Achilles Update

Feeling better! Not great, but better. I can walk like a normal person now...even when I am not wearing heels. :-) Of course, I am still taking the mega-pills, so that helps.

I have an appointment for Thursday, but honestly it's not going to do much good before Saturday. In the meantime, I've been icing and stretching, and stretching and icing. I'm hopeful that if I take it easy or even walk the uphills, I might be alright. I'm just playing it by ear and will make my final decision on Friday afternoon. Whether I run or not, I will be enjoying the girls weekend in Bastrop!

3/31 - Spin Class - 1 hour
No problem with the achilles here. As usual, I sweated my arse off in this class and my legs fet like jello when we were done!

3/30 - P90X, Ab Ripper X - 15 minutes
Can't run, but I can work the core! I love feeling the burn in this short, but tough workout.

On second thought...

I've been googling treatments for achilles tendonitis just to see what I should be doing at home in the meantime.

Every single websites recommends NOT doing sprints (no problem there) or HILLS.

Hmmm...and this 1/2 marathon is in the "HILL COUNTRY".

Sigh.

Maybe I won't be racing afterall.

Shiat!

Well, apparently Dr. P no longer treats achilles issues. That was okay, because he was booked for the week anyway. His associate, the other Dr. P, is available...

On THURSDAY!!!

Don't these people know I have a race on Saturday? What the frick? LOL! Okay, so I guess I get to ice and continue my rx until then, and of course not run all week. I just hope the PT Man will be available to work some of his magic on Thursday! Although I know it will take more than one day to really do something magical. We're leaving on Friday, so Thursday is it.

@#$%&*#?~$%!!!!

Okay, that's enough ranting. All I have left to say is that I will get this 1/2 done, even if I'm walking it! BTW, this is the 2nd time I've had this injury. I had it back in 2005, when I was training for Houston (my 1st post-baby marathon). It was a week and a half before the 25k. I went in on a Thursday, got a rx for a corticosteriod and did my 1st ultrasound treatment. I did 3 more ultrasound treatments the following week and ran the 25k that weekend with no problems. Doesn't lool like I'll be getting in the same about of treatments this time. Sigh.

Not sure what I'm doing for my workout today. I was planning to ride the stationary bike at the gym during lunch, but once again, I have a working lunch. Oh the joy! So, maybe I'll do some P90X arms. I hate my bike trainer, so I doubt I'll be doing that...plus there's spin class tomorrow, so I'll save the biking for then.

Lovely Sunday!

The weather was amazing again! If only it could be this awesome every weekend!

The kiddo started the day with more stomach issues...I don't know if she was still recovering from the bug she had earlier or if she was getting the bug again from the hubby. Anyway, we ended up skipping church, just in case there was more stomach trouble. There wasn't, so we went to the TeamiTri picnic and transition seminar. It was held at a local park, which is pure torture for a 4 year old when Mommy says, "We'll go play after the seminar". I finally caved and walked over to the swings with her. The rest of the time, I let her play on the playground and 1/2 listened while I watched to make sure she was okay.

The seminar was great! It answered a lot of my dumb questions and my not-so-dumb ones too. I am excited to practice my transitions! In fact, we have a member of our little group of tri-girls who has a pool, so we will be doing a mini-tri to practice our transitions. We also received our TeamiTri technical shirts!

We ended up coming home and playing outside for a couple of hours, so I have some supah-sexy tan lines from my v-neck t-shirt...I only wish I was wearing shorts because my legs are ultra-glo white!!!

The achilles still hurts, but with the ibuprofen, it's bearable. Still icing and stretching! I will call Dr. P's office tomorrow to see how quickly I can get in...hopefully soon!

The hubby is still sick and the kiddo is still not quite 100% (but you couldn't tell that from the way she wants to play...only from the lack of eating). I didn't want to make my sick hubby try to entertain the kiddos while I rode my bike, so I skipped it. Life happens! I am just hoping and praying that the baby and I can get through the week without catching the bug!!!

Gotta Run!

The weather was awesome on Saturday, so I was really looking forward to my afternoon long run. The kiddos and I got to begin enjoying the day early, by going to the neighborhood Easter celebration. I pushed the baby in the stroller to the park and the kiddo rode her bike. During our walk, I felt a weird feeling - my achilles felt, well, weird. Not pain, just weird. It didn't hurt, so I just pushed the thought out of my head. We had a great time and made it home in time for some grocery shopping and lunch.

