Crazy day!

After yesterday’s swim I wanted to get to the pool this morning and give it another shot.  Unfortunately today was going to be a busy day without any workouts, but I got up and out the door with my kiddos and got to the gym.  I had to wait a little bit before a lane freed up but once I was in and situated I have no issue getting my entire swim in.  It felt great!

I hit the hot tub for a very short time before I had to get out and get going. My next stop today was the rheumy.  As usual we went over my shopping list of meds and then discussed my current issues.  I told him about the weird thing that happened with my hand and he told me that happens because of my RA. My lower back is still an issue, but I am doing what I can.  The things on my hand are something we need to keep an eye on, but he isn’t worried at this point.  Blah, blah, blah, I didn’t get any new meds (YAY!!!!), and I don’t have to go back for three months.  In the lupus world that is HUGE!

With only a short break I was off to class.  It wasn’t too bad, but knowing how nice it was outside made me want to get out early.  Once class was over I hit the trail on my bike for a short ride.  Wasn’t quite an hour, like my schedule said for today, but it was first ride of the year outside on my bike. 

Tomorrow is Cuervo’s graduation form elementary school! So tomorrow will be another go, go, go day. Hopefully I will be able to start my morning with my 41 minute run and my 1800 meter swim. 

Oh! And Saturday is my ColorRun 5K race, which should be a lot of fun (and Very messy!)

~If you hear that someone is speaking ill of you, instead of trying to defend yourself you should say: "He obviously does not know me very well, since there are so many other faults he could have mentioned"~

Don't do that honey!

Last night my old friend insomnia hit me, again! Or is it still, either way I was up much later than I wanted to be. So this morning when it was time to get up it was a bit of a struggle.  I did get up and off to the gym I went wear a Sparkle Skirt a dear friend gave me.  This was the first time I had ever worn that brand, I wasn’t too sure about it.  Typically, my fluffy belly bounces the waist down (so I am pulling it up ever three seconds and my “tree trunk” legs make the shorts go up (typically I wear capris under my running skirts).  I got on the treadmill (I have a 51 minute run on the books today) and I did my five minute warm up and everything was staying put except the rock in my shoe.  Ok, on to the walk 1 “run” 4 minutes… After 40 minutes of that I had done no skirt fixing, the last 6 minutes I was doing sprints and STILL no skirt fixing!!!!! It is nice that a company has made a running skirt that works on fluffier athletes!

As far as the pool went today it wasn’t anywhere near as successful as the run was.  I have blister on my feet and pushing off of the wall was not fun, my iPod died so no music while swimming and I just couldn’t get into it. So after 300 meters I called it quits and hit the hot tub (I have time before my doctors appointment tomorrow to hit the pool so I will try it again tomorrow!).

I get the in the hot tub and I know it is not great for one’s health but it is soooooo relaxing.  At first I am in there by myself, then a mom and her child come over (there are signs everywhere saying not for children under 12).  Mom tells the kid to sit on the edge.  Next thing you see kid has his feet in the hot tub, then his legs then he is up to his waist and then he is all the way in.  When his mom FINALLY notices she tells him to get out… what does he do? He just stares at her and continues to walk around in the hot tub.  I am sorry, but I would drag his butt out if I were his mom and he ignored me like that.  People wonder why kids are such problems these days!

Oh well! Tomorrow is pool time and a bike ride (hopefully I will actually be able to get some time on my bike.

~If you hear that someone is speaking ill of you, instead of trying to defend yourself you should say: "He obviously does not know me very well, since there are so many other faults he could have mentioned"~

I wore him out! I wore him out!

Today was supposed to be bike power intervals, but spin class was more of an endurance ride today.  We did hills, we did sprints, so I am chalking it up to a successful training day.  After spin class it was off to class class! I am already halfway done with this quarter, which means I am that much closer to graduating!

This is not one of my kids (human or fur!).

After class, I had to zoom to an appointment and then zoom home, I beat Cuervo home!  I asked both kiddos about homework, they both said “Nope! Nada!!” (which is understandable, they only have three days left before summer break!) I told them to get running clothes on and we headed to a run group.  I figured we would go Jose’s pace, ok, I made him pick up the speed, but I wanted to get done at some point tonight. I told them by the end of the summer I want them to be able to run the whole distance.  Poor little Cuervo was so tired on the way I was doing the happy dance because I wore him out!!!!! Hey, that is not an easy task!

