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January 31, 2010

Ten Happy Things!

There seems to be a common blog entry circulating around about Ten Things That Make Me Happy. So I thought I would play along. This is an easy one!

1) ROXY! She is cute. And warm. And she just gets so darn happy to see you when you walk through the door.

2) FLOWERS! O brought some flowers home for me on Tuesday night (after failed swim attempt) and they totally made my night. And then yesterday, unexpectedly, more flowers were delivered to our house! I love flowers all the time but especially love them in the winter when everything else is dead around here! It amazing how they brighten up your day!

3) MY BIKE! Admittedly if I had to choose which of the 3 triathlon sports I could do if I could ONLY do one, cycling isn't the one I'd pick. :) But this time around I didn't get to pick so...cycling it is! And trust me, I am very thankful that I can at least do something! This week I've been able to ride easy, long, hard, moderately and...ALL PAIN FREE! It's great! And riding your bike every day is...different. I've never done this before. When all is said and done I might be really slow in the pool and on the run but my cycling legs should be strong. :)

4) STARBUCKS HOT CHOCOLATE! Grande w/skim and no whip. It's perfect. It's hot. It's chocolate. It's got lots of vit D and calcium and protein. But once my Starbucks gift card runs out I might have to cut back. Those things are a little on the expensive side!

5) OSCAR! I don't think I need to explain.

6) FB SCRABBLE! I usually have 3 games going at once - one with Oscar, one with Oscar and my sister and one with one of my HS cross country coaches. I LOVE IT. You might think it's a waste of time but really what it is for me is a little mini-break when I need to get away from working for a second. Plus it feeds my competitive side that right now is put on hold. :)

7) PRAISE MUSIC! Praise and worship music has always been my favorite. I used to be all about Third Day but now there are so many great choices! Nothing lifts me up more though. And nothing reminds me more how awesome of a God we have. In the church I go to we sing a lot of praise music (vs traditional type hymns) and this morning we sang Mighty To Save (a Hillsong song I think) and it was awesome, awesome, awesome.

8) HEALING RIBS! Slowly but surely they are getting better. As much as I want to hurry along the process I think the only thing I can do is be smart and be patient. As with most things, "time heals all". HURRY UP TIME! :) But seriously, I am slowly noticing improvements. I sneezed this morning and it didn't feel like 1000s of daggers in my side, it only felt slightly tight. I can ride hard and long with no pain. I can get up out of bed with only slight discomfort. I'm not ready to swim yet but this week I may try a short 10 minute jog on the track to see how that goes. Yesterday when Oscar and I were walking Roxy I tried to run for ~50 meters to see how it was and it felt pretty good! :) It will probably take a few more weeks but I do see a light at the end of the tunnel.

9) LAW AND ORDER! (and Netflix for that matter) When you ride your bike every day and all of it is inside (hasn't been above freezing for a good long time here in PA) then Law and Order reruns are a savior. And although it FEELS like I've seen every episode ever made, I'm continually surprised with new (old) ones. I think the old school originals are my favorite. And then SVU. I'm not a huge fan of Criminal Intent but hey, beggers can't be choosers. :)

10) SUN! It's really cold outside right now but it is at least sunny and that makes such a HUGE difference! Pittsburgh doesn't get a lot of sun but that must just make us appreciate it that much more when the clouds part and the sun peaks through! :)

And of course there are many more things that make me happy. Family and friends and cookies! But I must finish this blog entry so I can ride my bike. And watch some Law and Order. ;)

Have a great week everyone!

Posted by beth at 1:15 PM | Comments (13)

January 27, 2010

Ouch

Well I tried swimming yesterday and it didn't go so well. Ouch. I gave it some time - continued on and finished the whole workout JUST IN CASE my ribs needed time to warm up some. This was not the case. Swimming is definitely a no go right now. Boo.

I have to admit that made me a little sad. I think because I broke the cardinal rule of injuries by ever so slightly getting my hopes up. My ribs were just feeling so good - so much improved from the initial pain. And I rode my bike on Monday and all was well. Victory! I started to envision being able to swim and bike and lift and then just slowly adding back running. I EVEN started to think about going to masters practice on Thursday. OH THE JOY - MASTERS! But alas, one MUST NOT get one's hopes up during a period of injury as this usually only leads to disappointment. And indeed, I was disappointed.

So the bad news is, I can't swim. I'm sore enough from what I did yesterday that I don't even think I'll try swimming again for a while. Flip turns were especially bad but even open turns were not good. Oh yeah, and just using my arms to pull back the water wasn't great either. ;) Running is also out of the question. I just think about running and my ribs hurt. :) Seriously though, just taking a few jogging steps to cross the road, etc... makes me sore so I've not even considered running.

