Is it December Yet?

Thanksgiving felt alot like Christmas. Part of it was this: SNOW.

And This: COLD. This is my cold weather look. The look you have when you wear a down jacket OVER your running gear and pack a change of clothing so your under armour sweat soaked top can quickly be removed when you transition from that 10 min of roasty toasty heat to the " GIANT CHILL" that sets in after 10 min and 30 seconds after you stop moving.

We ran the turkey trot at the Mn Boat Club. Happy to say that my sister Elizabeth took top honors and i ran with hubby Rich who pulled out his first sub 9 min mile 5k. Way to go honey, on top of it we ran on a trail covered in fresh snow with a temp of 8 and a windchill below zero.

On terra firma i think he could have pulled out an even faster time! But he didnt want to talk the last mile so i just chatted away to entertain ( bother) him:)

I dont really know the exact number, i kinda think when anything gets below zero its all the same to me really. It's just cold.

And where can you run a 5k and win a pie? Blueberry and Key Lime.

Now we are talking....

It also felt alot like Christmas bc my sister came home from Texas, with my nephew Chippy.

Chippy Long legs, here in the orange, is getting taller by the minute. They arent usually home at Thanksgiving so it felt like Christmas to have them here. I was ready to open presents when i realized i still had month to rally on gift purchases.

We did some family tennis, and that was a ton of fun. Of course my left forearm is sore, not the arm i use to play, but the arm i use to control my backhand so i feel a bit old and creaky lately.

Speaking of old and creaky, the running news is this. I am able to start running, as I have been a good soldier and followed my return to run protocol to a T. If anything i keep telling myself I dont need a winning run time in January. But it has been tough, not only the feeling that I am old and creaky but the fear. I know that as i run a bit more, even tho its slow, I will regain the trust and JOY i have for running, but it has been rough. I feel quite thankful for the good work I am having done on my body and back, and for the fact that I was wise enough to STOP before I made things really bad. I have had REALLY bad before regarding Hamstring Tendonopathy, and so I did NOT want to go there again. This week starts week 4, meaning i am up to a 20 min jog at 1 min/mile slower than training pace. I did not say Race Pace, I said TP. So that is all fine and dandy since the cold and snow likely help take care of that all by themselves. Weeks 4-8 are a gradual increase in time and mileage, which puts me right on schedule for my Xmas present to myself. 6 miles, rolling, pain free. Pace not observed!

Sorry if you couldnt read the article in the last post. I cant tell you why i can double click on it and expand it, and you cant, sorry:(

Fall Interview

The interview below was done in August and I didnt really get around to scanning it till now!

At at time when i am grateful for so much more than Triathlon it also was a positive thing for me to read this and see that this sport and my life is so much MORE than S B R.

So read on, laugh, enjoy, wish you didnt know me, wish you did know me, take up tennis or least tune in during the Slams....and either way give thanks for all you have in your lives! Happy Thanksgiving!

PS you can double click and it will enlarge.

Yawn

I seemed to have forgotten that i spent all of November 2010 either at Mayo, planning a wedding, getting married and then here:

So it was hard to remember why November can be a month that seems to DRAG on, with cloudy short days, cold days, snow ( too early for me) and well...not much to keep me feeling like i want to skip down the driveway.

Since i am not training as much, I have had some time to bake. Maybe not the best combo:)

My sister works for Xcel, so each fall/winter she invites us to skate at the Xcel Energy center, take a tour and pretend that we are Koivu or Backstrom or Cuttlebuck ( oops, sp? molly? help me) but ooops i spaced that i dont have skates and so i was the peanut gallery watching screaming " man down on the blue line...WATCH OUT." and other obnoxious comments.

And of course the most exciting was that i could barely stand my pony tail any longer.

So here you go:

4 inches off and no more braids. I dont need to braid my hair till the first OW swim race in???

Hmm....I am not planning 2011 till i can say I am healthy and thru with 2010. Progress yes, but its slow ( meaning pace and progress). I had better get my run form back soon so i dont destroy my lats.

Yup, This is how I roll in November.

IF....

A teammate of mine sent this to me. Not the Federer version but the original. It made me think about not only my challenges, but also my triumphs. And that if I keep my head on straight, that the lows arent so low and the highs arent so high and the middle ground is pretty darn nice.
Oh and I just like Roger. If you dont, then dont watch it:)

Happy Anniversary Rich!

Dear Rich,

There were times last fall that I never thought this day would come:

In Mid-September, after your routine colonoscopy( who am i joking, those arent just routine, I know) our lives took a different course. All the sudden we were seated in a surgeon's office, and we even had a full APR ( look it up) scheduled for the following week. A procedure that would change your life and your style of living forever. But we were told it was the safest and best way to be sure we caught all the cancer in your lower colon. The little tumor was placed just in the wrong place to resect it, margins and all, and this was the best bet.

I am so glad we found a friend in Dr. Pemberton, at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. Despite shock... I never doubted that you would be ok. That is the truth. I had so much faith in the staff at Mayo, that I just knew that you would emerge 100% at some point, I just didnt know when. And as for lifestyle change, I knew you would make it work, WE would make it work. And we did.

I was glad to get you out of there so that your arm would eventually heal and the brusing and scar tissue from the coumadin shots bid would STOP! I think that may have been worse than anything!

When we decided to go ahead with the wedding on Nov 7, 2009 I was so excited. My parents, who were celebrating their 50th, were so excited. We now had THREE reasons to celebrate:

1) Our wedding

2) My mom and dad's 50th

3) Your successful surgery!

