Ramblings and Galvestone Race Report

Me Whining that I had one more loop to do

The Finish...

I can’t seem to keep up with my workout blog. I know I’m bad. It’s really hard to find the time to devote to it though. I go to work, and then I go to workout, then come home and eat and the last thing I want to do is spend time on the computer. My poor dog, doesn’t even get to spend time with me. Did I mention that I hired a dog walker? She comes twice a week and spends an hour with Hannah. Sometimes my neighbor will take her too… though, I’m probably going to have to hire the dog walker to come three times a week now instead of two. I usually get to walk her on Friday’s, Saturday’s, and Sunday’s. She spent the past weekend over at Dave and Agnes’s house. Dave and Agnes, are two friends of mine that I met playing soccer. They have a sheltie named Chi, and Chi loves Hannah. I went to pick Hannah up on Monday night and I don’t think she was too happy to leave. My house must be so boring to her. Once my cat Gemini passes away, then I’ll consider getting another dog, although, by that time, Hannah may have passed away. I don’t like to think about that. Hannah is around 9 years old now, and gets arthritis a bit. She’s like a daughter to me. I just can’t imagine loosing her. It was tough enough loosing Pyawacket last year. God I miss Pyawacket! Sometimes I dream about her. I dream she is in my arms. I don’t want another cat. There’s no way they could even come close to Pyawacket. Gemini is sweet, he has his quirks, and a lot of issues. Is it bad that Pyawacket was my favorite? I feel guilty about it. I love Gemini, and I’m sure I’ll miss his personality when he passes. I don’t want to deal with cats anymore though, only if they are outdoor cats. I’m writing this blog post on an airplane. I’m making a business trip to Minneapolis, and am typing this out on my computer to post later. Someone left a People magazine and they had a story about a woman who put a camera on her cat. The camera hangs around the cat’s collar and it automatically takes a picture every two minutes. Of course, it’s an outdoor cat. She had an art show and sold the pictures for $250 a pop. What an amazing idea. You know I always thought it would be cool to know what your cat is doing all day if it’s an outdoor cat, and now they know. There are pictures of the cat birdwatching, there’s a picture of another cat under a car. It’s just kind of fascinating. I would love to do that, but I don’t have an outdoor cat. I’d be too afraid that my cat would get hit by a car or hurt somehow. Anyways, I digress….
So, this past weekend I did the Galveston Lonestar Half Iron Triathlon. This was my first half ironman since doing Longhorn in 2007 and not finishing. Before that, I had done the Conroe half ironman and it took me 8 hours and 9 minutes to do. Well, this weekend I did the half in 6 hours and 44 minutes! Not a great time at all, but a huge improvement for me. I took an hour and 15 minutes off of my time! And, what is really cool, is that I got that time despite walking half of the run. Yep, I walked half of the run. It was just so hot! The weather here in Texas is crazy, it’ll be seering hot one day and then freezing cold the next. I wasn’t expecting it to get as hot as it got. I think the only thing that kept me from overheating was the massive amount of wind. It was windy in general, however, the wind really picked up towards the end of my bike. On the run, it was tough, as we were running into a headwind at least half of the time. I wanted to do 6 and a half hours, and now I know that I can. Had it not been as hot and windy, I definitely would have achieved that. Galveston was a flat course. I’m curious as to how I’ll do on a hillier course. The weekend prior to the half iron, I did a 100 mile bike and a 20 mile run (well actually a 17 mile run, but close enough). This is all part of ironman training. I decided to do the Salado Century ride as it was a ride with aide stations. When given the choice of riding 100 miles without aide stations, or paying the $35 to have aide stations, I’ll choose the latter any day. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, the bike can be miserable. I was extremely pleased that I did the bike in 7 hours and 45 minutes. And, it was incredibly windy that day. The weather report stated winds of up to 30mph! Only nine of us finished the 100 mile course. It was tough, especially when having to work on a downhill because it was so windy. The next day we were slated to run 20miles, but I only did 17. I don’t feel too guilty about that though, as once you get above a certain amount of miles, it’s all the same. What amazes me is that in the half ironman I did this past weekend it took me 2 hours and 29 minutes despite walking. I would think it would take longer than that. When I did the half marathon, it took me 2 hours and 10 minutes, and I ran hard. At least hard for me. I kept up with the 9 miinute 40 second a mile pace group for the first 9 miles, and then slowed. The hills were killer after mile 9.
Now to talk about my race nutrition…..