As you can imagine, I'm almost 100% sure I won't be going to Oceanside. Even if I am back to training full speed by then I will have missed a good 3-4 weeks (at the very minimum, it may be more like 6-8 weeks in the end) of big training. It would be one thing if Oceanside was an Olympic distance race or a race that we weren't going to spend >$800 for (when you include rental car, hotel, airline tickets, etc...), but since it's a big race all the way across the country, well it doesn't make sense to go when you are half injuried, out of shape and likely not going to perform so well. Plus, once I do get back to training it would probably behoove me to start slow and back into some aerobic basework rather than trying to squeeze some speed work in so I can try to race.

UGH!

But all that is the bad news. The good news is this - I can ride my bike! (I think) Cycling wasn't necessarily my weak sport in triathlon but hey, as Maija told me, at least it's the longest portion of the race! And it's better than nothing! I know I have to make sure I don't overdo it on the bike (and a chat with Coach today will give me some guidelines) but I am very, very thankful that I at least have something!

Also good news, I received my Splish suits today!

The owl suit says "Hoot Hoot" on the front and "Don't Pollute My Pool" on the back! :) So, when I am back to swimming, I've got some great suits to wear!

More good news - the presentations over the weekend went well! The Pittsburgh Triathlon Club clinic was packed! I was so surprised to see so many people (many of them new to the sport) interested in triathlon! I thought my talk went fine judged by the fact that there were lots of questions afterwards, I got a lot of follow-up emails AND I saw not one person falling asleep. :) And all the other lectures were awesome of course!

AND more good news! I'm teaching 2 "Drop 10 in 10" classes. I know I've talked about these before on this blog. But the good news part about it is - everyone is losing weight and losing lots of it! We are 3 weeks in now and I'm just really excited with how everyone is doing - the committment they are making to get fit and healthy, etc... Now granted, they have a lot of weight to lose, but it's great to see many of them taking that first step in improving their life.

Speaking of losing weight and improving one's health - check out this article that Jen wrote about Dan and his committment to losing 100 lbs and running the Chicago Marathon in October 2010. I think most of the people that read my blog also read Jen's so this might be old news, but just in case, Dan's story is awesome and quite inspiring! You can read about his journey on his blog. I've been fortunate to get to work with Dan on the nutrition side of things (while Jen obviously does all the coaching) and I have to say he is an absolute fantastic person to work with. I've heard just about every excuse in the book as to why someone doesn't want to make this change or that, why they won't eat this, why they can't do that (a lot of these excuses from athletes too!!) but not once has Dan told me he wouldn't do something, or at the very least try! It's pretty evident that he is going to be successful in reaching his goals! He has already lost 45 lbs!

And finally - my last piece of good news. I have the cutest dog in the world and am married to the best guy in the world. So how about that? :)

Seems as if the good news out-does the bad news 'eh?

Posted by beth at 9:46 AM | Comments (17)

January 23, 2010

Saturday Morning Blogging

Well, it's 9:52 am on a Saturday morning and I'm blogging. This can only mean one thing. I'm not back to training yet. HAHA! But, I'm getting closer. Maybe. I think. :)

My intercostal is definitely feeling better. I can get up out of bed without wincing. I can get my arm up over my head, breathe deeply, twist to the side, etc... all with minimal pain. Progress! Which of course makes me want to train. NOW! But this is the tricky part. When it hurts really bad, well of course the decision to train or not is an easy one. But when it feels better and you can now do things relatively pain free - well that's where you can get yourself into trouble. So SLOW is the name of the game. I'm fully ready to take 1 step forward but then 1 step back if needed. I just don't want to take one GIANT leap forward and then take 29 steps back. Make sense? :)

Anyway, yesterday I went to see THE BEST DOCTOR EVER. I'm amazed that such a person exists in Pittsburgh. He is new to the area so I can take some solace in the fact that he hasn't been here all along and I've just been missing him.

What made him so great (besides the fact that he told me I could try riding my bike) you ask? He was extremely thorough and spent a lot of time with me for one. We spent a good amount of time just talking about history and how/why I got this injury, not just "let's fix this and get you on your way..." And for another - HE IS A TRIATHLETE! (and has done Ironman in fact) My eyes lit up upon learning this little detail. Yes, finally, a doctor that will "get it". And more importantly a doctor that will understand how we sit on the bike, what muscles we use repeatedly when we swim 15,000 yds a week, etc... DING DING DING! We have a winner. :)

Regardless, the result of the appointment is that I need to get a lot of blood work (sort of unrelated to this injury but just in general - he was looking to keep me healthy for many years to come) and I need an xray (we all agreed this is muscular but he just wants to make sure I don't have an old rib stress fracture in there as this is the side of my body that was hit by a truck). And I have to see him again in about 10 days.

