Inspiration

According to Merriam-Webster the definition of crazy is: "mad or insane".  The definition of inspirational is: "the action or power of moving the intellect or emotions".  My Grandmother is both of these definitions wrapped into one person.  She is amazing, INSPIRING, CRAZY, loving, awesome, and so much more.  She is 83 years young and was recently diagnosed with "advanced staged" breast cancer.  I say "advanced stage" because no one has really given it a stage yet to give us any more accuracy.  Did this news rattle me?  Decidedly.  Did this news depress me?  Just a bit.  Did this news make me happy?  Ridiculous, couldn't be farther from the truth.  You know what this new did do?  It showed me how strong my Grandma is because this news hasn't phased her in the slightest.  While the rest of the family was sad, or worried, or upset, or any number of emotions far from elated, she was telling us she was fine and not to worry.  She has infuriated doctors by saying that there isn't anything wrong with her because she doesn't hurt, can keep moving just fine, and is the same person now as she was a month ago before we found out anything.  She's crazy.  Her legitimate biggest worry was not being able to go to work and keep doing what she had always been doing.  She's been through a myriad of tests to assess how well she will withstand treatment, and most of these things wear people out just from testing.  You would never know that anything was up just by talking to her.  I've talked to her a number of times since finding out the news that there's something evil attempting to take over my Grandma and today she was the happiest that I have heard in a long time.  She called to tell me "the best news!" , she went to one of her doctors today to talk about port placement and he told her that she is definitely still allowed to work.  Are you kidding me? The best news that you have received is that you're still allowed to work while going through chemo?  Yep, that's my Grandma.  She talks about how she's so proud of her grandchildren because we're all such hard workers and aren't lazy.  You could combine ALL of us, and we wouldn't be able to touch the hard work, incredible work ethic, motivation, and strength that this one woman possesses.  She's ridiculous.  If you had been able to hear her voice you would have thought that she had just won the lottery, not that she was told that she gets to keep working.  She's 83 years old, that should be reason enough to not work, let alone the fact that she is facing breast cancer and about to have a crazy fight against her own body.  When people say that my Grandma is the center of our family, they have no idea how true they are.  She had a huge hand in raising every single one of her grandchildren, and we are 100% better off for it.  She taught us how to work hard, deal with idiots, and not only told us what to do in life, but lead by a strong example.  I couldn't be more proud of my Grandma or to tell people that yes, she helped raise me.  She's badass and I dare anyone to tell me otherwise.  

So when I'm on a treadmill FOREVER because I'm training for a marathon, just because I'm tired is not a good enough excuse to stop.  When I don't want to go to work because people are retarded, my excuse doesn't hold a candle to what she's going through.  Headache?  Flu?  Just don't feel like working?  No matter what your excuse to not work may be, it is 100% completely invalid.  Don't let an 83 year old woman out work you no matter what your "excuse" or "reason" may be.  She's a badass and an inspiration for us all.  

New things

 I know, super vague title, oh well! Just a quick update, training is going well. I've been messing around with some faster speeds and i can already tell a difference! With those new speeds came a new idea. One of my friends thinks it will be fun to coach me. This could either be incredibly fun or incredibly painful lol. He's really fast and entertaining so this should be good. Im interested to see what he has in store for me.

OK well i really just wanted to see how posting this with my new tablet would work so yeah! Back to work i go!

Changes

Ok, well a few things are changing around here.  First off I think I have finally found a job that I can enjoy that benefits me, other people, and Red.  I am officially a Personal Trainer at Life Time Fitness and I'm actually really excited!  LT just sent its new hires to Dublin for a training week and I got to know the other new trainers that I will be working with, it was all expenses paid and a lot of fun!