When the hubby arrived home from work, I headed out for my run around the 'hood. I wanted to get in between 7 & 8 miles as my last run before the 1/2 marathon. I decided to get a bit adventurous and jog the extra mile around the currently-being-developed section of the neighborhood - that would make my loop a little more than 4-miles. It sounded like a good idea at the time, but as I was jogging around the deserted streets, I realized that anyone could just zoom around the corner, throw me in a van and I could never be seen again. About that time a Hummer came zooming around the corner. Talk about picking up the pace, lol! I decided that on my 2nd loop around the neighborhood, I would not go this way...maybe 7 miles would be okay.

As I got closer to our house (a/k/a "home base"), I noticed the achilles acting up again. Again, not pain...just uncomfortable this time. I didn't like it. I refilled my hand-held bottle with the gatorade I left on the front porch and kept going. In hindsight, I probably should have stopped here. But no, I did another loop - 3+ miles this time. By the time I made it back home, there was pain. I immediately iced and took an Aleve. The pain was still there that evening, so I grabbed the 800mg of Ibuprofen that the Dr had prescribed after I had the baby. That seemed to help! I iced again later that night.

Oh, and when I came home it seemed that the hubby had contracted whatever stomach flu the kiddo had on Thursday. He even had fever, aches and chills! Yuck!

Tomorrow - bike ride after the hubby gets home from work...if he gets to go to work.

TGIF!!!

I was so happy it was Friday!!! But, leaving work early the day before meant I would be at work Friday afternoon until 5 pm. We have dinner plans to celebrate my Grandfather's 85th birthday, so no after work workout for me. I brought my clothes to workout during lunch only to remember that I had a lunchtime webinar. Drats!!!!

See, this is why I worked out 8 days in a row...because then I have a week when I can't seem to get any workouts in!! Gotta take advantage when there is time!

Luckily, the kiddo is much better now. And the baby? His God awful diaper was a fluke, because there were no more to follow. Hooray!

Rest you say???

Today was the weirdest of weird days...it all started with a big stinky poop.

From the baby of course!

I seriously think the baby was going for some kind of all-time world's record for the biggest, stinkiest poop ever! I usually get up, shower, get dressed then wake up the kids. Although they almost always wake-up before I get to them. This morning, I heard the baby on the monitor - awake and happy, just talking to himself. I walked into his room and it hit me.

worst.smell.ever.

Make you gag smell. His sleep sack was all wet so I carried him at arm's length over to the changing table, because I already had my work clothes on. When I unzipped his sleep sack, there was runny, nasty poop everywhere! At first, I asked the Kiddo to get a wash cloth, wet it and bring that and the baby wash stuff to me. Then I noticed that there is even a layer between him and his onesie. OMG and the smell...it's the 1st time I've almost gotten sick from a smell!!! So on second thought, maybe a washcloth won't work. So, into the bathtub he went! Somehow I still managed to get both the kiddos to school and make it to work 10 minutes early.


I also had a lunch meeting, which meant no spin class. Bummer too, because I was really looking forward to it...especially since I had dinner plans and needed something to make me not feel as guilty for drinking a margarita. :-) As I was sitting in the meeting, I received a call from the kiddo's school...she was having stomach issues and needed to be picked up! I left to pick up the kiddo and fortunately, we made it home right before the skies opened up and the monsoon started. The hubby picked up the baby from school and as we're getting everyone settled, the electricity went out! Good grief! Fortunately, the power came back on about an hour and a half later and DH offers to take over so I can still make it to dinner.

Dinner plans were with the group of gals that I'd be sharing a B&B in Bastrop for the Zooma Austin 1/2. Dinner plans = no swim after work.

So, Thursday was a day of rest. I enjoyed it, but I can't have too many of these!

Test your own limits and keep going.

I broke down and had a Dove chocolate square today...my 1st one in weeks. That was what was printed on the inside of the wrapper. How incredibly appropriate!

Aggghhhh!