The BEST news is, I can try riding my bike. And swimming. But no running. No surprise there. When it comes to injury, running is always the first to go and the last to return. Stupid running. ;) So come Monday, I get to spin easy for a bit if I have no pain. Try swimming on Tuesday (again, no pain and it has to be light and easy). I'm hoping for the best but preparing for the worst. And I am very much looking forward to at least testing the waters out a little! WOO-HOO!

Anyway - you must be sick of reading about this injury (I know I'm sick of it myself) so let's talk...NUTRITION!

This morning I gave a lecture to a group of cyclists. They asked many, many questions about beer. Really? No questions about protein needs? Good foods for recovery? Fruits and vegetables? Nope, most of the conversation was BEER. :) But that's okay. They were funny, nobody fell asleep on me and I got a few laughs at my rather lame jokes, so I'll count it as a victory. :)

Tomorrow I'm giving another lecture - this one at a triathlon clinic being put on by the brand-spanking new Pittsburgh Triathlon Club (PTC)! The PTC is an exciting addition to our area. Triathlon is just getting so big in our country and even in Pittsburgh, which traditionally hasn't been a big "endurance sport" area. Pittsburgh loves their hockey and loves their football (and sort of loves their baseball) but...triathlon? Well I guess Pittsburgh is starting to love triathlon too! :) (now if only we'd get some really big races here, oh how happy I would be!)

Anyway, the clinic should be exciting and fun. I've got my lecture AND lame jokes prepared! Looking forward to meeting some more triathletes and seeing some of the ones I already know! :)

And now it's time for...what. I tell you, it's very hard to get used to not having 4-5 hours of training each Saturday... :)

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Posted by beth at 9:53 AM | Comments (13)

January 21, 2010

Many Thanks!

Well I have to say - many, many thanks for everyone's kind comments regarding my unruly intercostal! I truly appreciate all your encouraging words and thoughts on my blog, via email and of course on the infamous FB! HA! You guys know how to lift a comrade up! :)

One of my friends sent me this little saying and it pretty much sums it all up:

"When you are healthy you think you will never get injured and when you are injured you think you will never get healthy. But neither is true!"

YES! It made me appreciate how "relatively" healthy I have been, really since starting triathlon. I had the bike accident (but of course that wasn't an "athletic injury" per se) and then there is my on-going hamstring pain, but again something I've been able to manage relatively well and has really only affected my running to some degree. So really I am thankful!

In terms of how the ribs are doing - they are feeling better! Sneezing is still so painful I want to cry but things like getting out of bed, reaching over my head, deep breathing, etc... all have improved. I've been getting treated with ART (which hurts but then really helps) and tomorrow I see a sports doc. I have a list of questions prepared for him! I hope he's ready!

So that's where we are at. I've still done absolutely no training although passing by my bike every day (still set up on the trainer in our dining room :) I've been tempted just to see how it feels... :) Although I'm quite anxious to do something...ANYTHING, I'm not going to rush it. If there is one thing that I DO NOT WANT, it's to still be messing with this pain in May or June or beyond. So if that means sitting out a few weeks now and missing Oceanside, well, that's what it means. Of course even Oceanside is 2 months away so I'm not even going to worry about that one yet!

Anyway, enough about that! I would now like to list reasons why it's good to be injured:

1) Time! Holy cats. What do people who don't train do with all this time?! :) I suppose they have hobbies, perhaps a social life, maybe they watch tv, etc... But since I do none of that, I just seem to have a whole lot of extra time! Makes life a little less stressful!

2) Work! With all this extra time I've certainly been able to catch up on work and get a lot of it done! This week (in particular) has been very busy work-wise and to tell you the truth - even a couple weeks ago I was wondering how I was going to get everything done this week with my usual training. Luckily I didn't have to figure it out! HAHA!

3) Sleep! If I was behind on sleep at all I'm certainly not now! If sleep can heal intercostal muscles, mine should certainly be on the mend!

4) Laundry! Oh yeah...significantly reduced. Now if only Oscar would stop training so much... :)

And a whole host of other things. Like when I don't have training in the morning to do, Oscar and I can drive into work together (on the days when I work at the hospital). He drops me off and then picks me up when he's done with track practice. Those extra few hours in the car together and only taking one car on the long commute instead of two - TOTALLY AWESOME!

So see, it isn't that bad (snicker, snicker). :) But oh how happy I will be when I can get back on that bike, back into that pool and back out on the roads in my running shoes! (another positive of being injured - motivation and hunger to train are at an all time high!)

Hope everyone has a great day!

Posted by beth at 9:19 AM | Comments (10)

January 18, 2010

On the DL

(In case you are wondering, "DL" to me does not refer to what most people think - "down-low" but rather "DL" indicates "disabled list". This is what one gets for spending almost all of one's free time with the baseball-loving husband Oscar. I speak baseball :).

