Feeling better

So I've been pretty wiped out the past few days after getting sick on Tuesday. The main problem with this cold hasn't been that I sond ike dis and have to blow my nose constantly, it has been more that energy wise I have been wiped out. I tend to be a fairly energetic person and on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being little energy and 10 being bouncing off the wall...I typically am between a 7-9 on most days. This cold has put me more in the range of -5 to -6 on the energy scale.

I was out from work on Wednesday and Thursday. By Friday I was feeling a little better and even had high hopes of getting in a quick workout that evening. But by the end of the day my energy had really sagged and I ended up being low key and catching a movie with some friends. Saturday I really, really, REALLY wanted to get at least a 20 mile bike ride in, but I still wasn't even hitting a 1 on the energy scale. I took a quick 'power walk' down the street to grab some coffee and when I came back and felt like I needed a nap I accepted the fact that another day of rest really wouldn't kill my HIM training this far out even though my head was screaming that I needed to get some training done. I finally rationalized that if anything another day off would probably help me get better faster. So...I accepted it and took another day off. I wasn't happy about it though.

This morning when I woke up I could tell I was back in the positive numbers on the energy scale. I had a 6.5 mile run slated in my training plan, but I decided that even if I could only get 4.5 miles that would still be golden. The upper respiratory infection didn't aid the whole breathing and lower heart rate, but it didn't kill me too much either. I tried not to look at my watch too much as I realized I was probably going to be running backwards in time if anything so it was somewhat futile to worry too much about my time. It felt good to be out running and it was a pretty warm afternoon. After last week's debacle where my sock decided to eat the back of my ankle and stop my run, I was armed with band-aids and ready for most anything.

The did the whole 6.5 mile run and it actually felt pretty good. I even tried out a new running skort...which the fiasco of buying the stupid thing is worthy of another post...so maybe for another day...over all I did like the skort so that was a bonus. I'm encouraged that even after this cold that has totally sapped all my energy, and taken me out for a bit, I have a feeling that I will bounce back pretty well and I hope to hit the training pretty hard once I fully recover. I have tweaked this next week so that hopefully I don't totally kill myself with the training and relapse, but it still will be a good full week. I'm happy to be feeling much more energetic, that's for sure.

Out sick

So I have been feeling a little tired in the past few days, my swim on monday was more of a 'try not to sink' sort of effort. Getting up in the morning for monday's crossfit workout didn't happen and when tying my shoes so I could go to the Tuesday night tri club run made me want to take a nap, I knew something was up. I attributed it not getting enough sleep or more training...or whatever. But in the last few days I have had a sore throat too. So yesterday I decided to go to bed at 8:30 or 9 ( as i've been getting up at 5AM most days) and see if that would help...I figured between 8-9 hours of sleep might sort this out. But in the end I skipped my AM crossfit workout workout just so I could get an extra hour of sleep. But even after getting almost 10 hours I still felt EXHAUSTED.

Somehow I convinced myself I would feel better as the morning wore on and dragged my sorry self off to work. After finding reading my email a mental drain, I decided in the end to go home. I wasn't going to accomplish anything today as tired as I was...and even though I hadn't spiked a temp in the AM...i was starting to feel warmish.

I didn't know if it was allergies (but claritin hasn't help the situation) and my energy took a HUGE dive in the last 24 hours. So I did go see a doctor as I didn't know if it would be strep throat, the flu, allergies, mono... or some strange disease. (i have an overactive imagination). Went to the doctor...and she ruled out strep (on the 5 minute culture), the flu or another strange disease. Probably just an upper respiratory infection...i have a cold.

I came home and slept for 3 hours. I still feel exhausted and we shall see how tomorrow goes. I have to admit I'm a little frustrated as this was supposed to be week 1 of my dedicated HIM training and I have to just hang out until I feel like I have enough energy to tie my shoes again. I am hoping that this is a cold and not allergies because at least with a cold I will get better...allergies I would just have to battle and allergy meds are not helping.

I did discover a fast way to make chicken soup:
Chicken broth (minimum 64 oz, use the low sodium that is even salty to me)
Pre-cut carrots
3/4 bag of egg noodles
celery 3-4 stems
pre-cooked rotisserie chicken from the deli at a grocery store

Use about half of the chicken and dump everything together. Add some 'multi' seasoning like 21 seasons from Trader Joe's and in less than 15 minutes you have chicken soup! Cook to a boil...turn down to a simmer...and all is well.

Alright off to rest up.

You look tired

I kinda hate it when people come up to me and say: You look really tired.

Gee...THANKS!!

I am trying to get to bed earlier since I am now consistently finding that I need to be up at 5 am to get my morning workout in...yuck. I wish I was one of those people who only needed 6 hours of sleep to be alive and alert, but that is not me. I'm more like 8 hours. That just messes everything up.

But lately i have felt exhausted. While my training is increasing my exhaustion is not proportional to workout effort, so I am thinking it might be something else. It was pointed out the other day that maybe i'm allergic all sorts of new plants here in southern california. My allergies tend to manifest differently in different places I have lived so I hadn't thought about the fact that lethargic and scratchy throat would equal allergies. I looked at the allergy forcast today and realized that my main problem may be freaking pollen. This is seriously hampering my training.

I am going to try to get a ridiculous amount of sleep tonight and see if that improves anything. If i'm still exhausted, well I will know that it might be allergy related. This is so not cool.

The weekend and such

Stoplights

I decided that this was going to be the weekend to give the saturday tri club ride a go. I used to ride all the time with one other person during my first two seasons of tri training, and really had only ridden with a few other people at any given time, so I have found that group riding can mentally psch me out a little, mainly because I think about large packs of cyclists like on the Tour or when I lived out in western MA there were a few pretty hard core cycle groups and on a fairly regular basis I would see double pace lines of cyclist flying by at a zillion miles an hour by my house. So that's what I think of when I think of a 'group' bike ride, hence it freaks me out a little bit. So I had a few nerves showing up. But the truth of the situation was that the large group of 50 or so, got broken into smaller groups of 5-10 ...which was more my size.

We start off, I head to the back figuring that might be a reasonable place to start out. We've gone 1/2 a block. I get stuck at the stop light. Now the group has gone on ahead...they aren't that far away I tell myself...and then I get stuck at the next stop light...again only 1/2 a block away from the first one...after the light changes it becomes apparent that I have lost the group. Now i can't even see the pack at this moment. There were a few stragglers with me so i wasn't completely alone, so I decided 'well ok this would just be sprinting practice' as a few of us tried to catch up to the group. The next 8 or so miles were much of the same, I would get near the group only to get stuck at a stop light when I was within 1/4 mile of joining up. I did finally catch up around mile 8.

I was feeling a little relieved to finally caught the group, and my legs were a little toast by this point so I worried a little bit that the return trip would be notsofun. After I finally caught the group I was relaxing at a stoplight with the group this time (bummer thing about urban riding) and I look over and Paul has caught our group, says hi and quickly passes us as he proceeds on for his 100 mile jaunt.

We reach the turn around point for the 30 milers...the 40 and 50 milers with our group continue up north and I turn around with those heading back. Fortunately I find a few other people who are going the pace that I needed and head back. Despite the first half being a lot of sprinting (which is good for me anyway...right??) it was a lot of fun and I will definitely be making this a habit of mine! Much more fun to ride with other people.

Sunday I was slated to run 6 miles. I started off...sluggishly...it wasn't getting better...i was making stupid excuses to stop...I wanted to turn around...take a nap...do anything else really...and then it happened.

I actually had to stop.

I was a mile away from home, and I was getting a ridiculous blister. The funny thing about the incident was that once I had a reason to stop, I didn't want to even though the run was sucking like no other. I debated the pros and cons of continuing the run. The biggest con I came up with for continuing my run was that since my foot hurt, I was dramatically changing my gait...and this was all on the leg that had all the hip issues that I had JUST been given the OK to go do whatever from my PT. I was confronted with the stark reality that I could screw up everything good that I had been doing with PT by being stubborn and proceeding and I somehow recognized that it wasn't worth the risk of reinjuring my leg and hip. So I turned around and walked home. I got home only to discover I had a hole in my sock at the blister point and that is what caused the trauma. I promptly threw those socks away. I now have Bandaids packed in my water carrying case.

It was a good weekend over all. Yes...more running needs to happen, but it will. I may have even found a running buddy today...so that may workout pretty well.

Learn my lesson??

I keep thinking that I will one day learn my lessons in training or something like that, but as the days pass I just find I do dumber things that I 'think' might actually not be a silly idea.
You know...powerlifting in the evening on Wednesday at Crossfit and then going to the AM Thursday crossfit workout 12 hours later...it seemed reasonable in my head or something. Notsomuch.

