Week 24

I took most of this week off for reasons I can't explain. It's possible that it coulda been sheer laziness or burned-out-ness. At any rate, I only worked out twice but ate like I was working out every day! Crap! And suddenly I am missing a week since I can't remember what the hell happened.
Monday - Rest
I was pretty out of it, recovering from the extreme workouts of the weekend. Felt ok in the morning but by mid afternoon was out-of-it.

Tuesday
Awww, took one more day off. Listening to my body and all...or just lazy? You make the call.

Wednesday- Swim!
I actually made it out to the pool! The workout called for about 2800 yards (here comes the math) which is 3730 yards in my pool, which is about 112 laps. (wait? is that right?). At a certain point I started to get dizzy. So I cut it short at 92 laps, which is 3064 yards. Man, if I just swam in a 25 yard pool my life would be so much easier.

Thursday - Chiro!
Checked in with Dr. Rabbetz. Considering I worked out like 20 hours last week I felt pretty good. He walked into the exam room and said, " hi skinny!" Yay! I *am* thin!. He checked some stuff out, made some adjustments and then made the observation that my body adjusts better at this weight. Good to go. Don't have to see him for 3 weeks.

Friday
Um...had "another" kind of doctor's appointment today. Stopped off at Mervyn's to buy some new Levi's and hello? Size 9. Yay!

Saturday - Bike Ride
Deb and I decided to ride with some of our teammates who live in the East Bay. The SF people were planning a ride that included Mt. Tam...and you cycling team people who read this will understand why I was like, oh HELL NO! I decided that Calaveras and Palomares was a lot more "rider friendly" than Alpine Dam, the 7 Sisters and Mt. Tam. Met the group at 8am. The first few moments on the bike I was so friggin' happy. God Damn! I just love riding so much. It just makes me smile and smile. I felt so grateful for the opportunity to ride with some amazing people, on an amazing route, on an amazing day.

on top of Calaveras Road

waiting for the team to ride by so i can take pics

there goes Deb Deb!

after the ride

we laugh in cancer's face! an outtake from our fundraiser photo

5 hours later...um. Hahaha, no. I was still happy. Just a little tired. Afterwards we all went to The Hopyard and had some chow. By the time I got back to the city it was 5pm and I was exhausted. Stayed in and watched movies.

Sunday - Run
Made my way down to Fort Mason around 9am and ran to the bridge and back. I made the roundtrip in under an hour which is just amazing to me. I can remember being on the tri team last year and I couldn't even run from Sports Basement to the bridge without dying (about 30 minutes). Really considered trying to figure out how to smuggle my iPod onto the Ironman run course. Music really does make everything better.

I know you'll be lonely but I'll be heading off on a work trip next week and then a little side jaunt to the G-Rents in Ft. Myers. Hopefully I'll be able to update from there where you are sure to be entertained by my stories of attempting to train on an 1800 passenger cruise ship while sailing in the Carribbean and then later, trying to run in 100% humidity in Florida. Um, yay.

Week 23

This week my energy was restored, no more "head on the desk syndrome," I registered for the Wildflower Long Course, kept the week light and then trained with the team for 14 hours over the weekend.What tha!?!!?

Monday - Rest
I honestly don't remember what I did this day. But I know I didn't do any kind of working out!

Tuesday - Spin
I didn't feel like going to the pool, so set up the rig in the kitchen that night and spun for an hour followed by 30 minutes of core. I think my non-existent appetite from the week before, which extended into the weekend really screwed me up. By the end of core I was shaking uncontrollably and ended up cutting it short to eat some bread and almond butter.

COMPARE AND CONTRAST

My body totally changed!

November 2007




March 2008 (4 months later)


Wednesday - Track
Did some speed work at track tonight and my heart rate was back to normal. Still having issues with shoes. Hope to try and return them to Sports Basement even though I've run in them like 6 times outside. Still not really into food after the workout.

Thursday - Nothing!
Had a chiro appointment in the morning and felt awesome when it was over. Weighed myself there and lost another 3 pounds. Whoa!

