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January 31, 2008

Roxy Just Head-Butted Me

One thing is for sure too - that dog has a hard head! Mental note - never lay on the floor in the upstairs hallway while Roxy is laying on the bed. Because as soon as she hears something outside that she wants to bark at, she will run head-on right into you to get down the stairs! Dogs these days!

Anyway, this morning was Masters Swim! and I had a good time doing 50s, 100s and 200s. My upcoming swim race (the 1650 at a meet on Feb 10) has got me a little perplexed, mostly because almost all our masters practices as of late have been based off our mile pace and I'm not really sure what my mile pace is! At first I thought that 1:25 pace (boy is that my number or is that my number?!) would be a great goal but now I'm not so sure. Perhaps faster? It's just so hard to tell because training and racing are SOOOO different. I think back to the few marathons I've done where in training my marathon goal pace would feel like a sprint. Doing a 6 mile tempo at marathon pace would be a killer and I'd think "how in the world am I going to hold this for 26.2 miles?" But then magically on race day that pace didn't feel so hard and I was able to do it. Maybe this swim race will be similar? Anyway, I guess I'll find out come Feb 10th! No reason to over-analyze!

Now I'm off to the shop to do a ride on the CompuTrainer. I'm not sick of trainer rides yet but I think I might be getting close. The good news is is that it might (fingers and toes crossed!) be warm enough to ride outside this weekend. Let's hope!

Have a great night everyone!

Posted by beth at 4:50 PM | Comments (5)

January 30, 2008

Bone-Chilling

Well we've taken a complete 180 and gone from a heat wave yesterday (I think the highs were somewhere in the 40s!) to being completely frigid today. What. The. Heck. The winds were so strong last night that just about everyone in the area lost power in some form or another and most schools had a 2 hour delay or were cancelled. O's school had a delay but when he got there there was no heat and only a back up generator for lights. Lucky for them, the power came back on before the kids arrived and school went on as usual. :)

Regardless, I didn't think too much about how cold it was until I went out for my run this afternoon. This morning was a swim - 500s and 300s and 100s and I even tried a flip turn. Flip turns and more bilateral breathing are on the to do list. I just have to force myself to do them or I will never know how/be good at them. This is when I hate not growing up as a swimmer. It's just no fair. I mean when swimmers become triathletes what do they have to learn? Everyone knows how to ride a bike and run! :)

So anyway, the swim was good and then I went to work where I looked outside all day and thought - WOW, look how nice and sunny it is! Little did I know that there was also about a 50 MPH wind. Make that a 50 MPH ARTIC wind.

When I was walking the 10 minutes or so to my car after work I first picked up on the fact that it wasn't 40 degrees any more. And then I stopped on the way home to get some gas and I almost lost a finger to frostbite while I stood out there at the pump.

Fast forward to the start of my run where I again feared the loss of a finger. IT WAS SO COLD. I tried thinking of warm and sunny places and surfing in Costa Rica but really I was just miserable. And then around 20-25 minutes into the run I turned out of the wind and I started to warm up a little and my eyes stopped tearing from the cold and things started to look up. See there, life isn't so bad afterall. :)

And although I've now just complained about the weather for the majority of this blog entry, I will say my running is coming along nicely and I'm quite pleased. I just can't tell you how nice it feels to run again at a decent pace and still be within my HR ranges. This is made much sweeter by the fact that all last year was pretty much spent at a frustratingly slow pace.

Alas - it's time to fold laundry! But not before I congratulate Eric Limkemann for his USAT pro rookie of the year award! It was announced just a few days ago and I was so incredibly excited to see it. I had the pleasure to know Eric when he still lived in Pittsburgh (he and his wife are now in Ohio) and he is such a great guy. Lucky for me he's also an incredibly fast swimmer (he regularly gets out of the water first in ALL his races - including those that have people like Andy Potts in them!) and helped me a lot with my stroke before they moved. Way to go Eric!

Posted by beth at 7:30 PM | Comments (5)

January 29, 2008

Heat Wave

As I stumbled around in the darkness of this morning I turned on the kitchen light and instantly noticed that our outside thermometer read 34 degrees!! HEAT WAVE! (especially after spending a few days in Chicago) I was quite excited about it all because I had a run planned for this morning.

And then I opened up the door to let Roxy outside and saw that it was also pouring down rain.

Utter despair.

Because 34 and raining is the definition of "worst weather in the world to run in". I would honestly rather run in 5 degrees with a -15 windchill. At least in that you can just put lots of layers on and be dry! When it's 34 and raining though - you are cold, wet and miserable.

Luckily O (besides being a teacher, coach, equipment manager, driver, softball player, runner, best husband in the world) is quite good at figuring the weather out and after a few minutes of studying the radar reported that the rain would be through in 15-20 minutes. Okay - fine then - I would do some core exercises and pack my lunch for work.

Sure enough, 15 minutes later, it was no longer raining. HURRAY!

And we had a great run. 34 degrees felt like 60 and I felt great running. Although it's sometimes fleeting, I'm starting to feel like a runner again. (when I'm out of shape, that "runner" feeling goes away quickly)

After work, a trainer ride. Man was I working to keep my HR up. Geez. Wait until the actual hard workouts come!

Regardless, I still have swimming on the brain. I've been thinking about it a lot lately. I saw this advice from Sam Warriner (an ITU pro from New Zealand) to age groupers:

“Never ever give up or stop believing in your goals and if you’ve got a weakness, work on it. There’s always a way you can improve your weakness. It may not just be doing kilometer after kilometer after kilometer after kilometer, it may be something much more specific so if you have got a weakness, then do something to change it and it will come.”

I felt like she was talking to me and saying:

“Never ever give up or stop believing in your goals Beth and work on your swimming. There’s always a way you can improve your swimming. It may not just be doing yard after yard after yard after yard at 1:25 pace, it may be something much more specific so GO do something to change it and it will come.”

Thanks Sam. I've taken it to heart.

Posted by beth at 8:54 PM | Comments (3)

January 28, 2008

Operation Swim Aggressively

Well we are back in Pittsburgh and all is well (and warmer). Our drive home yesterday was uneventful and actually went quite fast. It still took us close to 9 hours but the weather and traffic were both great making for a nice trip. I highly recommend podcasts for long drives. On the way home we listened to a sermon from an Australian church, an interview with Chris McCormack and another interview with Will Ferrell concerning his recent marathoning! Can't beat that mix! :)

Regardless, Sunday session at the clinic was superb! It was what I was most looking forward to - the swim - and let me tell you, it was very well worth it! We started off the morning at around 8 in the pool. We did all sorts of things - a warmup with pull and kick and some drills. Then some fartlek in the pool - YES, that's right - I said fartlek in the pool! Of course as a runner I've done about 10,000 fartleks but never swimming! When I told O that we had done fartlek he was quite confused. Not sure why I thought fartlek was only for running but it certainly makes sense for swimming as well. Sort of like in a race where you sprint to catch a pack or get on someone's feet and then relax a little, only to sprint again to get past someone (or, if you are me, to get back on track from sighting poorly and getting WAY off course. :)

After the fartlek there was a mini hard set of sorts where you weren't allowed to push off the wall and had to treat the end of the pool as a bouy that you had to swim around. We also did a set of 50s where everyone in the lane started at the same time so as to stimulate the general mayhem of open water swimming. It was GREAT, great stuff, most of which I had never done before. Loved it.