This morning I showed up to crossfit all groggy, not feeling too, too bad from the backsquats and deadlifts we powerlifted 12 hours before. Somehow I told myself that this was a good idea, mainly based upon the fact that I couldn't go to Thursday afternoon's class, and I didn't want to go to Friday's class since I had some plans for actually running and biking on the weekend. And since sometimes the workouts leave me sore for a bit, I thought I would actually give myself a day to recover rather than hop on my bike the next day for a long ride. Soooo...instead of saying "maybe i will only get in one crossfit workout this week", it turned into "well...I guess I will go tomorrow morning". Real.good.logic....not.

This morning was 5 rounds, for time of 500m row, 15 Thrusters (squat on a ball and then do something similar to an overhead press with dumbells on the way back up) with 15lbs and then 15 pullups. After my first round...my thought: PULEEZE shoot me now. All in all it took me 32:15 minutes or something like that. I have my first callous casualty with both hands having the callouses start to rip on the pullups. Owch. My only other option was doing pull ups strict without the kip in them so that I wouldn't keep hurting the callouses...I ended up taking the pain of the kipping pull ups over doing strict pullups mainly because it was taking me an impossibly long time to do the pull ups strict. (even band assisted) I did have to go to work at some point that morning.

The hip injury is behaving itself. I am not fully discharged from my PT, but we are on the "see you in two weeks if you need to" basis. I'm not completely better, but the main things at the moment are tightness in my quads along with tightness in my hip. But I don't really have any pain associated with it anymore, even though the tightness is stressing my running in a minor way. We will see how things go with the increase in training that is starting. I had left my running milage low so that I could focus a bit on getting better before I started training for this HIM and I think that was a wise decision. We shall see how the hip fares over the next few weeks.

That reminds me...

Claire reminded me in my last post that I forgot to mention one of the most important parts about my trip this weekend to Napa...I did scope out part of the bike course for Vineman 70.3. My impression of what I saw and the area...hilly but not too bad. It actually reminded me of Western MA's hillyness...not the major climbs out there, but the general rolling hills at times. There is a couple of climbs on the course, but I wasn't able to see them...but from the rest of the terrain it didn't seem like a course that was infamous for its hills. Doesn't look like there will be a ton of shade either, but it will be beautiful scenery.

I got a good 5.5 hilly run in at lunch today. Where I work is VERY hilly...so I will hopefully become a pro with hills. At the moment, I am very un-pro like with the hills, but I found a sweet place for some nasty hill repeats. And the location isn't on a main road so I won't feel like a major idiot when I do them. The other crazy thing about the run...I got sun burned. I am very fair skinned...red hair/blue eyes and very light skin, so I'm not necessarily that surprised but I just am not in 'sunburn'/sunscreen mindset. Someone told me just yesterday I looked like I just got out of grad school due to my pasty white complexion. Gee...thanks...I did just get out of grad school...but let's just be honest...i'm like this all year long buddy.

I got a crossfit workout in this evening too. We are currently in a 'powerlifting' phase of stuff. I'm not really excited about that...as that = lots o weight and potential for major soreness. It was just 5-5-5 of back sqats and 5 deadlifts. Backsquats = 85lbs, and Deadlifts = 135lbs. Good place to start.

Weekend extravaganza

This last weekend I flew up to Napa valley to meet up with old friends from grad school as one friend was in the SF area interviewing and the other lives up there. We had a great weekend, wine tasting, spa treatment, shopping...a great weekend all around. Sadly I lost my digital camera on the adventure. Fortunately I had recently pulled all my photos off the camera so I only lost pictures from the weekend. Still is a bummer.

Last Thursday I was all excited as I had done a crossfit workout without any modifications. It was my first time trying to see how strong my back was deadlifting...while the actual workout didn't seem to bother me and during the work out I didn't seem to be 'failing' during the lifting, later was another story. Last Thursday I started to get the tell tale sign of slight spasming in the back. I heated, stretched, repeated. Friday I was sore and also spasming so I kept a heater thingy on my back all day. I even stopped by the grocery store and picked up one of those Thermaheat things that you can wrap around your back. Saturday I was planning on running prior to the wine tour we were going on, but my back was having non of that. By the end of the day the back was fine. I think the wine cured it, either that or I just didn't care by the end of the day :-)

But the experience has brought up an interesting thing I am seeing a little bit with weights...I don't know how to reconcile how heavy I should lift with the level of soreness I will have the next day. I know it will come with time before I can figure out that edge, but it is sort of frustrating to me at the moment because during the workout I wish my muscles would just 'fail' earlier or give indication of "ohhhh that's gonna hurt tomorrow". Currently I'm at the stage of "hmmm...that was doable" and then needing to be scraped off the floor for my next workout. I even had a workout last week on Tuesday that was the opposite where I thought I wouldn't be able to use my arms the next day, and then I was a little sore, but it was fine. With time I will figure it out I am sure.

Training this week has been everything short of a fiasco between lack of sleep, forgetting shoes for a run at work and having to reschedule. I am trying not to be frustrated with the way things have been but sometimes that doesn't seem to be an option with me. I tend to run hot or cold with things, and finding a middle ground sometimes doesn't work too well for me. I do try to work on that, but with training trying to find a middle ground when things don't go well tends to make me annoyed more than I'd like to admit. But I've got some plans on for tomorrow and the rest of the week so i'm looking forward to pushing forward and getting back at it.

sweet...

Yesterday consisted of a short run on the treadmill in the AM and the spin class from the depths of despair. Not because it was particularly hard...but i had NOOOOOOOOOOO energy. I sat there and counted the minutes. I think I didn't properly refuel between crossfit on Tuesday night...running Wed am...and spin wed evening.

I didn't embark upon the joys of an early morning workout this AM as I needed to get in early so I could see me PT....and then get some KILLA news. I knew that my psoas had been doing better, but I haven't run much this week due to a pathetic cold i've been sporting, but even after digging into my side he couldn't really find a spasm...which was so cool! I'm going to run a lot this next week and we will evaluate next week how I held up...but if all is the same and I only end up with some general sore spots...i will be DONE with PT....SWEET!! Fingers crossed.

Funny thing about Tuesday's crossfit workout with the billions of push-presses...I awoke on Wednesday to find a nice half dollar sized bruise on my collar bone. Guess I smacked it a few times during the workout.

Tonight's crossfit workout was 5 round for time of:
15 deadlifts (95 lbs for women, 135 for guys)
Run 400m
30 Situps

Time: 22:15

No modifications...thankyouverymuch! I did the 95 lbs...although my back right now is questioning my rational on that one. That's the weird part. I got through the DL's with 95lbs...and didn't struggle too much. I couldn't go super fast, but I did fine weight-wise. But a few hours later the back is wigging out. Not pleased. Stretch, heat, repeat.

I do have to say doing DL's and then running...that's a fun one. (notsomuch)

And off to Napa valley this weekend...very excited. And while the back may be having some issues, a nice spa and a massage are on tap so i'm excited!

Shred 'em

Another title for this post could be:

"How to shred your arms in 20 minutes or less" or

"Ways to make your forearms completely inoperable"

First part of crossfit workout today was basic bench presses, just 5-5-5...considering I haven't bench pressed anything since, high school I didn't really know where to start weight wise. In the end, ended up with 52 lbs and focused on form. It was 'heavy enough'...but I prolly could have inched the weight up. Yet considering the next part, I just decided 'good enough' and moved on.

The next part of the workout called for 12 Push-presses (42lbs for me...65lbs for guys) and 10 kipping pullups. Then do as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes. My initial reaction to the 42lbs for the push press...

"Uh...these are kinda heavy...i can do a few but i'm sure this is going to be ugly over twenty minutes."

The instructor's response to my whinging: "I want you to do them heavy". Oye vey...

I got 7 full rounds in and an extra 7 push-presses done in 20 minutes. My forearms were shredded after the workout. It took a good 30 minutes to get them to stop spasming from hanging on the bar for the pull ups. The cool thing about the pull ups was that I realized I can graduate from the highest resistance band down to the next color as I'm doing pull ups pretty efficiently at the moment.

The other thing I learned today...I hate doing lunchtime workouts. I am more likely to skip those than any other workout...I know this, yet somehow convince myself that I will do it...sigh...missed another run today. It gets tough changing, running, showering and all of that with other constraints at work, trying to learn my lesson: don't schedule a lunch workout.... but I keep relearning this one for some reason.

Headwind...tailwind...

I did manage to get out in the nice weather today...athough it was a battle of headwinds and tailwinds. As I was doing some loops, I got them pretty equalled out and in the end, each loop was roughly an avg speed of 16mph...which isn't too bad considering at points I would look at my speed and see 12.5mph...and equally 21mph, depending on where I was.

This past week of training hasn't been the greatest...i blame a cold that wasn't. One of those colds that slows you down just enough to make you want to hide in bed in the morning, exhaust you enough that doing much of anything isn't fun, but really not that terrible aside from feeling crappy upon waking up in the mornings.

