Effed Up Hand Update

I've successfully done it again: taken myself out of the game for two months. The thing is, I'm not all that pissed anymore. Sure, I'm bored and with the usual training load I would have, boredom was almost never an issue. But I kinda can't do much about it, anyways.

I had the hand surgically "fixed" on Friday. What does that mean, exactly? Well it means taking out whatever bones (I swear I remember hearing growth plates, but maybe, maybe not) had fallen INTO the thumb joint - the middle one - and repair the "shredded" tendon ligament that, you know, you NEED to have to use your thumb. So in theory it's back in place where it should be where the bones were keeping it from going before surgery. But I can't see it because it's wrapped up in plaster and gauze and ace bandages that make it look like my thumb is bigger than the rest of my hand. It twitches every once in awhile like it keeps hoping it's free, but alas, it is not.

So what does this mean for training, then? Well I can't do much till I have my follow-up appointment to get the sutures out and hopefully a removable thumb support. At that point I'm hoping I can start lifting (light) weights again and hit the pool. That's also when I'll start riding Skippy since I can - and have - ridden that bike one-handed. Otherwise I probably won't ride till two months is up. That sucks. I miss my bike(s).

Positive note: this totally gets me out of the embarrassing excuse of an attempt at snow sports when visiting the bf's family this winter. Because, you know, I can't be falling on my bum hand.

Slide, BOOM........Ouuuuuccchhhh

So it was an interesting Thanksgiving for me - with one hand! Yeah, I crashed yet again in spectacular fashion. Requiring an ER visit and the whole shebang. I'm definitely not happy about having broken myself yet again on a bike. This time it was on a much harder surface, too - slippery concrete.

This is how it happened: I went to the weekly UCR ride - the night ride around town on mountain, or in my case, my cross bike so that I can keep up without issue. We all met up, and not even five minutes in, we headed into the unnamed parking garage for our warmup. They all started taking off fast, so I joined in, not to be outdone as the only lady on a bike that night. On the second turn, I didn't even have time to react before I felt my head hit the concrete and myself slide for awhile. I came down on my left side, and I must have tried to catch myself with my right hand without realizing it, since that is the one I really messed up. I laid there for a few moments trying to gather what had just happened as I hear Dan start to make fun of me for going down - and my usual snarky responses were out of reach. My mind kept scanning my body to see what was wrong, which was when I realized that there was another body next to me. I was one of three or four that went down! And we weren't even going that fast!

It took a little bit for me to come back from lala land, and at that point I finally realized that my hand didn't feel right. Or look right, and it was still in my glove. I pulled it out very carefully and saw that my thumb was pointing in the wrong direction. The guys instantly said "Oh it's dislocated," so I was about to simply pull it back into place but they stopped me, probably for the better. Even though that's what the doctor ended up doing later that night at the hospital.

It was clear that they didn't believe me at the hospital - they asked quite the list of questions about any drug use and any "abuse at home" before even really giving me a look. They took xrays, gave me a "pain reliever" shot in the bum that did NO good whatsoever, and were about to splint it up and send me out before I protested that it was not in the right position. They finally backtracked and retook the xrays, this time with my good hand as a comparison. Then they claimed that the first set looked ok, but the second didn't. Probably because they hadn't actually looked at the first set.

That's when the doc decided it would be best to numb it with a shot and pull it back into place. That wasn't much fun, either, but at least it looked like it was more *normal* in position than before. Then they gave me the plaster splint that I'm not allowed to take off, and sent me home.

So then I had to cook all the Thanksgiving goodness we'd already went shopping for with a messed up thumb. Notthatmuchfun.

I didn't accidentally chop anything off, so that's a plus.

Four days post-crash and I can use my fingers better, but I don't particularly like to. And if I try to use the thumb it lets me know that's not OK. My hand is swollen to the point where I don't have knuckles anymore, and it's all purple-yellow grossness that you get when you bruise something good. The other bruises I got from the crash aren't all that bad - it seems that my hand absorbed 90% of the impact. Maybe it saved my collar bone, maybe not. I prefer to think it did.

Here's to hoping I don't need surgery. I go Wednesday to find out.

Gonna have to go see my massage therapist this week to get my angry muscles worked out, too.

Now I have to be more creative about getting my workouts in, but I'm mostly just hoping I can get back to swimming soon. I have the road bike on the trainer already, and it's going to be back to riding Skippy around town since I don't have to use my right hand on that bike. And I'm not really going to allow myself to run before I get *cracked* back into position.

Gotta work back into it yet again.

UCR November 16, 2011 by ablapat at Garmin Connect - Details

Night rides on bikes! Yes we were going everywhere. No, we didn't always have a clue as to where we were. It was a blast though.

Home from France and Spain!

I spent the last two weeks (as of last Thursday night, I've been home) in Europe. It was awesome. Though the one thing I have to say is that I'm so so tired of cigarette smoke. It seemed like everybody smokes there. Which made my nose hurt.

I got to ride a (very crappy and loose in all sorts of ways) bike in France and a different one (in better shape, slightly) in Spain. Didn't get pick pocketed, and I, at least, avoided food poisoning. My poor mother, notsomuch. I learned that while my favorite shoes are the cutest darn things ever, they are not so great for travel in as much as they started stinking to high heavens. And I can't decide if it's worth trying to wash them/sanitize them or just throw them out.

Maybe just toss them....

This week marks the official beginning of training bonanza 2011/2012. Starts with a whopping 8 hour training week. Haha I like the beginning.

Going a new direction

So since I've been sooooo so SO injured this year, since, ha oh yeah, February...ok that basically makes my whole season the time of being injured...I'm going to take a different approach. I'm going to start running barefoot. No biking, obviously, but running. Why, you ask? Isn't that dangerous? Hmmmm no. Here's why.

The body has the most amazing ability to adapt to it's environment. When it's not important or useful to be strong in some areas, those areas get weak while the areas that need to be strong get stronger based on the forces and work subjected to that particular part of the body. What this means is that the feet, that which supports your whole body need to be strong. What we've done by wearing shoes is confine them and not allow them to be the awesome adaptive tools that they are. We instead engineer padding and "support" under the arches to keep them from flexing. But the arch flexes because it is designed to do that. So since your foot isn't taking the hits, what is? Your legs....really it makes perfect sense. At least, it really resonates with what I've experienced running in my nice and supportive winter training shoes all last winter. And then ended up with seemingly chronic overuse injuries all year. And by chronic I mean one after another after another after another....very very frustrating.

I'm not quite as eloquent as explaining it as this guy is. What it breaks down to is that I'm giving up on running like I've been running for the last couple years. Hasn't worked. Everything else seems ok, just the running isn't good. So, I've really got nothing to lose on it since I've hit this impenetrable barrier on my running speed. Just can't train enough speed to get faster because I get injured just from building up the base to properly do the speed I need to do. Boooo. So I'm only going to build base via bicicleta and build up my running distances based on what my (barefoot) feet allow. Which means I don't have to spend another $100 on some foamy running shoes that only last me a few months. And I'll of course lift weights and build my core strength to address inherent imbalances and improve power yadda yadda yadda. If it ends up being a bad winter and biking is off the table, I'll have to track down some snowshoes and hit the cornfields or something. And hit the pool since that'll be indoors...and there's a sauna in there too...hehe....

Heading to France on Friday this week...three days till I fly out!! Should be a stellar trip with my mommy :)

Sartwhat??