My official Galveston half iron race report:

I got up at 5 am, took a shower and ate 2 bagels with strawberry cream cheese, and a banana. I then went down to set up my transition area. I had racked my bike the night before, so I wasn’t too concerned about setting up. I got there, and was told that I had racked my bike the correct way. Honestly, I don’t see why it matters what side your bike is racked on. They had us assigned by our race number and I had racked my bike by the brakes on the handlebars so that my number on the rack was visible. I didn’t hang it by the seat as my bike is so small that it would be hanging instead of having the wheel touch the ground. Anyways, I set up all my stuff, and then went back to the hotel room to finish eating (as I had only eaten the one bagel at that point) and to put on my sunscreen and wetsuit. I had a lot of time as the race officials decided to start the Olympic distance racers first at 7:30, and the half iron didn’t start until 8:25. My wave was slated to leave at 8:35. I was not happy about that. The later the start, the longer we are out in the sun and heat. It was a hot day. Why on earth would they start the Olympic distance people first when we have farther and longer to go? The later we start, the later in the afternoon we are out there. Not good in my book. Anyways, I got my wetsuit on halfway and checked out of the hotel, and then headed back over to transition. When I got to transition I noticed that somebody had changed the direction of my bike, and I got angry. One of the officials happened to be there and told me that I was racked wrong (even though the volunteer told me I was racked correctly when I first went down there) and that other triathletes moved my bike so that it would be racked correctly, so that I would not be penalized. Ok, that’s cool, not a big deal. I appreciate the fact that other triathletes were willing to help me out. What I did not notice at the time though, was that they had moved my towel with all my stuff on it. This will be important later. Anyways, everything is good to go, I find all my T3 team mates and we hang out waiting for the half to start. Unfortunately, they started us late, as they had to move the triangular turn buoys further out, as they were closer in so that the Olympic distance athletes knew where to turn. I appreciate the fact that they moved them for us so that we wouldn’t get confused and turn early, although, I was not happy that my wave did not start until 9:00 am. I find 9:00 am an unacceptable start time for a half ironman distance triathlon. This meant that I wasn’t going to be starting the run until around 1 pm. Anyways, it was a floating start. They had us descend on ladders off of a dock and swim to the starting buoys. I thought this was inconvenient at the time; however, I’m glad that we had to swim to the start as this gave me time to get used to the cold water. Something about cold water takes my breath away, and it feels difficult to swim when you first dunk your head in it. We floated for about 2 minutes or so before the start and I positioned myself to the far left of the start. I tend to swim to the right, and I was going to make a real effort to stay as close to the buoys as possible, because, I didn’t want to swim any more than I had to. I did pretty good at staying on course and probably sighted about every 5 strokes or so. I accidently had a little bit of acid reflux come up right before the swim start while I was floating there (Here fishy fishy). I wasn’t nervous, so I don’t want to say it was nerves. The swim went smoothly, the difference for me this time is that my swimming has improved so much that I was constantly surrounded by people and I caught up with a lot of people in the group ahead of me. That was cool. I only had to dodge one breast stroaker. Came out of the water tired and walked to my bike, this is when I noticed that nothing was as I had left it on my towel. I was having to search for everything, and almost panicked because I couldn’t find my socks. Luckily I found them, but it added a lot of time to my transition. Apparently, the triathletes that correctly racked my bike, had moved my towel, and that got me all discombobulated, because nothing was where I had set it. So, unfortunately, due to all this, I forgot to put on my white longsleeve sun guard. The bike went well. It was so nice to not be last for once. It was windy, so that slowed me down considerably. I also, had accidently put my Infinit nutrition in my aero bottle instead of my water. I was still feeling the food from breakfast and experiencing a little bit of acid reflux. I went through my aero bottle and one other bottle of nutrition, and only half the bottle of water. I didn’t drink nearly enough water. I felt full and bloated though, so I didn’t want to drink it. I don’t think I was drinking too much nutrition since I only went through two bottles of it. I’m supposed to get 230 calories an hour on the bike and that is only 2 hours worth of nutrition for the 3 hours and 17 minutes that it took me to ride the bike, and I still felt bloated. Got in, from the bike, put on my T3 jersey, that was hard to do as I was all gross and sticky and getting it on was hard. I used a towel to cover myself while I changed into running shorts, and then put on my long sleeve sunguard. That all added to my transition time. Then I started the run. I wanted to throw up, but couldn’t, and I also kinda felt the need to pee, but couldn’t manage that either. I didn’t start to really feel great on the run until about the third loop. There were 4 loops of the course. So, I pretty much walked the first two loops and ran the last two loops. I’m not sure what I did wrong in the nutrition area, but I’m pretty sure this is the source of my issues and not the workout itself. What amazes me is that I did not overheat! It was really hot! It was so windy though, that this could have been why I didn’t overheat. It was tough running into head on winds throughout the run. The wind really picked up on the run, and things were blowing everywhere. People couldn’t keep their tents up, trashcans were blowing all over the place etc… Also, there was no s hade on the run. All in all, a good race experience. I’m so excited that I’ve improved so much and really want to work on getting faster on the bike and swim. Those are the two areas I think I can really affect. I’ll always be a slow runner, and with the hotter weather about to come, my run times will slow. I will likely not do the Galveston race next year, because I don’t like the fact that we start so late in the morning. I also did not like the sand blowing in my face on the bike. I also need to get used to swimming in a wetsuit. I think I could have gone faster. I barely kicked on the swim and wasn’t really focusing on my form. If I can start doing those two things, I think I can shave some time off of my swim.

