Triathlon Dream Lives!

As many of you know, I’ve been plagued with a nagging shoulder injury that had pretty much side-lined me from doing any training for my triathlon since I wasn’t able to swim on doctor’s orders. Well, there’s been a slight change in plans that will now let me race after all! Terri, with whom I was planning to do the tri, asked if I would be interested in doing it as a relay. So, now the plan is that Terri will do the swim, Darla will ride the bike, and I will do the run. Well, I’ll actually be wogging (walk/jog combo), but it’ll be in the run portion of the race. Regardless, I’m so excited and can’t wait for Oct. 19th to get here!!!!!

I also made a decision that since I’m not sure what the future holds for me as far as triathlons go, that I would get back to focusing on my wogging. As a result, my friend Tracy and I committed to do a big race together next year and have already registered.

Yep, that’s right. I’ve registered for the inaugural Rock ‘n Roll Seattle Half Marathon! It’s actually taking place on the weekend before Tracy’s birthday, so that will make it an even more fun trip.

Hopefully I’ll have better results than the last time I registered for a half mary. As some of you may remember, I was registered for the Long Beach Half Marathon back in October 2006. Sadly, not long after registering and starting to train was when my back issues got so bad. By the time the event actually rolled around, I was on disability and was just a few months after from my spinal fusion surgery. This time, I hope to cross the finish line with a huge smile on my face.

Until next time …

Shoulder Update

Well, it’s 95% likely there will be no tri for me in October. I’m home from the ortho (who is a triathlete and sports medicine specialist) and have learned that the arthrosis in my shoulder is, in his words, “pretty severe”. In fact, he said that if I were a professional athlete, he would schedule me for immediate surgery. Since I’m not, he is putting in a request for physical therapy instead.

He did clear me to bike and run again, but to listen to my body and back off of those if my shoulder starts bothering me. I’m not to attempt any swimming until after at least a couple of sessions of the PT, and even then I can only do the breast stroke. I’ve been told absolutely NO crawl, backstroke, or fly for now. He said there is a slim chance that I might be able to do the breast stroke without pain and, if so, I could use that to still go ahead and do the tri. The only problem with that scenario is 1) since I have to wait until after I’ve started PT, I can’t get back in the pool until probably 4 weeks out from the tri which doesn’t leave much time for swim training, and 2) I don’t know how to breast stroke. *sigh*

He said in all likelihood, I won’t be able to do the tri in October, but said he absolutely could get me in a position to do one next year if I’m interested. He did say that if I were interested in continuing in the sport long-term that I would probably want to consider having the surgery. He intimated that it’s something I’ll mostly likely have to do eventually anyway, but understood that I probably wasn’t interested in having another major surgery right now since I just had the spinal fusion 16 months ago.

So, that’s where things stand for now.

Cycling Gene?

I feel like an abject failure on the bike. Good sense would have told me to learn to ride a bicycle and THEN sign up for my first triathlon. Unfortunately, I didn’t listen to my good sense. So, now here I am just 16 weeks from my first triathlon and still can’t figure out how to ride a fucking bicycle. ARRRGH!!!

Everyone keeps telling me how easy it is and how I just need to do this thing or that thing. Well, I.just.don’t.get.it! I can barely ride 8 yards, let alone trying to ride the 8 miles required for the race. I’m beginning to feel like I should just give up this whole stupid triathlon dream I have and stick with running.

Iron Girl Race Pic/Training Plan

Back to edit: I’m not sure exactly what happened, but I seem to have lost all of my navigation stuff from the left hand side of my blog. I’ll have to try and slowly get it all set back up again.

First of all, let me apologize for being so remiss in posting this week. It seems like it’s been a busy week for some reason, but it’s not really been any busier than normal I don’t think. I’m not sure what it is exactly, but it just seems busier.

Perhaps it’s a psychological thing since I started my training plan this week for my first triathlon coming up in mid-October. There definitely seems to be more “pressure” of sorts from following a defined & detailed training plan vs. just going out and doing some sort of activity several times per week. I’m sure I’ll adjust just fine after a week or so, but it just feels a bit odd right now.

The photos from my race on Sunday were posted yesterday. They only got one pic of me and it was right as I was crossing the finish line. At least they got me during the one part of the race where I was actually running, even though it still looks like I’m walking for some reason!

In other MAJOR news, my toe is feeling much better! So much so, that for the first time in YEARS, I actually jogged just over a half mile (0.54 mile) without any walk breaks last night! I was slow as hell (15:09 pace), but I did it! So, I’m well on my way of meeting my goal of running the entire 2 mile run portion of my tri.

