Search and Rescue

Yesterday I decided to try a new trail: Stone Mountain. I love things that are new and exciting! Hunter gave me several tips 1) it is very rooty so be careful 2) there are several places where you might need to walk 3) don't wear your music. He also tried to explain where the path would take me but honestly, I didn't get it at all. I am horrible with directions, even one's like "cross over Stonewall and go around the lake" I told Hunter how long I thought it would take me to complete the run and said "if you don't hear from me come looking" and he did!

The trails at Stone Mountain are way more challenging than at Kennesaw Mountain. I am a big fan. It was beautiful out there running around lakes and not having any clue where I was. My Achilles were very sore and my soleus muscle was ON FIRE! I kept hearing things in the woods and I wanted so desperately to turn around and look for deer but I was afraid that I would fall because I had slipped twice at this point. Then it happened: I fell! It was only a matter of time. I picked myself up and brushed off all the dirt. I had no business running on this part of the trail anyways. I got to the divide in the trail and didn't know which way to go so I choose left (of course I was supposed to go right).

On the way back in I ran into Sudie who was doing an 18 mile run in prep for IM Florida. What a rockstar. I want to run 18 miles on the trails! We stopped and chatted for a while. This must have thrown off my awesome navigation skills because I continued on my path and saw a little old man, then about 3/4 of a mile later I ran into him again. Hummm.....I asked him if I was headed to the end of the trail and he said "Nope, you are just running in a circle!" He directed me back to my car and I made it. 6.2 miles total.

Poor Hunter was surely worried about me because he really did come looking! I was gone longer than I told him I would be. What a great guy! And NO, I didn't run with music. Mostly because I had no choice, both my Itouch and my Nano are jacked up! My phone is messed up too, so if you call me and I don't answer, it's probably decided to randomly turn itself off once again!

Have I ever told you how much I love trail running? Mountain biking anyone???

Rubbed raw!

Yesterday was my first ever three hour run. I went as terrifically splendid as a run can possibly be when you are on the verge of a stomach explosion at the end and just plain uncomfortable. I think that I was drinking a bit too much water and that was the reason my tummy was upset, because I only ate three gels and had 24 ounces of gatorade. Water? That's another story. LOTS of water. I was super hot and was sweating like I have NEVER sweat before! In fact at mile 13 I took of my socks because they were soaking wet (I can't stand having my feet wet!) and ran the last 5 miles with no socks and wet shoes. But I didn't get blisters so it looks like my 8 remaining toenails are safe! But I was having a ton of discomfort where my sports bra was rubbing me. I knew that it was rubbing me raw (this sometimes happens when I sweat a lot) but what I wasn't expecting was this:

It's kind-of hard to tell from the pic, but it's actually quite painful. Today it looks even worse. It looks like a blister and hurts worse than road rash. There's a lot more but it's not in places that I can show 'ya! During the night it got all oozy and was stuck to my shirt when I woke up this morning. Nice. I was concerned that the water in the pool would burn really badly so I pulled over on the way to my swim and squirted myself with my water bottle to test it out. Bearable so I went to the pool. Probably not the best for the sanitation of the pool, but the chlorine needs to kill something right?

The good news is that I have learned that I need to 1) use body glide and 2) not wear that sports bra for IM. I already turn my bra inside out on a suggestion, so if you ladies have any other tricks let me know 'cuz this burns!

I am late posting the pics from the huge storm we had on Sunday. Lightening stuck a tree in the courtyard and it went down over cars, a gate, and literally stopped at someones front door. If the tree had fallen the other direction it would been right on top of a house and destroyed it. The people who live 8 feet from the tree were truly blessed!

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!

If you can't take the heat.....

This is what I call working up a sweat!

In an effort to become acclimated to the heat I will be racing/suffering in two weeks from yesterday, I am not using any air conditioning. I consulted with an Environmental Exercise Physiologist who suggested that I just not let my body get accustomed to the cooler air inside my house and car. So far so good because the weather has been pretty mild. Friday the house started to get pretty hot, especially when I had the dryer on because it spews out moist heat. Thermostat read 80 degrees when I got on the trainer for a two-hour ride. In the end I was SOAKING wet, like wringing sweat out of my socks and everything! It was disgusting! Then I went to shower and noticed that I still had sweat all over my shoulders. But it turned out to be little sweat blisters, probably caused by getting too much sun last weekend on my shoulders then the massive build-up of sweat from the trainer. How odd! They went away by Saturday morning.