Tough week

Last weekend was extremely tough!! I had my longest bike ride ever this past Saturday. 88 miles. It was not a pleasant experience. It's almost comical as everything that could go wrong did!

First of all, I was going slow and people that don't generally pass me, passed me, I could not figure it out. Why was I going so slow, why couldn't I keep up?? Well, as it turns out, that lovely sticky Infinit nutrition that I take in my aero bottle that splashes out at every little bump in the road, got on the spring of my brake and locked it up, causing my brake pad to rub against my wheel. Basically every time I used my brakes it would do this for quite a while before it loosened and then as soon as I used my brakes again it would rub again. God, no wonder.... It was a hilly course and I did use my brakes quite a bit. Ever since the bike wreck, I get nervous going fast down hill... Go figure... .. A friend of mine offered to clean my bike for me and he couldn't believe all of the sticky residue covering my bike. he's the one that discovered that my brakes were rubbing against my tire. That makes me a little relieved. It does make me wonder, if it is that sticky what is it doing to my body.... Do I change nutrition? Big question... In order to do the ironman I will need to take in at least 230 calories an hour on the bike. It's much easier to get all that in using liquid than real food. So, do I change my aero bottle, put my Infinit in bottles instead, or switch nutrition? I really don't want to have to switch nutrition, I don't want to put it in bottles instead of an aero bottle, because if I do that, I won't drink as much plus... on this bike, it is hard to stay on coarse and drink from my bottles. I get nervous everytime I have to take out or replace a bottle. I've also been told that I need to be drinking plain water too. I think it would be ideal for me to have one of those dual aero bottles with a lid, to where I can put water on one side, and nutrition on the other. That way they will always be in front of me.