Of course we were also getting feedback from the coaches regarding stroke and were video-taped so we could later watch ourselves swimming.

It was just what I needed. And I learned a lot. I learned that, although there are some things to work on with my stroke, it's really not that bad. And I learned that my biggest problem with swimming is my aggressiveness in the water. As in I really don't have any and I really need some.

Here's the thing. I think I had myself convinced that I wasn't a very good swimmer and that my stroke was poor and causing me to be slow. I needed stroke work - that's what I told myself. And in the mean time I didn't really swim too hard at my races. Don't get me wrong - I was working, but I was no where near the hurt box. I didn't swim aggressively off the line in my tris last year and I didn't swim aggressively throughout the race because I lacked the confidence to do so. After quite a bit of thought on the way home, I realized that I've probably been hiding behind the notion that my STROKE was what was holding me back from being able to get out of the water with the main pack at my races. When in reality my mind and work ethic in the water is what is holding me back!

Now don't get me wrong. I don't suddenly think I'm ready to be an ITU pro and swim 17 minutes. Let's not get crazy here (besides the fact that I've also never run a 34 minute 10K...). But I am now refusing to believe (with much effort, trust me) that it's impossible for me to swim 21 minutes and be within reach of the top gals. I've finally tired of getting out of the water 4 or 5 minutes after the leader because guess what - that's NO fun! Sure running is my strength but at a level where EVERYONE is a good runner, I can't get away with that!

And here's the thing - why this is so important to me. I LOVE racing shorter distances. Although I feel the pull of Ironman, I really just don't think it's my cup of tea (yet). I love to race often and I love to race really hard. So why not stay short? Well, let's face it - a 25 minute swim doesn't really make me too competitive in Oly distance races at the upper age group levels. And in the Oly distance race, the swim is WAY important. So what shall I do? I guess move up in distance where getting out of the water 5 minutes behind isn't such a big deal. And I really did like the 70.3 races I did last year. But I'm not ready to give up on Oly distance racing either.

So I've now started up Operation Swim Aggressively. I know how to run aggressively and hurt and I know how to cycle aggressively and hurt so now it's time to learn how to swim aggressively and HURT! I need to get in the water and do my workouts aggressively and challenge myself. I need to stop accepting that 1:25 pace is the only pace I can swim for my long intervals. What I really need is for Jen Harrison to be standing on the pool deck getting me fired up for all my swim workouts but since that's not possible, it's time to start taking some responsibility for it myself! :)

So this morning I had a swim workout - 30x100 with some kick afterwards. I've always done this workout on a 1:40 interval. Why? I have no idea. I guess because I'm supposed to have ~15 seconds rest and I swim just about everything at 1:25 pace. UGH!

But today I decided to mix it up a little. I did the first 10 on 1:40 but the next 10 on 1:35. Then I backed up to a 1:40 interval for the next 5 but dipped back down to 1:35 for the last 5. Next time? All of them on 1:35. It doesn't seem like much but I have to start somewhere. It's just what I have to do. I need to swim at masters (and move up a lane every once in a while) and swim in meets and get my butt in some swimming gear here people! I need to stay GLUED to the lead pack's feet at my races and refuse to let them go no matter how much my body is begging me to let go.

And I can't thank Jen and her husband Jerome and Spencer Smith enough for giving me the kick in the rear that I needed and most importantly, the confidence that I can do it. Time to stop blaming it on my stroke and get to work!

Posted by beth at 4:04 PM | Comments (5)

January 26, 2008

PS

Forgot to mention our visit to the largest church I've ever seen x 10. After dinner O took me to see the Willow Creek Community Church which happens to only be about 1 mile down the road from our hotel. We both remembered the name of the church as one of the pastors wrote a book that we used in one of our Sunday school classes.

When O was out getting some lunch (I kid you not - he ate a WHOLE large pizza for lunch!) he happened across the church and had to show it to me. It's like a city. The parking lot looks like an airport parking lot with letters marking the different sections so you can remember where you parked! What. The. Heck? There were about 6 or 7 different buildings on "campus". I wonder the what the membership count is?! :)

Posted by beth at 9:38 PM | Comments (0)

Cycling, Running, Core Workouts, OH MY!

Clinic day #1 and there is so much to report! The short story is, there was a cycling workout (lead by Jen), a run, lots of great discussion and learning. There was a core workout wherein I learned some great new exercises including one that will require much practice before it's mastered (it's basically doing pushups while balancing on a ball). There were lots of great questions and even better answers. Oh, and it's still cold here. :)

Probably my favorite part of the day was Spencer's discussion on "the hurt box". It was a good reminder that, at a certain level where everyone is talented and everyone trains hard and everyone has the best equipment, what it comes down to is who can handle the pain the longest. The key is placing yourself in that hurt box and not letting yourself out until the race is over!

Regardless, it was a great day! I got back to the hotel around 5:30 at which point I took a nice shower with a long stretch and then it was off to IHOP for dinner! O and I haven't eaten at an IHOP fo years because there aren't any around our area. IHOP will forever remind me of the Raleigh Relays in college - a meet in late March (usually the first one of outdoor track season) at NC State. We went to the meet every year and stayed in the same hotel every year and ate at the IHOP which was right across from our hotel, EVERY YEAR!

Anyway, over pancakes (many) I told O all about my day and what I learned and the people I met. And I told O about the hurt box. But he already knew about it. I think just about every endurance athlete does.

And now I'm ready for bed! Swimming tomorrow and we all know how I feel about that - I need all the help I can get!

Posted by beth at 9:15 PM | Comments (2)

January 25, 2008

We Are Here and it is COLD!

Just a word of advice - Chicago in January is cold. Might want to wait until July to visit! :)

But we made it and it was a pretty good trip! O did all the driving (as usual) while Roxy and I slept and watched the miles go by. Ohio is boring. Very, very boring.

We also listened to podcasts from Competitor Radio, one interview with Ryan Hall and one with Chrissie Wellington. I was really impressed with how well spoken Chrissie was. I'm sure that's not an easy thing when you are being asked tough questions.

Along the way I realized I had never been to Illinois before. I ran for Penn State so I've been to the midwest - Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio - but apparently a Big Ten Track or Cross Country Championship was never at the University of Illinois during my college years! So it was really neat to drive into the city from Indiana and see all the tall buildings! Chicago sort of reminded me of Pittsburgh with their tall smoke stacks and steel mills. Of course Chicago has a big lake and Pittsburgh has rivers and Chicago is probably about 1000 times bigger but still...

We got here around 4 pm (CST) and had time to check into the hotel before going to the "meet and greet" tonight. I was pretty excited to be meeting everyone and of course meet Jen who I feel like I "know" from reading her blog but of course who I've never met! I'll have to say though - Jen is pretty much just as I pictured her! Passionate and animated and outgoing. And tall. Taller than I thought.

So now it's time for bed! Roxy is already sleeping and O looks like he's following close behind...I need to find a spot for myself in there somewhere too! Good night!

Posted by beth at 10:03 PM | Comments (0)

Chicago or Bust!

Well, it's been a bit of a blur but we are READY TO GO! Yesterday was swim practice, work, and then home for a 2 hour trainer ride. That is a 2 hour trainer ride that I DIDN'T WANT TO DO. In the worst way I didn't want to do it. I was tired and cranky and it was late and I had a lot of other things to do. But that's just the way it is. You get on the bike and you pedal until 2 hours has passed anyways. Because, as my one of my favorite sayings goes, "no one who has ever succeeded in this world did what they did only when they felt like it."