I did my spin class during lunch and as always, it kicked my butt. Never before have I sweat so much in an hour! And the instructor insists on making us race each other...I hate that, mainly because I never freaking win. For some reason, I am always paired with the lady who has been coming to the class for 2 years. When she goes fast, I swear you can't even see her legs - they're a blur, lol! Oh well, it's good to do intervals! Oh, and we also have to repeat whatever the instructor says and YELL it...it goes something like this....

Instructor: I'm getting up this hill!

Students: I'M GETTING UP THIS HILL!

Instructor: I'm bad. I'm tough. I'm leaving everybody behind me. (emphasizing the "everybody")

Students: I'M BAD! I'M TOUGH! I'M LEAVING EVERYBODY BEHIND ME!

LOL, yeah when you're out of breath, it can be hard to yell this stuff and sometimes the class ends up in a fit of laughter. Good times - masochistic, but good.

Yesterday was also my regularly scheduled swim day. I decided to head to the indoor pool…it was raining and I wasn’t sure what the rules are at the Y regarding rain and the pool. Naturally, there was only one lane open because the rest were filled with kids taking swim lessons. Fortunately, there was only one person in the open lane! The guy in the lane was going back and forth continuously with no breaks in between, so I couldn’t ask him if we could share the lane. I stood there for a few minutes, because I honestly don’t know what proper pool etiquette is - Do I just hop in and start swimming? Do I wait until I can ask? I didn’t want to screw up his rhythm by tapping him on the shoulder the next time he came to the shallow end of the pool and did his little flip-thingy, lol. Finally, I just hopped in and when he came back to the shallow end, he stopped to let me know he was going to be decompressing his spine and would stay out of my way. Okay, so here we go.

The 1st lap was not so good…it always seems to take me a minute to get into the groove. But the 2nd 50 was better, because I was working hard to remember to relax and breathe. Not great, but definitely better. When I got to about 350 yards, another guy hopped into the lane and asked if we could do some circle swimming. No problem. I’ve shared a lane with him before, so I knew he was faster than me and I let him go ahead. About that time, the 1st guy in the lane went back to swimming laps. A lap or two later and a girl joined us and then her husband. By then, I had been in the pool about 40 minutes and decided I’d do 2 more laps and call it a day. And to be honest, trying to share a lane with so many people freaks me out and I turn into Spaz Girl all over again…this of course worries me, because I know at a tri there are people in the water all around you with legs and arms everywhere. Anyway, by the time I had finished the 2 laps, I was out of breath and annoyed at myself for freaking out.

During my swim, I came to a conclusion: I am going to have to try to find a way to get at least one more swim day in every week from now until the tri. Seriously people, I am making this way harder than it should be. Need practice and more practice!

i CAN swim

Monday, 3/23 – Swimming, 30 minutes

Only 30 minutes of swimming today. It’s not my normal swim day, so the hubby was at Hapkido and my parents had the kiddos. I didn’t want to stay too late, so 30 minutes was it. I met with swim coach, Connie, for some help. I thought I was doing okay with my form, but the breathing is what gets me. Connie was awesome! She told me to keep my head down…apparently, I tend to let my head come up which makes my legs sink, causing more drag, which means I have to work harder to move forward. She also gave me some pointers on form and later told me my form looked “great”. For the breathing, she thought I was worrying too much about breathing in and needed to focus more on getting the air out. And finally, she said to slow down and relax…jeeze, what have I been trying to tell myself for the past two months? Slow down and relax! But seriously, I did everything she said and I had no trouble swimming 50 yds with no break at the wall. She thought that I should have no problem with the 200 meters with a few more weeks of practice. And she said there's no shame in turning over on my back if I am starting to freak out or feel tired, so that made me feel a little better.

Progress! Slow, but I’m making progress!

Oh, and just a little about Connie…she’s 59 years old, but looks more like 40. She has been swimming competitively since she was 9 years old and still competes today in relay races. She has also run 39 marathons and will be running her 40th marathon next year in honor of her 60th birthday. Plus, she loves to compete in triathlons. I only hope I am still doing all of this at 60!!!

