Nothing new

Nothing new to post. Tried to do some stuff in the pool Monday night. It didn't go well. The ribs still haven't healed. I've been avoiding the blog because I was afraid I'd just get on here and whine about my ribs and my cold. I was bounding down the hall last night and had some upper tooth pain... Huh, that's my usual tell-tale sign that I have a sinus infection. The thing is, beyond the never ending nose blowing and sore throat, I feel fine. Last time I had a sinus infection I felt like a train ran over my head. Who knows. I'm going to give it another couple of days. Can you believe my luck this spring??? If I go in and get some antibiotics I decided I'm not going to tell my coach. This is just too unbelievable of a season. I don't know, maybe God is trying to tell me something.

No swimming or running these days, but I've been able to throw my bike on the trainer with no problem. Rode an hour yesterday and an hour today. That made me a happy happy girl.

Greg's doing well on his bike these days, too. After a sluggish day yesterday, he apparently had a pretty good ride today. When I looked up his training log, he had this to say:
There is no better feeling than passing a guy going up a hill especially if he is trying to show off for his girlfriend who is a little ways back.
Ha ha. You go honey! Because Amy, Matt, Kirk and I all know that you never show off going up hills while we ride a little ways back! Ha ha. I love you and you know that's funny!

Ironman is Everything. Ironman is Nothing.

Okay, as unbelievable as this may be... I've been nursing a cold all week. The occasional headache, but moreover, completely annoying, constant nose dripping, nose-blowing crap! Seriously, I think if you weighed the amount of crap that has come out of my nose this week it might weigh the equivalent of a yellow Mack truck!

So why and how the heck can I be sick again? Huh, it HAS to be stress. I'm definitely stressing myself out. I'm worried that I won't be able to do Ironman. I'm worried that I won't even be able to race this summer. The Memorial Day Bolder Boulder 10K is a huge tradition in our family. Will I really have to be content in walking half of it??? C'Mon! Then there is work. Work wouldn't be that bad, but my second year teaching partner, also a student at Columbine, April 20, 1999, is stressing and so completely emotional this week that she's pulling me in on stuff that really isn't that big a deal. I feel for her, but I know how to confront my coworkers. Please don't run to the principal and tell her that I, in addition to you, have a problem. Please don't make me stressed out when you don't have your ducks in a row as we ready ourselves for all of the end of year art shows. I love you, but I've done this before and I wish you'd actually watch and try to learn from me--especially if you're the "department head." (Ooh sorry, letting off a little tension there...)

Okay Self, it's time to put things in perspective. Have goals, but live and appreciate life in the here and now. And QUIT ALL THIS STRESSING!

Saw this article today about Ironman. It explains the trials and tribulations of doing an Ironman. Wow. Then it ends on quite a different note. Ironman is everything. Ironman is nothing.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/sports/ocoutdoors/abox/article_1662672.php

Biking is back!

Coach told me to do some walking--up to two hours at a time. Funny how I normally hate running and wish I could walk. A part of me can't wait to get pregnant just so I can walk instead of run and not feel guilty about it!

Thing is, now I have no desire to walk. It's just gonna take me forever to get where I want to go if I walk. I want to run!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Run! Run like the wind!!!! (If only I could bottle this emotion and open it every time I needed a little running motivation--do you know how much I would be willing to pay to have a little pill that gave me this same desire to run when I actually can run?)

I went and lifted some weights last night. Back is doing much better. The ribs still cry with certain movements. I still had some weight exercises I couldn't do. I went home and put my bike on the indoor trainer for 45 minutes. I sat upright the entire time and it felt great. I tried to lean over a few times and it didn't really bother me. So I put the bike on the trainer again tonight, only tonight I leaned over most the time. No real problems. Yeah!

Looks like I might be able to hit the Platte trail this weekend for a short bout. Rules I must remind myself: you can only ride the Platte (it's the only flat place I know) and you are not allowed to ride longer than an hour lest you overdo it!

It's only one sport of the three, but every little bit helps, right?

Game on!

5 good things for today

I'm done with the chiropractor. Yahoo! He wanted me to come back on Thursday to "Check on me." (I'm pretty convinced that was secret chiropractor code language for, 'Why don't you stop back in and write me another $50 check?' Oh my dear chiro friend--don't you understand that I'm catching on to your reindeer games???) I smiled. He doesn't know it, but I'm done. You see, I didn't want to go to the doctor because I thought for sure they'd say, "You fracture/bruised your ribs, although we can't tell for sure because the X-Ray is hard to see. You need to rest for 4-6 weeks. Now pay me my $25 copay." I opted for the chiropractor because I thought he could do a quick fix on the ribs, and I'd be on my way. Today was appointment #3. I told him happily the pain was slowly easing up and I only had sharp pains when I moved just right instead of all the time. Instead of smiling back at me, he shook his head. ???? "I hate to tell you this, but if you just dislocated something, it should be fine by now. You definitely tore something. You need to rest those muscles for a good 4-6 weeks for it to really heal." Huh, what? I paid $150 for you to tell me to rest for 4-6 weeks? The irony of it all.