Friday - Nothing!
Had a doctors appointment where they weighed me and their scale said I was 2 pounds less than the scale at the chiro. DOUBLE WHOA! Had a going away party for a co-worker. Didn't drink and went home early because of my huge day on Saturday.

Saturday - Boot Camp Day One: Start at 9am end at 4pm
The night before I prepared for my 7 hour training schedule the next day. SEVEN HOURS people. I really couldn't even fathom it. I had no idea what to pack for calories so I figured I might burn about 4,000 calories and decided to bring along half of those calories in various drinks and whole food. We started the day at Aquatic Park where I made a last minute decision that I wasn't going to swim. I had heard the swim was only going to be about 20 minutes of getting in and out and experiencing a mass start so, for me, being in the bay in 50 degree water and then dealing with wet hair and clothes the rest of the day, which was only supposed to be 54 and cloudy, was not really appealing. I got the evil eye from the coaches but whatevs.

Nicole and Hez NOT swimming

However, when I got there, swim coach Nancy had an awesome workout planned and I was kinda bummed. See? I wish the coaches would let us in on that stuff BEFORE. I totally woulda done it. The workout consisted of doing a series of jumping jacks, core, wheel barrell races etc in between swimming to a buoy just off shore and back. Oh wells.

We reconvened at Sports Basement where the hell began. We left first on a bike ride following the Escape From Alcatraz course, about 13 miles. Yi and I were the first women back again on the bike. We totally kick ass on that. Then we suited up in running gear and ran to the Lyons Street Stairs, which are about 300 steps on the side of a hill. This is what we did:

Run up
Run down
Run up skipping a step
Run down
Run up
Run down
Hop on two legs up every step
Run down
Hop up on right leg
Run down
Hop up on left leg
Run down

Then if we were done before the rest of the group (which I was, grrr!) We had to run down a little hill and then do LUNGES all the way up it.

*blink* *blink*

Hez and Yi: Stairclimbers

Then we ran back to our bikes and spun for 45 minutes.



Then we ran to the Golden Gate Bridge (about 30 minutes).

Then we ran back to our bikes and spun for another 45 minutes.

Then we had to run about 15 minutes to another location for core where we:
Did side squats across a lawn (about 60-80 squats)
Did 25 push ups
Did 25 pull ups and/or held yourself up as long as you could for 3 times.
REPEAT THREE TIMES

And then RUN BACK to your bikes and pack up.

Duuuude, that last set of core about half of us were standing around glassy-eyed and zoning out.

I literally could not deal and basically threw my shit in the car and left without talking to anyone. I could not get home fast enough! I needed to be in bed ASAP.

Got home. Showered. Made a giant bowl of food even though I wasn't hungry and watched disc 5 of Freaks and Geeks. Went to bed short about 1800 calories. I just couldn't eat any more!

Sunday - Boot Camp Day Two: Start at 8am end at 3pm
Before I passed out in a coma on Saturday I managed to pack my gear up for Sunday. Drove down to San Jose at 6:45am. Sleeeepy. We started our day with a leisurely hour swim, followed by an hour bike ride up a giant hill, followed by an hour run. Then we got down to business:

Our set up in San Jose

Larry the mentor said: Look Sporty

30 minutes spinning-"hill work"
30 minutes of track and core consisting of running 5 minutes and then core consisting of MORE squats, crunches and pushups
30 minutes spinning-"speed work"
30 minutes of running and core consisting of running up and down MORE stairs plus pushups, crunches and step ups
30 minutes of spinning-dude I don't even remember what we did!
30 minutes of track and core consisting of LUNGES, and these weird hoppy things and pushups that I didn't do (shhhh)

Then we were done and we all jumped in the pool to cool off! Sunday wasn't half as bad as Saturday and I was pleasantly coherent on the hour drive back to San Francisco! I stopped in at a gas station to get post workout snack of pretzels and Dr. Pepper (shhh don't tell Dr. Scott!) and this guy in line in front of me asked me what Ironteam meant on my t-shirt. I told him that we were in training for Ironman and this guy, a complete stranger told me that he admired me for that. Then he commented on the "nutritional" food I was buying and when I just looked at him guiltily he said, "awww just teasing!" heh.

