Snow, snow, and then more snow!

This was the view I had this morning after opening the garage door.  I had just gotten back from the airport (dropping my husband off for his flight to Arizona).  Wow - what a lot of snow!  But I'm leaving tomorrow for Fort Myers, Florida!  My friend, Diane, invited me to stay at her house in FLA for 3 days, and I said YES!  I'm looking forward to some sunshine, warmth and a few days of running in shorts. 

Today's workout was a 2 hour spin while watching "Amelia" (not a very good movie, by the way).  But while I was spinning, my sister called and said come on over and we'll go snow shoeing in her backyard.  It was beautiful!  Her house backs up to woods, and we snow shoed thru the freshly fallen snow with her 2 dogs.  If the snow holds out, we're going to go again next Saturday. 

It's amazing what my sister and I have gone thru over the past couple of years - and where we are today.  When I was first diagnosed, I wondered (and worried) about what the future would be like.  And here we are today, laughing while walking thru the woods (after I fell while I was trying to take pictures with my cell phone) and not having a care in the world.  Life is good.

PSS - Mark - if you read this - I miss you already and you've only been gone since 7 this morning.  My run tomorrow morning won't be the same without you!

Today's swim

Well, I have to say that I usually don't enjoy my swim's (coach Scott - if you read this, don't be mad...).  I do enjoy swimming in the lake, which is why I enjoy swimming during races.  But swimming in the pool is just so monotonous.  But today's swim was actually fun!  I had to do a 1500 yard time trial, so that my coach could note the time and see if I improve over the next few months.  Swimming 1500 yards straight is hard, and I tried it about a week ago.  After getting interrupted to share my lane, sharing with someone swimming the breast stroke, and having a foot cramp, I logged over 30 minutes for my 1500 yards (32 to be exact).  Not good at all!  But today - Mark decided he would do my workout with me.  That made all the difference.  Having someone sharing my workout just made it so much better!  He did the 500 warmup with me and then swam the 1500 yard time trial.  He didn't stick with me, but swam his own pace.  That helped, as I could try to keep up with him and speed up a little.  I ended up cutting 3 minutes off my time from last week!!  Today's swim gave me some confidence that my swim times are actually improving.  As I train for Ironman Lake Placid, days like today are great for confidence builders.  Thank you, Mark, for helping me thru the swim today! 

Another nice quote

"Sometimes all it takes is for us to stand back from ourselves for a moment so that we can see our blessings and be content"

Nice quote about life

I read this quote today by Roger Ebert, and thought it was worth posting ...

I believe that if, at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do.
To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts.
We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn’t always know this, and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.

Race report for Valentine's Day 2010

Valentine's Day 2010 Race Report
Mark and I decided to celebrate Valentine's Day this year by getting up early (6:30 AM), driving for over an hour to the east side, and running a trail run in the beautiful North Chagrin metroparks.  We both signed up for the 15K, but after crossing the 2 mile mark with a time of about 25 minutes (due to the deep snow and hills, I was just not used to this type of running!), I told Mark to go ahead & finish the 15K on his own and I would just do 1 loop.  After all, we had to be in Beachwood for a team triathlon before noon, and I was seriously worried about whether I could make it or not.  I have NEVER run that slow before, and underestimated the effect all that snow could have on my run.  Mark said he figured out the trick - just RUN FASTER.  That way, your feet aren't on the ground long enough to slip!  Anyway, I finished the 5 mile loop in a little over an hour and waited for Mark with a cup of hot chocolate.  Mark did pretty well once he figured out the trick to running in the snow.  We didn't hang out long at all, but jumped in the car for the 15 min drive to our indoor triathlon.  Our friend, Mike, was waiting for us.  The team tri worked like this - Mike would swim for 15 minutes and a timer would log how far he got in that 15 min.  We then had 10 min for transition, and Mark would hop on a spinner and log how far he could get in 20 min.  The problem here was each rider did not have the option to change the tension on the bike.  So Mark was literally "spinning" - very high cadence with no tension for 20 min.  Then we had a 10 min transition, and it was my turn to run on the indoor track - as far as I could get in 20 minutes.  I ended up doing 33 laps at an average pace of about 7:45 per mile.  It was actually a lot of fun, and great to see Mike, his wife Marjan, and their 2 kids (Luke & Julia).  We haven't seen them since the summer, so it was nice to catch up!  We got home in time to get ready for our dinner at Salmon Dave's - a nice end to a really nice day!  Happy Valentine's Day! 

