Digging through my Facebook photos in an effort to take my brain off the hell that was my work day today I ran across this one and I have to say that I think it is THE best race photo of Patricia Brownell ever taken. I say this because
1) I look like I’m going to die and I think this was taken at about mile 1 of a 5k.
2) I am chicking a whole herd of men who look like they are going to die and want to eat my head and
3) I am chicking a cop car.
Awesome.
I know I owe you a race report and I’m still planning on writing that up, but in the mean time I’ve stumbled upon something related to my (horrible) race that I feel I need to share because I think I’m really on to something.
I cramped massively during the Rock ‘N Roll Nashville half marathon. And although that was the worst cramping I have ever experienced, to the point where I simply couldn’t run, it wasn’t the first time I’ve had cramping issues. I have had some calf cramping issues in the past, always during a race – never during training does this happen to me. The difference with this race was that it was bad enough that I decided to the bottom of it because it didn’t make any sense to me. I wasn’t dehydrated before the race, I’d taken plenty of electrolyte supplements leading up to it and I’ve run in weather just as hot prior to that (Florida, etc) and not had a problem. So what could it be?
I had an appointment with my genius doctor who happens to also be a runner and is also the most well-read, amazingly knowledgeable person I’ve ever met (this is him: http://www.newtonbiomechanics.com/pages/contents). Every time we have a conversation about anything (literally, anything) he recites the results of a study related to the topic we’re discussing - his mind is amazing. Anyhow, I was telling him about my race and the cramping and of course, he had input: magnesium deficiency. He recited several stuies, one of which made my ears perk up. I have searched for the study online and can’t seem to find it (though I find several references to it) but they studied a bunch of endurance athletes, both cyclists and runners after a long ride/run (100 mile ride, not sure how far the runners went) and the common link to the people who had leg cramps during vs. those who didn’t was a magnesium deficiency. And this is where the light bulb went off in my head. And below is why:
Where do we get magnesium from? Veggies. Leafy greens, in particular. What do I eat loads and loads and loads of? Leafy greens. But wait? Doesn’t make sense right? Just wait. What do I avoid in the two to three days before a race to avoid stomach issues during the race? LEAFY GREENS! As far as cramping is concerned, magnesium is needed on a cellular level which means that the boat load of salad I ate last week would do me no good during a race.
Need more evidence? In addition to cramping, magnesium deficiency can cause insulin resistance. At mile four of the race, my blood sugar rose to 460 for no apparent reason. Our body uses magesium to help trasport insulin to its cells and to produce energy. Our body also needs boat load of it to metabolise carbohydrates during exercise (especially when we’re forcing our bodies to run 7 minute miles for 13 miles). So say I used my already depleted stores early in the race and then became insulin resistant because of that. Possible? Maybe.
And in addition to lack of leafy greens, stress and high blood sugar can cause a magnesium deficiency. I had plenty of both of those items leading up to the race as my schedule was all over the place and I hadn’t slept. My blood sugar wasn’t all that bad, I had shot up to 280 the night before the race but got it down quickly, but still, even that little rise when already deficient could be enough to put a person over the edge.
I was sucking down salt from the med tents like a mad woman during the race but it didn’t help at all! I think I may be onto something here. Maybe in addition to sodium and potassium, I need to concentrate on magnesium as well. Some salt tablets and other electrolytes do contain magnesium, but very small amounts of it. Perhaps just like anything else, some people may require more.
There ARE side effect to getting too much magnesium so I’m going to have to look into this a little more, but I think I’m onto something here. I’d be curious to hear if anyone else has run into anything like this. Let me know if you have!
I’ve been absent again. I really miss blogging and hope that my schedule will calm down one day soon so that I might get back to what I love, but in the mean time, it is what it is. I have some big news, which I’d like to share properly so I’m going to wait until I have more time to do so.
To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, my last 5 days consisted of:
Thursday:
10:00 am, off to airport to fly to Nashville, TN.
5:00: Land in Nashville, pick up rental car, head to Whole Foods to buy some certified gluten free food (oh the joys of travelling and racing as a celiac) and check into hotel.
10:30 pm: Pick up teammate at airport
11:30 pm: Arrive back at hotel
12:00 pm: Attempt to sleep but don’t really sleep.
Friday:
7:00 am: Wakeup
9:00 am: Head to Race Expo to register and such.