Lately my thoughts have been around "things that I do that makes me feel stupid all in the name of 'training'". One thing that has been making me feel self conscience is the fact that I drag a scale around with me for constant sweat weight calculations. I'm trying to determine my potential 'range' of sweaty-ness depending on sport/weather/speed for my HIM. This should allow me to adjust salt intake and appropriate fluid intake when race day comes. And the more data there is...the more accurate the tuning of the salt and fluid. hmmmm....data.... :-)

I never dreamed when I started this whole triathlon thing, that I would one day be dragging a scale around with me. I feel the similarly with hill repeats. Anyone else acquired new habits that they just wonder what am I doing?? Maybe its just me....

Fifty...

I intensely pondered how many ways I could break 50 reps down into smaller portions on Friday at a crossfit workout called the "Filthy 50".

The work out of the day was prescribed like this:
50 Box Jumps
50 Jumping Pull Ups
50 Kettle Bell Swings
50 Walking Lunge Steps
50 Knees to Elbows
50 Push Press 33 lbs
50 Back Extensions or Supermans
50 Wall Ball/squats (8 lbs)
50 Burpees
50 Double Unders or 100 Jumping Jacks

So...fifty reps would get broken into smaller pieces at times like
25 and 25
12+13 and 12+13
10-10-10-10-10
10-15-15-10
10-10-15 and 15 (each 15 broken into 5-5-5)...this one was on the burpees. Yes, it was more like 5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5...but mentally I had to have little chunks of bigger pieces. I don't know if that makes any sense at all, but it did to me last night.

Still not box jumping on smaller 20" box (just doing step ups) mainly because it freaks me out and I'm more afraid of falling on the box and further injuring myself...cuz i'm good at injuring my self in stupid ways and falling does seem to be a talent of mine. I'll have enough power one day where that fear is gone.

One of the funny sets was, Knees to elbows...you hang on a bar and bring your knees up to your elbows. That hurt my arms more than I was able to engage my core although my core is pretty pathetic too. It was more of a pathetic attempt most of the time, although I do feel it a little bit in my upper abs this morning.

I left the gym with my arms shaking pretty close to uncontrollably, mainly due to the stupid burpees (or some people call them 'up-downs'), so I was slightly surprised to see that while I am sore today I'm not the kind of 'Can't get out of bed sore'...more 'oh...there's my gluteus medius' kind of sore. Although there is always that danger of DOM...delayed onset muscle soreness...so we shall see how I feel tomorrow.

Since I've graduated from my fundamentals class in crossfit , I have found the workout are intense, but I am also seeing that my endurance is carrying me a bit too and I am feeling like my general strength is my limiter. I am looking forward to when my endurance and strength intersect on some of these workouts where I don't have to do so many modifications, but it will come with time. It may be 6 months, it may be a year it may take a long time...but by being consistent, it will come.

My training this week has been less than steller mainly because I'm battle a half cold and a lot of exhaustion (exhaustion is mainly self induced, keep finding other things to do rather than go to bed on time). HIM training is going to start ramping in soon enough. I am feeling a bit better with the hip injury...but I will run at some point this weekend and see how that fairs under 4-6 miles of fun.

I just moved here...

The other day I had to tell my landlord "No i don't want to extend my 6 month lease again"...I do have hopes in this market that I will be able to find a cute condo of my own...time will tell...but the exchanged echoed in my head for a bit, mainly because 6 months isn't really just in the 'just moved here', is it? Time is flying by!! The distance between me and the end of the whole grad school fiasco is really getting wider. Time heals all wounds...but I feel like I'm going to be waiting for a long time on that one.

This weekend...was a weekend of "where am I and what month is it?" Early Feb?? No way. Yes the weekend was spectacular. Yes I did feel a little guilty as I thought of all my New England/midwestern friends suffering through the cold and nasty snow. I did get out and enjoy it.

Sat was an interesting brick. Yoga and then running. 8 am yoga on Sat at my local Yoga studio is part ashtanga (power yoga) and part breathing stuff (pranyama)...at least with the typical guy. We had a sub and while she did do some breathing focus, most of it was ashtanga....which I love. The class got me thinking about strength especially in my arms and back as the class was reasonably rigorous. She would suggest extra vinyasa's between poses and as I was feeling pretty strong during the class so I took them all. I expected I'd be sore today or that by the end of class my arms would be shaking, but neither happened. Go crossfit! What is weird about strength for me is that I gain it in bouts. It's not linear. I know, I know...break it down, rest it up...and wha-la!! More strength. But I haven't really taken any rest this week so it is weird. Overall I am starting to feel some fitness building and it feels super good.

Now on to the run...it sucked. 4.5 miles that was supposed to be 6.5 of pure suckage. I was lathargic and crabby the whole time(someone suggested that I may be allergic to everything here and possibly having allergy issues). I was going to power through the last 2 miles, but as I neared my apt prior to the last 2 miles, the hip decided it wasn't happy and my psoas started to spasm and give me a side stitch. Typically if something is nagging, I will power through, but since I'm on 'injury alert' and actually seeing a PT at the moment, I decided that when my hip gets cranky, I must respect it. I am seeing some improvements so I think if I continue the stretching, and PT stuff I'll be better with time. Injuries suck.

I got a desired 20miles in on the bike today...soon here, I think I'm going to be riding with some groups in the area. I really hate riding alone, much more so than running alone.

Some good training this weekend. Pretty pleased.

Thoughts...

Thoughts on politics:
Does it bother anyone else that the whole Democratic nominee may be decided by an un-democratic process???!!! Superdelegates...if they make the final decision...I won't be too pleased. It will make me more annoyed than the whole electoral college issue. What country do we live in again?

Thoughts on running:
I think i'm just getting slower. BUT that being said, I am loving this turn in weather from what people call cold and yucky (I just call it a 'change in weather') back to 'normal' San Diego weather 68 and sunny...bring it. And I'm loving the fact that we are fast approaching day light savings. Happy girl.

Thoughts on biking:
Need more of it. Need to figure out where to bike too...this whole urban living thing is not sitting with me as well as I thought it would. Not pleased about traffic and I keep reading stuff about bikers getting hit.

Thoughts on swimming:
Um...this is the weekend I join the whole masters deal. OHHHHH and I found a cheaper way to do it. Go me. Only down side is that by being a cheapskate it means I have to get up at something like 430 in the morning. My bed and my wallet are starting to have a fight as I type this.

Thoughts on Crossfit:
This is a response for triguyjt's question of 'how tough is it?? on my last post and anyone else who ponders about crossfit...the great thing about it is that you can dial it in to what you can do at that moment in life. Like yesterday part of the work out was climbing a rope 3x-2x-1x. I can't even hang on the rope properly at the moment much less climb the silly thing, so I did a modification so that I could gain strength that would help me climb the rope...one.day. And no one makes you feel stupid because you can't do something, they still cheer you on no matter what. That being said... it can rock your world like not other, make your arms shake and sometimes make you want to puke.

Keep in mind...I.HATE.WEIGHTS...yet i'm having fun and I look forward to classes. Also i'm starting to see my deltoids (I think those are the coolest muscles), more general definition in my arms, and strength gains in my legs (and I've only been going for 5ish weeks). A couple of weeks ago when I went to my nutritionist I had only been going to crossfit for a few weeks but when we checked my lean body mass I'd gained a 1.5lb of muscle. So that's pretty cool. I find it fun even though it can be a killer workout.

The way the workouts are structured you never know what it might be, which switches it up and makes it fun. I'd say that generally the Workout of the Day will take people anywhere between 3 minutes and 30minutes, it just depends on what kind of evil someone has thought up for that day. Check out www.crossfit.com,

Thoughts on life:
I hate it when I end up back in the same dilemma that I have been faced with at other points in my life, over and over again. Just when I thought I'd learned my lesson in the past..it comes back and bites me. I sometimes just hate it when I'm right.

Thoughts on fun:
I'm super excited...I have a fun weekend get away coming up in a few weeks with friends from grad school up in wine country. A fun filled weekend filled with wine tasting and spa treatments. Woohoo!!

I have many more thoughts, but that's it for now.

Neutral

Well, I think I have managed to swing my luck more towards 'neutral' at the moment. Been sorta a 'meeh' week. BUT my PT apt went rather swimmingly in that the crazy spasm that has been plaguing my psoas was not evident and I even went for a run last weekend, so that is good news.

Also good news is that I 'graduated' from my crossfit fundamentals class which means I can now just go whenever. I went this morning (at 0 dark thirty) and disappointingly my first class as an 'actual' participant...what do we do? The same workout that I had done on Tuesday. Boo!! That's no fun. The super duper cool thing was on Tuesday I actually was able to do about 3-4 successful assisted kipping pullups (out of 20) and today it was more like 10 out of 20. Woohoo for progress! And when I did them correctly they were so easy. It was way kewl. Fun times ahead.

