Pop the floaties . . .

Last night was my first swim with Coach Karen and, I have to admit, I was a little nervous. I had heard she was an "ass kicker" and that the TRIgirls were going to get a rude awakening from her vicious swim training. But, more than getting a tough workout, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to keep up with the length of the whole workout since my New Year's resolution to actually get in the water went out the window about 2 months ago.

Let me tell you: I have no excuse for not swimming. I have EVERYTHING I need to make swim training easier for me: a pool at a gym less than 3 miles from my house, an awesome SwiMP3, a cool little finger gadget that counts my laps, time during the day to get it done. I'm just missing one teeny-tiny little thing: the will to actually do it. So, given my lack of swimming dedication, I had no choice but to simply hold fast to the hope that splashing around in the pool a couple times in January & early February was enough to keep me from drowning. To add to the pressure, Kelsey came with me to training to watch me -- or, I suspect, laugh at me!!

But, you know what? It wasn't bad at all. Actually, it was fine. Dare I say, fun? I forgot that I'm really bouyant. I mean, I just don't sink. I think you could tie weights to my legs and I would still float. Sure, it doesn't make me feel great about the percentage of body fat I must have to make me just sit on the water like a flippin' buoy but at least it makes it easier for me to swim! And, Kelsey even said she thought I did a good job -- even if I did look "kinda slow".

So, what did I learn from swimming last night? Well, I guess it's that the 10 pounds I picked up in the off-season really isn't so detrimental after all. So, now I'm happily off to get in another training session for the swim: which means I'm going to go eat a Nutter Butter. Got to keep that buoyancy up!

Dammit . . .

Well, the 10 mile run on Sunday felt pretty good. Monday: leg hurts. Hmmm. Maybe it's just that I ran too hard. Tuesday: my run kills the leg. Dammit. But, whatever. I'm SO done with injuries.

One of my favorite quotes has always been:

"Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to slide in sideways, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, screaming "HOLY CRAP what a ride!"
~unknown~

Looks like I'm living the dream, huh? :)

Also, it's 3 months, 24 days til Placid. I may want to think about getting in the pool sometime soon!! I have a feeling I'm going to get a complete and total butt whooping when I go to my first swim next week!!!! I'm totally going to bring my floatie, some flippers and a snorkel.

FINALLY an Answer . . .

I've been having this phantom leg pain for a few months now. Initially, I thought "Uh-oh. Is it even possible that the same stupid stress fracture is back?!?" So, of course, I did the smart thing: I ignored it and kept training through the discomfort. Yeah, my intelligence is a gift.

Flash forward a few weeks. Pain is now shooting down my leg. Well, that sucks. So, I go to see my super-awesome orthopaedic doctor. He thinks something is wrong in the joint but can't rule out a stress fracture so off I go to get another bone scan. Which comes back negative! Yay, me! But, dammit, doctor now says I should get an arthrogram and MRI to check the joint since he thinks there's cartilage damage in the joint -- more specifically a torn labrum -- that may need to be scoped out surgically. So, again, I do the smart thing: I ignore him and go get a gait analysis to see if maybe it's the way I'm running that's causing me pain. Seriously, I'm a friggin' genius!!

So Jim Miller spends all of his valuable time with me to tell me a couple things: 1 - my gait's not so bad -- actually, it's pretty good; and 2 - based on the pain I'm experiencing he thinks I have a torn labrum and need to go see my ortho right away. Dammit! They're in cahoots I just know it!!!

Flash forward a week and I've had the MRI and arthrogram done and I get a call from the ortho doctor. The diagnosis: damage to the cartilage and torn labrum. Crap. BUT, because my doctor is a rock star, and he knows I'm trying to get through Ironman USA he says we can try cortisone to hold back the pain until after IMUSA. Most likely, no further damage will be done between now and IMUSA so as long as the cortisone works, we should be good to go. I can get up to 3 injections before IMUSA but that's it since apparently too much of this stuff can cause more damage to the joint.

So, I still get to do IMUSA and once it's over, I'll have it scoped out, the pain will be gone and I'll be a new "me". You know I've learned something through this: I think doctors are flippin' AWESOME as long as they say what I want and I still get to do what I want. So, anyway, thank God for an answer!!! At least now I know what I'm dealing with. And, who knows? Maybe this is what's been stopping me from running like a Kenyan all this time! HA!

Of course, I'm not going to get the surgery until November so I can recover during the off season. I mean, if I can get through IM training with torn cartilage, I can surely last through the end of the season, right?

Yes, indeed, that surely seems like the smart thing to do. :)

The Chicken Dance

So, training is hard. Sometimes it's really, REALLY hard. Both mentally and physically. Yesterday I ran sprints. That was hard. Then I went to cycling and Coach M was unusually zealous about kicking our butts. My legs were burning and I had a difficult time keeping efficient pedal strokes. That was really hard. Then Coach M put on the Chicken Dance music during the longest, hardest part of the session. WTF?!? That song is not even entertaining when I'm drunk at weddings. Well, okay, maybe it's a little entertaining if I'm REALLY drunk. But, at cycling?!? Damn. Now I had to tap into my physical and mental stores! And that right there is the difference between what makes it hard and what makes it really, REALLY hard. It's the Chicken Dance.

And, you know what? The stupid song is STILL stuck in my head. Bet it's stuck in yours now too, huh? You're welcome. :)

Um, I'm Doing Ironman Lake Placid In Less Than Six Months...sh#$!!!