But all is not lost. Today was still a good day. Here's why:

2) My year-end review went well at work. Albeit, from some of the things she said I think my assistant principal has me confused with my coworker (that is pregnant!!!) But the paperwork all reads good.

3) One of my student's told me today that I never frown. ? "Yep, you smile all the time. Mrs. X, you even smile when you're yelling." Huh? "Lauren, is that a good thing or a bad thing?" "Don't worry Mrs. X, it's a good thing." So, I'm going to take that as a good thing, I think...

4) My coach called. I went and visited him. I'm so glad I picked the local guy instead of the girl in North Carolina. We got to talk. "I'm registered for Ironman, Coach! You know, 2.4 miles, 112 miles, then 26.2 miles, all in one day! How am I ever going to be able to do that with all these setbacks????" He assured me that we can start to hit it hard in a few weeks and all will be fine. "People that weigh 150 pounds more than you are able to train and complete an Ironman in six months. You can do it! Let's just be smart. Rest. And let's not make setback #3 because you tried to do too much too soon to make up for lost time." So, my fears were eased a bit today.

5) While someone once told me that 'No one will read your blog, so be content to journal for yourself,' apparently someone's reading. I had some wonderful people email me today because I've been so down about my illness and injuries. Wow. Now I feel stupid for my public little pity parties. Thanks for the supportive emails girls!

If anyone is reading this besides myself 200 days, 8 hours, 20 minutes, and 30 seconds from now... These are the trials that make you feel even more proud of your accomplishments later on down the road. Whining and crying is just what athletes do when they can't workout. Huh, I guess that means I'm sort of an athlete? That's kind of a good feeling. It doesn't mean I don't appreciate the thoughts and prayers. I really do. Thanks gang! Today was a good day.

Hey Carolee! "You go grrrl!"

New gear!

I had a little thing I did while in college when I'd get down and depressed... Now don't judge me on this, it was always when I wasn't dating!!! (C'mon! You can't tell me you didn't get depressed during your dry spells either?) Anyways, when I was really down, I'd go to the mall and treat myself to some new underwear. Nothing overtly sexy, it wasn't like that! Just something that made me feel good about myself and didn't cost too much.

Well those days have been gone for a long time. I'm happily married, with a beautiful home... So yesterday, I got the bug again. I've been feeling pretty down. No, I didn't go buy myself any new underwear (guess I still could... Ah hum. I digress.) I'm all excited about my triathlons--yet I can't seem to train for my big triathlon as long as my coach tells me to chill and heal the ribs...

So I bought myself some tri gear. Yep, can't use any of it right now... But I bought some tri gear. But I didn't just openly splurge. I did some super bargain shopping! I got the bathing suit for $29.99! (I REFUSE to spend more than $35 on a suit. If you play your cards right, stock up during the off-season, go no-name discount athletic store, it IS possible to find these bad boys for a price other than $60-$75! Especially at the rate that I go through them--one every 2-3 months (the chlorine just east them to shreds when you swim 3X a week.) Ha! I found one! I also picked up some new goggles on sale. And... The best yet! I had a coupon for 50% off one item at Bicycle Village. I thought it had expired but I found it while cleaning the kitchen and I had one day left to use it!!! Greg teased me. We both needed tires for our bikes. They didn't carry his size. "Did you buy the most expensive ones they had?" Sure did!!!!

Did they make me feel better? Yep!

Now if only I could use them...

No weekly training summary this week. I took several days completely off. Let's hope that I'll be bragging about my new suit or tires very soon. I can't take too much more of this sitting around stuff.

Here's one for the hubby

I don't have too much to write about. I went to the chiropractor. He wanted me to come back. He was surprised I wasn't any better... Told me to lay low, no exercising, and come back again... Ugh... My coach told me to listen to him. I've done nothing the last three days. My back is still hurting... Let me see, why didn't I want to go to the chiropractor? Because I worried that they didn't really do anything and it would be expensive??? Hmmmm... Okay... Why didn't I go to the doctor's office? Because I worried they'd tell me something bad and tell me they couldn't do anything and not to do anything... I'm just not having any luck here.