Moving onto this morning, O, Roxy and I all went for a run in 5 degree temps. Actually, I just looked at our thermometer and it now says "3". I was pretty much thinking the whole time that I was quite concerned about my right hand pinkie finger. It just didn't feel like it wanted to remain part of my body. But it's still there and all is well.

And now it's time to go west! Very, very, very excited. As is Roxy. She is just beside herself. She knows something is up, she's just not sure what. And she is definitely sticking close to make sure she doesn't get left behind! :)

Have a great Friday everyone!

Posted by beth at 7:38 AM | Comments (2)

January 23, 2008

Busy, Busy!

Things are busy around here at the Shutt place - mostly in preparation for our trip to the midwest this weekend! I've been fitting in some extra workouts each day so I don't miss any training and then of course there is all the household jobs. O is currently out grocery shopping while I'm doing the laundry and...um...well...blogging! :)

But of course we all know training comes before household duties so I made sure to get in my 3000 yd swim this morning which was a confusing maze of a main set including some sort of sequence like 175/25/150/25/125/25/100/25/75/25 and some 50s and there were 100 kicks in there and, oh yes, some pull. Good thing I had it all written down! I think I did it correctly too because I did indeed end up at the right end of the pool when all was said and done!

Then came work (boring). Then, once home I set out for my run. This time of year I don't have any speed work but I do have a "tempo" workout in each sport. Well the tempo involves keeping your HR down below what Mark calls our aerobic max (basically it's like zone 1 and 2) which all last year meant that it was just another run, bike and swim for me. Because I had such a hard time keeping my HR down below my aerobic max, tempo day didn't really allow for anything much faster.

Somewhere along the line, this has seemed to change though. Today I was actually having to push a little harder and found myself watching my HR monitor like a hawk to make sure my HR wasn't too LOW! Quite a change of events! All last year it was - dang, HR too high, slow down...dang, HR too high again, slow down. I don't think I ran much faster than 8 minute pace EVER (except during speed workouts and races) and sometimes would have to run 9 minute pace to keep my HR in the correct range.

Today I found myself running 7:20 pace in the midst of my run. What. The. Heck? I was surprised to say the least. Surprised because 7:20 pace used to yield a HR in the 170s (or at least high 160s)! Of course I don't suspect I'll be able to start doing all my runs at 7:20 pace but I have to tell you - after a year of frustration and trying to build a better aerobic engine and base, today felt awfully rewarding. (now watch - tomorrow I'll be running 8:30 pace and my HR will be in the 160s! :)

Regardless, after the run I did some strides and then hit up the weight room for my lifting session that is usually on Friday but now switched to tonight. The weight room was very busy but I didn't have to wait too long for any one piece of equipment.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go get that laundry... Have a great night everyone!

Posted by beth at 8:03 PM | Comments (2)

January 22, 2008

Run + Bike

I ran this morning in double digit temperatures! In fact it was almost (but not quite) 20 degrees! I have to tell you though - I really didn't feel too warm. The sky was very clear and I think that made it feel colder AND somehow I had it in my head that 19 degrees is WARM (at least when compared to 5 degrees). Yeah, not so much. Oh well. Still had a great 70 minute run. Running in the early morning dark has got to be one of my favorite things.

After work I came home to find a bike workout on my schedule. But I didn't feel like doing it right away so I did some odds and ends, my core workout, ate a snack, did some laundry, etc, etc, etc... I finally climbed up on my bike at 6:15 and got rolling. It was a tempo workout of sorts and let me tell you, I had to work pretty darn hard and push some bigger gears to get my HR up (and it's not as if I had to get my HR up THAT high). That is probably due to several reasons - (1) as we all know, getting the HR up on the trainer for an extended period is no easy task, (2) I'm getting fitter and therefore my HR won't rise as easily, and (3) my legs are a little on the tired side - and they weren't taking kindly to bigger gears! All in a good workout though!

And so it goes. Another exciting day in the life of Beth. :) Have a great night everyone!

Posted by beth at 8:03 PM | Comments (2)

January 21, 2008

Talk of the Town

Well the big talk at the Allegheny Valley YMCA is the pool temperature. Seems something (not really sure on the exact details) has broken in the "boiler room" leaving not only the air temperature on the pool deck much cooler than usual, but the actual water a bit on the nippy side too.

I think some members are boycotting the pool altogether because O and I essentially had the pool to ourselves this morning.

Now don't get me wrong, the water is no where near freezing cold. I've swam in MUCH colder water (2007 ITU Worlds in Hamburg - thought my head might freeze right off), but I will admit that the water is much colder than usual at the YMCA. Add in the fact that it again was 5 degrees w/a negative something nasty windchill and it made for one COLD swim this morning. I was doing 500 repeats again and for the first time in my LIFE I was actually wishing the rests were shorter because I was getting so cold in between intervals! The older people who complain that the water is too cold when it's below 85 degrees were having none of it! I can see their point though. If you aren't swimming long or hard, cold water is no fun.

Regardless, I got my workout in and wasn't any worse for the wear. When I went back to the YMCA after work to do my lifting session everyone was STILL talking about the water temperature! I love it! The good news is, the "boiler room" should be fixed by Friday. That means only one more cold swim for me since I don't swim tomorrow and I go to Pitt to swim on Thursdays! :)

Anyway, I had a really good day at work and I seriously think it's because right before I left I read Marit's post about her treadmill workout yesterday. She just rocked it and reading about it instantly set me in a good mood. It also made me realize that sometimes we just need to CHOOSE to be in a good mood and positive. That's very easy for me to do when I'm running, swimming or biking. But when I'm in the midst of a bad commute or in the middle of a work day? Yeah, not so much. It also made me realize how much inspiration I get from reading other people's blogs. It sounds kind of hokey and weird but I really do enjoy my "online friends" and following along on their journeys! Sometimes when I don't feel like getting on the trainer or can't fathom going to the pool for yet another set of 100s I will read some blogs to get me fired up!

Anyway, I've never met any of the people whose blogs I read (except Chad!) but I am going to this weekend!! Yes, yes, VERY exciting! (I think this is another reason why I've been in quite an exceptional mood). I am really, really looking forward to my first ever tri clinic this weekend in the Chicago area! (and before you go raining on my parade, I don't want to hear about how cold it is there! :) Jen Harrison and her husband and coach are putting on the clinic. I CANNOT wait! I'm really looking forward to meeting them (and possibly Elizabeth too!) and learning a lot about swim/bike/run/and everything else in between. I'm even sort of looking forward to the drive because O and Roxy are coming too. And road trips are always fun (except after about hour 7 when I just can't stand being in a car any longer)!

Posted by beth at 6:26 PM | Comments (7)

January 20, 2008

A Chill in the Air

Well, just like the rest of the country, Pittsburgh saw a dip in the temperatures last night/today. When I woke up weather.com informed me that it was 6 degrees with a -11 windchill. Yep, that's cold enough for me! But then I think about sitting tonight in Lambeau Field watching the Packers play and 6 degrees sounds kind of toasty! :)

Regardless this morning I had a long run of 90 minutes so O and I started putting on the layers! Unlike riding, I will run in any kind of weather. Running in cold just doesn't phase me that much. I can remember some really, really cold days in high school where my high school coach would make me run loops around the high school instead of doing one of our loops around town so that if I froze to death it wouldn't be that hard to find me. Of course I'd RATHER run in 70 degrees and sun but I don't live in San Diego.

