No running, no cycling, no stairs, no kneeling, no no no.

Allow me to translate for you what I heard as the doctor spoke these words to me yesterday: DOOM!

First of all, do not ask me why I had a doctor's appointment on Sunday afternoon. For the same reason that Voula's sister had a doctor's appointment at midnight a few weeks back. It's Greece.

I was happy though to meet with this specialist as a second opinion. He is a friend of Pepie's cousin, and as Pepie was also having knee troubles, he agreed to see us - and he didn't charge us. A little blessing in itself!

This doc studied my x-ray and found some issues with my kneecap, as the other one did, but pronounced a more detailed problem and treatment. I am young enough that the eroded cartilage should mold back into position with proper rest and exercises (muscle strengthening to make my kneecap work properly), without surgery. But this entails doing basically nothing that involves bending my knee. Try doing that for even an hour!

The anti-inflammatories that the other doctor gave me have helped the pain subside for the most part (why can't I take these forever?), and today I went to the gym to do some of the isometric exercises. The words "lifestyle change" have definitely been sitting heavily in my thoughts the past two days. I should be able to have normal function in my knees again, but things like running would only continue to aggravate it. There is a pool very close by that I will be joining when I get back from Thessaloniki. I don't love swimming. But I'm going to learn to like it!!! (I'm still holding out for mountain biking in the future!)

Goodbye to my running days, triathlons, etc. Wow. It's kind of a big deal for me! :(

aqua run

My day started at 6:58 am when I jerked awake and thought, "the race!" At which I was supposed to arrive at 7. Thankfully I live 10 minutes away and made it by 7:30. Thankfully, ALSO, my friend Cindy from the Unity Coalition agreed to swim for me! :) So really it was just a nice (hilly, 90 degree) morning run.

Oasis USA did a great job of putting it together to raise money for Stop the Traffik and human trafficking victims.

Team AWESOME :)

Jamie and Jason both did the whole thing, yay for them!By the time our heat went, it was around 9, and already so hot that I wanted to jump in the water myself! I actually wished that I were swimming instead of running.

(Go Team AWESOME!)

swimming is not that bad, as it turns out

Aside from the getting wet thing, it can be quite refreshing.

I swam my half mile today without my watch. I discovered that I did not in fact throw out my goggles. I should have. True to form, they leaked during my warmup lap. To avoid this, I adjusted the straps and resuctioned the eye parts (that is the technical name), and by my 10th or 12th lap I was willing myself to hurry up and finish because my eyes were about to bug out of my head and I was sure blood vessels were about to burst on my delicate under-eye skin. Plus it just really HURT! I think I still have circles around my eyes from the suctioning.

In truth, I blame it on my face. I have never had much luck with goggles, expensive or inexpensive. I think I have a small face. I should try the children's sizes. Except I don't suppose they would fit around my head then. Usually I do fine, after a couple of adjustments after each of my first few laps. It doesn't work that way in a race, unfortunately. Whatever shall I do?

The swimming part was good, though. It felt good to be in the pool again, actually. I'll be fine for next Saturday. A little slow, but fine. Provided I can have several warmup laps for goggle adjustments.

Remember this lovely picture?

That was two or three pairs of goggles ago. They worked all right. I broke them.

do it

I'm pretty sure I threw away my goggles after my last triathlon in June. I don't particularly care for swimming, and I determined never to do it again. Plus, they filled up with water immediately upon entering the contaminated stink hole magical lagoon at Disneyland. Michael Phelps called, wants his leaky goggles back.

But through my matchless motivational skills, I have already nearly convinced at least 3-4 friends, plus myself, to do this "Aqua Run" sponsored by Oasis USA in a couple of weeks. It's fine with me that we won't be biking, frankly, because it takes too long and road biking is boring. (Listen to me, why do I even do triathlons?? I really do think they are fun.) A quick swim and a quick run, raising money for victims of human trafficking, and it's 10 minutes from my house. Of COURSE I am going to do it! :)

So, pop into your local Target and pick up some cheap goggles, because if I've even heard a rumor that you know how to run, I'm going to be calling. :)

hmmm...

I don't pose or anything...

this year:

last year:

ha ha

(I don't have any from the first one because I did it alone. Sniff.)

and in my spare time...

why not throw in a triathlon??? :)

I was up at 4am for this swim/bike/run around Disneyland and California Adventure. Wide awake, with fervor and excitement. Here I am trying to find Sharone at 5am (really I put this one in because it is the only non-hideous photo of me from the whole day)...

My latest victim/convert! (You can read her uproarious account of the day here.)

(The body marking girl had some trouble writing "960" on me this morning. I know they are hard numbers. It was early.)

My loyal fan base (equally filled with fervor and excitement)

Settin' her up for 1600 competitors:

Disney at daybreak:

Can I tell you something? This was the grossest, nastiest, foulest swim EVER. I think Sharone had to dodge garbage. When I got out, I had dark dirty drops of mud (I mean water) dripping off me.

Sharone didn't like it either.

The rest was fine, quick. And happily, I blew my ("I didn't train a lick for this thing") goal out of the water!!

We finished.