Tomorrow is run and swim day (and more school!)

~If you hear that someone is speaking ill of you, instead of trying to defend yourself you should say: "He obviously does not know me very well, since there are so many other faults he could have mentioned"~

Rest Day

I know, starting the training week with a rest day is a little odd, but hey, you go pick up and the book and read what it says on page 294.  The training week starts on Tuesday, which is actually a good thing.  Jose went out the door, no issues.  Cuervo decided to curl up at the foot of my bed after getting dressed and went to sleep.  He kept coughing (we have had the cruds going the family for a good week or so).  We managed to get out the door, but came right back in not to long after.  Poor little guy returned to the foot of my bed (not sure why he didn’t go to his bed) and slept.  He woke up around lunch and asked for soup and hot tea and then went back to sleep.  He was feeling better went he went to bed tonight (after he had his honey water [hot water with some honey in it]).

While I was hanging out at home I figured I would get a question that has been bugging me a little bit answered.  Why change during T1 in an IM… so I went to a group I knew would give me some good information, the Pikes Peak Tri Club.

PPTC Member #1: If you're swimming in salt water, it's worth a change. I changed to regular bike shorts in T1 for my first IM and I'm glad I did. I didn't even think about the salt water! And then you changed out of the bike shorts for the run? PPTC Member #2:  as PPTC Member #1 said the advantage to changing you can change into bike shorts which obviously have more padding for the bike. You then have to change again into running gear unless you wear a swim suit then change into a tri short for the bike and run. Ive done Cozumel twice and didnt change and no issues. If your in salt water it can be more chaffing for sure. good luck PPTC Member #1:  I did. It was my first so I wanted to be comfortable. Me:  I am doing Beach2Battleship in NC, the swim is salt water. When I did 5430 (before IM bought it) I wore a bike skirt over my tri shorts for the ride. Any possible way to reduce chaffing I am ALL in for!!!!! PPTC Member #3:  I just did IMSG and I changed top and bottoms both times. Cycling shorts (not bib) and cycling top for the bike and tri shorts and tri top for the run. Cycling top had larger pockets that I pre-stuffed with food and arm coolers AND the larger pockets are great for stuffing supplies from aid stations like an extra water bottle. Try top has much smaller pockets, but they had gel in them already. Also changed my socks at T2 and again from my run special needs bag. The time it takes to strip off the clothes and put on fresh is well worth it - probably added less than 1 minute total to my transition times (time yourself changing - should be able to completely change in less than 30 seconds). That time is saved back in the long run by just having fresh clothes. Volunteers are there to help pick it all up and stuff it back in the bag too. I highly recommend a full change. Mr: Extra socks in special needs run bag... GOT IT!!!!!! thank you all for the information. I know I still have 5 months, but I am starting to get very excited and trying to start getting my ducks in a row. PPTC Member #4:  In my ironman I changed in each transition, and will do again. As john said, better to be comfortable for that next phase. Obtw be prepared for Anything, I wish I brought cold weather gear for Florida. Seriously you can't be over prepared. Good luck and train smart. Me:I keep reading about how cold it was last year. I already have on my shopping list gloves for the bike, thanks to lupus if my hands even get chilled I can't use them, so I NEED to make sure they stay nice and warm. I don't care if the weather man says it will be 80 degrees, I will have cold weather gear with me!

 Very helpful information!

Tomorrow spin class and then maybe head downtown after kiddos get home and do a group run with them.

 

~If you hear that someone is speaking ill of you, instead of trying to defend yourself you should say: "He obviously does not know me very well, since there are so many other faults he could have mentioned"~

5 Months and Counting!



Love this tattoo! "I believe you can keep going long after you think you can't"

Five months from now I will be in the middle of my first iron distance triathlon.  The closer we get the more excited I get.  In a way I am not too nervous, yet. I don’t officially start training for another two weeks.  For now I am working on improving my endurance in the three disciplines.  This summer will be very race shy.  I have a 5K coming up next weekend, ok, I admit it is more of a very fun run (Color Run) than anything else.  June I will be doing a half marathon with a friend, hopefully that will go better than my last one, I am still not sure what happened.  July is off, August I have a sprint distance as part of training, September is a half iron distance, again part of training.  And then the big day is five months from today!