12:00 pm: Grab some lunch
2:30 pm: Speak to awesome group of kids about running, diabetes, etc.
5:00 pm: Grab some more food at grocery store, get stuck in traffic.
8:00 pm: Get back to hotel and finally get a chance to eat.
9:00 pm: Pack bags and get stuff ready to race in the morning.
10:00 pm: Attempt to sleep but don’t really sleep.
Saturday:
2:30 am: wakeup
4:15 am: Head to park car and take shuttle to start of race
5:15 am: Arrive at race start
6:00 am: Venture to corral 1 for start of race
7:00 am: Race half marthon
7:30 am: Cramp 2nd half of half marathon and spend lots of time sitting on sidewalk with baseball like calves.
9:00 am: Finish race
10:00 am: Take Baby Wipe shower and change clothes.
11:30 am: Try to find Jon Obst (teammate running the full marathon) in the mass of 30,000 runners as we need to leave for the airport.
12:00 pm: Leave for airport.
12:45 pm: Arrive at airport
1:30 pm: EAT LOTS OF FOOD!
2:30 pm: Fly to Chicago
5:00 – 8:00 pm: Layover in Chicago
8:00 – 10:30 pm: Fly to Boston
10:45 – 11:30 pm: Take cab home.
11:31 pm: Pass out on couch.
Sunday:
11:30 AM: Wake up (wow).
12:00 – 9:00 pm: Drool on myself whilst whining about how sore I am
9:00 pm: Sleep
Monday:
6:00 am: Wakeup
7:00 am: Swim
9:30 am: Commute
You get the point. And now that “regular life” has resumed, it’s even more busy than the “race” schedule as I’ve taken on some pretty cool ventures that eat up my time.
But I promise, I will have a race report soon including all the awesome details of the athlete day I did while in Nashville. I got to meet the coolest little girl, Raina, a type-1 athlete with big dreams.
Catch you soon and I hope you’re all well!
The BTT Indoor Time Trial was yesterday. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s an indoor race at Landry’s (best bike shop in Boston) where a bunch of us crazies ride our bikes on Computrainers, along a 6.2 mile uphill course (the last 6.2 miles of the Boston Marathon course, backwards), in heats of 16. I either did really terrible or really well, depending on how you look at it. It’s a lot of fun – aside from the part where you’re on your bike.
End result: 177 watts. Say what? Yeah, that’s right. 177 watts. My last 20 minute test, a month ago, in my basement, right after off season where I wasn’t very motivated, produced 190 watts. The one before that? 188. Again, in my basement staring at a wall. And I gave every last bit of effort I had. Something just didn’t feel right! My foot hurt a lot (more on that later) and my blood sugar was high, but neither of those things could explain 13 watts less. 13 watts is a lot when you weigh 114 pounds.
Moral of this story is: next time bring my Power Tap! A (very) reliable source contacted me afterwards to let me know she had been riding in my spot in a prior wave and that her PowerTap read more than 30 watts higher than the Computrainer. So I guess I’ll never know for sure, but it makes way more sense to me that I was closer to 200+ watts because that is about what I was expecting and I’m pretty consistent when it comes to wattage, even on my bad days. It makes absolutely no sense that I rode 13 watts less, 6 weeks after my last test when I’ve been working hard on the bike, when my coach was in my face telling me to push. In fact, I’m pretty close to 177 watts on some workouts longer than 20 minutes. It’s frustrating to not know for sure. And it’s not the results that I care about, it’s the number I want to know for my own reference. Pretty dumb move on my part not to bring the Powertap. Live and learn.
