August 7, 2008

Trouble Indeed

Totally addicted to Facebook. I just knew that was going to happen. But it's fun! And you'd be surprised to know how many people have Facebook accounts. Astounding! Definitely not something for just high school/college kids. Besides, I think I was thinking of myspace.com, which is different. I think. Anyway, I still haven't figured Facebook totally out. There is a feature where you can write something on someone's wall. That's weird. You can also "poke" people. Which I think is even weirder.

In other news, I AM SO EXCITED FOR THE OLYMPICS!!! Of course the Olympics are the best ever and if there is something that's going to break me of my newly formed Facebook habit, it will be Olympics watching. Of course I will be watching swimming, cycling and triathlon with keener interest. I've always watched the track/marathon. And I also like gymnastics (who doesn't?) and equestrian (I used to ride horses in a former life). But I really like ALL the sports because when else do you watch the best of the best competing against each other for the biggest title in athletics? Awesome. I can't wait. O has already been watching the early soccer games on his computer and will be into the baseball, softball, basketball...and just about everything else. :)

As for training today I went to masters this morning for a great swim workout! It was great to be back and swim with my lanemates! And it worked out well because the workout wasn't anything crazy or too hard or long which was perfect for my "easier" week. Tomorrow I think I will finally try running. I haven't ran since last Saturday's failed attempt at a fast half marathon. :)

And last but not least, I signed up for this race in Charlotte, NC today! I'm really excited for an all woman's race and also just for another sprint race. That's my personal protest against 70.3. :) Yep, that's right, I'm going 20.6 instead. Doesn't that sound so much better?

Posted by beth at 7:49 PM | Comments (3)

August 6, 2008

I Smell Trouble

If I go missing in the next couple days, fear not. I'm alive and well. But I'm likely holed up in my room, computer at hand, spending countless hours on Facebook.

Yes, that's right. I said Facebook.

And you can blame Audrey for it. :)

I have to admit, for a really long time I didn't know what Facebook was. And I'm pretty sure I still don't really. I avoided figuring it out too, mostly because for a long time I thought it was just for high school and college aged kids. But then I heard of real live adults having Facebook accounts. And I got confused - maybe it was something I should look into? But then again let's face it, I'm already an internet junkie and I don't need another website to get addicted too. So even though I was a bit intrigued I still avoided it.

That is until someone wanted to be my friend. Really? My friend? Hmm...that's tempting. So this morning before work I did the minimal account setup so I could accept a new friend. Hmm...interesting!

I didn't think much more about it until I got home from work and checked my email again. MORE friend requests! This is pretty cool! How do these people know that I now have an account? Mysterious. I smell trouble. Although I don't have a lot of extra time I can tell that one day, when I'm procrastinating some big chore, I'm going to go crazy on Facebook.

Once an internet junkie, always an internet junkie.

Anyway, this morning I rode my bike. Coach told me to take this whole week really easy and not to run too much. Okay. But really coach, you need to define "really easy" a little more closely. I cannot trust myself to make good decisions regarding this topic. But I was proud of myself this morning. I took my road bike out (Scotty has some issues so he had to go to the doctor's office today) and started off in the direction of flat. And I was having so much fun! I haven't ridden my road bike for a really, really long time and I forgot how much I liked it!

So of course I didn't want to turn around. Orginially I thought I would ride for 40 minutes. But the 20 minute turn around point came and went and that seemed WAY too early to go back. So I rode 5 more and then 5 more and then finally at 30 minutes I forced myself to turn around. Only an hour. Impressive if I do say so myself, considering I would have liked to have ridden for 2 or 3 hours!

Also, after work, a massage. Lucy really took it to me. I have to say, my massage therapist is the bomb. I really like her because she just really works hard and does a good job. No chit chat, no messing around. Get in, kill Beth's hip flexors, get out. I had to bite my lip a few times. My lower back and hips - WOW. But that's what I needed.

Tomorrow morning I think I'm going to go to masters practice! Again, haven't been there for a really long time with all the racing I had been doing. So that will be really fun and probably a big kick in the pants. I hope my lane partners accept me back. Of course I know they will. :)

Now excuse me while I go find some more friends on Facebook. :)

Good night everyone!