Anyway, yes, somehow I've managed to break myself.

I believe I left off on Wednesday where, after running up hills hard for a while that morning, my intercostals (one in particular) on the left side were rather angry. This pain had all started the previous Sunday (8 days ago) after running hard at the Frigid Five Miler.

At first the pain wasn't of major concern because I could do most things and not feel it. In fact on Monday I had a great swim, Tuesday a great interval session on the bike, etc... with very minimal pain.

Wednesday night though, after the hard run, I felt it a bit more. On Thursday morning when I woke up to go to masters the pain was still there, more persistant and starting to become worrisome. I feared swimming would worsen the situation so I skipped my swim that day and only rode by bike. Riding didn't seem to hurt. I rode again only on Friday and was thinking this would do the trick such that I could get back to regularly scheduled programming after resting the muscles for 2 days.

Unfortunately my body had other ideas.

Instead on Friday night the pain was worsening! I was now feeling it with pretty much everything I was doing - including deep breathes, sleeping (or rather TRYING to sleep), any sort of twisting of my torso, etc... I was having flashbacks to my bike accident where I didn't break any ribs but I felt as if all of them were shattered to pieces. No fun! And sneezing? Dear Lord -sneezing felt (and still feels) like a thousand daggers in my side. Hopefully I don't get a cold until this injury is healed. :)

So in desperation I emailed my ART doctor on Friday night asking if I could come in Saturday to be seen. Emergency! And being the awesome doctor that he is, he called back right away and agreed to see me the next morning at 9:30 am.

So Saturday morning we (Oscar came) drove down and Dr. Klueber did his usual poking and proding. It was painful. He was theorizing that I had either strained or slightly torn one of the intercostals (the muscles between your ribs). If you haven't ever had ART (active release therapy), it essentially involves the doctor applying pressure to the area you are working on while together you do different motions to work deeply into the tissues. Well during one such movement along my ribs - POP! And very, very, very sharp pain. Like take your breath away pain. Like tears suddenly rushing forward pain.

He had certainly got something moving in there!

But then of course I was in much, much pain. Like walking back to the car was a chore.

Needless to say, I spent all day Saturday and much of Sunday laying in bed, taking anti-inflammatories and icing. And trying not to move. Or think. Thinking even hurt.

Today I am back among the living and while still in pain, it has improved significantly. Getting out of bed and twisting are still big no-nos but at least I slept well last night. And today at work, walking around the hospital hasn't caused any wincing.

And that's that.

So what have I done? Who knows! But I certainly made something very, very, very angry along my chest wall and thus far not even resting it has proven to be effective in getting some relief! I did see my ART doc again this morning and we worked on it and he wants me to see a specialist of which I made an appointment with this morning (appt is 2 weeks, perhaps sooner). Of course I've done my internet research (which is never a good thing because you are then convinced that not only will you never heal but you might have 10,000 other disease as well :) and we've formed a bit of a plan. ART every other day or so, see specialist (possibility of needing a nerve block), and go from there. One day at a time.

I have to say I'm a bit discouraged by 2 facts:
1) Pretty much everything I've read of any sort of chest wall injury is rather uniform in suggesting that they take quite some time to heal. Anyone who has ever had a rib fracture knows this. Not only do they take a long time to heal but they hurt like the dickens in the mean time.

and

2) Unlike most of my previous injuries, at this point I can't even consider swim, bike or run. Even when my hamstring was at it's very worst I could still swim and water run! But not so with this injury. This is going to require full time off from everything. And that's a major bummer.

So admittedly I was pretty sad this weekend. I love, love, love to train (and of course race!) and so take that all away and I'm sure most people that read this blog can sympathize - my days aren't quite as fun. Beyond fun, training is a major stress release for me!

And while I am usually a very upbeat person, when it comes to injuries I have learned (and trust me, through the years I have done a lot of learning!) that being a pessimist is better for my pyche. I can't go on hoping that tomorrow is going to be the day that I'll get to train. Or that tomorrow it's going to feel 100%! But rather it's much better for me to accept that I might be in this for the long haul. And it's possible that I might have to miss races.

I know this all sounds a bit much (I mean geez, it's only been hurting for a week!) but I do know my body well and I don't have a good feeling about this one. I have been blessed with many, many, many things in this life but durability of body isn't one of them. :)

Now if my side/back is miraculously 100% better tomorrow and I'm back to training I will GLADLY eat my words! HAHA!

Regardless, having said all that, I know it's certainly not the end of the world. Just small beans compared to the real troubles of this world and now that my pity party is over (held this weekend, don't be sad if you weren't invited, it wasn't that fun ;) I can get back to focusing on HEALING! I can focus on getting the therapies I need to get better as fast as I can. And along with that I'm sure I will learn as I always do. Injuries have almost always worked out for the better in my experience. Perhaps it's not good for me to be in shape right now - perhaps having to wait just a bit longer into the year will be a blessing in disguise.

