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!

next race...

As soon as I get a green light from the cardiologist (which I am expecting on Tuesday), I am going to register for the sprint distance of the Nathan Tempe Triathlon. It's almost the exact same as the Danskin that I did in May. Bike route is different — hillier but shorter. Swim and run courses are the same. And as long as I take good care of my legs, my training will be better and it will be a better race. Stay tuned...

I am officially a triathlete!!

The race this morning was amazing. Where to start...

I arrived a little later than I would have liked (surprise) and was a little rushed. I went to put my bike in transition and set up my stuff. I found my spot, but I couldn't figure out how to get my bike onto the rack. The ones around me were hanging either by their seat or their handlebars, but I couldn't get mine to do that. I asked the lady next to me, and she gave a couple of suggestions, watched them not work, then said just to use the kickstand. Much easier :)

It was my first time wearing a swim cap, and that felt a little funny. I'm used to feeling water in my hair. Not a big deal, just odd.

The swimmers were divided into eight waves which went out five minutes apart. One group was at the starting line, another group was in the water, and the next group was at the side of the lake. My group was orange (which was the color of our caps). I got out into the water and decided to be at the complete back of my group. Hanging out, treading water, feeling OK. The blue group was behind ours, and those ladies got in and crowded up the back of us. I couldn't even tread water without smacking into one of them. Their conversation among themselves indicated that they knew they were crowded, but they didn't do anything about it. It's one thing to be crowded in a place where you are standing or sitting. It's another one entirely to be crowded where feet on the floor is a bad thing. (I don't know how deep the lake is there, but it's over my head, and that's all I need to know ... not that I would have wanted to put my feet on the bottom. Ew.)

So the horn went off and we started, heading east in Tempe Town Lake. Problem #2 in the swim: my goggles fogged up pretty instantly. Between that and looking into the sun, I couldn't see where I was going. So I'd swim a little, stop, take off my goggles, look to see where I was, put them back on, swim a little, etc. Annoying at best. Once I got around the buoy, the problem subsided. Heading north I had a lot of bumping issues with people nearby. I drank a lot more of Tempe Town Lake than I would have liked, but that's just how it goes sometimes. Anyway, heading west was great. I had a nice, easy stroke going, could look up and spot without stopping, most of the time, didn't have too much groping with other swimmers. There were two or three ladies from my wave who finished behind me.

I got out and ran to transition. It wasn't too hard to get switched into biking mode, but I did have some trouble getting my socks on. I wasn't sure how much I needed to dry my feet, as I've not run or biked in wet socks and didn't want blisters. Pretty quickly, the "screw it, I gotta go" kicked in, I got everything on and headed out.

I did the whole race in Skins, compression clothes (in my case, long sleeved and long legged) that have UV-blocker built in. I had sewn some cloth onto a sweatband and wore that under my helmet, so the cloth covered my ears and the back of my neck. This let me not worry about too much sunscreen.

So I only needed to put on shoes, socks, bandana, sweatband, helmet, get some gum and head out. It felt like it took a long time, but I'm not sure that it actually did.

About two miles into the bike course, the "what the hell was I thinking?" kicked in. Fortunately, it passed pretty quickly. It was a two-loop course with a little up-and-down, but nothing too severe. As I was coming over the Mill Avenue bridge near the end of my first lap, the woman who finished first crossed the finish line. It was the only point in the race where I felt really really slow. (Of course, I was really slow, but that's not the point ;)) The second loop was much better mentally than the first loop and was therefore probably faster, though I don't actually know. I had some good pushing at the end and finished pretty strong.

And then I got off my bike and was really pretty ready to go home.

I tried to joke with the volunteer at the entrance to transition. "I'm supposed to run now?" She gave me an explanation of where to put my bike and where to run to.

The ladies at the water stations were much less serious. I joked with some that I thought this race was multiple choice, "clarified" with one that this was a 5K walk, and at the last water station, just stopped and chatted for a minute. I was so tired. I did end up walking probably half of the run and only really ran the last 0.1 mile. The rest was a jog. It's OK. I did it.