So the reason we had two consecutive 7 hour days of training was to see what it was like to push our minds and our bodies beyond reasonable limits. When you think you can't go anymore you learn very quickly that you have to. That may even be a metaphor for life. In a way I dreaded the weekend but I was also excited to see how I was going to be able to handle it. Mentally I really didn't have any issues. I was kind of like, just do it! Physically I was really surprised how well my body just followed along. I was especially impressed with my body the day after each workout. It really wasn't too sore. Maybe a little slower on day two but that is about it. What a nice surprise after months of having to ice everything for fear of pain. Monday I was a little out of it and faded quickly during the afternoon. But on Tuesday I felt refreshed and stronger and ready to do it all over again!

Week 22 - The Disappearing Appetite

This week proved challenging for me on a very different level. It seems that I've lost my appetite. Maybe it's because my sports nutritionist took away wheat and dairy from my diet and nothing seems appealing. I also had extremely low energy and was wiped out at the end of each work day. Like, literally cannot keep my eyes open, head on the desk type of wiped out, followed by a pretty serious melancholy. I also experienced my first regret since canceling cable about a month ago. Without TV I have to come home and actually*DO* stuff. The fatigue this week made me just want to go home and veg out on the couch to bad TV. Sigh. I came home most nights, cranked the heated mattress pad, set up my lap top in bed with me and got down to the business of being depressed while streaming reality TV shows. Heh.

Me and Yi from last week at Aquatic Park

I'm in there!

Monday - Rest Day
This was sports nutritionist appointment day. On one hand, I love learning about my body and what it's doing. On the other hand, they could literally tell me anything and prescribe the next $50 supplement and I really have no way of knowing if my body is experiencing inflammation at a cellular level. Starting to get slightly annoyed at all the money I am shelling out especially since it's preventing me from actually being able to afford the food they want me to eat. It's a double edged sword, people. Fessed up that I have been resorting to the old standards to make me feel better i.e. chocolate and diet soda. Dr. Scott tried a little word association "technique" to find out why I go to chocolate. Why I resort to it to make me feel better. He repeated the word over and over again for about 45 seconds and I had to answer one or two words each time. Chocolate: good. Chocolate: calm. Chocolate: texture. Chocolate: goodness. Chocolate: chocolate glazed donuts. Chocolate: dark. Chocolate: overbearing mother....WHOA! Sigh.

Tuesday - Swim
Back at the loverly Garfield Pool, I had a pretty good swim. Today I had another swim marker set. About 30 minutes of warming up and then a lap count in 30 minutes. Last month I managed 44 laps, so naturally I had to beat that. I used my tempo trainer and set it a bit faster than usual (123 beats per minute). At the 15 minute mark I was WAY over in laps, like about 25 laps in 15 minutes. I was also swimming too fast of a pace for me to keep up much longer so I increased the tempo to just ONE BEAT higher and then suddenly I have 29 minutes left and am just starting my 44th lap and I see my new higher lapage number out of my reach. Sigh. Totaled 44.25 laps. Note to self: start out the marker set slower and then crank it up. Gah! And just a reminder, I swim in a 100 ft pool so if I was in a regular size pool I would've swum 58.5 laps in 30 minutes and that is about 300 yards short of a mile. (I thought that last realization would cheer me up but it's killing me that I didn't even swim a mile - double GAH!).

After my swim workout I had a chiropractor appointment. I'm going about every 10-14 days now and when that appointment rolls around I cannot wait to get in there because I can tell how rotated and uneven I am. Jez, the most awesomest massage guy, came in to work on my psoas, which they assessed was tight, even tho it really wasn't bothering me. Despite the crappy swim marker, I was actually having a great morning - having run into Mai at the pool and it being sunny and all, and then Jez put his hand on my psoas. I just can't explain it but it feels weird and usually I can suck it up and power through it with deep breathing and thinking of other things besides some guy massaging a muscle deep inside my body that is just inches from my "canary." However, this day...I just don't know what happened. One minute I was like, it feels weird and the next minute I was sobbing uncontrollably. Dr. Rabbetz walked in, took one look at the tears streaming down my face and ran and got tissues. They both told me that that area, the pelvic-y area, is like an emotional warehouse. Where we store lots of emotions. After Jez left, Rabbetz asked me, aside from training, how everything is going in my life. To which I replied, oh it's normal aka sucking. The rest of the day I was melancholy and weepy. That night after work I got in bed at 6:30 pm and moped around to MTVs Making the Band 4 on my lap top til I fell asleep without really eating.

