Sunday, August 2, 2009
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Masters Regatta WOMEN playing for T.I.M.E
When I got invited on a sweep boat that Orlando Health was sponsoring with Women Playing for T.I.M.E group I accepted immediately as sweep rowing was something that I had always wanted but never was willing to dish out the 300 usd required for the whole training.
Thought this was a neat opportunity for ORMC to put me back on the water, after all they were the ones that took me out of water / sculling in August 2007.
There were 3 survivors on the boat and my sisinlaw and my friend Z also joined. We had very difficult practices in the afternoon choppy waters but managed to finish the Masters Regatta on Lake Fairview !
Now I have Crew under my belt too and I am hooked and will be joining the Novice Group in Orlando Rowing club.
FLORIDA HALF IRONMAN- GETTING BASELINE
FLORIDA HALF IRONMAN - Race Report
May 17, 2009
Fort Wilderness Lodge
Training: Practically none. Due to plantar fascitis which I had just managed to get under control with graston technique, and the chemo induced neuropathy which is now getting aggravated with Femara and my neuroma I had not run for 5 months exceptthe Danskin shuffle I did last week. I had only been in the pool 2-3 times, and had done some longer bike rides.. so this race the plan was to just do the swim, try to finish the bike.
But I learned that I could not even get a t-shirt unless I passed the finish line. So I thought that if I can finish the bike/swim I would just go 1 loop and get my medal t-shirt.. probably not the right thing to do but I really wanted a new medal in my rearview mirror.. Danskin mirror is ok but I;'d rather had an IM one.
Wake up : 3:45 (without alarm)
I had a short but peaceful sleep as I had made a point to completely relax one night before and not even go out to dinner since I had been out on the sun for the Masters Regatta that we participated in as the Women Playing for T.I.M.E team. I got a 30 minute massage the night before and ate stupid amounts of food to replenish glycogen stores. I had gone on a very low carb nutrition until 2 days ago to make sure that the stores were depleted so I could really top them off when I start eating.
Although my friend Z had generously offered to come with me this morning (or night) I wanted to go by myself and drive with my favorite music blasting this was my past race ritual, where I also added a yoga vinyasa, which did not happen this time because the transition area was a zoo, and my place was right beside a speaker which was blasting some un-cool music. Had a mishap with the tire valve and could not inflate it, luckily the bike mechanic handled it along with a stuck brake pad. I saw Rosie at transition she was still nursing a call and had quit the antibiotics for the race she looked nervous but I know she is strong as an ox.. ready to take on the field. Portalet line was not acceptable and the hygiene was questionable.. now come on .. it is a huge hole how on earth could you miss it while doing #2 !!!!!! Luckily I was warned before I went into that portalet otherwise my race would not have started on a good tone for sure.
Pre race nutrition:
Breakfast: 1 Plain toasted bagel with 2 Tbsp Almond Butter, Coffee
On the road/transition: another coffee
Transition : chocolate boost shake + 2 antifatigue caps
waiting for swim : Gatorade
Bike nutrition:
1.5 hammer bars
2 anti fatigue caps
2 succeeds (electrolyte tabs)
2 servings of accelerade
About 2 aerobottles full of water
Swim: we started as the 5th wave out of 22 waves and the waves were 2 minutes apart I braced myself for hearing the churning of water behind me and getting passed, hopefully without being smacked in the face.. chest.
I had 2 options either seek for clear water and go out, or stay close to the course/buoys and risk getting trampled on. I chose the latter since I had not done a proper swim in quiet a long time and I was counting on my weight training and rowing to get me through the swim. I could not afford any extra distance.
I think I got passed by total of 3 waves, it was not too bad only got kicked in my right hand little finger - which already had been injured by a basketball thrown by Ferit when we were teenagers-. Overall it was a pleasant swim like past weekend Danskin which was held at the same venue. I got a couple of foot cramp flareups, but was able to swim/breathe through them.
As soon as I exited the swim the left foot plantar fascitis started talking which totally baffled me. I had not even walked on it.. guess keeping the foot in kick position in cold water froze it in that position and when I flexed and stood on it the injury reared. It took me forever to get to the bike, great I thought will I even be able to finish the bike with this foot ?
Bike:
So many thoughts crossed my mind on the bike that I decided to have some kind of a voice recorder in my next long event. One of them was getting the boat from our neighbor and putting a scull on top of the boat.. guess there would be no rules for stacking boats up right ? lol... that way I could scull out of the club. hmmm...