The running is getting better again (thankfully), the spinning (haven’t been out on my bike yet L) is feeling better, my butt doesn’t hurt as much! Swimming…  HUGE improvement.  I know I still really need to work on my nutrition and race hydration. 

I was reading some blogs and I came up with a really weird question…  during shorter triathlons you go straight from one event to the next.  I have read multiple reports about changing between the swim and the bike… I am not sure if I want to go that route or not.  I don’t know what the benefit really is.  Ok, you have nice dry clothes on for the bike, but….  I don’t know.

This week's plan... (Using Essential Week-by-Week Training Guide by Matt Zitzgerald [this is copywritten information so what I post here will be VERY generalized information])

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Plan says	"Rest"	Bike - 1:00:00	Swim – 1700 m Run – 51:00	Bike - 1:00:00	Swim – 1800 m Run – 41:00	Bike - 1:00:00	Swim – 1800 m Run – 1:05:00
actual plan	Swim?	Bike - 1:00:00	Swim – 1700 m Run – 51:00	Bike - 1:00:00	Swim – 1800 m Run – 41:00	5K	Swim – 1800 m Hike – ????

~If you hear that someone is speaking ill of you, instead of trying to defend yourself you should say: "He obviously does not know me very well, since there are so many other faults he could have mentioned"~

Back in the saddle again!

After a week of recovery and unexpected mishaps I returned to the gym in fine form today.  Before Colorado Half marathon I had a schedule of so much time on the treadmill and this and that and blah, blah, blah.  Today I went in with a little bit of a different take on things.  I figured I would do three miles on the treadmill and a mile in the pool.  My treadmill plan was to “run” more than I had been  (mind you my “run” right now is a VERY slow jog).  I did a nice 10 minute warm up and then went straight into a comfortable walk 1 minute, run 4 minutes; until the end, I ran the last .6 miles.  After my nice run, it was pool time.

As I was getting into the pool I noticed my legs were a little stiff, but I wasn’t too worried.  I started swimming and as I swam I could feel everything relaxing and everything started feeling good all over.  At the end of my mile I looked at my watch and noticed I had shaved off another two minutes! I still have another five minutes to get back to where I was, but hey, every little bit helps.

On the medical front, things are going as cheerful.   I went in for a follow up and found out that I had blood in my urine.  The lupus has started messing with my kidneys so this is not happy news.  My doc isn’t worrying yet, she is hoping it is just a fluke and has ordered another urine test to see if the results come back the same or if they come back normal.  I am trying to keep my mind off of it, but it is kind of hard.  We then started talking about natural treatments for lupus and I told her about the whole no land animal and we started talking about gluten free.  I am not ready to try gluten free, but it is something I am more than happy to do research on and at some point in the near future I will give it a test run and see if there is any differences or not.  I am up for anything that will get the damn chemicals out of my system!

~If you hear that someone is speaking ill of you, instead of trying to defend yourself you should say: "He obviously does not know me very well, since there are so many other faults he could have mentioned"~

Colorado (Half) Marathon 2012

Sunset in Fort Collins

I signed up for the Colorado Marathon back in September, little did I know what all was going to take place between then and race day.  I have been going in and out of mini lupus flare ups which has not made training easy by any stretch of the imagination!  It started looking like I was not going to be able to run it at all and then things started to improve, finally! Wednesday, 2 May 12, my sister finally gave her approval for me to run the HALF marathon.   I know it sounds nuts that I had to get my sister’s approval, but trust me it is for my own good.  I will keep pushing myself until I am in a complete an absolute flare up!