Wednesday - Track
Was supposed to be a killer speed workout, which I was looking forward to...however when I got to the track there was a highschool track and field event going on so Coach Bobbie decided that we would do a run marker on the upper loop. Three laps equals a mile. We warmed up and then Yi and I ran about 7 laps in 30 minutes. Kind of disappointing since our last marker was on the main track and we did about 12 laps and I have no way of translating that since I suck at math and word problems. If Yi and Hez ran 12 laps in 30 minutes on the main track, and 4 laps on the main track equals a mile, what color are Hez's shoes? Yi and I ran into Phillip, the web captain of the spring tri-team, and he commented on how it looks like I lost half my body weight. I never tire of hearing things like that. Went home and *TRIED* to choke down some minestrone soup. Ate about 3/4 of the bowl and then ditched it.

Thursday - nada
My sports nutritionist figures that running track on Wednesday night and then getting up at 5:30am-ish to swim is not enough recovery time for me which may be compromising my immune system and causing me to get sick every 3 weeks. This week I was supposed to go all out at track and then do the swim on Thursday but when I woke up I was like, eh, and then got back in bed. I'll do it next week. Today at work Kathy commented that my butt was disappearing in my jeans and someone else commented on how my jeans looked really big. That night I came home and had a potato for dinner and fell asleep by 8pm.

Friday - nada
Was gonna go to the gym and do some weights and core, you know, before that membership I got almost a year ago and hardly use runs out. But decided to stay in bed longer. Ian and I went to see "There Will Be Blood..." after work. I wasn't attracted to this movie at all but it turned out to be good. Came home and went right to bed...no dinner.

Saturday - Run
I'm cursing Asics this morning because of what I can only call a design flaw. My new $135 Kayano-13 (or 14 or whatever they are) sneakers have a new piece of swoosh that hits right at my bunion and causes immense bone pain. I spent about 15 minutes trying to decide which was gonna be worse, wearing my new shoes where I could possibly have pain at every step? Or wearing my old shoes where I might be ok for the run but would undoubtedly have pain towards the end, later that day or the next day due to how worn out they were. Hmmm. I decided on pain later on and went with the old shoes. I also measured my body and was kind of shocked to see that since January 30th I have lost 2.5 inches from everywhere on my body (except arms). Chest, waist, hips and thighs. It's weird. I am so stoked about losing this weight and inches but it's also kind of freaking me out.

I met Yi at the monkey bars near Fort Mason and we set off on our 11.5 mile run. We ran all the way over the bridge and this time all the way down into Saulsalito but needed to turn around before we hit the town. We checked out an apartment that was having an open house and then walked back up the big hill to the bridge. I ate a gel and immediately regretted it. It caused me to feel emotionally weird. It sounds so stupid. But right after I ate it, I felt uneasy, unfulfilled and like I wasn't supposed to be there and my heart was racing. Yi thought I was high. I just felt so odd. Could it be my gut trying to digest the long chain carbohydrates? Sigh. Ran back up to the bridge and before I hit the bathroom I commented to Yi how I sure didn't feel like I just ran 8 miles. Famous last words...that last 3 miles or so were so hard for me. My heart was still racing and I couldn't keep up with Yi. I slowed it down a bit and did some "mental biting of the tongue" and powered through. Then we were done...by 11am...yay!

I came home. Was not hungry at all. Actually had some "digestive" issues with chills and all and decided to crank the heated mattress pad and get back in bed. Choked down some toast. Then got in bed and stayed there for the next SIX AND A HALF HOURS. Luckily I had 2 discs of Freaks and Geeks to watch and that was that.

