12 August 2006

It is Saturday right????

It is 5:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning. Now Saturday is really the only morning I get to sleep in a little, 6 vs 5. Mz Nals went to the vet yesterday and was a little dopey last night from the anesthetize. Around 3:00 a.m. she started whining like she was in pain. I'm wondering, even though she was asleep yesterday, if the manipulation of her legs caused some lasting pain and soreness. So she whines, I go to her and comfort her, I leave. A few minutes later she whines again. Do you think I'm being manipulated??? She wouldn't do that would she???

11 August 2006

Now what???

This morning was Nala's appointment with the vet.

I got up early and headed out to the pool so I could get my swim in before I had to take her in. It was a good, though abbreviated swim. I was working on muscle endurance today so there was lots of short distances with little rest in between; like 6 x 50 with :15 RI. I was fun and hard and I'm glad I'm pushing myself like that. Now that I've kind of got the stroke thing down I need to work on speed and endurance. I don't have my workout with me but it went something like this:
400 warmup: 100 swim, 100 kick, 100 drills, 100 swim 21:00 ( why did that take so long??? Am I that slow kicking??)
4 x 100 :15 RI: 2:16, 2:22, 2:21, 2:24
300 pull: 7:05
And due to time constraints that ended it. Those 100's are pathetic. I was much faster earlier in the year. I guess I need to get real serious again and swim 3 x a week, every single week.

Okay, so Nala went to the vet for x-rays. Turns out she has severe arthritis in her hips. She has some arthritis in her knees but not too bad. It's possible she has a partially ruptured ACL on the left side but the doc could not get consistent results so he's not sold on that. Also, if she does it's not her major problem. This whole thing was double edged sword but now I feel like we ended up on the wrong edge. If she had a ruptured ACL it would have cost a ton of money but they could have done surgery and fixed it. Since it's arthritis there's not much to do except manage her pain for the rest of her life. That means she probably be on Rimydal forever. She also take glucosamine/chondroin every day. He also wants to put her on Adequan. This is an injection that's given at first 2 x a week for a month, then every 4 to 6 weeks depending on how she does. Apparently this is the building blocks of cartlidge (I have all the scientific names and procdures and as a science geek find it fascinating, but I'll spare you:) and also acts as an antiinflammatory. So it reduces damages and helps repair it - cool. Luckily, rather than take her in 2x a week, they will show me how to give her the injections myself.

I'm sad because she's going to be like this the rest of her life and it may in fact shorten her life. She's only 8 years old. I figure we have a good 4-7 more years with her. I'm also sad because she loves to go out and it's hard to take her out when she's in pain. I can't walk her. After 1/2 mile she just stops walking, that's it, she's done. Ugh!! My baby!!!! Things will be okay. This Adequan will help her and things will be fine. God, I can be so gloomy sometimes!!!!

Okay, that's it. I have work to do cause I need to get out of here so I can retrieve Nala from the vets.

09 August 2006

It's all about the

swim. And what a great one I had this morning.

Okay, after Mon nights letdown with Masters I decided I needed a new direction. What I was looking for is a workout. I haven't really had structured workouts for my swimming and I think that was part of the problem. I was getting bored and I hated having to think, Okay, what do I do now. So yesterday I went looking around to see if I could find some good swim workouts. The ones I found were not great, so I stopped by the bookstore on the way home and found this:





It's a whole bunch of different types of swim workouts, endurance, force, speed, form, in a water proof binder that you can use poolside. The workouts also go with the Triathletes Training Bible. How sweet.

So last night I figured out where I was going to start and picked out my workout. This morning I headed off to the pool with my little binder in hand.







So the workout went like this: Warm up: 200m (various slow strokes): 5:38
2 x 200 (50 swim, 100 kick, 50 swim): 5:54, 6:05
400, 300, 200, 100 (:20 RI): 9:56, 7:31. 4:51, 2:20
300, 200: 7:22, 4:57
Cool down: 50m breast stroke: 2:03

This was not the entire workout, it's all I had time for. So I ended up with 2150m in 1 hour. Okay, not pretty but it was a good workout. Doing these laps with a specific rest interval really pushes me. So overall I'm very pleased with this morning and really looking forward to Friday.

08 August 2006

Data Dump

It's amazing what a little focus will do for you. After I wrote my last post I went out and did my little bootcamp. It's strength training with running/jumping rope between sets. I really love doing that. It takes me about 30-40 minutes, I get a full body workout and I always feel great when done. Then I went for a 30 minute HR run. I've decided to focus on HR for the next 4 to 6 weeks. I need to focus on getting stronger and faster. Then yesterday I got up early and did a 45 minute HR run. Pretty good.

Last night I went to Masters for the first time. Ummm.....yeah..... I'm not sure what I expected but that wasn't it. Basically she just gave us a workout and that was it. We ended up doing about 2000m in a little over an hour. I just kept thinking I could do this at the Y in the morning, why do I need to come here at night??? There was no feedback of any kind and the person in my lane was slower than me and I had to keep waiting for them. How annoying. So that was a bust and I won't be going back.

This morning was bootcamp again followed by a 30 minute bike ride. I found a nice little loop right near my house that only takes about 10 minutes but is a nice little hill. Not too steep or long, I can stay within my HR and climb it. Sweet.

So, since Masters didn't work out I have to revamp my training schedule. I'm going to swim Mon, Wed, Fri mornings as this is what I need to work on most. I will run Mon and Wed nights and Sunday. I will do weights Tues, Thurs, and Sun, and bike on Tues, Thurs, and Sat. That way I do every discipline 3x a week. Friday will be my "rest" day in that I will only swim. Every night I will do 100 crunches and stretching. I'm excited and pumped again. It's really amazing how getting a few good workouts in really changes my attitude.

I have decided to do the Honolulu Marathon again this year. My goal is to train smart, not bonk at mile 15 and break 5 hours. I think that's a very respectable and doable goal. There is approx. 20 weeks until the marathon and I think I can do it. I am not joining the group I did last year because I've decided I don't like the way he trains. Before I joined that group I was running 10k in 1:05. After it was taking me 1:30, yeah, something wrong there.

Okay, that's enough. Off to work.

06 August 2006

WHAT DO YOU REALLY WANT????????

First, have I ever mentioned that I can be a slow learner??? Most things I pick up pretty quickly, but there are some things it just takes me forever to really learn.

One thing I have learned is that I need to visit this question frequently. I'm thinking once a week. Probably every Sunday which is my planning day anyway. I will dwell on what it is I want this week and focus on that. I have the big picture from a previous post so there's no need to revisit that.

Okay, what do you want this week???
I want to get my eating back on track. I've been eating junk for a couple of days and I really feel like sh*t.

What will you do towards that end?
I will make sure I have good, healthy food for the entire week. I will go to the store to get what I need. I will plan my meals everyday and stick to my plan.

Anything else?
Yes, I need to get more focus in my training. I've been floundering around this week and I don't like it.

How will you do that?
Today I will lay out training for this week and I will stick to it. Once I get a few good sessions under my belt I'm pretty much set. I also have to focus on my next goal, the Na Wahine Sprint Tri. I'm good with the swim and the bike, I need to work on the run.

What else?
I think that will do for this week. Work on my improving my eating and getting more consistency in my training. That should carry me for the week.

Conversation with Hubby

 So yesterday morning I presented my idea of working out at home to the Hubby. Once I presented it to him, he said he was in. I told him I h...