Secondly, while I was on my last three miles of the bike, I got stung by a bee on the tongue. Luckily, I'm not allergic to bees. It took everything in me to do the second loop. We were supposed to do a 50 minute brick after the bike, but since the bee sting happened I wanted to have a medic look at it, and it took me so long to do the damn ride, (thanks sticky brakes) that I didn't want to bother doing the run, as I would've been the last person to leave.

Third incident was that I got food poisoning from the chicken fajitas they served after the ride, therefore I was unable to do my 17 mile run on Sunday. I had to make up for it on Monday night. I managed to get in 14 miles before the sun set. There were at least 11 other people that got the food poisining... and many of them tried to run the next day, I stayed in bed. No way, no how am I gonna even attempt to run with that issue. I've had it happen in the past and it is a miserable experience.

I wore a long sleeve white shirt and that worked out great in terms of protecting me from the sun. I think I'm going to do this from now on, I've ordered a Craft cool max white long sleeve shirt and a coverlet as well. I did get a sunburn on my wrist where the shirt rode up on my arm. I think it is important for me to wear long sleeves, as no matter how much sunblock I slather on, I will get burnt. They say there are people there to put sunblock on you in transition, but honestly, I'll be all wet and sweaty. I just don't trust that it will stick. I have a 100 mile run to do this weekend and a 20 mile run. It's gonna be another tough one. Luckily there is a century ride in Salado that will have aide stations. That is probably the only thing that will get me through it. After riding 88 miles, I dread riding 100. I dread it more than running 20. The thing that makes running somewhat bearable is that I kind of turn into a robot. After a certain point, you just keep going and going. However, on the bike, it's easy to bonk. It's easy to want to cry, It's easy to want to say "What the hell am I doing this for". There's no rescue on the bike. You can't just stop and walk back to your car, whereas in running, you can at least walk. What terrifies me, is that due to my injuries, and last week's debacle, I haven't done one brick workout yet. Ironman trianing would have been ideal had I not had the herniated disk, had I not had the bike wreck, had I been able to get my ass out of bed at 5 in the morning to make morning swims so that I can do evening workouts as well. Alas, it was not to be. I am getting in all my hours. I am only running once during the week and spinning once during the week and swimming twice during the week... it would be ideal if I could run and spin twice during the week in addition to the long runs and bikes on the weekend. Oh well, I'd rather have a job and not be able to train as much than to not have a job I guess. Yes, it would be great if I didn't have to work, and could devote my time to training.

Top 25 stealing from Jim

Top 25 things I've learned while training for an Ironman

25. Goo is really hard to get out of car carpet
24. This sport is Godly expensive
23. No one wants to see a worn out bathing suit
22. Massages are good for you... ahhh massage....
21. You will have no social life
20. No matter how hard you try it is almost impossible to not miss a training hour here or there
19. Tri bikes really do make all the difference in the world
18. No matter how thin I am, I will always look fat in a wetsuit
17. You can never eat enough
16. Liquid nutrition is soooooooo much easier to deal with
15. Liquid nutrition is sticky as hell and will get all over your bike and body leading to chaffing
14. Body glide, your new best friend
13. Triathlon is a sport with lots of beautiful people
12. Peeing in public will happen at some point
11. Not caring about peeing in public
10.You will have to buy a new wardrobe due to weight loss
9. There is actually a petite size 0 in the fashion world and you will be able to wear it
8. Petite size 2 and under clothing is impossible to find
7. You will have an injury at some point
6. Foam rollers hurt like hell
5. Bike grease is almost impossible to get off
4. You'll have to hire someone to spend time with your dog
3. Sleeping in is a luxury
2. Riding computrainers is actually harder than riding for real
1. It's not a matter of if you crash on the bike, it's when you crash