Anyway, I decided on my thickest tights, a thick base layer with a fleece on top of that and then a thin windbreaker, a baclava (O had to talk me into it but I'm glad he did), a wooly hat on top of that, gloves and socks over the gloves (a trick my high school coach taught me). O had so much clothing on I can't begin to recount it. And Roxy? She just wore her fur coat! She is one tough pooch if you ask me.

The run itself was actually quite good! Legs felt good, HR was low, and other than my feet, I wasn't that cold. That is until the wind would start whipping up. That's when I felt like I had an ice cream headache...you know...when you head starts to hurt because you've eaten your ice cream too fast?

Afterwards I had to take a picture of the icicles that had formed in O's beard. Roxy also had an icicle beard. We were calling her "Frosty" all morning! :)

So that ends a great week of training (actually I still have an hour easy to do on the trainer this afternoon but that's not too bad)! Starting to feel good again as the volume increases. Life is indeed good.

Posted by beth at 2:27 PM | Comments (6)

Proof

I present to you the thumbprint cookie.

Posted by beth at 1:59 PM | Comments (0)

January 19, 2008

Building Up Tolerance

Well ice bath #2 is in the books and I have to say, it's already better. I think that first minute or so when you step in and it's a little hard to breathe will always be like that but otherwise it honestly didn't bother me that much. I'm hooked!

While my ice bath tolerance is clearly rising I learned today that my trainer tolerance has decreased since last season. Must build that back up again because I think winter is here for real now.

I really wanted to ride outside today but 22 degrees with a 14 windchill is not my cup of tea. MAYBE I might have considered it if the wind wasn't that bad or if it was really sunny and supposed to warm up throughout the day but neither was the case. So the trainer it was. My ride was 2:30 which really isn't too bad on the trainer (I've gone as long as 4 hours) but that last 30 minutes my legs were feeling it! My coach always tells me the trainer is good for muscle memory and perfecting the pedal stroke so I really tried to focus on that the last half hour as well as engaging my glutes so my quads weren't doing all the work!

The ride itself went by relatively quickly because I was watching season one of Grey's Anatomy. I started watching the show some this season but was all confused not knowing everyone's history. I must have mentioned this at some point because O's aunt and uncle got me the 1st season on DVD for Christmas! What a great gift! I watched the first 4 episodes and it was awesome with no commercials! I only have enough episodes for one more long ride though so I'm going to have to look into getting season two and three (? and four?...not sure what season they are on now). Regardless, I'm really tempted to watch the rest of the episodes tonight (O is at an indoor track meet all day in Ohio so it's just the pooch and I today) but I'm going to try to restrain so I have something to look forward to on the next trainer ride.

After the ride I went to the pool for a 3000 yd swim workout. I was excited to find a high schooler there in the lane next to me doing some sort of workout (that ended up being 6000 yds according to the coach who was with him!). Anyway, this guy was way faster than me but when he was backstroking and I was swimming freestyle I was sort of able to keep up! Of course we weren't doing anything near the same workout but I always enjoy having someone to chase around in the pool and keep my mind focused.

In other news I was just talking with my father on the phone and he asked "so what's a thumbprint cookie?"!!! What the heck people?!?! Now I know he has eaten thumbprints because I've seen it with my own eyes so I think perhaps people just don't know the name of these cookies. Or maybe I just made that name up myself? Who knows. But you people seriously have to start eating these things. That are awesome!

On that note, it's time to feed the pooch, and then myself. And I'm probably going to have a thumbprint cookie for dessert! :)

Posted by beth at 3:56 PM | Comments (3)

January 18, 2008

GREAT News!

Well the results are in and quite frankly I'm surprised. Not many votes for the thumbprint cookie and some didn't even know what a thumbprint was! This is disturbing. Does everyone know what a pierogie is? It came to my attention some time ago that food is regional and people in Wisconsin might not eat pierogies or they may BUT they just don't call them that. I for one have never drank a soda but I do consume an awful lot of pop. And don't try to make me call them jimmies because they ARE called sprinkles. ANYWAY - I can only hope that is what is going on with the thumbprints.

Regardless, it appears that the biggest mistake of all was my own in leaving oatmeal raisin cookies off the list. Pretty negligent on my part considering THE biggest oatmeal raisin cookie fan of all lives in the same house as me. If you ask me, you shouldn't mix fruit and cookies. Seriously.

But regardless I did enjoy the survey question so I think I'll have more in the future. I have all sorts of questions in my head to ask (I wonder about the strangest things you know?) but I don't want to get too annoying too early on. :)

In other news, I have some GREAT news to share! I was invited back on the MarkAllenOnline Amateur Triathlon Team and will again be racing for them in 2008! I'm very excited about this because it's a wonderful team of very successful and dedicated athletes and of course AMAZING coaching! I spent many a year putting on a uniform (high school and then Penn State) and feeling absolutely honored to be putting that uniform on and representing and this is no different. I learned a ton being on the team last year and benefited greatly from having coaches that have the experience and knowledge that they do!

But of the many, many, many things I learned probably the most important and the perhaps the hardest for me to grasp and accept was the fact that this sport takes patience. There is no secret and really the training is quite simple. But workout after workout, week after week, month after month and YEAR after YEAR that simple training adds up to be a lot. Patience - building an aerobic engine and realizing that work you are putting in now may not pay off in the next race or the race after or even next YEAR but that with consistency in training and PATIENCE it will pay off. In a world of instant gratification it's a hard pill to swallow but I think I finally "got" it.

Regardless, I'm really looking forward to taking all these lessons I've learned and my first real year of true triathlon training and putting them to good use this year! And of course learning many, many, many more lessons for years to come.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Posted by beth at 8:58 PM | Comments (5)

January 17, 2008

Thumbprint Cookies

Well, I just wrote a lovely blog entry all about my masters swim workout this morning and how much I love thumbprint cookies. And then my computer decided to shut down. ARGHHH!!! That should teach me to save more often. Dang computer.

Anyway, I did have a survey question that went something like this (and I expect your full participation please! :)

If you could choose any of the following to eat, which would you choose first?
a) thumbprint cookie
b) chocolate chip cookie
c) peanut butter cookie
d) gingerbread cookie
e) sugar cookie

Of course I would choose A because thumbprint cookies are the best cookie in the world. Hands down. It's the big glob of icing in the middle that does it for sure. And yes, I am a dietitian.

Anyway, Masters Swim! was quite delightful today. We did more mile pace work with sets of 100s and 50s starting slower than mile pace and working down to faster than mile pace. We were swimming on a relatively tight interval too. It's just great to swim with other very motivated, dedicated people! I love my lane mates too - both very encouraging and willing to lead the lane or not - agreeable to the highest degree!

So anyway, that's the shortened version of my previous blog entry. Now I'm headed down to the bike shop for a 90 minute computrainer ride. It's cold and dreary and raining/snowing outside so it will be nice to have some company to motivate me to a solid ride!