Rest

Sunday, 3/22 – Rest

After 8 days straight of swim, bike and run I decided to take a break. Church and then some good quality time with the kiddos until the hubby made it home from work…then it would be off to the mall. The kiddo has been earning money for doing different things around the house (helping mommy & daddy, going to bed on time, sleeping through the night, etc.). We picked out a toy that she really wanted and put a picture of it on the fridge. We also tracked the money she was earning on a dry-erase board on the fridge. She finally earned enough to buy the toy – a big Snow White doll from the Disney Store! Of course, she had to put part of the money she earned in savings too. ;-) Then, it was off to Luke’s for a new fuel belt…I’ve had mine for 6 years and it’s disgusting! Unfortunately, they didn’t have the one I wanted so I’ll have to check out the Houston store.

Run

Saturday, 3/21 – Long Run, 9.85 miles

Ever heard the saying, “Attitude is Everything”? I think it’s so true and my Saturday run proves it. By the time the hubby made it home from work, I needed a severe attitude adjustment about my run. I had spent most of the day at my parent’s waiting for some work to be done on my car at the nearby autoshop…it took MUCH longer than expected. Then, we had to make it to the grocery store and take care of things around the house. I was tired and grumpy and just not fun to be around by mid-afternoon. When it was time to run, I just kept thinking about how much I didn’t want to run. It was hot, I was not in the mood, blah, blah, yadda, yadda.

I finally got outside and started running only to start too fast and get winded right away. I decided to walk and almost turned around and went back inside the house, but I didn’t. I kept walking, because I knew eventually I would start running. And I did. It was hot and I was not having fun, but I kept going. There were a lot of negative thoughts going around my head and I wanted to stop and walk, but I kept friggin’ going. Not to say I didn’t take more walk breaks than normal, because I did.

I noticed that as I went on, my attitude got better. At first, I decided to quit after my 1st 3 mile loop. By the time I was done with it, I figured I could handle another one. By the time I was done with the 2nd loop, I decided that I could do one more. I told myself that I could stop after this one. By the end of the 3rd loop I decided “what the hell, just get in your 10!” By this time, I had picked up my pace and was actually in a better mood. So I decided on a little out and back that should get me the extra mile to make it 10….I must have not calculated my out and back at the end of my run correctly, because as I started to get closer to my house again I realized that I was short by a little. I decided that was okay today….I just wanted to be done!

It was ugly, but I did more than I thought I would. The t-shirts are true - running is my therapy! :-)

Bike

Friday, 3/20 – Bike ride, 1 hour

I finally had an opportunity to get on the bike again! It had been 3 weeks since my last ride. I’ve been going to spin classes during that time, but I realize it’s not the same. It’s been hard to fit in the bike rides outdoors just because of the normal stuff – family, work, vacation, etc.

The weather was perfect! There was a bit of wind, but nothing too bad. It was Friday when I realized that I had worked out everyday since Saturday…because of that and my 10-miler (run) scheduled for the next day, I decided to take it pretty easy on the bike. My quads were still sore from Thursday’s spin class, so even more reason to not push it. The result? 14.8 miles! Not awesome, but not too shabby either. I’m still contemplating buying new pedals and shoes before the tri…we’ll see! With stuff happening at work, I don’t want to spend any more than necessary right now.

More workouts...

Thursday, March 19 -Spin Class, 1 hour & Swim, 50 minutes
Another fun, but grueling spin class during lunch! I hate the class, but yet I love it.

I met Katie at the outdoor pool after work. It's so much easier to be motivated when you have someone else there. Katie is doing much better than I am about consistently going back and forth from one side of the pool to the other....I still get winded and have to take a break every so often. WTF? I am seriously beginning to wonder if I am even going to make the 200m. I mean really, should it be this hard??? I might start practicing my doggie paddle, just in case.

Wednesday, March 18 - Treadmill Run, 30 minutes & P90X Ab Ripper X, 15 minutes
I procrastinated much less than I did on Monday and got on the treadmill as soon as the kiddos were tucked into their beds. I even decided to do the Ab Ripper X afterwards. Yay me!

Tuesday, March 17 - Spin Class, 1 hour & Swim, 50 minutes
It feels great to back into the swing of things after the mini-vacation. Spin class kicked my butt, so much so that I was sore on Wed!

Swim went well, but I had hoped to feel more confident with my swim after putting some of the things we learned at swim class into practice. Instead, it seemed harder to me...something about attempting to use proper form is really hard! :-) I am still having issues with the breathing and continue to feel out of breath pretty quickly. The nice thing - due to Spring Break there was almost no traffic and there were no swim classes! I made it to the pool in record time and all the lanes were open!!!