Moving on, it seems that it’s that time of the year where some crazy injury pops up. This year the winner is: sesamoiditis. Within the tendon that travels over the ball of your foot and into your big toe are two little bones called sesamoids. They are about the size of a pea and are expected to support a large amount of weight for their size. My feet are, unfortunately, oddly shaped where the ball sits farther down then the rest of my foot. That, along with the fact that I’m a bit of a forefoot striker, is not good for the poor little bones — my sesamoids take more of a beating than most people’s. It seems like such a tiny, stupid injury but apparently it is very serious. It can turn into a stress fracture easily and if it does, the fracture takes a long time to heal, sometimes up to a year, and oftentimes it doesn’t heal, causing long-term complications from arthritis to the need for surgery to remove the bone (and kiss athletics goodbye in that case). In fact, remember when Monica Selles abruptly ended her career in the 90’s? It was because of sesamoid problems. For now, I have home-made inserts in my shoes that distribute my weight away from the ball of my foot and I tape my toe so it points downwards (which takes the pressure off the sesamoids as well) and I’m continuing to train through it but if the pain doesn’t improve within a few weeks, I’m off to get an MRI to confirm there is no fracture. I’ve been to a doctor and he’s pretty sure there is no fracture as I have no acute pain on the sesamoids and it has been improving since we’ve added the inserts to all my shoes. Basically it hurts to toe off, and only sometimes. It actually hurts worse on the bike than when running since a lot of pressure is applied to that area.
And now that my whining is out of the way, here’s the fun stuff. Julia tagged me so it’s my turn. If I tagged you, please don’t feel obligated to follow along. Just following the rules!
The Rules:
1. Post these rules.
2. You must post 11 random things about yourself.
3. Answer the questions set for you in their post
4. Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.
5. Go to their blog and tell them you’ve tagged them.
6. No stuff in the tagging section like “you are tagged if you are reading this”. You (the blogger) legitimately have to tag 11 (or so) people.
11 random things about myself:
1. I was a gymnast when I was a kid. I could do all sorts of backflips and stuff. I think I would fall over if you asked me to do a cartwheel these days.
2. I really dislike having hair. If it were more socially acceptable to be bald, I would shave my head. When I’m at home I wear a ponytail on top of my head to keep it out of my face even though it looks ridiculous. My poor husband!
3. I have Raynaud’s syndrome. My fingers often turn all different shades of white and blue. I once locked myself out of my old house in Southie because I had an “episode” and couldn’t get the key to turn in the door since my fingers weren’t working. After standing there for 10 minutes, I finally asked a random passer-by to help me open my door. That sucked.
4. My feet are size 4.5 but I say size 5 since size 4.5 doesn’t actually exist.
5. I hate olives.
6. I really, really want a tattoo. I have the idea in my head of what I want but I talk myself out of it every year because you can’t swim for 2 weeks after you get a tattoo. I hate swimming. You’d think getting a tattoo would be the perfect excuse for me!
7. The population of the town I grew up in is 2, 365.
8. I was born in Chicago.
9. I lived in Minneapolis for 5 years.
10. I hate country music.
11. I am allergic to wool.
Now for Julia’s questions:
1. Best race moment?
The first time I won an AG award. I had no idea until I’d gotten home and found out after the fact. I was so excited!
2. Ideal date (can be real or for future reference)?
Sitting on my couch in my PJs with my hubby, cats, glass of wine and a movie.
3. Favorite Snack?
Pistacios!
4. Favorite workout?
Tempo runs
5. Best vacation?
Portland/Washington coast when my hubby asked me to marry him.
6. Biggest disappointment?
When I learned I needed double hip surgery.
7. Best part of college?
The beer.
8. What are you doing on a typical Friday night? (or what do you LIKE to be doing)?
Same as ideal date.
9. South Park or Family Guy?
Tough one. South Park by a small margin.
10. Strangest racing superstition or quirk?
I buy a new pair of goggles for every race.
11. Nicest/best compliment you’ve received?
One of our biggest supporters of Team Type 1, and someone I respect massively, once told me I was an inspiration to her. Couldn’t ask for a better compliment than that.
My questions:
Tagging:
Jana: @czechchick15
Christine: @holisticguru
Laura: @laura_Ely
Donna: @donna_de
Jen: @jdavino
Laura: @MArual
Mary: @maryeggers
Julia: @jgules (so she knows I answered)
Claire: @clairelunardoni
The amount of attention my last blog post got shocked me a bit. The topic/thought had been rolling around in my head for awhile so when it finally came out, a few months worth of thoughts spilled out in about fifteen minutes onto the page. I wasn’t expecting that so many people would identify with, what to me, were ramblings. And while I’m not happy that others have to live with a life-long disease for which there is no cure, it was refreshing to know so many of you feel like I do.