Greg encouraged me to write something. I'm struggling because missing four weeks of training to pneumonia is bad... Missing another four weeks due to back and rib and muscle problems... All in March and April--peak season to build up for the summer!!!!! I'm not in a good place these days...

Ahhh... But Greg is.... He said I should live vicariously through his training. But it's kind of like having two tickets to the sold out only U.S. venue this year, U2 concert... You can't find a date, so your hot best friend tells you to live vicariously through his dating experiences. It just doesn't work that way. But none the less.. Here are some of my favorite comments from Greg's training log this week:

Monday: This is the type of run that makes people fall in love w/ running. I feel great, I'm energized and feeling very social. This is something that I didn't feel when I was not working out as much. It is very interesting and I'm sure that the exercise has something to do w/ my change in mood and personality. I know I've been slowly coming out of my pseudo, crappy, depression state and more consistent exercise is the hugest factor of that I'm sure? I'm not sure why and I could write for a few hours on this topic but I'm going to quit there.

Tuesday: WIND IS THE ENEMY OF ALL THAT IS GOOD ABOUT BIKING, IT NEEDS TO BE UNINVENTED, TO BE COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY DESTROYED! Serious, This would have been a great day for a ride, a little chilli perhaps but the stinking wind made is scary and demoralizing. I Constantly felt as thought I was going to be blown into the street and could not get up to nor maintain any sort of speed. Not to mention I was freezing because the wind temp had to be below 30. Usually the sun can warm up any Colorado Day but I was cold the entire ride despite my long underware underneathe my leggings and arm warmers and a jacket on top of it all. My fingers should have fallen off! Anyway, I guess I can think of it as good prep. if there is wind at the Iron Man but please Lord let it be a cool day!!!

Friday: (He told me he was feeling like a rock star today. Light workouts all week gave him tons of extra energy today.) Look at me go, I was so into the normal routine (and secretly pleased at my self for pushing the Fartleks hard) that I did an extra 200 [25 x 8] kick before the cool down! Once again it was snowing outside so I ran on the track indoors. It's good because it makes it look like I'm faster than I really am. But I didn't wear a HR monitor so I'm probably moving faster than I should be.

Keep up the good work honey. I look on wishfully...

Adversity

Dedicated to the Ironman wannabes of the world that find themselves on the injured list this week. There is actually an element of solace to this thinking.

Sad, very sad workout stats for this week:

Swim - 1100 yards

Bike - 19 miles

Walk - 4.8 miles

Yes, I'm holding my boobs!

Here's the problem:

I'm a school teacher, and I'm surrounded by weird germs and bugs all the time. I thought this would get better if I taught older kids, but apparently that is not the case. Just yesterday all the teachers in my building received an email to make sure we're washing our hands and door knobs because a kid was just diagnosed with some ultra contagious rinovirus that causes very bad things to you (I won't bother to mention exactly what it does) but it results in you getting severely dehydrated. We've also had documented cases of Whooping Cough this year. And, as I well know, we've also had a contagious little pneumonia bug... It's been a rough year for bugs.

Problem #2 - I get sick a lot.

Problem #3 - The minute I develop a sniffle, I'm surfing the internet to self-diagnose. I'm convinced that I've had the Ebola virus, West Nile, malaria and I'm sure to have cancer from the next bump I see.

Here's the thing--I really do have something wrong right now. The pain in my left ribs and back is really, really bad. I had the back pain last week. Someone gave me the name of chiropractor. I called and he could get me in on Monday--only over the weekend I was feeling better. I'm cheap, so I canceled the appointment. Naturally, on Tuesday, the onset of rib pain AND back pain became severe again. It hasn't improved. In fact, I think it's getting worse. I didn't work out Wed. or Thurs. I put my bike on the trainer for 30 minutes tonight, but it was a feeble attempt. You see, when I cough, it hurts 100x worse than normal. Biking makes me cough... I'd pedal a little bit, then get off and cough. I'd get back on and pedal as slow as possible so I wouldn't cough. Then I'd have to cough, etc. etc.

I developed this habit that seems to help so the cough doesn't hurt as much. I reach around and hug myself, half-heartily squeezing my boobs as close as possible to my chest while coughing. (Where's my husband when I need him? He'd love to do that job for me!) It still hurts to cough, but not quite as bad as doing nothing at all. It's hard to pull this off in public, so in public I do the same thing, only double over so no one notices that I'm holding my boobs in for dear life! Unfortunately, as Amy and I learned from some nice biker babes in Boulder a couple years ago, you can't take in as much oxygen when you're leaned over. (That's why you shouldn't ride your bicycle in your drops when going up a hill! Bike tip of the day!) Coughing is just a big painful experience right now. And don't get me started about sneezing! Finding a comfortable position in bed at night isn't a treat either.

