Finally back to running:)

I don't like updating by phone, it's too hard :(

On Tuesday I went for a swim and I was hoping to avoid getting a headache by trying various things:

• different goggles
• no swim cap
• alternate breathing sides

And it worked! Even though I started with a slight headache, it luckily didn't get any worse :) Now I have to systematically add back in those elements to try and determine the specific cause. I hope it's not the swim cap because I need to wear one for the race (that's how they identify which "wave" you started in). I tried using the tinted googles that I was saving for race day and I'm glad I tried them before racing in them. I didn't like them much, they feel funny on the bridge of my nose. I'll have to swim in them some more to determine if I really want to wear them on race day (if I swim at all... stupid jelly fish!)

Yesterday was my first day back to running!! Although it wasn't very exciting, I'm glad I can run again. Since the Wildflower race is this weekend, only the Honolulu and Escape althletes had to run the marker set (timed 2 mile run) while the Wildflower athletes listened to Coach Paul talk about race weekend prep. Turns out there was only 4 people at the training yesterday who are not going to Wildflower, including me. I couldn't do the marker set since I don't want to re-injure myself and since I haven't been running in a month (seriously!!) Coach Paul just had me "trot" the long sides of the track and walk the curves. When he said "trot" I kinda laughed because I thought it was only a horse term :)

Today is supposed to be a long 3000 meter/yard (?) swim but I don't think I'll make it to the pool since I have to go pick up the Jetta in Burlingame. Maybe I'll run/bike tonight when I get back (Friday's workout) and swim tomorrow morning. I say that now, but I know that I won't be able to get out of bed in time to swim and then go to work.

I don't know how I'm going to have time on Saturday to bike almost 2 hours and then run 50 min because I have to work. (AGAIN!!!!) Bleh, maybe I can train in the morning and go to work a little later in the day, like around 10 or 11...

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Make a donation today to help cure blood cancers and help me meet my fundraising goal at http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/honotri09/jlesko

Trying to update by iPhone

Trying to update by phone...

Currently waiting my turn at the pool. Watching people swim is hilarious, especially this one guy with a snorkel. His swimming just looks so horribly inefficient I don't know how he does it.

My goals for today are to NOT get a headache. I'm gonna try swimming without a cap, using different goggles and breathing on alternate sides. I think I'm hydrated enough and I just ate a power gel so we shall see how it goes. Stay tuned :)

Results and trainings

RESULTS:

X-rays: There might be something on my shin, go get an MRI and see a poditrist
MRI: There is nothing wrong with my shin (hooray!!)
Poditrist: I probably had/have shin splints. Wear inserts in my running shoes, go back to running (start slowly!!!) and if the shin splints come back, go back to and get custom made inserts

TRAINING:

Thursday was a bummer of a day because of the terrible headache that I got during swimming. I thought that I would make up for it on Friday by biking or something, but I never did.

Saturday was supposed to be an hour bike with 15 min of running afterwards, but I went to the pool instead, hoping for a better result than what I got on Thursday. I ate a bowl of oatmeal so I would be fueled and drank a glass of water so I would be hydrated and got in the pool to start my workout. Swam a 100, felt fine. Swam a 200, felt fine. Swam a 300, had to get out of the pool :(. My stupid headache came back and I have no idea why. It hurt so bad and nothing I did made it feel better. I took some ibuprofen and went home and slept for a bit.

Sunday was a glorious day!! We went out to Mt. Tam for some mountain biking fun. On Saturday, Al and I went to REI (to drool over their bike selection... ) and got a bay area mountain bike trails book and we selected a moderate, 7-ish mile trail that was supposed to take us 1-1.75 hours. When we got to Mt. Tam park, we couldn't find the trail head (some kind biker pointed it out to us) and then the directions in the book weren't so good so we got lost quite a bit but it didn't matter because we were having a great time biking around. I love love loved(!!) the hill climbing parts (is that weird??) so I didn't notice that we missed the turn for the next part of the trail until we got to the top of the trail we were on and asked other mountain bikers where the trail head was and they told us it was a mile (!) back down the hill. Oops, poor Al and Nick, they were suffering unnecessarily up the wrong trail. The views were amazing and there were wild flowers everywhere and it was just so much fun!! They only part I didn't enjoy was the going down hill part. There was loose dirt and gravel everywhere which was causing my tires to slip all over the place to I finally gave in to weenie-dom and walked my bike down the steepest parts (I don't want to fall!!!)

