Week 11 & 12: Am I Gone?

Week 11
I spent most of this week thinking I was getting better from being sick with the flu but my body had some other ideas. I had a relapse and it all just went downhill. I didn't do much this week except pack for my trip, get some last minute Christmas gifts and then wallow in uncertainty about my life.

Saturday
I hopped a plane to Buffalo, NY. You probably think it is the snow capital of the U.S. and that it is super cold. Well, you're right, but it really isn't that bad. Still, living in 50 degree balmy Bay Area weather doesn't prepare you for bone chilling 30 degree cold and a light dusting of snow aka 5 inches.

waiting in Charlotte for my connecting flight

Sunday
Went to my Uncle Lars house to see my dad's side of the family. My uncle Bar and his wife Char were there with my cousin Emily. My cousin Jeff, who I keep forgetting is not 12 anymore and is now a metal head with his own band and tattoos, and his girl were there plus my aunt Debbie, Charlie and then later my cousin Ami and her son Ibrahima. We ate some yummy food but I wasn't feeling really well. We had some fun tho. At one point my aunt Char asked Bar to hand out his gifts to everyone. He replied, oh this is just alcohol...alcohol isn't a gift. To which I immediately interjected, "it's not a gift, it's a lifestyle." He got a kick out of that. To get around me not being able to bring more than 3 ounces of liquid on the plane he gave me about 6 nip bottles of vodka and one lone tequila. hahahah. Those Aronson's are so funny.

Uncle Bar

Week 12

Monday - Rest Day
Still sick and in Buffalo with a mom who won't turn the heat up over 62 degrees. Who does that? Every time I walk by the the thermometer I punch it up a few notches. My mom tells me to put on more clothes...dude, I am wearing my down jacket. Since, it's Christmas Eve we go over to my Grandma's house for presents and my Aunt and my cousin and her family join us. It was kind of a low key Christmas Eve, compared to previous years. Not all the family came and dinner wasn't fancy...just a roasted ham that we made sandwiches from. Still good.

Tuesday - Christmas Day
Traditionally my immediate family open gifts on Christmas Day and my mom hosts dinner. Christmas morning my mom and I had our little celebration and opened our stuff. Then the cooking began. The last 3-4 years or so I assigned myself the cooking of the Christmas Dinner...mostly so I can keep myself busy and have something to do. This year I made mussels steamed in white wine, leeks and fennel for an appetizer, a pork loin marinated in butter, garlic, rosemary and prosciutto. It gets rubbed all over the top of the roast and then roasted in a pan with whole endives in Vin Santo (a sweat Italian wine). Then I made garlic mashed potatoes, minted peas, a salad and pumpkin pie. The pork was ridiculously delicious. It was the first time I ever made it and I will definitely make it again. Then we sat around and watched TV and I successfully prevented viewing "A Christmas Story," "It's a Wonderful Life," and "Miracle on 42nd Street" for the 50th time.

yummy mussels!

hez and the g-rents

hez and grandma

Wednesday - Swim
I decided I felt better and needed to get moving. I drove my mom to work and blindly drove to the Tonawanda Aquatic Center. Oh, I had my Google Maps but I didn't grow up driving in this area so I have no spatial relationship with it. Anyways, found the pool after some tries. Swam for 35 minutes aka 1200 yards. It felt good to blow it out after having been sedentary for about 2 weeks. Went over to my Grandma's. We had to run to the supermarket to get some ingredients for the famous spaghetti sauce. For some reason my German Grandma makes the best Italian spaghetti sauce that she learned from her Polish mother-in-law. Yeah, I don't get it either. Every one in my family makes it but it's never as good as the master and now it was my time to learn.

on the way to Tiff's house

Tiff frosts a wedding cake

After the market I ran to my cousin, Tiff's (she lives across the street from Grandma) to spend some time with her while she made some cakes. Tiff is a wedding cake maker and she had an order due later that week. We talked and stuff and then I had to go and get my mom at work. We went out for Thai food. Yum! And then went to see Walk Hard. Very funny.