Now excuse me while I go take some massive amounts of ibuprofen. :)

Posted by beth at 1:57 PM | Comments (27)

January 13, 2010

Holy Cats!

A list! Because I like lists! And exclamation points too!

1) Hills, hills, hills and more hills.
Today I was supposed to do a track workout. HA! I laugh merely because our track is still covered in about a foot of snow and ice. So instead I took to the hills. Trust me, I can get my HR up running hard up a hill. I can do it running easy up a hill too. :) Regardless, I was reminded how very difficult it is to run uphill fast and then repeat and repeat and repeat and... Midway through the workout - nose bleed. UGH! Not gushing so I continued on but every time I wiped my nose, blood. (I know everyone is DEFINITELY going to want to borrow my gloves now!) When I finished the last repeat and stood in a heap atop the hill with bloody nose, breathing so hard I'm sure you could hear me from miles away and (I'm sure) looking dreadfully tired, a car pulled up next to the stop sign I was standing by. I tried to look away but I think they caught glimpse. I hope they don't think I'm abused. :)

2) Reasons why I don't like winter.
a) Wayyyyyy to much laundry. It's endless. And that's even with wearing running clothes over again!
b) Bloody noses (see above).
c) When you open your car door and all the snow that was on your car blows onto your front seat. This drives me BONKERS!

3) Reasons why I like winter.
*crickets*
I'll get back to you on that one. :)

4) Trainer-love!
I can easily see why people like power meters. It's quite nice to see this sort of progress, especially on the trainer where it is otherwise hard to quantify progress. Yesterday I did a hard session on the trainer and was absolutely killing myself to increase the power output with each successive interval (keep in mind, this was the goal of the workout). I'm not so sure about the accuracy of the power outputs from this trainer (as some have mentioned to me) but I'm not so concerned about actual numbers as I am improvement. Besides, I have no clue what power output data is good and what is not at this point.

5) Intercostal pain.
My hamstring has been feeling suspiciously good so in the interim I have a new ailment. I did something to my intercostal muscles on the left side. Holy ouch. My side was somewhat sore on Sunday after the race, okay for my Monday swim, painful for my Monday run, totally painLESS for my Tuesday bike but again painful for my Tuesday swim. On Tuesday I went to see my ART doc (for the hamstring) so he poked around a bit on my side. Then he proceeded to nearly bring forth tears when he started prodding the painful spot. But then it felt better! And then I ran hard again this morning and it hurts again. But this is how we roll in the Shutt household. I don't like to ever be totally 100% painfree because that's just boring. :)

6) Holy work Batman!
Up to my ears in work. But I'm not going to complain because the alternative is not good. And I know many people are in the situation of NOT having work (and wishing they did). Either way, I've done so many food logs in the past few days that I can pretty much rattle off the calorie, fat, carbohydrate and protein content of just about any food. Try me. I even have a few "international" clients so I've been learning the way of some non-US foods. (actually the food is all the same but those crazy Canadians call their cookies different things AND they give me serving sizes in mL and grams - HA, imagine! :)

Speaking of which, I better get back to it. Hope everyone has a great night!

Posted by beth at 5:36 PM | Comments (12)

January 10, 2010

Frigid Five And More

When the alarm went off today O quickly turned on the tv and yelped "zero degrees?!?!" UGH! Today we were doing the Frigid Five Mile race and indeed, it would be frigid.

I'm not going to lie, it was cold. But as is always the case for me, once I start racing I don't really think about anything but racing hard. I really wasn't sure what to expect given the fact that I haven't run hard since November, I haven't really been training for that long yet, the cold, blah, blah, blah... BUT I did know that a good goal would be to run faster than last year. Because last year we did this same race under the same circumstances (I wasn't in shape, hadn't run hard for a few months, just started training, blah, blah, blah...).

Goal acheived! I ran 1:15 faster than last year. Hooray! But at least part of that can be attributed to the fact that the roads were in better condition this year. (although it was about 20 degrees warmer for the race last year also).

Anyway - we had fun! O did the race too. Chad, Ben and Doug, our friends, were also racing. There were pancakes afterwards! And O and I BOTH won raffle prizes (probably because we were 2 of about the 15 people that stayed :). Oh, and O ran fast - almost broke 30 minutes which given the course (there is a 0.75 mi long hill at the end that is just BRUTAL) and the cold, was pretty impressive to me.

Mr. Frosty Man - aka: what happens when you have a beard and run in zero degree weather.

No pictures of the actual race but I do have pictures of Ben and Oscar eating pancakes! :)

It was a great way to kick off the racing year! I'm always so excited to race and doing little races like this always get me even MORE excited for the big races to come!

