What Did you do on Valentine's Day?

Ya this will be short bc I am typing one handed.

Here I am looking pretty smug

no problemo

It's about NOW I am fondlyrecalling my melanoma excision in the Derm's oupatient surgery center 4+ yearsago. Here I have had a shot of Lido and Epi ( numb it and vasoconstrict it) that wasthe size of Mt everest.I kid you not. I am ok with injections. But when I sawthat syringe i knew we werein for abattle.
I pulled out a few " damn it you felt worse at mile 20 of IM...." and "breathe." I think  the PA nearly got kicked bc this was a three for. three or as rich says a"triangulation ---insert some medical term"

I think i fired off afew desperate texts to rich, damie and Jen and read a chapter of my book to distract which i nowneed to read again.
Note the surgeon's signing off AT and me saying YES this hand.

It all started here:

 And if you hadnt had a melanoma and a viglient DERM you would, as i did, think its a broken blood vessel that sorta clotted, for lack of a better term. But when she see'sblue or black that means"Biopsy" andsadly this was setting up housekeeping in the palmar aponeurosis ( fascia) or actually I think it was deeper bc Doc Thomas said he had agood look at the Ulnar Nerve and Artery and they were fine. That both fascinates me and makes me realize hewas digging away deeper than the fascia.

So now i feel like this:

See? Close isnt it?

But i still made dessert:)
And no, much to many's suggestions i didnt use my hand as an oven mit.



The prognosis is good. He said its likely a Hemangioma, or a blood vessel, but they sent it off to get biopsied for sure. Overall I am glad i did it. It didnt bother me other than riding or pumping my tires, but once you have had the C word,and knowingwhat battles Rich has ahead its silly to not get this out.
I cant swim for a few days but that is ok. I have an Rx for some vicodin that i wont fill and hopeully iwill feel better soon!
Hope you had a less eventful day!

Winter 2011

Winter has been a mixed bag. In one sense the true northerner in me misses the white stuff. It's just plain weird to have rain all day in mid december and to hear that golf courses are open. Lest you think its warm its not. It's this eery windchill with wet conditions, that seems to be what I think the Pac. NW is like. Having never been there i am not sure! Here is our yard today:

Golf Anyone?

 Here is our yard last year, this was even after the snow had melted a bit. I guess technically its our driveway but i just couldnt find the snow rake for the roof pics ( i must have burned them)

 What has me going strong?
Not Swimming. I am not sure why but i have been hating swimming. That isnt true. I dont hate it but its just plain drudgery to get me there, and if i dont go at dark o thirty i dont want to go. Part of it is the pool issues with the poop, that wasnt so fun, then there is the chlorinated " I smell " issue. And of course the pool temp. I cant say i have been swimming slow, I mean i went to the cold pool monday and i swam FAST. We had a faster wrkout ( T pace) and i swear i wonder if i was on another planet when i swam that test, bc I think " I cant swim that pace unless its 10x100!" SO i try. And monday i blew a gasket. My delts and my pecs and my Lats screamed and actually I didnt swim again till today.
What gets me swimming:

Latte Art at Nina's coffee cafe!

 What else is going on? I am actually liking this view. Granted i havent had any really long trainer rides but as the weather has been so nice I should be out on my Cross bike, but that will come, timing is everything and right now Rich isnt able to ride outside with me so its nice to be home and sweating, and watching the Tennis Channel. I mix it up actually, i usually listen to great music and have the TV on mute or low. I have tried some reality shows like Housewives of __________, but usually that just starts to annoy me. Tennis seems to always be it. Or any sporting event that i sorta "Get" and can follow. The Aussie Open is coming up and in January I expect the rides to get a bit longer so I am excited to have some TV to go with that.

what do you watch when you ride indoors?

While I am on a winding no purpose post, what did you all think of the NBC IM coverage? I havent seen it all, but each year, of the past 2-3 years when i have known more of you that have gone, and you are people like me, AG'ers not pros, not 17 hour racers, i am struck with the question of WHY they dont showcase or at least mention the bulk of the racers that are working/family people/AG qualifiers that are the PACK. They arent winning, nor are they falling into Road signs and looking like they have absolutely NO CORE support left, nada, scary, nothing, blinded or about to have a stroke. Ok that was my view of those last guys. Seriously? Not healthy, but of course "Its not the falling down its the getting back up that matters." Um yeah but maybe i just am jaded by my work in health care, but what is healthy about that? Nothing, maybe that is the point. It gets viewers.