UN-LUCK-Y

I am the type of person who's luck swings quite wildly. When I have good luck, I don't have "meeh...sorta good luck"...I have AWESOMELY good luck. I also have bizarre luck or bizarre things happen to me on a regular basis...i would say that that is the good luck category because bizarre things are pretty fun and good in my book. Now to make sure that the universe doesn't explode and come to a halt I think that my good luck must be balanced with equally rediculously bad luck. Take falling...i'm good at falling. It was pointed out that I've had two pretty good falls in the past year...actually a year a part from one another. One fall, almost put me in the hospital last year, fortunately I was irrationally concerned about breaking a teapot at the time and ended up just falling on my butt (although I did get a good set of x-rays to make sure I hadn't broken my back)...and the other fall...well that is the current tale of woe of my Psoas issues.

Granted I have bizarre 6 degrees of separation situations, which I would categorize as 'fun good luck' and I have good good luck, like when I found 101 dollars over the course of 5 days. That's pretty darn good luck. But it all must be in balance I guess.

So when I went to Vegas on Thursday, and got to my hotel room to find that the room had not been turned over and cleaned and ready for me, the next guest...pillows strewn, room service cart in room, stuff all over the place (yes, my initial thought was wildly irrational when I thought "I hope no one is dead in my room...I can scream real loud!"...I've watched too much CSI in my life...sigh) and then we went to dinner at a buffet (as you do in Vegas) only to find that when i got to the food plate part, the only plate left was dirty. I decided then and there, that gamblling should really not be on my radar that evening. And I did manage to stay away from any gambling.

So I thought my luck would have changed since last week. I mean time has passed it really should be back to either neutral luck (where it is neither good nor bad), bizarre luck or good luck...right? RIGHT???

COME.ON. I get to spin class. Yes I'm running a little late. To top it off...I have to look like a total nerd in the dressing room because they have moved the scale and now I bring my scale to workouts with me so that I can have lots-o-data for sweat rate calculations (per my nutritionist) so I have to take a few more of my precious seconds of my running late time to weigh myself before the work out. To make things even more fun since it is only early Feb there are still scores of New Year's Res-ers hanging out at the gym AND we just got new spin bikes last week...so now EVERYONE thinks that the cool kids hang out in spin class and if you are a mere 5 minutes late you better pray that there is a bike left.

And there is.

And it is broken.

The seat won't stay up.

The instructor tells me to just 'climb' the whole time and not sit down.

Now considering that on Sunday I did (gasp) what I don't typically do on Superbowl sunday...I actually watched the Superbowl and I ate a lot of yummy, yummy cinnamon gummy bears....and then today I had some yummy, yummy cinnamon gummy bears left over and I had all kinds of intentions of giving them away at work....but when I got to work...I lost all self control. Yummy, Yummy Cinnamon gummy bears went into tummy over the course of the day. So when spin instructor told me I could just stand the whole spin class I thought of gummy bears and realized I had no other choice. It didn't sound so horrible.

OK...owchie feet!! I had to stop every so often and just rest my feet that kept falling asleep. Yowza...I WILL get to class early from now on!!

And then I race from spin class to orchestra rehearsal eating a chicken sandwhich on the way...only to have one side of the sandwich BURNT to a crisp. I guess I'd rather it burnt than undercooked, but seriously...tasty charcoal.

I show up at orchestra rehearsal only to find my stand partner decided not to show up. Errrr..I joined in on this whole orchestra thing a few months ago and might I say, i'm a wee bit out of practice playing my violin. They wouldn't let me hide in the back of the seconds, no I got stuck in 2nd chair on the first stand. Not cuz I can do much good up there, I just think cuz there was a spot and no one else wanted to sit there. Now I had to fake section leader and realize how much I still need to practice. ARG.

So...i really wish my luck would change. Even just neutral boring middle of the road luck would be fine with me. None of this bad luck stuff thank-you-very-much. This worries me a little, I do have to see the PT tomorrow. PULEESE let my luck change by then!!

Of this and that...

My week has been interesting on many levels. I had my PT question the fact I was in quite a bit of pain last week after my treatment with him...so much so, that he's making me a wee bit worried about the fact my Psoas is maintaining a constant state of spasm which may actually be a bigger issue than I'm willing to let it be in my little brain. When he starts throwing around that I may need x-rays, all i can think is that there is may be something structurally wrong that may be the root cause of all of this. Yes I fell in November, but the fall may have uncovered something that has been a problem for a longer time that has contributed to IT band issues and a host of other things. Not too cool if I have a structural issue.

I did just print out my HIM training schedule. May and June may be some interesting months for me. Schedules freak me out as you see where you are going. The beginning bits don't freak me too much, its just the 3 months down the line and i start seeing crazy mileage. I understand the process enough to know that I will get there as long as I put in the time incrementally as I go. It still freaks me out all the same. It is kinda exciting though assuming this Psoas situation changes soon.

On a work note this week, I even escaped to Vegas for a trade show. Interesting on many levels....I did get to see a Cirque Du Soile show, KA...so that was super cool. This was my first trade show with my company so that was pretty interesting too. I feel a little funny hanging out at other booths when they inquire who I work for..."err...uh..."But that is the point of a trade show...to trade information.

Hoping this week and all the insanity that comes in a given week is equally good. Happy training.

The Psoas

My Psoas...I talk about it on my blog, unfortunately, ever increasingly. Maybe because I am CONSTANTLY reminded that I have this muscle. I wish I didn't think about this muscle on such a continual basis. But currently I am getting pain, right about where that arrow that says "psoas" is posted, it kinda feels like someone stabbed you in the stomach or that you have indigestion. But since I think about this muscle, and seemingly blog about it, and talk to my PT about it...the Psoas is just another topic that spins around and around in my head. I will have no qualms about telling anyone perfectly randomly that I have this hip injury. In fact...I tend to tell people in a more 'matter of fact' kind of way.

So when I'm chatting with one of my co-workers about my training for a HIM this summer and I say "Oh yea, but my psoas is giving me trouble". He sorta stares at me inquisitively. I...matter-of-factly...point to my belly button and say "PSOAS'...he laughs when he realizes what I'm attempting to say.

Now YOU...my dear reader... say: MY PSO-AS...

It sorta sounds like: my- so'-as' OR my-sore-a__

I suddenly realize that my coworker thinks I'm talking about my posterior...I, being slightly embarrassed at this point (although, after crossfit and stupid power snatches and weighted lunges, that comment really wasn't too far off) and thinking the comment to be also rather hysterical, bust into a fit of laughter. It must be understood though, I live in 'Cubeville' at work...and when I get a good laughing fit...I-AM-LOUD. As... in hear me 5 rows over, kind of belly laugher, loud. Ahhh...a distinctive laugh...people have commented that they knew I was coming before they saw me due to it.

So me and my PSOAS still aren't in agreements with one another. And basically every action illicit a spasm. It's real fun right now. I've decided to ignore it...i'm not quite doubled over in pain. I'm just not having a good time either. One day it will go away...i hope.

I'm not sure what I was thinking...

So I just got back from a fun weekend visiting some friends that I had shared a house with when I was living in New Zealand. My old 'flatmates'. :-) One of them is American, and lives near Fresno, CA and the other one is over visiting from NZ for a few months and staying there...so the long weekend prompted a trip up there.

Now can I say...I forgot how BIG the states are out here. I KNOW this...it should be engrained in my little head. I grew up in Idaho...you know that state where it is possible to travel approximately 12+ hours (top to bottom) and not leave the state. I am aware of the vastness of these states out west. Its not like living in MA where you can sneeze and find yourself in another state, and then blink and be in another one.

So SD to Fresno area (or at least where I went)...just at 6 hours without LA traffic, 7.5 with LA traffic...now here is where I am scratching my head. I decided to do Vineman 70.3 in July...i'm all signed up and everything...which is another 3-4 hours north of where I was this weekend. The whole point of this particular event was to try to avoid flying with my bike. ARG. I will have to sort that out. Lame. If I had contemplated the fact that it was going to take me 11-12+ hours of driving, i'm sure I would have ended up signing up for another HIM. But...it is what it is.

Sadly this weekend I wanted to get a nice run in...but in my haste of leaving I only packed a pair of running tights. Errr...need a few more items to do any running there. Oye. I did opt for a nice 3.5 mile walk. The full on training cycle will come into full swing in a few weeks...so I"m not too too worried at the moment, but I would like to see how the hip is coming a long with all the wacky PT stuff going on. Tomorrow...lunchtime run fun. We shall see how it goes.

Running Gait

My PT is amazing. I am NOT a fan of having an injury. I am NOT a fan of going to the PT...but this little injury actually is not the worst thing in the world. Weird to say that.

I went to this PT last month for some ART (Active Release Technique). Now, I thought the man had healing powers because for a few weeks I didn't have any hip pain. It did feel like at ate a rock as my Psoas muscle was still spasming but no hip pain. But last week I realized with a mere 4 mile run...I was not healed and I should go see The Healer PT.