And she looks good even after finishing a triathlon. I hate her a little bit.

So THEN, I got to go up to Santa Monica, where you can see weird things like this:

And I got to see my friend Casey from SPU and her husband Carlos. I haven't seen her in something like 6 years. We read each other's blogs so it was fun to catch up in person. They are fun. :)

I'm tired.

oh my!

Another reason why I don't like triathlons in the ocean! (There are offical tris at this beach!)

I'm pregnant!!!

Ah, shoot. April Fool's.

Can I just say that I am SO OVER anything having to do with triathlons right now.

I hate swimming.

I should be biking 20-25 miles a few times a week right now. I'm NOT.

I should be running more than 3-4 miles 4-5 times a week. I CAN'T.

I'm TIRED. Of it ALL.

All right, bear with me. I'll get over it. Right now I just want to lay on my couch and be tired all the time. When I somehow get over this stint of exhaustion, I'll register for the race and move on with it. But PLEASE, don't make me think about more than a sprint right now. Because I'll probably cry. Or eat a chocolate cake. Or watch the Biggest Loser and then go to the gym.

At least if I were really pregnant I'd have a good excuse!

day off

How I spent most of my day today:

• Got lots of reading done for class today (although I still have a paper for tomorrow that I haven't started yet).

• Swam a mile. I knocked off 3 minutes from my previous time! I experimented with my breathing, breathing less often, and was able to swim a lot faster and more consistently.

• Had a yummy dinner with a friend.

• Did laundry.
  

It will be hard someday not having three day weekends. :)

swim, bike, run, yippee!

Did all three this weekend, a little attempt at training I guess. Ran 6 miles on Saturday, felt like crap. Went mountain biking on Sunday afternoon, with a little more caution this time so as not to kill myself, and successfully navigated the trail. :) And today I swam, 2/3 of a mile this time, feeling pretty good. My half mile time was about 21 minutes, almost a minute faster than last week. So that's good. I hope to be improving on that in the coming months.

a wee little tri update

I went swimming today, one mile. That is a LONG swim. 36 laps (=72 lengths). I haven't swam (swum/swimmed/gone swimming) since my last tri, last June! (There's a reason for that.) I'm not telling how long it took, because I can definitely trim some time off. Ok fine, it was 45 minutes. ... Are you done laughing? Thank you. :)

Superbowl...what?

Last year this day Janell and I had our own superbowl party. We made ourselves some spinach artichoke dip, pigs in a blanket, and I forget what other party delicacies, and ate during the whole first half of the game and then napped the whole second half. Two years ago I actually watched the thing, when the Seahawks were in it (I'm a fair-weather fan).

I ran my own little 10K yesterday. I didn't have high expectations of myself since I haven't run that far since the Great Rib Incident of 2007 and after that I was in Israel for a month. But I finished the 6.2 mi and even felt good (although a little slow). If I can get out on my bike this month and start swimming again, I'll be able to decide about that olympic tri.

In the meantime, I told my friend Sharone that she could and should do a triathlon, that it's cool and fun, and that if she did one I'd do it with her...and she's thinking about it! I'm so inspiring. ;)

Now I have to go watch that football game, I guess to validate my American citizenship.

Apparently I'm blogged out.

That's the Sea of Galilee and an interesting fellow named Brian.

Sometimes I feel this way.

I got nothin'.

Well, ok, I have lots of things, but they don't go together, and I haven't really thought through most of them. It's not yet 8:30 and I've already eaten my morning snack, so I'd better capitalize on that energy. Let's see...

Spiritual Warfare. I am taking this class this semester. It started on Tuesday, when at the conclusion of class we watched a video of an exorcism. "Boring" it never promised to be.

Counseling. I'm taking a counseling class at a local church; it's a year-long training after which I could potentially play the role "lay counselor." Last week I learned that we have 3 trillion brain cells, and even a small bump to the head can cause us to lose 10,000 to 20,000 cells. If hit in the right place, we can forget simple things like how to tie our shoes or someone's name. It makes me wonder about the time I whacked my head in a cave in Israel and got a big goose-egg. If I had locked my keys in my car in the ignition twice in one month in the same place AFTER this happened I might have some excuse for that. But I didn't. It was before. So I have no excuse.

Trafficking. I read this book yesterday, by a 15-year-old who is an activist against modern-day slavery. It's really directed toward teens, and it's sprinkled with statistics and stories and encouragement on leadership and making a difference. I was interested because on Wednesday Janell and I are speaking to the high school group about human trafficking. I'm pretty excited; let's get the word out, y'all.

Races...? Time to start thinking about races again. Dare I mention here that I am seriously considering making this the year to do that olympic distance triathlon...we'll see. I'll decide at end of February. The sprint race is fun, and I can always fall back on that, but how cool would it be to finally do one a little longer. The issue is time for training...tune in later for more information on aches, pains, and exhaustion.

running and walking

1. I ran 10 miles Friday night. I felt really good, although my knees bothered me a little for a day or two afterward, mostly on stairs. I like running. I am still indecisive about doing a half marathon because I can't figure out why I like doing this to my body. I can practically feel the cartilage in my knees wearing down. It's unfortunate really, because I think if it weren't for my actual body, I'd do marathons or longer. :)

2. I'm going to Israel in December & January. We've begun meeting every week with our group and doing weekly homework assignments (which I have yet to complete, but nevermind that). When we first signed up, we got a letter about the basic preparations we needed to start doing, passport stuff, dr. appointments, school paperwork, and...practice walking. It really said that. ...