The plan was to go embarrasingly slow and focus on staying fresh and fueling for the run(walk) so I was eating the hammer bars(1/2 at a time) making sure that I finished 1 bottle of Accelerade which had 1.5 servings in it, and taking anti-fatigue caps and succeed tabs every hour. I saw 2 crashes one happened right in front of me where 2 cyclists collided while trying to grab bottle at the water stop, the other one was a guy who fell on his face.. urgghhhh at one of the U turns that looked really painful and nasty. As expected I was having the doormat feel all these cool bikes and ultra fit people pass me (these were the latter waves) I saw Hector a couple of times, he was trying to give me some encouraging words. The bike was going really good and I almost averaged around 17 until we started heading south on 535
Just at that time started having cramps on my right side, first felt like stitches then I worried whether I was having an appendicitis attack.
On 535 after hitting pretty bad headwind and by that time with my feet aching, tummy aching I almost went home from there (the course passed dangerously close to my house almost 5-6 miles). By that time I also had to stop my nutrition to see whether the cramps would ease.
I had to take my feet out of the pedals every 15 minutes and help them recover the balls were aching, especially the neuroma on the right foot which I had acquired when I rode with the bike computer in my cycling shoe at the Big Kahuna half ironman couple of years ago.
It definitely took a lot of mental determination to finish the ride, I really was done with pedaling and did not want to see my bike for a while.
Run nutrition:
handful of cheese combos at beginning, 4th and 8th miles everytime I passed the loop to finish
4 accelerade gels (2 with caffeine)
Lots of Water and gatorade at each mile stop.
2 anti fatigue caps
2 succeeds (electrolyte tabs)
Run water stop ritual:
Fill up cap, jersey and shorts with ice.
Wet 3 sponges with ice water 2 on shoulders one on back of the neck
Wet the froggie washcloth in ice water, wipe face, arms, legs.
Drink water, gatorade.
Run plan:
Jog 50 steps at 2:30 and 5:00 minutes. So that kind of came to a 1 minute jog 5 minute walk. I probably spent at least 2 minutes extra at each water stop but there was no other way that I could have finished that distance without having run for 4 months.
Run: Due to my plantar fascitis and the pain that I had during the bike I really was not sure whether I would be able to make even a single loop which was the initial plan. Although there are timing chips at the turnarounds I did not care about the result listed as DNF I basically wanted a cool medal for my rearview mirror.
So I took my time in transition to assess status/damage. As soon as I was off the bike and out of the bike shoes my feet felt good. After putting on my running shoes they even felt better. I also was pleasantly surprised to see that there were still some bikes not in from the bike in my wave ! indicating that I did have some time on others. So decided to start walking.After eating a couple of my cheese combos and downing the antifatigue caps,succeed I was able to do my 50 step jog that I had tested in last weeks Danskin and the feet still felt ok. At tri's I never plan on the run beforehand because I never know how I am going to feel after the bike. After assessing myself came up with the following which seemed doable for 4 miles (1 loop)
I saw a lot of Central Florida Triathlon Club members racing and also cheering at the finish exit loop. Having a cheering squad is a double edged sword. It gets you motivated going, they give you energy on the other hand one really does not want to do bad in front of others. So I went on the 1st loop, it was nice since almost everyone was still on the course doing their 2nd or final loop. I was only able to find 1 person who was on their first loop. During the second loop the field started to get thinner but still I had people that I hung out with to chat or pace from. Now the third loop looked very pathetic I only saw a handful of people battling the heat and trying to crawl, I actually felt and looked a lot better than most of them to my surprise. Guess the nutrition preparation and extreme !!! taper did its job. I was able to do the pathetic 50 step jog 2 minute walk and jog to the finish line upright ! Life is good. I am back ! Now I can kick back and relax for a while.
Now let me see what else is out there that I can tackle ;o)
May 17, 2009
Fort Wilderness Lodge
Training: Practically none. Due to plantar fascitis which I had just managed to get under control with graston technique, and the chemo induced neuropathy which is now getting aggravated with Femara and my neuroma I had not run for 5 months exceptthe Danskin shuffle I did last week. I had only been in the pool 2-3 times, and had done some longer bike rides.. so this race the plan was to just do the swim, try to finish the bike.
But I learned that I could not even get a t-shirt unless I passed the finish line. So I thought that if I can finish the bike/swim I would just go 1 loop and get my medal t-shirt.. probably not the right thing to do but I really wanted a new medal in my rearview mirror.. Danskin mirror is ok but I;'d rather had an IM one.
Wake up : 3:45 (without alarm)
I had a short but peaceful sleep as I had made a point to completely relax one night before and not even go out to dinner since I had been out on the sun for the Masters Regatta that we participated in as the Women Playing for T.I.M.E team. I got a 30 minute massage the night before and ate stupid amounts of food to replenish glycogen stores. I had gone on a very low carb nutrition until 2 days ago to make sure that the stores were depleted so I could really top them off when I start eating.