One of the new trainers, Allie, is really cool and does marathons!  She's almost a foot taller than me, which is funny, but she has agreed to help keep me honest in my training this year.  We're both doing a marathon in May and she said she will keep me company on my long days since she needs to get long runs in too.  Well during all of this nonsense we were talking about jobs we have had in the past and how personal training is COMPLETELY different than either of our previous career paths.  We both agreed though that this is different in a good way.  I've wanted to be a doctor forever, and that didn't pan out.  Yeah I'm unhappy about that, but it's interesting because the entire week we were in training, and every time I talk to my training "mentor" of sorts, I'm super excited about what all I can learn and do with training.  I'm taking it as an awesome sign that I'm excited to start a new job that involves me pushing people and making them do things they didn't think they could do before.  I wanted to be a doctor to help people overcome illnesses and, incoming hero sounding, to actually save lives because I wanted to work in the Emergency Room.  If the opportunity comes up I will jump on being a doctor in a heart beat, but for now I'm embracing the idea of helping other people in a different aspect of life.  The one thing that I will enjoy the most is the fact that the people who would be coming to me would WANT help, they will be WANTING to get in better shape and prolong their health.  There were so many times that I would see 400+ pound people come into the hospital for health issues that could be nearly completely resolved if they lost 250 pounds or more.  These are the same people that don't want help, and their families enable them to the point where they are on track to become a freak show special on a tv show of "I'm trapped in my 800lb body and can't get out" or something.  With Personal Training nearly everyone is on board with the "I may be 300lbs over weight, but I don't want to stay this way and my family is helping me make changes as well" instead of buying 8 McDonalds cheeseburgers, they are helping them cook better or have better grocery shopping habits.  That is the part that excites me.  Plus, there are other certifications that I can get which would allow me to help people from more of a physical therapy stand point.  A lot of health insurance companies only pay for physical therapy for so long and the person may not be completely ready to go back to whatever it was they did before their injury.  I have been told that I could get a certification, like my mentor, that is all about corrective exercises which would help me train people to allow their physical therapy to be carried over instead of coming to an abrupt stop.  I wouldn't be training them to do olympic lifts or train for a marathon, I may not even be helping them lose real weight, but I could have the opportunity to help them do normal mundane day to day tasks and increase their rang of motion.

When I was in training this week our instructor brought in a client of his who should be the poster child of personal training and its health/medical benefits.  He was a 66 year old man who was battling/beating/dealing with prostate cancer.  He has been working with Noah for over 5 years, and statistically speaking he should be dead.  Most people diagnosed with his form of prostate cancer have a life expectancy of 39 months after diagnosis, he's well passed that and doesn't show any signs of slowing down.  In order to help him keep his cancer under control, which had metastasized to his bones, more specifically his right shoulder, he has to have hormone ablation therapy which obliterates his testosterone levels.  Without testosterone he cannot make lean muscle mass, another side effect is his therapy causes most people to balloon up and can gain upwards of 100lbs if they don't take care of it.  We were able to question him like crazy and he attributed much of his extended life expectancy and high quality of life to his ability to stay active through personal training.  He did physical therapy but they didn't push him enough and essentially were just waiting for things to get really bad before trying anything different.  He came to Noah and voila! He has become a medical anomaly, which he is WAY ok with, he says he's not the only one either though.  If I could get to where I was doing personal training for someone with cancer and you could see how you're extending their life, instead of helping them fit into a tiny bikini, that would be one of the coolest opportunities on the planet.

Well this is quite lengthy, but as you can tell I'm super excited :D  My training for running is going well and I've discovered that my sprinting abilities are decidedly down.  I played soccer last night and I don't know if it was the wine with dinner or the fact that I haven't played soccer in two years, maybe a combo of the two, but sprinting was something I was dragging out of my legs.  I am going to add a lot more speed work to my training now.  Happy days!

Not a fan of "Pigeon Pose"

So I'm supposed to be starting my marathon training but I live in Ohio..that means it's really freaking cold, snowy, rainy, icy, and overall nasty.  I'm not a huge fan of running in this nonsense, but I have to if I want to not suck at the Flying Pig Marathon again this year.  I should really move :D Last I checked Red wasn't a huge fan of that idea.  I'll get over it, eventually, or I'll just continue to complain about it like I have for the past 27 years.