All in all, our moderate 1-1.75 hour mountain bike ride lasted upwards of 3 hours and we exerted ourselves much more than a 5 out of 10 (I know the boys sure did!!) But I don't care, it was soooo great!!! I can't wait to finish this tri so I can modify my bike with some front suspension so I can take it out on trails and not have to borrow Nick's old bike.

It's a good thing today is a rest day because I'm a little sore from all that hill climbing yesterday :)

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Make a donation today to help cure blood cancers and help me meet my fundraising goal at http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/honotri09/jlesko

Mostly swimming in this week so far

This week is recovery week which is nice, but at the same time I don't feel like now is the time to be resting, the triathlon is in ~3 weeks!!!!

Tuesday I almost had to work late again. I was in such a bad mood until my boss told me I didn't have to stay to compress and that I could come in early to coat instead (joy...) Luckily I got a call from my boss that evening saying not to come in early because they couldn't finish the compression.

Since it's recovery week, the swim was easy on Tuesday, just some drills and short distances (100-200 yards) Since I don't have to push myself, I was able to work on my form and stroke efficiency and also doing multiple laps with flip-turns. When I was swimming at Lake Del Valle last weekend I had to keep stopping to rest and I think that it is because when I swim laps in the pool, I swim to the end of the lap, stop, turn around and then keep swimming and that brief little rest that I give myself is enough to sabotage my long distance swimming. So what I was trying to do on Tuesday was do as many laps as I was supposed to, but do flip turns at the end of the laps and build my endurance that way and it was working really well for me.

Wednesday was a mentor run, but I'm still not running until I get my MRI (which is tomorrow morning at 8). I was feeling really lazy and I didn't want to do anything but watch TV but Alex guilted me into going to the gym so I went and did the elliptical for 30 min. Boring...

Today was another swim, and I was feeling very tired all day (I knew I should have gone to Starbucks after my meeting) so I didn't really want to swim. When I got to the pool, there was a 30 min wait (stupid spring time, making everybody and their cousin want to go to the pool...) but a lane finally opened up and I got in the pool. Today's swim sounds easy in theory, a 100 and some drills to warm up and then a 200, a 300, a 400 and finally a 500. Since I thought I was swimming well on Tuesday, I figured I would do the same thing again but try to swim a little faster (I was going really slow on Tuesday). I got through the warm up and the 200 but when I only had 60 yards to go on the 300 I had to stop because I all of a sudden got THE WORST headache. It was so bad I had to get out of the pool and call it a day, not cool. I don't know what brought it on, I was hydrated but not really well fueled up but I don't think lack of fuel would cause a headache. Maybe it's because my muscles were using all the oxygen in my blood and so there was none left for my brain (I don't know, I'm just making this up as I go...). Whatever, I'm agnry that I had to quit with just only 1/2 my work out done. I would go back to the pool tomorrow morning before work, but I have my MRI at 8 in Fremont so I don't have anytime.

There is no work out scheduled for tomorrow but I will probably go bike or something just to keep my body in the rhythm of things and to make up for not finishing my swim work out today.

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Make a donation today to help cure blood cancers and help me meet my fundraising goal at http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/honotri09/jlesko

Stupid work, causing me to slack on training

Thursday - I got to the pool, parked the car, got out and then got back in and went home. I was really tired. I think it was because I worked a lot that day...

