AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Monthly Archive for July, 2006Page 2 of 2
Week 5 went very well. It has been hard to stay motivated. I’m not sure that is the word I’d use to describe it either. 90% of the effort was encouraged by my training partners Katie and her daughter Ellie. I truly feel that if it were not for them – I’d have tossed my event fees in the trash by now.
Swimming: 40 minutes of 40 minutes suggested
Biking: 160 minutes of 105 minutes suggested (see below)
Running: 115 minutes of 105 suggested
:) I actually went over the suggested training times in the run and bike – giving me 5 days of training in week 5!
Now, about last Saturday – maybe I’ll call it “Black Saturday”… except it was sunny and beautiful and I would do it again – I’m just sick that way. I digress… Katies’s rockin’ husband watched my kids (because my hubby was up-n-at-em bright and early moving rocks and dirt at our new place) while Katie, Ellie and I kicked our own butts. For 2.5 hours we biked and ran and biked. I’m not exactly sure of the distance, but the bike was over 12 miles… 13, maybe 14. The run was 3 plus a little. The bike wasn’t too far – unless you consider the hills. Hills. Evil hills. Mean hills. OK, maybe not to Lance Armstrong, but to the ultra-novice bike rider – a butt-kicker. What comes up must come down – poppycock! What goes down must come up!!! The whole time I felt the cool wind on the downhill, I was dreading the inevitable that lie ahead – death. OK, not death, but there was enough dread that upon approaching and enduring the final climb, the only words I could muster were, “Crapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapicantdoiticantdoitcrapcrapcrapcrapcrap…”
Katie and I (not Ellie though, she’s going gangbusta’s – she passes us on the hills and waits for us at the top – oh to be so young…) have joked about calling us the “Triple E” team – no emesis, no excrement, no expiration. Maybe I’ve said too much. Maybe the truth needs to be told…
“Your son knows how to whistle? (pause, pause, pause) I know how to zip.” This is what Joel’s friend “J” asked recently as I tied his shoes. He was obviously impressed with Joel’s “skills“.
(Pause)Me: “You know how to zip?” Surely zipping was a new “fad” our 6 and 7 year-old boys were now pioneering. Was it a new kind of armpit fart? Was it a fancy way to zig or zag that would change the way we zig-zag (much like how snowboarding has changed the face of skiing????)…
“J”: “I know how to button too. I can tie my shoes too, but it makes my hands realy tired.”
Ah yes, zip – a zipper. I smiled, gushed and hailed upon hearing of his grand accomplishments – it is important to celebrate their rights of passage into big-boyhood:)
Me: “Ouch!”
Joel: “I know how it feels mom. I really know how it feels. Welcome to my world…”
At her preschool, Olivia gets to make Mother’s and Father’s Day presents. This year, Olivia had the choice of coloring a couple of different pictures for her dad. Before she gave her dad his gift, she told me she chose NOT to color one of the pictures. (OK, I’ll bite) “Why Olivia?” She said the picture said, “Dad, you’re out of this world” . Olivia didn’t want to color that picture for her dad because, “I don’t want him to go out of this world. I love him.”
So… weeks 8 through 7 were shameful – I packed in an impressive 20 minute swim in those 2 weeks.
All in the name of progress… :)
Last week (week 6) was incrementally better – I was able to muster enough motivation to workout 3 of the 6 days scheduled. Truthfully, if it wasn’t for my friend and training companion, Katie, none of it would have happened. You made it happen sister! Across those days of week 6 – I swam 1 hour, ran 45 minutes and biked 50 minutes (a very hilly course at that).
In my defense, the last 3 weeks were packed with activity other than training – most of which required time in the car (week 7 was the last week of school for Joel and Olivia) or time with my sister who visited from Colorado, or time protecting myself from the wilting heat here in the Pacific Northwest… or time fretting about how I am sooo ready to move but the house is sooo not ready!!! Oh, and just good old fashioned “I don’t wanna get up at 5 a.m.”
I also have been emotionally and phsically battling whatever it is that is stealing my energy and motivation. During week 8, I finally scheduled a visit with a popular ARNP who specializes in hormones – and has helped several of my friends. After that visit I spit in a tube and sent that off to a lab and had a vial of blood taken by a professional. The saliva test is checking out hormones such as cortisol (aka “the stress hormone”) and estrogen; the blood test is to check out thyroid function. I already know I have low blood sugar. BUT – I learned at my visit that a body’s ability to process sugar can be directly affected by the estrogen/progestrone ratio as well as cortisol/the adrenal glands (adrenal fatigue). Impaired thyroid function can have this effect too. I bet I have both. I am so tired (and cranky and tired and unmotivated and cranky). Ask my kids.
It’s all so complicated, so I am still sorting through the piles of information – and trying to make sense of it all. I don’t quite get it yet. It’s a bit like learning how an equation fits together and math has never benn my strong suit.
Back to training – on to “Week 5″. Monday is a rest day – I just love Mondays…
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