At around 4pm, Ian called. I had asked Ian to go to a party with me that night and as soon as I answered I was like, I'm not going. I can't deal with people. He said he didn't want to go either and that he woke up at 6am and stayed in bed til 2pm. I was like, I did too! Except I had to run for 2 hours in between when I woke up and when I got back in bed. I swear, I am like the laziest most active person. Heh. Then we convinced each other to suck it up and just go to the party.

At that point I realized I still had about 900 calories to consume before the day was out and I panicked and cooked up some salmon and couscous. Choked it down and then felt gross the rest of the night. Stayed about 1 hour at the party and came home. Passed out.

Sunday - 5 hour workout extravaganza

Time change and all, woke up at 5:45, which was actually 4:45. Got ready with all my bottles of fluid and nutrition and then headed off to pick up Yi.

Bottles o' Nutrition - it's like having a baby

Then we drove out to Lake Merced to meet the team where we proceeded to spin for one hour in the parking lot, run ten minutes, ride our bikes for one hour, run for ten minutes, spin for one hour, run for ten minutes, ride our bikes for an hour, run for ten minutes and then DONE! Um yeah, so I burned about 3200 calories today. The workout itself wasn't so hard. I mean, it was beautiful out and warm-ish and I kicked ass on the bike and I felt pretty good. Came home and still did not feel like eating. Made a giant bowl of spaghetti with sauce and felt pretty good eating it. Then realized that I somehow have to eat another 1600 calories before the day is out...with no appetite...and it seemed a little overwhelming. Well actually all I want is diet coke and mini powdered donuts which are both a huge no-no on my regimen. (ok so spaghetti is not allowed right now either but honestly, if nothing is appealing to me now except friggin' spaghetti...well, I'm gonna eat it.) Settled for just the diet coke and a mini loaf of french bread. So much for no wheat. :)

But! One thing to remember is why I am here. It's to cure cancer and I was reminded of that this week when thanking one of my boss' for her donation. She said, "ride for my partner's dad who died two and a half years ago of acute leukemia, ok? It's awesome that you are doing this!" Fred Raymont, this is for you! And because cancer sucks no matter what kind it is, I'll also be racing for her mom who died of lung cancer 3 years ago.

Please help to cure cancer! Click here to donate.

Week 21

Dead chicken heads aside, this week turned out to be pretty good. We were on our 4th week of the 4 week cycle, which is recovery week. Although, after I experienced the workouts over the weekend the coaches might want to rethink the "recovery" part. Hard! I also got retested at the Sports Nutritionist and some changes, they are a happenin'!

Monday - Rest
Even though I rested the whole week before, I took advantage of it to prepare for a demanding week ahead.

Tuesday - Swim 2800 yards
Now the cute Russian life guard is my personal calculator. He'll ask me how many yards I am swimming and I'll give him the distance for a 25 yard pool and he'll calculate it based on the 33.3 yard lengths I am swimming. I don't have the heart to tell him I have an uber-detailed workout grid that I fill out after every workout that automatically calculates that stuff but, whatever!

Wednesday - Track 5 miles (or something) of speedwork
Track was really hard for me on Wednesday since coming off of a week of inactivity gave my heart license to beat out of control on several of my level 7 loops (exertion rate). Say that a level 1 is strolling and a level 10 is sprinting and then keeling over...a level 7 is pretty hard. I decided to listen to my body and slow down even though Yi didn't really understand and kept pushing me, which made me feel guilty and useless until I finally had to exclaim, "my heart is gonna explode out of my chest if I don't slow down!" hahahaha. Oh wells.

Thursday - Sports Nutrition appointment
No swim for me in the morning (and a date that night kept me out of the pool later) as I made my way to Walnut Creek to shell out another almost $300. I am gonna have to start fundraising on a personal level to support my "medical food" habits and testing. Jeesh. This was the 5 week mark for being on my new whole foods diet approach and I was having my blood, urine and saliva tested again. I'll get the results on Monday but, for the readers benefit, I will see into the future and tell you that I dropped 4 lbs of fat and gained1 lb of muscle, increased my BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) by 60 calories, which takes non-Iron people about 6 months to do, dropped my cholesterol a few points and started metabolizing protein a bit better. All that and I totally had an anxiety food binge somewhere in those 5 weeks! Yeah!

