crushing fatigue

i didn't do two of my planned workouts during this, my week of rest. why?

crushing fatigue.

i don't know if i have ever felt this tired, even after staying up all night every night nursing a baby for 3 weeks. most days i feel decent in the mornings (still tired, but more brain-foggy than weak.) by the end of the day, however, i can hardly move. i feel like i have NASA moon boots on and am walking through sand. i've overtrained before with triathlons, and this feels much much much worse. which is why i'm not calling it overtraining fatigue. i think it's from the immunosuppressant i'm on, 6-MP.

coach is aware. left a message with my GI doc to see if there's anything we need to do (like check my RBCs, or lower my dose?) i've also gone and done what every doctor and nurse will tell me not to do: don't google it.

seems like a lot of people with my condition, and with Crohns, that take this med have chronic fatigue. so it may be something i have to learn to live with? or something that potentially keeps me from my dream of crossing the IM Lou finish line?? ugh, that one is hard to even contemplate.

the funny thing is, if i can actually get out the door and to the gym before i fall asleep, i tend to do fine during the workouts. but afterwards...zonk. this week i couldn't even get out the door. monday i could have fallen asleep at 3pm and slept into the next day if i didn't have a mini-dude to wrangle. i do best if i can get my workout done in the morning, but that happens to be the hardest time to coordinate with bebe-man's schedule. we might start him in daycare soon, though, so that could help. hopefully.

i'm trying not to beat myself up about this (even though i'm beating myself up about it a little.) it's just two workouts. and in my base building period. and during a rest week. i need to get the fatigue figured out before i move on to bigger and more taxing things. the CTO has been very supportive, and is keeping me grounded, which i am thankful for.

there's no immediate solution, and i could ramble about this for ages, so i'll leave you with something random for your amusement...

i also googled this today: "why did i just eat half a bag of baked lays?" 4.3million results, but none of them close to explaining the phenomenon of disappearing chips.

let's blame it on the baby.

ch-ch-ch-changes

with a not-so-teeny-anymore, oh-my-god-how-is-he-ONE-already baby, no, TODDLER, to care for, i have to be ready to change my workout schedule on a dime. some days are just hard days, and i am faced with trying to get a workout in while dealing with one (or many) of the following: the kid is sick, i can't find a sitter, i can't get reservations at the gym daycare, he SLEEPS THROUGH our reservations at gym daycare, it's too cold to take him with me on my run, etc.

luckily coach is totally fine, cool and confident even, about making changes where needed.

last week i had some questions about my running workouts. during the off season, before base training started, i got up to 8.5 miles on my long runs. nowadays, according to my IM plan, my longest run is a 50min MI pace run. i was worried about being able to survive/do well in this coming weekend's race--Salem Black Cat 10 miler--so coach changed things up for me. it was a mental tune up more than anything, but i was glad to get out and do it.

for the majority of this winter i've been doing my long runs on the Charles when the CTO is around to help baby-wrangle. plans changed for last sunday's 8 miler, however. we're still covered in snow/ice/urban icebergs up here in Boston after the 'blizzard of 2013.'  the sidewalks were very icy on Sunday after a sunny Saturday melted some of the snow and then promptly re-froze it Sunday morning.  and it was sleeting. so, instead of being all tough and rambo and doing a long run on ice where i could potentially injure IM-hopeful legs, i opted for the safer, yet utterly terrible DREADMILL RUN.

i hate the treadmill. especially when my ipod dies 17 minutes into my 1:17 run, and the treadmill tv is broken...

but, i survived. 8 miles at a 9:41 pace. i figure, if i can do that, then i can absolutely run 10 miles of open road. y'all that do treadmill runs on the regular--any tips for keeping your sanity?

thong song

swam my entire 2750m aerobic workout (the one with the killer/painful 8x225 set) in the lane next to a guy wearing a thong bathing suit. calling it a bathing suit is sort of a guess? I didn't look hard enough to see if it was a suit or just underwear.

just to help you with the mental picture: imagine a 6'7" black man swimming BREASTSTROKE in a blue thong. Right next to you. For an hour. Yep. I almost lost count a couple of times (which would be effing tragic with that mean main set) because I would turn to his side to breathe and get a goggle full of bare booty sticking up over the lane line. I couldn't get Ushers "thong song" out of my head...

totally beats swimming next to Creeper Guy. CG takes up a whole lane (usually in the middle of the pool) and hangs out at one end, underwater (using his snorkel) and just WATCHES people swim. he is totally decked out in fancy suit, snorkel, goggles, nose plug, and water proof headphones, yet he rarely ever actually swims. IF he swims, he does it completely under water from one end to the other. And he's there for an hour or more (he's there when I get there--I swim for 1-1.25hrs) and he's there when I leave.