Yesterday’s training plan also called for an 18 minute swim, so I did that prior to the run. I swam laps in the pool at my complex which is 15 yards in length. I did repeats of 60 yards of swimming followed by a 1 minute rest. I managed to get in 360 total yards of swimming in 17:57. All in all, yesterday was a good training day!

Here’s my training plan for the rest of the week:

Today: Bike 25 minutes
Friday: Swim 18 minutes & Run 15 minutes
Saturday: Bike 45 minutes
Sunday: Run 30 minutes

I’m still going strong on my food challenge as well. Today is day 17 for me with no slips and/or cheats on my food plan. It’s really paying off, too! I was down another 1.6 pounds this week at my WW meeting which brings my total loss thus far to 5.8 pounds since I started the challenge. Go me!!

Until next time …

Good Race Vibes!

Just wanted to take a minute to send out good race vibes to a couple of local friends who are racing this weekend. Yanti is doing the Redondo Beach Triathlon, and Darla is cycling the half century distance of the Los Angeles River Ride.

I hope you both have a great day out there!!

*Gulp*

Well, I did it. I broke down and ordered a wetsuit today. I’m already dreading trying it on when it arrives, but I just keep reminding myself that really no one looks good in a wetsuit. Well, ok, so maybe fitness models and elite triathletes look good in wetsuits, but pretty much no one else does.

Since I live in southern California, I opted for a spring suit instead of a full suit. I ordered an O’Neill Reactor suit (part of their multi-sport line) from Becker Surfboards. I pretty much decided on the spring suit for a few different reasons:

1. It should provide plenty of warmth for the waters here.
2. It was more affordable than a full suit.
3. It should fit better since I had to order a men’s suit.

Yeah, that third item was the most depressing. For anyone who cares to know, it’s pretty much impossible to find a women’s triathlon wetsuit if you are a plus size. Even though I’ve lost over 75 pounds, I’m still very much a plus size and there just isn’t much to be found out there in my size as far as tri gear goes.

My friend Nick flew back home yesterday. We had a great time while he was here. The trip to Palm Springs & Joshua Tree was amazing! As feared, when we took the aerial tram up on to Mount San Jacinto, we did face temps around 30°F and falling snow. We didn’t let it deter us though as we still went out and had a nice hike for just over an hour. Here are a couple of pics (click on each for a larger view):

Snow … in May?! WTF?!?!?

Me at the mountain station of the tram (8516′ elevation)

I came from Detroit to southern California for THIS?!

Tram up to the mountain (definitely click this one to see it full size)

After enjoying a day in the snow, the next day we headed into the desert at Joshua Tree National Park. The temperatures there was definitely far below the norm as well. Normal high temperatures for this time of the year is in the low to mid-90’s F. It was in the 60’s most of the day, but did dip down into the upper 50’s at one point when we went up to Keys View (5185′ elevation). Here are a few pics from that day:

Joshua Tree Welcome Center

Beaver Tail Cactus in Bloom

Forest of Joshua Trees

Self-Portrait of Nick Chilling Out

Hiking on the Lost Horse Mine Trail

Well, I guess that’s enough for now. I really need to head off to bed since it’s back to work full-time tomorrow. After working part-time the past couple of weeks while Nick was here, working a full week again is going to be a rude reality check.

Until next time …

No weigh in

Well, I was a bit lazy this morning and didn’t wake up in time for my WW meeting. It’s probably just as well since I know I would have been up on the scale. Let’s just say that I made less than stellar food choices during the past few days while in my dark place. Oh well, today’s a new day and I’m back on track!

As of tomorrow, I will have 24 weeks to go until my first triathlon. I’ve decided to set myself a goal of losing 24 pounds by then. I think that’s a very safe realistic goal since it will mean basically losing 1 pound per week. Would I like to drop more by then? Sure! However, I decided it would be smarter to set a realistic goal that I have a good chance of reaching than to set a very aggressive goal and being disappointed if I don’t make it. So, I went for the SMART goal:

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Timely

I finally started feeling a bit of mojo again for my stitching. I should be working on my Hannah Beeby since this is designated week of April for it in our Hannah stitch-a-long. I just didn’t feel like tackling a large project right now though, so I’ve been working a bit on a Curtis Boehringer model for my LNS.

Well, I guess that’s it for now. Until next time …

Sad Day in the Tri World

My heart goes out to the family and training partners of Dr. Dave Martin. He was a 66 year old retired veterinarian and triathlete who was killed in a shark attack this morning during a training swim at Tide Park in Solana Beach, CA (San Diego county). Here’s a link to the full story on the local Los Angeles NBC affiliate’s website.

