I am doing a bike race. That'll be good. I can get a feel for it. I've biked a lot, but never in a race. We'll see...

The race is two weeks from tomorrow! Can hardly wait!!

small hodgepodge of stuff

Nothing extraordinary to report. Lifting, swimming the last couple of days. Trained with B. tonight. Planning tomorrow to swim at the pool with my wetsuit. Planning Thursday to swim, then spin, then run a bit. Friday there is a practice swim at the lake. Saturday, there's a bike race I might do. Rampin' it up! Time's a-tickin!

In the mean time, a good friend and my husband are putting together the cheerleading squad :) They're even having T-shirts made!

I'm kind of wishing I had spare cash to get the fancy pedals and shoes for my bike (and feet), but I've never used them before, so I suspect I won't miss them.

I used non-cotton socks tonight at the gym for the first time ever and might not ever wear cotton socks again!

The hospital PR people want to interview me for a "life after cancer" piece regarding this event. I called today and left a message.

I'm super-excited about all that's going on! Now, I just have to do the race!!

biking!

I decided to bike to tonight's concert, which was roughly an 11-mile ride. It felt great to get out and ride again — it's been way too long! My quads went from being a little sore back to being quite sore as a result, but that's OK.

The plan is to do a small ton of biking in the next few weeks...

ahhhh, back on the wagon!

I was right about being sore. It was completely contained in my quads, but I've had some trouble walking for two days now. That shut down my plans to go to spin class tonight. I did go and swim, and it felt good to be back in the pool. There is something soothing about the water that isn't available through other means of cardio. Also, the hot tub is there afterwards :)

I'm going to find time to go biking tomorrow, and maybe do a little upper body work if I have time. (I have a concert tomorrow night - the last of the season - so time is a little short.)

Saturday, I'm going to try on a wetsuit from someone who is selling one. Hopefully, it'll fit and I can write her a check and be done with that aspect of things. We'll see...

PT!

I can't believe I haven't posted about my physical therapy!

It's great!

The appointment last Thursday was just a consultation. But then on Monday morning, I had a real let's-do-something appointment. It was amazing! He massaged-ish the muscle and muscles around it, while stretching and moving my leg around. I say "-ish" just because it used a lot of pressure and was somewhere near my threshhold of pain. After 15 or so minutes, he asked me to stand up and stretch, and voila! I could put my palms on the floor with no pain! Crazy! (It was good for the rest of the day, though there were some other areas that were a little sore, and since then it's been mostly good.)

I had another appointment this morning, which was quite similar to the first.

There is a "run the course" tomorrow for the triathlon. The PT said I could run a mile, but that was all. So the plan is to walk most of the course and run the rest. Regardless, I'm excited to get out there and run some! It's been a long time!

feeling better-ish

I took off Monday and yesterday. My upper body is feeling great and is ready to jump back in the game. My hamstring is still a little sore. If it would just stay like that (as opposed to getting worse), I could easily work through it. But that's not how it works.

I have an appointment tomorrow afternoon with a PT to have it checked out. Hopefully, the visit will yield good results and not just "well, this is what's wrong, come back next week and we'll get started." He's sports-minded, though (his card has "ironman performance care" on it), and is aware I'm training for a May 9 triathlon and haven't run or biked in 2 months. I have hope.

Today I am planning to hit the pool. I got a new bathing suit in the mail on Monday (I hate mail ordering clothes, but I couldn't find this particular one in any local stores) that is much better-suited to swimming laps. I'm looking forward to trying it out!

Also today I can go and pick up my bike. I am going to ask them to fit me for a helmet while I'm there. I tried a bunch on the other night when I was shopping, but they were all too big ... even the youth ages 11-14.

That's where I'm at. Here's to hope!

looking forward

I'm ready to use my legs again.

They're almost ready.

I'm going to tell B. "no legs" on Tuesday when I train again.

I plan to be spinning by next weekend. I think that's possible. But I'm not doing anything before Thursday, regardless of how it feels.

With lifting, I'm definitely getting stronger, but it's taking a lot longer than it did last time. I wonder if chemo has anything to do with that. Weird. Frustrating. But progress is progress, regardless of how slow it is...

I took the saddle baskets off of my bike this evening; they're not so good for racing. There is a bike maintenance workshop on Thursday that I'm going to, which will be great :)

Swimming tomorrow. Going to try to go a little bit faster and a little bit farther. Maybe an extra 50-100 meters in the same time I've been swimming 750? I don't know if that's a realistic goal or not, but that's what I'll set it at anyway :)

I don't have many training sessions left, I don't think, which is sad. I don't think there's cash around to buy more when these run out, so I'll just need to savor the last few...

March 3 and 5

Tuesday, B. and I did Nifty 50s. Well, he didn't do any. Anyway, it was a comparison — we had done this about three months ago. The good news is that I'm getting stronger and my endurance is increasing :) I don't think there's any bad news, at least not about that.

He suggested that I try out the stationary bike for 10-15 minutes and see how the hamstring feels. So when I went in tonight, I biked lightly for 10 minutes (level 2, 55 rpm) while I wrote out what I was going to do for lifting. The ol' hammy was a little sore when I got off, so I think spinning is not yet in the cards. It's still sore, and I'll be icing it shortly.