Although my friend Z had generously offered to come with me this morning (or night) I wanted to go by myself and drive with my favorite music blasting this was my past race ritual, where I also added a yoga vinyasa, which did not happen this time because the transition area was a zoo, and my place was right beside a speaker which was blasting some un-cool music. Had a mishap with the tire valve and could not inflate it, luckily the bike mechanic handled it along with a stuck brake pad. I saw Rosie at transition she was still nursing a call and had quit the antibiotics for the race she looked nervous but I know she is strong as an ox.. ready to take on the field. Portalet line was not acceptable and the hygiene was questionable.. now come on .. it is a huge hole how on earth could you miss it while doing #2 !!!!!! Luckily I was warned before I went into that portalet otherwise my race would not have started on a good tone for sure.
Pre race nutrition:
Breakfast: 1 Plain toasted bagel with 2 Tbsp Almond Butter, Coffee
On the road/transition: another coffee
Transition : chocolate boost shake + 2 antifatigue caps
waiting for swim : Gatorade
Bike nutrition:
1.5 hammer bars
2 anti fatigue caps
2 succeeds (electrolyte tabs)
2 servings of accelerade
About 2 aerobottles full of water
Swim: we started as the 5th wave out of 22 waves and the waves were 2 minutes apart I braced myself for hearing the churning of water behind me and getting passed, hopefully without being smacked in the face.. chest.
I had 2 options either seek for clear water and go out, or stay close to the course/buoys and risk getting trampled on. I chose the latter since I had not done a proper swim in quiet a long time and I was counting on my weight training and rowing to get me through the swim. I could not afford any extra distance.
I think I got passed by total of 3 waves, it was not too bad only got kicked in my right hand little finger - which already had been injured by a basketball thrown by Ferit when we were teenagers-. Overall it was a pleasant swim like past weekend Danskin which was held at the same venue. I got a couple of foot cramp flareups, but was able to swim/breathe through them.
As soon as I exited the swim the left foot plantar fascitis started talking which totally baffled me. I had not even walked on it.. guess keeping the foot in kick position in cold water froze it in that position and when I flexed and stood on it the injury reared. It took me forever to get to the bike, great I thought will I even be able to finish the bike with this foot ?
Bike:
So many thoughts crossed my mind on the bike that I decided to have some kind of a voice recorder in my next long event. One of them was getting the boat from our neighbor and putting a scull on top of the boat.. guess there would be no rules for stacking boats up right ? lol... that way I could scull out of the club. hmmm...
The plan was to go embarrasingly slow and focus on staying fresh and fueling for the run(walk) so I was eating the hammer bars(1/2 at a time) making sure that I finished 1 bottle of Accelerade which had 1.5 servings in it, and taking anti-fatigue caps and succeed tabs every hour. I saw 2 crashes one happened right in front of me where 2 cyclists collided while trying to grab bottle at the water stop, the other one was a guy who fell on his face.. urgghhhh at one of the U turns that looked really painful and nasty. As expected I was having the doormat feel all these cool bikes and ultra fit people pass me (these were the latter waves) I saw Hector a couple of times, he was trying to give me some encouraging words. The bike was going really good and I almost averaged around 17 until we started heading south on 535
Just at that time started having cramps on my right side, first felt like stitches then I worried whether I was having an appendicitis attack.
On 535 after hitting pretty bad headwind and by that time with my feet aching, tummy aching I almost went home from there (the course passed dangerously close to my house almost 5-6 miles). By that time I also had to stop my nutrition to see whether the cramps would ease.
I had to take my feet out of the pedals every 15 minutes and help them recover the balls were aching, especially the neuroma on the right foot which I had acquired when I rode with the bike computer in my cycling shoe at the Big Kahuna half ironman couple of years ago.
It definitely took a lot of mental determination to finish the ride, I really was done with pedaling and did not want to see my bike for a while.
Run nutrition:
handful of cheese combos at beginning, 4th and 8th miles everytime I passed the loop to finish
4 accelerade gels (2 with caffeine)
Lots of Water and gatorade at each mile stop.
2 anti fatigue caps
2 succeeds (electrolyte tabs)
Run water stop ritual:
Fill up cap, jersey and shorts with ice.
Wet 3 sponges with ice water 2 on shoulders one on back of the neck
Wet the froggie washcloth in ice water, wipe face, arms, legs.
Drink water, gatorade.