Do all pools attract creepers/thong wearers? Or is it just BSC Wellington? I think it's me...I've proven myself to be a crazy magnet :/

Nap time triathlete

So, last week ended with a sinus infection--my neti pot and I just couldn't ward it off. I blame texas allergens...and the immunosuppressive drug I'm on. I was told not to swim for two days after my fever went down (i can't remember the last time I had a fever!) so I had to do some switches with the workouts. Our flights back got delayed by two days on account of "the blizzard of 2013," which was fine by me, even though i was pretty pooped by the time we got back late Tuesday. in the end, last week shook out like this:

Mon: rest day
Tues: bike (wu, single leg drills, intervals, cd) 55min
Wed: swim (anaerobic fitness 12x100 sprint main set) + strength training
Thurs: 50 min run
Fri: bike (wu, single leg drills, various rpms keeping MI, cd) *PS aero is not fun with a pounding sinus headache, FYI.
Sat: hill repeats + strength training
Sun: swim (aerobic fitness 8x225 main set)

Weekly totals: swim 4750m, bike 2:05hrs, run 1:40hrs.

This week, I'm calling myself the nap time triathlete, because I have to get a large portion of my workouts done during the dudebaby's naps.

Monday was a rest day, and man did I rest! I woke up tired, napped while the kid napped, and was still tired enough to accidentally fall asleep checking email at 7PM. Methinks i needed the sleep. sheesh.

Today I got a great spin workout in (on my fantastic new trainer...love that thing) and caught up on two episodes of Walking Dead (yes, I am still freaking myself out in the basement) all while the kiddo dozed. Success! The rest of the week should go something like this:

Wed: anaerobic swim (12x100 sprint... This one is such a bitch! I get foot cramps at the end of the last 100 every time...) + strength training
Thurs: 50min run
Fri: aerobic fitness swim (8x225 main set)
Sat: 1:15 spin with single leg drills and varying rpms
Sun: hill repeats (Bunker Hill and I are best frenemies by now)

My shoulders were initially quite sore after each swim workout, but thanks to coach advice I've added extra yardage of breast and backstroke, and the soreness has gone away. The right hip was a bit sore after a few of my runs, but now that Im using the foam roller and doing Epsom salt soaks that has gone away too. I naively thought those little niggles, aches and pains would take longer to show up! Here's hoping we can keep them in check...

Happy training, y'all!

Bike transport

Any one of y'all out there on the interwebs ever use bike transport (like Tribike) to get your bike to a race? I'm trying to figure out how to get my beaut of a bike to Louisville from Boson.

Tribike seemed like a good option--they pack it up, move it, unpack it, tune it up, give it to me, and then repackage and move it when the race is over. And they set up right by the race. BUT it's $300, and I'd have to drop off my bike to the bike shop by Aug 2nd, almost a full THREE WEEKS before race day. I feel a panic attack coming on just thinking about being away from my bike for that long, especially right before my biggest race ever in life. I'm sure i'll welcome the thought after a month or two of peak training and multiple mountain centuries, but still.

And I'm not confident that I (or the CTO) could take my bike apart and then put it back together without ruining it in order to ship it on my own. And bike boxes are just as expensive as the transport service...

Can I just buy my bike a seat on the plane? Isn't that what the extra legroom on JetBlue is for, anyways?

Please give me your wisdom, internets.

Miles and miles of Texas

Total mileage for my first week:

Swim: 6750m
Bike: 0
Run: 16mi*
Tex mex: 4,000,000 calories

*an estimation, since Garmy accidentally reset/deleted my mileage files??!

Aside from the wonderful allergies I get down here and the impending sinus infection due to said allergies, it was the perfect first week. I was able to do all my workouts, some with my bestest buds, leave the kiddo with grandma for my Tex mex recovery meals, see TWO WHOLE MOVIES and catch up on downtown abby, and see nearly my entire family.

Super vacation winning!

It's going to be really really ridiculously hard to go back to real life in the frozen tundra that is Boston, without the baby-wrangling help of grandma, grandpa, aunties and uncles. Hey, at least I'm lucky enough to have amazing family at all, even if they're far away. Love you all!

Is it too early for this?

So, week 1 day 5....

and I am a hungry hose beast. Is this supposed to happen so soon? I'm at famine-level hunger. And I eat plenty already. PLENTY.

I'm having trouble not eating brownies all day every day for every meal and snack. Brownie shake, anyone?

Discuss.

and so it begins

(Officially)

As of Monday, I officially started my IM Lou training program with Coach Jason. I'm in the atx for 10d to visit family, so the schedule is a bit wonky, but I'm so happy to have gotten started!

This week, as an official IM-athlete-in-training, I will:

Mon: rest day
Tue: 50min run at med intensity (did 5.4mi) + strength training
Wed: swim 3x200 drills wu, 12x100 @ max 30sec rest, 200cd
Thur: 50min run
Fri: swim 6x125 drills, 8x225 10sec rest, 200 cd + strength training
Sat: run 15min wu, 8x2min hard hill intervals, cd
Sun: swim (same as wed)

Feel super lucky to start training down here in Austin. it means i get to run on the trail (thx for keeping me company, Nicole!) and swim at Big Stacy (cant wait to have JRo kick my butt there). and AND my recovery meals are from my favorite places on earth (magnolia, maudies, franklin, kerby lane, amys, chuys, torchys...)

Next week: return to Beantown and add biking back into the mix!

And for good measure, I'll say official again. OFFICIAL.