Posted by beth at 7:42 PM | Comments (2)

August 5, 2008

Odds and Ends

1) Well the good news is, I don't have a contact in my brain. The eye doctor told me so. He also put yucky yellow stuff in my eye that has been oozing out ever since. And he told me that I scratched my eye up pretty good (oh...so THAT'S why it still hurts) but that I was going to survive. Good thing. Moral of the story is, keep close watch on where your contacts are wondering off to. Or get Lasik surgery. :)

2) This morning I went swimming. I really like to swim. I don't know if I ever mentioned that before. I wouldn't pick it over running (except on a really hot day) but I would probably pick it over riding. Maybe. Anyway, I had a nice swim this morning and especially so because I got some new suits (very badly needed) at the race expo last weekend. New suits are surprisingly good motivators.

3) Anybody with LOOK pedals? There is a recall on some models. I do have LOOK pedals but after some detective work I figured out that mine were not manufactured within the recall time frame. Good thing because I really hate my old pedals. :)

4) My teammate is pretty awesome so I have to brag a little. I think she is especially impressive because she really does have a full time job and one that is quite demanding. I certainly don't know for certain but if I had to guess I would say a good number of elite AG athletes don't work full time or have very flexible jobs that allow for more training/recovery - a benefit I don't think Kelly necessarily has. Again, I could be REALLY wrong about that, so don't blast me for it. :) Anyway, I also really admire Kelly because I think her success has come from year in and year out consistency. Nothing special, nothing fancy. She just gets the training in and then gets the job done on race day.

5) I am getting super excited for my race in Dallas. I thought I was going to have to go alone which would be fine but maybe not as fun as having O along. O is, afterall, THE best. Anyway, O can't come to Dallas because of the cost of flying as well as it being mid cross country season and of course during the school year. He is able to come to BOUS though. Regardless, I begged my family to come instead. I promised lots of great things like dealing with a cranky, nervous me, getting up at about 3 am on race day, standing out in the heat and humidity, carrying around a big heavy bag of assorted stinky shoes, etc... Sounds like fun right? Well they actually took me up on it! First, my mom is definitely coming (she also went to Germany with me last year) and then today my sister showed interest as well! HAHAHAHA! Suckers!! :)

6) One last thing. Today one of the patients I saw is an inmate in prison. Now of course this is nothing out of the ordinary and (especially since I cover trauma) something I see relatively often. They are handcuffed to their beds and there are guards that watch them too. I never feel scared or worried. However I have something to admit. When I do see an inmate I have an OVERWHELMING desire to ask them (if they are actually able to talk) what they did. Is that strange? I mean sometimes it's obvious what their offense was - as in their injury very closely correlates with their crime. But then there are those like I saw today that just make me wonder. Really, what DID this guy do? It bugs me. Despite the fact that I know it shouldn't. Why do I care? Oh well. Maybe one day I'll just ask... :)

Have a great night everyone!

Posted by beth at 7:44 PM | Comments (2)

August 4, 2008

Contacts, Race Planning and More

I think I have a contact in my brain. And I'm a bit worried about it.

You see on Friday night, the night before the race, I went to take out my contacts and I couldn't find my left one. Gone. Missing. Out for lunch!

Of course much weeping and gnashing of teeth ensued. This happens to me every once in a while where I just can't find a contact and I have to dig around in my eye for a good 15 minutes before I can locate it. Annoying to say the least.

Well Friday night the search kept coming up missing. 15 minutes passed. 30 minutes. And I really wanted to go to bed! I thought I saw it. I pawed at my eye for a while. O pawed at my eye. Then I decided I was just seeing the glare of my eye in the mirror. Oh, it was an ugly scene. I love contacts but this part I could do without.

So for the first time ever, I just gave up. I've always found them...somewhere...in the recesses of my eyelid. But on Friday night we just couldn't find success. So I went to bed that night hoping that the contact wasn't slowly migrating into my brain.

I woke up the next morning and my eye hurt. Did it hurt because there was a piece of plastic lodged in it or did it hurt because I had scratched it repeatedly in attempts to get said piece of plastic out? Hard to tell. But I had a race to do.

New lesson learned - always bring extra contacts with you on a trip/to a race/on vacation. Because if you lose one you are doomed to a stomach ache for the rest of your time. You try rolling around with one blurry eye and one perfect vision eye. You get a little dizzy and sick to your stomach after a while.

I didn't really think much of it during the race. As previously documented, I was having other issues during the race. :)

But afterwards I immediately had to get the contact in the good eye out because having two blurry eyes was much better than having one good one and one blurry. That just throws you off.