Lets do it. Lets call everyone, not send out invites ( not enough time), lets hope that we can find a place for the rehersal AND the reception dinner, and lets just not worry about who is coming. We know we are going to be there, and all the people that matter to us and if we run out of food, well...oh well. ( WE did!) We have cupcakes, that is all people want anyways:)

I have had the most love filled year as well, Rich. It is love not only from you, but from the friends that i now call my friends, and the family that I now call my family. The First Light group is not blood, but they are family, on or off the bike. The love and prayers we had from friends and family, and even people we dont know ( yes my blog friends, the one's you say " is that a virtual friend, or a real one?" hahaha)

First Light Family: ( named such bc they ride at insanely early hours, with insanely bright lights on their bikes)

And what worried you the most, I know, was our plans to honeymoon. We were not going to miss the honeymoon! NO WAY. When Dr. P said, go for it, I think we both melted into relaxation mode. How appropriate to send Dr. P proof that we were relaxing. Just happened to be on the BadKitty booze cruise to the BVI:) ha!

Painkillers? Yup, Doc, we got em.

I have never relaxed as much or had as much fun doing nothing, just being with you, ( and swimming around in the lovely water while you swam with sharks, ahem) and listening to the rain pound our "hut" and somehow drinking all the rum they gave us even tho i dont like rum. We will go back, and tho we met many couples celebrating their 20th or 40th anniversary, we vowed not to wait that long to go back. I will remind you of that:)

The first year of marriage has been a total touchdown! I am glad you agree:

Here's to the new season and ongoing love and fun. I love you Rich!

PS and I was so focused on US that i forgot to wish my parents, happy 51st wedding Anniversary! Wow, pretty amazing you two. Love you both!

November

Well I kinda wanted to blog, and I kinda didnt. Like some of you there isnt anything too riveting ( to steal from Jen) going on right now. Up here in MN its the calm ( 50 and sunny) before the storm ( DLS, and colder temps and snow) but for now I am doing my best to stay in the moment, and as i told Rich today " going thru the motions " of training.

November last year is a blur, as is October. When your fiance is diagnosed with cancer and you cancel your wedding, only to decide 10 days before to hold it, there isnt much time to be thinking " wow, i miss summer, i miss the warmth, and I AM COLD." Granted we will celebrate a wonderful year on sunday, and last night as we went to bed ( well I was in bed, Mr. Politics was up glued to the TV) he said "This year has been filled with the most LOVE i have had EVER." That makes me feel warm and happy and good about my life outside Triathlon. And no matter how hard i try to act as if " I am hardcore, I can handle this s$%^" it doesnt get any easier as you get older. The urge to just take up knitting, or more seriously just do yoga or go back to tennis is there.

So. I was diagnosed with a couple tendonopathies yesterday. After 3 weeks of rest ( and actually 2 weeks prior to BOUS) I knew that resting this was not going to help it. I cant say i was surprised. I am really proud of myself for knowing that when things get chronic and you have no symptoms and cannot reproduce your symptoms other than running, that you had better get yourself to someone that knows something about tendonopathy. I dont have the energy to write all about what this is and how i know this, but if you want to know more or want advice ( I have lots of if) comment and i will email you. So...since i had this before in my L leg I didnt think i had it again in the R side. But with all things chronic, they can set in pretty fast and before you know it those buggers are setting up housekeeping and you are screwed. Last time i had proltherapy shots in my common HS tendon and it worked. But it was laborious, hurt, and really i didnt run for about a year or more. ( The shots are just irritants, sugar or saline, sometimes now the use PRP, ( Platelet rich Plasma) but overall the goal is to annoy the tendon) and then it reheals stronger and with better sarcomere lengthening, etc...ooops. sorry.

So for now i am in good hands. I had my first TFM ( Transverse Friction Massage) to each tendon insertion, 8 min to each site, where it basically goes numb. After that I Was able to run, with no symptoms. Then its BID 15 reps, 3 sets of eccentric HS and Glute MED work. I tell ya that is tough. Again the goal is to make those tendon insertions angry. and if my sore posterior today is right it was mission accomplished. But its not the sore from the injury and that is a good thing, its sore bc the insertions are barking at me. Just what we wanted. NO nsaids, we want that inflammation around. I am to keep my normal routine and to try running as able. Jury is out on this. I want to try but i am also reading more protocols ( they are old) that says to wait till i am fully pain free. This is confusing bc i was painfree before this other than running, and I will have some symptoms running its just that we hope to delay those more and more with each treatment. I should also likely clarify, this isnt pain per se. It's a gripping or grabbing at the insertion. It is something you can work thru ( stupid) if you dont catch it.

The guy i am seeing was able to diagnose this with palpation, as i was negative for the traditional HS tendonopathy screens. This is good, as I had self diagnosed myself ( of course i did) as negative but when he got on that tendon it was a quality that was much more taut than the Left, and i felt that right away. So it goes. I am in good hands, and even tho I do know how trying this diagnosis can be, I am confident bc he is confident. I cant take it much further than that or i will go insane. My goal, dare i write it, is to go for a run on Christmas Day without any symptoms. See, Christmas made easy.

And again Liar Liar pants on fire, is that i have not swirled thoughts about next season in my head. That is just how i am. Coach can tell me to relax all she wants, but i cant deny that the feelings, maybe irrational, are there. That i wont train for an IM if i am not 100% healthy. So best to get that out on the plate now. I know i think alot about this stuff ( body, therapy) its bc its what i do for a living so that is hard to let go of. I also think i have a VERY good sense of my body and so friends, family saying "dont worry about it...it will heal" I appreciate that, I do. But it isnt always what I need to hear, sometimes i need to hear " That F'ing stinks. Yea you have a right to be scared and afraid and cautious."

So the Limbo that some of you talk about, I am right there with you. Keep an optimistic view and stay in the moment, and allow yourself to be in limbo and know its ok to be a bit ornery. At least that is what i told my husband bc no celebrex on day 1 of my cycle means he had better not expect a bright and cheery bride:)