But what about the pack, the normal people? I didnt see any of you! Boo!

So the weekend is here, tonight is martini night where i have orders to drink martinis. The first is fun, the 2nd is a mistake. Lets see if i make a mistake tonight:) And Yes i have a driver! happy weekend!

Pre race and Swim

Ok sorry to make this into a long drawn out post, and i am not trying to hook you in, but i have so much stuff to do ( funny how that built up all summer, wonder why?) i am going to break this up. I have scattered pics, and many have been on FB so you may not get as many fun pics.

Pre race: I would certainly say I was exhausted pre race! I didnt have a great taper. Everyone kept saying i would feel like a million bucks, but i didnt. I felt cranky and tired and struggled to get to the pool to swim a 2500 M set.  Since i swim LCM in the summer i wanted to suddenly trade that in for a short pool. And a warm pool! We lost summer pretty quick the first week of september. The one good thing about taper was the US OPEN tennis. I had dreams of being done with my IM and sitting in the stands ( not walking, of course, having someone carry me) watching tennis. I had a little VMO flare up. My medial quad decided that the short and fast efforts were really not appropriate after doing 100+ rides on hilly courses, this flat and fast stuff was just not right. So that put a bit of a red flag up till it calmed down. I have had that before so i knew that a few days of no riding and the right treatment would be fine. None the less it made for some anxiety. People told me that if i didnt have some " pseudo " injury in taper i wasnt normal:) so true.

We drove to Madison friday AM, stood in a way too long line to register ( over 90 minutes) and then by the time i got to the hotel friday night i could barely move i was so tired. IT was raining at flushing meadow so my plans for a tv night were dashed. So we hit State Street for some Pizza and hung out watching one of my faves, with Sandra Bullock...the Proposal. Sleep was not good that night, i had the pre race " lets go thru the entire race plan in my head..." going and the replay button just kept going and going.
I had so much anxiety about the swim i knew i just had to get in that water and swim, no matter where i started i was going to get some beatings. So finally saturday night i sorta slept, at least i wasnt playing the race in my head:)

So race morning came and i was ready! I did all the stuff i need to do, and I was so lucky to meet Michelle ( Rural Girl, no rolldown girl)and hang out pre race. We had met up to swim saturday and then we had bumped into each other race morning. It was meant to be. It was her 6th? IM?I think. so she talked me thru alot and helped me time my dressing, and all that. I just followed her around like a new kid at school.

As it got closer to the race we walked down to the lake and saw Jenny and Jerome. That was a nice break and a nice way to start my first IM. Then we went to the lake and procrastinated till it looked like the inevitable was about to happen. I had to get in and find a spot.


I decided to start a bit Right, and in the front. I mean it. FRONT. As the people got in the water it was amazing to me, i didnt want to look back, but the space was getting very tight. More and more men, many many green caps, and so few pink caps. I wanted the women to come around me and unite! I asked a woman next to me her expected time and said "If you are going under 60, get ahead of me."
She said " no i think 1:15." I was thinking...??? why are you in the front row?



Suddenly after some dude was groping me, the cannon fired and we were off. It was just as i expected.
I cant explain it, but there was nowhere to go, I had been in the front or close to it about 2 min before the cannon and now i was suddenly in a sea of green caps. How did i get back so far? Even if i had wanted to hammer there was no hammering to be done, it was suddenly a total doggy paddle, breathe and try not to panic race. I got into "Just get thru this" mode. If i was able to put my head down for 1-2 strokes i could breathe but after what felt like 15 minutes of head out doggy paddle i was drinking water and just trying to not get kicked. Suddenly some open water appeared and i would go there. Then it would get congested with green caps.AGAIN. The first turn buoy was madness. I didnt go Vertical but i did take a few head pounds from a big green capped arm till i seriously yelled at the top of my lungs " DUDE, STOP, YOU ARE HURTING ME." it stopped:)

I know nobody means to hurt anyone, and other than that one outburst i really tried my hardest to know that the swim was like this for everyone. Its not a personal assault against me. As we turned to come back the other side i had some water, and I had gotten inside the buoys, this was awesome. I still had some navigation but overall i was swimming:) When i was nearing the end of the 1st lap i heard the flyover for 9/11. I was amazed that it was 7:30 am, so my time was not that bad. I had given up hope that i would go under 1:10. But i guess taking a beating meant i was also getting a draft.

