we didn't start the fire

I haven't slept well for the past 4 nights. Sometimes this happens to me. I'm not a great sleeper, but once in a while I literally CAN'T sleep at all. Eventually I get tired enough and it stops happening. Yesterday at work it was all I could do to stay awake and then run errands after work. By 9 pm I was practically passing out on top of my laptop at home. I went to bed, hoping to god that I could FINALLY get a good night of sleep. What happens? I am woken up at 1 am by the smell of smoke.

I immediately got out of bed and checked my apartment. (Highly unlikely - I barely use my stove and don't use my oven.. EVER). Then I opened a window to see if it was coming from outside. Nope. By this point, I had started to panic because house fires are pretty much my #1 fear. My brain started going through a mental list of what I would grab on my way out: Cat. Will I be able to stuff her in the carrier in time? Macbook. Because my whole life is on that thing. Purse. It has my cell phone and all of my vital information. Ironman finisher's medal. Because I am a freak. Bike. Might be too big. Ironman finisher's shirt. OK now you're just being ridiculous.

Before going into flight mode, I went down the back stairwell to see if I could locate the source of the smoke. The guys on the first floor were still up. I knocked on their door. Turns out, a towel caught on fire in their apartment. Don't ask me how. They opened the door and all 3 of them were hanging out, shirtless. It was 1 am. I don't ask questions. I do wonder why their smoke detector didn't go off. That scares me.

Sleeping was pretty much fruitless after that. I was wired. So here I am again, exhausted, only to come into work and find out that I have to work 12 hours today because our evening guy called in sick and I have to stay late to cover half of his shift. The bad news: I'm really, really tired and it's going to be busy. The good news: 4 hours of overtime is a lot of extra money. Hopefully this gets straightened out by tomorrow - either someone else takes over evenings for the rest of the week, or the evening guy calls in ahead of time so I can work 11-7 instead of 7-7.

As much as I dislike having to do overtime, I'm looking at it as a chance to put some extra money into my Ironman fund. This only happens once in a while, and at least I don't have any workouts to try to squeeze in. I can work, go home, watch NCIS, and go to bed. Everything else can wait until tomorrow.

too much pie!

I had a pretty good, relaxing weekend!

Yesterday I mostly laid around, did a very small amount of cleaning, and rode my horse! Today, my legs and thighs are KILLING me from the riding! Cherry was nutso as per usual, however she started out pretty calm but then quickly turned into the she-devil that I'm more familiar with. I still love her though. She's such a good girl - even though she's bad! Cherry had her very warm winter blanket on when I got to the barn. It's been getting pretty chilly and rainy out at night so the barn staff put her blanket on her, but she's pretty furry with her winter coat and she definitely doesn't need to be wearing that blanket yet - it was 60 degrees out! I am going to buy her a lighter, waterproof turnout sheet for this in-between weather. Between the blanket and the new uniform, goodbye to my next paycheck! She also needs a new halter because hers broke! I think I will go for a hot pink one this time (her last one was purple). She looks adorable in girly colors!

My parents came today for a visit. They got here at about 1 pm. They brought me a new cat carrier for Fiona (hers broke when she was at the vet and I had to borrow one from them to take her home), an entire pumpkin pie (!!!!) and some chocolate. Then we went out to lunch and we went to L.L. Bean. My mom bought me a shirt! It was fun.

Also, I have just started watching Glee (I am netflixing it) and I LOVE IT! I am really into singing, musical theatre, and music in general. If they had a glee club or show choir at my high school I would have totally been involved. But.. in a high school with 300 people total, that just doesn't happen. People already had to play multiple sports year round just to fill the rosters. I ran cross country and track, was in band (both concert and marching), chorus, and was in a musical production one year. And there were a lot of people that were as involved or even more involved than I was.

But.. I love watching Glee!

And.. can people please come help me eat this entire pumpkin pie?!

my poor hamstring

So I have a few things to blog about that are actually triathlon related!

Today I had my 6th trip (I think??) to the chiropractor. Kenny, the chiropractor, has been doing a variety of things to my hamstring, glute, and hip flexor including ART, ultrasound, and Graston. While I am fairly optimistic that this treatment WILL help me, it has succeeded in making my hamstring more sore than it was before all of this nonsense. Today was my first foray into Graston since.. 2001 when I had it done on my ankle because of tendonitis. And my memory was correct - it HURTS. Actually, it REALLY F-ING HURTS!