So I've been doing my little internet searches to see what disease will surely lead to my demise this time. Apparently it is quite possible to bruise, fracture or break a rib from coughing. These don't always show up in X-Rays so doctors usually just make a diagnosis from your description of pain. All have the same path of recovery. They don't splint you because it inhibits your ability to breathe. They give you painkillers and tell you to lay low for six weeks. What's the point of going in if you already know they're not going to do anything? Then I get on the chiropractor websites... One went on and on about how doctors refuse to admit that you can dislocate a rib... But chiropractors are the only ones that will diagnose and fix this ...

So why don't regular doctors diagnose a rib out of place? Wouldn't that show up in an X-Ray? One site trying to dissuade people from going to chiropractors said that if you have a fractured rib, a chiropractor could adjust it and puncture your lung! Yikes!

Decisions... Decisions... I'm on the 'wait and hope it improves' path right now. If it continues into next week, I'll have a decision to make. Doctor vs. Chiropractor? Hmmm....

I wish I could do something tonight. Why do these ailments always turn their worst on Fridays when I can't see anyone about it? I tried to swim tonight. I made it exactly one half of a length (not a lap--I only made it half way down, one way.) I couldn't take the pain in my ribs when I pulled through with my left hand. I couldn't even pull myself out of the pool with a little tricep dip. I crawl over two lanes and use the stairs.

I can force myself to exercise through pneumonia. I'm used to being tired and lethargic when working out. That defines 90% of my workouts! But excruciating pain... I can't work through that...

Come on now... I need to pull through this ASAP!!! I keep thinking it's only March, but it's not! It's April!!! I was so much farther along than this last year! And it wasn't an Ironman year!!!! It's pretty frustrating when my husband that I adore tells me all about his long bikes, runs, and swims, and then labors on that he's not sure he's doing enough... I love him, I support him, so I have to listen... But this really stinks.

I wave the white flag

Ugh! Have you ever coughed and coughed and coughed so hard that your ribs and back just ache? I'm on week four of this ridiculous cough! Ironman scares me to death, so I've used every spare bit of energy the last two weeks to try to get some training in. For whatever reason, Tuesday was just a cough festival for me.

I think I finally hit that point of surrender today. I just can't take it. I tried to play volleyball last night--a testament that I really like volleyball and/or I really like the girls I play with. It's been several weeks since I've played and our season ends next week. Unfortunately it didn't go very well. My ribs hurt so bad that anything with sudden movements or reaching and jumping hurt (that encompasses close to everything in volleyball.) With my ribs hurting as bad as they were, I decided to take the rest of the day off and put off all my training until today.

Today comes and goes. My ribs hurt. I just plain don't feel like doing anything that might make me cough anymore than I already do. Biking and running make me cough. Swimming is a constant self-talk situation of me convincing myself that my ribs don't hurt and pain is my friend...

I wave the white flag today. Sorry coach.

Weekly Training Summary

I was nervous about doing it, but I went for a long bike ride today--and it went well!!! I'm on cloud nine tonight!!! My coach wanted me to try to ride and hour and fifteen minutes. He said if I couldn't do it, not to worry. I was so nervous about trying this. Since I've been sick, I've only had to put my bike on the trainer and get seat time spinning in the easiest gear possible for 30 minutes at a time. (Um, if you didn't know--seat time is kind of important--if you haven't ridden in a while and jump on a bike, you can get bruising in the shape of bike seat that lasts for a few days. Not pretty.)

So I find the flattest bike trail around (that's not an easy thing to do around here.) The first fifteen minutes my body really tried it's best to pursuade me to quit. The next half hour it let up, with little coughing reminders that I'm sick and out of breath moments on baby hills that never would otherwise bother me. By the last half hour, I think my body just decided "Screw it! She's gonna make us do this no matter what!" I felt really good the last half hour! I thought for sure my body would pay me back with a killer coughing spell when I quit, but it didn't!

My energy level is getting better, the darn coughing is still driving me crazy. I'm hoping that it's just my body clearing all the gunk out of my lungs... Here are the week totals for a sick girl trying to train for an Ironman:

swim: 1.85 miles
bike: 27.5 miles
walk (and a slice of jogging): 6 miles

Eventually this will probably be 1/2 of a days worth of training. Ha! It'll be fun to watch these numbers grow. Greg put a running tally on our computer... 215 days.

Oh yeah, my coach took 109th out of 2200 people at the Ironman California 70.3 race this weekend. He's a rock star.