I rounded the turn buoy for the 2nd lap and actually felt hot. I was comfortable and really swimming in my zone. I dont know what my split was and it doesnt matter, i found feet that seemed to be going straight and then they would stall and i would motor on. I was able to do some pick ups to get thru tight spaces of green caps, and was able to get on some good feet ( with neoprene booties, really? it was hot in there!) for most of the back side of the last lap. Coming into the final turn i was so happy. I had survived.
I hadnt intended to look at the clock, but it is RIGHT there so when i saw 1:06:xx I was so happy!
I got stripped then did the calf workout up the helix to T1.
Lots of great pictures from Terry Lee and Yndecam, here is one i found which cracks me up. At least i look like i am doing a crunch:)

T1 was uneventful....got dresssed, out the door, and to my bike. It's a LONG transition, so lotsa running in barefeet. But i was off on the bike and down the helix and started my ride knowing i had done a great swim.

Give your Lats a break!

View from the deck monday am at the 50 M pool. 49 degrees air. water 67...you can sort of see the steam coming off the water...woohoo...only 2 more outdoor swims. So sad.

I couldnt decide on a few topics to post on...but this one seems to have won. I think next time i should post on hips and perhaps glute imbalances and thrusts and why it isnt really a thrust but more of a tuck and what that has to do with hip and groin pain. See that thinking above makes perfect sense to me, but likely you think i am just delirious.

And to make my delirium worse... the US OPEN has started. Who can resist writing about The Fed and whether he can win again in NYC? I think his posture below says he can!


So even if you cant quite see this image it is an image of some of my favorite muscles.
Your Serratus Anterior. You also have a Serratus Posterior as well. I think often the soreness we have after swimming is mistakenly blamed on our Lats. I hear that alot "OH I LOST MY LATS" or "My lats are killing me." Sure they may be but your lats, compared to your little finger muscles ( SA) are HUGE.

Just for fun...your SA's job is to hold your scapula's ( chicken wing) medial border close to your rib cage. It also helps to protract ( move outwards from the center of your back) your scapula. In more layman's terms it keeps your shoulder blades from winging on your ribcage. I call them the finger muscles bc you can feel them along your lateral ribs (rib 1-9 to be exact..rib 1 is superior, near your clavicle so work down from there) and when they are sore you can massage them very easily. You also may feel some soreness where they insert on the middle border of your shoulder blade. IF you are swimming with any sort of scapular control ( we hope you are!) this baby is working to keep your shoudler blade taut in and in place!

Lats..well....if blogger lets me get the image onthat i want ( thus far blogger isnt in compliance) It is more obvious that your Lats are BIG muscles. Like steak muscles. As opposed to the little SA muscles that line your ribs. The Lats ( along with your middle and lower traps) are critical to your swim stroke also but have a ga zillion origins, such as...
spinous process of the last 6 Thoracic Vertebrae ( who knows how many T vertebrae you have? Damie, dont answer) the last 3-4 ribs, inferior angle of the shoulder blade, the external lip of the Iliac Crest ( yes that is your Pelvis folks) and then inserts on the humerus...on the front of your arm. Whoa that is a big muscle!

So the fact that the lats attach to the pelvis mean they also assist in tilting the pelvis forward and sideways ( ie flip turns) the lats also medially rotate / Adduct / Extend the shoulder joint. This is where we feel it most as your hand enters the water ( medial rotation) and you proceed to bring your hand towards center of your body-adduct ( ie relative to flalling your arms to the side) and finish your stroke...( extend) with the help of your triceps.

Most of us feel that soreness right around our arm pit and maybe even on the front of your arm where this mm inserts on your humerus. In addition your teres minor, supraspinatus/infraspinatus, ( not to leave out the subscapularis) all rotator cuff muscles that are the tiny sized friends of your Serratus, MAY be talking to you more than your Lats, as they are small and have the big job of keeping your humerus stable in the Glenoid fossa while you are on your 20th x 100 yard set and your arms are falling off. Or whatever crazy set your coach has you doing:)

So my PSA for today. Dont just blame your LATs! They have accomplices! The larger team of your Serratus Anterior and the Rotator Cuff that may be making you sore. And what to do?
I use my foam roller on my arms/under my arms and also my trigger point ball against the wall to work on these insertions especially on my humerus ( long arm bone). And since we spend time icing our lower body, what about that upper body? A little ice goes a long way on those shoulders!