I was lying facedown on the table and he was flexing my hamstring and rubbing the stainless steel Graston tool along the grain of my muscle. You wouldn't think it would hurt but it really, really does. You can feel the tool scraping against the scar tissue. It's making me cringe just thinking about it right now! He said to me, "I can tell you're in pain when I hear the crinkling of the paper." There is a paper thing under the headrest of the table - I'm assuming for sanitation purposes, and while he was doing the Graston I was cramming my head as far into the table as I could. Seriously, I need a leather strap to bite on or something. It's just awful. My hamstring is now KILLING me. But if it helps, then I don't care! I think next weekend he is going to send me on a run to test it out, and hopefully I will be ok to do some short runs because my off-season is over in 10 days!

Tuesday morning, Mary dragged me out of bed to swim at 8 am. Yes, I know, I'm lazy, but I worked until 11:15 pm.. so I think I'm allowed to not like getting up at 7 am the next morning! We went to her super swanky gym where there is a heated, outdoor pool that is still open in mid-October! I was skeptical that it wouldn't really be that warm, but it was sooooo nice to be swimming outside, in the morning, in freaking October! I would say I swam for about 45 minutes and then she taped me using an underwater video camera thingy, which will get analyzed this weekend! I really don't even want to see it. I hadn't swam in weeks, I was tired after 10 minutes, and I don't think my swim form is great to begin with. Plus, swimsuits are not flattering. Period. Every time I saw her with the camera, I started laughing.. while swimming.. so I'm sure that the video just looks absolutely ridiculous. But then we sat in the hot tub which made up for the embarrassing swim video.

Our machine is down at work so we are really, really slow this week. Last night I had one thing to do. The most exciting part of my night was when my coworker left his cell phone on his desk and I had to take it out to him at the gate at like 8 pm because he didn't want to come inside. Tonight I have one thing to do as well. I'm hoping that tomorrow (Friday) my supervisor will let me come in on days instead of evenings because it's pointless to be sitting at work on Friday night with nothing to do. I'm hoping to work 8-4 or so (it's hard to work evenings on Thursday and then get up and go into work at 7 am on Friday.. 8 is more feasible). It's not that I have any fun activities planned for Friday night (I never plan anything on Fridays when I'm on an evening shift).. it just makes the weekend longer when I don't have to spend Friday evening at work.

So that's that! 10 days left of being a lazy blob! I am almost excited to start training again. Almost, but not quite. :)

Halloween means pumpkin time!

Thank you to everyone who commented and left words of encouragement on yesterday's blog post. I read them all and I really appreciate it. It is something that I am going to consider, most likely not for 2011 but probably for 2012. Sometimes I get a little too excited about something and I forget to fully think it through. I have 2 Ironmans to fund next year, and they both require travel. I want to make changes in my life but I want to go about it the right way, and not use the "I'm excited and I want to do this NOW" half-assed Alexa method.

I deleted the blog entry after thinking about it for a while - you can never be too careful with what you say on the internet. I can talk about my personal life as much as I want but when I start talking about other people or sensitive situations, I cannot forget that I have absolutely NO IDEA who reads this blog. When I google my name and this blog pops up on the first page, I need to be careful. Seriously, if you read and you are not a follower or a commenter, introduce yourself (this is an invitation, not a threat haha)!

Anyways, I had a fun weekend full of uniform fittings, seeing friends, carving pumpkins, and watching scary movies.

We are ordering new uniforms through Louis Garneau for Train-This. I am excited about this! I love racing in a team kit but I don't love the current ones that we have (they are made by Champ-Sys). The uniforms look great and fit fine but they do not breath well, so wearing that uniform on a hot day during an Ironman would not be pleasant. The new uniforms will look very similar to the old ones, but the quality should be better. The problem with ordering uniforms is trying to figure out what sizes to get. Even with a fit kit that LG sent us, it's still difficult, at least for me. I am very short but curvy and clothes tend to not fit me well. I tried on a small top and that fit great, but the small shorts were a little too big. (Someone please explain this to me because I am definitely smaller on top than I am on bottom....). Unfortunately, we did not get XS shorts with the fit kit so I am just hoping to god that they aren't too small. We did that Saturday morning at a bagel place so it was nice seeing members of the team that I haven't seen in a while!

Saturday afternoon I drove to Syracuse for a Halloween-themed visit with Ultra Adam. We picked up 2 pumpkins at one of those country roadside stands where you pay using the honor system (which we honored!). Then we stopped at Wegmans in order to get carving tools and some food and he was pissed that all of the pumpkins outside of Wegmans were cheaper, bigger, clean, and perfectly round. Personally, I prefer the slightly misshapen and muddy country pumpkins - the Wegmans pumpkins are probably genetically modified freaks of nature because they all looked identical!



Here are the finished products! mine is on the left!