3. On the mountain biking trail that I ran on Friday, there are various parts that have a flatter trail alongside a more challenging one for bikers. Some of those alternate trails are pretty steep (and much more fun for biking, not running). So Friday night as I started to run I saw a group of 40-50 people gathered around in a circle. I did a little loop a few times that night, and I saw them embark on a walk together, with hiking shoes, walking sticks, backpacks, brand new outfits from REI, etc. In Fullerton. On the loop. Most of them took these alternate steeper bike trails. I am sure they must be practicing for some sort of trip! So people actually do that!?

4. I have considered going on more hikes or something to prepare, but I guess if I can run 10, then walking a couple isn't going to hurt me. I guess if I have a hard time once I get there, I'll just run.

Number Crunching

No, not accounting...thank God. It's these kinds of numbers that keep me occupied throughout the day (not to mention the little notebooks filled with them...). I may have become mildly obsessed, but I just prefer to think of it as "health-minded"...

Today:
Special K ~ 200 cal.
Quakes (rice crackers) ~ 70
2 hardboiled eggs ~ 156
Lean Cuisine ~ 270
peach ~ 50
apple ~ 100
yogurt ~ 60 (=906 cal)
8.2 mile trail run ~ (864 cal burned)

Now we are baking fresh tilapia, brown rice and some vegetables and somewhere I gotta find about 800 more calories to eat. :)

It felt good to be back out there on the trail again (Fullerton Loop). I'll probably be a little stiff tomorrow; lots of hills and uneven ground, not to mention the layer of thick dirt I am covered in...

It's not the shoes.

My new running shoes have been feeling really good on my feet while I run. But as for the other aches and pains that they're supposed to be helping...not so much. I've still had a bit of knee pain, and yesterday I ran a 10K and was keenely aware of my right hip, left knee, and left ankle. I feel like an old person. I wasn't expecting magic healing, but they told me it would help. Who knows, maybe it would be worse without the shoes.

what a difference a shoe makes?

Well, whaddaya know ... turns out I've been running in the wrong shoes, and not JUST the wrong shoes, but the wrongest possible shoes. I finally had to break down and buy new running shoes (only about 6-8 months too late), and I decided to go into the Running Lab in Orange for a proper fitting. My friend who works there has been insisting that I'm running in the wrong shoes because if they were the RIGHT shoes, I would not be having my periodic knee pain, etc.

I believe him. I really do. But knee and hip pain runs in my family and no shoe is going to make that go away. But I knew that the proper shoes could at least slow the process of whatever is happening to my poor body. So, my beloved Nimbus = the WRONG SHOE.

After all their measurements and tests and footprints and touchy feeling and observations, turns out my right leg is secretly a fraction longer than my left leg, my joints are loose, and I pronate way more than I thought I did. At least, way more than the people at the OTHER running store noticed. So I got my new shoes, Saucony, and we'll see if they stand the test of time. Not too much time, though, these things don't last very long, and definitely not as long as I like to make them last.

How was that for a completely scintillating blog?

And more tri pics

The professional pics were posted this week, here are a few more from last week's race:

Janell coming out of the water (ok, I'm a little bitter...all the other ladies I raced with got pictures of them coming out of the lake but NOT ME!)
Janell looking very intense...

Wow, a running picture that is not totally nasty! That never happens!

On the home stretch, at the finish.

another silly one of our group :) (is this the same one I posted last week?)

Race Day

This was so much fun!!! I love triathlons. Call me whatever you want. I think they are such a blast. I actually had the thought "this is so fun!" during the swim this time, as opposed to hating myself for being there in that lake last time. :) I just attacked it this time. :)
Weather was great - it was overcast the whole time and probably in the high 60s. I thought it would be cold but it was perfect. it started to warm up as we hit the run but still felt good. I'm grateful that the sun stayed hidden until almost everyone there finished.
I'm really happy with my times - I cut off significant time from my times from last year in all three: Cut 6 minutes from my swim, 4 min. from the bike, and 2.5 min. from the run! I finished in 1:52:38. We ran in the mixed age group section, so we could all race together. I finished 11th out of 129 ladies in that group! Wahoo! Overall there were about 700 competitors today. Danskin is always really well organized and make it a lot of fun. They even call your name out as you cross the finish line. :)
It was SO FUN having friends to do it with this time. Janell finished her first triathlon today, and some women from church did it too...

We had twin outfits. The Bobsie Twins. Bright and early. It started at 6:45am. I woke up at 5am. 5 AM.
After I finished I was able to run back and grab the camera and capture Janell's finish :)

After... (hmm, this kind of looks like the before picture, just with medals)

Our whole group, afterward. Everyone finished and did great!

(The photographer suggested this ridiculous pose...)

I think I need a nap...

Branded, #767