Things seem to be getting better

I've been remiss in writing on my blog. A lot of it has to do with the whole brouhaha that erupted from one of my posts. I'm still amazed at the immature behavior that was exhibited by some of my fellow triathletes. If you don't like something someone says, the nice thing to do is to privately tell that person something like "hey, what you wrote bothered me", or "wow Laurie, I'm sorry you feel that way, is there anything I can do to help?" That's what I usually do, or I just respect that person's opinion and don't say anything. I don't go and post snide comments for the world to see on facebook targeted at that person, and I certainly don't start spreading nasty lies and enciting others to act out negatively towards that person. Anyways, what is done is done, and hopefully we can all move on.

In terms of training, I think things are going well. I ran my first ever 15 mile distance yesterday, and the weather was absolutely perfect for it. :)
I ran slowly and didn't worry about my speed or pace. I'm running a comfortable 10 minute mile pace, at least for the first 10 to 13 miles. That makes me feel good. I've scheduled a ton of sessions on the computrainer to do the actual CDA course and I'm a little concerned that the hills are going to make this a difficult ride for me. I was hoping to be able to do the ride in 7 hours, but after doing some of it on the computrainer, I'm starting to realize that that may not be possible. It's hard being slow. I'm not doing an ironman to get an amazing time, and I'm certainly not trying to qualify for Hawaii. My body just wasn't built to be fast. It's hard to train with so many really fast people. Believe it or not, being slow seems to be in the minority of this group. The coaches had an info session today where they talked a lot about nutrition and race pace, and they were saying things like you may not run a 7 minute mile, that it is more realistic to try and run an 8 minute mile. Er.... gee, I'll be lucky if I can sustain a 10 minute mile for the whole marathon. I'm pretty sure I won't be able to do that. Kind of embarrasing huh. People ask me why I'm doing an ironman if I"m so slow...

To T3 Friends

I would like to apologize for offending anyone with my blog posting. I was not intending to viciously attack anyone. I was venting my frustration with what I and some others I have spoken to perceive is a problem. I was not trying to disparage T3, as I love T3 and T3 members, but to disparage the particular bad habits that we as humans tend to portray in any social environment. I like the majority of T3 members and would like for us to all get along. I know in all social environments that there are people we will like and people we won’t like and I would like to see us work together as a team to resolve any and all problems, as until we acknowledge them and agree to work on them, the problem is still there. I hope this message sheds a little more light onto what I was thinking and trying to convey.

I would like to Thank....

Yes, I would like to thank the person, who read my blog, and then went and called all her friends and griped about it and told them to read it. It proves the exact point that I was trying to make. None of these people that you called were the ones I was talking about, none of these people that you called read my blog, but now, due to your actions you have caused a few people to be very upset. I do not understand people like you. People who start gossip just to hurt other people, people that thrive on hurting others. People who broadcast their snide comments to the whole world. Does it make you feel better about yourself?

A giant snag in my training plans

okay, I just wrote a nice long entry and lost it all because the internet cable came out of the computer. This is the THIRD internet cable that has broken. Grrr.

So unfortunately, as I write this I am not in a happy mood. The bike accident has been the tip of the iceberg in terms of a mountain of distractions that have now caused me to be depressed. My biggest concern is that I have fallen behind in the training and that makes me sad. First it was the herniated disk that caused me to fall behind, and I had finally caught back up, only to be sidelined by the major bike crash last weekend. Ironically, I was getting in more workouts before the "official ironman training" began. I'd like to say that it is work that has caused the problem, and even though it has become a bit of an interferance most of it is due to the injuries. I guess I need to learn that something is always going to come up to prevent you from completing all hours of training on the schedule. I would love to have to not work and be able to focus more time on my training but I guess that's life for you.