Run plan:
Jog 50 steps at 2:30 and 5:00 minutes. So that kind of came to a 1 minute jog 5 minute walk. I probably spent at least 2 minutes extra at each water stop but there was no other way that I could have finished that distance without having run for 4 months.
Run: Due to my plantar fascitis and the pain that I had during the bike I really was not sure whether I would be able to make even a single loop which was the initial plan. Although there are timing chips at the turnarounds I did not care about the result listed as DNF I basically wanted a cool medal for my rearview mirror.
So I took my time in transition to assess status/damage. As soon as I was off the bike and out of the bike shoes my feet felt good. After putting on my running shoes they even felt better. I also was pleasantly surprised to see that there were still some bikes not in from the bike in my wave ! indicating that I did have some time on others. So decided to start walking.After eating a couple of my cheese combos and downing the antifatigue caps,succeed I was able to do my 50 step jog that I had tested in last weeks Danskin and the feet still felt ok. At tri's I never plan on the run beforehand because I never know how I am going to feel after the bike. After assessing myself came up with the following which seemed doable for 4 miles (1 loop)
I saw a lot of Central Florida Triathlon Club members racing and also cheering at the finish exit loop. Having a cheering squad is a double edged sword. It gets you motivated going, they give you energy on the other hand one really does not want to do bad in front of others. So I went on the 1st loop, it was nice since almost everyone was still on the course doing their 2nd or final loop. I was only able to find 1 person who was on their first loop. During the second loop the field started to get thinner but still I had people that I hung out with to chat or pace from. Now the third loop looked very pathetic I only saw a handful of people battling the heat and trying to crawl, I actually felt and looked a lot better than most of them to my surprise. Guess the nutrition preparation and extreme !!! taper did its job. I was able to do the pathetic 50 step jog 2 minute walk and jog to the finish line upright ! Life is good. I am back ! Now I can kick back and relax for a while.
Now let me see what else is out there that I can tackle ;o)
Monday, May 11, 2009
Races are already here
We did the Danskin tri last weekend and although i was not supposed to do the run I was soo tempted I kind of winged it doing a 50 step walk 50 step jog, averaged 13 min/miles which is good considering that I have not been running for the last couple of months.
Well time really flies before you know I was complaining about 167 pounds now I am at 172. And yes I can partially blame femara mostly for not being able to train and eat like a horse as if I am still training.
Did some graston therapy, acupuncture, took a 2 weeks femara vacation and it seems like the foot is almost good ! However do not know how it will react when I return back on Femara next week.
Now spoiled and psyched about being able to complete the sprint tri run I am getting ambitious and thinking that I might try to do the half ironman walk/run. Just to finish, the run is 3 loops so worst case I will hobble to the finish after the 1st/second loop. Definitely worth trying.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Life without estrogen
Well I thought leggo of eggo is not a biggie and was really happy that they were gone since my tumor was estrogen/progesterone receptor positive, apparently those little beanies were really working hard to make me happy keep me going.
With the main estrogen factory eggos being gone the body could have still survived but we had to also start Femara which is preventing from any estrogen being produced by my adrenal glands and fat cells. Possible side effects would be weight gain ( as if I needed another excuse to be added to a chocoholic state ) ,fatigue, hot flashes, night flushes, foot pain, joint pain, vision loss, brittle nails, thinning hair ...lets see what else I missed.. oh of course insomnia (due to night flushes), cardio problems, mood swings, bone loss, dry skin.. ok I am getting depressed writing these.
So which ones hit me so far ? Insomnia major !, night flushes major !, hot flashes soso.. my bones were osteopenic so I am getting 2 Zometa infusions annually which is also supposed to prevent any bone metastasis if anyone in there gets a bad idea ! And foot pain, I already had neuroma, add heel spurs and plantar fascitis and neuropathy which I believe are also increased with the Femara = delay in returning to the triathlon scene.
But life is still good, as I read in 'Atlas Shrugged' Fear of death does not necessarily mean love of life and I love my life even though there are small challenges.
I am getting really better at my biking again, did my longest ride on Sunday under wet conditions 65 miles Strawberry metric century. Running has to wait until my feet calm down and I lose some weight as I am at 167 now. My swimming is also almost back to where it was. I also started weight lifting, maybe I am pushing it but it seems like my right arm is ok with it might need to get a sleeve for insurance against lymphedema.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Robotic Laparoscopic Hysterectomy , oopherectomy
Well had my robotic assisted davinci hysterectomy, oopherectomy on wednesday and was released home the same day. Besides having some gassiness, everything is fine !
They should have done this last year as I asked them to !@#$!!!
They should have done this last year as I asked them to !@#$!!!
Friday, May 23, 2008
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