It's funny that all that time training on the couch didn't prepare me for this.

Yesterday I did my first triathlon (non-relay) of 2009. How did it go?
Slow. Painful. Fun.Ish.

I will preface this by saying my training for this race was less than minimal. I spent a good deal of my summer recovering from my knee injury, watching Bravo on the couch (yea Real Houswives and Top Chef), and occasionally jumping in the pool or running around the track. I was on my bike 4 times this summer. Four. With no hill training.

I still signed up for Mermaid Santa Cruz because, well, just because. It was quite nice to not be super neurotic and antsy for once. I decided to pick up my bib on race day. I showed up to the race an hour before my wave was going. Usually when I race, I make an effort to pick up my race number the day before and get all my gear in check. And I try to get to the transition super early for a good spot. This race, overall I was all about the, "Meh."

Hubby was with me, which was nice. Luckily this time when I got back from the bike he didn't ask me, "Where were you? That took a long time." Yeah, that happened at Cal Poly Tri 2008. He was on the otherside of the transition area and when I go off my bike and said that to me. It didn't go over too well. Remember that Far Side Cartoon, of what dogs hear and all dogs here is "blah blah b;ah Rusty blah blah"? Well, this is the Jill version.
What Hubby Says: "Where were you? That took a long time."
What Hubby means: "I was worred about you. I thought you injured yourself."
What Jill hears: "Blah Blah Blah you sure are slow blah blah."

Maybe I should write a Men are for Mars the Triathlete Edition.

Anyways, it was nice to have him there at the finsih. We stayed in Santa Cruz Sunday night and enjoyed the Boardwalk craziness (I love how that place never changes. It still looks how it did in the Lost Boys. And so do the people.) and happy hour at Aquarius. We ordered room service and were planning on getting The Hangover on Pay per view, but it was $15. Yikes,

So, here is a short summary of the race.

Swim: hard. long. crowded. There were women in that water that I don't think ever went in the ocean. I used to think people doing breastrstroke were annoying, but people were doing backstroke. I am sorry, but how can you SEE when you are on your back? It was aquatic bumper cars in there.

transition: after the swim, you have to climb 154 stairs to the transition area. Needless to say, I took my time. No more injuries, please.

Bike: First time ever during a race that I walked my bike up a hill. I had a feeling I wasn't going to make it up the monster hill in the beginning. I was in the wrong gear going up and panic starting hitting me. I had riders on my left and riders on my right and everyone was riding crooked up this beast. I had a feeling if I fell, it would be cyclist dominoes. I dug my heels toward the ground with each pedal stroke.but.it.was.not.happening. I was only half way up the hill and I knew what was going to happen. So, I shouted to the fellow riders:

"I'M GOING DOWN!"

I braced myself for the feeling of road meeting flesh, but miracle of miracles, I managed to unclip and get my foot on the ground and stop mermaid carnage from happening. Whoo hoo. From that moment on, I vowed to walk the hills. And that is totally ok. For this race.

Run: Slow. Difficult. Uphill.

So, there we have it. I am not calling what I did yesterday a race, it was more of a weekend away with Dennis with an early morning workout.

And that is totally ok. For this race.

And I ran (not so far away)

yup---you read right. Last night I went to my first Mermaid workout in 2 1/2 months (some of the ladies were eyeballing me like, "who's the new girl?"---not in a judgy way though) and -to quote Forest Gump -"I.WAS.RUNN-ING!"

Yea! My feet and lungs were exhausted, but my soul was so happy to be back on familiar turf (AKA The Los Gatos Creek Trail). I ran nonstop for about 35 minutes and briefly thought "Maybe Big Kahuna in October." Though, the aquabike and not the 1/2 ironman may be more me speed.

Last night I had the HARDEST time fall asleep. I think that my body was all jazzed up from moving and I just couldn't relax. I kept looking at the alarm clock on my bed: 10:06. 10:45. 11:30. 12:05. 12:05? As in midnight? Ugh. it is so weird when you can sleep, because you literally spend two hours doing nothing productive.

Monday and today I rode my bike to work. It is a good route (about 18 miles round trip) and the only downfall is I have bad hair for the rest of the day. Oh well.

Monday "Dress-in"

A month plus of no running, and no biking, and plenty of couch time with the Real Housewives of Jersey, means a couple of things: lack of post-race endorphins; bragging rights after a 4 hour bike ride, the warmth of camaraderie amongst training buddies.

It also means one other thing: tight clothes.

I am having some issues with my summer clothes that have zippers. Some zip up, but am dangerously close to muffin top, while others get stuck half way up my back.

Pretty depressing.

So, since I am not training for anything right now, maybe I should start training for a new thing: "Jill can't afford new clothes right now." So, it is really time to buckle down and get control of the food thing, especially since I am not burning as many calories pre-knee incident.

I have always struggled with the food thing. Weight Watchers was the most successful for me, but lately whenever I rejoin I just find those meetings brutal. I am more kumbaya when training with my workout buddies, not sitting around a circle listening to people drone on about apple slices and stuff. It is just a lot to deal with after work.

I think the reason weight watchers worked for me was it made me accountable for what I ate because I had to write things down and keep track of points. So, what I am going to do now is focus on the calorie intake. It seems to lose weight, 1600 calories a day is where I should aim. I am starting today: writing down what I eat and keeping track of fat, protein, and fiber. I am also trying to figure what to eat to make me stay full and satisfied so I don't fall off the wagon.

I am also NOT going to weigh myself. I just don't feel like dealing with those numbers. So, each Monday I will do a "dress-in." I will try on the same dress to see how it fits as the weeks go by.