Later that night I went to see my friend DJ Cadillac spin at The Argus and he told me that he was in The Sports Authority and saw an ad poster for Under Armor and he thought the sports model was me! Hahaha. Totally forgot I was going to check that out to see what his perception of my body is. Double hahaha. He thought I totally had a modeling gig and was getting cash money for it. That would be, um, sweet.

Oh bummer news: Dr. Scott totally eliminated dairy and wheat from my diet. Now I will be having no fun while I eat my sticks and grass. Sigh. I'll probably be ripped in about 2 weeks.

Friday - Whoops
Was up a bit late on Thursday so didn't work out. Felt it was for the better since I had a huge weekend of workouts scheduled. Stayed in and watched movies...well, watched them until I fell asleep at 9pm. I'm a real live wire now.

Saturday - Bike 50 miles, run 30 minutes
Hi? You ride your bike to work? Oh. That's cute. I rode from San Francisco to Nicasio...AND BACK. Forecast called for showers and wind but I had to Ironman Up and just get the thing over with. Turned out to be almost perfect riding weather with no rain, some wind and some sun. I prefer it a bit warmer so I don't have to wear arm and leg warmers but whatever. What is so different about being on a tri-team or training with Ironman people versus being on the TnT cycle team is that these triathlon people don't ever want to stop. On the cycle team we stopped whenever we could! There is always time for ice cream on a 50 mile ride! But now that I'm an Ironman in training, I only stopped once in 50 miles to pee. Heh. I hear, during the race you don't even do that. You just kinda stand up on your pedals on a descent and let it go. I really have no interest in doing that, by the way.

After the ride, we got our sneakers on and ran for 30 minutes in a circle around the parade grounds in the Presidio. Fun. Came home and crashed hard. Then ate everything in site!

Sunday - 50 minute swim in Aquatic Park, 100 minute run

Um. Yeah. You know, I really feel like swimming in ice cold, rolling wave conditions isn't really working for me. Ha! But this was going to be my first time out in my new wetsuit! I was excited to see how it was gonna feel and also a bit worried because when I tried it on at the store I felt like the neck was choking me...something you really don't want to feel while swimming. But that was 5 pounds ago sooo....

FYI, that is not my body in that suit...

When I pulled up to AP and saw the white caps I was like, shit, we're screwed. The plan was to swim the perimeter but because of the choppy seas (and "sea" is the operative word here people..as in swimming in it. ugh) we were told to just swim the buoys for 50 minutes. Three laps is a mile. Funny thing about open water swimming. I know logically that the first 15 minutes really, really suck. But every time, I get in the water and I start to swim and I say "Eff this...I'm getting out in 15 minutes." Then the 15 minutes goes by and you're warmed up and feeling a bit better about the whole 52 degree water thing. I was actually doing ok but talked myself into getting out at 30 minutes. I wasn't really tired or anything. Just kind of, "not into it." And so I consulted with Yi and we decided to do one more half lap of the buoys and get out. Then all of a sudden there were HUGE swells and the current picked up and I was just swimming so hard to just stay in place! And then my ear plug started to leak water in my left ear (we wear ear plugs to keep the cold water out of our heads to prevent seasickness and instability) and it was all over. I got so nauseous that I looked at Yi and was like, I'm out of here! So we got out about 15-20 minutes early (which was still a 30 minute swim) and went back to our cars to change into run clothes. Needless to say, we were freezing! We sat in Yi's car with the heat blasting until we saw our teammates starting to run away and then we clamored out of the car and headed on our 100 minute run.

Oh. You run 30 minutes at lunch time? That's cute. I ran from Aquatic Park to the Ball Park...AND BACK! WHAT THE HELL! I remember when I first came to SF on a reconnaissance mission to check it out and ended up walking from AP to Market and I thought I was gonna die. Sunday I did it in about 30 minutes.

Surprisingly. I stayed awake that afternoon. I wasn't really worn out or anything. Funny how the body adapts, isn't it?