Triathlete Killed by Shark

Please keep his family in your thoughts and/or prayers.

30 days down - March recap

WOO HOO! I’ve completed 30 days with no slips, cheats, or tweaks to my diet. I can barely believe it’s been a month already since I started this latest challenge with myself. Things have been going really well and I actually managed to drop 9.6 pounds for the month of March. So, I have 30 days down, and 20 to go to meet my 50 day challenge.

I really want to thank everyone for the kudos for me signing up for the triathlon. I can’t believe just HOW excited I am about this venture. So, I’ve got about 6 weeks to get really comfortable on my bike before my formal training plan kicks in on May 18. It’s a 22-week plan that will take me right to race day.

My walk/running miles for March were much lower than normal because I was taking part in a bike challenge on the tri board where I post. Virtually all of my cycling miles were doing on a stationary bike, but that was allowed for this particular challenge. Here were my final totals (time & distance) for the month of March:

Bike: 6h 30m - 78.9 Mi
Walk/Run: 4h 12m 22s - 15.9 Mi

I’m also taking part in another challenge during the month of April. It’s a multisport challenge, so you had to set a goal for a minimum of 2 sports for the month. I set mine for cycling and running. I’m really hoping to make good strides in my bike riding confidence this month, so hopefully there will be more miles done outdoors and less on the stationary bike during April. Here are my goals:

Bike: 50 miles
Walk/Run: 30 miles

On the stitching front, I haven’t really done any stitching in the past several days. I did get in 4 days of stitching time last week for the Hannah Beeby SAL. I think I made really good progress for round 1. Round 2 will take place on April 20-27. Hopefully I can make as much progress during the next round as I did this time. Here’s a photo of where I ended round 1 (again, pardon the wrinkles):

Well, I guess that’s it for now. I’ll close with my WW stats from the past couple of days.

Monday:

Total Points: 23.5 (skipped usual evening snack for early bed time)
Exercise: 1.3 miles walking (1 AP)
Weekly Points balance: 35
Water: 64 oz
Days OP: 29

Tuesday:

Total Points: 31
Exercise: None
Weekly Points balance: 35
Water: 72 oz
Days OP: 30

Until next time …

Siren Song of the Triathlon

OMG! I did it!! I have officially registered for my first triathlon. I’ve wanted to do a triathlon for a long time (since watching the Kona Ironman the first time many years ago). I’ve always put those feelings aside though because 1) I was so overweight, and 2) I didn’t know how to ride a bike.

After volunteering at the Ironman California 70.2 over the weekend, I can’t push down the desire any longer. So, today I plunked down my money and signed up for the Subaru US Women’s Triathlon Series that will take place in San Diego on October 19, 2008. I signed up for the Super Sprint distance which means I’ll be swimming 375m, then biking 13k, and ending with a 3.35k run. In English measurements, that translates to roughly a quarter mile swim, an 8 mile bike ride, and a 2 mile run. So, I have about 6.5 months to improve my swim, finish learning to ride a bike, and build up my running time/speed.

I took a few pictures with the phone on my Blackberry while I was volunteering. Rather than posting them all here, if you’re interested, you can check them out at the link below. I’ll take some time later in the week to write more about the experience and all the cool people I met this weekend.

2008 Ironman California 70.3

Before I headed down to Oceanside on Friday to volunteer, I went by and weighed in at a WW center since I wouldn’t make my normal Saturday morning meeting. I was down 1 pound last week which puts me at 9.6 pounds gone for the month of March when I recommitted to staying OP and started my 50 Day OP Challenge. It would appear that if one actually stays on program that one can lose weight. Who knew?!

I’m also thrilled to report that I did indeed manage to stay on the straight and narrow with my OP streak over the weekend. I was a little nervous about it because I wasn’t actually journaling the couple of days I was down there other than in my head. I even managed to fit in a couple of snack size candy treats! I put it all down on paper when I got home Sunday just to make sure I hadn’t calculated wrong, but it was all good. So, I’ll close this entry with my stats for Friday, Saturday, and yesterday.

Friday:

Total Points: 29
Exercise:
Weekly Points balance: 35
Water: 64 oz
Days OP: 26

Saturday:

Total Points: 32 (used 1 AP)
Exercise: 7896 steps on WW pedometer (1 AP)
Weekly Points balance: 35
Water: 48 oz
Days OP: 27

Sunday:

Total Points: 31
Exercise:
Weekly Points balance: 35
Water: 64 oz
Days OP: 28

Until next time …