 I haven't carved a pumpkin in many years. Now I remember why. Cleaning out the inside of the pumpkin is gross. By the time I was done doing that I was tired of pumpkins. And I didn't want to use one of the premade stencils that came with the carving tools so I tried to draw my own.. which I did.. with some help from google images on my Ipod touch. I can draw pretty well but I cannot draw using my imagination so I always have to look at something. Good for sketching still-lifes, bad for trying to design a pumpkin using only my god-given creativity which is nonexistent. We finished them, lit them up, took some photos, and then promptly blew out the candles so we wouldn't burn the house down.

Then we watched a scary movie, which I will ONLY do if I am not alone or not returning to an empty apartment, and Adam thought it was funny to periodically poke me and scare me even more. So thanks for that. It actually wasn't that scary of a movie.. I need to watch classic scary movies such as Psycho or The Shining that I have somehow gone 26 years without seeing (probably because I am terrified of watching scary movies).

Now I am back to work on evenings for the rest of the week with nothing exciting in sight except for swimming with Mary tomorrow morning, another chiropractor appointment later in the week, and a potential visit from my parents!

I am still not working out! 2 weeks til off-season comes to an end and I will be required to get up off my couch.. 2 weeks and counting!

next time, I'll wear shorts

Today (well technically Wednesday) was the day of my first ever chiropractor appointment! I slept until 3:30 pm or so and then had to get moving so I could get to my appointment at 4:45. I saw Kim in the parking lot because she had an appointment with the same guy at 3:45! She has new pink K-Swiss running sneakers and I am jealous.

After I made the appointment last week I asked Kim a crucial question. Will I need to remove my pants for this appointment? (Since my problem area is my upper hamstring). She said that she had never had to so I just wore warm-up pants.

First question I'm asked by the doctor. Are you wearing shorts under your pants? Um, no. Sorry! Guess I'm taking off my pants and wearing that cool looking gown instead. Note to self: wear less inappropriate underwear next time. Scratch that, wear shorts next time. Because I wound up lying on this table thing on my stomach, wearing a sexy blue hospital gown, heating pads on my butt and upper legs, underwear riding up, praying to god that the young, cute chiropractor does not look at my ass.

Apparently I am known for my love of no-pants situations (which is true), however these are generally in the comfort of my apartment and not in public with cute doctors.

Anyways..

This guy specializes in A.R.T. (active release technique) and Graston Techniques. The first one is a soft tissue massage technique used to get rid of scar tissue and smooth out muscle tissue (at least from what he explained to me and what I researched after the appointment because I'm a NERD). I had never had this done before but I have heard of it. The second one is massage with the use of stainless steel tools, used to stimulate blood flow and get rid of scar tissue. Unfortunately, I HAVE had this done a long time ago on my ankle when I had tendinitis, and it hurts like a bitch.

He did some massaging to find out where the tightness was occurring in my leg. He did some range of motion tests and some stretching. Crazily enough, the weird tingling that I've been getting in my toes on my right foot is DIRECTLY related to this hamstring thing.

After he did his range of motion tests and massage and whatnot, he deduced that I am having issues with my glute and my hamstring. What I think happened was that last year I pulled my hip flexor while training for the Philly Marathon. It hurt but I could still run, so I ran through it. Eventually the pain went away but I then developed a soreness in my butt when I would run (by this point it was winter and I was doing some hilly snowshoe running which REALLY bothered it). Apparently, the hamstring is there to help out the glutes - the glute is a primary extensor muscle and the hamstring is a secondary extensor muscle (the glute extensor is paired with the hip flexor meaning they work opposite of each other). I guess the change in my running gait or whatever to compensate for these sore muscles affected my hamstring and effectively was too much for it, which is why it is now really sore. This is all theory, but I told him what kind of niggling injuries I've had over the past year and that is how he explained it to me, and it makes sense to me!

Today he did some ART and this is how we discovered that the toes tingling is linked to the hamstring. He would do some massage-y thing to my hamstring and my toes would immediately start to tingle, it was nuts! I never knew if they were related, or if my sneakers were bothering my foot for some odd reason, but it's definitely the hamstring! Thank god because the tingling was starting to really freak me out! I was instructed to go home and ice my hamstring because it would be irritated and inflamed, so I did. It is now quite sore.

I'm going back for another appointment on Friday. Next week starts the Graston...

I am very optimistic about this treatment! The appointment was not at all hokey like I had imagined these things to be, where a chiropractor is trying to crack my back, etc. It seemed like a legitimate sports medicine solution to my problem. We will see. He said he should know within 4 sessions whether or not he'll be able to help me.

I am also very interested in stuff like this, clue #348957348573 that I should have continued on with my schooling for physical therapy instead of stopping with the biology degree.

But.. c'est la vie.

lazy blob-girl off-season

My off-season = blehhhhhhh. I have been so so SO lazy!