Thursday - Swim again
I don't feel quite well enough to handle a spin class so I went to the pool again and swam for 50 minutes aka 2,000 yards. I was trying not to push it but, whatever. Ran some errands and then headed over to the G-Rents house for Sauce 101. I can't say it enough, the recipe is so simple, yet the sauce so amazing. In the past, when I came to visit Grandma would just make a giant pot and send me home with about 6 Tupperware containers. Now because of the liquid regulations on planes I can't do that any more, then my Grandma had a mini stroke over the summer so I figured it was time to learn it myself. Let's discuss the amazing-ness: the sauce contains pork, Italian sausage, beef and meatballs. It cooks all day and then voila, it is amazing. We spent the afternoon cooking. Then my Aunt Bootsie (not her given name) came by and we ran some errands. Then I had to go and pick up my mom for a night out with her work people. Oh boy.

grandma chops celery

my job to pummel tomatoes

Now, some of you may be surprised to learn that I am shy or socially awkward when I don't know anyone. Then you add in people not engaging me in conversation and I totally shut down and become paralyzed. This is what happened tonight. I usually just get wasted and everything works out, but I wasn't really wanting to drink since I was still kind of sick. But luckily, standing next to me were 4 guys and they soon rescued me. I spent most of the night talking to these pretty cute, townies. Granted, I think they were all married, but whatever. I AM still attractive to men! I forget about that living in SF since no guys ever talk or look at me...ever.

Was able to coax my mom out of there by 8pm. Yay!

Friday
Was gonna spin but hullo. I pulled a muscle in my butt while swimming and felt that if I pushed it, I might cause more damage since I think it was actually my IT band. Instead, went to Bingo in Canada with my mom and Grandma. I LOVE bingo. It's so kick ass. We didn't win though. Afterwards we picked up fish fries for dinner aka fish n' chips. Pigged out with my G-Rents, mom and uncle and then went home.

Saturday
Last day in Western New York! Sadness. Went to my Aunt's house so she could dye my hair. She used to be a hairdresser so has all the stuff, including the salon set up in her house. Whoa! Went to get a classic Western New York staple for lunch, Beef on Weck aka roast beef sandwich on a kimmelweck roll. And went back to my mom's to get ready to leave.

Can someone tell me why it's only 5 hours to fly to SF from Boston, but over 6 hours to fly from Newark to SF? That was a really long flight. The first movie was the Santa Clause and I felt like slitting my wrists. C'mon people, put on a real movie. Luckily the second movie was Stardust and that kept me entertained for a long time. I also had the bulkhead seat which was awesome. They also FED us on the plane and we didn't even have to pay for it. Hi mini cheese pizza! The woman next to me was freaking out the whole flight about 3 women behind us who just kept talking the whole time at loud drunk volumes when, technically, it was about midnight to the rest of us. She was doing a lot of sighing and loud talking herself about how rude they were. I wasn't really bothered by them since I had my iPod and I also have a great gift for tuning people out. But this poor woman was one of those who would complain the whole way but not ever say anything. Finally, after I got something out of my overhead I just politely asked the girls to be quieter since we were all trying to sleep. They were like, OMG we didn't even realize and totally accommodated us. The woman next to me thanked me and said that I handled it better than she would've. Then I guess since she felt empowered by my action she yelled out in the direction of the girl behind her, "AND PLEASE STOP KICKING MY SEAT! THE WHOLE 6 HOURS I GOTTA FEEL YOU KICKING MY SEAT!!!" Hahaha, I felt embarrassed, since the woman's rudeness almost negated my nice-asking. But then I turned my iPod back on and felt better.

Sunday
Woke up early in SF to shop for my NYE celebration and my car was dead. Hello? Fuel injector busted? Happy New Year. Ugh.