So in my searching for healing, we (and by we I mean me and my massage therapist) have found a new culprit!!!

I'm actually pretty excited about this one - the sartorius. And yes, it hurt to get worked on, but I already feel a lot looser, so I'm betting I'm going to be heading out on a run in the next few days...hehe I'm excited.

Yep, it was a good night.

Leg Issues

So my defunct leg - the left one - hasn't let me run in over a month. Not really, anyways. I tried running a few test runs, but really they ended up being 10 minute walk/runs. Now that finally seems to be changing. I've been going to a chiropractor to get the Active Release Technique done, which I've had before I moved here, but the problem has been that there hasn't been anyone listed in town that I could go to until recently. Well, there was one listed before but he was completely unreachable. So that obviously didn't work out. So the chiropractor I've been going to now has been helping loosen things up, and I haven't really had much progress until this last time - when he worked on my adductors. Now THAT hurt. That means that the adductors are REALLY pissed off. And guess what - today I ran for 15 minutes without having to stop!! So I suppose that means that we found the big culprit! Yay!

So I'm building on that progress by sitting here with my fabulous zapper zapping away at the bad spots. All while I work on those grad school applications. And the training plan for the winter. Yep I've decided that even though I've been completely burnt out from this year that I'm still not done doing this triathlete thing. What it was this year really was dealing with all the injuries that I've gotten. What it boils down to is that I didn't quite take it careful enough in adding more running to the plan and I didn't lift enough weights. I know that if I had been better at strengthening the things that needed to be stronger to prevent overuse injuries I would have been fine. And I wouldn't have pounded my legs into oblivion on frozen hard concrete all winter. Live and learn, right? Oh and I'm adding more aqua jogging to the plan this winter, too.

Better to work the muscles happily, my dear.

Oh and I discovered a hot tub I can use. Can you say SWEET???? I've always been a big fan of them but didn't discover the one in the gym I've been using until yesterday. Definitely gonna make a habit of that!

I'm still hoping to get some cross races in this fall though. The next cyclocross race that I'll be able to get to is maybe on October 9th - the Dan Ryan cyclocross in Chicago...dun dun duuuunnnnn.....so I may be heading up to Chicago for a visit and a hammerfest! I'm interested to see how I'll do against other Cat 4 women. You know, since I beat them by a fair margin at the small cross race I did before. But I don't know if that's representative of the Cat 4 women...probably not gonna worry about moving up till next year, when I'll be willing to pay for a cycling license for a full year instead of what's left of a year (when I'm going to be in Europe for two weeks here soon too - fun!). And hopefully I won't break anything mid season this next time around. Like my elbow. That kinda ruined things. Just a bit.

Things are looking up :)

Cross Race!

Ok, so yeah this is a bit late - like what isn't that I do? Right? I'm always doing stuff "on my own time"....yep.

Anyways the Patriot Cross race was a bit of a shocker for me. I didn't know what to expect, but I certainly didn't think I'd be off the front before the first half of lap was over haha. Ok ok it was a Cat 4 women's field and I know that I'm still crazy fit from my broken triathlon season. But still, I didn't expect THAT!

The girls started way faster than I expected them to; they just shot off the line! So, I just kinda did what they were doing and went with them thinking I'd just hang with them and see how I felt.

There was a line along the shore of lake this race went around that doubled over on itself not far from the start. That's where I went from 3rd or 4th to 1st.

The Master Plan at that point was to just be ahead of everyone at the logs we had to ride over since I was betting it'd be a bit of a bike-person clog. And I was right - one woman crashed out with a broken leg!!

So I just kinda kept going at it as fast as I could, rode the lines I'd practiced, and tried not to blow myself up until I saw the 1 lap to go sign. I was so glad to see that sign, too!

They had quite the series of down, turn, and up steep little hills. It was hard to make those, catch your breath and keep moving quick.

This little dip was crazy! It musta taken me ten tries to ride it on the practice runs, but I know making that hill made a huge difference on this race. It was fast at the bottom, and steep at the top, so it was super slow just as you got to the flat. Fun stuff!

The barriers were totally the thing that worried me the most, mostly because in practices I've kinda knocked them over with my bike...ooops. Got through them each time fine on the race though, so I guess when the pressure's on I can pick up my bike enough. Found out after the race that the barriers were 2 inches taller than they were supposed to be - makes the cat 4 girls all that much tougher!

Every time I hit the pavement, I took a deep breath before pushing it just a little harder.

I finished with a few minutes to spare ahead of the other women, but boy was I ready to be done.

Done For the Season

I didn't do my last two races :(

Got out to Burlington, Vermont and did my best to race, but my leg - that's right, leg - would have none of it. Maybe driving 20 hours one way ( 3 hours to Chicago, then 17 to Burlington with a trailer full of bikes ) wasn't such a good idea, after all. Of course, neither was the $550 plane ticket and $175 one way bike fee. Driving at least made the trip affordable for those on the bike shop budget. I was feeling overall fine until the run. Somehow even when I'm telling myself "I'm ok, I'm ok, I'm ok," my legs just refuse to agree. They were actually starting to feel good there for a bit, then the old IT band injury freaked out on me

and I found myself walking. A lot. I didn't even bother to look at my run time after the fact.

So I decided that when I got back I would do my massage and chiro and see if the next two races were even possible. No dice. So I'm done for the season. Just like that.

It's really disappointing. I'd been so looking forward to the races thinking I was in good shape and rested from having had down time from the broken elbow and all. So much for that. To be honest now I'm completely burnt out. I'm so tired of having to come back from injuries. It's been my whole year so far. The IT band was bugging me since February, then I was *thinking* I'd at least get it worked out soon when I broke my elbow. Soooooooo yeah. I'm mentally exhausted from trying to work around bad pain. Not the good pain of training, the bad pain of trying to ignore an injury. Dumb I know. So at this point I'm not running at all.

But I can bike.

So I finally finished my cyclocross bike that I've been building slowly. And I'm doing a race on Sunday. EEeeeeekk!! I'm going to be scrambling all over the place I'm sure! It's going to be a

blast. I'm still needing to practice the whole jump off/pick up/run with/jump back on bike as fast as possible thing. Good thing I'm racing Cat 4. Then maybe it's expected when I trip and fall flat on my face!

So here's my new baby:

Studying FAIL

I'm doing bad at studying for the GRE today. I'll do a few problems, then get distracted looking at something much more interesting online. Or by training/cleaning/prepping for my favorite person to come home. Or by making jewelry stuff. All of which are much more fun.

Went to the doctor on Wednesday to have the follow up xray done on my broken elbow. This xray confirmed that yes, it's 100% certain that it's broken. Because apparently as it heals you can see the extra bone stuff that grows over it as extra white marks in an xray and if they're there, it means that what you couldn't be 100% sure of before, you can now. In a way I'm glad because that is probably the most pain I've been in. What I've been told is that elbows are one of the worse things you can break because of the bundle of nerves going through the elbow. You know the funny bone, right? Yep, that's the bundle of nerves that react when you do something to your elbow. Like break it.

The elbow being broken totally explains why I wasn't able for awhile to do anything of significant strength with my right arm. If it's broke, it won't let you! So I'm still stuck on the bike trainer for a bit longer, but I've been getting back into doing real swim sets again, and I'm basically back to normal on the running front. And I'm still going to be able to race USAT Age Group Nationals. Which is good because that's kind of an important one. It's going to be interesting to see how the last few races go this year since I had a full week off of training, then a slow reintroduction to training. I got a lot of recovery!

