Escape the Cape Non-Race Report

Usually I’ll do a race report for the races I do. Last year, I kind of disappeared and didn’t really blog about my races or training. I had a lot of distractions in my life last year. More on that later. Maybe. Moving on.

This year, I’d like to blog more about my races, training, and what’s going on with me. I’ll try. We’ll see.

So this is supposed to be a race report for the Escape theCape Triathlon. Instead it’s a Non-Race report. I’m also supposed to be doing the triathlon right at this very minute. Instead I’m writing this Non-Race report. Let me explain.

I signed up for the Escape the Cape Tri back in January. Along with an Olympic distance aqua-bike, the Chunky Dunk Duathlon and the Title 9 Triathlon. Then at the Tri-Mania Expo in March, I signed up for the Tufts 10K in October. Jesus, what is wrong with me?

Anyway, I created a training plan and started my training. Things were going well. I was swimming, biking, still trying to run, etc. Everything was falling into place. Then I got sick. Not the kind of sick that knocks you out for a week and then you’re back on track. The kind of sick that sneaks up on you, drains you of all energy, immobilizes you and ultimately lands you in the hospital for a week. Yeah, that happened.

I’m not a doctor-going, drug-taking, hospital type of person. I don’t even take anything for a headache. So this was a big deal. BIG deal.

It started on the day of the Earth Day 5K at Stonyfield. I was signed up for that 5K, but had been having joint pain the week before and couldn’t really walk comfortably, so running the 5K was out. Looking back now, it all really started back in February, but since it was slow going and snuck up on me, I didn’t see symptoms or feel anything was really wrong until I started getting joint and muscle pain in April. I went to the race with a friend and watched her race, but I felt crummy and really exhausted. When I got home, I spent the rest of the day in bed. The next day, Sunday, I was in bed all day too. On Monday, I wasn’t just tired and staying bed, I was physically unable to get up. I had joint & muscle pain, a rash, a fever, and severe dizziness when I got up. Tuesday was ridiculous. I wasn’t getting any better, and was progressively and obviously getting worse. I couldn’t move from bed, even to go to the bathroom without help. I couldn’t eat or drink because my throat was so sore and I couldn’t even sit upright without feeling like I was going to pass out.

I called my primary care physician (who I had never even met, since I don’t see doctors, and only had her name because I had to put down someone’s name on my health insurance packet) for an appointment because I knew I couldn’t even sit up in the emergency room for a wait. After almost passing out in the exam room, she called an ambulance to take me to the ER.

After 3 hours, they determined that my red blood cell count levels were dangerously low and transferred me to another hospital that specialized in hematology. Normal RBC counts are between 40 and 45 for women my age. Mine were 20 when I first went into the ER. When they tested me again after transferring me to the second hospital, they had dropped to 13. It’s probably safe to say, it’s a good thing I didn’t wait any longer.

I was in the ER for 24 hours. They pumped me full of all sorts of fun stuff and hilarious stories came from that. Apparently I was seeing things and kept talking about them. Even in my worst moments, I’m still good for a laugh. Except when they gave me Oxy. That was a disaster. Puke.

They finally moved me up to a room and started blood transfusions, more IVs – both saline and iron, and an array of meds to try and combat whatever it was that was going on with me. They tested me for everything under the sun. Thought maybe I had been bitten by a tick or, worse, had an autoimmune disease that was causing my Hemolytic Anemia.

Everything came back negative. Which was good, because I didn’t have whatever it was they thought I had, but also bad because they still didn’t know what I had. I had an entire army of Doogie Howser doctors, still in training, searching through every medical journal and website they could find to figure out what could be going on with me.

The only thing that came back positive was Epstein-Barr. But not positive as in, I had it. Positive as in I had it in the recent past. Most people have EBV in their bodies and it is most notably connected to Mono. Back in February I was really sick for about a week and had most of the same symptoms. So, I can only assume that’s where that came from. Other than that, they couldn’t find anything else. I had hematologists, rheumatologists, infectious disease doctors, auto immune doctors and interns and residents visiting me multiple times a day to hear my story and try to figure me out. They never did. I decided that I should have just taped myself telling my story of how things progressed so I could just press play when someone new came in to hear it. I probably told my story over 40 times. That’s not an exaggeration.