My motivation is still MIA.

I guess this is the purpose of taking an off-season - am I right? To rejuvenate and get excited for next season. I think you know that it's time for the off-season to be over when you start getting antsy to train. That feeling.. is not there yet for me.

Currently, I feel lazy, sluggish, and a lot like the blob. Even with the accompanying guilt, I do not feel like working out. I have relished sleeping for 10 hours a night and clocking quality time on my couch. I do not miss the extra load of laundry per week. My cat is now even more clingy with me since I am constantly at home with her. (Although I will admit that I like when my clingy cat crawls all over me because I feel loved!) :) My appetite is FINALLY decreasing. My urine is no longer fluorescent yellow. My friends know what I look like again. My daily wardrobe has improved (slightly) from running shorts and a sports bra to jeans and a hoodie (heh). I am catching up on the 2 newest seasons of Dexter! I might have even gotten over my disgust of Gatorade that resulted from 238475893475 bottles of Gatorade being consumed from January through September! I still don't want to look at a Gu Chomp though..

I need something to fondly look back on in May/June and then again in August when I am at peak weekly training hours for the 2 Ironmans that I stupidly decided to register for. (I hear that Ironman year 2 with coach Mary Eggers is at a whole new level.. I'm psyched!) I need to keep in mind that halfway through my season next year I will be DYING for a lazy month of off-season.

If I were to keep training right through the end of the year.. I would be screwed for next year. I've been burnt out since Placid and if this is what my body and my mind need in order to get me ready for a huge (well, huge for me at least) year next year, then I'll be ok for a little while as a lazy blob-girl.. I might even secretly enjoy it! And potentially may carve a Homer Simpson-esque ass groove into my couch while I'm at it.

Cheers!

crossing over to the dark side

I have done the unthinkable. After battling with a hamstring "niggle" for well over a year which has failed to go away even with several weeks of complete rest, I caved and made an appointment with a chiropractor. I do not believe in chiropractors or "alignments" or any of that nonsense. However, I have heard that this guy that I made an appointment with is a miracle worker. When I emailed Mary about my hamstring niggle I got a slap on the wrist for not telling her about it sooner and then a recommendation to Greater Rochester Chiropractic Group!

I am having a whole slew of issues with my right leg. Currently I have a deep soreness in my hamstring that flares up when I sit for a lengthy amount of time (such as driving), bend my leg, and run. Yeah - that's a problem. I also have had this weird tingling in my right foot that I've had since partway through my Ironman training. And now my right ankle is starting to bother me which could be a flare up of some lovely tendinitis. So I need to get this shit under control now. Hence me violating my belief system which includes real doctors and not chiropractors! But many, many teammates swear by this guy so I am going in with an open mind and hoping to god he can help me!

I am slowly trying to get back into it!

I cannot even begin to explain how bummed I was that Chrissie pulled out of Kona on Saturday. I was geared up and ready to watch her dominate the field. I absolutely LOVE Chrissie and honestly I don't really follow any other pros besides her. So when I found out that she wasn't racing, it basically killed my desire to watch Kona. I streamed it to my laptop and then hooked it up to my TV via some crazy wire that my dad got me last year and basically had it playing while I napped on and off on a very, very lazy Saturday. I started paying attention again during the last miles of the run because that's really the interesting part.

And because I can't go a week without some type of over-sharing about my life..

I am really fed up with how I handle things in my personal life. I am very sensitive and tend to take things way too personally. Therefore, my mood is directly affected by what other people say to me or how they treat me (or how I interpret them treating me). If someone is having a bad day and they snap at me, it will literally upset me for the rest of the day (this could be a friend, coworker, anyone). If someone ignores me because they are busy, I get offended. (Do you see a trend in how ridiculous this is?). And god forbid if I am actually fighting with someone, I can't focus on anything else. I have been known to cry after a crappy workout, or a stressful day at work, or a bad grade (like.. a B --> I'm a freak). Trouble letting go? ... never.  I know I am like this, it sucks, and I hate it. I need to CHILL OUT. So far my ideas on dealing with it better are to: smoke some weed, take Valium, go to therapy, ???????. Perhaps yoga.

*Just kidding about doing any drugs, mom and dad! :)

Shockingly, right now I am in a great mood which is a big relief after just being bummed out for no legitimate reason for a while. And I had a HORRIBLE night at work (like.. worst night of work ever) Sunday night and I think that was my breaking point, because the stressful night on top of being upset just wasn't working out very well. Today (or yesterday for all you normal people who sleep at night) I talked to a good friend, ate some Chipotle for dinner, cuddled with my cat, and watched some YouTube videos of cute kittens! And I made the executive decision to chill the f- out.. now I just have to execute.