Where have I been?

Wow, it's been over a month since my last blog. I have no idea where the time goes!

So, here's a random sampling of what's been going on for the last month or so.

I took a month off from running because the inside of my right shin had been bothering me since the Spirit of Pittsburgh half-marathon in November. The weather wasn't conducive to running outside anyway, so I figured it would be a good time to put in some extra swimming, trainer cycling, and strength training time. While I wasn't exactly dying to go running outside when it was cold/snowy/icy/dark, I did really start to miss it.

Then... I went to Alaska! Yes, Alaska in January. I got a lot of responses like, "Pittsburgh isn't cold enough for you, so you have to go to Alaska?" John and I were able to get free frequent flier rewards trips to Anchorage, so we went up to visit his family. Actually, for him, it was visiting his family, for me it was meeting his family. We took our skis and did some downhill skiing at Alyeska, which puts any Western PA area skiing to shame!


This is a view from the top of the ski slopes at Alyeska, overlooking the Turnigan Arm of the Cook Inlet.


Me at the top. Unfortunately, it was really overcast this day so the views weren't as good.



View from the mid-lower mountain looking up. I love how this picture turned out!

I had a long list of things I wanted to see in Alaska, including but not limited to: moose, arctic foxes, polar bears, baby polar bears, and baby harp seals. Sadly, most of these animals live far, far away from the areas we were in (ie, they live out in the middle of the tundra). While John and I were skiing at Alyeska, some moose came through his parents' front yard and hung out there all day- go figure! I was bummed out that we missed them and I hoped they would return, but they didn't. Luckily, on my last day there we were driving around, and a moose crossed the road right in front of us. Then we pulled over to take pictures as he munched on some bark (apparently, this is a substantial part of their diet).

It's a small (young) moose, but a moose nonetheless!

The time difference (-4 hours) took some getting used to, as did the sunrise/sunset times: The sun rose around 10am and set around 4pm, and never got very high in the sky. The first day there was pretty chilly and there was an insane wind storm. I've never heard wind so loud, and later found out that the wind was gusting up to 80 mph! Aside from skiing, there isn't much to do in Alaska in January. I got to try cross-country skiing and enjoyed it (unfortunately, the windstorm had blown a lot of tree branches/twigs onto the trails which made it difficult to ski on) and we drove around a good bit to look at the mountains and scenery. John's parents got a Wii for Christmas, so we spent a lot of time just hanging out and playing Wii. I think I went through Wii bowling withdrawal for the first few days after we left...

The frozen Matanuska River and some mountains...

After getting back into Pittsburgh, it was straight back to the regular grind- work and school, blah. (Mostly blah to school.) It's my last semester of school, but senioritis has been in full force. It hasn't helped that my classes have been kind of difficult and my computer doesn't seem to want to load the software needed for the one class. After I finally loaded it, my hard drive crashed. Blah again - only 3 more weeks though, and I'm officially an MBA and done with school!

In mid-January, I finally started running again. I swear, I've never had such an awareness of my shins. I feel like I notice every little twitch/sensation in my right shin because I'm expecting to feel pain there. I did a ridiculously easy (12 min mile pace) 3 mile run after a 10-min walking warmup. I've been meticulously icing it and trying to stretch my calves as much as possible and am hoping the pain stays away. I've been ramping up pace and distance slowly, and did 8 miles last weekend. I was planning to do 10 miles this weekend, but then after the 18-ish inches of snowfall we got on Friday night, I didn't even bother attempting. I could ramble on for a few more paragraphs about the snow, but as it is my bed time, I think I will save that for another day :)

Happy New Year!