It’s really that thought that gets me through the daily grind – I am not alone. I’m not the only one whose first action every morning is to test their blood sugar. I’m not the only one who knows what a hemoglobin A1C is. I’m not the only one who laughs at this video: (you really need to check this out, it’s pretty funny, by my teammate Marcus Grimm):
Someone commented on the last post that this disease chose us, and they’re right. But I submit that this disease must have a pretty strict selection process when it chooses its victims. When it comes down to it, we’re pretty awesome, no? I mean this from the bottom of my heart: diabetics are really great people – I seriously have not met one of us that I don’t like. Having this disease changes you. How can it not? And I submit that for the most part, it changes us in good ways. I don’t know about you but I have more compassion, more loyalty, more focus and more empathy than I would have without it.
And then there’s the camaraderie. The moment I meet someone else with the disease, I feel a common bond with them. That’s pretty cool and unique – not many other people can meet someone, know nothing about them but know, right away, a huge amount of what they go through on a daily basis. It’s special and it’s a major reason I love being a part of Team Type 1. I love being able to meet so many others with whom I can share that immediate bond because it reinforces that feeling – we are not alone!
So thanks. Thanks for reading, commenting, being awesome and letting me know that I am not alone.
Someone asked me this the other day in the context that it didn’t seem like it was such a “big deal” anymore. And as much as I was annoyed at the statement, I have to admit that I can see how someone who isn’t affected personally by the disease would think that. In fact the message of the team I am a part of is to show that you can do anything you want to despite living with the disease, as long as you take the time to control it. And that, right there, is the key: “As long as you take the time to control it.”
So maybe the question should be “what is it like to control type 1 diabetes?” That’s the question I will answer today. Keep in mind that I’ve had the disease for nearly 25 years and I don’t remember what it was like not having it. I suspect one who has lived a longer portion of their existence without it might feel different.
Just a few bullet-points to get started:
And speaking of planning, oh the planning! As a type 1 diabetic, I am forced to be a planner. I can’t just leave the house to go do something (anything). I guess I could, but if I did, I would risk death. I have to, at all times, make sure I have some form of sugar with me in case my blood sugar goes low. And if I’m leaving for more than an hour? I need sugar, I need my insulin and I need my blood sugar meter. Leaving for more than a week? All of the above, just a lot more of it and spares (and I won’t even get into the additional planning I face as a celiac diabetic trying to travel, or for that matter, a diabetic, celiac triathlete – it’s kind of ridiculous). And this makes me think about…my brain.
I have not, for almost 25 years, spent a day without having to plan for and think about diabetes — that is a lot of time thinking about one, particular thing. It’s no wonder that there is such a high rate of eating disorders amongst teenage girls with type 1. From the moment we are diagnosed, every morsel of food we put into our mouths is monitored. Are we eating too much? Not enough? Did we take our insulin? Don’t eat until you take your insulin! Did you test before you ate? We are hunter gatherers by nature — we aren’t meant to think about food that much! Couple that with today’s societal pressures on young girls, and it’s a disorder waiting to happen. But I digress. The point is that every day is another day I think about diabetes: there’s the constant monitoring of sugar, gauging proper insulin levels depending on carbohydrate intake and exercise, the remembering of the supplies, going to the pharmacy, going to regular doctor appointments, the list goes on and on. I have to do all these things to keep my blood sugar under control so I can lead a “normal” life. Imagine spending every day of your life doing this? Every day. There is no break. This is my life. And even though I do all of these things there is still no guarantee that I will live without complications down the road because as under control as my diabetes is, it’s still there and it’s impossible to be “perfect” so there is still risk.
And then there’s the bad days. We don’t like to talk about them, but they do happen. Let me give you an example of one that I had a few weeks ago. I got up at 4:45 am to swim. Got to the pool, swam (a “hard” swim), got out of the pool, tested my blood sugar and was high as sometimes happens to me when I swim “hard.” I took some insulin, drove home and hopped in the shower. I was a bit late so I was rushing to catch my train and in my haste, forgot to eat a banana before I left, which I was planning on doing and had dosed for. As I left the house for my 20 minute walk to the train, I became engrossed in my Blackberry (work) which continued as I boarded the train. Typing, typing, typing and before I knew it, I was feeling hungry and weak. Crap – I’m low. Normally no big deal but my blood sugar was dropping so fast due to the amount of insulin I took, the walk to the train and the lack of banana, that my body had decided it was in danger and so I began sweating profusely (on the train, yes, so people were staring at me) to the point where I looked like I had just gotten out of the shower. I had long since eaten a pile of glucose tablets but the after-effects were in full force. It was around 20 degrees out and now I’m drenched in sweat and about to walk to work in the cold. My clothes were damp, my socks were damp, my hair was wet — and then I had the pleasure of sitting at work like this for the rest of the day, damp and freezing. All this and I had a hard bike ride to get in later that night – guess who was lacking motivation for that?