With less than a mile to go, I was so happy and excited and proud, I started to tear up. I was able to put that away, telling myself I could cry when I was done. But right at about that time, I started to have trouble breathing. My throat got super-tight. I stopped running and just walked, of course, calmed down, and it went away. I figured it was just part of getting all emotional, I started running again, and it was OK. After I finished (at which point I felt no compulsion to cry), it happened again, and it continued to happen off and on for an hour or more. Once I had lunch, it stopped. I don't know if they're related or not, but it was definitely the most unpleasant part of the morning.

I had enough energy left to sprint-ish the last 0.1 mile, and then was completely wiped. I sometimes feel funny, going that fast at the end, when it's really pretty evident that I hadn't gone that fast all morning, but it's OK. Strong finish. I had good finishes to all three legs.

All the while, some friends were my cheering section. One had T-shirts made that they all wore. They saw me off at the beginning, cheered when I got out of the lake, cheered when I came by (both directions) for both loops of the bike ride, cheered when I was running. It was very very cool to have a cheering section :) One took pictures, but I haven't seen them yet.

There were pro photographers all over the place at the event. I just signed up to get a notification when my photos are ready.

After walking around, standing around, cooling down, some of us went out for a tasty lunch. I tossed my gym bag into a friend's car, not realizing until much later that my keys were in the gym bag. Oops. Fortunately, I had been flaky enough to leave one of my doors unlocked (I have one of three cars left on Earth with manual locks), so I could get in to get my change of clothes. I changed right there in the parking deck, and another friend, who had been carrying some of my stuff, gave me a ride :)

The other point of note from this morning is that I was able to walk around in public for 4.5 or so hours in clothes tight enough to be called "skins" and didn't even think about it. This is good :)

Also, while it was quite warm this morning, and I had on long-sleeved, long-legged tight black clothes, I didn't feel especially hot. The wicking properties really did a lot, and I suspect that not having the sun beating on my skin helped, too.

Currently (about 8 hours after finishing), my body feels pretty good. My head feels a little woozy and I'm a little tired, but overall, I feel great! I'm interested to see how all the muscles feel tomorrow. If I have sore anything, it'll be legs or maybe shoulders (tension). I've swum the swim distance many many times without residual soreness. Since I didn't train my legs as much as I would have liked (stupid hamstring injury), the biking was a little rough on them. We'll see...

That's my story! It was a great experience, and I'm thinking about doing another one in the fall. I can't imagine doing a longer one. If nothing else, I don't like running enough to do a longer distance.

35 hours left!

There was a "last chance for Q&A" tonight for the triathlon. I went. It was good. I talked to some neat ladies, I got more information about what to expect, I bought two of the three things I had left on my list. I learned that if I use an iPod, I'll get disqualified and won't get a time. So I won't use an iPod. But I want to!

Anyway, I'm super-extra excited. I have butterflies :)

YAYE!!

Well, things here got a little crazy in the last week or so, but I'm swimming, biking, running, lifting ... excited! nervous!

Two days left. Not doing a lot of exercising in those two days. I might get in one more swim. I'd like to get in one more run.

B. recommended lots of foam rolling, so as soon as I get off the computer, that's what I'm going to do. (It's nice to have a foam roll at home!)

I have an appointment with the PT on Friday morning for a "tune up." :)

And Saturday, I race! WOW!!!

Not sure there will be much in the next two days, but I surely will report back on Saturday!

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!!

bike race this morning

Bike race this morning gave me the opportunity to do a few different things.

First and foremost, ride my bike. It was a good ride. Hit a wall somewhere around mile six. Otherwise, no problems. The sport drink I got wasn't bad, diluted with water :)

On the course for the tri, the point where I hit the wall this morning will be nearing the end of the first loop. I'm thinking that if nothing else, all of the people around and cheering will at least postpone the tired.

When I finished this morning, I hopped off my bike and took a short run, just to get used to the transition. It's not bad.

I also got to try out a test-breakfast, since I very rarely exercise first thing in the morning. I made some frozen fruit into a smoothie and had a Zone bar. It settled well, but it wasn't enough. But I didn't eat all that much yesterday, which would have an impact. In any case, I know I can eat everything I ate this morning and be fine, so that's good.

