The beginning of the end....

With August 31st approaching pretty quickly, I am finally in the beginning of the end. End to what? Missing toenails, eating gel packs instead of lunch, laundry three times a day, getting up early everyday, I could go on and on forever. Can you tell that I am ready for this Ironman to be over with?

This weekend's training put me over the edge of loving Ironman. Saturday was a 100-miler with Keith at the Silver Comet. I didn't know that it was so beautiful once the trail ends! It opened up to these fields and farms and we saw skydivers (we learned that one died later that day, very sad). Things were going quite nicely on the ride until we went around a sharp corner and there was a break in the trail followed by some railroad tracks. These tracks were curved with the road, and I didn't realize it until it was too late, and I was on the ground. My right hip and left hand took most of the fall. I was in a less than enthusiastic mood at that point. Keith wouldn't accept any sniveling although I thought that my thumb was broken. The tracks won the battle but not to war because I was smart enough to dismount and walk over the rest of the tracks. Finishing the ride (55 miles) in pain wasn't my idea of fun and set the mood for the rest of the weekend.

Sunday I woke up and my hip was killing me. It has a huge knot and bruise on it. I hobbled around and finally made it out to the Hooch around 10:30 am for my 2:30 run. Brilliant!!! It was humid and VERY hot! I saw Pee Wee out there. The 100 miles and fall were still fresh in my legs and the run was pretty slow, but I finished all 2 hours and 30 minutes of it. Knowing I had a cold YooHoo in the car made me want to get it done. At QT I picked up some ice for my ice-bath and the guy asks "Were you just working out?" I told him yes, and he said "In this heat? Are you crazy?" I am starting to think that I am!

Although this weekend was really difficult in terms of training, it taught me that I can suffer a lot. And something tells me that come August 31st, being trained in the art of suffering will come in pretty handy.

Luna Swim Clinic!!

The Atlanta Luna Chix Triathlon Team Presents
a Women-Only Training Event...
Swimming Clinic for Triathletes
Improve your time, stroke and strength!
Choose from two sessions...

Date: Sunday, July 27, 2008
Times: 9a.m.–Noon OR 1–4p.m.
Location: Marist High School Pool
3790 Ashford Dunwoody Rd NE
Atlanta, GA 30319

About: This clinic will include extensive pool time beginning with videotaping of each
swimmer. Based on analysis of each swimmer's stroke and "limiters", the coach
will assign specific drills and offer suggestions for further swim training to achieve
individual goals. Proper stroke technique and drills will be demonstrated and
practiced during the session.
Cost: $100 per swimmer; 50% of the cost will be donated to Breast Cancer Fund.
CASH is preferred. We will also accept checks. No credit or debit cards.
Coach: Tim Storsteen is a former All American and scholarship swimmer at Clemson
University. He has ten years of coaching experience for United States Swimming,
United States Masters Swimming, YMCA, and Triathlon Swim Coaching. He is
certified with American Swim Coaches Association and has over 25 years
experience in competitive swimming. He is currently the Masters coach for
Westminster Killer Whales in Atlanta.

Register: Space is limited! You must have basic swimming
skills to participate (be able to swim 100 yards).
Be sure to reserve your spot by e-mailing
teamlunachixatl@gmail.com and be sure to indicate which session you are attending! Reminder: This is a ladies only event!

The junk in your trunk ride....

Well, this ride was definitely an interesting one and it was different for several reasons.

We didn't know where we were going. I rode with Bob and Sue (Suob) from Tucker to Social Circle. Originally Bob said that it would be 80-90 miles. Than he said 108. Sue just said "I hope this isn't more than 120."Then some of the roads didn't have names, and there was a bridge out on a road we needed to take, so we had to make some turning around. It ended up being 98 miles. One thing I learned: Always ride with peeps that are 1)Smarter than you and 2) stronger than you. That way you will get faster and smarter in the process! Thanks to Bob for being such a good navigation system!

There were some really weird animal encounters on this ride. First there was a billy goat that was loose and eating some grass. He looked up at us like we were crazy and just started chewing on his grass again. At a gas-station stop a little dog came up and started licking my leg. Bob gave it some moonpie and it ran away. Weird. A few miles later we saw what we thought was a dog darting out in the street. Turns out it was a fawn and it made a beeline for Bob. He had to stop and unclip and everything! Although this last encounter wasn't an animal it was still odd: there was a chain gang doing work out in the street and we were descending down a hill and we were yelling but they weren't listening and Bob almost ran into one of the inmates. To top it all off Bob "accidentally" rode into the back of a car that had honked at us. Big day for Bob out there!