So today he had me run around while he videotapes me. Watching yourself running around on a video tape...all I could think was "I look like that". Anyway, we go analyze the videotape. AHHHHHHH essentially data analysis. LOVE.IT.

The other thing about The Healer PT, is that he is a great teacher. That is one thing I need from a doctor when I go see one. I need someone who will explain what is going on. I almost chose a path of medicine in my life and I still have a small nagging fascination with it all.

So we look at me running around, looking all silly. Conclusions:

-I'm a heal striker. Although he says, that actually isn't the worst thing in the world. If biomechanically you heal strike efficiently enough...basically strike with your body above your foot...you aren't too bad off. You can 'change' your gait...but there is some difficulties and potential pitfalls to doing such...and we all can't be Kenyans. For the moment, I want work with my God given gait and first make it as efficient as possible with my biomechanics and then see if it is really necessary to become a 'forefoot' striker. We talked at length about this.

-I overstride a wee little bit. And I have a short stride length and high cadence.

-I 'cross over' my midline while running, mainly with my right foot (the one that is having hip issues and is the tightest). This will cause adductor issues...which is partly contributing to my tight hips

-My left leg is doing beautifully. Power, push off, good stuff. We can still see effects of that hip flexor being tight, but it looks reasonably good.

-Now my poor right leg. Loss in range of motion. Losing my push off. Since I am not fully extending in my stride due to that tight hip flexor, I am compensating by arching my back (quite a bit), swinging my torso, using my arms, and rolling internally with that adductor. The hip injury doesn't help the situation, but since I've had all KINDS of IT band issues over the past few years...it is increasingly becoming obvious that I have some 'issues' in that leg.

He again does his thing where I stretch and he basically pinches my muscles. I can't quite explain it...aside from it hurts. PT always hurts...that basically is guaranteed. He then tests my gluteus medius muscle by having me lie on my side and put the top leg up in the air and tells me to push against the force of him pushing down on my leg. We test the left leg (healthy leg) first. The verdict: Very strong leg. I roll over to have the other leg tested. He pushes down...I cannot resist him pushing on my leg. AT.ALL. Oye vey! He tried to 'comfort me' by telling me he sees all sorts of muscle imbalances with the pro triathletes that come in.

So...I'm excited that I may be sorting out this running gait of mine and I HIGHLY suggest that anyone who is having continued injuries should have their gait analyzed. It is SO helpful.

crazy small world

Random small world note...I was at the gym this morning and getting ready to leave when one of the other woman in the locker room busts out:

You went to [very small liberal arts] University right?? (keep in mind...this is in Washington state...no where near here). She even busts out with my name.

I sorta look at her. Fortunately she helps me with her name, because for the life of me I didn't know who she was. It was one of those situations where some of my friends were her friends in undergrad...and she remembered me through the few times we interaction. CRAZY SMALL WORLD.

The funny thing is this is the second time this has happened to me in San Diego. Before christmas I was at the store and realized I saw a woman who I grew up with. She had even lived down the street from me. My parents had told me she was in the area for school, but I didn't think much of it to be honest. And here she was...blocks away from where I lived...AND she lives right near me!

This is my life. I'd like to say that this is quite a strange occurrence in my life...but strangely it's not. I actually have a lot of crazy small world stories. People sometimes don't believe me when I tell them how 'wacky' it is I run into so and so here and there...and I was a billion miles away from where I knew them from...and then it'll happen again. It still weirds me out when it happens. But it is pretty cool.

more mud run

So the mud run entry has been finalized. I am on a team (finally). There was a little fiasco with finding a team that had enough women (we needed at least two per team). Company is sponsoring teams (score! save me 50 bucks). Although I realized the other day that I have to put all my running training this spring to the test as well as crossfit stuff because I found myself on the General Manager's team. Yea...don't really want to make a fool out of myself there.

Then today I'm talking to the GM, inquiring about the team name. He offers that I could come up with a name...my knee jerk reaction (albiet in jest)..."i'm not in marketing!...hahaha"...(in my head as I walk away: nice one...i don't think you are supposed to say that to the G.M. ) So while sitting in a meeting this afternoon where it was much more fun to think of team names than pay any sort of attention...came up with a list of names. So...yes...i even got to name the team! Bonus points to me.

So...I am quickly seeing my spring training starting to shape up! I've found a bunch of 10Ks in the area, doing a 1/2 mary come april...training for Vineman starts in Feb...yea...crazy. I can feel the momentum starting to build. I'm pretty excited.

Apparently I AM all things Massachuestts

First of all Big shout out to Angry Runner and Runner Leana for their stalla performances at the Disney Marathon extravaganza this weekend. Angry finishing his first marathon and Leana thought that hey...doing a half marathon the day before and running the marathon would be a good thing...and did the Goofy. You guys are Rockstars! Woohoo! As they would say in New England "Wicked awesome job".

Now one thing I should point out is I am not originally from Massachuestts. I grew up in Idaho. I went to undergrad in Washington state. I am a Western girl...some days I would say to.the.core. I heart the rocky mountains...those are actual mountains (ahem). Anyway, living in Massachusetts was a great experience, but aside from occasionally saying 'wicked' still...I don't tack an 'r' on the end of 'idea', I do say the 'r' in 'park', so I find it rather humous when people think that I am some sort of super-new englander.

Where am I going with this? Yesterday the Chargers won their play off game. Which means they are now playing the NE Patriots. Now you have to understand, I don't really own a TV, and I typically will only watch football to hang out with some friends...and at times during the games I have to remind myself to shut up...they do want to watch the game. To me the superbowl is the time when I can go to the grocery store and not have to wait in line (yes I do that) or go out for a run or bike ride and not have to deal with traffic. Last year I was flying back from a job interview when the game was going on and I couldn't have care less. A little sacrilegious coming from the fact I lived in MA for the past five years...but that's how I roll. (I don't even care for the commercials...gasp).

So I'm talking to my neighbors after the Chargers won...and they say to me "I guess we are playing YOU next week". Yes...apparently I AM the New England Patriots. News to me too. I kind of laughed and shook my head. I also realized that I still have my MA plates and maybe it would be best if I got those changed this week...

It was like this when the Red Sox were in the world series this year. I suddenly was the Red Sox representative. I think I watched a total of 10 Sox games on TV when I lived in MA (you have to understand I had never watched a full baseball game prior to the move...so 10 is a lot for me). Yes I know...I'm the anti-sports fan. I blame it on growing up in Idaho. There are no professional teams in Idaho so there is no one to follow except the local Universities. And it has only been in the last 10 years that that has gotten more on the big scene in university sports (Fiesta Bowl 2007...now that was craziness).

I'm not sure if I'm the best representative for all you MA-New Englanders. I don't have the accent nor do I watch any of the sports teams...but hey I still have my license...for a little while. I will have to transition here soon enough. sigh

I am IN!

YES!!! I am going to do the MudRun and BETTER yet...I get to do the whole thing too...AND...I still am a team player. When i read the website I didn't realize that by 'team' they mean all five people have to cross the finish line together...and all five people have to do the whole thing. It is not a relay. So in the name of being a team player and the fact it looks like my division is trying to put together a bunch of teams for this fiasco...I get to put my crossfit workouts to the test. WOOOHOO! I think I also need to sign up for a bunch of 10Ks this spring too...hilly ones would be preferable.

I've also decided that I could put out my own perfume/cologne line for the triathlete called "Eau de chlorine", cuz no matter what type of anti-chlorine shampoo you use...you still smell like it until well...you go swimming again. So if you are just not feeling the swim vibe just spritz a little on...and no one will be the wiser that you never made it to the pool. You still smell like Chlorox.

The other day I kept thinking "why do I smell like chlorine? " I hadn't been to the pool in a few days (gasp)...and then I realized.... I had just bleached the shirt I was wearing. Nice. I'm glad to know that I probably smell like cleaning solution to other people most of the time.

Random comings and goings..

Random comings and goings in my life...some things learned some random observations, some are just some excited happenings...in no particular order.

1)I HEART my new phone. It even has a QWERTY keyboard so now text messaging doesn't make me crazy. It is so flash.

2) I have had ROCKSTAR parking ALL WEEK at my apartment. Makes me feel, well...kinda like a Rockstar.

3) If I don't eat a full and proper breakfast...i am super hungry by lunch (even if I get a snack in) AND I am almost guarentee that I am way too hungry in the afternoon and a normal snack won't cut it.

4) I never win at the vending machine. If I try to buy something that is lightweight (not calorie wise...just packet wise)...like M&Ms...they freaking ALWAYS get stuck.

5) Being clever and buying something else out of said vending machine to try to get unstuck M&Ms rather than buy the second packet of M&Ms (you know...trying to use another product to knock the other one down) ..never works for me. Yes, I ended up with three things of candy this afternoon. (Stuck M&Ms, candy bar that was supposed to knock down stuck M&Ms and then another packet of M&Ms so that would end up with both packets)No I did not eat them all. I only ate the M&Ms...but after that fiasco they really weren't as tasty and I felt like a moron.

