Last Week of 2005

Being in my taper for Goofy Challenge and all, I just wasn’t much for blogging this past week. But, if you must know, I completed all my workouts during the week and here’s a summary, along with any highlights:

12/26: Nothing. Nada. Nil. No work, no workouts!

12/27: 1:30AM Woke up with my stomach doing major flip-flops, and finally got out of bed and went to the bathroom where I violently vomited whatever was left in there. I think it may have been due to eating food I was unused to at a restaurant the day before, although I did choose the “dieter’s delight.” Maybe it was the cottage cheese. Sometimes I’m sensitive to lactose. Maybe it was the cucumbers. Maybe the greek chicken. Oh well. I fell back asleep, and didn’t feel very well the entire day.

3:01PM Run :45, easy to upper steady. Felt OK, even though my stomach was still not too calmed down, but at least my legs were finally recovered from the Sunday lifting session.

12/28: I slept 11 hours. This confirmed that I must have picked up some sort of stomach bug. I just don’t sleep THAT much! I didn’t feel 100% upon waking.

8:40AM Swim 2600 yards in :54. The water was VERY warm, and I could not swim well at all. But being in the water felt good after all the stomach nonsense.

3:19PM Bike 1:15 as WU: 15’ easy, 3’ spinups, 3x(2’ Z3, 1’cd); MS: 10’, 12’, 15’ FT (2’);
CD: 7’ easy. I had LOTS O’ WATTS!!! I hit 164, 166, 166, respectively on the 3 FT intervals. Shows you what a little rest will do for the legs! I really got the glassware vibrating harmonically with the trainer.

12/29: After that 11 hour sleep the night before, I had trouble falling asleep. I ended up taking
Some Tylenol Sleep to help me along. I noticed that my stomach still didn’t feel too great. See this is one of the bad byproducts of tapering for me—my stomach is just not right. I don’t feel like eating what I normally do, and I’m not exercising like I normally do, so things aren’t digesting quickly as I’m used to. On the bright side, though, glad to be getting over this (if it is viral at all) now rather than in a week.

11:37AM Run 1:45. LAST LONG RUN BEFORE GOOFY!!!! I felt pretty exceptional doing this run, even with only having done a puny :45 run 2 days earlier (in general, my long runs feel best when I’ve done about ½ the time 1-2 days before it). Of course, the run finished with 30’ of tempo work. Yee-haw!!! My heart rate was a little high, but I felt great. Something about knowing this is the final big “money in the bank” before the race.

Because the run felt so good, and I did end up going pretty hard, I gave myself a treat:

1:50PM Swim 1000 yards in :20. Just flopped around. This felt great.

12/30: I was finally feeling “normal” again. Nothing like a 2+ hour workout the day before to almost set me right.

11:30AM Strength, abs and core only :35.

1:28PM Swim 2200 yards in :45. Included another 1000 yard TT. I was slower than last week, probably because the water was warmer, and I had worked my arms somewhat in the core session earlier. Oh well. I’m not worried at this point.

2:30 PM Run :45, easy to steady. Felt good!

12/31/2005 New Year’s Eve: My last “long” ride and brick before Goofy Challenge!

10:42AM Bike 1:32, Run :30. I had lots o’ watts again on the bike, this being only my second ride of the week and tapering down. I held 138, 141 and 146 watts average for each of the 3 HIM intervals, and my heart rate was nice and low. There is almost nothing better on a ride to have high cadence (speed), low heart rate and high watts simultaneously! Takes me back to a ride I did in late August when I was going 33MPH while pedaling in the big chain ring with a slight tail wind on a flat! That was SO tasty.

I didn’t have plans for New Year’s Eve—enjoyed watching a movie and I did break down and have 1 beer, and boy I got a good buzz! I’ve not had anything to drink in a week, and won’t have any again until after Goofy Challenge.

1/1/2006 Happy New Year! The day started off well enough. I slept well, even enjoying waking up around midnight to the sound of fireworks, firecrackers, and a little bit of controlled mayhem here in suburbia. I used the short time awake to clear some unnecessary negativity out of my mind so I could start the new year fresh.