I'm bbbbbbbbbaaaaaaaaaaacccccckkkkkkkk!

Okay, so I've been back for more than a few days now. Sorry I haven't been blogging. I have great Vegas pictures, but our internet was down until just a couple of days ago. Hopefully, I can get them all into Flicker tonight.

In the meantime, here are my workout stats since returning home:

Monday, March 16 - Treadmill run, 30 minutes
I was having motivation issues last night....I really, really didn't want to get on the treadmill! But, I eventually got off my rear and did it. Thirty minutes at a fairly easy pace. In the final 15 minutes, I decided to add some incline to about 3.5 just to make things more interesting...hehehehehehe. When did I become so sadistic? :-)

Sunday, March 15 - Swim Lessons, 1 1/2 hours
Fellow tri-girl, Kelly, coordinated a group swim class for us at FINS. The instructor, Liam, was awesome. He took us through all kinds of drills to help break down every piece of the freestyle stroke and teach us proper technique. I learned a lot! I didn't realize there was supposed to be rotation going on...that alone helped me alot with being able to take a breath without lifting my head. We did zipper arms, shark fins, catch-up, etc. Now I just need to get back to the pool and put it all into practice!

Saturday, March 14 - Long Run, 6-miles
Actually, my original intent was do run 10-miles. However, Mother Nature did not cooperate. About 1 1/2 hours before the hubby was scheduled to come home from work, the heavens opened and it started raining. And it didn't stop! Since I knew I wouldn't be able to get in a run on Sunday, I said "screw it!" and ran anyway. The 10-miler turned into a 6-miler...there's only so much of the soaked clothes and squishy shoes a gal can take! By mile 5 the water had soaked through both shirts and my running tights and I was starting to get cold. I guess 6 is better than skipping the run altogether!

Friday, March 13 - Ab Ripper X, 15 minutes
No time for a lengthy workout, since I wanted to have some quality family time after work. I did get in the 15-minute Ab Ripper X workout though...my goal is to continue doing this at least 2x per week. Oh, and my quads were super sore from yesterday's spin class...all that "hill climbing" got me!

Thursday, March 12 - Spin Class
As usual, spin class kicked my arse. But, it was needed because I didn't get any type of cardio workout in during our trip. We did a ton of walking up and down the strip, and we did a little hiking at Red Rock Canyon one day, so that has to count for something!

Scary Things!

Katie and I decided to check out a new pool venue and headed to Branch Crossing. The cool thing - there aren't hundreds of kids taking swim lessons, which means there are open lanes! The not so cool thing - you are one with nature. We stopped at the wall between laps and all of a sudden realize there is a huge spider on the pool-lane-divider-thingy! Huge. Like this one.

Seriously, the one in the pic was the twin brother of the one we saw at the pool! Fortunately, the 2 high-school aged life guards jumped into action and managed to capture the beast. Well, okay they sat there while we shrieked like school girls and eventually got up when we asked them if they could get rid of the monster. We did manage to get some good laps in once the spider was gone. But hey, when you're at the Shadowbend Y, you have to dodge even nastier stuff like big clumps of hair and God knows what else is floating. It was kinda cool to swim under the light of the moon.

I'm planning to run a 10-miler with the peeps from Woodlands Fit tomorrow. Wooohooo, runs with the girls are few and far between these days, so I am psyched about that! I am sad to be missing out on the fun with my Texas Independence Relay team, but I have other plans for the weekend..........

Best of luck to the Battling Bloggers of the Republic!!! I'll be there with you in spirit!!!

See ya on Wednesday!

Out of it...

the funk that is!

Nothing like a kick ass spin class to get you out of your funk! I have a love/hate relationship with my lunch-time spin class....I hate that it hurts and that I sweat like a pig, but I love that I am getting stronger on the bike and the calories I burn! :-)

Tonight, I'm meeting Katie at the pool for more laps!

Funk

I don't know what's up with me today. I ate all kinds of crap foods at work and I didn't run. That's so unlike me lately...I haven't skipped a workout just because in a long time and I haven't eaten so poorly in months. Ugh!