Another factor in my rapid depression onset is the fact that T3 has become a social group with distinct cliques, just like high school. I've never been high on the popularity index, but I'm not a bad person. It bothers me that such petty, stupid things go on at our age. Granted there are a range of ages in the group, but we are all adults. There have been four factors that have caused me to not want to participate in the social aspect anymore, first one, xxxxxxxxxxxx, second, I've been the victim of malicious untrue gossip, third a female member intentionally did something incredibly bitchy to me, and fourth is the unintentional slighting in the bike accident. I won't go into more detail on that because I will sound petty and selfish but it's something that happened that weighs on my mind, and causes me not to feel the team aspect anymore. I don't have the desire to go to group social functions anymore and that makes me sad. There are people in the group that I really do like, and unfortunately for me I have no one to do the long rides or runs with. It sucks in all honesty. There I've said it, I've ranted, and gotten my feelings out. I'm really glad that I do have triathlon friends outside of the group, as I"m just not feelin the love if you know what I mean. The few of you in the group who do read this blog may feel insulted, and I do not mean to insult. Anyone who does bother to read this, obviously aren't the people who have contributed to my unhappiness, as those people don't read my blog. At least I don't think they do. Anyways, as petty as it is, it's all having a real affect on me and I want to document it in case I do write a book of my ironman experience. I thought only the hash house harriers had drama. Pshh was I wrong. Oh well, we are only human I suppose.

Speaking of being human, I've been thinking a lot about life, religion, evolution, the universe, etc.. lately. I feel like I'm going through a pre-mid life crisis. I feel young enough to not claim mid life. Hey...I'm not forty yet! :)

But honestly, I've been questioning everythng and wondering how people who do wrong can live with themselves. I'm not talking about piddly things like the soap opera I just wrote about, but things like ethnic cleansing, things like corporate CEO's cheating their employees, ruthless ponzi schemes that have left people penniless. There are too many of them to claim that they are all sociopaths, yet that is the only thing I can think of that would explain how they can do these things. I'm upset over the madoff and stanford money scandals, i"m upset over the greed that has put billions into their pockets, their families pockets, and into the CEO's pockets that have run their companies to the ground. Is there no justice in this world? and why is justice so important to me? I'm furious that Spansion (a company here in Austin) has just given a big raise to their executives that literally ran the company into the ground, and yet fired several thousand employees with NO SEVERANCE. How can they live with themselves??? I'm furious that most of them will not spend a day in jail. The one person I can somewhat admire is martha stewart, as she admitted to her guilt and served her time, what she did was wrong, but at least she copped up to it and took her punishment with dignity. It does bother me that she did this over only $250,000, which to her is pennies. The woman is worth millions to billions in dollars and yet, she's going to be a bitch and break the law over a measly $250,000 ?? Measly to her that is.... The amount of greed in this world astounds me. Why do I feel that all humans must be treated equally, that this land belongs to all of us, and that no one person deserves to be king? What gives a person the right to claim themselves a monarch? I will never bow to a king or queen or any royalty as to me we are all humans and all deserve equal respect. Does that sound marxist of me? I don't know, I'm starting to ramble, so I'll end this post now. I did meet a fascinating man last night and we had a wonderful intellectual conversation about all of this. It's nice to meet a stranger and be able to have these sort of conversations.

