A Chlorine Rash for the Holidays

You name it - I'll get it. While swimming today I remember feeling a burning pain kind of like jelly fish are stinging you over and over. Don't ask but I know what that feels like...anyway. After swimming I ran to Menards and Home Depot and noticed my neck burning. I got home and Olaf said "Who'd you get the hickeys from?" Hmmm - I was circle swimming with a guy at Masters this morning. I figured it's just another allergy to add to my long list of things I love that I'm allergic to. (horses, hay, wood, grass, mold, dust, cats, dogs...the sun, moon, air OK maybe not those last three but it sure seems that way some days.) I took Benedryll because I'm use to allergic reactions but that hasn't helped me. It's rare to be allergic to chlorine because allergens are proteins and chlorine isn't. Phew! I was ready to wear a garbage bag in the pool and duck tape it on me so I could still swim. Apparently I have a chlorine rash and from what I read it can take a while for them to go away. It will be interesting to see what happens after tomorrow because I have another swim day. I have 4 large 'hickeys' on my neck and some spots on my back. The worst part is that I have to go to work tomorrow and wearing anything that rubs on my neck really bothers it. So what sounds better when people ask what's on my neck - a hickey or a rash?

Frustration and Confusion

I was so frustrated last week with training. I have been biking REALLY hard and my heart rate is at 91 - 95 and I should be at 135 - 145 just for base. I have even cranked up the resistance on my trainer.

Running I'm at a 8.5 MPH pace and my heart rate is at 110 and I need to be 120 - 130 for base. When I started I had to run/walk to keep my heart rate 120 - 130 and usually it was over pushing 140. I went to swimming and brought my info to my coach and she said this is great, my body is rebuilding itself and my heart is stronger so I can work harder and my heart works less. She said I need to run harder/faster and get my heart rate back into 120. I just can't keep that up for 30 - 45 minutes or better yet for 2 hours biking! I would have to be running 9 - 10 MPH to get it there. 10 miles per hour...so six minute miles for an hour. I'm no longer confused but still frustrated at how hard I have to work and I'm still not working hard enough yet giving it all I have.

This is a great article that explains it all, one that is rarely written about low heart rate training and the benefits it gives your body.

http://www.counterpartcoaching.com/hadd.pdf

Suffer-O-Rama

I ordered a cycling DVD called 3.0 Suffer-O-Rama. What a name for a DVD! The warning on the back says that "This exercise program may result in injury". Ya think?

I registered for the IronGirl the end of Sept today. It will be cool to see how I do compared to last year without training and this year after the IronMan. It's on the 27th...so not too much rest time after IM. Maybe I'll have to have Olaf wear a wig & pink racing skort and race as Bridget. Oh wait, look, he did run the Iron Girl in 2008. Go IronGirl Olaf!

Warning - this is gross!

I was in the middle of my swim workout yesterday and threw up!! I had vomit in my mouth but didn't want to have to stop my workout or even worse have the lap pool shut down due to toxic fluid in the pool. I ate my own CHUNKY banana tasting vomit! Woo hoo!! That right there should make me an IronMan. I really wish I had a toothbrush or mouthwash. Nasty! I'm learning why training starts so far in advance. As you go through this process you find yourself doing things you wouldn't normally do just so you can get your daily workout in. It's an obsession now.

Now if I could just figure out how to pee off my bike seat during the bike portion. I heard that's what the elites do. I'm not that graceful so I think I'll stop and use a port-a-potty.

What's RB?

Good question - one I learned the answer to today at Masters Swimming. Restrictive Breathing!

Seemed like fun at first until you keep going and going. We had to swim a set of 100's. Each one we had to breathe every 4, 5 or 6 strokes. (normally I breathe every 3) Then 6, 5, 4. After you breathe so little doing 4 and 5 is not that bad at all. That wasn't too bad except there wasn't any rest time listed so I was doing them all back to back but that's not a big deal. When I was done she added a rest interval. Opps!

Next drill for RB was swimming under water as far as you can. Sounds fun, right? Well the first one was fun the next 11 were not. I made it to the end the first time but after that about 3/4 was the farthest I could go. Then you get to 'normally' swim back take a 20 second rest and do it again. For some reason when I swim under water I go to the bottom of the pool. The person circle swimming with me was wondering what I was doing. So each time I went I had a nice ear squeeze.