So far the day started out pretty good. I made an eggwhite zuchhini omelet, and had a no-sugar added carnation instant breakfast. 233 calories, 7.5 grams of fat, 21 grams of protetin, and 5 grams of fiber.

This is going to be a long day...

I miss running.

Like, a lot.

new plan...

Physical therapy is going well, though not able to do one full pedal stroke on the stationary bike. This made me swallow my pride and decide that Aquabike is not happening. And maybe no other races are happening this year.

Kinda sucks.

But I have a new plan.

It's time for a vacay.

So, instead of spending my money on race entry fees (ranging from $25 to $200!), hotel fees, and post-race beers---it will go towards a much needed vacation with Dennis.

I just booked a 4 day all inclusive trip to cancun for our 3rd anniversary in September. Yea!

I may still go up the day of Vineman so I can cheer all my fellow Mermaids on at the finish. They are going to rock it.

knee update #1

Bad news: knee still has issues.
Good news: am off crutches.

I spent last week on crutches and it was brutal. I seriously got winded walking from the porch to my car. At least I could drive!

I went to an orthopedic surgeon on Friday. I got xrays of my knees, a new brace made of neoprene, and a prescription for physical therapy. My appointment is tomorrow, so we will see how that goes.

Yesterday was my first full day with the new brace and I decided to go swimming (arms only). I did 10 laps and felt pretty good. Today I did 40 laps. Dennis said that maybe I will come out of this a better swimmer. Could be nice.

It is definitely weird not being able to bend my left knee when I walk--I kinda feel like Kevin Spacey as Caiser Sozee (sp?) on The Usual Suspects. It is definitely weird not being able to walk fast through the grocery store. But, it was nice being able to go grocery shopping and even get ready to make dinner tonight.

I am hoping for a good prognosis tomorrow---like, with enough physical therapy I can do the aquabike at vineman in August.

We shall see...

are you serious?

So...I am stuck on the couch again...on Thursday night I was making some chocolate chip cookies for Dennis' company picnic and as I was rushing to the refrigerator I smacked right into an open cupboard. Unfortunately, it was at the right angle to smack my kneecap out of place. The same knee I had surgery on 16 years ago.

Luckily I landed on my opposite side and not my head or anything. I heard Dennis say from the living room, "That didn't sound good" and then I started yelling at him "Dennis call 911! I dislocated my knee! Call 911 NOWWWW!"

I used my right arm to prop myseld up and my left hand had a tight clench on my pant legs to keep my leg from moving. I knew from experience that any movement of my leg would cause my knee to seize up. Dennis came around and saw my the outline of my knee cap poking through my cargo pants and said, "Ooh yeah. That doesn't belong there."

Suddenly there were 5 paramedics in my kitchen asking what was going on. One took a look at the kitchen and said, "Looks like someone was making cookies."

I told them what happened and they asked for all my information and took my blood pressure, checked my heart rate.

(Side note: after they took my heart rate they asked if I was an athlete because it was so low! How awesome is that?)

They used this metal gurney thing and gradually rotated me on it and put me in the ambulance. The nice EMT asked me if I needed morphine. I was actually feeling ok, and not in a lot of pain and said I would wait until we got to the hospital and they would pop it back in.

Then my adrenaline wore off and we kept hitting all these bumpy potholes in the ambulance drive over and I was moving around, in pain.
"Yeah, I will take the happy juice."

He tried to find a vein for the iv in my left arm, but I always have issues with people finindg a vein for a needle. The ambulance was nice enough to stop to pull over for him to put it in my right arm. The pain subsided a bit and finally we got to the hospital. I waited around in a room, the nurses came and took my blood pressure. The doctor came in and took a look at my knee. I was really not looking forward to him popping it back in because I remembered the pain from the first time. They gave me a nice cocktail of pain medicine and an anti-anxiety drug.

Dennis came to the room and I guess I was saying some silly things to him. This is sorta what I remember:
"Do you have a hair tie in my purse---I need to pull it up because it is going to look big."
"I just ordered a bikini ---looks like getting into shape won't be happening too soon. I wonder if I can return it...no it was super cheap so it is fine to keep it."

The doctor came back to try to pop it back in place. It wasn't going in that easily so he had someone take an x-ray. Turns out not only did it move to the left side, it also shifted up." Dennis gave me his hand to squeeze and I braced myself for the uncomfort of placing the kneecap back in its place.

Then they put this removable brace on me that goes from my upper thigh to my ankle. They gave me cruches and I tried to hobble around but the meds made me a little loopy and unstable. They put me in a wheelchair and Dennis went to go get his car. Somehow we managed to get both me and my crutches in the front seat of his tiny boxter.

So...this pretty much sucks. It is day two and I can't put weight on my foot. Poor Dennis has to be at my beck and call ("can I have some water?" "I need a kleenex." "Can you help me condition my hair."). Going up the stairs is always fun because I basically scoot up each stair on my butt.

I have an appointment with an ortho doc next week. Not sure what this will mean for my training and the rest of the race season. I got pretty upset this morning because I just can't do anything that I want to do. My friends are all facebooking about their workouts and I am just green with envy. It is interesting to compare this time around with when it first happened 17 years ago. My training has helped me immensely with getting around. I don't feel super unstable putting all my weight on one leg because it is actually pretty strong from my crazy workouts. The Thursday morning core workouts also helped with me using those muscles to help me scoot up the stairs.

So, here is where I am...I am bored and going stir crazy, but hopefully the recovery period will be short and I can get back to moving...