The rest of my workout was pretty good, though — upper body and abs.

Tomorrow, I'm just going to swim.

(Yesterday was a rest day.)

I'd love to go and spin on Saturday or Sunday. Maybe this dumb leg will be healed up by then. Saturday probably not, but Sunday maybe...

I'm back!

Exercise was present but light in NJ. I was able to do some cardio on Thursday upon arrival and on Saturday I swam. Yesterday, after I got home, I lifted.

My hamstring is feeling better, so I think I'm good to go with the lower body (finally!).

I had a meeting today and have jazz band tonight. I might go for a short swim after jazz band, or I might come home and sleep.

Either way, I am training for half an hour on core tomorrow, which I am looking forward to!

This week will not be as workout-heavy as I'd like (rehearsal tonight, dress rehearsal tomorrow night for Wednesday night's concert, school concert Thursday night but that should end pretty early...), but I figure, even when it's crazy busy like this, as long as I can do something (as opposed to nothing), I'm OK. I don't have too many weeks that are like this...

gone for a few...

Early tomorrow morning, I am heading to NJ to present a workshop at a professional conference. I'll be exercising there but not blogging, so you'll have to live without me for a few days...

Feb 10 and mentoring!

I trained with B. tonight. Since my hamstring is still not 100% (though it's much closer than it has been), we did upper body only. It was killer. I will definitely stretch again before bed, and probably periodically all day tomorrow. But have I mentioned how much I love these killer sessions? Doesn't matter which part of the body we're working (top, bottom, middle, all), I LOVE being pushed as far as I go with a trainer. If I had the money, I'd train once a week year round.

Anyway, I have taken off tomorrow (from work) and am planning, if I feel well, to go to do some cardio (and maybe also abs). B. said that I could try out some light treadmill action and see how it feels. So the plan is to go in sweats and take my bathing suit so I can swim if walking/running doesn't work out. We'll see.

Also today, I got an e-mail from my triathlon mentor person! I'm excited! This whole triathlon thing is exciting :) Anyway, T. wrote me, told me about herself, let me know how she'd be available. I wrote back, probably too much, telling her where I'm coming from, asking a couple of questions, telling her my goals.

Goals:
-finish the race
-without doggie paddling or walking
-without getting hurt (whether by injury or crashing)
-without throwing up

Too much to ask? I think probably not. I think that if the race was next weekend, I'd be able to finish it, though I'd need to walk and maybe doggie paddle, and I might throw up at the end. But I have time, and in that time, I can get better. I will get better. I'm already getting better. So those are my goals :)

hurt and sick

Well, I didn't work out at all on Saturday. My hamstring was sore, even when I wasn't stretching it, and I was tired and cranky. Not the best reasons, perhaps, but reasons none-the-less.

Sunday I went and did upper body and abs, and then went for a swim. A self-proclaimed health nut stopped me when I was done lifting and offered 20-minutes-worth of health advice which, while interesting, would have been better another time.

Today I had a meeting after school 4:30-6:30, then was supposed to go to jazz band 7:30-8:30, but I woke up this morning with a head full of snot, so I'm skipping jazz band and going to bed.

Tomorrow I'm scheduled to train, which will be good.

If I'm not feeling fabulous (or maybe even if I am), I'm thinking about taking off on Wednesday. I don't have many classes, made fewer by an assembly, and the afternoon meeting is not one relevant to what I teach. So, while typically a rest day, I might go in and get in a swim on Wednesday.

My hamstring is feeling much better today (although still not normal). I'm hoping to be running/biking/etc. by Thursday.

I got an email saying to look out for a message from my tri mentor. I'm looking forward to it! Hooray! I was also notified of some group workouts on the course a little farther down the line. I'm glad that those will be available to us.

I also looked at the workout schedule offered. The swimming workouts include all kinds of gear that I don't have. I plan to ask how important all of that stuff is. We're making some small sacrifices so that I can buy a wetsuit and pay the entrance fees to this event, and I'm not wanting to buy more stuff. If I really like doing this, I might invest in more toys over time, but not right now...

Feb 6

I saw B. when I went to the gym this afternoon and we talked about my tight hammy a bit.

Consensus is that I shouldn't do any land-based cardio or lower body training until the tightness is gone and the hamstring feels normal.

So today I did a rockin' abs/lower back workout for half an hour or so, and then swam. I did 22 laps tonight, before I had to get out because I was getting picked up. (I would have had more time, but all of the lanes were full when I arrived.) Knowing now that I can go longer, adding extra laps isn't as exciting as it was a week ago, but that's OK. I think I'll still be pretty jazzed when I hit the 750-meter-mark.

Plan for the weekend has changed. Tomorrow: upper body and some swimming (I don't anticipate that swim being as fruitful, especially if my lifting is rigorous). Sunday: abs and some swimming. If my leg feels better tomorrow, I might throw in some light legwork on Sunday. That'll be a go-with-the-gut decision.