After swimming on Sunday I also water jog for an hour. I guess 1 hour of water jogging is like running 4 miles. I typically come home, eat something and take a nap. I ordered my own aqua jog belt today. I'm hoping to get it by the 22nd because I will need it at the Y. I asked to use their belts but they won't lend them out for use during the pool. So what's the point in having them?

I'm back into my workouts 100 percent except for the run - that one is lagging. I'm hoping to get it completely on track by mid January. It's so nice to be able to do everything again. Yesterday I had a long bike and run. I watched Legends of the Fall. I figure out how long I have to bike and choose a movie based on time. That movie was 2 hours 15 minutes. What a nice long ride in the middle of winter.

My workout scenery has changed a little. I got sick of looking at the ugly paneling in our downstairs and ripped it all off about a week and half ago. After a tub of spackle and a huge paneling bonfire.... and lots of glue scraping we have no more paneling, new paint, new mantel and tile. Here's the before and after. The lovely coral color was under the paneling. I have wanted to update this room since first looking at this house. Once the paneling off and the cement was on the fireplace there was no turning back. No more red bricks!! Now it's done and I can bike and run in peace without paneling!!

Easy Does It

I have been to Motion Care three times now. I have been taking mental notes each time they manually move my hip out of spasm. I don't have anymore appointments until Jan - they are that busy. : ( I was having some pain yesterday and showed Olaf what to do and he was able to clear it up. This might just get me through to January. I have been biking and swimming on schedule and exactly what my training says I should do. Running is another story. I'm basically walking with some jogging and at most I have done 2 miles. I have also started water jogging after masters on Sunday. I'm a prune after nearly 3 hours in the water. It's a slow start but I'm not too worried about it yet, it's still early. Plus I have to get through the 2.4 mile swim and 112 mile bike to even think about the marathon...when I get to that I'm cool with walking, crawling, limping, whatever it takes. I'm just glad I did start training as early as I did. I have a new schedule for December to work from - finally no repeats like November was. I used Octobers training plan for November since I was injured for most of the month.

I found out the YMCA I go to is having an indoor tri the third weekend in Jan. Can't wait! It's just like the one at the U of MN (TRI U MAH). Swim as much as you can, bike as much and run and they total up your miles. You have 30 minutes for each event. At the U's last year I was 9th place female out of a couple hundred women. I was thrilled because I hadn't trained that much for it and really didn't know what to expect at all since that was my first Tri. I actually wore super padded biker shorts - how embarrassing. I was the only one wearing them and we had a really padded seat on top of that. I'm excited to see what I can do this year. Maybe I can break the top 3!! Best part of an indoor tri - no worries of someone swimming over you, kicking you, a flat tire, or the rain - BONUS!

Amazing!

I was fed up with being able to bike for 30 minutes but then hurting for 3 days. I went to my Dr. on Wednesday and got a referral to see Motion Care. They are the ones who were able to get my neck moving after months of physical therapy at the Neck and Back Clinic that wasn't working.

I went to Motion Care this morning and told them what I'm doing, when I started hurting and that it's in my knee but my coach says it's the hip. When you go you lay on a heating pad and they wrap heating pads around the area of pain. You stay there for 20 - 30 minutes. The therapist comes in and checks out your motion, compares it with the other side and then pulls and twists you back to where you should be. She said due to the cold, rainy marathon my pelvis/hip muscle has seized up and never released which is why I'm able to swim (your hips rotate) and not bike or run where you need those muscles to move your leg. It's the hip! After 20 minutes of pushing and pulling I was good to go. She told me to bike tonight lightly for 20-30 minutes and see how I feel and ease back into running, etc. I have another appointment next Wednesday in case it slips back but hopefully this is all I will need. I don't know how to explain them because you don't do reps of resistant bands and they are not "adjusting" your like a chiro would do. . . it's just magic.

I'm so excited to get going again. Fingers crossed I will be able to keep going this time!!