The thing that made this ride really different was the following: While stopped at a red light a "young lady" said (to me) "Excuse me. You have really nice legs, but I think that you need to do some squats to get a firmer butt." I said "EXCUSE ME?" and she repeated herself. SERIOUSLY? Did Miss Chunksta just tell me to do some squats after I had ridden my bike for 90 miles? If I hadn't needed my water so badly I probably would have chunked it at her. Instead Bob just said "Okay, thanks!" and we rode off. This is what she was referring to:

These are brand new shorts. I promise they fit well when I tried them on. I can only assume that after riding all day my butt shrinks, causing me to having these "dookey booty" issues as Keith likes to call it.

After the ride I went on a 50-minute run. Ouch. It had just stopped raining and was 10,000% humidity. It wasn't pretty.

So I think that this ride can be formally named the "junk in your trunk" ride. I wasn't the only one with stuff back there:

Bob seriously had more stuff in his trunk than you could believe. 3 ensures, his dentures, moonpies, $100 in change, the garage door opener, bags full of powdered drink mix. Bob was loaded up.

After some post ride refueling at Los Hermanos Dave couldn't help but notice my sagging issues were resolved. Bonus for peeps still in the restaurant eating:

Why I don't work on my own bike.....

The lovely image above shows my bike after racing Chattanooga yesterday. Notice the seat pointing totally upwards? That was the result of me trying to adjust my own saddle Thursday to point downwards per my doctors suggestion. I am officially never, ever, ever, ever, ever, going to touch my bike again unless it's to clean it, change the tire, or put the chain on. Everything else will require professional help! Here's what I thought of the race:

Swim: It started raining right before my swim start. Getting into the river and being told when to start is WAY better than a mass swim start. I took off and was feeling pretty decent. Since it was a point to point swim I wasn't sighting like normal until I see a kayak. This meant that I was swimming towards my right instead of straight forward. Doh! So I started sighting and stuck to the left (closer to the bank of the river). They told us that the bright green buoy was our indicator that the stairs were coming up and I got really excited when I looked up and saw a huge bright green thing. Then a couple of minutes later I swam up to a huge group of guys, at least 40 in green swim caps. How did I catch up with them? I kept swimming and swimming, taking 9 strokes and I sighted, still the same spot I was in before. I knew I wasn't moving and started neither was anyone else. I powered myself through by swimming as hard as I could, then the little whirlpool was gone. Apparently there are little spots in the river where this happens. Didn't know that! Swim was 28:04, about a minute slower than I would have liked.

Bike: This bike course was WAY harder than the one from two years ago! But it was really scenic. There were TONS of potholes and I saw plenty of peeps with flats and water bottles all over the place. Around mile 12 or 13 it started pouring rain. It felt like little pellets hitting my skin. I couldn't see anything and was in my aero bars going down a hill. I looked down and was going 39 mph! The rain finally stopped. Around mile 18 my back was just totally gone. I stood up for some relief and when I sat back down my saddle went the opposite way. Oops. At mile 20 I went over a bump and my saddle dropped back even further. At that point I was just trying to not fall off my bike. It was raining again and since we only had six more miles, I thought it would be okay to not try to adjust it. Right. My hamstrings and calves were lighting up like a Christmas tree during those last six miles. It was totally inefficient and wasting a lot of energy. I was still pleased that I managed to avg. 20 MPH. I got a 2-minute penalty for "positioning" because I passed someone and didn't return to the left. It was because the road was crappy there.

Run: The run was a huge disappointment to me. My legs just weren't feeling like they should have, mostly because of the bike I think. I was so proud of myself for putting my shoes in a plastic bag because they were totally dry. Then not even a mile into the run there was a huge puddle of standing water and I got my feet wet. Ugh. I don't like wet feet. The run was better two years ago in my opinion, I thought that this one was harder. Very steep stairs to climb (I couldn't run up or down them). My run pace was 9:04, AWFUL for six miles. I like the out and back on the run because it gave me a chance to see everyone else running, Tat, Keith, Steve, Steph, Matt, Henry, etc ,etc....seeing peeps always keeps you going!