Yesterday I was playing around on facebook and saw one of my friends had listed some of the things she'd done in the last decade. I hadn't really given enough thought to 2010 yet to realize it was a new decade (I know, 7+ years of higher education have apparently failed me). So then I started thinking about some of the things I've done in the last decade. 10 years ago, I was a senior in high school, suffering from a major case of senioritis, itching to graduate and move away to college. I think I had decided at that point I wanted to major in either bioengineering or environmental engineering, but the thought stopped there. I think it's pretty impossible at that point in your life to really imagine what you'll really be doing after college and what your life will be like as a grown-up. I was only imagining living on my own, meeting new friends, being able to arrange my class schedule so I could sleep in, having free time in the middle of the day, and going to college parties.

I remember a particular Saturday morning track practice in high school, and seeing a man and woman, probably in their 30's/40's, running around the track. Both were very lean and muscular and in great shape. One of my friends determined they must be marathon runners. I think that was the first time I actually digested what a "marathon" meant - running 26.2 miles. I couldn't understand how or why someone would run that far. If someone had told me on that day that in the next 10 years, I would run 6 marathons, I would've laughed in their face - seriously.

Lately, I've been getting really stressed out about graduating from B-school, figuring out how I want to use my MBA, and (the really big stressor) how I'm going to pay off my student loans. I think it helps to look back on some of the things I've done/accomplished over the last decade and realize that most of these things were similar to the marathons - things I never guessed I would've done 10 years ago. Here are a few things that came to mind...

*Went to college in Dayton, OH, thinking I wanted to go away for college, but then realized pretty quickly I wanted to be closer to home and transferred to Pitt after one semester
*Graduated from Pitt with a bioengineering degree, cum laude
*Went skydiving (this is particularly a noteworthy accomplishment since I'm afraid to go near 90% of the rides at Kennywood!)
*Started cycling and doing bike races
*Starting racing triathlons, including a half-iron
*Registered for an Ironman triathlon
*Traveled to 15 countries, including a 5-week backpacking trip around southeastern Europe
*Toured England by bicycle
*Entered business school at Carnegie Mellon to get my MBA (hopefully the next decade proves this was a good decision; the jury is still out on this one!)

It's good to realize that people and things change, many things aren't what you expect them to be, and that opportunities arise unexpectedly. Here's to what will hopefully be a happy, healthy, successful 2010!

The year is winding down...

I feel like there has not really been much going on lately that is blog-worthy, but here are a few random thoughts:

I've decided to take a few weeks off from running because I've been having some pain in my right shin since the half marathon in November, in the same place I had a stress fracture in high school. I ignored it for awhile, but then finally gave in and decided it would be in my best interest to take a break. It's weird not running, but considering how cold/snowy it has been, I'm content to stick with swimming or indoor trainer riding. I don't know what has happened, but I am starting to actually like my trainer! And I'd rather take the time off now than in the spring or summer. I've also been putting more time into weight training- hopefully that will make up for the lack of running in some way. I've been a major weight training slacker for the past 2 years, but I'm trying to do 2-3 days a week of sit-ups, push-ups, lunges, squats, and various arm work.

On Saturday I rode my bike outside for the first time since Thanksgiving weekend, which was a nice treat! It was in the low 40's and sunny with little wind. Between my work trip to San Diego and the cold/snow/minimal-day-light, I was pretty much confined to the trainer for the last month. It was great to ride outside again, and I was pleasantly surprised that I felt pretty good. My powertap data showed that I was actually putting out more power than I had been in Sept/Oct when I was riding outdoors more often. (Yay! The trainer interval workouts must be doing something!)

I want to go skiing. I will go skiing in Alaska in 2 weeks, but I want to go skiing now.

That is all :)

On a Whim

Yesterday I competed in my first swim meet in 13 years - how's that for random?

It started when I went to a USMS (US Masters Swimming) clinic on Saturday at Duquesne University. I consider myself to have generally good technique in the water, but since efficiency is SO important in swimming, this seemed like a good opportunity to see where I could improve. There were only 3 people attending the clinic, and 2 coaches, so I was able to get a lot of attention on improving my freestyle stroke. Among the things I learned I need to improve on were rotating my hips and shoulders together (apparently I was rotating them but not together; hence a "wiggly" effect); keep my legs closer together when kicking; and not do a "windmill" with my arm when breathing to the side. All good things to keep in mind to work on!