Friday - was supposed to be a rest day, but since I didn't do anything the day before, I went for a bike ride. I did the 15 mile loop around Highland road. It was nice, aside from all the bugs that were out :(

Saturday - Open water swim at Lake Del Valle. It was much better than the last time I was there because it was warmer. Much warmer. We swam for ~35 min but it took me ~20 min to get warmed up :( We jumped off the dock into the water and my goggles promptly broke (grumble!!) After I got my goggles back in working order, I tried to get in the rhythm of swimming but I just was having the worst time. I could swim several strokes, but then I had to stop and rest. One of the coaches was swimming with me and he told me that I couldn't do that in the race because I would get run over :( Finally I reached the half way time point and I could turn around and go back. On my way back, I finally fell into my rhythm and I was swimming really good. I was breathing on alternate sides (which was good for my sighting) and I was hyper aware of everything that I was seeing (which made me dizzy when I stopped, not good) but I could swim a long time without stopping and it was great. After the swim was supposed to be the terrible hill bike ride, but (unfortunatly ;) ) I had to go so I could make it to Picnic Day.

Sunday - I had to work. All day (830am - 645pm). And it sucked, I didn't get to do anything but sit around in a room and watch small white tablets go around in circles (which didn't do me any favors for trying to stay awake... We got home from Davis in the AM and I had to be at work at regular time, which means getting up at 630 - 7...)

Today - on the calendar it's a rest day, but since I didn't do anything yesterday, I figured I would either swim or bike or do the elliptical after work, but I didn't get off work until way late. Again... (830 to be precise) So it was too late to go to the pool and I'm way tired.

If I have to work late again tomorrow, I might just kill someone. Seriously. It was hard enough to get up this morning and I don't look forward to getting up tomorrow either

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Make a donation today to help cure blood cancers and help me meet my fundraising goal at http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/honotri09/jlesko

Wind sucks!! And I hate the flappy thing!!!!

Yesterday I swam 3000 yards. The highlight was that I was able to swim some 400's in 8 min each time... The non-highlight was that I had to take the lane next to Capt. Splashy and he my training paperwork all soaked. Grumble...

Today there was a brick work out at the Alameda Ferry Terminal. Biking and running, except for me, no running, just biking. Whee! It was soooo windy and it was soooo miserable. It was a 3 mile loop and going out it was easy because the wind was to my back but coming in it was hell. My average pace dropped by half as the wind pushed back against me. And to make it worse, the stupid strap on my helmet was all flappy in the wind and kept hitting me in the ear repeatedly and IT WAS SO ANNOYING!!!!!

Long story short, it was windy and cold and I biked ~9 miles tonight.

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Make a donation today to help cure blood cancers and help me meet my fundraising goal at http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/honotri09/jlesko

Fundraising announcement!!!!

Diana made this ring and donated it so I could use it as a fundraiser!! It is a white gold band with a blue sapphire and 24 (real!!!) diamonds around the center stone and on the band. It is currently a size 6, but Diana said she would do one sizing for free so it fits on which ever finger the winner chooses. It is an extremely beautiful ring and it was appraised at over $2,000 by an independent appraiser.

Raffle tickets are $20 and I'm only selling 100 of them so let me know if you want to get a ticket! Cash is preferred, but you can make a donation on my fundraising web page and leave a comment to let me know that the donation is for raffle ticket(s). All the money raised in this raffle goes to my fundraising which goes directly to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society :)

I will do the drawing on May 13th and announce the winner here. Please tell anyone and everyone about this raffle as it is truly for a good cause!!

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Make a donation today to help cure blood cancers and help me meet my fundraising goal at http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/honotri09/jlesko

Big Brick Weekend

But first,

Friday was supposed to be a rest day in preparation for the Big Brick weekend but I read the wrong calendar page and did a 50 min bike ride instead... oops

Saturday was the Big Brick, which basically means that we biked and ran a bunch except I am still not running due to my shin so I didn't think it was all that bad. When I got to the middle school on Tasajarra I took out my bike and I went to go check the air pressure in my tires. My front was a wee bit low so I added some air, but when I went to pull the thing off the valve stem, I pull the whole stem off my inner tube (!!!) which promtly let all the air out of my tire. Luckily for me, I had just bought all my flat tire repair stuffs last weekend but the real pisser was that I left the spare inner tube at home!!! Thankfully Lisa had a spare inner tube so I quickly changed out my tube and pumped it up with a CO2 cartridge and I was on my way.