On the Mend

I think the yoga is doing wonders or maybe the Glucosamine/MSM. I went swimming with masters on Sunday for a full hour (it's really an hour and half) but I didn't want to push it plus we were circle swimming and I couldn't deviate from a speedy pace and have someone run into me. I felt a little sore after but not bad. I have noticed that I'm able to stretch myself even farther when reaching for each stroke. Maybe I will be 5 foot 3 someday and not 5 foot 2 and 3/4.

I went to yoga at work on Monday, then more swimming at the Y after work. Today I found myself not paying any attention and I'm sitting at my desk with my left leg crossed over my right. This is huge - never in my life has it been comfortable for me to cross my left over my right, just the right over my left. Seems silly but something good is happening from stretching. I have also been using my resistance bands for my shoulders. Tonight I am going to bike for 30 minutes just softly, small chain and see how I feel. If that goes well I will try jogging on Wed. I'm still doing all this without my heart rate monitor because I know I'm in too low of zones still. I'm not sure what's working for me but I'm going to keep going so I can get back on track.

Testing the Water and it Still Hurts

I went to master swimming yesterday and pretty much used a pull buoy the entire time. My shoulders are sure sore. My knee is more sore today. My coach said that I need to loosen up all my muscles and I'm holding too much in my shoulders and it could be affecting my knee. I ordered some resistance bands to use on my banana boat accident left shoulder. See the banana boat pic. Harmless looking isn't it? I need to get it stronger and more range of motion. I also ordered a book on stretching and another on exercises for your knees and how to make them more flexible. I showed my coach how in-flexible I am. I have never been able to touch my toes...maybe once in my life. I can touch my knees, but most 90 year olds can do that. It's terrible! I'm the girl in yoga that can't even sit cross legged on the floor. I have awesome balance but no flexibility.

I took the next step and joined our wellness center at work. They have yoga over the lunch hour. I just got back from it and it's great. We hold poses for a long time so I can really stretch. They have quite the studio and machines....it's all windows like you are running outdoors and flat screen TV's on the walls. It's really nice.

If you want to read about the banana boat here's the story...

In 2001 I went on a vacation with Fanta, Neumann and Jess Smith. We went to Puerto Vallarata for a cheap, warm vacation. In college we said we would try to take a trip every year no matter who can make it. We were riding on a banana boat when we all fell off and I kept hanging on with my left shoulder. I thought I could pull myself back onto the boat, but we were going so fast that it stretched out the ligaments and tendons in my shoulder. I knew right away I hurt my shoulder. When I got home they did two MRI's and didn't find a tear but thought there might be one and they could do surgery. I didn't want surgery, so I took up running to help get my shoulder stronger. I could only run about a mile before my shoulder was grinding. I still have problems with my shoulder anytime I do something new. Last year it was painful swimming but I seemed to work through that. Biking on my Soft Ride was painful and still is if my shoulder is sore. Add to that a car accident that I was rear ended and you have a mess of muscles in my back/neck and shoulder. So this is why my knee hurts? I don't get it but right now I'll try anything to get better.

If you have the time...read this guys blog

http://www.jeremysartain.com/

This is a MN guy that was in a bad motorcycle accident in May (go back to May 2008 post for the accident info) and completed the IronMan World Championships in Kona in 2008. (He qualified in 2007.) Pretty amazing!

I found my name confirmed in the participant list! I noticed my credit card cleared but this really makes it official. Now if I could start training again... I'm hoping to spin on Saturday and swim at Masters on Sunday. I HOPE! Fingers crossed!

Still Down...

I'm still having issues. How frustrating this is! I have been swimming and going to yoga and doing lots of stretching and foam rollering. I'm going to have to step this up so I can get better. I'm going to try Advil everyday, wear my knee brace around the house and start MSM to help the cells in my joint. I thought I would be back working out by now. There is some swelling under my knee I noticed last night. I should probably be icing this as well. I should have waited longer to start this - one week after the marathon was too soon now. . . I know that for sure.