I'm so looking forward to getting back on my bike. I really really miss riding a real bike, and ironically, I really miss riding my mountain bike. Though I have the feeling that I'm going to be quite nervous the first time I head back out on it. Mostly because I'm going to be worried that the bumps are going to hurt the elbow. If I ever get the parts to finish my cyclocross bike with, I'll be on that bike ASAP too!

My grand plan for the off season is cyclocross. I'm excited! Expect more falls. But not of the breaking bones variety.

Done With Slings!

I'm finally (well, for a few days now) am able to let my arm hang down without it hurting, so I'm finished with the stupid slings. It's good and bad because they're super inconvenient but at the same time it did let people know that I can't use my right arm. So now I have an ACE bandage that I wrap my arm in to help support it and to let people know that I am actually still broken. That way they don't think I'm completely lazy when I won't lift heavy things or get bikes down. It's that I can't yet. I'm at least getting back my functionality at work.

I can ride on the trainer still, but today I actually was able to support myself on my bullhorns (on my TT bike) today for a little bit. It's getting stronger, but my arm was mighty sore after that. I seem to be having strong bike legs though, which is fantastic. I had it with boring trainer long rides in the winter, so I'm not mentally able to do anything super long anymore. I need the quality workouts anyways. So that's what I'm doing. I'm working on my running too. Especially since it hasn't been great thus far this year.

I'm doing my best to study for the GRE today, but since I've been up since 4am, I'm having quite the time focusing! There's not enough caffeine in the world to fix that little sleep. At least for me. I'm pretty sure it's my own dumb fault for having some Gluten Free beer (and maybe a little too much because I was super excited to finally have beer again...). And it always happens that when I have enough, I wake up ridiculously early, starving, and unable to fall back asleep. But I have gotten a good amount of cleaning done today, got my workout in, and have made progress on the studying front. So it's still a successful day. Cleo just sleeps all day no matter what. So I don't think she was affected too much by the early wake up call this morning.

The last thing that I have to do today is make a grocery run. Not because I really need all that much, but because I'm out of coffee. Such a shame.

Arm Update

So I'm kind of annoyed. I had three races planned for this month, one for next weekend, then each weekend after that. The first Xterra I would've done would have been in that race lineup. Not anymore. I still don't have the grip strength to hold a real bike, let alone a mountain bike. Yes, I know my arm is broken. Ok, not really my arm, my elbow. So I can still use my arm and I can at least function now (which is good...). I didn't want to put doing an Xterra off for another year but it looks like I have no choice. Hopefully I'll get the CX bike set up in time to actually race it this fall. I guess at some point I can just tear down my road bike and build my cross bike and figure it out from there if the parts I've ordered never end up coming.

My arm is doing better than it was yesterday, and better than the day before yesterday. Each day there's a measurable improvement in range of motion and/or strength. Still don't have nearly close to all the range in motion now, but I do have a lot more than before. And I can type with both hands, which is actually a huge improvement. Don't have any strength as far as anything that's useful. Can't swim with it unless I make a fist so that I don't put any force through my arm. So it's a lopsided swim. Still just as fast as all the other people in the outdoor pool. That's sad. I can swim faster than yous people with one arm tied behind my back!......literally. Geeze. Now you understand my swimming dilemma. Maybe I should just get a parachute for when my arm is better. That would be funny to watch someone figure out how to pass me with that thing in their way haha. I'm still hoping that I can start getting some strength back before the end of the week and get back on the bike. We'll see. As for now, running is ok, biking on the trainer is fine, but only in the aerobars, ironically. As soon as I get the grip strength back to truly squeeze I'll be back on the road. Until then, it's just whatever I can manage...

...and it's broken...

The elbow, that is. It took two doctors (Radiologist and Sports Doctor) to spot/confirm it, but they said it's broken. Guess that explains why it hurt so bad? I actually can't remember any pain from the last time I broke anything. Maybe because that was when I was...ahem....3 years old. Broken clavicle, and totally not my fault. But I really really don't remember anything significant other than being told to pull my shoulders back, the stupid vest thing to hold it in place, and doing pushups off the wall at the doctors office the next day. Apparently it didn't hurt that bad.

The elbow hurts way worse than that. Still working on getting it through its range of motion. Oh yeah, and I'm told no cast, just don't overdo on moving it. I can let it hang there under its own weight now, which wasn't even close to an option before, but even then it's not straight, and I can't let it hang there for long. I'm still using a sling, but mostly to rest my arm because it can't hang loosely all the time and otherwise I'm just holding it up at about 90 degrees, which kinda gets tiring. I can't lift anything of significance with that arm (right) and that's even a huge improvement over the move-it-anywhere-and-I-scream that I had before. Heck, I can even touch my left shoulder now. That's a big change. I'm hoping that by sometime next week I'll be able to have most of the range back and start swimming again. I mean real swimming, not floating around, aqua jogging and doing a bunch of kick.

My whole July racing schedule is ruined. I had three for sure races that luckily I hadn't signed up for that are not options now. So much for doing an Xterra race this year. I'm not going to be able to control a mountain bike properly before the season is over. Guess that means that cyclocross is the next thing. That is, if my parts ever come in. Still waiting....grrrrrr.

Seems like I'll be in working order for USAT Nationals in August and the Chicago Tri the week after that. That's good. Actually, the doctor seemed hesitant that I'd be allowed to race USAT Nationals, but in reality, I don't think he knows what he's talking about. Oh and I'm going to have to find a race for the week before that one to make sure I'm in racing shape after a month of not racing.

Don't tell me not to. Because I won't listen.

I finished one season on a stress fracture in my foot (that means like 2 months of racing/training on it). I can swim/bike/run on something similar once I get my range of motion and grip strength back. I may not be able to mountain bike for awhile (insert pouty face here) but if my 80 year old grandma can increase her bone mass without prescription drugs, then I'm pretty sure a healthy 25 year old athlete will do quite fine.

OUCH!!!

I don't know what I did to jinx myself but it's finally happened: the inevitable *bad* bike crash. I don't think I've broken anything, but since I'm still waiting to hear anything from the hospital confirming yes or no for sure, it's still not a certain thing. There was nothing "glaring" last night that they thought they would find seeing how I was basically screaming if my arm got moved at all, but they needed the person who could blow up the x-rays to make sure. Almost 4pm and still no news. If it's not broken then I'm a bit worried about what I'm facing for healing because I am still in so much pain that when my arm spasms I yell out and drop a few choice expletives. I have about 25 degrees of motion with painkillers. Less than that when they wear off.

I guess I should explain what happened.

We got a huge group together last night to go mountain biking after work - totally my and Melinda's idea - but the boys at work and the significant others decided it was an awesome idea and two turned into ten people. Which was fun. I was feeling great. We got to the section that they call Heaven and Hell which is one spot that I keep skipping because it scares me. Didn't skip it last night. I was thinking "Ok, I got this," right before my wheel turned 90 degrees and I went over the handlebars. Just picked the wrong line. Landed hard on my right upper arm and the rest of my right side got scratched up. Knocked the wind out of myself, too. Hit my head but you'd never know by looking at my helmet. It's a steep enough switchback that I fell probably 5 feet. Vertically. Couldn't ride back to the car so had to walk, then left right for the hospital even though I kinda thought I didn't need it. That was before the adrenaline wore off. In the car my arm locked up and started spasming, which started the yelling and expletives. Which continues today when the meds wear off. When the meds are good it's just a sharp gasp and deep rapid breathing.

