Real Ale Ride: DE-nied

Better sense or maybe the pain upon waking this morning deterred me from going on the ride this morning. At first I tried to bargain with myself 'I'll just do the 30 mile, or maybe just the 15' but when I turned my neck and pain shot through my shoulder down to my hip....let's just say I fed the pups and sat up in bed.

Sometimes doing the right thing really sucks. I'm mad and disappointed that I didn't go, although I know in my mind that it was a good call. Pfffttt...that's what I say. Not sure what I'll do today. Maybe the pool will open and I can get some soothing laps in or something. At least I have the massage and dinner plans to look forward to. :)

One step forward...and then another

Yeah, you thought it was going to be '...and two steps back.' But, it's not. I took Monday off as my rest day. It wasn't supposed to work that way, but it did. Tuesday I woke up and did my 4.5 mile run. On the way out I was feeling pretty good, my muscles weren't too tight from the race, like I said - good. I have to cross over some railroad tracks on my route, usually not a big deal, however today as I was ON the tracks the lights started flashing, bells ringing and the cross arms started coming down...fast! Holy Sh*t! As slow as I am I ducked and crunched my neck and made it out on the other side as my only options were ducking and going under or going off into a ditch on the side of the road.

Whew! Close one that was. I kept on my merry little way down my route and on the way back the arms were down again...this lead me to believe that the RR x-ing is jacked up and that there was no train earlier.

6-8 hours later my neck starts hurting, bad hurting, but I didn't think too much of it...until I couldn't sleep that night. When I woke up in the morning (at 4:30am) I asked Trainer to leave me the number of his Dr. It hurt to breathe, raise my arms, move my head...well, it hurt to move. I went to work and looked up the Dr, they didn't open until 11:30 on Wednesday, just my luck, but I made it through lunch and they got me in late that afternoon. (bless them)

The Dr. said I had a compression injury, he said it was as if someone squished my head into my shoulders with a violent impact. I was thinking, 'Well, I did get tossed around in the water at the tri,' but really that was nothing too severe and for the pain to be so delayed? I didn't even think about the RR incident, but that is probably what happened. Just moved wrong and it ended up compressing two nerves, one in my neck and one in my back. He worked on me, manipulated the tissue around the nerves and sent me on my way.

Bottom line - I need to work on my posture doing just about everything: sitting, driving, cooking, reading...bah! The really jacked up thing? I am a MUSIC MAJOR, we've been taught to sit up straight with our shoulders back our WHOLE lives! I think the slouchy thing is a rebellious thing. Haha, I wish. It's just bad habit upon bad habit picked up since I graduated ASU in 1995...gawd I'm old.

Anyway, this weeks training has kind of sucked, I did manage to make it to 2 swim practices (I only made it through 30 min, but better than nothing), a strength workout and tomorrow I'm attempting the Real Ale Ride. The Dr cleared me to ride today, although he added that I will probably regret it b/c it's going to hurt. The good thing...I have a massage scheduled for the afternoon and then pizza with friends in the evening!

So, we just keep taking those steps forward, one foot in front of the other. The finish line is out there somewhere.

Skees Greets, Race 1 of 5

My tri season has officially started. Today was my first event of my season. I say 'my' because there are a TON of tri's going on and my goal this year is to finish the Texas Tri Series, which is a series of 5 races. The race today was a mini-sprint and it went really, really well!

Up and at 'em at 5am. My alarm went off and as usual I was an unhappy camper. (I really want to be a morning person...really...) Trainer got up at the same time (bless that man) and made me coffee and oatmeal. I had all of my gear packed up the night before so there wasn't too much to do, just eat, drink coffee and take care of 'business' before we left. All went according to plan.

Got to the race site with plenty of time to go, I wasn't nervous, this is a BIG improvement. I got my body marked (my race age is 37 even though I'm 36...that kind of sucked) by a fellow T3er who is coming back next week (yeah, love her), went into transition to find another T3er showing me where to rack my bike (next to more teammates!) and then my old lane buddy was there to give me some tips on setting out my stuff. Seeing so many people that I knew was AWESOME! I went to the timing chip people to write down my chip number since I have my own and then I got in the bathroom line...that was really, really long.

At my previous races I never got in the water until I had to, but this morning I did a little practice swim to check out the water, very glad that I did, it helped with the nerves. Then it was time for the race director to go through the course, the anthem and then 'POW' it started.

I was the third group in and I wasn't nervous until I got into the water. Still it was a big improvement over last year. My group started and it was chaos. I got kicked, hit, pushed back...you name it...it happened. The water was N.A.S.T.Y! I gulped some when I got kicked and I thought I would hurl right there...but I kept it down and kept going. I made it through the swim in under 10 min, that was my goal. *300 meters is not long enough for me to have a good swim.