Posted by beth at 4:57 PM | Comments (9)

January 16, 2008

Productivity

Where I work we fill out productivity reports which basically entail keeping track of what you do all day, how many patients you see, how long rounds are, etc... I used to hate them because I felt like it was a way for the higher powers to "watch" us and if I had a slow day I worried. Of course I eventually got over that. :)

Regardless, today I'm off work but I'm wishing I had a productivity report to fill out anyway! I've been hard at it!

O wanted to go swimming this morning which would require still getting up at 4:45 am because he actually has to go to work (poor bugger). I agreed to get up with him even though I certainly didn't need to get up that early. I was a little cranky about the whole situation at first but it has lead to quite a productive morning. So far I've:

1) swam
2) did all my PT exercises
3) ran my 45 minutes w/strides
4) showered/stretched/iced
5) ate 3 times (pre-breakfast, breakfast, lunch)
6) did 3 loads of laundry (done AND folded)
7) ironed
8) answered about a gazillion emails
9) organized myself for next week (that takes a while) and packed my bag for tomorrow
10) and now blogged

I cannot be stopped.

Still on the list:

1) massage appointment at 2
2) haircut (no appointment required at the kind of place I go to :)
3) bank
4) trip to Sam's club (dear Lord we are dangerously close to running out of my favorite cereal!)
5) go grocery shopping (for all other food)
6) nap
7) make and eat dinner

Now you all know how exciting my days really are. :) Really looking forward to #6 too - that is if I can convince Roxy to move over on the couch!

Posted by beth at 12:50 PM | Comments (3)

January 15, 2008

Long Swim + Weights = Sore Arms

I'm no mathematician but I do know that the above formula is true, true and true! I woke up with very sore arms and they only got more sore throughout the day. Likely a result of the fact that my lifting is starting to pick up a little and I've committed myself to being a little more serious in the weight room this year. I've always had the attitude that weight lifting was for "maintenance" and to help stay injury free. Well this year my new attitude is that the goal of lifting is to get STRONGER! Huh - imagine that! I'm off to a good start too. By being a little more serious, taking my time and challenging myself a little in the weight room I'm definitely able to lift more weight than ever and I'm hoping to reap the benefits in the water and on the bike. Strength = power = cycling faster! You can't stop me with these formulas today!

But apparently more weight = sore arms too. Oh well, at least it's a "good" sore. :)

I didn't need my arms too much anyway today because I didn't have a swim on the schedule. Instead, a run this morning with O and Roxy that was quite delightful. It was cold but luckily after about 15 years of running I know exactly how to dress for each and every whether condition and I got it just right this morning. 19 degrees with just a touch of wind = thin tights, thicker fleece top, thin windbreaker, gloves and thick hat. Now if only I could figure this kind of stuff out for cycling I would be A-okay.

When I got home from work I had a good ride on the bike. Felt great on the bike tonight actually. Getting comfortable on my tri-bike again. That always seems to take some time.

And now it's time to relax. Good night all!

Posted by beth at 7:28 PM | Comments (3)

January 14, 2008

Pool, Pull, Paddles and PT (and Weight Lifting Too)

So this morning I hit up the pool for my long swim day. I have a love/hate relationship with long swim intervals. I should love them because I'm far better suited to longer, endurance type efforts. In college I was a 10K runner and trust me, I never got to run on the distance medley relay! But the problem with the long swim intervals is that...well...they're long. And that makes them hard. And I often lose count of which lap I'm on. Bugger!

But today was much better than last Monday's 600 repeats. Today was 500s and lots of them (okay, not that many, but still I was tired at the end). Definitely starting to get my groove back. Not to say I'm in any kind of good shape, but I at least feel as if I have my own body back from the alien that overtook it the past several weeks. Moving in the right direction.

Regardless, two of the 500s today were pull. After discussing things over with my coach we decided to start using paddles some. Usually pull only means the pull buoy to me and although I have paddles (two different sizes no less!) and have used them before, they are used very sparingly. So today I decide I'm going to use the small paddles for one of the 500s.

Of course I totally forgot that when the time came.

I remembered about 300 yds into the repeat at which point I decided the paddles were going to have to wait until next time. I'm excited to add this new toy to my collection though because I will do ANYTHING to make my shoulders stronger. I may be the only girl on earth that wants a bigger back and shoulders, but hey, whatever... :)

After work I had a PT appointment. I really like my PT. He tells funny stories while making my hamstring hurt very badly. The stories make the pain much less noticeable. I feel like we are getting somewhere with my hammy too. More mobile and less pain. Just like my chronic PF I will probably always have to keep on top of it but I want to get to that point where I'm not worried about it all the time. We're getting there, slowly but surely.

After the PT appointment I went to the YMCA to lift. And the weight room was PACKED. Now remember, this is a YMCA, not a gym that costs $100/month, so the weight room is small and the equipment limited but by the grace of God every time I needed a machine or a bar or a weight it was available! I must have had that I'm-really-hungry-stay-out-of-my-way look going on! Good deal!

And so it goes. It's snowing and O tells me we might be in for some serious snow later in the week. Hopefully it holds off until I can get at least one more run in on the trail before it's snow covered until April!

Have a great night everyone!

Posted by beth at 7:05 PM | Comments (0)

January 13, 2008

Was it Worth it?

Ness asks a good question. Was that ice bath worth it? Because if not, it was an awfully stupid thing to do. It was cold, a bit miserable, took up a good chunk of time AND that ice cost $3.50 - at least half a burrito at Qdoba.

Well I'm here to answer with a RESOUNDING YES - I do believe that ice bath was worth the cold, the pain and the $3.50...and MORE!

My proof? Well, for one it was actually a time savings for me becase I usually ice my feet (top and bottom on both feet) and my hamstring. The ice bath just took care of all of that and more all at once. Good deal.

But much more importantly my legs felt really quite good on my long run this morning! Lately my quads have been unhappy campers but this morning? Not a peep from them. My feet felt good. My hamstring felt good. I was running faster than last weekend with a lower heart rate. I had a little sping in my step! (not a usual occurance of course)

Now, having said all that, I must remind you that I may just be prone to the placebo effect. Plus, I think I'm finally just starting to come around a little with my training (I felt inklings of this fact earlier in the week prior to the ice bath in question). Also, I finally finished my antibiotics and am likely feeling the effect of being fully recovered from the infection that caused me to have draino singe.

So maybe it wasn't JUST the ice bath. But I really believe the ice bath was part of it. And so I'll continue to do them. I've decided they are probably best reserved for after really tough workouts on the bike or on the track but since I'm doing neither of those right now, I'm save them for after my long ride/long bricks on Saturdays. Plus, that's when I have time to do them. So if you're looking for my opinion (I know, you likely aren't... :), prepare those ice baths and don't forget your hot chocolate too!

Posted by beth at 1:24 PM | Comments (2)

January 12, 2008

The Things We Do

So I have to apologize to Marit. Because you see, it wasn't HER fault. But still, when I was sitting in the freezing cold ice in my bathtub this afternoon I was cursing her name. She merely told of her ice baths on her blog - she didn't force me to try it too. But I had to curse something. Because that water was soooooo cold. Mind numbing cold. Really, really cold. Colder than cold. Did I mention how cold that water was?

