Just another day.

The pain is back :( As I was falling asleep at a meeting at work, it came back with a vengeance. I had to rush home for some pain-killers and a heating pad. Thank God, I do not have any important races in the next week, only the Covington Century (100 miler). UGH!

Thank you!

In yesterday's blog entry, I forgot to thank all of my friends, who were concerned about me. Thank you for all of your phone calls, emails and all well wishes. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

It's Alive!!!!

These past two weeks have been two weeks of hell! After Chattanooga, on Monday, I woke up with major chest pain, which made it hard for me to breathe. I sucked it up all week, taking various anti-inflammatories, etc. NOTHING HELPED! I only trained two days out of that whole week, which is so unlike me...Finally, last Friday I had enough and went to see a doctor, who was very concerned. He put me on a strong dose of steroids and painkillers and made me promise him if it did not get better on the morning, go to the emergency room. Well, it did not get any better, only worse, so after work on Saturday, I held my promise and went to the ER. That took forever! One of the blood tests (d-Dimer) came up positive, which meant there was a possibility of me having a blood clot. Of course, very heavily medicated, they send me up for a chest cat-scan, which was negative! Yeah! But, what is wrong with me? Nobody seemed to have any answers! They sent me home from the ER with stronger painkillers and with out a diagnosis. Yuck! So, this whole week, Prednisone/Percocet combo made me extremely moody, gave me hot-flashes and sleepless nights! I have been coming home from work and crashing, which also has been hard because there is only one way I can lay down. It has been a complete rollercoaster.... :(
For all of you that know me, it has been the hardest thing not to be active, may be it added to my bad mood. Sorry Steven!

Well, this weekend, i headed up to Mistletoe, not even sure if I was going to be able to race, but Olga and Steven were racing, so I brought my stuff (just in case), and was ready to be cheering squad. Do not know what made me decide to race, but I did and won my age group, and shaved off 6 min. off my time from last year!

After the race, I went up to Dr. Sadri from 1st choice healthcare, just to let him know that I am still among the living-his office has called my house a couple of times to check on me. He decided to stretch me out and said i may have a pinched/pulled diaphragm. After digging into my rib-cage and under the xyphoid process (which was awful!) I got off the table and was actually able to take a deep breath, not completely pain-free, but better. could it be??????

Where is my Red Bull?

Woke up on Saturday feeling kind of funky, like I was getting a cold, UGH! Headed to Chattanooga via Dave's house, who was awesome for coming to Nooga with us to cheer on his peeps. Hooked up with a whole bunch of people from Atlanta who were also racing for dinner at Tony's for some carbloading. The food was awesome! The restaurant was very crowded with triathletes as we were leaving. After dinner, Keith was kind enough to drive the bike course with me, which put the fear of God in me. We clocked some ascends as 1 mile long. Yeah!

Sunday, we were at the transition area by 5:30 to set up. Steven bought me a light that you can strap to your head, very helpful! So, i am looking through my bag for the Red Bull-nowhere to be found! For those of you who do not know me, Red Bull is like a religious experience to me. Before every long work out and before every race. Poor Steven had to go back to the hotel room and find it. Luckily, the hotel was only a few miles away. Whew, got the Bull, it gives you wings, you know?

Well, I did not feel like I had any wings during this race!
During the swim, my throat was so sore, it felt like it was swollen shut! A couple of times I hit some spots in the river where I felt like I was not going any place, after reading Dani's blog, I know I was not the only one! Swim time-35min-awful!
It started to storm during the bike, but the course did not seem as bad on the bike as it seemed from the car. 18.0mph according to my computer, not bad.
I actually love running in the rain, so that was fun! 51min 10k. ugh.

I reached my goal of breaking 3hrs, total time 2:58, but I feel like I could of done better :(

After the race, we went to a first gas station to get me medicated!

Stuff

Well, this week flew by busy as ever at work and in training, even though this is my taper week. I have been coming home exhausted and going to bed. I usually have a really hard falling asleep, but not this week! Chattanooga is only one and a half days away. WOW! I am nervous, jittery, excited and many other emotions not worth mentioning. We shall see.....

I am very glad that most of my peeps will be there either racing or cheering. Thank you all.

And the training goes on.............................

My weekend of training, here goes:
On Friday I ran the Peachtree 10K, it was tough to treat it as a training run since it was a race, but I knew that my mom was behind me, yes she is strong and i would just die if she would of beat me! Also, Henry and Walter were both in my 1A group and i knew they were right there, as well as Steven! The first 3 miles were OK, very congested in the very beginning (will start in the front of the group next year). At the 4th mile, I decided to take a gel, and as I opened it up, it fell out of my hand :( No gel!!! Around mile 5, I saw Dave with his video cam, at this point it was a bit of a struggle, but I had to look happy on camera! Overall, the run went well-46:44 garmin time. Congratulations to my mom, the super-star, Keith, Jenny, Walter, Henry and Steven who all finished strong!
The run was followed by a 2000 yard swim, and I am proud to say, that I did not cheat on that workout. I wanted to, though! That evening we had a great dinner at Noche with a lecture from Steve Brown on IM!
Saturday, I had plans to go to the gaps, but the meteorologist called for 60% chance of rain! That was a crock.......never rained at all. next time, I am going. probably will get caught in a down pour! Spent 2hrs on a spin bike with a 40 min run afterwards.
This morning went to Red Top, for an open water swim. Swam close to 3000m and it felt pretty good. Dave and Steven did their own thing, they both looked strong out there.

The props of the week go out to mom, who got in a nasty lake and swam like a fish!

I am very proud of all my friends who are stepping it up big time this year! You guys are amazing and an inspiration to me. Keep up the great work.

Iron Girl

The 3:30AM wake up time did not come soon enough, I was already awake! (and somewhat ready to race)

The swim:
Got caught up in a "machine washer" of arms and legs! It was so tight, it was hard to get a full stroke in. As soon as we got around the first boui, it was pretty smooth after that.

The bike:
Felt great 'till the chain came off-what's up with that?!

The run:
The run was too short, I just started to warm up and it was over!

1:47-22/112 AG 100/672 OL