Funny how I can be gunning for a win one second, then hoping to be able to dress myself by the time Casey leaves for Taiwan the next.

Here's to hoping I can get back into it before my August races.

Kansas 70.3 Race Report

I'm very excited to finally be on to phase 2 of this year's racing: short course training!! Of course, that means that I've finished my 70.3 race a.k.a. half Ironman. And it went well. Basically we went out there as usual two days before, spent the day before loosening up and taking care of pre-race stuff, and raced on Sunday. I've been dealing with the ITBS thing for a long time now, and so since they had a tent there with people giving free ART sessions I jumped on that. I think it helped a TON. I was really tight from the drive up till that point. We camped out at Clinton State Park, which was the race site, so in the morning of the race all I had to do was have breakfast in bed, then walk up to the transition areas (there were two at this one) and set up. The water was warm, but I went with a wetsuit anyways since everyone else was. Not sure if it helped or hurt, my wetsuit doesn't seem to fit as well as it used too....stupid muscles, they made my legs bigger! I haven't used the wetsuit up till that point this year, so maybe it is actually time to get a new one.

The swim did NOT go very well. The water was really choppy, there were people everywhere, and I started getting seasick. I came out with a 33 minute swim, which for me is just horrible. I should have gone at worst around a 30 minute swim, not 33. Oh well. Guess I know what I need to work on in the next little while. I didn't realize this in the race though, so that's good.

I got on the bike just planning to chill, let my legs warm up, and catch up to my girl-to-chase. Took me till mile 40 to do so. Overall the bike was just OK. A little hilly and pretty windy, my legs didn't feel too hot, but I was just around the time that I expected to go, so no problems there. I did, however, do my nutrition 100% correct and for that I'm glad. The syrup flask things work well for large quantities of nutrition. I pushed it on the bike only to the point that I knew I would have plenty left for the run since I was not sure what was going to happen there. Got off the bike with a feeling of "well thank goodness THAT'S done" because my legs were just killing me. Don't know why, since it's not like I haven't ridden that far before...but the run started amazingly well. I got off the bike, and felt loose, fluid, comfortable. I started cruising along at sub-8 minute miles, which I honestly haven't done in a while because of the ITBS. I was so comfortable and happy at that pace that I basically kept going. My girl-to-catch caught back up to me pretty quick into the run (and I later found out why - she put down a 6:55 mile off the bike), but I didn't hussle because we were only a few miles into a 13.1 mile run. Not the time to drop the hammer. The run was a two lap course, so somewhere between mile 6 and 7 I decided I may as well see what else there was in the tank and picked up the pace a bit. Caught my girl-to-catch before mile 8, and kept going. Ended up setting a personal best for a half marathon (of course it's going to be in a tri :-P ). Around mile 10 my legs decided they'd had enough and tightened right up, but since I've started this whole I'm-never-stopping-in-a-race-again trip, I didn't stop, just plowed right on through now matter how bad my legs hurt. Partly because the slower you go, the more time you have till you CAN stop. Overall I beat my last 1/2 IM time, by only a little bit I think, but still. Beat it. The swim took a good chunk of the time that I'd improved on in the last one.

My biggest improvement with this race (and really the other ones so far this year, too) is that mentally I've improved significantly. The crowds don't get to me anymore, bad swims don't bother me anymore - I've stopped racing by watch and started racing by feel - and I've stopped giving up.

Next phase - get my speed up, get my power up, and get that pro card :) I'm excited for the rest of the season!

Late Race Report - Memphis in May

So a couple weeks ago, I went down to the Memphis in May tri. It was a good race overall. I was disappointed in how the organizers handled some stuff - like their time management wasn't great, so their schedules didn't actually pan out, and their decision to do nothing about the safety of the racers with the major thunderstorms that rolled through. I suppose though that the only portion that I was truly concerned with was the swim, since, you know, lightning + open bodies of water = usually not a good place to be. But didn't sound like anyone got hurt. So they got lucky there. I didn't like the time trial start, either. The water was open enough they could have done a series of mass starts, but instead they started everyone 3 seconds apart, which meant that regardless of when you started, you were swimming over people for the whole 1500 meters. Which for me, ended up making my swim significantly slower than it could have been because I got kicked in the face so many times by people going all different directions. I hate swimming with triathletes!

I'm happy with how I did - 13th overall, 2nd in AG. Swim was overwhelmingly OK. Nothing spectacular. Not horrible, either. The bike leg, however, was definitely a PR for me. 1:09 for 40k is a great start to the year. Still could shave time, but still, considering it's the 2nd race, with not much speed to speak of yet, it's a great start. All that commuting/riding is starting to pay off. The run leg started out REALLY strong. I was cooking right along. I have been fighting that ITBS for awhile now, so my running has been slim to none, with basically pathetic amounts of speedwork in there, so when I ended up tightening up - mostly in the hips, then with the knee tweaking out on me - I wasn't surprised. I basically decided it was a bad idea to stop because I'd be out of the running for any decent placing, and I wasn't sure that I could get started again if I did. So I ran through it, and only ended up with a 49 minute 10k. Which is substantially more awful than I thought it was when I finished. Still, overall time wasn't bad - 2:24.

The good news is that I've found a massage therapist who is amazing, and who helped me find the real culprit in my ITBS. It is in my hip, not my vastus lateralus (that which is commonly blamed for the issues). I've been foam rolling the vastus lateralus for months now with no improvement, but as soon as she found the right spot in my hip, the whole side of my leg loosened up. Go figure. My knee hasn't hurt once - talked, yes, hurt, no - in the time since. I have to keep working on it for sure, but I'm finally feeling positive about my running and the likelihood that I'll be able to pull off a decent off-the-bike 10k this year.

I'm going back to see the magic massage therapist today to get me all loosened up for Kansas 70.3 that is this Sunday. Surprisingly, I'm looking forward to this race. I have no idea how I'm going to do, but I could do the swim and the bike in my sleep, and the run is getting itself sorted out. Yes I do have the endurance to finish a half marathon, even if I've had some bad luck in my running this year so far. I'm even very comfortable at higher speeds now (as shown by my lightning-induced tempo run on Sunday, I was FLYING!!). Probably because if the hips are tight, it takes so much work to move fast because you're basically fighting yourself to move. So my lesson in all this? Get massages regularly. Darn, that's going to be hard :)

Meet Skippie

I've gone and done it again. I've gotten another bike. Why? Well, with this one I have a REALLY good reason. I would not be able to find this bike at all for the price that I can afford. And in this case, I really just got so lucky. The lady selling it just wanted a good home for it because she didn't ride it and she's just really REALLY nice.

I wanted it because it's a Swedish bike, with the European wheel lock, and a step through frame - which you CAN find here, but for unobscure brands, they are all small frames. Or you can find one from a fairly obscure (obscure in the USA, anyway) brand that's not too small but you'll pay an arm and a leg for what is much less quality than this bike. Which is why I HAD to have it. I couldn't stop thinking about it for the week and a half it was sitting in the shop waiting to see if someone at the used bike sale would want it. Nobody bit. And I was ecstatic. I mean, it came with a Brooks and everything!