The Bike Crash and recuperation

okay, I guess I should explain what happened. I had a very serious bike crash this past Saturday. We were scheduled to do a 70 mile ride and a 45 minute run. The route was a 43 mile loop of the manor/elgin backroads aka "The Rosedale Ride", and then a 28 mile loop. I started an hour early as I knew it was going to be a loooong ride. First of all, it is verrry windy out there on that particular route. I did the 72 mile Rosedale Ride a few years ago, and I have to say it was one of the most miserable rides of my life. So, I was prepared for it to take a while. Plus there was rain in the forecast. Several of us started together at 7am. The group was a group that I usually ride with, but a certain someone decided to drop the bomb and go all out at the beginning and thus the pack followed and I fell behind. Actually two of us fell behind. I ended up riding with a nice girl named Diana, who I hadn't met before. She had a road bike vs. a tri-bike and I could see she was having to work harder on the hills. Anyways, it was nice to have her to ride with. When we finished the 43 mile loop the rest of the pack had all put up their bikes and were about to start their run. They all wimped out and decided not to do the 28 mile loop. Granted it had rained a teeny bit, but the wind hadn't even picked up at that point. Diana didn't want to do the second loop so I left to do it on my own. As I was heading out on the second loop, that's when the wind decided to pick up. I passed all the T3'ers who were coming in from their first loop (they had started later than us), and eventually I was back out in the middle of nowhere by myself. The roads were in extremely bad condition. It was dry at this point and I was on a road called Melber, and was going really fast on a downhill when I hit this earthquake like crack in the road. I lost control of the bike, and had a major crash smack in the middle of the road.
I don't remember a car coming, however, when I came to my senses a couple had rushed out of their car to help me. Everything was blurry and I was crying. It's almost as if I was watching someone else. I don't know why I was crying, it's hard to explain, but it felt like someone else just took possession of my body and I was just shoved to the side. Anyways, they called an ambulance, and it took them several minutes to get out there, as it was literally in the middle of nowhere. The nice couple took my bike for me, and gave me their number to call and pick it up. I ended up having another T3'er who lives out there pick it up for me. So, I haven't had a chance to check it out yet and see the damage, although Chrissie says it doesn't look bad. I'm going to have to take it in the bike shop and get it looked over. Obviously, I got the brunt of the damage.
Apparently, when my friend went to pick up the bike, they got angry at him because I was riding alone. Even when I'm riding with the group, I always end up by myself for a great portion of the bike. No one rides at the same speed as me, and I'm inbetween groups. I'm faster than the slower folks, but slower than the faster folks. Maurice actually scolded me for riding by myself. Hello!!!! I'm going to be by myself during the ironman anyways. I can't help it if everyone else is either too fast or too slow for me, or if they wimp out and decide not to do the ride. I really wanted to do the ride, as I had not done my 60 miler the weekend before, so I really felt that I needed to get the miles in. I took Monday off, worked from home Tuesday , and went back into the office today. God, I hate how people stare at me. My face is still black and blue and swollen, and I just know that everyone is thinking that some boyfriend beat the shit out of me. It's funny, some people will come outright and ask what happened whereas others won't because they feel they are prying if they do, or are afraid of what the answer will be.

Bike Crash

A picture speaks a thousand words!

Herniated disk

Yep, it's true, I have a herniated disk in my C5 and C7 spine. I went to the pain doctor today and told him that I did not want to do the epidural. Quite honestly, the steroid shots have worked, and the pain is almost completely gone. I ran the half marathon yesterday, and did my best time ever and the shoulder didn't hurt at all. I was running a 9:43 per mile pace for the first 9 1/2 miles, then slowed down a little on the hills. God, those hills were brutal! The weather was awesome. Nice and cold :) The doctor went over the MRI with me, and he is referring me to not one, not two, but THREE different doctors. He wants me to get a second opinion from a spine doctor, then he wants me to get a nerve test on my left arm, as the fingers are numb and he wants to see if this is permanent damage (God I hope not), and then to a new (this will be my third) physical therapist, who just happens to be out of network! Geez, I've spent so much money on medical issues in the past few months. First the tooth implant, and now this. I'm getting my temporary crown next week. He better do a good job of putting it in, as last time, my temporary tooth kept falling out and I was having to go in every day for him to re-attach it. This one I'm wearing now, has lasted since before Christmas. Can you tell I'm getting old? and I haven't even reached 40 yet!!

Just when I finally feel beautiful and secure of myself, my body starts to break down. ....