7) I think not drinking enough water may be contributing to my insomniac comings and goings. The experiment is in its early stages but so far my hypothesis of drinking the proper amount during the day might be correlated to my ability to stay asleep all night(I go to sleep fine, but then wake up at 4am). If proved true...that's so weird.

8) I suck at the rings.

9) The bummer thing about hypothesis in experiments in the lab are that they are merely hypothesis...a null answer still tells you something, but having a proven hypothesis is so much more fun.

10) My venture into Crossfit has almost convinced me to do this 10K obstacle course in June. I figure by June I should be able to heave myself over a wall enough to make this not the most embarrassing event in history for myself. Although right now I am in a delimma and torn between being part of a team or just doing it on my own. I feel like a jerk and a non-team player by wanting to do it on my own, but at the same time...i think i could do 1/5 of the race right now...and by pushing myself to do the whole thing that would be a better goal.

Those are the random ramblings of my little brain.

More fun

Ohhhh another Crossfit excursion (2 Fundamental classes down...6 to go until I'm in the real deal of Crossfit with workouts of the day). So basically in these first 8 classes they teach you how to do everything properly. You practice proper form a lot and most people don't worry too much about the weight of stuff at the moment. So I got to learn how to deadlift properly (which is actually an incredibly useful and proper way to lift things in day to day.), shoulder press, and do a push-press. Our workout ended up being a 400y run, squats, deadlifts, and pushpresses (15-12-9). All in all...pretty good. Since I picked weights that were more on the 'manageable' side(read: I should have said "sign me up" when she asked if I wanted more weight for the deadlift)...i actually don't think I'm going to be sore. But lately I have been misjudging pretty much everything and everyone in my life, so if I can't get out of bed and walk tomorrow I wouldn't be that surprised. As for last week...I was hurting a few days there...but not too bad. So far i'm actually having fun and I'm doing weights so it is all good.

Sadly over the past week, my hip is starting to lock up again and the blissful running with out pain afterwards is coming to an end. It doesn't hurt as much as before...but I'm feeling it again. I have an apt with a PT next week set up. Hopefully he will set me all right as he did last time. He was a miracle worker.

All in all, doing well...having a little trouble getting into the pattern of early AM workouts. Working on that, but also fighting insomnia since i moved here...which you would think the two would work well together...but strangely don't. Frustrating.

Eat.My.Words

So...I think i'm being all 'clever' in my last post and saying how to go about sticking with an exercise program. I got a little high and mighty there...this is how other people should do things...start with a commitment to one month and then move to two.... bla.bla.bla. And now I have to eat my words. I have to enroll in my own stinking program. Nice going.

I'm fine doing and sticking with copious amounts of cardio. I've gotten to a point where that is something I enjoy if not love at times. But that's it...I do cardio...I may do yoga 1x a week...and I'm done after that. Weight training? No...that is boring. But here's the problem, I know I need core strength...I know I need strength that is actually useful...but I.HATE.WEIGHTS. Whew...i said it...that was cathartic.

I had thought of hiring a trainer to help me, but he annoyed me even before I met the guy. He called me four times during the course of one day....hello...i'm working! That may have been why I 'fired' him...even before he had the chance to introduce me to boring old weights. Sorry buddy.

Recently reading Angry's blog he's been ranting about 'cross fit this' and cross fit that. My response to the bizarro workouts"cross-who-what"? Being the ever hoarder of information (I blame the scientist in me) I set to task to figure out what the heck he was talking about. All he made mention of was pullups, push ups...deadlifts. At first glance I thought...no way. But then I looked at their website there was mention of things like 'the rings', hand stands and box jumps...and the kid in me came out. You get to hang on stuff...and jump on things...at least it sounded like fun.

So...i've decided to take my own advice and give this thing a go. Actually before they allow you to go to classes you have to learn the proper technique for 8 sessions (at most 2x a week)...so I pretty much get 8 one-on-one sessions which comes to a month and then...they give you 2 free months after that for doing the 8 sessions!Oh wait...that means I commit to one month...and then I have two more months. Arg...my words are echoing in my head.

So tonight my first work out was supposed to be 3 sets of the following: Burpees, box jumps and kip-ups with reps of 21, 15, 9. Me lacking all kinds of strength and rather wimpy at times...the woman taking me through the crazy reps had to change them down to 15-12-9.

Me: what's a burpee?

Her: So...you sqat down, put your hands on the ground, jump back into a push-up position, do a push up, jump back to a sqat and then jump up. (Yes...i had to do girly push-ups.)

Box jumps: Let's just say my box jumps did not look like this guy's. I didn't have to jump so high either...nor was I having quite as much fun as him. In fact the box they gave me intimidated me enough that I was afraid I was going to just jump and fall on the thing. So she changed the jump to a step-up. (I do have to say this... the woman who is working with me is really nice and encouraging and they are completely willing to modify whatever so that you have proper form while you work towards getting the strength to do things).

And then kip-ups...a modified pull up...we had to modify it so much that I ended up standing on one of the box jump thingys and would 'swing' (to get the feeling), then jump on the up swing and push myself away. Yea...I felt like a dork.
I did not look at all like this lady:

I couldn't even do them with a rubber-band assist.

It was pretty much 14 minutes of torture. I thought it took me way longer than that. The trainer people said I had a great time for my first go at that. Sure...i bet you say that to everyone. It took my arms at least 20 minutes to stop shaking. I hope I can move them tomorrow.

So...one day...i will be able to do burpees without girly pushups...one day I will be able to actually jump on the stupid box for box jumps...one day I will be able to do both a kip up and 21 of them...in a row. One day...

January 2nd

Ahhh...January 2nd...the day that so many people start their New Year's resolutions. And its that day at the gym where those of us who have been regular time members get crowded out of everything. I walked into my gym yesterday to see that every.single.cardio.machine was taken. Fortunately I was there for a spin class. Unfortunately I got stuck sitting next to Mr. sing-along-with-the-music...that was obnoxious. I was about to feign "this bike cleat doesn't work right"...and move, but I just dealt with his insanity. Getting a bike in spin class was a little harder than it had been, but the gym is supposed to get new bikes soon...i sorta am hoping they won't come in until Feb. so I don't have to fight with all the new year's resolution-ers. I know that is a mean thing to say.

Making a new years resolution of 'getting fit' or 'losing weight' is a good thing. In truth I feel bad for those that won't stick with it and I wish there was someway to encourage more people to get out and move...so I dreamed up with a new 'latest' fad of exercising. I call it the "one month resolution".

My new 'latest fad exercising regime' would look like this...have people commit to one month of exercise. If they are new to moving around...then they should only commit to 2 days a week x 20 mins. If they have been exercising off and on, but are having trouble sticking with it...3 days a week x 20 mins. Easy huh. After a month, the people get evaluated for how they are doing and sticking with the regime and then have them commit to two months. Some of the 2x a week-ers will go up to 3x a week and some of the 3x a week-ers will go up to 30 mins...depends on how they are doing...ect. By the end of these two months the new to exercisers will have finished up 3 months. And studies show that it takes a minimum of 6-12 weeks to make a new habit. At this point, depending on the client, they will commit to another 2-3 months...again their goals will be assessed as well as their ability to stick with the amount they are exercising.

It is a reasonable commitment, gets people moving, keeps people checking in with others, and will get people healthier. Only snag is that it won't deliver the high potential for rapid weight loss. Which in the long run, slow weight loss is the best way to keep weight off. But it is a little hard to sell to our instant gratification society.

"Here's a program. Almost guaranteed that in a year you would still be moving...you probably won't lose rapid weight...but you will lose it slowly and keep it off".

Sigh...not many people are willing to face the fact that the best way to lose weight and keep it off is to do so slowly.

On my own training note, running is going very well. The hip endured a 6 mile run on sunday. I even had an avg 10mpm pace...with a couple of 9-9:30 miles mixed in. WOOHOO. Hip didn't hurt afterwards...but I know something is still 'off'. While my hip didn't hurt during or after, i could feel a trigger point in my psoas tightening up. By the end of the run it felt like I had eaten a rock. Not really the best nutrition for us endurance athletes. Lots of minerals and all...but no carbs. I will have to see when I can get in to get some ART done again. I'm totally sold on it and my new insurance card came in the mail...so I can ditch the crappy insurance and get the PT I need. Yea.

I think I lost my marbles...

Sometimes in life because you are brought up in a certain manner, it is just what you consider 'normal'. It is the lens you look at your life through. And sometimes you don't realize that that lens may actually be a bit warped and maybe not so 'normal' as you once thought. Time away from where I have grown up I have discovered that the way I grew up may not be as 'normal' at times as I thought it was. Don't get me wrong, it was a great place to grow up and I have fond memories from my childhood, but sometimes it doesn't fit the 'norm' expectation sometimes of the rest of society.