At least Marit gave some really good suggestions as to how to best go about the ice bath (thanks Marit!). Probably my favorite was the tip to drink something hot when in the ice. That worked wonders. And reading something while in there was good too although I was having trouble concentrating. One piece of advice I did not heed was to not keep your timer/watch within reach. I held my watch in my hand. Bad move. I think I looked at it about 100,000,001 times during the first 5 minutes. But I survived. And to tell you the truth, after that intial 5 minutes or so when your body is going through what I'm calling the shock phase, it wasn't so bad. Once you go numb what is there to feel? :)

But let me start from the beginning. First O and I went swimming this morning. And then I came home for my long ride. It was in the mid 30s so I went outside and had a pretty good ride! Still feeling out of shape but I did better than last weekend and my HR was much better too. And I rode in the hills again. I'll tell you - there are some big ones around here! I've really been enjoying it though because the hilly roads are all back in the country and while they aren't the best road surfaces there are NO cars out there. I did count 6 dead deer though. Yuck.

Regardless, I got home to find that O had already purchased the ice and it was waiting down in the freezer! What a great husband! We ate lunch first and then I prepared my hot chocolate while he prepared the ice bath. I wish I had a picture of O's face while he was pouring all the ice into the cold water. He was enjoying it far too much!

I'll admit. I wanted to cry at first. OH MY was it cold. I ice my feet all the time but sitting in it up to my waist - much different story. But after the first 5 minutes it wasn't too bad. I stuck it out until 20 minutes and then called it a day. Funny part was, O tried to just stand in it for a couple minutes to see how cold it was and he was crying in pain! No question why God gave women the job of giving birth. Men just aren't tough enough. :) In his defense, I think he just needed to give it a few more minutes and then he would have been through the worst of it and been just fine.

Regardless, to prove that I did indeed do this and I'm not making it all up, a few pictures of proof:

Ahh...the things we do...

PS In the pictures it doesn't look like the water is covering my quads, but I assure you, it is. Oh...it is. :) And I should have taken a post-picture to show how RED (as in BEET RED) my legs were!

Posted by beth at 3:27 PM | Comments (9)

January 11, 2008

Nothing Much

I don't really have anything good to write about tonight but as you may have noticed previously, that never stops me from writing a blog entry anyway!

Fridays are my really "easy" day. I only have a short, easy run and lifting at the gym. Sets me up well for the big weekend training (long ride + long run). I did both the run and the lifting this morning before work and all went well except it was really raining quite hard and I got quite wet. Better than snow!

I had another PT appointment this evening after work and I think we had a bit of a break-through! The PT was doing some sort of crazy exercises with my leg and then he stretched out my hammy again afterwards and it felt *really* good. No pain and it stretched quite well! It may be sore again tomorrow but it was nice to see some improvement! As a side note, I wanted to mention that I am still able to do all my training relatively pain-free but I'm mostly doing the PT now to keep that hamstring pain at bay. I don't want to make it sound worse than it is!

And while we are talking about injury prevention I am excited for my return to ice baths tomorrow! In college we pretty much hit the ice bath after every practice. Even if I just think about it I get cold. But it's *almost* a good memory because despite all the chattering, goosebumps and general unhappiness, we often had a lot of fun in the ice baths. Sort of. ANYWAY - after college the ice baths stopped but Marit got me thinking about them again! (check out the picture of her in an ice bath in her tub with her clothes on! :) After reading about Marit's ice baths I thought that sounded like a good idea (ask me again tomorrow after I sit in freezing cold water for 15 minutes to see if I still think it's a good idea). So we are going to buy some bags of ice and store them in our huge extra freezer in our basement (left to us by the previous owner of our house) until after my ride tomorrow. I think I might try to do them once a week for recovery and as a great way to ice all those aching parts all at once! We shall see though. We shall see!

Posted by beth at 7:20 PM | Comments (1)

January 10, 2008

Masters Swim! and More...

It is raining cats and dogs outside right now! (just thought you might like to know that) Where do you suppose that saying came from anyway?

This morning when I woke up I was pretty excited because it's Masters Swim! day! Actually, what really happened when I first woke up was that I groaned. Because I had one of those "wake up in what you THINK is the middle of the night when you THINK you have about 3 more hours to sleep only to find out that your alarm is really about to go off in 3 minutes" kind of mornings. I HATE that. But once I recovered from that trauma and I remembered this morning was masters practice, things brightened considerably.

Beyond swimming some great workouts with really great people, I also love masters practice because it takes me 25 minutes to drive into the city vs 50 minutes. That's the difference between 5:15 am and 8:15 am I suppose.

Regardless, today's workout was geared towards the mile swim race we all have coming up! I haven't mentioned it recently because I thought I might start receiving some nasty comments from talking too much about it, but my 1650 swim race is fast approaching and I'm getting very excited about it! Today we did 24x100 on a comfortable interval (1:45) varying speeds between somewhat slower than mile pace, mile pace and somewhat faster than mile pace. It was pretty entertaining to see how little concept I have of pace in the pool. Well, I actually didn't do too badly - I was just consistently too fast. Too fast on the slow ones, too fast on the pace ones and too fast on the fast ones. I hope that doesn't mean I have to swim my mile faster! :)

I choose 1:25 as my mile pace because I would be quite thrilled if I could swim between 23 and 23:30 at this time of year. 1:25 pace felt too easy today but then again without the 20 second rest after each 100 I might be changing my tune. :) Regardless, it was a great workout to learn some pacing. And it got me really even more excited for my very first swim meet!

Moving right along, work was somewhat hectic today. Several people in our department called off, one came into work but then went directly to the ER for some bad abdominal pain (she is okay) and one left early. That left some gaps to be filled if you know what I mean. We got er done though and I really didn't even have to leave too late. I did get to talk with a man who will very soon die from cancer. The surgeons basically opened him up, found cancer everywhere, and then closed him right back up. Nothing they could do. And although it's patients like this that sometimes make my heart ache, it's also one reason why I really do love my job. Because that particular man (only 42 years old) choose to have a good outlook about the whole situation. He choose to be positive instead of feeling sorry for the hand he was dealt. Not everyone gets to witness that kind of spirit and bravery in their job. We think we are brave for doing these long swim, bike, run races and pushing our bodies to the limit. But something much more brave than that is facing cancer with a smile on your face. And I feel very blessed to be reminded of that almost daily.

Okay...got a little off track there...

After work I headed back home to find one crazy dog racing around the house like mad. I truly do wonder what she does all day. So I fed her, ate some dinner of mine own and then headed to the bike shop for another computrainer ride. It was just a short one tonight for me (1:15), but good. Someone picked a very HILLY ride to do on the computrainer which was not appreciated by all, but we survived. :) Powerman Alabama's course is on there and I'm just hoping and praying I'm not around when they decide to ride that one...

And now it's time to go to bed. That alarm will soon be sounding again...

Posted by beth at 9:12 PM | Comments (1)

January 9, 2008

Pretty Standard Day

Nothing much exciting to report from Pittsburgh today. Pretty standard day in fact. I woke up, went to the pool, swam, went to work, worked, came home, ran, ate dinner. Yeah, nothing too exciting at all.

I did have a very nice run though. The cold weather is definitely on it's way back but I got one more run in shorts in before the snow reappeared! It was in the 40s but sunny so I went to the trail and enjoyed a nice steady 6 miler. I felt good and my HR was cooperating! I've been feeling very out of "running shape" lately but I'm slowly feeling it come around again.