Feeling Guilty

I had a nice B-day happy hour on Friday. Dream man even showed up! I honestly did not think he would come and he didn't RSVP. What a nice B-day surprise!! There's hope yet. We were at a place called house wine. It's this really old little house that they converted to a wine bar. It's really cool. I didn't drink a whole lot as I had the intention of getting up early to do the 60 mile bike ride. I was going to ride with Alison at 9 instead of with the group, and she called to tell me she couldn't ride in time for me to still make the group ride, and what do I do? I go back to sleep. Now, I"m feeling super guilty. I'm running the half marathon tomorrow. Should be interesting to see what my time will be. It's going to be cold, at least for the beginning of the race, so hopefully my shoulder won't flare up or my knees. It would have been ideal had I done the 60 mile ride today, as it would give me a good idea of what my half ironman times would be for the run and the bike. Oh well, it did feel good to sleep in though :)

Oh, and I fully intend to go swim in Barton Springs after the run. Then off to help lay my hash trail for the hash house harriers.

I think the back is actually healing!

Yes, I can now make it through running and spin and the pain isn't that bad. I notice it most now when I am sleeping. The arm is getting better too. I didn't really have any issues in the aero bars on the bike tonight. I went in to the pain doctor for a follow up and they want me to get an epidural shot in my spine. I think that is a little drastic and am going to ask for another round of trigger point injections instead. Also, I found out that my co-pay for the epidural shot is $650.00. That is a little extreme as well.

slowly healing

I went and got the steroid shots in my back this week, and I also got a massage on Saturday, and I have to say it has helped. The pain is still there, but at least now it is bearable. I managed to get my 10 mile run in today and then went and swam in Barton Springs in my new wetsuit. It felt great. Did about 30 miles on the bike on Saturday, before the shoulder started flaring up. Well, I'm turning 39 this week, Ugh!!! I've been putting off making plans because I'm not excited about turning 39. Each day, I'm inching towards 40 and that scares me. I never really felt old, or even felt that I looked old, until I saw the T3 picture book they took for the Ironman CDA participants. Major Crows feet, around my eyes. Plus the roots of my hair are showing. I"m getting grey hair now so I dye it a reddish color.

I went to Church today. First time I've gone in a few years, and the sermon was on being single, and how it can be a good thing. It really did make me feel better. There is nothing wrong with me because I am single. Actually, I think it's good that I'm single, as I've dated a lot of real jerks this year, and I'm just plain tired of it. The only reason I'm mentioning this, is that I had a date on Saturday night, who again, asked the question of why I haven't been married yet, thus making me feel old. I've decided that I am not going to date anymore until I meet my dream guy. I have an image of him in my head, and that's that. Should save me from a lot of pain and frustration. I think that most people that I know that are married or have been married are not happy, and with the high divorce rate, I should be proud. Well, I don't have anything enlightening to say and I"m tired, so goodnight. :)

The back pain issue

I've decided to switch to blogger from MS live as it seems I can do more here. Well, as you know from reading my previous blogs, I've been dealing with major back/neck/shoulder issues on my left side. It has affected my training. This past weekend was tough. I did the Dam loop ride on Saturday and it was painful. Bearable, but still painful, and I know I did not go as fast as I could have. Aside from the pain, it was a pretty good ride. (I only got honked at once)
Unfortunately, I only managed to run 4 miles on Sunday. I've attached a picture of the trail run that I decided to do with the Austin Hash. That was around 4 miles, and then I went to Lady Bird Lake to run more and the shoulder was just bothering me too much.

Today, I went and got trigger point injections in my back. It's still sore, and I decided to take the day off from working out. The pain is somewhat diminished, the true test will be to see how it feels when we do mile repeats tomorrow night. Swimming has been pretty good. I actually can't feel the pain when I swim. I'm going to try really really hard to get up and make the 5:30 am swim tomorrow morning. It's just so hard to get up at 5 am, and I have to have everything laid out and ready to go the night before, which if anyone knows me, knows that I do not like to organize or pack so it's tough. I'll let you know what happens!

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