Really, this time, I'm going to try to get back to blogging on regular basis!!! I swear!!! I will start out slowly and, hopefully, ease my way back into saying anything even remotely interesting or entertaining.

So, last month -- or perhaps the month before that -- we began our journey into Lake Placid training. So far, everything is relatively painless and oddly provides a sense of familiarity that I find comforting. Clearly that is a sign that I'm a lunatic.

Tonight is the first night that I've really thought about Placid and the fact that I will be there in less than 6 months participating in an Ironman that I once thought was WAAAAAAY out of my league (and, truth be told, I still have doubts about my ability there). I had a momentary panic attack and the butterflies took flight in my stomach but then I calmed. Life has been too busy for me to worry about it. I'm just moving along like an unthinking lemming, following the schedule in front of me with no thought to the ultimate consequence: wake up, eat, work, eat, take care of kids, eat, train, eat, sleep, eat, repeat. Did you notice all the "eating" in there? Yeah, that explains the ten extra pounds on my ass. I blame it on post-holiday binging. It will come off once the training picks up. Right? No? Okay, whatever. It'll help me gain speed on the downhills at Placid then.

So, the journey begins yet again. I'm still nervous. Madly excited. Totally overwhelmed. And, a teeny bit proud of taking this plunge. I guess, I'm ready for the challenge. Bring it on, IMUSA!!! Okay, just kidding ... I'm not really stupid enough to taunt the Ironman Gods. Let's not "bring it on" so to speak. How about Placid remains it's calm, rain-free, beautiful self and I just wander on up north with some awesome friends in a few months and we take a little swim in a gorgeous lake, toodle around the mountains on our bikes and take in 26.2 miles of scenery on a wee little walk-about? Deal? Excellent!

Who says kids don't like to go to Ironman Florida on Halloween??

October 31st is a tricky time for us IMFL lovers. We, of course, want to be at IMFL and either race or cheer on our teammates but, unfortunately, for the past two years, IMFL has seriously disrupted Halloween and trick-or-treating for our little kiddos. So this year, I developed a plan. I talked my Booger into the BEST Halloween costume EVER: an M-Dot. I told her that she'd get tons of attention and people would love it. She was totally into it so Derek and I made her a costume fit for a an Ironman Princess.

Little did I know exactly how much attention she would get!! I'm talking cars honking, people leaning out of their car windows to take a picture, at least 30 people stopping and asking to get their picture taken with her and even more asking simply to take her picture!!!! It was absolutely hilarious!! She was in heaven and kept saying she was a "pop star". At the end of the night she said this was her best Halloween ever. So, what's the lesson here? I suppose it's that Ironman and kiddies DO mix -- given some creativity and an easy-going kid!



So, as far as the race so far? I got in late this afternoon and only managed to touch base with the crew of T-girl sherpas and volunteers. Derek and I are reporting tomorrow at 6:30 a.m. to work as bike handlers and I'm hoping to get lots and lots of pictures!!! I'll try to give some updates and post some pics of our gals (and guys) kicking the crap out of the IMFL course!

Best of luck to Shawn, Kate G, Kate O., Sharon, Patty, Charlotte, Fred and, of course, the super-awesome Som!! More to report tomorrow . . .

So much to look forward to . . .

First of all, thanks so much for all of your well-wishes for Kelsey! She did an awesome job and I know it meant so much to her that you all were sending her some good mojo! :)

These next few weeks are going to be filled with so much excitement!! Honestly, I can hardly wait!

Okay, so, next weekend I get to go on my triathlon coaching certification weekend and when I return all that will be left is the exam. Gulp! Coach G and Coach B keep telling me that it will be no problem -- but, you know, when multi-Ironman athletes/ultra-marathoners tell you something will be "no problem" you tend to believe that maybe their idea of "no problem" may be a little different than your own! Either way, the butterflies and anxiety remind me of pre-race jitters which I miss so much this year!!!

Then what's next? A little thing called IRONMAN FLORIDA, baby!! I. CAN. NOT. WAIT. to get down to Panama City to be there with all the TRIgirls and cheer them on as they go after that Ironman prize . . . Sharon, Shawn, Kate O, Kate G, Patty, Charlotte . . . They have been training so hard and are going to kick some major IM-ass down there! I'll be working as a bike handler -- which I'm sure will be A LOT more fun than Lake Placid (aka Hurricane Ironman). And, after the Ironman, I cannot even imagine the party after the crew of teammates and others sign up for IMFL '09 (including this one handsome, tall guy named Derek something or other - go Big D!!)

With all the IM mojo going around right now, I pulled up some of my previous posts so I could re-read how I felt at this time last year. For those who are toeing that line in Florida, I'm passing this quote along. It meant so much to me as the time was ticking down and I hope it brings some peace to you, too:

"It is a comforting moment when we suddenly realize that our commitment to race, to participate in something so important to us - our dream - will be actualized. We have made it to the starting line. In this moment, the probability that we will do the event reaches 100 percent. The hundreds of things that can go wrong leading up to an Ironman have been cleverly averted, and the thousands of things required to get to the start are all now officially history."


You are ready, ladies. Now, let the fun begin!!

PS - to Frances: yes I'm a SQ mom! Our group is the BEST and I would love to talk to you about tri training anytime! I couldn't get your contact info from the comment you made on my blog so just track me down through SQ or leave me your contact info.