We left for Fort Collins Saturday morning it was nice clear sailing all the way up.  We were introduced to McAlister’s over the summer and fell in love with their iced tea, now  sadly there is no McAlister’s here in Colorado Springs, very sad if you ask me; Fort Collins has two!!!!! We got into town around lunch time so there was no question where we were going to stop for lunch.  After lunch we got to the hotel, got checked in and headed to the expo.  Staying at the host hotel has it’s advantages one of which is you don’t have to travel anywhere to get to the expo!!!!! I went and picked up my marathon bib and then traded it in for a half marathon bib (I was a little sad that I had to do that), then I went and checked out rest of the expo.  Over the past few years the expo has grown vastly, the first time I ran it the expo was in this little room and wasn’t a whole heck of a lot of stuff.  We played on some of the equipment and checked out some of the vendors and headed out.  We grabbed our bags and went up to the room.  It was a lot smaller than what we usually got, but such is life.  We figured we would relax for a bit before heading out to dinner (I like to eat pre-race dinner around 4:30 – 5:00 pm).  On the way out we stopped by the Brooks bus and I won a free pair of running shoes!!!! YAY!!!! We decided we would go somewhere different this time for dinner (we always go to Olive Garden).  We ended up at Bisetti's Ristorante, the food was ok, not really what I wanted, but whatever.  We made a quick stop by Sports Authority (I always forget something!!!!!) then back to the hotel.  I was in bed by 8:00, asleep by 10:00 (at the latest).  For the first time that I can remember I had a dream that I woke up late and I ran to the bus in my jammies with my running stuff in hand.  Needless to say I kept waking up and checking the clock to make sure I didn’t oversleep (I had the alarm clock set, my phone set, a wake-up call placed… did I really think I would over sleep? I guess so!).

I was up at 4:00 am, I got dressed (Moving Comfort Jubralee bra, Under Armor bra [huge mistake], Nike t-shirt, Moeben running sleeves, Feetures running socks, Skirts Sports Tough Girl Skirt  )and headed downstairs.  Did I mention not only did the host hotel have a bus pick up for the race start they also had Starbucks in the lobby?!!!! I was down stairs somewhere around about 4:30. I got my half caff coffee, a banana nut muffin and a banana (notice anything missing?  I don’t like protein?) I sat down on the couch and enjoyed my coffee and my muffin.  The bus came and we loaded up.  Since we weren’t full we made a stop at the transportation area and picked up some more runners and up the mountain we went!  I looked at the weather so I knew it would be chilly up there so I had a Skirt Sports Tough Girl Top and a sweatshirt with me! I refused to get cold! As soon as I got off the bus I was pulling layers on.  Before the race started The sweatshirt went into to my bag which went on the truck to meet me at the finish line.  I tied the Tough Girl Top around my waist, just in case I got cold.  We got to the finish line and all of a sudden people started running… no National Anthem, no gun, no nothing. 

I had planned to do a nice comfortable 15:00 minute mile pace, I was taking it nice and slow (I didn’t have my inhaler, oops)!  I was chugging along, Mile 1 - just under pace, Mile 2 – feeling good, Mile 3 – still under pace, passed by the first marathoner!!!!!!! Mile 4 – still going strong, Mile 5 – no issues, Mile 6 – about a minute under, Mile 7 (with that stupid hill) – I was right on pace.  Then something happened.  My feet started hurting???? (my shoes are not brand new, I am used to those socks, and I have gotten long runs up to 10 miles in, this should not be happening!!!!!)  Mile 8 – still chugging along (over pace), Mile 9 – eh, Mile 10 – vertigo starts (excuse me?????  That is new!), Mile 11 – I am going to finish this and that is final, oh! And I will not end up in a flare up!) Mile 12 – I send my sister a text to send Cuervo up the trail to meet me (vertigo was really kicking my butt).  Mile 13 – I have my little buddy with me (I am having to hold on to him to make sure I don’t fall over).  Little man and I cross the finish line we both get a bottle of water and I get my hardware.  We leave the finish area and go sit down to wait for everyone else.  I get my shoes off, and I have blisters all over the bottom of my feet????  Then I go to take a step and OH $#!|!!!!! I figure it is a Charlie Horse in my foot.  I can’t walk on it! Luckily Jose and Curevo are getting taller and I get one on each side and we make it look like we are just walking around. 

Latest bling!

We get back to the hotel, and Cuervo like a wonderful child starts getting ice.  I take an ice bath for a while and then take a nice warm bath.  Afterwards I prop my foot up (I realized it was not a Charlie Horse in my foot) and ice it for a while.  It is still unhappy right now, but at least I can walk on it without to many issues.

My plan for this week training wise is a lot of pool time! I am not even going to spin class this week. I am thinking about some weight training but this is my pull back week and I have no intention of strapping on my running shoes until the end of the week at the earliest. 

It was a good run, there were some weird things going on, but that is ok. 

~If you hear that someone is speaking ill of you, instead of trying to defend yourself you should say: "He obviously does not know me very well, since there are so many other faults he could have mentioned"~