One year ago

After I posted the info about the trail run tomorrow, I just had to say how grateful I am that I am able to do these races tomorrow! A year ago, I had just had surgery on 2/12 to have an infected expander removed. The doctor couldn't figure out how it happened, but my surgery on 10/28, in which I had the mastectomy & then an expander put in, had resulted in a severe staph infection that didn't come to peak until 3+ months later. After waking up with chills one night and running a fever of 102-103 for several days, I had to have emergency surgery on 2/12/09. So, looking back on the last year, I am so grateful that I am feeling well and able to run a 15K tomorrow. Thanks to all my friends and family for your support over the past year! And thank you, Mark, for always being there for me!

Trail run tomorrow

Tomorrow is the big trail run day (15K). I'm a little nervous, as we've had so much snow lately, the trails are bound to be VERY snow covered. Mark and I tried running on the metropark trails last weekend, and after a 12 min mile that felt like we were getting nowhere, we ended up running on the bike trails instead. So tomorrow may be very interesting.
After the trail run, which starts at 9:30, we have to hurry to get to an indoor triathlon, that we're doing with our friend, Mike Slabe. He was our original TTT partner from a few years ago (team "Serenity Now"). Mike will do the swim, Mark the bike, and then I'll do the run on the indoor track. All in all - what a FUN way to spend Valentine's Day. It will be so nice to relax when we go out to dinner later in the evening!!

So far, so good....

I received a really encouraging note from my coach on Sunday. Between his uplifting emails and my husband's undying support, I think I may actually get to the finish line of the ironman in July!
I was up at 4:45 AM this morning to get an elliptical workout in. Then went to work all day, drove home thru a snowstorm, and got on the computrainer for an hour & 15 minutes. I did the computrainer again - a fun little workout of 10 x 1.72 miles (plus warmup & cooldown). It was challenging trying to beat my last lap time each time.
Tomorrow, it will be up at 5 AM to run for 45 minutes and then a swim tomorrow night. I talked my husband into meeting me there after work. It's so much easier to stick to the workouts when you have a partner!

Lots of snow in Cleveland

Last night, we got hit with a pretty heavy snowstorm. My coach said try to ride outside today if possible. Well, it's pretty much impossible with 6 inches of snow and drifts up to 3 feet. So I'll be on the computrainer in a little bit - as soon as I finish my pot of tea. My new computrainer is working great - last night, I did part of the Ironman Florida 70.3 course. The computrainer simulates the elevation of the course and it gets easier and harder based on the hills. Florida is pretty flat, so the ride was fairly easy, but I set it to ride against someone, and "he" kept pulling in front of me. It made it interesting until I basically said - just let him go - this isn't supposed to be a hard ride. "He" beat me by 2 tenths of a mile.

No Rest for the Weary

I went to dictionary.com and the definition of the above is "You must keep persevering no matter how tired or overworked you are." Very good quote for someone training for an ironman.
Today, I woke up at about 4AM and couldn't fall back asleep so I got up and did the elliptical for 40 minutes. It's now 8:45 PM and I just got home from work and getting my hair cut. I'm supposed to do some weight training tonight, but I am tired. Tomorrow is another early morning, as I run every Wednesday morning at 5AM with my friend, Judy. I mean every Wednesday, year round. Well - if there's a thunder storm, we may cancel. But we've run in the rain, sleet, snow, ice, etc. So I'll be up early again tomorrow.
My training schedule for this week is pretty hard. 13.5 hours and I'm already behind by not lifting & biking tonight. But I'm sure I'll get it all in - I usually do. It's just hard at the beginning of the week with everything looming in front of me.