Oh, and how about this example. Every night I take a long-acting shot of about 18 – 20 units before I go to bed. This is a slow-release basal insulin that works for 24 hours to maintain my blood sugar. Well, one night I accidentally took my short acting insulin instead of my long acting insulin and went to bed not realizing it. Short acting insulin is what I take when I eat food. For example, for a banana I would take 1 – 2 units, depending on the size of the banana. I woke up about an hour later drenched in sweat, barely able to walk and very, very confused. I was lucid enough to know that my blood sugar was low so I grabbed some glucose tablets (sugar), some juice and waited for my blood sugar to rise. It didn’t rise. So I ate more glucose tablets (about 15). I should have figured out the insulin mixup at that point but it was late and I was tired so when my sugar finally rose to about 85, I went back to bed thinking it would continue to rise….and then woke up 30 minutes later in the same manner I had before – drenched in sweat, confused and barely able to walk. That’s when it hit me what I had done and I spent the rest of the night forcing down massive amounts of food until I was sure my sugar was high enough that I wasn’t going to die in my sleep. I think I finally got to bed around 3:30 am. And when I woke up a few hours later, my sugar was 380 (quite high) because not only had I just eaten about 9 million grams of carbs but because of the insulin mix-up, I hadn’t taken my long-acting shot so I had no basal insulin running, so, the whole next day was a total mess.
I won’t get into what it takes to be an endurance athlete with diabetes – that’s a whole other ball game, but I think you get the point. We preach the virtues of good control, because good control is worth it and we may have come a long way with technology and the methods available for us to treat the disease, but that doesn’t change the fact that managing diabetes is hard work. It may not look like it sometimes but trust me, it is – even after 25 years. Sometimes I think we need to give ourselves a break or, dare I say, credit for that!
I probably sound like a broken record here – it’s no secret that the swim is my weakness – I’ve talked about that a lot. I get so frustrated with it, at times, that it’s hard to not wonder if I’d be better off spending the extra time I’m in the pool right now improving the run/bike, instead, and continuing to be a crappy swimmer. But, in reality, that’s just the ego in me not wanting to admit that I suck at something (and that it’s going to take a lot of hard work to get better at it) so I ignore those thoughts and keep plugging away.
I think the hardest thing about swimming for me is that I get it — after many an analysis, I know what I’m doing wrong and I know what I need to do to improve but I have a very hard time making that happen. I’ll be plugging along knowing that I’m swimming too flat, or that I’m dropping my hips, dropping my elbow, etc. etc. but despite best efforts and literally concentrating on said details as I’m swimming, I continue to have those bad habits. It’s like banging your head against a wall over and over and over again without being able to stop yourself. Frustrating!
So again, in 2012, the swim is a major priority for for me. The difference is that this year, Coach Jorge has given me a solid, tangible plan beyond just “swim more,” and I’m actually seeing results. I mean real, live results. I’m not just feeling better but the actual numbers reflect the hard work. It’s good stuff.
In the past I was told to do drills. So I did. I spent the end of 2010 and beginning of 2011 doing 3 months of drills only, only to have a follow-up swim analysis that showed….my stroke was exactly the same. FRUSTRATING! Just drilling does not work for me. Not only does it suck, but the probability of being successful with doing them is dependent upon you executing the drills correctly, and when there isn’t a trained expert watching you do the drills, who knows if you are doing them right? And if you’re doing them wrong, you’re just reinforcing bad habits or worse, creating new bad habits. And you can’t ignore the fact that just doing drills is no fun at all and when you are dragging yourself to a pool at 5:00 am in the winter to do something you hate, well that’s just not going to last for long!