My blood levels finally raised enough for them to feel comfortable about me going home, and I felt okay enough. So after a week of searching, probing, and questions, they finally let me go home with a cocktail of meds to keep my RBC counts up enough. I’m finally able to wean myself off of them and get back to normal. But they still don’t know what caused the Hemolytic Anemia. I’ve always had anemia, but not as severe as this. And they are still driving themselves crazy trying to figure out what happened.

Since all of this happened from the middle of April until the middle of May, I wasn’t able to train, or even work out at all. Even taking a walk was hard for me. My first test walk on the treadmill when I was home from the hospital was at a speed of 2.0 for 20 minutes. I tried to up it to 2.5 and couldn’t do it. I’m very impatient and I get frustrated very easily when I can’t do something simple that I used to be able to do. I couldn’t even open a simple jar, package of crackers, or a gallon of milk without help. I was so weak and had no strength control at all. I hated it. I felt so helpless and as a very independent person, it was hard for me to ask for help. Even though it’s been a little over a month since I’ve been home, a friend just said to me the other day “Stop trying to lift things!” when I was helping carry a table across a room and was having difficulty. In my defense, it was a heavy table!

But onto better news, I’m doing much better. My RBC counts still aren’t what they want them to be. I’m getting blood taken every week for testing and as of this week my RBCs were at 29.4. Not the 40-45 they want them to be, but not at 13 either. I’ve come to the conclusion, that this is just my normal level. I’ve been around 29 for the past 4 weeks and I feel fine. I’ve been adding in exercising, taken a few runs and bike rides and tomorrow I’m planning on getting back into my Sunday spin & swim routine.

My next race is the Olympic distance aqua-bike at the Mass State Triathlon on July 14th, so I have a goal and a new training plan to get on with. I’ve started out slow and will continue to add to my training slowly. I definitely wasn’t ready enough for the triathlon today. As much as I wanted to do it and not race it, but just finish it, everyone was pleading with me not to do it. I am definitely stubborn enough to not listen to everyone and just do it anyway, but I knew deep down that I wasn’t ready and I really needed to skip it. But you can bet your ass I went and picked up my race packet for the “free” t-shirt and swim cap!!

Maybe next year.

I'm back!

I have essentially taken a 4 month break. Not intentionally, it just happened. After my half marathon in February, I had a few small races: a few 5Ks and a marathon relay, but I wasn’t into it anymore. Lack of race reports probably shows that. I also joined Foodie Pen Pals and slacked off in that department too. I owe 2 blogs about packages I’ve received and I also need to try to remember those race reports and re-create them. Just because. It’ll happen one day. Hopefully soon. I need to get back into this.

Last year I was gung ho about everything and was borderline obsessed. I think the disappointment of not completing the half marathon took a lot of the wind out of my sails and I slowly began to put my energy and focus into other things in my life. I pretty much cut training and exercise out of my life. I did a few things here and there, but it was completely half assed and if I missed a day or two or three or a week, I didn’t care.

Last year on dailymile my June’s total mileage for everything I had done was 89 miles. This year, my total mileage for June was 12 miles. That includes today’s 9.6 mile bike ride.

I have a 5K color race in 2 weeks, a duathlon in 4 weeks and a triathlon (yes, I am doing it again...) in 10 weeks.  This time last year, I had 6 months of training under my belt, I had already finished my triathlon training and I was just trying to maintain my level of fitness until the triathlon, and maybe push myself to go faster and harder. This year, I feel like I’m starting from scratch.

Before today’s bike ride, I hadn’t worked out at all. Nothing but a 2 mile walk around a lake over a 6 week period of time.