The coaches told me there was a meet the following day and encouraged me to participate, even if only in one event. My immediate reply- But I haven't done a swim meet in 13 years. Their reply- It will be a low-key, laid-back meet and would be a good meet for you. You should do it. Ok, I was sold.

I took a race entry form home with me and debated which events to enter. I wanted to do the 50 and 100 yard freestyle races for sure. I settled on adding the 50 yard backstroke and 100 yard Individual Medley (IM), even though I had never raced backstroke or IM in my competitive swimming years. The 100 butterfly, which I regularly swam as a teenager, did not even come into consideration for this meet. I'd be lucky if I could manage the 25 yards of it in the IM! It's so sad how those muscles atrophy...

The meet was delayed because of an ice storm that had passed through. When I showed up, there were only a handful of other swimmers. When we went to get in the water for warm-up, my first observation was that I was the only one wearing a "regular" racing-style swimsuit. Everyone else had either full- or half- body swimsuit/speedsuit things... like the ones they wear in the Olympics these days. Uh oh. Were these people that hardcore, or have the swim suit trends changed that much since I last competed? Luckily, a few more people showed up and they on regular suits too. Whew.

My first event was the 50 yard backstroke, which went pretty well, considering I've never done a backstroke-start under meet conditions and I've never done a backstroke flip-turn under meet conditions either. My next event was the 100 yard IM. Like the backstroke, I had never raced this before so I didn't have an old time to compare it to. (Unlike the backstroke, this was my first diving-block start in 13 years. I'm sure it wasn't pretty- I felt like I was smacking my face on the water which shouldn't be the case. But at least my goggles stayed on!) I had a short break and then had the 100 free and 50 free back to back. The 100 free brought a nice surprise - I set a PR by about 10 seconds! Good to see that in one aspect, my swimming has improved since I was 15 :) I didn't have much time to rest going into the 50, but I ended up swimming 2 seconds slower than my PR from my competitive days - probably not too shabby and I'm guessing some of that can be blamed on my less-than-stellar start. After that, I found out they were putting a 4 x 50 yard relay together and I was swimming on that too. Let's just say that I have some sore arms today - mostly the outside of my upper arms (Deltoids, I think?).

I'm not looking to start competing in Masters' swim meets on a regular basis, but it was a different and fun way to spend a Sunday. And it's definitely good to see that I have made some progress in swimming since I got into triathlon. Hopefully I can learn to incorporate the feedback I got from the clinic into my swimming and see more progress in the future.

My alarm goes off for an early morning workout and...

...I think of every excuse in the book to hit snooze or reset my alarm for a later time. At 5:00 or 6:00am, I am barely awake enough to stumble to my alarm on the opposite of my bedroom, yet somehow I am ingeniously creative at coming up with reasons I should go back to sleep and postpone or skip an early morning workout. Typically, these early morning epiphanies are along the lines of "I didn't get enough sleep last night, I won't have a quality workout, I should catch up on sleep instead so I'll be more rested and will have a productive day at work/school and a better workout tomorrow."

Here's a random sample from this week:

11/16/09, 5:00am: Alarm goes off for masters' swim practice. I sit up in bed and think that since I didn't go to sleep until after 11, at most, I got 6 hours of sleep, which is not enough. Then I realize my shoulder feels a bit funny. Like I slept on it wrong. Still sitting up in bed, I do freestyle stroke in mid-air. My shoulder/bicep do not like the motion- something hurts. I contemplate going to masters and think that maybe swimming will losen it up. Or, I'll drag myself out of bed to go to masters and then it will hurt and I'll end up doing kickboarding for the entire practice which would be pure torture for me. I convince myself sleep is the better option since I have a full day at work followed by 3 hours of class, reset my alarm, and go back to sleep til 7:30.