At about 10:15AM today, I was suddenly seized with lower abdominal cramps—I’m not sure if they are related to the fact that I should be getting a period this week (I’m on the 3-month cyclical pills to keep me “regular,” as I’m perimenopausal and my body has been doing strange things the last few years).

At first the cramps felt innocuous enough, but the intensity increased until I was experiencing white-hot pain like I’ve never felt before. I thought that this must be how childbirth feels, but then I thought, no this is worse, I can’t even push on anything to relieve the pain. I broke out in a cold sweat, curled up in the fetal position on the bathroom floor (actually hoping to vomit or something that would end my misery), and briefly wondered if I was about to die.

My first response to pain is to try and fight it, but I knew that would be futile, so I just “let it be,” and began taking deep breaths and just stayed with it. I tried standing up because I thought it might be a good idea to take some naproxen sodium (generic formulation of Alleve) in case this continued, but my equilibrium was gone, so I sat down and kept up my deep breathing. I think it lasted about 15 minutes. I focused solely on being with the pain so that it could exit my being.

It felt like I was sweating out of places on my body that shouldn’t sweat, and I got very cold, and then the pain just stopped. I knew this was no time to make any sudden movements, but I did need to warm up. I toweled myself off (I wasn’t quite drenched, but still pretty sweaty), put my pajamas back on and crawled into bed. I put an extra blanket on (lately I’ve been sleeping with the blankets pulled up only halfway and no pajamas—I typically kick out a lot of heat at night), crawled in and was shivering for a few minutes, but then I finally relaxed and thought about what had just happened.

I had a similar episode a few days before Ironman Wisconsin, only that time I could definitely tell I was experiencing menstrual cramps and effects of prostaglandins (ladies know what I’m talking about); whereas today it was far more intense and while centered in my lower abs, it felt like my entire GI system was being wrung out like a wet towel. I don’t think I dealt with the pain very well in September, but today I was able to “ride it,” and I stayed right in the moment instead of obsessing about “oh, what is going to happen to my race.” It may or may not be coincidental that I've experienced this only during a taper—I have said they mess with my body—but this was a little extreme today. Even still, I just lay in bed for about ½ hour, and then I got up, reheated my last cup of coffee and sipped it and started feeling close to normal.

I suppose some people would think this is something requiring a visit to the doctor, but having experienced other fun aspects of perimenopause, and having come close to this in September, I just chalked this up to my body doing weird things during taper. Oh what fun it is to be a woman! So now you know why I don't like tapering so much.

I felt a little weakened by the whole thing, but in a way I saw it as a gift—I was able to practice totally being in the moment with actual physical pain, and I know that somehow that it was a test for the coming Goofy Challenge. I feel like my body was ridding itself of pain and fear and toxins and preparing itself for starting this year right. I took it easy for awhile, and then finally figured I should try and get my one workout done. If I felt unable to do it, I would just stop.

1:15PM Lift 2x20 in 1:25. This was a tough workout. As I started out, I didn’t really feel weakened from the morning festivities, so I just toughed it out. That was one long strength workout! But I’m glad I got it done. That’s my last strength before Goofy Challenge. I might do an abs and core workout later this week; I might not. I don’t need to do one. The coming week is all about getting ready mentally and keeping light on my feet.

Weekly Totals
Swim: 5,800 yards in 1.98 hours
Bike: 2.78 hours
Run: 3.75 hours
Strength: 2 hours
Total Hours: 10.51
Stretching: 1.95 hours
Sleep: 9.21 hours average per night

So this was my lightest week of training in 15 weeks! No wonder I'm a mess! But I think I shook all the willies out of my system. I am going to be very careful with my eating this week, especially to start loading back carbs starting on Wednesday. It's likely I'll put on 2-3 lbs. as my body stores water with the extra carbs, but all that will surely come off over the weekend. I naturally fall into Atkins-like eating during a taper, so my body should be primed to suck up all the carbs I can dump in this week. I'll also try and keep up the sleep, although I'm sure that will go to hell about midweek. The money is in the bank, the training is done, this week is all about staying healthy and resting!

Happy New Year!