In other news O is becoming quite the swimmer! His goal is to compete at one of the local sprint triathlons this summer so he knew he needed to get in the pool. He's a very good runner and biking shouldn't be a problem (if we can find him a good bike of course) but the water isn't really his thing. So he's been swimming with me once or twice a week.

Now I won't lie. He was pretty bad when he started. Okay, REALLY bad. But he has been making some significant progress! And I think he really likes it too! He was doing some fast 50s and 100s today and looked pretty good. Our next step will be to try some open water swimming once summer rolls around because the race he wants to do is a 400 meter swim in a lake.

I'm pretty excited about all this because he is not the only one that I know that has shown some interest in trying a triathlon. I've been rubbing off on people! Besides O, my sister was also thinking of trying one. And my co-worker is considering one this summer. And on Saturday night we are having dinner with one of O's co-workers who is pretty excited about doing some triathlons this summer and has some questions about the whole process. (Lord help him - me as a mentor might not be such a great idea!) Regardless, it is a wonderful sport with amazing people and I'm really excited that more people I know are getting into it!

Have a great night everyone!

Posted by beth at 7:20 PM | Comments (5)

January 8, 2008

A Little Slice of Heaven

65 degrees here in Pittsburgh. What. The. Heck?!

When I was running this morning it felt like a little slice of heaven. I was just so happy to be running AND to be running on my favorite (non-snowy) trail AND to be running on that favorite trail with the sun in my face and wearing shorts and a t-shirt. What a blessing. What a BIG HUGE WONDERFUL blessing! What a way to start off the day!

In other news, I just got back from another PT appointment. Although I haven't written much about it, I've been going to PT for a couple weeks to work on the foot and (mostly) the hamstring. Both are doing pretty well. Actually, the foot is doing really well. I think I averted disaster in the nick of time with it. It was just about to start up it's nasty tendon thang when I swooped in and put a halt to the badness! HA - take that!

The hamstring, on the other hand, is a bit of a bugger. The PT is convinced there is so much scar tissue in there from years of abuse, that it's just going to take some time. Some time to break things up, stir things up and get some mobility back! It's doing better, but it's flexibility is not near the other hamstring's flexibility. It's a little funny actually.

But I'm bound and determined to stay healthy ALL season long. This will probably be my biggest challenge honestly. I'm working harder at it then I ever have though - stretching even more than usual (and trust me when I say I probably stretch more than 99.999% of the world's population), strengthening exercises, core exercises, icing, heating, massage, proper rest and recovery. You name it, I'm on it. And I wish I didn't have to spend so much time on these things but the reality is I do. So I will. Because I don't want my hard work to go to waste because of injury and something I might have been able to prevent.

So that's my story for today! Hope everyone has their own little slice of heaven in some form or another today!

Posted by beth at 3:37 PM | Comments (4)

January 7, 2008

One Thing is for Sure...

You've all heard of the "January National (or World) Champion" I'm sure. You know, the person that is having absolutely amazing workouts (no matter the sport) in January and totally killing everyone, but then when the season actually comes around they are burnt out, tired out or injured and everyone in turn is beating THEM! Every coach (including mine) warns against being the January National Champion.

Well as I was driving home from my swim workout this morning I was thinking... "one thing is for sure - there is absolutely no chance of ME taking the January National Champion title this year!"

After this weekend's training and then this morning's long swim intervals I pretty much assured that I won't be accused of being in too good of shape too early in the season. :) Because I am seriously getting my butt kicked lately! First my long ride on Saturday. Then my long run on Sunday. And then this morning's 600 repeats in the pool topped it off and sealed the deal. I'm not in very good shape at all. :)

But that's a good thing. For now.

If anything, I've definitely been the type to try and be that January National Champion in the past. And on more than one occasion it's ended in disaster. I usually have one of two outcomes - being totally tired and depleted by the end of the season OR getting injured right when things are heating up. I'm mostly talking running seasons because I haven't been a triathlete long enough to be a January National Triathlon Champion, but you catch my drift.

One thing I wanted to try and work on this year was what I call "athletic maturity", again, something I've not had much of in the past. The January National Champion mentality is due to athletic IMmaturity - comparing oneself to others and trying to outdo them and outwork them at the WRONG time, and in general just not trusting in themselves, their own training and their own timing. In this day and age when just about everyone and their brother (and mother) has a blog and reading about others training all the time, I think it's easy to get caught up in the "oh, maybe I SHOULD be doing hard intervals on the bike or on the track or running a race or..." And of course maybe that is 100% what that OTHER person should be doing, but not what I should be doing. Because that OTHER person and I don't have the same goals and we aren't going to the same races and they haven't ripped their hamstring in two and aren't worried about keeping it healthy. I need to worry about myself and myself only. And taking that a step further, I don't even need to worry because I have an amazing coach that knows how to have me come around right when I want to come around - for those "A" races, when I'm ready to give "A" type efforts. And my new found athletic maturity is going to help me see that not every race is an "A" race and that's okay.

So I'm off to a good start. Out of shape, slow and getting my butt kicked by 10 mile runs and 3 hour rides and 600 repeats in the pool. No, I definitely won't be the January National Champion but I'll be gunning for some other titles come summer and fall.

Posted by beth at 9:20 PM | Comments (4)

January 6, 2008

Two Words

GAME NIGHT! Love it. Must do it more often.

Three more words: Settlers of Catan. If you haven't played it you should try it!

We also played Balderdash of which I'm not too great at. I'm not creative enough to think of made up definitions of very strange words. Oh well.

Regardless, before all the fun commenced O, Roxy and I did a long run, went to church (minus the dog of course) and I did an easy trainer ride. Oh, and I took a 90 minute nap in there somewhere. I love Sundays... :)

Have a great week everyone!

Posted by beth at 10:21 PM | Comments (1)

January 5, 2008

Recipe for Disasterously Dry Skin

Ingredients:

1) chlorine
2) cold temperatures
3) wind

Instructions:

Go to swimming pool in morning and swim in pool for a long time ensuring much chlorine is absorbed into skin. Come home and immediately go for cold, windy 3 hour ride outside. Simple as that - your face will be ready to fall off and NO amount of lotion will do! :)

I am still very glad I went outside for my ride today. It wasn't that cold, maybe in the low 30s but I'll tell you that wind was relentless. I started off for the first hour on the flats but literally INTO the wind for the entire first 60 minutes. I think I shed a tear or two at first - I was COLD! Once I turned into the hills, the wind relented, but then...well...I was riding up and down really big hills for the next 2 hours. :) And I'll tell you it kicked my butt. Not sure if it was the weather, the hills or just the fact that I haven't ridden for 3 hours for a while (likely a combo of all 3) but I was one hurtin' puppy those last few miles!

But I fully plan (weather permitting) to ride in those same hills week after week after week for many weeks to come. Time to get strong and time to get hardened. Don't get me wrong, I'm not riding hard or fast, because this is base building, aerobic training time. But I am going to challenge myself more than I did last winter with riding in some nasty weather and riding on some nasty hills. It's just what I need to do.

In other news O and I stopped at the bike shop to take my sick wheel to get fixed. Looks like the warranty should cover it. Thank goodness. Of course while I was there the gift certificate I got for Christmas for the shop was burning a hole in my pocket and I couldn't help but try on a pair of shoes. You see, I HATE my current pair of cycling shoes. They just don't fit well on my narrow foot and I have to tighten them way too much and then the big nasty velcro strap on them straps to the INSIDE and hits on my crank EVERY time I push down on my pedals. Hate them, hate them, hate them! So even though they are only 2 years old, I'm ready to upgrade.