This year it’s different. My first swim analysis was back in July when I started coaching with Jorge. My second was towards the end of the season. There was definite improvement. Yesterday was my third (more on that in a bit) and again, I saw definite improvement. The difference has come with the way Jorge has approached the swim with me. I do drills, yes, but not just drills – we’re also increasing the time I’m spending in the pool. And Jorge has taken the time to watch me do the drills and correct me when I’m doing them wrong. He’s given me a bunch of visual cues that really help with correcting those bad habits in a way that makes sense to me. You can tell me all day long that my hand entry is wrong, but unless you give me something to visualize which helps me focus on it, I’m not going to be able to fix it! And throughout this process, I’ve gotten positive reinforcement all along – yes, I will suck as we increase the meters spend in the water but it will get better and easier — helpful.
And then there was yesterday’s swim analysis, which was pretty much awesome. Jana is another one of Coach Jorge’s athletes (and an amazing athlete she is). Like me, the swim is her weakness. So, Coach J had us do our analysis side by side. Then he had us swim a bunch of 100′s, side-by-side. Both Jana and I are used to swimming by ourselves, Jana even moreso than I because Jorge has her doing some pretty hefty swimming. It is lonely swimming by yourself all the time so the opportunity to swim with someone trying to improve to the same degree and experiencing the same frustrations, was great. I also swam some of the fastest 100′s ever trying to keep up with her – it definitely made me push myself harder than I would have on my own! All great stuff and I’m looking forward to seeing the improvements on video.
And lastly, here’s proof of the swim gains. The other day I went to my usual pool at a different time. There were only three lanes open because of classes going on (slow/medium/fast) and each lane had 2 people in it already. When the lifeguard saw me walk in, he went over to one of the dudes in the fast lane and told him he had to move to the medium lane. It went something like this:
Lifeguard: Sir, you’re going to have to move over there to circle.
Dude: What? Why?
Lifeguard (pointing at me): Because she is getting in.
Dude: So?
Lifeguard: She’s fast. It won’t work for her to circle with you.
Dude: Oh, c’mon. How fast is she?
Lifeguard: She’s actually really fast.
I swim in a pool where “fast” means younger than 80 and actually swimming, but still…that felt so good! Nobody has ever called me fast in the water before. Definitely a moment that will stick with me!
Now that we’ve gotten 2011 out of the way, let’s move onto 2012 – the year of the Peej. I’m ready fo the year of the Peej and I’m sure this will be the year…because I’m making it that year.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, right? It took me awhile to realise I finally admitted that crazy was exactly what I was being. Let’s face it: I was miserable last year. I couldn’t keep up with life. I tried and succeeded, for the most part, but not without some unpleasant side-effects, notably sleep deprivation and constant exhaustion. Not to mention that Dave and I just weren’t happy. I love triathlon, but one can’t deny that it’s a lot of hard work to maintain the ability to be competitive. And I like my job (as much as one can like a job), but that too is work. My commute is work. Keeping up with a new house is work. Well that’s all I did last year, triathlon, work, commute & house stuff. You can’t just do all things work and expect to be happy!
So I took a step back to evaluate my life and why I was doing what I was doing. Let’s start with:
Work: Why do I work? To make money (duh). Why do I have a very demanding job with a demanding schedule? Because I’ve done said job for 10 years, have great benefits and a salary which affords me the ability to not worry about money. I can spend, within reason, what I want. Does it make me happy? No. Not lately. It makes me miserable. Why does it make me miserable? Because I can’t keep up with it anymore while still having the time to do the things I love/want to do (triathlon).
Commute: Why do I commute? Because I love our house. It’s a great area for training and I couldn’t be happier with it — so it’s worth the commute and I have to commute because of work (duh).
House stuff: Why do I do house stuff? Duh.
Triathlon: Why do I do Triathlon? Because I love it. I love everything about it. And I’ve never worked harder in my life to be able to continue to do something that I love. I am not myself without it and can’t imagine what my life would be if I had to give it up.
It came down to this: The job had to go or triathlon had to go (at least triathlon at the level I want to compete at). So, after much contemplation and discussion with my husband, we decided the job had to go. It was, to date, one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made but I knew it had to be done. Fortunately for me, my job didn’t want me to go and the end result was adopting a part-time schedule that would hopefully work for both my employer and myself. And on January 1, I started that schedule.
