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.