Yes that does say the Am-I-Gone funeral home. How amazing is that?
(it's really pronounced "ah-mee-gun")

Week 10: Was I supposed to be training?

After bragging to nearly everyone how I haven't been sick in almost a year, attributing it to my "magic filtered water" and daily spinach and orange juice smoothies, my aches and pains from my sprint triathlon in near freezing conditions turned into the flu! Go figure. I didn't do anything this week and even had to stay home for three days....suffering.

Monday - Rest Day
Thank God. Made it to work but ended up going home on the early side as I realized that the dull headache and exhaustion I had been fighting the week before were actually precursors to a virus.

Tuesday - Sick
Texted into work sick. Love that about my job. No on the phone guilt feelings and having to cough on cue. Made it to the store to stock up on my comfort foods that I like when sick: Lipton Noodle Soup, Instant Mashed Potatoes, Frosted Mini Wheats, Ginger ale and any kind of citrus Popsicles. Worked about halfway through my 87% TiVo queue. Had to cancel dinner plans.

Wednesday - Sick
Stayed home sick again. More TV watching. For the most part just dealing with aches and pains and a headache and feeling just "wrong" on the inside. No congestion. Thank God.

Thursday - Sick
Planned on going to work as I had a dentist appointment at 9:30am. Texted my boss that I'd be in after even tho still not feeling great. She told me to stay home. Even tho I have a wash machine in my kitchen, I decided to take my giant pile of sheets to the laundromat to get it done in an hour. Came home and was just exhausted. Too much too soon. More TV. Iced back. Started to feel a tiny bit of congestion so before bed pounded a Mucinex and a decongestant. Passed out in 20 minutes.

Friday - Sick - Performing in Mortified
That decongestant only knocked me out for 6 hours and I woke up at 3am wide awake and the weight of my world on my shoulders. Played two rounds of Scrabble on my handheld, counted backwards from 100 about 50 times. FINALLY fell asleep only to have my alarm go off in what seemed like 15 minutes. Dragged myself out of bed to go to the chiropractor. Went into work. Was doing ok until I realized that I hadn't eaten lunch and was fading fast. Ate but didn't work. Went home at 3pm. Tried to take a nap before my show. Didn't work. Got up and dressed and went to meet Conor and Brian at the LAC. Drank about 50 beers (whoops) and stayed up way too late for someone who is sick. Lost my voice.

Saturday - Sick - Performing in Mortified
Woke up at 7am in a panic because I didn't remember carrying my notebooks, containing my performance notes, home. Stood up and realized that I was really, really sick. And when I say sick I don't mean with a virus. Ugh. Got back in bed and prayed to fall back asleep. Slept until noon. Felt ok. Layed around all day. Got ready for my show. Such low energy. Still losing my voice. Managed to make it through the show, came home, watched Constantine (awesome) and went to bed.

Sunday - Sicker
Woke up at 7am and went straight to Safeway to food shop. So less crowded at that time. Ian picked me up and we went to see I Am Legend. It was good but I spent about half the movie covering my face with my scarf. Went over to the Richmond for Dim Sum. Did some holiday shopping. Came home and read a cookbook. Planned Christmas dinner. Watched a movie. Feeling really, really bad. Congested and gross but had to watch the Survivor finale. Went to bed.

Looking ahead: Still refraining from working out this week until I am 100%. Leaving soon for the holidays and have lots of workout places lined up to get back on track. Begged my mom not to make Bullseye's this year. She probably won't listen.

Week 9: Recovery Week

This week I am (kind of) embarrassed to admit that I didn't do anything. If you remember, in September I was riding my bike home and was "doored" by a parked truck. The driver opened his door about 6 feet in front of me. I hit with my right side, flew off my bike and landed in the street on my left side. My 33 year old steel bike was destroyed but I was relatively ok. That is, until now. I've had a slow recovery with physical therapy and the chiropractor but for the last 2 weeks my lower back has been acting up. Something I have never experienced before and found it quite challenging. I also walked to and from work every day this week as I didn't win parking in the lottery this month...and it rained pretty much every day.