The Big Brick workout was supposed to be a 15 mile loop on the bike followed by a 15 min run at race pace and then another 15 mile loop and 15 min running at race pace. Since I'm not running, I got to cheat and walk for 15 min in between bike loops. The biking was wonderful, a little hard at times, but mostly really enjoyable. I was focused on not being the slowest person on the bike so I was really booking (as fast as I can possibly go on my crappy slow mountain bike...). Even pedaling as fast as I could in top gear, it still took me 75 min to go 15 miles :( I need to get a road bike.

Sunday was Easter and we were supposed to bike for 50 min as a recovery from the big brick, but I really wasn't feeling all that poorly and so I skipped it. I figured that I would make up for it on Monday (yah right!)

Monday was a rest day. I didn't have any time to bike as I was hanging out with Ally

Today is a swim day. I get to swim 3000 yards and the pool (hopefully) won't be closing early.

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Make a donation today to help cure blood cancers and help me meet my fundraising goal at http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/honotri09/jlesko

Updates updates updates....

Monday was a rest day. I should have biked to make up for taking Sunday off, but I didn't.

Tuesday I was supposed to swim, but I got off work too late to get to the pool and finish my swim before they closed so I went to the gym and biked for 50 min. As soon as I got off the bike, I felt like an old lady :( My hips were stiff and I could barely walk. I hobbled over to a place where I could stretch out and that made me feel a little better, but it still sucked.

Wednesday I went to go see my doc about my shin. She said it sounded like I possible have a stress fracture because the pain is in the one area where you don't get shin splints. She told me to get some x-rays so I did. When they looked at them, they said that they *might* see something on the x-ray in the area where it hurts so now I should go get an MRI... HOLY CRAP!! So they called the health insurance people and I've been approved to get and MRI...

Wednesday was supposed to be coached running intervals but I went to the pool and swam instead. Stupid pool closing at 7... I barely had enough time to finish my work out, I got out of the pool at 658...

I swam today also. I chatted for a bit with one of the guys who is a regular. He says him and his buddies (including Capt. Splashy... I don't like that guy because he splashes water everywhere when he does his kick-turns, including all over my work out instruction sheet) swim miles and miles each day and that they are part if the Hayward Plunge's 100 mile swim club. I thought that was was pretty neat.

... So I guess now I have to schedule an MRI. We shall see what happesns...

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Make a donation today to help cure blood cancers and help me meet my fundraising goal at http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/honotri09/jlesko

Swimming in the bay

On Friday, I went to the gym and biked for 50 min and then did the elliptical for 15 and called it a day. It was easy and I felt good afterwards.

On Saturday, I got up at 630 to go swim in San Francisco bay. As I was driving along The Embarcadero on my way to aquatic park, I passed the Farmer's Market at the Ferry Building and it was HUGE!!! There was stall after stall after stall of vendors. I really wish I could go to more Farmer's Markets. Maybe after this triathlon when I'm not training every Saturday morning, I could go to the SF Farmer's Market.

When I woke up in the morning, I was really nervous about the swim, nervous like the way I get on the day of cross country for eventing. I didn't want to eat anything so it was all I could do to choke down some oatmeal and try to keep it down. I was nervous that the water was going to be cold and that I would suck at swimming like I did at Lake del Valle but it turns out I didn't have to be so nervous. The swim this time was a lot better than last time even though the water was just as cold.

At aquatic park we suited up in our wetsuits and got in the water. Everybody was whooping an' hollering as soon as the water trickled into the wetsuits from the zippers because it was really brisk!! Before I started swimming, I spent several minutes putting my face in the water and exhaling and I think that made all the difference in my swim. We swam for 40-45 min and I made 2 laps around the bouys, which I think is ~2/3 a mile.