On to the bike, my favorite part. I took over 2 min in transition, trying to get my damn socks on. I'll have to practice without socks... Anyway, I cruised through the ride, not going too hard so I could save something for the run. I was passing people along the way, riding @ 17mph avg for the ride and the last mile I was killing it. It was awesome. My second transition was less than 2 min, a good improvement. *I love the bike..hands down.

I ran out of transition for the run start and was miffed that there were stairs within the first .25 mile. WTF man? But, I got up the stairs, legs felt really heavy, and on to the course. It took me about 5-7 min to get my form and pace locked in. It was only a 2 mile run, so really...not too bad. I finished the run in under 20 min, I thought it would be 22 min. Very happy. *Need to run more!!

Overall a good first race! I was really happy with my overall time of 1:10:4-(something.) My official time is not posted, I don't know if that is because I used my own chip. Not that it matters, I know what I did and I know that this year is going to be a good one!

Back to our regular programming...

Well, Syd is home and sleepy (we're keeping her a little drugged so she'll rest) and doing well. We have to feed her 8x a day for 2 days then we'll start to transition her to kibble. She's so sweet, I keep getting puppy kisses, probably because she thinks I rescued her from the vet. I'll take it!

In training news...my first race is coming up on Sunday. Holy crap. I was supposed to run Sunday, yeah...well we know that didn't happen! Monday I was too exhausted (mentally/physically) and yesterday I chose to go pick up Sydney instead of exercise. Choices... Today I ran my 3 miles at lunch. BOY is it muggy out. I forget (daily) what a pita it is to run in the hot and humid weather. This would be my 'taper' week, but really...how much do you taper for a mini-sprint?

The race is 300m swim (should take less than 10min), 11 mile bike (should take about 40 min) and a 2 mile run (should take 22 min.) With transitions that would put me at 1:20 or so...that will be the goal anyway. You never know what can happen on race day.

I've already started on my new schedule for my next event, July 11th is the date. It is an 800m swim, I think 14mile bike and 3.1mile run. And it's a tough course (IMO), but I'm excited because it was my first tri EVER last year and I can see if I've improved.

I leave you with this picture of Gunthar looking over Sydney while she sleeps...Love these guys.

Last update on Sydney

She's coming home today!!! I get to pick her up in a bit and then she'll be home. I'm so happy.

I didn't sleep like I wanted to yesterday, I was probably over tired. Plus I spent the day waiting for the vet to call so she could come home. However, when I finally did hear from her she told me that Syd wasn't eating and they still had her on IV fluids and drugs. That meant another transfer from the regular vet to the emergency vet for overnight monitoring.

Here's a pic of her in the puppy ambulance (notice her colorful wrap that is holding in the IV catheter:

We picked her up at the emergency vet this morning (again at 6:30am) and took her back to her regular vet. She was in much better spirits and was just trying to get us to take her home. Much more like herself. I just got the call from her regular vet and she said that she is very alert and watching what is going on. AND she's interested in food again, which Sydney is ALWAYS interested in food. We'll have her on a special diet for the rest of this week and then transition her back to her regular kibble.

I know it was a lot of money....a lot...like we could have bought 1/2 the siding for our house or a used car kind of money. But, when I look at those baby blue eyes I know we did the only thing that we could have and saved our baby's life.

Sydney Update

She made it through the surgery and I picked her up this morning to take her to her regular vet for monitoring. She is still on IV fluids and meds, but if she can eat and 'process' today then she can come home tonight. Her incision is about 12-14" long down her belly. That poor dog has been shaved once again. They said she did 'fair' overnight (not sure what kind of scale that is...) and at one point when the doorbell rang (for security I'm sure) she started howling. The vet said, "It was like she was saying 'I'm back here! Come get me!!'" Haha, that's my girl. She does NOT like to be behind bars.

I have slept a total of 2-3 hours off and on through the night. I did a lot of work last night so I'm going to catch some Zzzzs and head to work late.

Oh, and to Juliebean...I would walk through fire for the pups. They had my heart from the first moment I saw them at 5 weeks old. It is an insane amount of do-re-mi, it will put us back months on the debt plan, but I'm just not strong enough to say goodbye. :)

My million dollar dog

My baby girl was rushed to the ER Vet tonight.

I was making dinner and we heard her dry heaving (I know...gross right?) which isn't too bad. She does it every now and then, spits up some water (because she chugs it like a college student at their first kegger) and then all is good. Well, we checked on her and nothing, she was laying down. Breathing hard, but it's been humid out and she's like her mama...does NOT like the humid weather. As we were eating dinner she would come in, lay down, get up, walk around with no purpose and try to lay down. Repeat this over and over again.