Monday - Rest Day
Thank god. Went shopping for a holiday party outfit with Elektra. No luck. Went to Suppenkueche for dinner. Yum.

Tuesday
My pool is still closed so planned on spinning in the morning but felt more like sleeping in. Then at night felt more like just vegging out and watching TV. My Boyfriend (TiVo) is lonely. Saw my chiro in the morning and he cracked it out, massaged and put me on "stim" (skeletomuscular electrostimuloation....it feels good, I swear). Felt great.

Wednesday
Track day but had dinner plans that night. Half-heartedly tried to persuade Yi to run in the in morning instead. Didn't work. I decided to do my stretch video and some core in the morning instead. I spent the rest of the day regretting that decision as my back killed me the entire day. It was so bad at one point that I felt like I was going to throw up. Called my chiropractor and left a message on his voicemail through tears. Left early and cried most of the 45 minute walk home. By the end of it I felt ok, less pain. Iced my back before I went out (old lady) and felt good the rest of the night. I am sure the three beers helped too.

Thursday
Saw my chiro in the morning and he told me that, eventually, I am going to be fine. That even though stretching is good for my back, it's not a good idea first thing out of bed and my pain the day before was basically my back giving me a big F.U. I was relieved that this should be a temporary problem. The discomfort is just horrible. I feel like I have no core muscles and because of that my back doesn't have support and is falling into my pelvis. Heh. That is not true of course but I've been sucking my gut in a lot. Felt good the rest of the day. Skipped a potentially fun holiday party to go home and ice my back and veg out to TV.

Friday
Back feels good. Finally got out my second fundraising reminder and am happy to report that I made my first fundraising deadline of $1,000 by December 14. The next deadline is March and it's $3,000. Working on planning a fundraising party for February. Tonight was my work holiday party at Asia SF. The Fabulous Jojo accompanied me. Was worried about managing a late night and open bar with an early Saturday morning Iron University (we learn about some Ironman things). I didn't really drink (and when I say I didn't really drink I mean I had three), danced a lot and before I knew it was 1am. Oops.

Saturday
Back feels like crap after all that dancing. Got up and made it to Sports Basement by 8:30am. Then sat for 4 hours in a metal chair in the freezing back room at the store while we learned about stuff. After "university" we had lunch. Mel sat down next to me and was telling me about how "no offence" but she is really concerned about her weight and all this eating/training. To which I looked down at my bag of Baked Lays and immediately felt guilty and silently put them down. Then I obsessed for the next 40 minutes about what she meant by "no offence." Bought two new ice packs on the way out. Came home, cleaned and was in my pajamas by 4pm and asleep by 9pm.

Sunday - Sprint Triathlon in Cupertino
Yeah, did I mention I didn't do any training this week? Also, my chiro insisted I "take it easy" on this race and not do it for time....which of course means nothing to me. Woke up at 5am and was out the door by 6:20 and on my way to the Stevens Creek Reservoir. It wasn't too cold in the city but in Cupertino it was a freezing 44 degrees...or maybe colder.

on the road

in Cupertino and freezing

Swim- 600 yards aka 1/4 of a mile
We had our wetsuits on and were headed down to the water by 8am. With the windchill, it was pretty cold, though the sun was out. Just standing around and waiting to go in the water was horrible. My toes were pretty much frozen in about 15 minutes. The coaches had us start in waves. I was assigned to the 3rd one but snuck into the 2nd one just to get it over with. Got in the water, floundered around, let water in my suit to warm up, peed (makes it warmer) and then we were starting. The swim was over before I even knew it. Felt pretty good about it even though my new thing is to start panicking during the last leg. It's weird, as soon as I can see the shore/finish line I start to freak out and hyperventilate. Also, my wetsuit is too big now and it's causing some chaffing and fatigue. Got out of the water and was surprised to discover that my face was completely numb...like Novocaine numb. That has never happened to me before. Made it up to transition and got ready for the bike.

