I am pleased with my week, and so happy to be home! On Saturday we stopped at the beach on the ride home, and I swam out to a rock not too far from shore (but still required actual swimming). I love ocean swimming; the waves make it so much more challenging and it's like instant laser focus. I think one of my favourite things about being in good shape is being able to do cool random stuff like swim out to rocks in the ocean and jump off :-) and, as parents were with me, not have said parents freak out (because they know I am a good swimmer). Also, when I got home there was a 91 year old baby grand piano waiting for me. It was my grandparents', and is mine now. I thought we were going to move it when I was home; my parents had it moved a few weeks ago so it would be here when I got here. Very special and I'm quite enjoying playing it.

M - 8 mi run + 1000 yd swim
T - 8 mi run + 2100 yd swim
W - 75 min. stairmaster + 2100 yd swim
T - 9.7 mi run + 1500 yd swim
F - 8 mi run + 1200 yd swim
S - off
S - 9.5 mi run + 10 mi bike


Totals 7,900 yd swim + 10 mi bike + 43.2 mi run

Goals for this week: ride 5x with one long; swim 4x; take a day off from running


Picture of piano:

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

I'm mostly better! Food choices became pretty much irrelevant because I didn't want to eat anything all week and the scale started dropping so I just ate what I wanted to make sure I ate *something*. Only got in one workout last Monday but by the weekend managed to get two rooms in the basement sorted out so that my study is now all in one location and the "dump things and shut the door" room is now set up as a spare bedroom.

This week: ease back in, lowering intensity when needed; bike x 4, run x 4, swim x 2. Family (mother, grandmother, sister & sister's bf) arrive Friday so make the most of having them here.

Last week was OK workout-wise. I only missed one workout - my long run followed by an easy bike spin (the spin seems to help my legs), because I got sick.
It seems allergies, bad allergies? turned into bronchitis.
So yesterday, Monday, my boss sent me home and I saw the nurse practitioner. I got an albuterol breathing treatment which seemed to do nothing. Rx for a Z-pack and prednisone. Sent over for a chest X-Ray so we can rule out pneumonia. Chest X-Ray results I just got, they are normal, so no pneumonia.
I started the meds yesterday and am thinking I already feel a bit better today. Coughing is definitely less.
I was unable to swim last evening. I'm actually kind of astounded that I got drugs. I haven't had drugs for an illness in YEARS. Usually I go in and they tell me to just keep going with OTC stuff.

This week is kind of a 'do what I can' week as I have a work conference on Thurs. and Fri., heading to it Wed. after work. Hotel Wed/Thurs. Then Friday we are headed out of town to a wedding. Planning to ride before the event on Sat. and hopefully again on Sun. before we head home.

This is kind of the last week before my long race (but not my "A" race of the season), so getting sick kind of bummed me out.

TC - congrats on the piano!

Last week's goals:
Run x 2: win with 3, sort of
Swim x 4: FAIL. 2 only
Bike x 2: win with 5
Core/strength/rehab x 4: win


Tried running Wednesday and the hamstring tendons were not happy. Cycling and swimming are fine, but running sucks and makes it hurt more the next day. Lane swim was cancelled Thursday, so I rode my bike instead.


Raced a sprint tri on Saturday. Pathetic swim - no endurance, and I'm a bit too fat for my wetsuit so it felt really constrictive. First time off its hanger since last September, too, so I'm sure that didn't help. Add in some choppy waves that I just couldn't seem to time right without getting swamped, and I ended up side-stroking and even kicking on my back. Just for extra giggles, I dropped my damn chain just after the turn-around on the bike and had to get off to re-set it. Hamstring held in for the run, which was actually my fastest at that course/distance (done the same race 2 other times). Mid-pack showing overall but a personal worst total time. Still not too surprising given it was only 2 weeks after the 50k, especially the swim: I always swim like rubbish when I'm in recovery from a long race.


I took things easy Saturday afternoon, then headed up to a small, local 5k trail race on Sunday morning. I was supposed to pace a friend, but he texted Sunday morning to bow out due to either allergies or illness preventing him from breathing properly. I had no reason to hold back pace now (other than the injury), so I decided to do a couple of kilometers as a warmup run to see how hard I could push the sore leg. It felt ok, but not great. Gun goes off while I'm still walking up to the start and out of 8 other females there are a rather non-athletic-looking woman in her 50s, an 8 or 9 year old girl, and a tall, willowy young lady in compression socks ahead. I passed the former 2 within the first 200m, then discovered that compression sock girl wasn't very strong on hills as I passed her on a climb just after the 1k mark. I had about a minute into her after coming through the turn-around, but I was starting to struggle a bit as all the climbs on the return leg were in bright, hot sun. I kept telling myself I could let up a bit to take things a little easier on my sore leg but the little part of my brain screaming THIS IS FOR THE WIN DAMMIT won out so kept pushing. Not much of a kick at the line, but I came in about 2mins before compression sock girl.


So that's how I got my first overall women's win, and while I'm a bit chagrined there were no medals this year (I got one last year for 3rd woman overall), I WON FREAKIN' MONEY! Apart from the tote bag with some goodies from a gym chain there was a $100 Visa gift card in my prize package!


This week's goals:
Bike x 4
Swim x 3
Core/strength/rehab x 4


Hamstring hasn't been too happy with me since, but it's steadily improving again. I took Monday off except rehab exercises and some walking, and will just swim & bike until it feels good again. Our local cycle touring event (Cambridge Tour de Grand) in on Sunday, so I'll go have fun at that with my husband and try to forget about how grumpy I get when I can't run.

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ill advised racing inc.

d - Yuck - being sick sucks and esp taking meds - prednisone can have some pretty major side effects so just be careful and keep an eye on your self over-all. This next week sounds busy for you too, don't over do it!

tc - that's so cool re: piano!!!

My week last week was GREAT!
- started my 4 day work week with bike ride to K's school with her and pick up after school - best Monday ever :-)
- only ran twice and H's running career is officially over - she's gone very much senior on us and I'm still not back into the habit of running at lunch (plus it's been stinkin hot this past week)
- football occupied most of the past week - one practice then the provincial championship tourney all weekend long in Kelowna - it was 35degC - the kids did fantastic considering the heat - 8 games on Saturday and 3 on Sunday. Finished up 14th in the province out of almost 50 teams so that was a great finish for a team with more than half being complete rookies to the sport. So it was a lot of standing around in the sun, on the sidelines, trying to not get burnt/heatstroke, and keeping the kids going. We were all so tired but so happy. On the drive home Sunday, I found myself actually missing the kids, realizing that there's no more practices made me sad. It's amazing how you have to really get to know a child, their strengths and weaknesses, how to try to motivate them, how to try to get the best out of them. I feel really honoured to have been able to get to know all of these kids.

Between games:


Two full days of this:


One of our supporters:


Receiving their medals:


I have a skills clinic I'm helping with in 2 weeks, then that'll be it for football for a while - dryland training starts for speedskating this week so I'll see if I can get one session in. That, plus three rides, and two runs will be about it for me this week. The house is being painted this week so it'll be a bit of a gong show around here.

AP

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS

Congrats on the win and the $ ! That is so awesome!

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

prize monay = awesomeness! :-)

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS

AP - don't worry, I cannot overdo it as this stinkin' cough won't let me work out. CRANKY!
The work conference involves sitting in conference rooms from 8am to 5pm. NO chance of overdoing it there!

Awesome win!

Thanks womens! It'll probably never happen again, but at least I can say I got the W just once!

Cheers!

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ill advised racing inc.