Her ears were to the side and her breathing was more labored. She was getting disoriented. We were following her around, trying to sooth her, but then she would walk away like she wanted to be left alone. We called the vet and while T was on the phone she came up to me and put all of her weight on me. Her whole body was shaking and I was trying to calm her breathing down. Her eyes were blood shot and then I noticed that her stomach was distended and growing. My mind went straight to GDV (gastric dilatation and volvulus) or bloat with a twisted stomach. The call service gave us the number of the closest animal emergency center and we were on our way. Our dinner was left uneaten on the table.

When we arrived at the ER she wouldn't jump out of the car, she knew she couldn't do this and it freaked me out. I ran inside and said, "I think my dog has bloat and she can't get out of the car." I broke into tears, bah! I hate when that happens. The techs were very sweet and said they would help and as they were about out the door T came in with her on her leash. She christened the floor like she usually does at any vets office...but for once I really didn't give a shit. They took her right back and I had to sit there and wait, trying to hold back the tears.

They called us back and the Doc told us what we thought. GDV. I said, "You mean bloat right?" And he informed me that no, it wasn't bloat. You can have a bloated stomach without it twisting, the twisting is what is serious. The heart is still pumping blood, but it can't get through and there is nothing coming back. He said that there is really no known reason for this to happen, although it usually happens in larger breed dogs and the dogs tend to be older. Syd is not quite 6, too young for this, but she's special...*sigh*

We waited for the blood work and estimate to come through. He estimated 3-4k. Well, there goes another year waiting for my bike. (This is what T told me...trying to break the tense mood I suppose.) We had to pay the 3k+ before we left and if there is a balance I pay it tomorrow am when I pick her up. She was cleared for surgery, it will happen tonight, hopefully she's in there now and doing good. I'm staying up and waiting for the call. Then I have to be up early to pick her up by 6:30am so I can transport her to her regular vet. They'll observe her all day and hopefully she can come home tomorrow.

I'm scared. I'm not ready to lose my baby girl.

Shiner

Wow, what a ride!! 97.07 miles from Austin to Shiner and I finished with a HUGE smile on my face.

The morning started off early. Trainer was up and making coffee before I could even think about getting up, so he brought me breakfast in bed. (I know...lucky I am!!) He also pumped up my tires and got my water bottles ready. I looked through my cycling clothes and realized that I would have to wear tri-shorts instead of cycling short (the difference is in the padding) because both pairs of cycling shorts had holes in the thigh. My bike bag (a little bag attached to the stem of the seat that sits underneath the seat that holds important things like extra tubes, air, tools etc) has a piece of Velcro that was catching my shorts in the same spot over and over again on my 50-60 mile rides...resulting in a small hole....that turned into a bigger hole....that I was not going to risk wearing on a 97 mile ride and have it rip. (Because you know, that is something that would happen to me.)

We loaded everything into the truck and headed for the start. There were 2,000 riders and the first couple of miles were dealing with the crowd. After that it thinned out and it was great. The wind was blowing 10-20mph ENE, meaning that when we were going East we got a TAIL wind! Yehoo!!

The ride itself was very well organized, lots of rest/water/food stops and great support along the way. I saw so many T3ers along the way, and when they passed me they all said, 'Hey!' even if they didn't know me...that was cool. I let Trainer ride ahead of me without a guilt trip, so it was nice not to feel alone on the ride. It was rollers the whole way, up then down, nothing too steep either way (I was secretly hoping for an awesome decent...but not to be.) The scenery was just gorgeous. Since it's been so wet lately the fields were green and lush, it was overcast that morning and it created a mist over the fields. So pretty. The 50 mile mark came up and I was feeling GREAT! I was drinking my nutrition (something I've been struggling with) and at that stop I was able to eat a PB 1/2 sandwich and a 1/2 of a banana. Back on the bike and off we go!

In my head I was saying, "as soon as I pass 60 I'm on new ground" and then "70 miles, still feeling great!" and then "80 miles, the farthest I've ever ridden in one day in my lifetime, check!" and then "holy Shi*t! 90 miles! 90 miles!! less than 1/2 hour to ride!" and then "Oh, there's the camera...SMILE...and I'm DONE!" I did it!! And I finished with a smile on my face. It was a great day, a good ride and a confidence boost for sure. I rode 97 miles in 5hrs and 30 min. Yippe-ki-ay-mother trucker!

After the ride I ate a brat, drank some beer along with recovery drink (note to self: bad combo), and then we showered up and waited for the bus. Sunday I made up for Saturday and made Trainer pancakes and served them in bed. It was a super fabulous lazy day.

I'm in week 11 of the 12 week tri program for Skees Greets, race is on May 16th. However I'm already in week 3 of my next 12 week program for Couples. Yikes. I guess it's 'ON, like Donkey Kong!' Here's to a good week!