And in other news, I used all my Big Bang gift certificates (that I got for Christmas) yesterday and got a new trainer! We needed another trainer because we only have one and O and I wanted to be able to ride together. So he got my old one and I got a new one! (doesn't seem fair 'eh? :). I decided upon a Tacx Flow which does a whole bunch of things but most exciting for me is that it measures power output.

We don't train with power but I know it will be a good way to measure progress and help me to train even better through the winter (since I spend about 100% of my time on the trainer until March/April). It took us a while to set it up today but then I did an easy 1 hour spin after the race and averaged 155 watts. I know - WATCH OUT LANCE! HAHA! :)

Look - watts!

I wasn't sure if it would work but both bikes BARELY fit into our living room (our house = not so big :). Fun bike rides together!

Posted by beth at 8:15 PM | Comments (9)

January 6, 2010

On Training

Well here we are again. That time of year when the holidays are over and ahead lies a lot of work, a lot of snow, a lot of cold and not a lot of daylight. That time when there doesn't seem to be an end in sight and spring seems quite far away. The time when you ponder why you don't live in a warmer state where ice and snow don't threaten your training and your sanity! This is my time to shine! :)

A few points of ponder:

1) O and I are back in the routine of work, training, sleep and eat. He is back to school and indoor track season has started. Enter long, long track meets at far away places (there aren't many indoor tracks in this area). And, as you can imagine this is a busy time of year for a dietitian! I have many new athletes to work with (yeah!) and have been tackling food logs left and right. I think I might have dreamt about food logs last night. Maybe? :)

2) Training! If I wasn't back into the swing of things before, I definitely am now! I decided to do Oceanside again this year because I really did love the early season start last year. It truly gives me something to look forward to and a lot of motivation through these cold winter months to GET THE WORK DONE.

3) Swimming! Love it as always. LCM at masters on Monday was the perfect start to the week. My lats and shoulders are sore and tired but my swim training is going great. I'm doing the 1 Hour Postal Swim on 1/16. Woo-hoo! Last year I did something like 4250 yds so I decided that this year I would like to swim 4400 yds. Then I figured out the pace I would need to maintain to achieve this goal and it came out to be 1:21/100. For an hour. Hmmm. We shall see how it goes! :)

4) Cycling! Well of course I'm on the trainer. I actually haven't riden outside since Clearwater! But I know the trainer makes me strong. Still, I'm hoping to ride outside at least once before Oceanside so I can remember how to do things like make my bike turn and descend down a hill. :) I have until late March - I'm staying optimistic.

5) Running! Oiy! This is always the tough one in the winter. And in terms of fitness, run fitness always seems to be the first one to go and the last one to return! But I will stick with the plan like I always have and in the end it usually works out. Oh, any my hamstring has been feeling surprisingly well so I cannot complain!

6) Racing! I am doing a 5 mile run race on Sunday! I hesitate to call it a "race" - as I've not done any speed work yet and the weather for this race is usually freezing cold with poor road conditions to run on. But it will at the very least be a nice hard workout to jump-start me out of my slower base training paces. Oh it will hurt alright (and to make it even more fun there is a HUGE 1/2 mile++ hill at the end). But they give you pancakes afterwards. We did this race last year and I think O ate about 29 pancakes. I can't point fingers though because I think I sucked down 32 mugs of the hot chocolate!

7) Pull-ups! Don't think I've forgotten! (I know, you all were worried weren't you!) I haven't "re-tested" myself for a while. I have instead been doing sets of 2, 3, or 4 pullups each time I go to lift. I don't think I'll be able to do 10 yet but I might be around the 7 range. I will re-test soon. The trick will be finding a time when my arms are somewhat "fresh" as swimming, lifting and sitting in my aerobars for hours have taken their toll on the shoulders/lats/neck/back, etc...

Ah yes! Training indeed! And now, I think my running tights have had sufficient time to dry in the dryer and so it's time to run. It's 15 degrees BUT I will have nice toasty running tights on! At least until I step outside... ;)

Happy training, working and living to everyone! Keep warm! (and if you already live somewhere warm...keep hydrated!...or something like that... :)

Posted by beth at 10:07 AM | Comments (10)

January 1, 2010

Review Of A Decade

So I was trying to think of some way to recap the past year. Or talk about resolutions. Or something New Years-esque for my blog on January 1st. Problem is, I don't make resolutions. I'm a day to day goal-setter (like I make goals for EVERYTHING) so resolutions just seem too...general. And any resolution I would make is probably already covered by one of my goals.

And a recap of the year? Well, if you've been reading this blog you already know everything that happened. :) I think that might be me being lazy. But I figured it would be boring to recap something you've probably already read about.

