Tuesday, August 1, 2017

The summer of no triathlon

It's not too late for me to change my mind, which I am inclined to do now and then. But I have mostly decided that the 20 year streak will end this year with zero triathlons completed. I can run, I can ride my bike, and I'm assuming I can still swim, but the desire to go out and just complete a slow race still eludes me. It isn't the end of the tri career, but I am not going to go out and putter through just to say I did it.

The summer is going too quickly anyway. We spend a lot of time swimming. Again, Hunter has taught us that if we just leave him alone, he will figure things out. Like swimming. And math, and all kinds of random things that keep me asking, "where did you learn that?" It just goes to show you don't have to "potty train" or take "swimming lessons." Along the lines of some of my significant life choices, if you just let things be, they can usually work themselves out.

A lot of the past month has been traveling; we went back to New Mexico, Santa Fe in particular, for the first time since moving to LR. The air was so clear, crisp, and thin. Over 7000' of elevation, to which I am completely not acclimated anymore. The friends were just like I last left them: wonderful, entertaining, and fun. The scenery and hiking were gorgeous, and the latter was a bit different than when we used to run alone, just Jeremy and me. But much more exciting.

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In mid-July we set sail on a Disney cruise to the Bahamas, which was an exciting, beautiful, activity-filled trip that didn't stop when we disembarked. We went on to the Magic Kingdom for a couple of days to finish tiring us out completely.

 

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It was all kind of perfect for us, and I hope it filled the little ones with lots of great memories of adventure.




 

I did do a 5K at Castaway Cay. It consisted of half an hour of staging, a half mile walk to the start with the group, half a dozen people sprinting off the start line, and about 3 men beating my 8 minute mile pace. I had no one around, little motivation, and plenty of humidity. Glad I did it.

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Now here we are in August, starting to think about the upcoming school year. This time, I'm actually excited about the school year. We are doing things a little differently than most for the start of Kindergarten. And I think it'll be perfect for Hunter. To be continued...

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Summer Start

I am just going to dive right in and pretend it has not been over two months since I last posted. So let's see, I wanted to keep a good record of all things hip labrum repair and my incredible return to running faster than ever. That is a post for a later time, like when it has actually happened. My back got all painful again after the nerve regrew, and instead of cutting it off once more, I opted for PT, then more PT, with a much closer and different set of eyes. He is encouraging me to "hinge forward!" as he often calls out across the therapy floor when I'm looking a bit too sway-backed (which is apparently all of the time). Does this mean that I don't actually have a giant booty, but I just stick it too far out? Hmmm.

Apparently I am a structural nightmare. My facet joints are all inflamed from being crunched together, but at the same time there is too much movement in the lumbar spine. I have mild dysplasia in my right hip, but also an impingement if I extend it back too far, which is what happens when I try to tuck my hips and run. The newest PT is now accusing my right leg of being longer, but he said I don't have scoliosis because I'm strong. I know, I almost laughed when he called me that too, and then I realized that most of his patients are probably senior citizens, so relatively, yeah.  It does make more sense that the less exercise I do, the more things hurt. I have spent the last 5 years getting weaker, slower, more lordotic, and older. The PT also said I have taken good care of myself, of which I had recently been thinking the opposite. My aunt used to tell me to slow down, even before I fully comprehended the ill effects of my chosen sport (long distance specifically). Thanks #science.

My goal, since it is now unofficially SUMMER!! is to start extending my piddly little trainer rides to longer than 40 minutes and maaaaybe do some outdoor rides, you know, like a bike is made to do. Running will begin again, or uh, has begun again actually, if you can call it running.

Something about the trails between Watercolor and Seaside down on the Emerald Coast make it completely impossible to not run. Darn little scenic houses with white picket fences lining the smooth, sandy, pine-needled trail, and the wooden bridges over the dark alligator-infested lily-pad covered lakes force me to run. And not just once, but two days in a row. Luckily Jeremy was busy racing Gulf Coast and I didn't get a chance to go more when we were down there two weeks ago.

I'm sure we will be getting plenty of travel and swimming in this summer for my little fish.


That water!



No, I promise they were actually thrilled to be there! :)

Monday, March 13, 2017

Growing

I think it would surprise anyone who has seen the (very low) frequency of my posting here to know that I have been keeping a daily paper workout log for over a decade now. Maybe more like two decades. I am missing one important year in which a newfangled online training log was all I kept, and once I quit, it was erased. So how did I manage that best performance in Kona? I'll never remember, although it was truly short of outstanding anyway. I have skipped a few weeks here and there, for a week or so after Hunter and Josie were born before I returned to walking, or those 3 weeks of non-weight-bearing after hip surgery. I have gone from detailing the workout, how I felt, how many pounds of sweat I lost, the temperature, and who my company was, using two pages per week, to squeezing in two months on those same two pages, line by line.

These past two weeks I should just be skipping as well, although I can write "PT" in on certain days. After my ablated nerves decided to regrow so that they could finally get their pain signal back to my brain, like the doctor said was likely, I realized that I could go right back to the pain clinic or I could try to do something to restructure everything that's out of whack. This is a big job for my lucky physical therapist. He came so highly recommended that I drive half an hour each way before sunrise twice a week to have him tell me to stop picking up things like children, bending, sitting too long, riding my trainer and running, rolling my quads in a plank position, and most any chores around the house (sorry husband!). If I could just stop weight bearing, everything would heal a little faster. Problem is, I can't call in sick, nor can I stay off my feet. I'm winning to be on my feet without holding both kids at once.

Oh OK, I'll climb the tree with you.

If I'd had any plans to take my new age group by storm this year, now that I am officially a master's athlete, I could forget them now. Luckily I had no big aspirations to kill. I knew it was a long road back from all these structural defects, but I didn't plan on having to take up an entirely new sport, something a little more leisurely, quite yet. I can hear my mitochondria dying off. But at least my hunger has subsided. I cannot justify a daily half pint of Milk 'N' Cookies ice cream when I am instructed to sit on my rumpus all day. But then again, I do have milk to make for the baby... Justified!

While watching myself age, very up close when plucking gray hairs and using extra strength wrinkle cream, I also get to watch the little ones grow like weeds. (After looking at smooth young baby faces all day long, does anyone else kind of surprise themselves when they look in the mirror? No, just me?)

My big one is 5 today!  And he is turning into my little sidekick. Our latest adventures, besides sword fighting, climbing things, and getting dirty, include painting. Every once in a while I get on artsy kicks and whip out the old acrylics and canvases. Hunter has been showing me up and creating some quality abstracts. I'm too shy about mine to actually post them, so here is the real artist's work.

He named the first one Forest of the World.

He also cooks, decorates his own birthday cake, and builds incredibly complex lego jets much better than I do. My little dude is quite the imaginative, perceptive, determined boy. And still a favorite around here.