Bike - 12 miles
I cannot express how cold this bike ride was. I swim with my tri shorts and sports bra under my wetsuit so my base layer is already wet...and my hair...and it's 44 degrees out. I saw frost, people. Got dressed and cried out when trying to get my socks on completely frozen feet. Yi got out of the water shortly after me so we were able to take off on the bike together. My toes alternated between feeling like bricks of ice to then thawing a bit on the climbs and aching with pain. I suffered this for about 50 minutes and then we were done.

heading off on the bike

Run- 3 miles
Yi and I got our stuff on for the run. In this picture below it's probably about 50 degrees out now but my shorts and sports bra and hair are still wet. The first 1/4 of mile was a steep downhill and given that neither Yi nor I could feel our ankles, feet and toes we decided to walk it. Then we kind of shuffled along and realized we needed to walk still. We walked about a half mile until the feeling came back and it wasn't quite so painful to run. We did pretty good. It was a quick out and back and we picked up on our speed quite a bit after the turn around.

out on the run

All in all, a very cold and tiring day. But rewarding. Yi and I came in at 1:48 which probably breaks down like 10-12 minutes for the swim, 50 minutes on the bike and 40 minutes on the run plus transition time. Came home and slept about 3-4 hours. Yay!

Week 8: Sunday is the New Friday

After a less than productive Thanksgiving week, I decided I needed to "crack down" on all the lollygagging and get to business! Get back on the horse! Ride the lightening! Stop the insanity! Errr...

Monday - Rest Day

Yay! Kevin DeBrow dead? Sadness.

Tuesday - Run

I actually ran. Whoa! It was supposed to be an LSD aka Long Slow Distance run but I was all, 70 minutes!?! So I just ran my little 30 minute route and let me tell you, that was enough. Tonight is the only night I have to lay around and be lazy and catch up with my Boyfriend aka TiVo.

Wednesday - Track aka Spin/Run Workout

Dragging run gear AND spinning gear (bike, trainer, shoes) to Kezar is not my idea of fun. It was hard! That trainer has to weigh about 50lbs and I have the bruises to prove it. Anyways, the workout commenced and we spun for about 20 minutes then ran for 10, then spun for 15 minutes then ran for 10 then spun for 10 minutes and then ran for 10. Yi and I ran pretty effin' fast. We were thoroughly impressed with ourselves. Then we had to lug all our crap back to our cars. Not fun. Came home and made Huevos Rancheros (!) Yum. And spent time with my Boyfriend (TiVo).

Thursday - Swim

My pool is still closed for repairs so Yi invited me to swim at her gym which is the very swank Bay Club. I believe a membership there costs about as much as my monthly rent. Getting there at 5:45am required me taking the Broadway Tunnel which is something I had never done before! FYI, Broadway is the only street NOT labeled on Van Ness. When I realized I had passed it I turned around and in that space of time Broadway became closed off with Police and Firetrucks. Shit! How in the hell am I gonna get over to Pier 23 now?!? Turns out I have an excellent sense of direction and mental capability at 5:30am and managed to detour myself and get back to the tunnel and the Bay Club. Unfortunately, Broadway was closed because of a fire at an Indian Restaurant and two people died. Back at the pool, Yi tried to get me to do the Level Three workout and I was all, nice try. I'll stick with the Level Two option and swim my 1700 yards aka 54 laps...or something. I was done with the workout at 7am (!) and went back home to cram some food in my face before I went to work. Went to dinner at Holly's house in Oakland and missed her exit AGAIN. That East Bay. It messes me up. This time Whitney Houston made me do it..."HOW WILL I KNOW IF HE REALLY LUHHH....SHIT!" **Grand Ave exit flying by**

Friday - My Second Rest Day

I've decided that Friday is the new Monday when it comes to training. It's gonna be my official unofficial rest day. I just really don't want to get out of bed on Friday mornings to do anything. Went to dinner with a friend in Palo Alto at my favorite Thai restaurant, Thaiphoon. Pad See Eew? Best ever. Was exhausted went home to catch up with my Boyfriend (TiVo) but fell asleep on the couch instead. But not before I discovered that Raphe, our web captain, excerpted my Team Darkness post on ironteam.net. Hello? Horrified.