Now, I've been skeptical about Brooks saddles for awhile now, and I'd never really planned on getting one simply because they require kind of a lot of care as compared to my pleather foamy saddles that are cheaper and can get wet. I used to think they looked horribly uncomfortable until I sat on one that another woman had. I was surprised to not be in immediate pain with hers, so I was intrigued...still didn't have plans to get one, though. But Skippie came with it, and so far I'm pleasantly surprised. I'm a little sore because according to what I've found online, it can take a few hundred miles to really break them in right. But it's comfy enough since my butt is fairly hardened already from riding all the time anyways.

Now to the coolest part(s): it's got a skirt guard, an internally-geared 5 speed hub, and a dynamo hub that powers the front light. Oh and there's the wheel lock too. That is one of the coolest thing ever. Not a popular...excuse me...an existent feature in the good ol' US of A, so despite it's coolness, good luck finding it here.

The name Skippie is care of Casey. The brand is something that I have no idea if I can pronounce correctly or not: Skeppshult. Pronounce that one five times fast. So calling it Skippie means that I can pronounce something right and I won't get tongue tied.

Now I have a bike I can ride in a skirt! This means that I'll be getting rid of Priscilla once she's finished being painted, cleaned, and reassembled. As well as the fixie Priscilla was going to replace. Priscilla is too small for me anyways. So I'm up one, then I'll be down two. Which is perfect. I still have my awesomely ugly Trek 800 that's covered in stickers for winter commuting, but that's not a bike I'm concerned about beating up. Salt will destroy nice things, so Skippie will not be ridden in the snow.

So Much Going On!!

So last weekend I went up to Galena. Let me say, it is BEAUTIFUL there. Completely gorgeous. And hilly as all get-out. I have been in serious hill deprivation since moving here, but in Galena, I got my full dosage of hills to make up for it. I was actually wishing for a bigger cassette (as in more teeth on my biggest cog - a 23). In NM it didn't come into play all that much, and I was perfectly happy with it. This area was hilly enough, steep enough, and long enough that I was really wishing for that bigger cassette. The people who had them definitely were doing better than me at the end of the rides. That's ok. It builds power. It was a fabulous weekend. I learned that I'm a bit crazy (according to triathletes who, IMHO don't have the *greatest* bike handling abilities) when it comes to going downhills. But I'm just efficient. More downhill speed = less work to get up the hill on the other side. And it's a lot more fun that way! As of yet *knock on wood* I haven't had an issue with descending anything fast.

Most of this week however, I've felt weird. I did a bit of a gluten experiment up in Galena, so I'm not actually sure if I feel off because of that, or if it's just an I'm tired/over trained/female issues thing. Just don't know. I came around on Saturday for my long ride, but most of the week was junk for training. Felt like I was bonked, but since I'd just eaten, that's obviously not what was going on.

I have decided (yet again...be prepared for this to change) that I'm going to start working on getting ready for graduate school as well as take the Fundamentals of Engineering exam. They always seem to put the FE exam on a day that doesn't work for me, and since it's only 2X per year, it's kind of something you have to do come hell or high water. I plan on doing it at this point, mostly because I'm SO FLIPPIN' BORED OUT OF MY MIND. Working at a bike shop is fun, sure, but mentally stimulating? Uhhh no. I have learned that I'm much more like my mom than I've ever thought. I don't like having nothing truly substantial to be working on. I start obsessing over what bike I want/how I want it/etc. Completely useless things to be thinking about. Especially since, for the most part, the only thing really keeping me from the objects that I want is money. Money is, for the most part, simple. You want something? Save up. It may take longer for one person versus another, but there's almost always a way. Unless it's like a Ferrari or something. That's just crazy.

I'm racing Memphis in May on May 22nd. It's going to be interesting. I'm told that the run is hot. It will be the first Olympic distance of the year. Then on June 12th is Kansas IM 70.3. Again. It will be interesting. At least the water temperatures should be comfortable.

First Race Report!!

First of all, Happy Easter!

I know this race report is a week late, but I've had kind of a crazy week. I got a whole BUNCH of training in on my three days off of work this week, and I'm pooped!

I went down to the Petersburg, Il Pioneer Sprint race last weekend, just to see what junk I have in my legs from not racing until late this season. This is, by far, the latest I've ever started the season since I started racing. It may be for the better, though, because by the last few races I've felt pretty cooked in years past.

So the race went like this: 300 yard (not meter, yard) snake swim, 13 mile bike (out and back), then 3.1 mile run. It was a stagger start in the pool, kinda on the honor system as to how fast you're going to swim, so I started kinda close to the front. Still passed one guy but didn't get passed by anyone in the water. Which was good because it was a tightly packed pool. We had to do each 50 in one lane then switch, so yeah, it could be bad if people were poorly matched up. I had the 3rd fastest swim of everyone (as far as I can count, since they don't have rankings on the results).

Then the bike was pretty straightforward. I broke out the race wheels for this one: haven't ridden them since last summer, so it was time to "test ride" them. They did well. The bike was so SO surprisingly comfortable! I've been really consistent in my stretching lately trying to loosen up the IT bands and hips and one of the effects has been much more comfort on the TT bike. Go figure. I averaged 21.0 on the bike (I had seen 22 point something earlier, but maybe that was my mistake). Either way, it was decently strong, 2nd fastest of the women, but only by .2mph. And considering I haven't done much speedwork in the TT position, I was quite pleased by it, and my legs felt great, anyways.

Now the run I've been having lots of issues with because of my IT bands, and I haven't been doing a lot of the speedwork that I'd usually be doing. So I kinda expected the run to suck (but was doing a good job of not thinking about it the morning of the race). I just got off the bike, knowing I had the lead, just thinking I'd run the heck outta my legs. And I did. I went a 21:09 for a 5k that's hilly and off the bike, that's not bad at all. I also had a boy chasing me the whole time, and I REALLY didn't want him to catch me haha. That time is fairly decent for me when I've had a little speedwork. Let alone basically none. So I was very pleasantly surprised by that. Guess all the basework on the bike and run this year is starting to pay off. I finished #8 out of the men, #1 out of the women, 5 minutes behind the first male, and 7 minutes ahead of the next woman (the biggest margin I've ever won by before).

FRS was there, awesome as ever, handing out samples. Since I know them - they sponsor the Well Fit Elite team - I ended up talking to them a lot. Good stuff, nice people, always great to see them!! They gave me a goodie bag for my win!

My times (in order of swim, T1, bike, T2, run, overall time):

4:02.3 00:30.1 37:07.3 00:31.4 21:09.1 1:03:20.2

Warmth! OMG WARMTH!!!

I wore shorts today! Not because I was wishing for some decent warmth, but because it was actually an awesome 80F degrees ( the F is for Fahrenheit, for anyone thinking I mean Celsius and thinking somehow that we're close to the surface of the stove, we're not, just...nevermind....).

It was a wonderfully warm day. Nevermind that it was humid as all get out, and that's no way to have a warm day, I'll take what I can get. Ran in shorts, biked in shorts, worked on my tan....ahem....or lack thereof.

S'posed to be warm tomorrow too :)

My 21 Day Challenge!

So the thing with being an athlete is that it's almost always a lot easier to go out for a run than it is to admit it's probably a day to take it easy. Having a training plan helps a lot with that, but lately I've been battling the IT band issues that cropped up about a month ago, and while I've been training, my running still is lame because that's the one sport that the IT band really matters in for me. So since this week is finally a recovery week for me, my goal is to start having a consistent yoga practice to help prevent injuries. I don't have any real injuries other than tight muscles, really. Tight muscles with trigger points in them. That then pull and rub on something else and irritate it. It's annoying and fairly elusive to treat. I've basically given up on finding a massage therapist that can help out because 1) it's expensive and 2) a really REALLY helpful and good and amazing massage therapist is about one in a million. Which means it will take awhile to find one anyways, and by then I'd be out of money. Sigh.