First Injury : (

I went to Masters Swimming on Sunday morning and by the time I was done I limped out of the pool very slightly. My coach noticed and I told her my left knee is sore and has been since the marathon and politely told her that she is breaking me! She told me to use my foam roller and showed me what to do. I was literally foam rolling around on a slippery pool floor in my swimsuit with an audience. I felt like a fish floundering around. I first rolled over my hips, ouch. Then the front of my quads and 3/4 side of my leg (really hurt). She then told me that since it's my left IT band then my right side under my arm will hurt. Boy was she right. When I rolled on that area I got tears in my eyes. I went home and caused myself a lot more pain but I wasn't limping anymore. I even foam rollered before I went to work. I'm supposed to lay my injured area on the roller with all my weight holding me down and stay that way until the pay is gone and the muscles relaxes. Imagine being really tight and sore and getting a massage and having the therapist press into that area as hard as they can without letting up until the pain is gone...that's what the foam roller does for you. I was supposed to run 45 minutes on Sunday but I skipped it. I just didn't feel good about it with my knee as sore as it is.

Take it Day by Day, Month by Month

I'm on a rest day today! I made it three whole days of work-outs. My bike is still the toughest for me. The swim was just fine except I didn't do any of the paddle/pull buoy workouts because my shoulder is still sore. The run was the most frustrating because I wanted to 'run'. In order to keep my heart rate 134 - 145 (zone 2) I basically had to run 80 steps, walk 30. I thought the run would maybe take an hour since it was 6 miles and I knew it would be slower. Once I started and realized how slow going this would be I didn't check the clock when I finished. I would just get going and have to walk. A speedy walk wouldn't keep me in the zone I needed and running how I normally run was too high. Despite the slow run

I was thinking about all this and how to keep myself motivated...

I decided that once a month I will get a massage on my rest day (something to look forward to). I scheduled my first one on Oct 28. I'm lucky enough to work at a place where I can just go to the fitness center and sign up for a massage during work hours. : )

I'm just going to take it one week at a time, basically rest period to rest period.

At the end of each month I'll total up how many miles I swam, biked and ran. That should be motivating!

One down and 395 more to go!

As I was doing my very first workout, which in theory should be the easiest, I figured out that I have 396 of these workouts to do in the next 11 months. The countdown begins! I think in my last post I said biking for 1 hour would be 'snore city' but actually I found myself checking the clock quite a bit to see when I was done because I was dripping sweat (now I know why they sell sweat aprons for on your bike, I might need to get one of those). Olaf asked what tomorrow was and I said "swimming, fun"...then I totaled up the yards. My first swim is 1.2 miles of "fun". Really?? The first swim is half the IronMan distance of a swim. What will I be doing in April if this is my first and second day of training.

"Oh my gosh, I haven't seen this in a long time"

That was the words from my trainer on Saturday when she read my Vo2 numbers. I guess my base heart rate should be about 30 beats less then my threshold for starting a training plan. Mine is only 20. That means I'm race ready and she called me "reved up". She asked how I have trained and I told her I just bike 30 miles one day and go 16 MPH and the next week I bike 45 miles and try to go 16.5 MPH, etc. Not great base building at all. I just go harder, faster and farther each time I swim, bike or run. It's not a bad thing that I have done to myself it's just that I'm a little too geared up. Olaf agreed without any hesitation when I asked him if I seem reved up. My life has always been Go-Go-Go.

I'm starting my training today and I have to keep my heart rate down and go slow to build a base. This would be a good time to take Chilly running again. Maybe she would actually be able to keep up if I kept a 'normal' pace and jogged/walked instead of running.

My first day of training is biking for 1 hour at about 135 heart rate - snore city!

The Bag Lady

I ran the very wet and cold Medtronic TC Marathon on Sunday....my final marathon before hitting it hard in training. I didn't mind the forecast talking about spotty showers because I thought it would be good training to run in the rain. I have gotten caught in the rain for maybe 45 minutes while running in the summer. That's relaxing and fun in the warm rain. I have never ran in cold driving rain coming off the lakes and sneaking under your poncho rain. Luckily I bought an 'emergency rain poncho' at the marathon expo and secured it in the pocket of my running shirt with a safety pin so it didn't bounce out along the way. I actually put it on before I hit mile 1 and left it on for 2 hours and 40 minutes, but who's counting? I wore a visor to hold the hood in place and a race belt to keep the poncho from blowing up but I was still rain soaked. Oh yea, I even rang out my visor twice while running and you would think it wouldn't hold much water. Here's a pic of my cool running outfit. I did have a guy yell out "Go bag lady" to me. I looked around for the bag lady and realized it was me. I yelled back "It's a poncho. It has a hood!"