Swimming

Today I tried something a little different...I met fellow tri-girl wannabe, Erica, at LA Fitness. She's a member there and needed someone to swim with, so I took advantage of her guest pass and tried it out. I really like the facility and the best part is that there are multiple lanes open, so we weren't sharing a lane with 3 people. :-)

Overall, I felt like the swim went well. I am getting better and better at the laps, with less rest time...but I do tend to get out of breath sometimes, which means I have to take some time to catch my breath. I still want some lessons though...I filled out a lesson request form at the Y a week ago and have yet to hear anything. I did find out that FINS is having a tri swim class, but it's the week that we'll be on vacation. Sigh!

Here's my take on LA Fitness vs. the Y.

The pros:

• It's much nicer than the Shadowbend Y where I've been swimming (of course the Branch Crossing Y is very nice, but they only have the outdoor pool there)
• The pool is MUCH cleaner
• There are 5 or 6 lap lanes - which are actually open most of the time (instead of all kinds of kid's swim classes going on)
• It's 15-20 minutes closer to my house
• It's cheaper than the Y

The cons:

• It has more of a "meat market" feel that's common at gyms (the Y has more of a family atmosphere)
• They have a water aerobics class from 6-7 every T & Th, which are the only nights I can go (which means I'd have to come home first and then go swim)
• There's only one location near me...there's a Y near my work and two in The Woodlands
• If I happened to switch, I wouldn't be able to take the spin classes during lunch
• There are swim classes at the Y - something we'll take advantage of this summer with kiddo

Some pics...

Just a couple of pictures I've been meaning to share:

The kiddo and I decided to try something new for Valentine's Day, so we made "Cake Balls" which are pretty much like truffles. Little did I know that we would be spending so much time making and decorating them...but it was worth it because they were both fun and delicious. By the way, I found the idea on the Pioneer Woman's blog. The recipe is here...and yes, I did throw my normally healthy diet out the window for these!

Here's the munchkin's 9 month snapshot. He's such a cute little sweetie, isn't he??? In the second pic, he's doing his signature hand up in the air, "hey, what's up" move. He does that a lot, lol!

Weekend Re-Cap

Saturday, 2/28 - rest (postponed run til Sunday)
Saturday, the kiddo was spending the night with my parents, so I took the baby to the "Cry Baby Matinee" at the Angelika. Ummmm, that would have been a great idea had there not been something called the RODEO PARADE going on! The traffic was horrendous and I ended up just parking at Landry's, since it was the only parking I could get to. The movie was "He's Just Not that Into You". It was cute with a great cast...I recommend it if you want a happy chick flick. That afternoon I had planned to go for my run, but we decided to have some much needed family time instead.

Sunday, 2/29 - Run, 8 miles (and some change), 11:18 pace
Sunday, the tri-girls of Woodlands Fit went to watch the "Take-a-Hike Ike" tri. We learned on the way there that the swim had been cancelled - it was just too freaking cold and the water was choppy. Instead, they had a dualthon - run, bike, run. I was bummed that I wouldn't be able to see the swim and the all-important transition from swim to bike, but it was still interesting to see the transitions. I had no idea that some people left their shoes clipped to their bike and would run out of the transition area barefoot or in socks and worry about getting into their shoes as they rode away. I was also freaked out about all the rules - don't mount and ride till you get past the red line, buckle your helmet before leaving the transition area, don't forget to take off your helmet before leaving the transition area, etc. It's so intimidating because there's so much to know!!! It was also great to see the variation in the type of participant:

• the hard core triathlete
• the not as serious, but definitely an experienced triathlete
• the this is my 1st triathlon, but I'm in super shape triathlete
• the I am working hard at getting in shape, and dammit I am gonna do a triathlon triathlete

It was comforting to see that not everyone has a $10,000 bike, the shoes, clipless pedals, etc. and that not everyone was super-experienced.

After the hubby made it home from work, I headed out for my run. Rather than drive 40 minutes to get to my run location and back, I decided to run in the 'hood. Hey, you gotta save some time for the family, right? One thing I've learned from doing my runs solo lately is to not think about the distance - just run. If you think about how far and how long you have to run alone, it sucks. Instead, I just take off on the run, get lost in thought (or in music if I have an ipod with me), listen for my watch to beep (for the run/walk intervals) and go. And go. And go.

It's much easier that way.

Before I knew it, my 8-miler was over and I was back at home with the hubby and kiddos.