So, along with my magic muscle zapper, which I have completely worn the electrode pads down on - I need to get new ones of those - I've decided that it's in my best interest to pick up yoga again. In years past I've signed up for a class at school to add another credit hour to my load, and lo and behold, I've ended up not injured for the time that I'd been taking the class. It was basically a result of being forced to keep a consistent practice. A consistent practice helps keep muscles loose, and amongst other benefits, that's probably the one that I'd notice the most. I even remember someone saying (who told me not to reveal this information to a certain other person, hence the anonymity) that the only thing that ever helped (and cured) his plantar fasciitis was a 6 week long beginner's yoga class.

Which brings me to my 21 Day Challenge, as created by Yoga Journal. I'm totally starting it late, but it's better late than never, right? The idea is to basically have a way to help to cultivate a DAILY home practice in order to truly get the benefits of yoga, which, surprise surprise are only really achieved by regular practice. Which takes me back to the trigger points. Trigger points are most likely to show up in chronically tight muscles such as those that are overworked - like mine. How do you keep muscles from getting tight? Well I would say stretching, but in reality, it doesn't really help me that much. Yoga is different. It's not stretching. Not in the traditional sense, anyways. Isometric stretching, maybe. But more well rounded than that. It's a warmup, workout, and cooldown.

So, in an effort to help prevent my own injuries and hopefully push others to do the same, I am starting my 21 days as of this morning, and through training and working, I will keep a consistent practice.

Meet Priscilla

And yes, I understand what the name implies. For those not familiar, Priscilla Queen of the Desert is a film/musical/show about drag queens. Which is why I like the name. Priscilla is a very girlie name.

Well, here's the background on Priscilla: I've been looking for years now for a frame/bike that I could refurbish and turn into a fixie/commuter bike. It had to be oldish, but in decent condition, with horizontal dropouts (if you don't know what dropouts are: Go here), and with wide enough fork/brakes to be able to accommodate fenders. Because I like Fenders. They're kinda dorky but cute at the same time. And totally practical. Now the thing with the name is that I generally don't name my inanimate objects that transport me. I don't name bikes, cars, etc. Dogs I name. Things that aren't alive I don't. Descriptors go something like this: "I'm going to drive the insert model name here to the store." or "I'm riding my road/TT/mtb today." Straightforward, right? I have also long had a problem with calling inanimate objects "she." I guess I'm a quirky feminist, but I think all my bikes should be called "he" or "it." Because if guys ride bikes called "she" then shouldn't girls ride bikes called "he"? Which is how it came to Priscilla: still can be a "he" but since Priscilla is a girl's Schwinn Varsity, the name must be girlie. Which is why Priscilla is a perfect name.I stripped the parts off of Priscilla yesterday expecting to find more rust than was worth the $35 to take...ahem....him....home. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that the muck was greasy dried up dirt, and not rust. A good soak in ammonia removed most of it, and what was on the frame just sanded right off. This is going to be a fabulous bike. I had a few stern words and help with whacking the stem out of the fork, which has some rust on it, but not too bad, and got to taking the derailleur housing guides off.
The bike was obviously a cheaply made bike without the finishing touches probably afforded to better models, so there are a few burrs and catches that I am working on filing off before I get to sanding the whole frame down.
I got my work buddy here with me the whole time; she's just there making sure that I'm doing things up to her standards.
Once the frame is all sanded and primed, it's going to get a bright apple red color and a clear lacquer. Then he gets fenders, a rack, one brake, the wheels on the current fixie/commuter - the Fiori - and the bottom bracket adapter for the English bottom bracket I want to use.

Yay for getting to projects I've talked about for ages :P

Happy Friday!

Yay for Fridays off! Ok, it actually doesn't make much difference to me because I could just as easily be working on a weekend, and it feels more like Saturday today because everybody's home. And I still have to train, of course. On my days off, I'm putting a lot of training in just because it's hard to work a full day and then do a full day's worth of training. Since I'm allowed to work just 3-4 days per week, I can get some sleep and get some more training in on the days off. Though yesterday was a long day: 2 hours of training plus 9 hours of working. One or the other, not bad, but you put them two together and it makes for a long day. Especially since I'm on my feet 99% of the day now. You know you're on your feet a lot when you get on your bike to ride home and you're grateful just to sit on the bike. The coolest thing though: I can ride my bike to work everyday and 1) bring it inside the shop without getting odd looks and 2) ride every day that I've worked so far and not be labeled "hardcore." Because commuting an easy 30 minutes one way (or so, depending on the bike and the wind) isn't hard core. It's just cheaper than driving. And nicer to my car. And just that much more training I can get in. Other than driving to Chicago, I haven't driven more than 1 mile (to the grocery store, because we still don't have a bike that can handle a real grocery trip) in several weeks.

I am so looking forward to real spring to get here. I'm tired of having to wear a bunch of clothes to train. I miss the dry heat of the desert. If I was in NM now, I'd already have a good bike shorts line going. Not here, I'm still pasty white all around. Booo to that.

Learning Learning Learning...

I don't know how much more my brain can absorb. I'm learning all kinds of new stuff about stuff that I could possibly sell, use, etc....Kinda cool, though somehow my brain doesn't feel much worked like it did in school. I keep going back and fourth on the whole Grad School thing. I guess what I've more or less decided is to see how this year goes in racing and decide towards the end of the season. Which gives me less prep time for the GRE, but I can't see myself doing grad school and racing full time as a pro, either.

...on that note, it's a pretty nice day, I have the day off of work, I'm gonna go bike :P

Day 1, Week 2

Ok so last week was pretty crazy/cool. Started the new job, survived, then FINALLY made it to Chicago. Though getting to Chicago didn't get me around as many team members as I wanted, it's a start, I suppose. I guess a number of people are still inside because it's too cold, so I didn't meet them on the ride I went on. The cold wasn't that bad, I mean c'mon! I rode all through the winter! I did get beat up good though. It's good for me, a good time for it, but wow boys can be hard to bike with sometimes. They were nice and didn't let me get lost a.k.a. dropped and miss a turn, so that was good. But I was hurting for the entire ride just trying to keep up. AND we got passed by huge groups of REAL cyclists. If you ever want to feel slow on a bike...

AND I'm finally running again. I musta picked, twisted, rubbed, iced, stretched, you name it most of the problems out of my left IT band enough that I could run for an hour yesterday (and 45 on Friday otherwise I probably wouldn't have tried an hour). I'll probably keep stepping it back up slowly and decide soon if I can run the 1/2 marathon at the end of April here. Otherwise I'm back in business. And I have time off of work during the week so that I can train. Double bonus!

Out with the old, in with the new...

I'm in transition today between jobs. Well, I finished the chem lab job on Friday. Tomorrow I start at the bike shop. So today I'm using my easy day as a cleaning and organizing day to kinda get ready for not knowing my schedule for this week. I am going to push for a couple days off in a row (it's a part-time gig anyways) for this week so that I can try to get up to Chicago finally. I was going to go up before I got sick, then I had to go to ABQ, then I had to put in my two weeks so I kinda needed to stick around and get stuff done. Now I'm hoping that it's going to settle down a bit and I can make it up to Chicago and really meet and make friends with my team. So I feel REALLY behind in what I've been meaning to do.