Meanwhile, I've been interested in taking a yoga class for quite a while, pretty much since I joined my gym nearly 3 years ago, but until today I never took a yoga class.  I don't really like taking classes on my own because I get bored, and no matter how much I asked, bribed, or begged Red, he refused to join me.  A couple of my friends recently joined my gym so I took advantage of their interest in trying different classes and general interest in working out, and asked them to join me in a Hot Vinyasa Yoga.  I knew the class would fill up fast, because I once tried to go to the same class a while ago and it was full 10 minutes before it was to start.  Brad and Lauren showed up nearly 30 minutes before the class started to save me a spot.  I was special and set my alarm to go off in the pm instead of am so I was very glad that they showed up early and that I woke up on my own, albeit an hour later than planned, but still on time.  I made it to the class 10 minutes before it started and only had a mat because they saved me one.  So we knew that this was supposed to be "hot yoga" and I had read other reviews of different "hot yoga" and was prepared for a complete sweat fest.  Well either I don't sweat that much, or the room simply was not that warm, because it was not the sweatfest I was imagining.  It was still fun though!  I bent and stretched in ways that I decidedly needed to, and I wasn't the only one feeling like I was made of cement and needed some serious work on my flexibility.  The only thing that I didn't like was towards the end the instructor told us to get into "pigeon pose", I am officially not a fan of "pigeon pose".  I was super uncomfortable and we sat there for about 2-3 minutes for each leg.  I understand that she was slowing the class down for the time to relax, but seriously, sitting in pigeon pose is not a fun time.  The rest of the class was very enjoyable, and hopefully next time I will have time to eat beforehand so I'm not driving over specifically for a 1 hour class.  If my friends are willing, I think that I'm going to try to make Sunday morning Hot Yoga a regular event!  The rest of my body was grateful for a new work out, though I may have over stretched because parts of my legs were feeling very jello-like.

I'm out of town this week, so we'll see how much working out I actually get done.  I'm really hoping that I can amp up my workouts, but I've been feeling fairly unmotivated and my typical work out partner has decided to go on a serious hiatus and become a permanent fixture on the couch.  Hopefully I can get a new start and a good start on training.  If Ohio would stop being so cold that would definitely help.  But if I wait for good weather then I'm going to be barely a month out from the marathon, decidedly not enough training time. That would be a terrible idea!

Let's try this again, shall we?

So...I left off with me heading into my first Ironman at Ironman Florida in Panama City.  I have obviously survived since I'm writing again, but nonetheless someone may be interested in a quick snippet of how things went.

The Expo/Check in:  We showed up a day early to beat the crazy crowds that would be coming the next day and it was well worth it.  We could check out the booths, not feel rushed, and not feel like I was about to be trampled or carried away.  I am probably going to say this a million times, but the volunteers were AMAZING.  I loved every single one of them, they were super sweet, patient, and on top of anything you needed.  Check-in worked smoothly, and since we weren't stuck in a line with 2,000 of our closest friends, it went quickly too.

Highlight of my trip, pic with my favorite triathlete Mirinda Carfrae

We went to the welcome dinner, and I highly recommend going.  The speeches were nice, presentations were useful, and the food was nice.  If you want a lot of food then you may want to bring your own, or plan on eating sometime other than the welcome dinner.

Red and I decided to do a practice swim since we had never actually swam in the ocean before, playing around yes, actually swimming, no.  We were treated with a sight of a stingray "flying".  I had no idea that stingrays could jump out of the water.  We watched it jump in and out of the water for about 5 minutes, I was thoroughly amused but then immediately went all Shark Week and thought it was running from a predator.  Yep.  Smart.  We also went for a practice ride just to loosen up, and I flatted.  I had not had a flat on my new bike the entire year, but at least it was not during the race, it was the day before the race, that my tire decided to test my tire changing skills.  I fixed it and we went back to relaxing.

Meanwhile, we stayed in a fantastic hotel/condo/whatever-amazing-view-room-awesomeness-you-call-it.  I could seriously move there in a heart beat.

Gear the night before for 2 Ironman participants, LOTS of planning and organizing!

Race Day:
Swim:

The swim was...interesting...the waves were super tall which is not good when you're super small.  Red and I waited on the beach together during the explanation of the course, again, and the National Anthem.  We started walking into the waves together and then we split up.  Red was managing the waves MUCH better than I was so we agreed to not slow each other down and off he went.  Once I was through the waves though I passed him and subsequently passed him.  I felt fine the whole swim and just went to la-la land and tried to swim straight.  Swim: 1:23:33 (I need to improve A LOT), next year

My neck the next day, my wet suit was very hungry during the swim, didn't bother me during the race though.

T1
Nothing super remarkable happened in T1 except I learned what to wear under my wetsuit to make changing happen faster.  T1 took forever.