THEN I read Jen's blog - where she recapped her whole past decade! Now that seemed MUCH more interesting! So I stole her idea! :)

(of note is the fact that I don't really know if 2010 is the start of a new decade or the finish of an old one - but for purposes of this blog, 1/1/00 to 12/31/09 is what I'm considering the past "decade" to be)

SO! The cool part for me is that since I was born in '79, each new "decade" marks my 20's or 30's, or 40's, etc... These past 10 years were essentially my 20's. I turned 30 this past May.

2000:
This was my junior track season in the spring and my senior (and final) cross country season at Penn State. As you will see, I totally relate each part of my life to what I was doing athletically at the time. :) Nothing too exciting to note here other than the fact that after struggling with injuries for 2 years straight at Penn State I finally got healthy as a junior and senior. My senior cross country year was special - not because I did anything amazing race wise but because I was the captain of the team. Talent wise I was FAR from being one of the best runners at Penn State so it meant a lot to me to be able to lead the team in a different way. By this point Oscar and I had been together for 2 years already! And in fact, in December of 2000, Oscar proposed to me. I said yes. :)

One of my last cross country races.

2001:
I graduated from Penn State in the spring with a BS in Nutrition. I was accepted into Penn State's clinical internship (which all registered dietitians have to do before they can sit for the national boards) which started in the fall. This was good timing because Oscar still had 1 year left at Penn State to finish his masters. That May my family endured some unexpected deaths. First my uncle (my mom's brother) passed away very unexpectedly and then, just a few weeks later, my grandfather (my mom's father) passed away after being sick for some time. My mom had to miss my graduation from Penn State as her dad had died the night before. Too many funerals that year. I finished my final season of running. Oscar drove all the way out to Indiana to watch me run my last race in my Penn State uniform (the 10K at Big Tens). Little did he know that 10 years later he would still be driving all over the country to watch me race! (actually, he probably did suspect such a thing would happen) September 11th happened. That day I was in a very rural, VERY small town in the middle of PA doing a community nutrition workshop as part of my internship. I remember driving home from the workshop and being utterly frozen with fear when the only thing on the radio stations was the news of the day's events. And also being afraid because at the time my father was working in Somerset (where the "other" plane crashed).

2002:
BIG YEAR! I graduated from my internship and Oscar graduated with his MS in May. We got married in June! We went on our honeymoon! And then we moved to Virginia. We both started our PhDs at Virginia Tech that fall. We had lots of fun, really enjoyed VT and loved the area. We found a great church. We were newlyweds! But...um...I hated school. :) Actually, I just had a hard time envisioning another 5 years of graduate work. I was ready to move on and get a job for a while. I was fine with living in VA while O finished his PhD but in a strange turn of events his advisor left and there was nobody to take Oscar on. He was stuck in a hard place too. So what to do? We ran like heck back home to PA. We moved back to Pittsburgh after the fall term ended. But not before we ran our first marathon in Raleigh in December of 2002. I ran 3:22 and loved every second of it.

On our honeymoon we went to a Boston Red Sox game. :)

2003:
The first 2 months of the year we lived with my parents! (back when my parents still lived in PA) After 7 years of going to school for engineering O got a job as a math teacher at a private Christian school. :) I got my job at the University of Pittsburgh (which I still have). In February we moved to an apartment. I did lots of running races. Not much else happened that year. :)

2004:
I was still working at UPMC. In the spring I ran the Cleveland Marathon with my BFF and in the pouring rain we both PRed with a 3:11. She could have easily broken 3:10 but she stuck with me when I was DYING the last 3 miles. We crossed the line together. It's one of my all-time favorite photos I have from a race. After O finished the school year at the private school he decided he wanted to go back to school for his teaching certificate so he could teach and coach in public schools. This meant he had to go to Pitt - YUCK! (hehehe) In the fall my BFF and I got together again for the Columbus Marathon. This one didn't go so well. We both ended up dropping out around 21 or 22 miles. That race and Steelhead 2008 are the only races (of the HUNDREDS I've done) that I ever dropped out of.

Krista and I after finishing in Cleveland.