I'm Superior - that's what it says!

I did my final Vo2 test yesterday. If you are wondering it measures the volume of oxygen that your body can take in and process . It will give you a base heart rate of where you should be training and your threshold of when you cross into the lactic acid filling your muscles zone. The more oxygen you can take and process the better you are because it helps clear the lactic acid from your system. You don't want that building up because it slows you down. The ultimate goal is to increase your VO2 while moving your base heart rate up as high to your threshold as possible. You wear a mask while you are being measured with a tube attached to a machine. I felt like an anteater, not that I know what they feel like, but I'm guessing they feel that way.

A VO2 test usually tells you a lot more than just your max VO2. Aerobic and anaerobic thresholds, calories burned at various intensities, and energy system development are also quantified.

I thought it would have been terrible since I haven't been running. It turns out that I did extremely well. I don't want to brag but I'm in the Superior category. A highly trained athlete category! Apparently I can run and run at a pretty good fast pace and won't build up lactic acid for quite sometime. This means I'll be spending a lot more time on my bike during base training. I'm really excited to see where I will be in 4 months after base training. Now I know why I like running marathons and the longer the race the better for me. I feel like I'm just getting warmed up during sprint tris - probably because I am.

Doing my homework

I have been doing a lot of prep work for my pre-training period. Painting everything at my house so I won't have to paint it in 2009. Working on my garden so it's ready to go in the spring without much work. I have also been doing a series of oxygen tests to see how well my body can hold up under heavy training. I have learned that while biking my base heart rate is 151 and my threshold is 171. According to the charts that's well above average so I'm off to a good start. The goal is to raise my base up to my threshold so I can be the most efficient without 'bonking' - that's a technical term for running out of energy during a race. I have another test today for running to see where that is at. I will be shocked if it's as good since I haven't been running much. I'm in the rest period for TC Marathon - oh wait, that rest period has been much of the summer. I just didn't want to get burnt out on running before I enter into a strenous training period. My coach thought that was pretty funny but somewhat logical as well.

Yes, you do need a coach for this. I'm meeting next week with her to formulate my daily training plan. She is the coach that I have been going to Master Swimming with the past year. I'm kind of afraid of her which I think is a good quality for a coach. I wouldn't want one that is too nice and lets you slack too much in training. When I first came to her master swimming I was wearing foam goggles and a Target swim suit. I'm pretty sure she was wonder how I happened to find her as I looked like her biggest challenge yet. She told me to get a real suit and make sure it's tight - so tight that you have to struggle to get it on and so tight that you now have back fat you never had before popping out of the straps and your butt feels like you are wearing underwear for a toddler. After all that my suit was still too big because it had a small wrinkle in the stomach.

Registration is the first test of an IronMan

September 7 - Olaf and I went to bed early in Madison because we were going to get up very early to wait in line for hours to get a registration spot for the Ironman. I couldn't sleep all night. It took all my power to not go down to the Terrace at 1 am and sleep there just to make sure I get in.

Sept 8 - We woke up about 5 am and we were on our way to the Terrace. (Thankfully we were staying at Lynn and Greg's house and they are only 15 minutes from downtown Madison.) Already the line had about 100 people in it when we arrived. We waited and waited only to learn that the volunteers from this years Ironman get to register first, before everyone else. Olaf left and had a hot breakfast at a local cafe while I waited some more. At that point I heard about 800 IronMan participants already registered for 2009. The athletes have priority and get to register the Saturday prior to IronMan. Keep in mind there are around 2200 spots. So now I'm thinking 1400 spots left. The line was growing and growing. About 9 am we were divided into volunteers and non-volunteers. Then it started raining on us as the volunteers had the line under the building. I calmly counted 1000 plus volunteers. I was hopeful many were just being nice and waiting in line with their friends. All the volunteers were streaming out with their 'golden ticket'. At 10:15 we finally entered the building after waiting 5 hours! The number on my paper was 1351. Yikes! I signed up and on Sept 17th the official email arrived asking for money. I paid my 525 dollars for registration into the 2009 IronMan. Woo hoo! I'm relieved to get registered but now the hard part - training and not getting injured in the process.