Bike:
This took FOREVER.  I have yet again learned the hard way that I need to drink A LOT more during my biking.  I felt fine during it, I was just tired at the end and well over being on my bike.  I thought things were going well the first half because I had to pee and was feeling good. Then I thought I had waited too long to pee because I wasn't feel that great, when in all reality I did not realize it was now 83 degrees and I had not consumed NEARLY enough fluids.  I was fairly on track with my eating, but then that tanked because I wasn't drinking, I was overheating, but still having fun, go figure.  I realized I was too warm and started taking 2 water bottles from each aid station, one to wear and one to drink.  I did great wearing a water bottle, but I would drink the second one about 1/4 of the way then forget about it until the next aid station where I chucked nearly a full water bottle.  The volunteers were, again, AWESOME.  I called out for water coming into an aid station and I missed a guy who was waiting for me.  I knew I needed the water so I started to slow down, I didn't need to slow too much because I looked over and the guy was in a dead sprint trying to get to me so I didn't have to stop/wait/slowdown, ridiculous!  I was fully capable of getting off my bike to get water, but he was SPRINTING trying to get my water, fantastic!  After that I wondered where Red was because I had expected him to catch me at the half way point and he never did, we saw each other for a hot second, but that was it.  It turned out that he didn't catch me because his foot was cramping so he was doing a lot of pedal-stop-unclip-rub foot-repeat.  I finally came into T2 super happy to be off the bike.  Bike time: 6:41:09, ugh.

T2:
Nothing super exciting except for the volunteers all telling me I looked super strong and ready to run.  They were either talking to an imaginary person next to me, trying to give me false confidence, or are blind, because I was far from "ready to kill the run".  I didn't feel terrible anymore, but "killing a run" was not on my agenda anymore.  Oh well.  Still super awesome and efficient volunteers!

Run: (There's a reason it's called a Death March)

Yep, considering it took me longer to "run" 26.2 miles than it did for me to bike 112 miles, that should tell you something.  I felt fairly decent the first 6ish miles, but then it all went down hill fast.  My quads felt like cement and beaten to a pulp, I didn't realize how grumpy my back felt until I went to bend over, and I was SEVERELY dehydrated.  I started trying to drink some coke and water on the course, but that made me feel worse, or so I thought at the time.  Basically I thought I was in survival mode and I was really in idiot mode, ugh.  I tried to enjoy the people along the course, and they really put a ton of energy into the race, but once you get to a certain point you just either want to curl up in a ball and die, or just cry, or just move on and get to the next mile.  The first option sounded the most appealing, the second option almost happened, but the third option is what I stuck with in the end.  I was able to see Mirinda Carfrae finish her race as I was beginning my marathon portion, which that was really cool to me, then I saw a couple people who's blogs I follow, also cool, then it was less cool and more "just finish".  I was hugged by a pleather suited cat woman carrying a riding crop, a far too tall man on roller skates wearing only a speedo, and a weird old man wearing a speedo, shirt collar and shirt cuffs, all cheering me on.  I had people whom I had never met nor had any idea who there were all telling me how proud they were and how all of the athletes were inspirational.  I felt far from inspirational, I felt like death, but I am also positive it was all of the spectators on the course cheering for the ENTIRE DAY that helped get everyone through.  One guy almost knocked me down he patted me on the back so hard, but they all made us laugh and smile which was exactly what I needed.  I ran into Red's family and his mom walked a mile or so with me during the marathon to keep me company, then she went back to wait on Red and keep him company since he was still behind me.  The cool part about the run course was that I could see Red a few times and find out how he was doing.  We were both hurting but he can walk SUPER FAST.  I have short midget legs that only move so fast, and he was attempting to catch me with his super long strides.  I made it to the finish, before Red, got my stuff and hung out with his mom until Red crossed the finish line a half hour after me :D  We were super happy to be done, healthy, and uninjured.  I had a ton of fun, then we got in line for our pictures and I become much less fine very quickly.  Remember how dehydrated I was earlier?  Yeah, I didn't magically get re-hydrated and ended up dry heaving, nearly passing out, and being threatened with an IV from the local doc.  Oops.  No IV though!  Yeah!

We headed back to our condo place for the night and showered, and showered, and showered, then sat down and refused to move for the next foreseeable future.  

My favorite recovery spot!

So that's my race report!  My goal is to not take so long to post the next time, and maybe use this blog as a better way to keep me accountable in my training for 2013.

For 2013 I have a slew of races that I want to do and after yesterday's 5k I would say that there is A LOT of room for improvement!  If I stick with my training plan though I may actually improve, who would have thunk it! :P

Happy 2013!  Stay safe!