Workout? What Workout?

I thought about listing all the things I did this weekend in chronological order, but really, that would be boring. So instead, I will list my injuries/aches and describe how they came about….So from the head down:

Skull—Achy because of high estrogen/low progesterone. I feel a migraine coming on this week. I also haven’t been eating breakfast at all and stuffing my face with crappy food instead of staying on my low salt diet.

Eye (right)—stye forming on the top lid. It fkn hurts. Probably from swimming in dirty lake water with leaky goggles.

Cheeks – Flushed and irritated from too much sun and not enough SPF.

Nose—Stuffy and runny. I better not be getting sick.

Lips (right corner) – Cracked. I have no idea why. Probably from the crappy food I’ve been eating.

Forearm (right) –In an attempt to ‘bond’ with the family, agreed to play badminton for a few hours in the sun. I haven’t really played since high school—20+ years ago. I also decided to show off by beating everyone in the family. Now I’m paying for it, because I can’t even pick up my coffee cup.

Kibbles & Bits – 20+mile bike ride early Saturday morning. First time on the bike since August 5. It hurts. A lot.

Ankle (right)—went to the CIM workout with Fleet feet early Sunday morning to try out the ankle, finally. They ran 7. I did 2. It felt good while running but now a little bruised.

Foot (left)—While getting ready for CIM workout (above), walked into the dark bathroom and rammed my left foot into the corner of the cabinet under the sink. Someone (RR#2, but I’m not pointing fingers) left the cabinet door open all night and my foot impaled itself on it. The foot is swollen, bruised and nasty looking.

TonightI will attempt to run another 2 miles and make a decent low salt low fat dinner. Cheers!

Doing Swimmingly

Since my ankle catastrophe, I decided to focus more on my swimming--particularly, swimming endurance.

On Tuesday, both Rugrat #2 and I reached a milestone.
She has been in the open water swim class this summer. She learned to swim using the Total Immersion method. She learned to put her face in the water, push on her buoy, sharkfin, etc.

On Tuesday, she agreed to 'swim long', meaning instead of staying close to the shore and doing skills and drills, she would swim up the lake shore to a predestined marker and back. She chose to do the 1/2 mile swim.

I wanted to stay with her (motherly instinct and all) but the teacher told me to scram and that a kayaker would stay next to RR#2 the whole time so she didn't panic.

I took off and reached the 3/4 mile turnaround and then looked longingly at all those people who swam the extra mile lap around an island in order to get just over a mile in the water. Someone in my group stopped and said, "c'mon! Stay on my feet and i'll pull you around the island".. Well, i'm so slow, I couldn't stay on the feet--but I did make it around the island!!!! I swam back to the shore exhausted but proud that I made the 1900 yard swim in about 43 minutes. When I reached shore, RR#2 gave me a high five and told me about her jaunt to the 1/2 mile turnaround!
I was so happy for her. She said it was really difficult and she was scared but she persevered and made it! She is so excited to continue swimming in the lake until it is either 1. too dark after work or 2. the water gets icy cold.

Anyway, phew. I can swim a mile and she can swim 1/2 mile. Just maintain now until next year.

TriKarenTri's Tuesday Tantrum Twelve

I wish I had something really interesting to write about, but I don't.

I am resting my ankle since it has been puffing up. I think my wednesday 5 mile run to test out the ankle actually hurt it worse.

So here's a list of a few things about me. I'll call it "trikarentri's tuesday tantrum twelve"

1. Reading Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. I'm on page 13 and I love it.
2. Joining the Capital Athletic Club in the next week or so.
3. Volunteering at XTERRA Lake Tahoe on August 29 so i can earn a free race voucher for next years' race.
4. My ankle still hurts
5. I think I will do Millenium Restaurant's aphrodisiac night for my birthday.
6. My boss just told me "good job".
7. I am confused and sad about rugrat #1 and the Cult.
8. I am amazed that I have so many great friends. They are super supportive and very fun to hang around.
9. I want to obtain a great base level of training so I can do a half marathon effortlessly. (ha!)
10. I have a rash from stress.
11. I am thankful that for the most part my body works like I want it to.
12. Hopefully, Active Release Therapy appointment tomorrow will help my ankle.

Baggin' it

I decided to bag the race (or hobble) on Sunday. So no "Blood Sweat and BEERS" for me. My ankle was throbbing last night and this morning. I can take off two weeks now and still head into CIM training with some good conditioning. If I keep aggravating it, i might be out of contention for CIM altogether. Soooo I'm going to pick up the T-Shirt and hat but not the timing chip.

My husband said he'd buy me a beer on Sunday to make up for missing BS&B.. Say it with me.. "AAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww" He's really great.

Thanks for all the kind words regarding RugRat#1 and the ankle. I was a little PMS-y this week so everything seemed to be a deadend. Aunt Flo just showed up and now the world is full of sparkle and sunshine.

In any case, I also signed up for Total Body Fitness' Half Ironman Triathlon (HIT)for next year. So that makes two half ironman races next year AND an XTERRA next year. I think that is really good enough, don't you? Well, maybe I'll throw in a sprint or two; maybe even an olympic. Like I said, the world is full of sparkle and sunshine these days.

I ran 5 miles in the dirt

Our last weekly workout last night. The trail run class was awesome.

I ran 5 miles in the heat and dirt.
I was really slow and today my ankle hurts. Not as bad as it did before but it still hurts.

I am angry. REALLY ANGRY about all the effort I put into this class and that my speed gains have been blown 1.5 weeks before the race. I don't know if I should do the race or just bag it or cut to the 5 miler or what. Doc says no risk of permanent damage, but "Karen you need to respect the pain and be smart."