I did a Tri Time Trial with the FIT team this weekend. It was crazy because I wasn't expecting almost thirty people to come out to do an impromptu triathlon, but they were there. Some people did sprint distance, some did olympic, some did a bit of each, and some did two of three. I did two of the three. I'm still laying off the running for now. I'm betting it's doing better, but to be honest I can't tell until I run. It just doesn't hurt until I run on it. And I haven't run since last Tuesday, accept for in the water. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised with my swim/bike splits. My swim (for this early in the season) was low 21 minutes, which is pretty up there for me. I also wasn't far behind the real swimmer on the team - a UIUC collegiate swimmer. So that's a good start for me. Then there was the bike. It was SO FRIGGIN WINDY!!! I still did ok, my average wattage was close to my FTP wattage (which is over a 30 minute test, so for almost 1.5 hours at that high of wattage is pretty good!), however it also included stoplights and stopsigns and everything so that dropped both the average wattage and the average speed. Of course, I wasn't saving anything for the run because I wasn't doing it. But I put over ten minutes over the fastest girl on the team, and she's nothing to shake a stick at. To be fair, though I've been biking a pretty good amount all winter and she's just been just swimming, so it's not a truly fair assessment. But it feels like commuting 45 minutes one way on a heavy-as-all-getout mountain bike is doing me good. I have a stronger bike base. I haven't done anything for real power yet, but base is always good.

I'm slowly developing my own philosophy for training in endurance sports. Part of my ideas come from what I did as a swimmer for years. Swim training, from what I've experienced, is a lot - and I really mean a LOT - of intervals. Fast, hard, dying in the water intervals. I remember as a 13 year old swimming my butt off. I would get to a point, though that I would just have to back off. So I would, and would basically just keep moving. At a pace that I now realize was base. Coaches hated it when I did that. I wouldn't listen though because I know my body and I will listen to it before I'd listen to anyone else (and that's still the case). Training that way didn't hurt me at all, though. I still placed among the top swimmers in the state doing much less fast training than my high-placing counterparts. Swimming just wasn't for me, though. Too monotonous. I love it, but not 10X a week. I think that for most people having a lot of base is essential, and having too much speed is detrimental. And that breakdown is pretty similar between most people. In a number of tri-training books (and coaches I've talked to) I'm finding that there's a lack of emphasis on base, with more emphasis on speed/tempo. I don't understand, though, how XC skiers will train 25 hours a week, but triathletes will train only around 16. When the XC races are generally shorter than triathlons. Why the discrepancy? The difference between the two, it seems, is mostly base-pace hours. But I find that I do best when I have a LOT of base hours under my belt. When it comes down to it though, it's hard to train a whole ton and work and sleep and recover from it all. Maybe when I'm a full time pro, right? :P

Lots of changes

It has been a crazy couple of weeks. Being sick for a week sucked, and then I got news that my grandfather passed away so I had to start planning a trip back home to say goodbye. It made me glad that I made the trip for his 80th birthday in January, but I'm still really going to miss him. When I saw him he was very sick but still full of the attitude I'll always remember him for. It was not a trip I wanted to make, but it was nice, even under the circumstances, to get to see my family again. My baby niece is getting bigger, stronger and is still the cutest baby ever. She was standing (with help) while I was there! She's only 8 weeks old! She's an athlete in the making!

While I was in New Mexico I got a call from the bike shop I applied for - I'm hired! I'm super excited to work there partly because I've wanted to work in a bike shop for awhile (for a number of reasons, one being I can work part time, another because I love bikes) but I'm also excited because I can get out of the sketchy chem lab I'm currently working in. It may be just that I'm paranoid, but I did take chem 101/102 and other lab classes and you know those safety rules they give you? Ummmmmm yeah. Those aren't exactly followed very closely. That's why I wear a lab coat, old worn out running shoes (that will get thrown out when I'm done there) and gloves, gloves, gloves! I've learned that some solvents (Toluene) are MEAN. Do not touch, smell, look sideways at, etc or else...kinda scary. Though I'm appreciative of the days when I work with Cineol a.k.a. Eucalyptol a.k.a. the main component of Eucalyptus essential oil. At least that part of it isn't toxic. Though what we mix it with might be. Again, I'm not a chemist and therefore I don't like working with it and therefore I'm super strict on the safety stuff that doesn't really get followed by anyone but me. Four days and counting. Then I start at the bike shop next Tuesday. Yippee!! I'm not sure exactly what to expect in terms of how busy it is or how busy it can be, so we'll see.

I'm currently not allowed (by my leg, not by my choice) to run. I'm having bad IT band issues probably from sitting for a week while sick. Sitting for me has always aggravated it badly, as does running as many miles as I have this winter in prep for 70.3 Kansas and the Illinois Half Marathon. I feel like I'm running strong when I'm running at all. What compounds the problem is the serious LACK of dirt to run on around here. Even when you get out of town you can't hit the dirt because then you're trespassing on farmers land and that probably won't end well either from the dogs or the shotguns they probably have. So the options are largely concrete or asphalt. Can you say IMPACT???? And I'm not even a heel-striker! So I'm sitting here on my day off and zapping the crud outta my leg, ice rolling it, zapping, rolling, zapping, rolling, etc etc etc. I'm probably going to hit the pool tomorrow for an aquajog instead of a run. Maybe I'll have to make that my recovery run on a routine basis....hmmmm....the problem is the lack of pool space in this town, though. The UIUC pool is crowded with people who don't have any concept of swim etiquette, and once the outdoor pool opens it's only going to get worse. I'll have to come up with something better for the summer, maybe a couple of memberships to different pools depending on the hours...ouch that would get expensive fast though! Here I am totally spoiled from the pools in Albuquerque that I could go to almost whenever I wanted...oh well. I'll have to bike it up all that much more then!

Sick and bored

I hate being sick. I hate being laid up, not being able to do anything. I like being able to do stuff. I really hate not being able to train. I'm usually against taking drugs, too but I am because I'm miserable. I was doing really good this year, too. I haven't been sick in several months. Last year I was sick about every two months. I think it was because of stress/gluten/trying too hard, and I've had a lot of down time compared to how hard I was working this time last year. I'm actually getting enough sleep for the first time since, well, middle school I think. I'm really not sure it's going to be worth going to Chicago tomorrow if I can hardly move. It's actually getting to the point where I want to go to a doctor and find out what I have and see if I can get something for it. I hate being sick!

I feel awful and it's mostly my own fault!

I felt something coming on yesterday. You know, the feeling you get when your throat just isn't right and it's scratchy and I totally kept blaming it on something at work. I work in what amounts to a chemistry garage. A huge rented garage that a very small ( I mean like 4 employees, total) research type company works from. Oh, and it's run by a Russian. Not dissing on Russians or anything, just saying. Most days I'm one of three people there and I'm the only American (and, well, girl) to top it off. But I kept blaming my scratchy throat on something that they were working on and kept opening the large garage door a bit to get some fresh air. Which didn't help, but I did it anyways. I'm not much a fan of working with stuff that might screw up my lungs, even if it's "diluted in the large space." Don't care. There's not much of a breeze and I'm basically paranoid.