2005:
I signed up for the Boston Marathon (had qualified at Cleveland) but struggled with a hamstring injury all spring (which I STILL struggle with now) and in the end decided not to race in Boston. That hamstring injury was the start of a whole bunch of running injuries. I think I was injured all of 2005. The whole summer/fall I had plantar fasciitis. Oh and we were really poor too. We were surviving on my dietitian's salary because O had to go back to school full time to finish his class work/student teaching. That was a rough couple months. :) BUT that fall O got a teaching job in public school and we now had 2 salaries! And we bought our first house! And although I was STILL injured, something good came of it because one of my co-workers suggested I try a triathlon - less running so I could keep healthy. Hmm...maybe... That November I joined our YMCA. I figured I had to learn how to swim if I was going to try this triathlon thing. HAHA! The first swim workout I ever did was 12x25! (I just looked it up in my running log - oh yeah baby!) And because I didn't have a bike I took spinning classes. OH! And how could I forget?!?! In October of 2005 someone at work asked if anyone was interested in a dog that her friend was trying to get rid of. Yep, you guessed it, Roxy Dog came into our lives! (and promptly destroyed most of what we owned :)

Roxy with her party hat on. :)

2006:
After taking close to 4 months off of NO running (not even attempting it) I ran on 1/1/06. My feet still hurt but I had to make it work because I WAS going to do a triathlon that summer. No ifs, ands or buts about it. In March we bought a triathlon bike for me. Oscar finished his first full year of public school teaching and loved it. Very, very smart career move for him. In June I did my first ever triathlon in Charleston, SC. I was more nervous than I had ever been in my life I think! My parents and sister came to watch. I remember thinking that the swim felt VERY long (it was 300 yds ;). I came in 4th. I did 6 other triathlons that year (including 3 Olympics) and was totally, completely in love with "my" new sport. That summer one of the biggest and best school districts in Pittsburgh called O for an interview. And then they offered him a job. It was a tough choice because we had just bought a house that was 50+ minutes away but it was too good to pass up. That fall he started at Mt Lebanon (where he still works) AND he ran his 2nd marathon. WOOP!

My first triathlon. I think I smiled the entire time!

2007:
I applied for and got accepted onto the MarkAllenOnline Triathlon Team! YEE-HAW! I had big plans. After doing all smaller/shorter races in 2006 I was signed up for some big races and also was ready to try a 70.3. I raced in April and May and then right before my first "A" race in June (Eagleman) I got hit by a car when I was riding my bike. Ouch. I didn't run for a month and had only been back in the pool for about a week but decided to do AG Nationals in Portland anyway at the end of June. The race was ugly. I ran incredibly slow. My hip hurt like something awful (still from the crash) but I snuck in there for the last qualifying spot for AG Worlds. I couldn't pass it up. AG Worlds was in Germany and because it was during the school year O couldn't go. So my mom went with me! It was cold! But we had a blast. Oh, and I did my first 70.3 that year but in August (instead of Eagleman in June). Total beginner's luck I went 4:50 at Steelhead and thought "oh, this distance isn't that hard". HAHA! (I wouldn't have another successful 70.3 until 11/09! :) Notice triathlon is starting to take over my life. I still worked at UPMC in 2007 but changed my status from full time to "casual". At first, I still essentially worked full time as a casual but now I didn't have to work on weekends.

There was an article in the paper with a picture of the windshield I smashed in when the truck hit me.

2008:
Okay, now I was REALLY ready for a good triathlon season (without crashing interruptions!). I was on the MAO team again and enjoyed a very successful (for me) season of mostly Olympic distance racing. I tried to hit some of the big ones - Columbia, Philly, NYC, Dallas Open, Best of the US. It was a very fun year and I was healthy for the entire season. I met SOOOO many great people. I was also starting to work less and less at the hospital. And an idea was formulating in my head for my OWN business. :) In October/November of that year O (and truthfully, Jen Harrison was a big part of it too) helped me to bring that idea into fruition and we officially began The Athlete's Eutrophia, LLC. I got my first client Mike. He still might be my favorite. :) The major loss of 2008 though was when my grandmother passed away in July after a (relatively) short battle with pancreatic cancer (it was actually biliary cancer). I loved my grandmother dearly and her death was probably the first time I felt profound grief. Her funeral was on a Monday and on the following Sunday I raced in the NYC tri. I thought of her the entire run during that race and to this day it was one of the best runs I've ever had in a triathlon.

My grandma is front and center in this picture!

2009:
Wow - here we are! My business was up and running. I was still working at the hospital. I got involved with one of the major insurance carriers in Western PA and started doing work for them. O was into his 3rd year of teaching at Mt. Lebo and now VERY much into coaching track (indoor and outdoor) and cross country. O was also becoming extremely fast from all the running he was doing! Now I can't keep up with him! I had another great season with MAO, racing all over the place and enjoying EVERY SINGLE SECOND. We went to California for the first time ever in March and then loved it so much we went back in September! I turned 30 in May. And that's pretty much that!

So...still awake? :) Probably pretty boring for you to read but it was fun for me to remember back. And it's also fun to dream and imagine what the next 10 years have in store. Whatever it is, I'm sure it will be fun. And I will be very excited to take it head on with O and Roxy at my side. Oh, and you all will probably have to read about it because I'm sure, I'll still be boring you with it in my blog. :)

Happy 2010 to everyone!

Posted by beth at 6:13 PM | Comments (18)