A week ago, I created a training plan. It was a 12 week triathlon plan, and I figured I’d start in week 2 because I only had 11 weeks to go.  I created it, put it in my calendar and then didn’t do it. An entire week went by and I didn’t do it. My excuse? I was busy. Life got in the way and I didn’t make it a priority. I wanted to do it, but I didn’t want to do it.

Instead of following that plan I put in my calendar and promised myself I’d do, I’ve decided on something different.  Since the duathlon is in 4 weeks, I really need to focus on those 2 sports for now. Running and swimming. One is my friend and the other can go kick rocks. In case you’re new, it’s running. Running can go kick rocks. I still hate it. That hasn’t changed.  So if you love to hear me bitch about running, stick around. I’ve got some plans for us!

I plan on running 3 times and week and swimming at least 2 (maybe 3) and biking one. After the duathlon at the end of July, I will start to add in more biking. And hopefully I’ll have the stamina and dedication to add in biking in the form of biking to and from work every day. That in combo with 3x a week running and 2x a week swimming, I should be fairly ready for the triathlon the 2nd week of September. I hope.

I need to make time for this and stop putting it off. I need to make my training a priority. I need to be happy with making this a priority and stop dreading it. The fact is, I know I’ll feel better and stronger and healthier if I can get back on the wagon, so to speak, and move forward again.

Since April, when I stopped training and exercising regularly, I’ve started eating less healthy, I’ve gained 10 pounds, and I’ve lost strength, endurance, health and confidence.

It’s time to get that back!

Week Thirteen: Disney Princess Half Marathon Training

Week Thirteen

Monday – yoga stretching

I got a yoga bolster pillow for Christmas so I used it to do some lower back and leg stretching. It felt great!

30 min

Tuesday – butt workout

After a long day, I had along drive home, so I used the time wisely to do butt clenches in the car on the way home! Multi tasking!

30 mins

Wednesday – walk/jog with the dog

Took the dog for a walk/jog around the neighborhood. It was too cold to run. It was windy, and horrid. My dog was scared of the wind. Every time it blew, he got skittish and tried to burst away from me. Needless to say, it made the jogging part difficult. I also used this as an opportunity to do the crazy walk with him. So not sure how accurate the mileage/gps is. There were lots of twists and turns and circles and stops and sits.

30 mins – 1.42 miles (21:17/mi pace)

Thursday – wii sports

I planned on 30 minutes of wii tennis, but I got bored with it after about 15 minutes so I moved on to baseball and bowling. Both bored me more than the tennis. So I went back to the tennis for the last 10 minutes or so. I need to bust out the other wii workout “games” that we got for Christmas and see how those fare.

30 mins

Friday – run

5 min warm up walk
2.103 in 30 mins running speed intervals - from 4.5 to 6.5 with 3.0 walk intervals (14:15/mi pace)
5 min cool down walk
A few pains in my left hip/knee area. First run in a while where I didn't wear my compression socks and it felt okay. Looking forward to wearing my new Tommie Copper calf sleeves for the rest of the afternoon!!

30 mins

Saturday – arm workout

Arm workout with wood instead of weights. Yes wood. I'm in the back woods of New Hampshire and I used some firewood instead of hand weights to do an arm workout.

30 mins

Sunday – long run – 9.5 miles

I was dreading this one all weekend. The gym was closed for New Years and I knew I was going to have to do it outside. I went out on the Cotton Valley Trail that I usually bike on and as expected, it was covered in ice.

Luckily it wasn’t too much, just sections here and there where I could walk off to the side before I got onto solid ground again. But it was enough to make me cautious and slow down when I needed to.

The trail is about 3 miles long, so I planned to go out 2 or 2.5, come back, refill my water bottle, then go back out for another 2 or 2.5 then head back again. I figured it would break it up nicely. Instead I went out 3 miles, then turned around and only had to go back out for 1.75 miles then back again to finish off the last 3.5 miles. My iPod died at mile 2 so I had a lot of time to think and talk to God and make up my own songs and appreciate the scenery for the last 7.5 miles.