And upgrade I did!

After much research I decided I wanted these. My main problem when I bought a lot of my orginial tri gear is that I had absolutely no idea what I wanted or liked or what was good or not so good. Now after being in the game for 2 seasons, I'm starting to get a better idea. These shoes are the bomb because they are women's specific and fit WAY better - as in like a glove. And the strap on the bottom opens to the outside. So they ordered me up a pair size 38.5! :) I cannot wait to get them!! I also have my eye on some pedals (two bikes and only one set of pedals - you can understand my frustration) and of course race wheels. Oh wait - money DOESN'T grow on trees?!?! Oh...I guess those items might have to wait a little then... :)

After all that excitement O and I went to his team's first indoor meet of the season. I haven't been to a high school indoor meet for a long time. Well, actually I was in college and they had the state indoor meet at Penn State and O worked the meet so I went to watch. (actually - I think I worked the meet too). It was at that meet that I watched my state record in the 3K be absolultely destroyed. Hmm...weak record I guess? :) Regardless, the meet tonight was at Pitt.

When we got there I was absolutely overwhelmed. High schoolers EVERY where! And it had to have been a rather small meet in the grand scheme of things because it's the first weekend back to school from the holiday break. Regardless, while O was off doing this coaching thing I had fun watching the full gamut of high schoolers compete. You had the really fast ones and the really slow ones and just about every speed in between. There were the goofy ones and the serious ones and I'm not kidding when I say every single kid had a (1) cell phone and (2) iPod of some variety! I do have to admit that after a while I got quite bored and read the majority of my latest edition of Triathlete Magazine, but overall it was a fun night.

And now I must go watch the Steelers because there seems to be a chance that they MIGHT win! Good night all!

Posted by beth at 10:03 PM | Comments (2)

January 4, 2008

Cold With a Capital C!

Um yeah - it's cold out there. But I know it's cold everywhere - even in *GASP* Florida, so I can't complain! And it's supposed to warm up this weekend/early next week around here so I really can't complain. But 13 degrees with a windchill of 5 this morning on my run felt awfully nippy!

In other news I broke my wheel last night. Actually, I really feel as if I didn't do anything to break it but rather it broke on it's on accord. Regardless, the end result is a wheel that just does not work. I won't even try to explain what's wrong with it because I know not a single name of any of the many pieces of a wheel. (surprisingly there are all sorts of little gadgets on a wheel once you start taking it a part). Luckily I have another wheel I can use (stolen from my road bike) until the broken wheel gets fixed. Broken wheel will be taken to the doctor's (aka: bike shop) this weekend. This might actually be a good excuse to ride my road bike OUTSIDE for my long ride tomorrow. We'll see. If it's still 13 degrees with windchills in the single digits tomorrow morning I will be exchanging wheels and riding my tri bike INSIDE on the trainer, thank you very much!

Now it's time to get back to work. Have a great weekend everyone!

Posted by beth at 11:14 AM | Comments (0)

January 3, 2008

Placebo Effect?

Well, it may very well be the placebo effect (affect?) but I think the antibiotics are working. I'm feeling MUCH better today...much, much better. I can swallow and not wince! No more Draino singe! Yipppeeee!!!

I thought at first it was the high dose Advil I was taking but I stopped that (last dose at 2 am this morning) and I have still been improving throughout the day. Perhaps this was just the natural progression of things and I would have felt better today anyway. Regardless, I'm not complaining!!

I still did skip my swim this morning because I didn't relish the idea of going out in the 10 degree temps to get in cold water when my head was still a little fuzzy and my throat still scratchy. But I've felt improvement throughout the day so it's on the bike tonight for a 1:45 ride and then we will be back to the regularly scheduled programming tomorrow. Oh how would I love it if this was my only "sickness" all of 2008! See - I like to get things out of the way early!! :)

Have a great night everyone!

Posted by beth at 3:43 PM | Comments (3)

January 2, 2008

Drinking Shards of Glass

As someone who works in a major urban teaching hospital with a level I trauma center (and I actually work in the trauma ICU) I get to see a lot of strange things. One of which is the occasional patient who tries to commit suicide by drinking Draino or battery acid or something of the sort (trust me - NOT the way to go). I usually end up seeing these patients quite a bit because I'm a dietitian who specializes in nutrition support for those that can't eat. Because, while these people don't succeed in killing themselves, they do manage to basically disintegrate their intesintal tract.

You might wonder where I'm going with this. Just hold on.

I usually wonder (but have never asked one of them) what it feels like when the Draino is going down. Does it burn? Does it ache? Does it feel like nothing at all?

I was thinking again what it might feel like last night as I laid awake with THE sorest throat known to man. I was thinking "this is what it must feel like to drink Draino!". Oh my...not a pleasant feeling at all. And in a very, very rare turn of events, I couldn't even sleep last night! I'm the kind of person that can sleep through ANYTHING (including if the house was burning down around me). But last night I think I looked at the clock every 10 minutes. Actually, I would fall asleep only to wake up again every time I swallowed and felt the Draino singe. I spent the better part of the night trying not to swallow at all (very, very difficult - go ahead and try!), but to no avail.

I'm really trying not to be a baby about a simple sore throat but geez - it feels like I'm drinking shards of glass here people!! I have not one other symptom to go with it though. No fever, no chills, no cough, no congestion, no headache.

So I actually went to the doctor today. And yes, I felt like a tool going to the doctor for a sore throat but I started to wonder if it was possible that I might have strep? (despite being 28 years old and not having any fever I thought it was still a possibility :).

So of course the doctor takes a look and confirms that no, I probably don't have strep but my glands are actually quite swollen and so she took a culture and gave me a script for antibiotics anyway. A waste of her and my time maybe but she made it all worthwhile by telling me to take 3-4 Advils every 6 hours to help with the throat soreness. Why didn't I think of that? I guess I just don't associate taking Advil with sore throats. I only think Advil when my head hurts or my shin is throbbing.

Regardless, I came home, took the Advil and then fell asleep for another 2 hours. And my throat is definitely doing better. It's still sore...don't get me wrong. But it feels less like I've been consuming an errosive substance... :)

Posted by beth at 5:31 PM | Comments (2)

January 1, 2008

Starting 2008 Out...So-So

Well I'd like to say I started the year off with a bang, ran 10 miles and felt great and then rode my bike for another 20. But instead I woke up feeling a little under the weather. Mostly in the form of a very sore throat. And no, it's not from staying up all hours of the night partying in the new year (although I am proud to admit that, with the help of several naps throughout the day, I did make it to midnight last night!).

I'm blaming the sore throat on my dad who was sick over the holidays while we were visiting. He, however, is blaming it on the fact that I gave my body a taste of the good life in sunny SC and now that it's back in cold PA, it's protesting. The man makes a very good point.

Regardless, I don't have another other symptoms so lets hope it stays that way. I did still get out for my run this morning and then a short ride on the trainer after that. Other than the artic wind that is blowing in some snow for us over the next couple days, all went well.

And with that, I'm off. O's family always has a New Years Day celebration and so we are on our way to Greensburg. Hope everyone has a great day and a great start to 2008!

Posted by beth at 2:24 PM | Comments (3)