My dad and I were chatting today as we went downhill skiing. I was talking about the nuttiness of the fact I had signed up for Vineman 1/2 ironman and the fact I do triathlons in general and how that is a little, how shall we say...not really of the 'norm' per say. But as we got to talking about some of our skiing adventures and other adventures I realized that maybe my nuttiness is more just a product of my environment.

As we talked, the conversation brought up the time when I was 12 and my home town was having freezing cold weather and had one of the worst inversions going on at the same time (where you basically don't see the sun for weeks on end). The only way to get out of the inversion was to get up to the mountains and go skiing as it was sunny up there.

It was a toasty -25 F.

Yes...minus...The reason we had decided to go skiing was that it was in the sun and out of the inversion...but seriously, I don't know what we were thinking. I think we took a total of 5 runs that day...take a run...go inside warm up...take a run...ect.

And as I thought through our silly antics of my youth, it brought up the time we were skiing at Big Sky in MT...I think I was 14 at this time. Now...i'm a decent skiier...i can get down most hills but my dad seemed to think a double black diamond was in order that day. Let's just say I learned how to kick turn my way down a hill that day.

Or a time when I was 17 or 18 and my dad had convinced me to learn how to wake board behind our ski boat and then somehow convinced me that learning to 'fakie' (this is where you switch which foot is in front...so your non dominate foot is now in the back) was fun and me not being one to look like I couldn't try something new, did attempt such a move. I did such a bad face plant I needed muscle relaxants.

We also thought that waterskiing in April in a glacial lake in the mountains would be a good idea...we had a dry suit...we thought I would be golden. I.was.so.cold.

This is the short list. But as we were talking about the 1/2 ironman and I mentioned that maybe I had lost my marbles...he replied, "To say you have lost them implies you had them to start with". Thanks dad. Pot calling kettle...kettle come in.

So there we go...grad school didn't make me go crazy...I was just brought up crazy. At least that is sorted out.

Greensleeves

As I went for a 3 mile run today (quite painless during and after). I had this song appropriately stuck in my head.

What Child is this who, laid to rest
On Mary’s lap is sleeping?
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet,
While shepherds watch are keeping?
This, this is Christ the King,
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing;
Haste, haste, to bring Him laud,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

Why lies He in such mean estate,
Where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christians, fear, for sinners here
The silent Word is pleading.
Nails, spear shall pierce Him through,
The cross be borne for me, for you.
Hail, hail the Word made flesh,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

So bring Him incense, gold and myrrh,
Come peasant, king to own Him;
The King of kings salvation brings,
Let loving hearts enthrone Him.
Raise, raise a song on high,
The virgin sings her lullaby.
Joy, joy for Christ is born,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

Christmas as is a celebration of Christ's birth. I am forever grateful.

Merry Christmas

I'm off!

Woohoo...today was a half day. Basically at my work if you chose to take the day off you have to take the WHOLE day off, but if you come in, in the morning, you get a half day...free. Nice.

I've been packing and cleaning to get ready to go see the my family and friends for Christmas. Back to the great state of Idaho for Christmas and New Years...should be good. Although during the packing fiasco I started to realize just how much tri crap I need when I go home. That added bonus of it only going to be between 30-40 degrees all week and rain/snow. How easily I have selectively forgotten what winter is like. I just hope I pack enough warm clothes. My blood is probably thin now...so I'm sure I'll freeze.

But the fun part about Christmas is my nieces are 4 and my nephew is 10months...Christmas becomes so much more fun with little kids again. They are a riot so it'll be good.

Not sure how much I will be 'around' blogland over the next week and a half...it could go either way...so if you don't hear from me between now and 2008...Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

I speak science...how about you?

Well..maybe that last post seemed like I was out to try to 'prove' my theory on trigger points. And while in a way I was, I think I merely proved that I like the scientific method in most every part of my life. If I'm not sure about something...i do a little experiment. I found Nitsirk's comment about placebo effects right up my alley. And the truth of my experiment is that all it *really* proves is my own personal insanity on the fact I do an experiment on most things in my life. I knew Nitsirk speaks scientist...so I thought she might enjoy my experiment.

At the end of any experiment in science everyone still has the choice to believe or not believe the results. The number of times i've read scientific papers and thought "that's a lot of hooey"...there are too many to count. Anywho...I was merely posting my 'results' from my experiments. Anyone is welcome to still believe its a placebo effect or a lot of hooey...i'm cool with that...that's how experiments go. But if you are a believer from my experience...buy the book. Its a good 20 dollars spent.

That being said...I made a new friend today. His name is ART. ART stands for Active Release Technique. It's sorta like PT mixed with trigger point therapy mixed with massage therapy mixed with stretching. It sorta hurts...sorta like PT makes you wonder why you are paying someone to voluntarily inflict so much pain on you. But the most amazing part about it was the change in my range in motion.

The guy doing the ART on me, checked my hip flexors, double checked to make sure it was a muscle injury and not an injury in the joint, looked at my range of motion and then went to work. It was a weird experience in one way because he's having me stretch while he's pushing on different points on my hip and Psoas. I'm mainly thinking "owch...this sorta sucks"...but dealing with it anyway because that's how PT can be. And then its over.

I'm thinking "what exactly did you do?"

He has me do some stretching again...this this time my range of motion in my hip has increased by about a foot. I'm pretty awestruck at this point, mainly because I'm thinking...what did you just do? At the beginning of all this I wasn't able to pull my leg very far back (during the point of the stride where I am pushing off and my leg is behind me) due to my hip flexors which would translate into loss of power in a stride. But by the end of the visit, I had gained back a lot of my range of motion and my pain had diminished some. CRAZY.

I'm sure I'll be conducting an experiment with this, because that's how I roll.

Experiments with Triggerpoints

Ok...so my last post you would think that my pain went away and never came back again, but while my hip still hates me, it only hates me when I haven't been massaging out the appropriate triggerpoints. But it's still not 100%, sadly. I just posted on the first day I tried it and amazingly ALL went away after that first try. I still recommend it to EVERYONE.

To answer fellow scientist Nitsirk's questions on "is this a placebo effect"...no, not a placebo. Why you ask? Because it has become a fascinating REPRODUCIBLE experiment. And us scientists...love reproducible experiments. Although i'm not sure I really like *this* experiment too much because it involves me being in pain a fair amount before I can get the pain to subside by applying an appropriate trigger point massage.

Previous experiments (~ 4 experiments) have looked like this:
1)Went to spin class
2) At some point in future after class the hip hurts
3) Attempt to stretch hip, this doesn't seem to help much
4) Find trigger points (painful knots consistently found on muscles in the Psoas). Still feel silly for rubbing my tummy for something on hip that hurts.
5) Hip pain dramatically lessens.

TODAY...was a new experiment. This experiment was "What happens to the hip when I run?" (I haven't run in over a week...so I was curious)

Here is how the experiment was set up today:
1)Go to the gym after work and sadly run on the treadmill because it is dark out and I don't trust myself to run 5 miles with the tri club. Also...Dr said to use a treadmill to try to lengthen my stride.
2) Run on said treadmill for 3 miles
3)Forget headphones for dreadmill
4) Remind yourself that you don't need headphones, you poo-pooed head phones for the first 2 winters you were in MA and running on treadmill and told yourself to get over it.
5)Thought of all New England souls on treadmills because of end of the world like snow storms out East and sent happy thoughts to them.
6) Ran on treadmill and thought what always comes to mind when on a treadmill "why does it seem 10X harder to run on these things than outside?"
7)Got bored so had to turn it into a tempo run just because time and millage NEEDED to go faster.
8)By end of run, hip hurt. Mission accomplished.
9) Tried to stretch out the hip...gave a few stretches. No help.
10) Laid on back, put my knees to the opposite side of body as painful hip. Found necessary trigger points on my belly and in less than 2 minutes I went from...OWCH to...mild pain, but now I can move and I doubt I'll be limping around tomorrow.

So...Dr. Nitsirk...I understand the concern for the placebo effect, and I myself thought the same thing initially, but currently it is a repeatable experiment. Hip pain...find trigger point and a dramatic decrease in pain is observed. Not 100% gone yet, but better. And considering I've been a bit of a doubter with this, I don't think a placebo works if the patient doesn't believe it will work. And considering I thought I was nuts for buying the book (but I listen to MD's when they prescribe stuff) and sillier for actually following what the book said to do...i don't think I would qualify as a placebo category.

And tomorrow the FUN begins. I have an ART (Active Release Therapy) massage with a PT scheduled. More fun with triggerpoints. I get the feeling I'm going to have some serious bruising.

The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook

Athlete?

Ever been injured?

Ever have a small nagging pain that sorta hurts but you don't want to see a doctor about?

YOU HAVE GOT TO BUY THIS BOOK: The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook. Yes this post will be a shamless plug for this book but you have to understand where I am coming from.

