Painful Progress

I've done more swimming lately than I ordinarily prefer to do, mainly because it's freezing and dark outside and I haven't replaced my trainer....but I digress. Swimming. I'm not a huge fan. Last season, I tweaked my shoulder a little bit and every time I swam, I ached for days. My knees hurt. I get really bored. I HATE having to push off the wall when I've had :10 seconds of rest after going all out. I hate the drills.....the awkwardness.....the humiliation of sinking.....swallowing all that gross water because I'm incapable of breathing and thinking about the drill all at the same time. Yes, you could say swimming is not my favorite sport.

To top it all off, I'm no longer the fastest in my group. Monday night, I got placed into lane #3 of 7. That's like, middle of the pack! Talk about disappointment. But I am trying to take it in stride....my new purpose in life is endurance, so while I may be sacrificing a wee bit of speed, I can go long and strong. Anyway, last night, I had a breakthrough! Even though I was a little bit sore and it was not certain WHICH lane I was actually swimming in since we had to circle swim, I managed to do my fastest 100 meter yet --- 1:40. Now, I know that isn't remarkable compared to what I did last season or what most good swimmers can do, but it was 5 seconds or so faster than Monday night......wowza! So I am still excited about that. Despite all my moaning, groaning, and aching, something is working. I'm regaining my fitness and perhaps my form is improving as well......it's awesome!

So my goal is to be in the fast lane sometime soon. And I'm going to keep humuliating myself and doing drills, because I think they might be working?

On a funnier note, the Cheeto has stayed on my triathlon team, despite my efforts to be rid of it forever! It found a new home off of Craigslist on Monday night. I had thought it was going to a man, but a girl showed up.....I didn't recognize her, she didn't mention my team, and she didn't question me when I went on and on about my team. So imagine my surprise when I got to practice last night and she was there! I thought our Coach was going to murder me, seeing as how she hates the Cheeto, but thankfully, I'm off the hook. Fingers crossed she likes it so I don't have to take it back. (Another reason why it would have been better to have it go elsewhere!)

If the rain stays away, Saturday will be my first real ride on the Buff. I already love looking at it-- I can just imagine how fun it will be to ride! Bring it.....:)

So there is my update. I've made time this week, and I'm getting to my April 12th race, slowly but surely.

Time -- Where Have You Been?

Certainly not with me this week. In fact, it seems that every second of my life has been planned for five days now, and I'm wound up so tight you could probably snap me! What gets the shaft when work makes me this busy? Training.

Ugh. This week was a massive failure in the training department. I was supposed to do 2 swims, an hour spin, a long run, and a bike/run brike....and all I've accomplished is a 1/2 hour spin on my trainer until I BROKE IT!!! Ugh. Last night, I made a huge deal at work about how they owed me an hour off early so I could swim in between work and my Annual Goal-Setting Meeting with the tri team. So I actually manage to leave around the right time, get to the gym, start undressing, and then realize -- I left my swimsuit at home!!! Of course, there was nothing else that could fit in the bag after all the towels, so no contingency plan there. I nearly cried, then left and went to my meeting early. You know when sometimes things just aren't going to work out for you, no matter how hard you try? Yeah, that was this week.

I just have to say to all those people who swear that work isn't an excuse to not exercising -- KISS MY ARSE! Swear to God, you don't have my job. You must not be very important at your job. Because if I had to get up at 4am to swim and then went to work and tried to work a full 9-11 hours, and my brain was fuzzy, my company could lose millions of dollars. It just does't work like that. Oh, and my two travel days. After getting up at 4:30am for a flight and then returning to the OC at 10pm, was I supposed to go straight to the pool in my exhausted state? When I spent the day in LA and fought LA traffic to get home at 7pm, was I supposed to change and go head to a spin class? How do these crazy people function? I'm spent at that point. (And having the broken trainer doesn't help-- that's about all I felt like doing on the second night) I know, this whole paragraph seems an awful lot like an attempt at legitimizing my busy week, but I'm just trying to calm myself down.

This morning, I'm going to head to the pool and knock out one of those pool workouts. And because tomorrow is forecasted to be a torrential downpour and we had a group bike ride scheduled, I'm going to take the bike ride this morning and save my long run for tomorrow, in the rain. I think. Coach saw me all defeated and upset last night and now I think she's wondering how in the heck she's going to get me ready for a HIM!

Well, the big news here is that our race in Lake Las Vegas, Iron Girl, is going to be televised on NBC! Holy crap! My first reaction was, "great, now I'll get caught on camera being fat and slow." At least I know I won't be a human interest story, although my all-female triathlon team, with 50+ girls from our county alone, will be a large contingent there so I'm sure I'll spot the uniforms on the telecast. But how cool that a non-pro (okay, I'm sure the pros will sign up now), non-IM even gets put on TV? Yes, it'll probably be at 3am on a Sunday in July, but who cares? I think it's great for the sport. If it gets America up and moving, it can't be all bad, even if I am fat and slow.

At least I'm doing something about the fat part. My coworker and I weighed in for the 3rd week in a row on Thursday morning at Weight Watchers! I am down 2.2 lbs overall, which is just fine with me because these are hard-earned pounds and even at this snail's pace, I could be below the Athena category by March. (Woohoo!!)

My sexy new bike, The Buff, has yet to have its maiden voyage, but hopefully today will be the day. I'm itching to get on it, but my Look pedals are a little hard to clip in and out of so that's the only part I'm not so excited about. I'd hook it up to the trainer, but....I broke the trainer..... Yeah, need to go buy one. Thank goodness for the government and its $600 tax refund. Can we say "hello Cycleops Fluid 2 part 2?!"