Saturday - Bike

Yi and I decided that driving about 40 miles to only do 2 hours of bike riding was redonkulous so we opted for doing Paradise Loop from Sports Basement. It was a beautiful, beautiful day even though it was kinda chilly. Long bike pants AND the Ironteam jacket. Whoa! We looked pretty spiffy, we did. Having only two hours to ride and doing Paradise Loop means that we only went to the end of the bike path. Heh. Ooops. Turned around and then stopped before the big hill out of Sausalito. We sat in the sun on some benches and marveled at the view while we talked about boys. We both agreed that boys are stupid. Got back on the bikes and started the climb. I was stoked to see that I still have my climbing legs from the summer. Having not done a serious ride since the beginning of September was beginning to worry me, but clearly I am a superstar. Somewhere up that hill we realized we came back faster than we went out so Yi suggested to do the Marin Headlands to get all 120 minutes in. Through gritted teeth I agreed to this even tho, hi? Marin Headlands? That is a giant hill. Sigh. But up we went. Yi shouts: "Let's just climb for 30 minutes and then turn around where ever we are!" I shouted back, "OK!" But what I was really saying in my head was FUUUUUUUUUUCKKKK! But, up we went and believe it or not, in 13 minutes we were at the top. Hi? Studs. Rode back to Sports Basement via the Golden Gate and again had the thought "I LOVE living here!" And then shortly after some asshole loser ruined it for me...again! At the store, ran into my summer cycle team who were gathering for an alumni ride. I love the cycle team. I miss those guys *sniff* Went home. Cleaned. Got ready for an evening out that consisted of squishing 5 people in a car, an Einsturzende Neubauten poster, a short film staring the fabulous Derek, successfully spotting my first F to M "guy," visiting the excellent Hotel Biron and getting home by 10pm. Whoop!

The Fabulous D, Jojo and Hez

Sunday - Swim/Run

Woke up early to get down to Aquatic Park by 7:30am. DREADING swimming in the Bay because it is mother fucking cold. The workout turned out to be not so bad. Suited up in the wetsuit and made my way to the beach. Got in, freaked out as the cold water tried to shut down my organs, swam out to a buoy, swam back, got on the beach, did 10 push-ups and 10 sit-ups, ran down the beach and did the thing all over again about 5 times. Then we got ready for our run. You know, when it's 58 degrees out and you've just come out of 52 degree water, and you're half naked in front of people you don't really know and trying to strip off a wet bathing suit and get on dry running gear...while tourists watch...you know? it's not really that fun. Ran for 25 minutes out along Crissy Field, on the way back did pick-ups every 5 minutes. Yi and I made it back faster than on the way out. Home by 10am. Yay!

The Team Suits Up

Plank in Wetsuits

Met Betsy at Kabuki Springs. Wow. That was awesome. I needed that. Went from shower to sauna to cold pool to steam room to cold pool to hot pool to sauna to cold pool to steam room to cold pool to hot pool to lounge chair to sauna to cold pool to shower. Two hours later I felt great! Came home, convinced Holly to go out and went down to the Argus for DJ Cadillacs' holiday party. "I'm only going to have one maybe two beers" are kind of, like, my famous last words. My "one maybe two" turned into 5 and Holly's "one beer and I am going home" turned into 3 beers, a martini and two bourbons and her not making it home. Uhhhh. Sunday is the new Friday! Conor and Brian joined us and the evening was very fun. I *heart* the Argus.

Check out the Team Darkness post for some new photos!