So I rode to the pool to do my usual swim, figuring that in case I did have something coming on that I would take it easy and get something done, but slow and easy. You know, to help loosen up and not to make myself sicker. That's where I failed. Big time. I walked into the pool and Steve, the swimmer I met a few Tuesdays ago said hi, invited me to come swim with the Master's team there and since I clearly cannot pass up a social workout opportunity, I did. Had a great workout too. I was keeping paces that I don't remember ever keeping. Which is a stellar sign for my swim for this year. However the problem was that a lot of it was sprint sets, and that's like the exact opposite of what I shoulda done. But I was having fun (and swimming circles around a couple guys, which I love doing hehe). After I got out of the pool, I knew I really screwed up. Went home, ate, and went to bed. Woke up with a fever. Can't move today, can hardly breathe my throat hurts so bad, and I can't decide if I'm going to be better enough to go to Chicago on Friday. I barely have a voice. I really wanted to go to Chicago. I'm going to have to wait and see how I feel tomorrow, I guess. Until the fever breaks, all bets are off, right?

I applied for yet another job yesterday. Because although where I'm working isn't bad (and pays pretty well) it's technically only a 6 month gig because he works from US Government research grants. Which means that as soon as something more permanent comes along, I'm outta there. The place I applied to is a bike shop, the only real-looking shop in town, actually. They need someone for their women's section, and while I'm no bike savant, I certainly know what it's like to be a girl and a cyclist/triathlete. And I can fix a flat, tune a bike, etc. It sounded promising yesterday talking to the guy there, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this one doesn't go haywire like the chiro gig did (the chiro called me in to "test run," then never returned my calls, only giving me answers when I went in and asked, saying I was 'too over qualified'). Could happen again. But I hope not. Ultimately I think I would enjoy a bike shop gig. We shall see.

It's been one of those days

I hate the days that never seem to go right. Nothing went wrong, per se, but nothing really went right. I guess it started yesterday. I had an awful long ride because I bonked. Again. And then I had to change the oil in my car. Ok, not that hard, right? Well, no, it's not. But it was the first time I'd done it on my own so there was a bit of a learning curve mostly in trying to find the stupid drain bolt from the oil pan. Found it after a few phone calls to dad and a good let's-laugh-at-aubrey session from my sister and brother-in-law. Then this morning I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed, I guess. Went to work and had to deal with a typically very nice turned completely obnoxious boss who felt it necessary to hover over what I was doing, demand different parameters that wouldn't work, distract me from the program that needed to be changed because of a slight interference, and thus accidentally bend a perfectly brand new nozzle. Which really pissed me off. I hate breaking things. I hate being given ambiguous projects, too, which seemed to be the idea of the day. Do you want me to do THIS or THIS??? Pretty simple answer, no? I guess not.

Then, to top it all off I called my grandpa who's in the hospital following a heart attack. He's very sick, he's had cancer for a number of years now and the latest round of chemo is taking its toll (when previous rounds had seemed to have been no problem for him). It's not sounding good.

On a more positive note, the weather is going to be warm tomorrow and I'm going to be able to bike to work without having to worry too much about ice. And there's a bike shop in town looking for a women's dept person that I'm going to go talk to to see if that might work out better than where I'm at now. That would be nice because I have wanted to do bike stuff for a long time now.

And I got some lovely flowers for Valentine's Day. That makes everything better, too :)

Back home, freezing my ass off again!

Actually when I got home the weather was only a little bit colder than NM and I managed to get a super awesome (and ambitious) ride of approximately 65 miles in a couple of Sundays ago (like not yesterday but the one before that). I say approximately because I don't have a computer on that particular bike and estimated how far I went after the fact. I did, however keep track of the time it took, and it was about 4 hours 45 minutes. Stellar. I mean, slow. Ok whatever. I don't care because it's all base miles and it's flat, which SUCKS. I don't share the opinion of most people that hills suck because I actually like them because I can go harder, then rest on the way down. It's nice. Plus, I'm a pretty good climber. On long climbs I can destroy big men that own me on the flats. Just saying.

I have been accepted onto the Well Fit Elite Team (well, technically the "Development" team because I don't live in Chicago and can't make 2-4 practices a week when I live 2 hours away so I got downgraded just a little bit but for most intents and purposes it's the same). What that means though is that I have people to train with who are just as serious (I was going to say crazy....well you know what I mean) as I am! That's awesome. And theoretically people to travel with and stay with to races/training/camps/whatever.

Yesterday was a great end to a recovery week: 20 minute bike to the gym, 45 minutes weights routine (from which I can barely walk today), 35 minute easy swim to make 2200 yards, bike 20 minutes home, spin on the trainer for 1:30, then run for 15 minutes. All without much of a break. Yay for brick days! Didn't feel all that bad. At all, actually.

Starting to really look forward to racing. This year's gonna be good!

Oh Green Chile How I've Missed You!!!

If you meet anyone from New Mexico and they have spent any amount of time outside of the state, and ask them what they miss the most, 99.99999% of the time the first thing they will say is the chile(unless you're my brother-in-law, in which case you're just weird). New Mexico chile isn't like getting a regular poblano pepper or jalapeno pepper (though those are spicy and can fill the bill in a pinch) it's got a distinct flavor that makes it unique and addicting. If you can take the heat, that is. My aunt from Florida can't take the slightest heat, and there's something about the tolerance for heat that makes it better; if you can't taste it through the heat, it doesn't taste like anything. But the heat is what makes chile, chile. It's a daily part of the diet in New Mexico. I've had it in jam, apple pie, cheeseburgers, burritos (claro!), coffee, beer...yes, beer...and just about everything else. Pizza, too. It's just what you EAT here. Fast food places offer green chile as a topping. So I'm back here for a week, and I've just about finished a jar of green chile that is more than a liter. Granted, some of that went into enchiladas, but I'm dumping it on whatever by the glob. I had some red chile sauce that I made in Illinois from powder, and it was good, but the green stuff is juicier. It's not dried first like the red. I'm going to have to figure out a way to get some green stuff home...

So happy belated holidays...

I can't believe it's been a month since I've updated. Sorry. That totally doesn't jive with what my pledge to myself was some time ago, to update almost every day. Oh well. Truth is through December I was working full-time (which is hard when you're trying to train, and function). I need more sleep than is possible when training a lot and working full-time. It's hard. BUUUTTTTT good news is that I got a new job. It's not 100% perfect, but it's a ton better. I have the flexibility to work 6 hours a day (which is just perfect to fit in training and food and sleep and a little down time). But the catch is that it's a chemistry lab and the safety to me seems a bit questionable...gonna keep looking for a different job, but it's a huge step up from what I was doing before. Which was grading standardized kindergartner tests. Painful, painful days when that's done for 8 hours.
The holidays were great. Went to Calgary which was fun. Came home shortly before New Year's Eve to near 60 degree temps. Strange, and ALL the snow melted in a rainstorm. Go figure. Not that I was complaining or anything since I could bike outside for a short period again, but still was strange. I'm used to the snow melting in a day, and usually the same day that it fell. Not all 8 inches in a night a month after it fell.

And then, Monday January 3rd my niece was born. I still haven't met her yet, that's this Saturday. I get to go home to meet the newest addition to my family. Kudos to my sis to making it through a tough labor. I'm so excited to meet her!

And on a side note, I rode to work Monday thru Friday last week! Every day last week! Never mind that I haven't ridden this week. I needed my usual day off this week, and then it snowed. Boo to snow. I probably wouldn't mind if I could actually PLAY in the snow, but this town isn't conducive to anything of that sort of fun. Boo to this town. Can't wait to go home for a visit (and a ride or two).