Wow- that's a lot of text. There's my update, world! Still fat. Slower. Completely frazzled. But I'm going to keep at it and hopefully something will fall into place.

Now introducing......the Buff

Now all I have to do is sell the Cheeto! Yes, I went with road bike, but I went with the adjusted seatpost and lower stem to get a better tri geometry. I love it. Felt F-75. It's like buttah! :)

Holding Back

Everyone who knows me would tell you that holding back is not something I am capable of. Everything I do is with intensity, sometimes to the point of hurting myself or making others stressed out around me. I can't help it......I just like to attack.

Today, on our first organized practice session, I held back, for the first time. We were doing a timed exercise to establish a base for the season....sprinters would go one loop (~1.3 miles), those in shape would do 2, and Olympians would do 3. McTherapist told me to aim for 2 and then reassess for the 3rd depending on how my knees felt, making it clear that I was to go "EASY." Now, fast for me is slow for some people, but I'm a solid 9-minute miler.

We got seeded for speed this morning, and yours truly placed herself in the 11-minute mile group! (I know, shock and awe!) I ended up having a blast-- I chatted the entire time with some of my old pals, and we had a grand old time while everyone else sprinted along and nearly vomited at the end. We took 41 glorious minutes catching up on our lives, and my knees felt pretty darn good! We were accused of "sandbagging" our time, but you know what? So what! I keep a journal....I know I can run it faster. Heck, the last 1/4 mile I decided to run it in on my own and I found myself back to my comfy 9 min/mile pace. Hey, gotta at least finish with a little gusto.

Anyway, I'm back. I'm purposeful. I'm excited to try to train for April! I've got a lot of homework to keep these knees functioning, but I'm confident that I can do it. With these ladies, the next few months are bound to be a blast.

So holding back....isn't so unsatisfying after all. Because if I can get through the next few weeks, I should be ready to rock and roll and prove to myself that I can go much faster on those loops!

The Bees Knees

That's who my Physical Therapist is. Not only is he a McTherapist, but he's a genius and totally cool.

Yeah!

As you can tell, I'm pumped. I have been having knee pain this week, and last night, after a short run, it was scary painful. I called McTherapist this morning to see how long I should wait to come see him, and he told me to just come in and he'd check it out. So I left work an hour early, came home to change and shave my knees (go figure, the one day I messed up my right knee would be the day I have to go to PT!), and off I went. He saw me immediately, and went about poking and prodding. The tendon that connects my quad and kneecap was the culprit this time around...very sore, but he says it's the same issue as this summer.....weak legs resulting in a displaced kneecap, first putting pressure on my tendons. So I caught it early, and now I get to do some preventative anti-inflammatory icing, taping, and tons of stretching and strength-building. He hooked me up to the electricity and iced me, then taped my knee for me and sent me home with both types of tape. For FREE!!! Seriously, McTherapist rocks my knees. And to top it all off, he's a triathlete too so we just chat forever about bikes, races, and training.

So that's my news. Our new season started on Wednesday and I enjoyed meeting everybody. Lots of new young people who may end up being faster than me. I don't like it. It means I need to get strong quickly so I can whip their tushes!

And in other news, I get to go to San Fran with my boss to discuss the disposition of our property with a huge foreign investor. Time to get the haircut, manicure, and buy me a nice pair of shoes. No San Fran flipflops for me! I'm shocked I've been invited to go--- this is HUGE. It makes me feel so....corporate.

With that, I'm off to do some strength training and catch up on my TV. Tomorrow night, the hubby and I are headed to Runner's Roost for new running shoes! A hit to the wallet, but they won't be if it saves us PT time. :)

Like Ripping off a Bandaid

I registered!

As of this morning, I am officially registered for the Iron Girl Olympic distance triathlon in Lake Las Vegas on April 12th. That's the goal, and I'm sticking to it.

Of course, now my stomach is in knots and I have no idea how I'll find the training time, but we'll see. Our training starts up again this week, so I'm starting my usual "how will I find the time?" freakout. But I will, because I put the money down for the race and I intend to do it. And I don't just want to finish, I want to perform to the best of my ability. So I am going to work hard to get there in that shape.

On the work front, I've been given an amazing opportunity to work with a woman I've become friends with over the past 2 years. She's my senior by two positions (a VP), and she is, in essence, a project manager. She takes land that is under contract and secured by the land acquisition guy, and she picks a team who will ultimately design and build whatever she can get approved and is appropriate for the site on the property. She goes through the entire zoning and entitlement process with the cities and communities. Although I may dread the latter, this is what I want to do in my career and being given the opportunity to work with her is a huge step in the right direction. I've been pigeon-holed as an analyst for so long because people trust me with numbers.....but this is not my life-long goal and I cannot wait to move along! In addition to this, I'm still spearheading a company-wide project with our underwriting models and I will continue to work on my San Francisco project, even though we are now selling it. I think I technically stay in the mixed use group, but with this VP, I'm working on apartments only.

So, that's the scoop. Big changes at work, and I registered for this distance that I never thought possible over a year ago.

Now I just need to do it and not disappoint myself.

Do you want the bike? I SAID, DO YOU WANT THE BIKE?!

Oh, it's purrrty, isn't it? So nice. And fast. A little expensive, but you are getting the bonus and taxes are right around the corner. You could get it now. Really, it'd be so nice to start the season with this puppy.......

You want it?

Lose 5 lbs!!!! That's the magic number. Lose it, and Orgasmo shall be yours. (It's already named-- isn't that convenient?)