Things I learned swimming in San Francisco bay:

• Keep your mouth shut. Sea water tastes bad. REALLY BAD
• Sighting is important. Every 3 to 5 strokes, pick up your head and look around. I swam right into a bouy, AND IT WAS DISGUSTING!!! All slimy and sea weed-y and just gross.

After the swim, there was supposed to be a 50 min run, but I'm taking a week off running (at least) for my shin so I went to the gym and did the elliptical instead. My shin has been hurting ever since the marker set, and it's even hurting when I walk or go up/down the stairs so I'm a wee bit concerned. If it doesn't get better soon, I think I might go see the doc.

Today I was supposed to bike for 2 hours and then run for 15 min but I went to Tahoe to clean out our cabin and I never made it to a bike or the gym so maybe tomorrow I'll bike/run (elliptical) instead of resting...

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Make a donation today to help cure blood cancers and help me meet my fundraising goal at http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/honotri09/jlesko

Make each challenge your own triumph

I was in such a hurry to post yesterday, I forgot to write some things that I wanted to. Mostly, when I was running on Wednesday, I kicked myself in the ankel really hard and now I have a bruise. It hurts alot still and when I was swimming yesterday, even the water going past it when I was kicking made it hurt :(

Also, my shin was hurting as I ran but it was really hurting the next morning which I think is bad... I have been icing it on and off during the day yesterday and today and it's starting to feel better, but I think that I need to cut running out for a while. Maybe make it up with walking or running in the pool or doing the eliptical, I don't know...

Yesterday was a swimming day. The warm up was a 300 and some drills. The main workout was 2 x 150 LVL 2, 200 (100 LVL 8, 100 form), 2 x 150 LVL5, 200 (100 LVL5, 100 form) 2 x 150 LVL8 and then a cool down. I must be getting better at pacing myself and judging my exertion levels because I remember the last time I did this kind of workout it was much harder and I got tired a lot easier.

Today is supposed to be a 50 min bike followed by a 15 min run but I think that I will have to find a subsitute for the run, either bike 65 min total or do the eliptical instead, we shall see...

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Make a donation today to help cure blood cancers and help me meet my fundraising goal at http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/honotri09/jlesko

3rd marker set

But first - Tuesday was a swim day. It was all drills so it was really easy and short, which is good because the pool that I swim at is closing early (7pm) for the next 2 weeks :(

Last night was the third marker set and in hindsight, I probably should not have gone. My left shin has been kinda bugging me since this weekend and not icing it after the 40 min run in Burlingame didn't do me any favors. We started our run on the (ghetto) track in Berkeley with a 10 min warm-up and right away my shin started to act up. Right as the timer started for the marker set, I told Coach Mike that my shin was bugging me and he said to take it easy, so I did. I started my laps at my easy jog pace and I figured at least this way I can estimate what my slowest time will be at the Triathlon. I was on track for a 9:30 min mile but by lap 6 (1.5 miles) I had developed the most debilitating cramp right under my ribs and I had to walk a lap. Coach (?) Mark told me that it's something about stuff attached to my diaphram getting moved out of place and that the best way to get rid of the cramp was sharp breaths and pushing the stuff back in to place... I don't know, it sounded kind of odd to me but after walking a lap, it had subsided enough to run the final lap. My time for my third marker set was 21.07, not exactly a world record or anything...

Want to hear something funny? I checked the website for the Honolulu Triathlon and they said the swimming portion on May 17 might be canceled due to a predictable swarming of box jellyfish. Seriously. Go to the website and check it out yourself: http://www.honolulutriathlon.com/

What I don't get is if it is predictable (and it is, they have a calendar for when the jelly fish swarm each month) why didn't they schedule it for when they won't be swarming?!?

They might have the swim on the 17th, but if the jelly fish are present, they will move the swim to the day before (it will still be an official timed swim) and on the day of the race, they will have us do a run (5k) bike (40k) and run (10k). Joy....

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Make a donation today to help cure blood cancers and help me meet my fundraising goal at http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/honotri09/jlesko