11/17/09, 6:15am: Alarm goes off for morning run. I lay in bed and listen to it for a minute or two, then re-calculate how much time it will really take me to do an hour run and still be at work by 8:30. I hit snooze and curl up in bed again.
6:25am: Alarm goes off again. I look outside. Is it really this dark at 6:25? Shouldn't the sun be rising by now? The sun is nowhere in sight. My bed is so cozy and warm. I didn't get as much sleep as I wanted to last night either, so maybe I should postpone my run to lunchtime or after work. Yeah, that's what I'll do. Reset alarm to 7:15. (To my credit, I did squeeze in a 45 min. run over my lunch break!)

Tomorrow: I will get up for my 6am trainer ride. I will get up for my 6am trainer ride. I will, I will...

Am I losing my mind?

I just registered for Ironman Louisville - August 29, 2010!!! We'll see when the reality of it really hits :)

Lessons learned from the 2009 season

My season has been officially over for a little over a week now. Now it's time to look back and see what I've learned from my races...

ToTC: Look at the course elevation profile before you sign up for something. Or that something might end up being 'one of the ten toughest road races in the US'. Hearing other people say 'oh, that course has some really tough hills' is not quite the same as later finding out that there is 5 mile, 2000' climb at the end of the course.

Pittsburgh Marathon: Don't tie your shoes too tightly! I'm well aware that marathoners aren't supposed to tie their shoes too tightly because feet swell during the race. But yet, I remember waiting at the start line for the marathon, thinking that my shoes ought to be not only tighter but double-knotted. (I'm blaming it on nerves.) Around mile 22ish I vaguely remember thinking my foot felt a bit constrained, maybe a little uncomfortable. Not painful though, so I ignored it. As I got closer to the finish, my foot became more and more uncomfortable, though still not painful. I crossed the finish line, I got my medal, recovery drinks and snacks and sat down to stretch and untie my shoes. As soon as I stood up, I realized something was wrong - If I put any weight on my foot, a shooting pain went across the highest part of the bridge of my foot between my big toe and my ankle. Uh oh. I hobbled back to my car, went home, and took a shower, waiting for the pain to subside. It didn't. I debated going to the ER, trying to figure out if it is somehow possible to get a stress fracture from running 26 miles in a too-tight shoe. I talked to one of my friends who is a doctor and he advised me to "RICE" - rest, ice, compression, elevation. He said it sounded like I had probably compressed some nerves/tendons and it was just aggrevated. He guessed it would be back to normal in a day or two. Wrapping it with an ace bandage did help a lot, but it still took about 4 days before I could comfortably put weight on it.

Also, it is not a good idea to race a crit 2 days after a full marathon. Even if you have a season pass and the crit race is already paid for and you want to race and your friends think you should race and you think you might feel up to it... Everything will hurt, you will not go as fast as you know you are capable of, you will get frustrated, and you will be even more tired/sore than you were before. Your body needs to recover!

Spirit of Morgantown Triathlon: If you lend your helmet to your boyfriend (or anyone else for that matter), be sure to re-fit it to your head before T1. It is not a nice feeling to rush into transition from the swim, put the helmet on, and realize it's sized for your boyfriend's head. I had to fumble with the adjustment straps for a minute or two to get it re-sized.

Triathlon is awesome. While I really enjoyed training and racing the last two summers, I feel like my interest has turned into an obsession/addiction after training for and completing this race.

And, it is not a good idea to race a crit 2 days after a half ironman. See very similar lesson after Pittsburgh Marathon above. Apparently, I like to learn my lessons the hard way. There is no such thing as a "recovery crit". I need to start taking recovery time more seriously.

Portage Lakes Triathlon: I almost missed my wave while warming up because I wasn't wearing my watch. Must pay more attention/wear a watch!

To be continued... maybe... if I think of anything else to add ;)