I also had some crampiness going on this morning, which Advil took the edge off of, but still. No cramps on race day :)

Now, for the first time ever in my life, I was the first person to finish! I pulled up to the school where we started/ended. The volunteers were hanging out chatting. A few spectators were sitting in chairs, mostly reading. It was very anti-climatic. I pulled up to a table, and a lady asked: "Did you do the whole thing?" Yes, I did the 10 miles. "Wow! That was fast! You're the first one done!"

Really, it wasn't that fast. The lead pack for the 65-mile racers came past our corner about 10 minutes or so later, and they had completed 25 miles. That's fast.

Based on how I rode this morning, it's going to take me about an hour to complete the bike portion of the tri. I might be able to go a little faster, with some last-minute training and a bunch of adrenaline, but I think that's about where I'll be.

I wore my skins, of course, because they're UV-blocking and because I need to be used to wearing them. They're funky looking (mine have yellow seams). The same lady who asked if I was done later said, "Look at you with your fabulous body in your fabulous outfit." Besides "fabulous" just being a great word in general, it was a nice compliment :) Especially since I feel kinda bloated and gross.

So bike race was a success! Hooray!

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!!

bought a wetsuit

My tri mentor was selling a wetsuit in my size, so I went today to meet with her and try it on.

I had never put on a wetsuit before.

I had heard and read that it's hard to put a wetsuit on. That is the understatement of the century! My hands were tired from grabbing and pulling. It was as if my whole body was hips!

Well, between the two of us, we got it on, but it was no small feat.

I did buy it from her, but I'm not looking forward to putting it on in a public space (i.e. at the race). I will practice putting it on, and I'll get my hubby to help, and I'm going to swim with it at the gym some time this week and use it for the open-water swim on Friday.

One more thing checked off the list. The race is three weeks from today!!!

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...

been sick :(

Well, since I last posted ... I had half of an upper body workout in the exercise room at a hotel, I went for a swim, and I've been dancing twice. I had The Crud and it took a while before I felt functional.

Yesterday, I was finally feeling kind of better, so I went to the gym and just did a little elliptical. It felt good to be moving and sweating.

Today, I trained with B. It was excellent :) I expect to be sore tomorrow, and that's OK. So now I'm in hyper training mode, as the tri is coming up fast and I've lost a lot of training time :(

It'll be great.

running!

I went for a short run tonight (roughly 1 mile). It felt pretty good :) It's nice to be back on my feet, as it were.

I left work a little late (maybe 10 minutes) and then there were problems on the freeway, so I missed the run-the-course, which was disappointing. I did meet up with my mentor and some other ladies, and learned about transitions and how to set them up.

I'm excited! It's getting closer... I'm not going to go too fast with running or anything, but I'm glad to be able to do it again. Biking soon, too! Woo-hoo!!!

I was able to get a bike helmet that fits finally, which is good. I have a few things left to buy, but not many, and a few other things that I'll buy if the money tree blooms in time ;-) This tri stuff can get expensive!

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!

ready to be healed...

I swam yesterday, and my right shoulder was a little tweaky. This is Not Good.

I figure it's some combination of swimming a lot and lots of upper-body strength training. I always have at least one rest day between lifting days, often more, but I wonder if the swim days in between made days off less restful.

Today, it feels pretty good. I'm not exercising today.

My hamstring, however, is not healing. I'm very frustrated (to put it mildly), and I'm going to look into physical therapy and/or a chiropractor. I have a recommendation for a physical therapist, and there was a doc who came to our school and gave massages who I have info for. (I'm more likely to go with the first, since he was personally recommended.)

To add to my frustration, I've been using my heart rate monitor. I can swim comfortably and keep my HR under 165 (which is where I have the alarm set for). But on Saturday when I was lifting, I set the dumb thing off with almost every set of exercises. 20 pushups? HR=170. I thought we had moved on from this problem, but I guess not. I'm planning to wear it tomorrow when (if) I train. My mom suggested I get my thyroid checked. I need to get bloodwork done this week anyway, for the oncologist. I'm going to ask them if they'll tack the two tests she suggested on. And I usually have my blood chemistry checked every March, so I'll ask about that, too. I don't know if they'll do all that, but I figure, there's no harm in asking...

I'm not sure if I should train tomorrow or not. My gut is saying "rest another day," so that's what I'm likely to go with. I need to talk to B. and maybe reschedule for Thursday or early morning Wednesday.