Needless to say on the trip home yesterday, I wore my glasses. :)

I called my eye doctor today. At this point I'm pretty sure I lost the contact somewhere because I really don't think it could still be up swimming in my brain somewhere. And indeed, I googled "contact lost in eye" and just about every site I clicked on confirmed that the contact doesn't have many places to go because of some protective membrane encasing your eye (thank God!). But regardless, the lady at the eye doctor told me to come in just in case. So I have an appointment tomorrow. Let's hope for the best.

In any case, I spent the majority of today organizing my life. I woke up with the idea that I would do another 70.3 this year in an attempt to qualify for Clearwater. Then I decided against that and started looking for other races. Then I changed my mind again. And again. And again. Then I talked with my coach. Then things made sense again. I do tell you, self destruction would be a sure thing if it weren't for my coaches!

Anyway, we discussed what went wrong on Saturday (many things!) and what I need to do better in training and more importantly in racing a 70.3. I am armed and ready for my next one...which I eventually decided will be next year. If I didn't have any other races planned this year I would definitely find a way to try to qualify for Clearwater but the fact is, I have two very important (to me) Olympic distance races in October to focus on and that's what I'm going to do. 70.3 will have to wait for next year (where I've been instructed to plan more than one in the case that something goes wrong!). Opps...my mistake. :) In the mean time, without really trying, I pretty much planned all of next year too. Because you know we AGers will have to start signing up for races soon (and in fact I signed up for Columbia today!). I am excited for next year though because I *think* I've convinced O that we need to go to California for a race!! I've never been to California!

But now the focus is the US Open and BOUS and I added a nice little all female sprint in September in North Carolina just because I wanted to treat myself for missing out on Clearwater. Some woman buy purses or shoes or chocolate when they are feeling down - I treat myself to another race. HA!

And the focus is also on recovery. Which will be the focus this whole week. And I'm off to a good start. Yesterday before we left Michigan O and I took a nice swim in Lake Michigan (which was absolutely picture perfect, the exact opposite of the day before!) and that felt really good on my legs. And today I took off. Totally. I could get used to this! The usual stretching and icing and massage continue as well. I think I should be feeling better in no time.

Now if only I could find that missing contact... :)

And one last thing - I truly, truly appreciate everyone's nice comments and emails, texts, calls, etc... regarding my race Saturday. I am really just so happy to belong to such a wonderful community of fellow athletes who always know what to say - good or bad - through successes and failures. It really is quite special to me. Thanks guys!

Posted by beth at 8:57 PM | Comments (6)

August 2, 2008

Steelhead Disaster!

OH MY.

Hmm...where shall we begin?

First off - I've just recently decided that anything longer than an Olympic distance race is just ludicrous. And in fact, 70.3 and I are officially divorced.

Can I end this blog entry here? :)

Okay, okay. I guess not.

So today started off well enough. We got to the race site, I did my thing in transition and then we started the 1.2 mile walk to the swim start down the beach. As we were walking I was noticing several things. First - the water. It was hard not to notice. Because it was ANGRY water. It was a pretty windy morning and the water was reacting. Pretty big waves for a lake if you ask me. And a lot of chop. I was trying to swallow my fears. I remember how hard swimming in Tampa Bay was for me this year at St. Anthony's and trust me when I say - this water was looking MUCH worse. But I kept telling myself I would get through this. YOU CAN DO THIS.

Just as we got down to the start and I started putting on my wetsuit they called the swim. CANCELLED. I was a little surprised to tell you the truth. Rumor was they were just going to delay the start until the wind died down some but I guess they just decided to chop the whole thing.

And instantly I was disappointed. I'm here to tell you that even us non-swimmers like the swim in triathlon. That's why we do it instead of duathlon. And even though I stand to benefit from an extra run and no swim, I'm still not a huge fan of it. And besides, my swimming has come a long way and although it's still my weakness it's less of a weakness for me as it is for some others.

Anyway, instead it was a 2 mile run. And let me tell you - mass hysteria ensued. I give the race directors A LOT of credit for moving 2500 people about 2 miles in the opposite direction with a stop in transition for everyone and starting the race only 1 hour later. Now that is a true miracle.

We still started in our waves. And the first run was fine for me. Nothing special and then onto the bike it was.

On the bike and I was feeling...um...okay. I usually feel quite good on the bike. But it was windy and I chalked up my tired legs to pushing hard into the wind for the first 10 miles or so. Truthfully I still rode well. The bike was a good 1-2 miles short (they had to change the bike course slightly to avoid the traffic from the 1st run) but I still rode 2:24-2:25. I guess the full distance would have been more like 2:30-2:32 which would have been a big PR on this course on a very windy day.