So back in early '06 when 'Zilla was training for her first marathon, a friend of her's had referred her to this book. She gushed...i sorta nodded...she claimed it was better than sliced bread...i nodded again...i picked it up at Barns and Noble and read a bit in the store...I put it down...i thought about it some more...and then I thought about my non-existant bank account (as I was in graduate school at this time)...I thought "yea...i'm sure it is sorta a good book, but *how* good"?? I shrugged it off.

You see, I'd been down the trigger point alley (or so I thought). I'd been through two rounds of PT wherebye they dug into every sort of trigger point associated with an IT band. I 'got' it. Some overuse = some knots. That's all it is...getting those knots out. I grind my teeth LIKE A CHAMP...so i'm familiar with 'referred pain' from these so called 'trigger points'. When I get an ear ache like someone hit me with a baseball bat, I know what muscles to go after. And the pain will eventually subside.

When I thought about trigger points, I thought:

"I 'get it'. Referred pain = trigger point".

I rationalized that there was an underlying 'issue' going on. The ITBS... was over use and I'm sure sucky biomechanics. The TMJ, I have some sorry teeth that decided that they didn't want to be the same height on either side of my mouth, which resulted in teeth not in the same plane...which results in me grinding my teeth. Fun.

THOSE trigger point related issues made sense in my little brain. But last week when I went to see the doctor about my hip injury and he said that I may have some trigger points that were related to the fall I had a couple of weeks ago. I'm going to be honest, I didn't buy it. There was no physical over use wear, like with the ITBS and the TMJ that aggravated some muscles so I would end up with a trigger point. It didn't make sense to me that by falling I could get a trigger point.

(It was like the hippie-granola 'sports massage therapist' telling me that the reason that my hip hurts is because I'm not 'united' with my body. She believed that my hip pain was due to the fact that I am currently going through lots of big changes in my life. (new job, new city, new life).)

BUT...just because I didn't really believe the doctor when he told me that I may have aggrevated a trigger point when I fell and hence the hip pain, didn't mean I wasn't going to take his advice. He is a MD and a PT after all. And just because someone can call me doctor, doesn't mean I know anything about anything. (it just means I know a lot about a tiny tiny subject that no one really cares about, including me...but I digress). I'm a good patient, just because I am skeptical (i'm a scientist...would you expect anything less?), doesn't mean I won't go and DO what is prescribed.

So i pick up the book and look up 'hip flexor pain'. The book describes what may have brought on the pain, as IF the person who wrote the book somehow witness my accident a few weeks ago. So that immediately got my attention.

And I'm reading about hip flexor referred pain and it tells me to look for a trigger point next to my belly button on the side my hip hurts. And what do you know? Sore spot that upon rubbing the knot out, my hip starts to feel better. But the next day...it's not perfect. So yesterday as I dove further into the book looking up "hip pain", i see other areas of trigger points I should work on. And I go 'looking' for said trigger points (all on my stomach, so i'm hugely skeptical about this at this point...as it is not on my hip),and today....... NO PAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I haven't run in over a week and have only done spin classes, yet the next day after spin class my hip would still be a little cranky. But NOT TODAY. After finding all the trigger points associated with the hip...I am in NO PAIN!!!!!!!! Not even a twinge.

Referred pain is so weird.

I think every athlete needs to own this book.

Keeping it simple

Well I got all my Christmas decorating done.














Trying not to let the hustle take away from the meaning...

Merry Christmas!!

Update

So wednesday I got in to see a sports medical doctor. Granted I had to plead "urgent care"...but the way I was feeling on Wednesday morning after the run I had on tuesday I was verging on "urgent care". The sucky thing about this hip flexor issue is that when it hurts...I can barely sit up in bed.


So I went to the doctor...and the verdict: apparently when I fell last month I triggered some sort of spasm in one of my hip flexor muscles that was already crazy tight. I had started with tight hip muscles and the fall has caused some spasming that may have lead to a pulled muscle in my Psoas and Illiacus and is contributed to some increase in 'clicking' in the hip. (which hurts) Since we are getting into Dec and my good health insurance that would let me see some of the PTs i'd like to will kick in a few weeks...i'm going to wait it out. I've made an appointment to get some ART (active release therapy)...i will do more yoga like it is going out of style...look into some acupuncture, try to get a couple of massages in this month and use the book the doctor prescribed on Trigger Point Therapy. We all need more self inflicted pain right? owch.

The doctor said I didn't have to stop running unless I was getting pain while I was running...which I usually wasn't or it was at the end of the run. My plan is to dial it back to more like 3 miles x 3 times a week and skip the group running. The 5 miles on each of the runs I've been on in the past few weeks have taken too long to recoup from. So until I can get this strain/tight muscle under control, i'm just running enough so my body won't forget how.

Hopefully we can sort this out asap...its freaking me out a little since I just signed up for a HIM...i know I have time...but the doctor did say that soft tissue injuries can be hard to recover from. AKkkkk

Taco Tuesday

Today apparently is taco tuesday...and I did enjoy some with some people from the tri run I went to today. Which was good. And now I 'understand' the love some people have for fish tacos. I used to think "Fish Tacos"...gross...that just doesn't sound good to me. Now I'm like..."ummmmm gimme some of those Fish Tacos" and I just had my first ones, ok not first, but first GOOD ones. YUM.

The run...ohhh, running near the beach by one's self minutes behind anyone...so much fun. But the only way to get faster is to run faster and challenge ones self. I'm kewl with that. (sorta). But the real reason I went was to see how the old Hip Flexor was faring. I had stopped running for a week, got in 4 (count'em) yoga sessions in one week...and tried to bike and swim instead.

The verdict: My hip hates me....boo

The main problem is that I signed up for the crappy health insurance when I started my job...and none of the main PT's that have been suggested to me work will take it. Double bummer. Sucky thing is if this had happened in Jan, insurance wouldn't be a problem as I would have the good insurance and could go where ever. I hate health insurance in the US. Don't get me started. I think i've sorted out how i'm going to deal with the situation...it is a little bizarre, but I'll still be able to get in (i hope). In the meantime everyone keeps telling me "hmmm hip injuries aren't usually the hips". Thanks...that helps me...ohnotsomuch.

And I tried out a Gravity/pilates thing at the gym this weekend. It looks a bit like this:





But while we were doing the exercises we did a lot of these:
and today I have DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) . It feels like I got kicked by a horse in the sternum and my abs hurt when I laugh. I was going to swim this morning, but due to the pain the rotation and using my arms just wasn't going to happen. Such is life.


Well hopefully tomorrow I'll have more of an understanding of what exactly is freaking out in my hips. Hopefully.

The button is pushed

I understand and acknowledge the physical and mental rigors associated with triathlon, duathlon, or other multi-sport events, and realize that running, bicycling, swimming and other portions of such events are inherently dangerous and represent an extreme test of a personal physical and mental limits.

July 20, 2008


It s Dec 1, 2007 and the button is pushed. And while I finally sucked it up and knew this was something I wanted to do, I don't think that queazy feeling will go away from me me all training season. The funny thing is when I writing and debating about what HIM to do, the decision was made in my head. As I crafted that post I kept thinking " You are going to do Vineman 70.3". Maybe the race chose me. I don't know. I don't really know why this one. I don't really know anyone going to this one. Heck I don't know even know of any bloggers out there that are blogging about training for this one. So if you are training for this race or know a blogger training for this race let me know or if you have just read my post and thought "Maybe I should race this race"...come join the fun!

The interesting thing about a HIM is that since each segment in my head is do-able, the distance *seems* alright at first glance (stupid 'distance creep'). The only segment I haven't actually done by itself is a 56 mile bike (longest bike to date is 45 miles). So the distance is a little deceiving in a way because I break the whole thing down in my head and think 'well each of those on their own are fine'. And then I realize I will probably be out there between 6-7.5 hours and then reality sets in. That's a long time. I know I'm up for the challenge, but one must not forget to respect the distance. I'm also a bit excited too. New challenges are pretty awesome. Daunting. Maybe a little scary. But pretty awesome too.

So it's exciting. I know how to swim (basically), ride a bike and run...but there are other things that I plan to work on and learn this season.
1)I will join a masters swim team. Intimidating, but I will do it.
2)I don't have aerobars nor do I know how to properly use them (and i'm going to be honest...they slightly freak me out), but I will purchase, get my bike fitted for some, and try to get over the fear of them.
3) Nutrition is daunting, but I am already in the process of working with a sports nutritionist.
4) I will learn that 5am time of day that can be utilized while being awake, but that will mean that 11pm won't be available to me as a waking part of the day anymore.
5) I will try to surround myself with 'enablers' of this endeavor and try to eschew those with only negative words for my goals.
6) I will try to have as much fun as possible during training by meeting new people and enjoying the process of change that this challenge will put me through.

Now onto crafting a training plan.