Blah.
Sorry i'm in a bad mood about my throbbing ankle.

Oh, and RugRat #1 (17 years old) wants to join a cult. We tried to talk her out of it, but she's been brainwashed pretty quickly. Woke up at 4:30 a.m. to find my husband crying his eyes out. He doesn't know what to do; I don't know what to do since she lives with her mom full time (hubbies beeach-ex--wife)She bailed on our plans for her to come spectate my race on sunday--because the CULT wants her to do some things with them on Sunday. I told her it hurt my feelings to be dumped and left it at that. Double Blah.

Diet Fail

I had a chili burger with fries and a coke for lunch. It was to celebrate my new promotion.

I wonder how much salt & saturated fat I just ingested.

Back on the horse for tonight's dinner.

Adieu Adios ArriveDerci Sat Sri Akal Bye See Ya Xaire Vale Zay gesunt

Garmin is going back.

I couldn’t take it any more. It refused to work the last two days. It would not record time properly. It would not charge. It turned on and off by itself. It discharged it’s entire battery. It lost workouts. All these things happened a few weeks ago and then magically corrected themselves. They also magically returned on Saturday. I need stability in my life. I need structure. I need to know that my Garmin will charge when I hook it up to the charger.

I was ready to throw it against the wall or flush it down the toilet last night.
Instead I packed it back in its box and I’m taking it back to fleet feet where I bought it. Hopefully they can exchange it out. I do have an email from Garmin Tech Support that says, “Please return to place of purchase and exchange for another.” I am not sure what I should do. Should I get another Garmin? Should I switch to Polar or Sunnuto? Or maybe I should simply stick with the good ol’ Timex sports watch?

In any case I am trying to relax before I have a stroke.

In better news, my ankle feels a lot better. I’m gonna try the 5 miler workout tonight and see how it goes. And if all is well I will race on Sunday (“RACE” is a bit of an exaggeration. I hope to finish).


_________________________________________________________________________________


UPDATE: I exchanged the old Garmin at Fleet Feet. They were laughing at how it was angrily stuffed back into its box, "Frustrated, Karen??" I got my new one and started charging it at my desk. First think I noticed was that it clicked to charge IMMEDIATELY. I also noticed that it had none of the "wiggle" that my old Garmin had at the charge sites on back. So yes I obviously must have gotten a dud before.

tentative

Ran 1 mile this morning in order to try out the ankle.

It went ok.
Doesn't hurt any more than it has the last few days.

I might be ok to go for the race on sunday?

I hope.

Doc says....

First of all—ankle is not broken. Only strained ligaments/tendons. That is good news. Doc says I can start running using “pain as my guide” .. Well then fill me up with some Vicodin so I can run soon. I had to bag my Sunday long run with the trail run group because I was in so much pain Saturday night/Sunday early morning.

Bad News: I have high blood pressure. My doc was really surprised. For years I’ve had the standard 108/60 or 110/65. No problem. I exercise. Well since May 2008 my BP has steadily crept upward. 125/78, 130/75, 138/80, 141/80. On Friday at the docs office it was 157/92!!!!

He was really shocked and said I need to radically change my diet. He told me to monitor my BP at home regularly and if it doesn’t improve in a couple of months, I’ll have to go on meds. Here’s the thing—He said, “you are not obese,(yeah!) you exercise a lot(yeah!) so it is either too much salt or it is hereditary” In this case, two positives, makes a negative.. I have to admit I am a total SALT WHORE! I don’t have a sweet tooth, I have a salty MOLAR. Oh and EVERYONE in my family (both sides) has very high blood pressure. My dad and his brother died from complications of it, as did his sisters, & my grandparents. Oh my mom has high BP as does my baby brother. So I hit the crap lottery with the Blood Pressure Gene.

In any case, I have decided on a radical new diet. No animal products at all—and little to no salt. Oh and no alcohol other than ½ glass of red wine. This is going to suck big time but I have to give it ago before I blow a vessel in my brain.

Later!

ANKLE pain

last night's 5 mile run was going well until I felt a sharp pain in my right ankle on the outside.

When I got home I couldnt' walk on it.
Last night's ICE and Anti-Inflamatory didn't help. Still excrutiating. No swelling though.

I'm scheduled for Dr. Appt and x-ray/MRI tomorrow a.m.

I hope it isn't a fibula fracture.
Sad when you are wishing for tendonitis, isn't it?

Finger's crossed!

New Stuff

Here was last sunday's "easy" run... Good times!

Picked up the garmin soft-strap heart rate monitor and matched it to my garmin.
It says that I had a heart rate of 244 on sunday's run.

I mean, I knew I was good, but 244 means I have better cardio than Lance or Alberto or Floyd..

I e-mailed garmin to ask them about it, they said that sometimes if it is getting jostled around too much our touched too much by clothing (really? Heart rate monitors are supposed to be worn without clothing?) it can register each 'touch' as a heart rate.

In any case, I tried the heart rate again today on my tuesday 4-miler and it was fine. I set my maximum at 183 and it said my average was 147 --- 80%.

Garmin seems to be working fine now--I figured out how to set the darn thing so my heart rate and heart rate % show on the screen. Today, I kept looking down at it as I ran to see it. Now, I just have to figure out how to make it vibrate or beep when it goes over, say, 90%.

Only two more weeks until Blood, Sweat, and Beers. I am doing a practice run of the course next Sunday. Coach Tim Tweitmeyer told us on sunday, that the 10-mile course is a "killer". Coming from him--that scares me to death!!



Other than that, I am simply trying to stay consistent with my training over the fall/winter months. I would like to add in a little trail running and mountain biking too.

I wish I could quit my job and just workout all the time--That Would Be Awesome.