I did very well with my nutrition so I don't think lack of kcals/fluid was the cause of my impending demise.

But oh what a demise it was.

I started the half marathon feeling BAD. My legs were just...BAD. I feel like there should be some other good way to explain it but really there isn't. I told myself to get through a few miles and see how I felt.

But a few miles later I only felt worse.

My big goal for this race was to qualify for Clearwater so I talked myself into at least finishing because you never know. At this point I was in 2nd place in my AG and 1st place was my teammate Kim who I knew didn't want a Clearwater slot. I knew even if I finished 4th or 5th or 6th I still had a shot because sometimes the slots fall down pretty far. But I kid you not, by mile 5 I seriously didn't know if I could run another step.

I know that sounds really dramatic but my body was truly shutting down. My legs just felt awful, dead, tired, BADDDDD!!

And so I dropped out.

Quite obviously I was physically depleted and at that point, mentally depleted as well. You can talk yourself through a lot but another 8 miles was not in the cards for me today.

Of course nobody likes to to DNF. I've dropped out of only 1 other race in my life - the Columbus Marathon in 2004. It was the same sort of situation - legs that would not go despite all the mental tricks I could muster.

Disappointing to say the least. Disappointing to DNF. Disappointing to not qualify for Clearwater. Disappointing to work really hard for this day and things to go all wrong.

But that's the way sport goes 'eh? I know it is. I know everyone has a bad day and truly I know the sign of a good athlete is to pick up ASAP and move on.

There were definitely some tears after the race. O saw me drop and immediately came to my rescue. I laid on the grass some and then after some ice and Gatorade felt okay to get up. Or not. My legs are just utterly destroyed.

But we made it and I insisted on walking the 2-3 miles back to the finish line (BAD MISTAKE). Along the way I had to stop several times and sit down. Each of which was accompanied by a crying break. I think mostly I was just sad and really hungry at that point. And really just wanting to get to a shower and to lay down for a long time.

But we finally made it. I collected my stuff in transition and we got back to the hotel for food and an ice bath and a hot shower and a lot of stretching and massage in an attempt to revive my legs.

And now I've moved on. I gave myself until 3:30 pm to mope (and MOPE I did!) and then that was it.

Now I'm just angry. Angry at that DANG 70.3 distance that has fooled me every time I attempted it. I immediately decided I never wanted to do another again. And then I was looking on the internet for WHICH one I would do next year. :) Have to keep trying right? :)

So what went wrong today? Well, still have to talk with coach on that one. But I know my body and I know myself and this is at least part of, if not all of it - I'm tired. I've been going hard since January, racing since April, and haven't taken a break in the mean time.

I could start to feel that while my fitness is making huge gains, my legs were just not recovering very well for the past couple weeks. But I had myself convinced that a nice taper would do the trick.

The taper certainly helped but I need more than a few easy days to recover from this! I had fully planned on take a VERY easy week after Steelhead and then slowly easing back into things since my next race isn't until October now. I knew I would need a break sooner or later. Looks like that sooner happened about a week too early though! :)

Such is life. I will be fine. I will talk to coach. I will take a rest. I will recharge. I will renew and then I will make an assault on my final races which are all THANKFULLY Olympic distance. :) And I will learn that next year I need to plan my races accordingly for what my body can handle. I'm not sure yet if that is going to include a 70.3 or two but fear not, I have not given up on that distance just yet. Divorce proceedings have been put on hold for now... :)

So there you have it! Otherwise it was a good day. I met Kerri! And so many of my teammates had wonderful days, Kim included. Poor Kim had to hear my sob story as we picked up our stuff in transition and she provided (another) shoulder to cry on. Good thing since O's shoulder was already pretty wet. :)

Some more pictures - these from Friday when the water was like glass. O and I having fun in the water!

So tomorrow is a new day. A few weeks to recover. And then to start again. I have never, ever lacked for mental motivation and the internal desire to continue to push and push and push. But what I have come to realize over many years of being an endurance athlete is that my body cannot keep up with my desire. It needs more down time than my mind. And so that's what it will get. But it should be prepared then for what my mind will have in store for it once it feels better. Nothing like a failure to TRULY motivate me to succeed at the next given opportunity!

Posted by beth at 8:24 PM | Comments (16)