Total time was 2:45:50, not including my penalty. With the rain and my bike issues, I will take it.

Congrats to Tat and Henry on their first Olympic distance race! This was my first Olympic too in 2006! Thanks to Steven and Dave for their support out there! Congrats to everyone else for racing strong in not so great conditions!

Second lesson of the day: Don't make fun of peeps with flats. Someone we know was laughing at Keith because he flatted on the bike. Not even one mile later she flatted and had to DNF because she didn't have a tube. Bad race Karma!

We're 99.99% sure.....

At least the needle is thin!

We are 99.99% sure that you have a herniated sacral disc. This is what Dr. Hamid and Tom the PT tell me today. Why? Well because instead of getting better, my back is getting worse. The more I train the worse it gets. I am receiving very good care, and very aggressive care, and still I fail all the tests that they give me and my back goes numb within 5 minutes of sitting down. Very frustrating! So far I have done ART treatment, Gratson technique treatment, at-home PT exercises, Dry Needling (wow....8 inch needle in my back and then shocking it so my back will twitch....not fun!!!), and today they hooked me up to a contraption that buckled my feet in and twisted me while pulling me. I joked that they might actually add a couple of inches to me! The only way to be totally sure that this is a herniated disc is with an MRI. So I guess that I need to pony up the money and get it done. They said it's not really necessary because they are treating me like I have one anyways, and there isn't much else they can do. Surgery is only for people with excruciating pain who are experiencing numbness and pain all the time.

The really bad news? That the more I train the worse this is going to get. They promised to get me through the next 6 1/2 weeks until my IM and than I HAVE TO HAVE TO take a break. They told me that they are just putting a band aid on my symptoms, not "fixing" anything. So I have to take the break. A break from what you ask? The BIKE of all things. Ugh. The only thing I could spend all day doing is the thing that is causing me this discomfort. Go figure. If I don't back off? The numbness will get worse, I will feel it all day long, have to get cortisone injections, and eventually it could become debilitating. Double ugh. I love riding my bike but not with those type of risks!!!

What caused this you ask? Well a trauma. Most herniated disc are the result of lifting heavy objects (haven't done that), car accidents, and falling and landing on your back/sacral area. Kind of like getting hit by a car and landing on the ground I ask?Yup....just like that (left hip hit the windshield of the car) and the good Dr. said that was probably the likely culprit. So this disc has been out of whack for a while but I am reaching my "threshold" where it will cause me pain.

So for now? I am taped up. Like I said, I am trying everything possible at this point. I have pretty strict instructions and LOTS of new exercises to do (like holding plank for 2 minutes!) I am not giving up on the .01% chance that this may just be an entrapped nerve.

Don't laugh at the tan lines! This might actually work!

It's better to give than to receive.....

Well today is my birthday!!! I am officially 27 years old. No more USAT induced confusion (I have been telling everyone I was 27 or sometimes 28 all year long!)

Birthdays are more special after my accident. I look at life a little differently and really appreciate and try to celebrate the fact that I am alive on my birthday! This year I wanted to do something more than "go out to eat", I wanted to figure out a way to honor life. So I decided what better way to honor my life and my birthday than to help someone who is struggling to keep theirs?

I cut off all my hair to donate it to an organization that makes real-hair wigs for people with cancer! The last time I did this I didn't fully understand the impact of what I was doing. I was complaining about how short my hair was, it wouldn't fit in a ponytail, etc,etc, but this time is different. I was talking to a friend of the family today who has breast cancer. She recently had a double mastectomy and will undergo reconstructive surgery on the 17th. When she asked me how I was celebrating my birthday and I told her what I did she just started crying. She said "Thank you. Thank you from all of us that have cancer. You are such a special person to think about others. What you did was really special and it will make a difference." Of course at that point I was crying too. Hearing her say that to me was the best birthday present that I could ever receive!

Don't wait until your birthday to figure out a way to honor your life and do something special for someone. Appreciate the gifts and talents that you have been given and live everyday to the fullest!

Many thanks to everyone for the b-day calls, text messages, e-mails, etc, etc, I really appreciate all of you guys!