Partially frozen lake

Not gonna lie, I spent a large part of those last 7.5 miles praying. I kept telling myself that if God brought me to it, He’d bring me through it. It made my run a little more peaceful. The last 3.5 miles were tough. I was exhausted and in pain physically and I had to rely on myself mentally to finish it. There was mostly walking, but I did it. 

When I got home, I took another ice bath. But I didn’t videotape it this time! You’re welcome.

Total: 9.5 miles – 3:00:40 (19:00/mi pace)

I feel like I’ve fallen off the running wagon so to speak. Through the holidays I found that I lacked motivation to run. I did other things, but running was the toughest. And yes, I completed 9.5 miles this week, but the pace was SO slow! I could never complete the half marathon at that pace without them sweeping me off the course. I’m pretty sure if I had walked the entire thing and not run any of it, I could have had a faster pace. My pace at certain points was a 14 min mile pace and a few times I hit 10 min mile paces – briefly. But the when I started hurting, my walking became so ragged & slow that it pulled my pace way down. It’s discouraging and doesn’t make me like running any more either. I still hold firm to be belief that running isn’t for me. I can do 2-3 miles and survive it and not hate it, but this long distance stuff just isn’t for me. After this half, I’m done.

Dec 26, '11 - Jan 1, '12

55 days until the Disney Princess Half Marathon!

Week Twelve: Disney Princess Half Marathon Training

Week Twelve

Monday – chair squats

I went to a rally with my new Tupperware team (YES I'm a consultant now!! If you need/want anything...call me!) and we were standing up to clap for people every 10 seconds. I'd say that worked out to at least 30 full minutes of chair squats!

30 min

Tuesday – house cleaning

Vacuuming, rearranging furniture and hosting a Tupperware party for a few hours. Lots of moving around!

30 mins

Wednesday – walking/jogging/chasing kids etc.

Running on 3 days of little sleep, I was exhausted and close to coming down with something. I didn't want to over exert myself so I decided to get my 30 minutes in by walking around the gym in my school during our "outside time" (it was raining). I walked in a oval around the gym for 30 mins, but also jogged, chased kids, ran away from kids, danced to Christmas music, kicked soccer balls, threw basketballs and I'm sure more - all while still walking my loops.

30 mins – 1.5 miles est. (20:00/mi pace)

Thursday – calf raises

 I had some work to do at home, so I did seated calf raises while I was sitting at my computer and standing calf raises while taking the dogs out or waiting for something to come out of the printer. If I had to stop for any reason, I'd jog in place. There were also a few trips up and down the stairs. I made sure I was constantly moving for the entire 30 minutes.

30 mins

Friday – walk

Was supposed to run, but I forgot about it because I lost track of time and I was so exhausted from serious lack of sleep this week. I was so busy the entire day, so I didn’t even have time to do this until 11:30pm. Because of that, I walked for 30 mins instead of a run. I walked at a 2.5 speed at 2.0 incline for 5 mins, then upped the incline .5 every minute up to 10, then came back down again until I hit 30 mins. I wasn’t wearing my heart rate monitor, but I checked it a few times with the hand monitors on the treadmill and I’m pretty sure my heart rate was just as high during the incline walking as it is during my runs! Good to know!

30 mins

Saturday – wrapping presents

Man, what an arm workout! The reaching, the pulling, the carrying to the tree, etc. This should be a weekly workout, not a yearly one!

Sunday – long run – 3 miles

After a week of no running and barely getting in my 30 minutes of exercise each day, I finally ran. It wasn't pretty. Thank god I only had to do 3 miles. I was tired, lazy and wiped out from lack of sleep this week! Hopefully next week I can get back on track and kick it up a notch! Only 9 more weeks til my half marathon!

Total: 3 miles – 53:25 (17:46/mi pace)

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!! I had another crazy busy week! I need a nap! I can’t wait for the New Year! This next week is going to be just as busy! I hope things settle down in “the twelve”.

62 days until the Disney Princess Half Marathon!