So far it’s been pretty good. I work 4 days a week, 5.5 – 6 hours a day, depending on the day. This is a work in progress – it might eventually be 3 days a week. I’ll admit, it’s still quite difficult and seems as hectic as it was before as the extra time (except for Friday) goes right to Peej sleeping. But the difference is that where I was sleeping 4-5 hours a night before, I’m now able to sleep 7-9 so my brain and body are able to keep up with the demands much better. Work is still hard because it’s crazy busy — I’m basically doing the same amount of work in a shorter amount of time and getting paid less to do it, but it’s okay because all I really cared about was not being totally fried every day of my life. So for now, this works, I get to keep my job and have that security blanket of going back to full-time should this not work out. Win/win!
And now for something related but sort of different: in March I’m attending a USAT Level 1 coaching class. Ft. Lauterdale in March — who wouldn’t want to learn a bunch of stuff while hanging out in the sun during their free time? Dave and I decided to turn the whole trip into a vacation (poor Dave hasn’t had one of those in years as my racing takes up all of our vacation time) so we’ll be spending a week there. I’ll be doing a lot of training and he’ll be doing a lot of golfing. Yay!
A little bad news thrown in here because before I get to the REALLY good news I can’t resist the urge to tarnish a blog post with bad news: I got bit by a freaking dog while running. It was 5:00 so dark already and I was chugging along in an unlit park with my headlamp on. I saw a few people with several unleashed dogs coming towards me from the other direction. I sensed that the dogs were a little agitated by my presence so I slowed to a stop to let the dogs pass. As they ran by, one of them turned his head and bit the back of my leg! It broke my skin so I was pretty freaked out. The owners were upset as well and assured me the dog had all of his shots (and my tetanus immunization is up to date). Anyway, it’s healing, but I’m still a bit leery of running at night now, especially in my favorite park. It pisses me off that those dogs weren’t leashed – it is a law in Boston that in parks you must keep your dog on a leash. This didn’t have to happen. PLEASE LEASH YOUR DOGS, PEOPLE! Even if they’ve never exhibited behavior which would lead you to believe they’d bite a person, it doesn’t mean they wouldn’t.
Bite Day 1
Bite Day 2
Lastly, and I think this is the best news of all (for me, at least) — my hips! They are better than they’ve ever been. I’ve spent the last 2 months in physical therapy and for the first time since surgery, I truly, honestly believe that I’m over the hump. My adductor issues are almost gone and my body feels tremendous. I’m not exhausted and in pain after workouts because the right muscles are finally working. Coach Jorge has been hitting me with hard workout after hard workout and I just bounce right back and tackle one right after another. It’s so much easier to do this when you’re not in constant pain! Big thanks to my new PT, Matt McManus at ProEx PT in Boston for dealing with my laundry list of issues, coming up with a solid plan that worked for me and making it a fun process.
And there you have it – the beginning of 2012. There’s more news were all that came from but I’m saving that for later.
Happy training to you! Speaking of training, you know “off season” is officially over when hanging workout laundry after only four days of training looks like this:
So much has happened since I last wrote that I don’t think I’ll be able to be as ambitious as I wanted to be with this post. The “things changing in 2012″ may have to wait for a later date.
I left last Friday morning for our annual team camp, which was to be held in Tucson this year. In case you weren’t aware, Tucson is not very close to Boston and with a layover half way through the trek across the country, it felt even less close. I left my house at 6:00 am and arrived in Tuscon around 3:00 pm, which with the time difference is about 11 hours of travel. I was tired on arrival but found my energy quickly as my teammates started rolling in. I love these guys, every last one of them. Every time we get together we have the time of our lives, and camp was no different. The fact that we were in an amazing hotel with even more amazing surroundings, helped. Check out these views from my room!
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We met for our team dinner and then had a few drinks in the lobby, heading to bed earlier than normal (although it was really later than normal for me with the time difference) as our first meeting began at 7:30 am the next morning.
Saturday brought a lot of meetings, a review of the past and a lot of discussion of where we are headed in the future. One thing is for certain, we are a group of very lucky individuals. That our sponsors believe in what we do and support us so that we can continue to spread a message that affects people’s lives positively is something we don’t take for granted. Another thing that is for certain is that we have a TON of talent on this team. There is nothing more inspirational than hearing about everything this team has accomplished, both athletically and personally.
After our meetings, we were whisked away to our photo shoot, which was pretty awesome. One of our photographers was Lance Armstrong’s personal photographer for several years and the experience showed. I’ve never had a photo shoot that was fun, but this one was. I can’t wait to see the final product!