Week Eleven: Disney Princess Half Marathon Training

Week Eleven

Monday – stretching, foam rolling, light yoga

After my ultimate leg workout plus run/walk this past weekend, my legs were really sore. I needed to stretch and foam roll things out. I also did a few yoga positions to loosen up my hips.

30 min

Tuesday – run

I decided I needed to amp up the treadmill work since I've been relying on it for easy workouts and not really benefiting from it. Put it up to 2 incline to mimic outside running. I used http://www.hillrunner.com/training/tmillchart.php to see how that measured up. 

I did run/walk intervals and realized that this incline stuff isn't fun. My left calf felt so tight, I had to hop off the treadmill several times to try and stretch it out. I started getting chills and decided to end it at 30 mins instead of my usual 40. I need to hydrate better!

30:00 mins – 1.78 miles  (16:51/mi)

Wednesday – butt workout

After a long day and night, I was crazy tired and I didn't want to do a strenuous workout that would wake me up and make it tougher for me to get to sleep, so I did butt clenches while checking e-mails. My butt hurt the next day, so it worked!

30 mins

Thursday –run

I didn't want to run. I was too tired. Getting dressed was half the battle, so I got dressed and told myself to at least walk. Then I wrote out my run/walk interval plan. And I ran. I started at a 2% incline, but after the warm up I put it down to 1% since I was planning on doing a speed pyramid. I didn’t even notice the incline! I guess when you bump it down from 2%, 1% doesn’t seem like anything. It really isn’t, but when you add it after months of no incline, you feel it! This was also the first run that I almost threw up. (not counting the 5K I did after being sick all weekend.) I took too much water on a walk interval and had to cut a run interval short. Guess I know how hard I need to push myself in future workouts to kick my own ass!

30 min run time: 2.05 miles (14:38/mi pace)

40:00 mins – 2.52 miles (15:53/mi pace)

Friday – wii tennis

I needed to get my 30 minutes in for the day and I started playing wii tennis and I couldn’t stop! I made it to the PRO level!

50 mins

Saturday – walk

I went to the Wrentham outlets with a friend and we went shopping. I tracked the distance with Runkeeper on my cellphone. I paused it every time we went into a store so I’m sure we walked way more than what was tracked, especially since we were out there for about 1.5 hours and we only tracked 32 mins

1.52 miles – 32:02

Sunday – long run – 8 miles

I was doing the Somerville Jingle Bell 5K today and knew I wouldn’t want to do 5 miles after the race, so I decided to do at least 2 before the race. We all met at a friend’s house that was about 1 mile away from the race. I did 6 laps around the block at my friend’s house to get me to 2 miles. Then we walked about a mile to the race. By that time I had already done a 5K. I knew after the race, I’d only need to do 2 more miles! One mile walking back and one more mile around her block. I was set.

3.29 miles – 1:00:06 (18:17/mi pace)

Somerville Jingle Bell 5K – Race report coming soon. I promise. But it was awesome. They did a great job and I will most definitely support their races in the future!

Official time: 50:08

3.18 miles – 50:12* (15:46/mi pace) *(Garmin)

We walked home and I was surprised to find that I was at 7.5 miles and all I needed to do was .5 miles around the block. I had been taking it easy on my legs for the week so I wasn’t so dead on long run day. I started hurting around mile 7, but compared to my last long run, where I was whining and limping at mile 5, I consider this a success!

1.57 miles – 31:27 (20:05/mile pace)

I also learned that although it’s horrendous, an ice bath is actually pretty helpful. My legs didn’t hurt at all the day after my ice bath, but this time, I didn’t partake in cold ice torture, and my legs hurt me for 2 full days.

Total: 8.01 miles – 2:21:51 (17:39/mi pace)

What a week! I’ve been so busy I haven’t had time to even post this! I’ve been keeping track of everything on dailymile, so I can go back and fill in the blanks. In just a few days I’ll be posting THIS week’s update!

Dec 12- Dec 18

69 days until the Disney Princess Half Marathon!

(as of Monday, Dec 19th)