Between our meetings and dinner, Laura Ely and I were able to squeeze in what was supposed to be an 8 mile run, which quickly turned into 6 miles. I know Tucson isn’t really considered a good place for “altitude training” but when you live at sea level and suddenly run at 3500 feet in the desert, you feel it – I don’t care what anyone says (as you can tell, I may have had a few conversations with some teammates who were quick to point out that we weren’t even close to “altitude.”). Laura and I both felt like crap out there so we cut things a little short. I was happy I had Laura there to suffer with so I knew I wasn’t the only one!
Saturday evening was the Team Dinner and 2012 Team Presentation. The format was pretty awesome this year, with a lively MC and an awesome speech from Phil Southerland, CEO and founder of the team. The first annual amateur athlete of the year award was given to Marcus Grimm of the running team (very deserving). Then each team was introduced one by one, followed by an introduction of each rider on the pro team.
The Triathlon Team (Casey makes me look like I’m about a foot tall, no?)
Pro Team
Eye Candy (just cuz):
Some of the tri and the running team members were running the Tucson marathon and half marathons the next morning, so most headed to bed early. Laura and I were to be the “van drivers” for the event so we felt it necessary to hang out with other teams and consume some more wine. We would pay for that decision a bit at 5:00 am the next morning. Oops.
5:00 came all too quickly and soon I found myself in a van driving a bunch of runners to the start of a race. It was worth it to watch the guys finish, and finish with some amazing times. Rhett, one of our newest additions to the run team, finished 7th in the half marathon (with a 1:14), his first attempt at a distance longer than 10k and Jon Obst was 6th in the marathon. We had a lot more top 20 of both races. Did I mention this team is talented?
After the race, we rushed back to the hotel as a lot of the racers had early flights. Since I was a bit hungover in the morning, I had forgotten my cell phone at the hotel and when we returned, there was a message on it. It was my father informing me that my grandmother had passed away. Ugh. From happy to sad in a moment. And then frantic. I had 2 hours to pack, shower and get to the airport. I called my dad back immediately and as I was talking to him, it dawned on me that I had a layover in Minneapolis. Minneapolis is where I fly into when I go home. It would be silly for me to fly all the way to Boston, through Minneapolis, only to come back a day later. So I made a call to my sister (who lives near the airport in Minnesota) and confirmed that she would be able to pick me up, called my dad back to let him know and then called Delta to try to switch my connecting flight to later in the week. Unfortunately, Delta refused to help me and said I’d have to pay for another flight home unless I could provide them with the funeral details (where and when) before the fight, which was about to leave in an hour. I didn’t have that information as it wasn’t decided yet, so I was out of luck. Guess who will never fly Delta again? Anyway, I was on my way to Minneapolis/Wisconsin, armed with clothes suitable Arizona. Good times. I figured my Grandma loved me enough that she wouldn’t care that I was going to show up to her funeral in a racing kit and helmet. 
Despite my reason for the detour, it was nice to see my family. My sister and I would joke that this must have been Grandma’s last gift to us. It would have been another year until I’d be able to see the family (it had already been 1 year) if it hadn’t been for the funeral. We joked, but I wouldn’t put it past her! My grandmother was an amazing woman. She was 83 years old when she died. Not only did she raise my dad and my aunt, but since my aunt had some medical issues, she also raised my cousin. And when my cousin had a billion children of her own (there is a story there which I won’t get into lest Jerry Springer contact me upon reading this blog), she helped raise them too. My grandfather, who was also a type 1 diabetic, passed away 25 years ago, but my grandmother continued to run the lake resort her and my grandfather had built, on her own. She ran those cabins for over 50 years. That’s a lot of hard work for a long, long time! During the few months prior to her death, she started to lose her memory and after a fall in the bathtub, started to suffer from extreme dimentia, so it was a bit of a blessing that she passed before things got worse.
The name of my Grandma’s resort was Rest-A-While-Resort. During the funeral, the reverend made a comment that would be etched into my mind forever. He said “Jean spent her life making sure that everyone else was confortable when they stayed at Rest-A-While. Now it’s time for Jean to be comfortable and rest.” Well said.
I love you Grandma. I hope you are finally resting. For awhile, at least!
