NSAIDs- The bloody truth

Ok, slight training setback for me.

My bike has aggravated my calf a little bit. So after my brick on Saturday, I took 2 Aleve. Aleve has NEVER bothered my stomach before. But keep in mind- I'm "cleansing". So I haven't been eating a whole lot, and nothing during exercise.

Well...

I woke up Sunday with a horrible stomach ache and nausea

So what did genius me, who happens to be in med-school do?

I took 2 more Aleve's before my 2 hour run.

I did my run on the treadmill and things were going ok until I hit the 90 minute mark. Then I started feeling bad. Dizzy. Nauseaus. I finished my workout and stumbled home. Took a shower. Collapsed into bed and was out cold for 30 minutes.

Then a wise friend called and ordered me downstairs to eat something. I felt like throwing up, but I still choked down some salmon and broccoli.

Fast forward to my swim workout the next morning. In a word- it SUCKED. I usually lead the lane in swim sets (L leads in pull sets). Monday we were doing 300's and I was a full length behind L at the end. When I got to 3200 yards I gave up, did breastroke and got out at 3500. I have NEVER cut a swim workout short before.

Then I figured out why. I won't belabor you with details, but you can read for yourself here

I went to the doc this morning to confirm my self diagnosis. So now I'm sitting on my couch with a bp of 90/50, hematocrit of 35% and hemoglobin of 11gm/dl (I know, more numbers!) waiting for the hospital to call so I can schedule my endoscopy

Oh joy

So be careful out there with NSAIDs. Don't take them on an empty stomach, don't take them right before you're going to be running for hours (the reduced blood flow will keep the drugs where they shouldn't be for too long).

I'm going to continue being a slacker on my couch for awhile because every time I stand up I feel like I'm gonna pass out.

No worries- I'll be fine. Just have to miss my first training session in 4 months!

Damn it

And I have a guest coming in this weekend. Well, on the bright side, I just entered a recovery week

;-)

Accidental Bits of Wit and Wisdom

Volume 2



Again, Roommate Matt steals the show



Me: Colleen, Matt, my coach has me on a calorie restricted diet for the next 2 weeks. The reason I'm telling you this is because you know me. If this makes me really hungry I will likely turn into a raging bitch at any moment.



Matt: (without skipping a beat) Well, it should be a seamless transition




Matt is not only a budding comedian, but also an up and coming triathlete and model of Under Armour sports gear ;-)

Second blog of the day????

Maddie at her favorite park (we went this morning)

I know, this is crazy. 2 posts in one day. I just got back from my longest run (duration) ever! I thought that was worthy of a post.

Matt and I went down to the towpath. Why I thought the towpath surface would be good for running today, I'll never know!. We did our long runs down there last Sunday in the rain. It was muddy and wet... and awesome (probably my most enjoyable run ever). So today it was 9 degrees out. It has snowed about 4 inches in the past few days... Does it sound to you like the gravel towpath would be smooth running today? Yeah, not so much. I ran for 2 hours on snow covered ice. It was a crazy workout for the legs- my ankles and hips are screaming! It took so much extra muscle to stabilize my legs on the uneven surface- not to mention trying to keep from falling on my ass.

Matt and I travel down there together but run separately (he's faster than me). Right when I started I realized that this wouldn't be a great "run". So I decided to consider it an endurance challenge. A day to prime the aerobic engine. It was quite an adventure. I saw a bunch of people skiing on the path and it brought back some great memories from when I was younger...

I am very close with my parents. My Dad and I are very similar- love to exercise, same disposition (type B), both into research and science. Every February we would go away for the weekend with 2 of his buddies and their daughters to have a father-daughter X-country skiing weekend. One of his friends owns a cabin that is associated with a resort. It's right on a lake and the cabin had this little lighthouse room with a great view of the area. It was so awesome. Northern Wisconsin is always really cold in February. We would go out skiing all day- when we finished our hair would be frozen solid, snot frozen to our cheeks, and we would all be exhausted and sweaty. To warm up we would head over to the resort to spend an hour going from the pool to the sauna to the hot tub. Then it was back to the cabin for hot chocolate and games. I really miss that. Anyway... my run today made me think of our weekends. Maybe I'll ask my dad if we can do that again now that us girls are grown up. It would be a blast. I miss X-country skiing!

I digress... The playlist on my Mp3 player was wonderful, so I thought I would share:

I see you, you see me..............................Magic Numbers
You're Beautiful........................................James Blunt

Late............................................................Ben Folds

What am I to you?...................................Norah Jones

Seombody that I used to know..............Elliott Smith

The Luckiest.............................................Ben Folds

Goodbye my lover....................................James Blunt

Sleep to Dream..........................................Fiona Apple

Northern Sky............................................Nick Drake

Gracie.........................................................Ben Folds

Just Like Heaven......................................The Cure

Through the dark......................................KT Tunstall

Young Pilgrims...........................................The Shins

Life for Rent................................................Dido

Crash into Me.............................................Dave Matthews Band

Thank You..................................................Dido

Brick.............................................................Ben Folds Five

Criminal........................................................Fiona Apple

Pink Moon....................................................Nick Drake

Somewhere over the Rainbow..................Isreal Kamamawiwo

Forgiven.......................................................Alanis Morissette

White Flag....................................................Dido

Stupidity Tries.............................................Elliott Smith

One of Those Things First.........................Nick Drake

Don't think Twice it's Allright....................Bob Dylan

Humble Me...................................................Norah Jones

Be Here to Love Me....................................Norah Jones

If I had a Million Dollars.............................Barenaked Ladies

#41.................................................................Dave Matthews Band

Ballad of Big Nothing...................................Elliott Smith

Have a nice week!

Random Thoughts Sunday

1. I've been having a lot of nightmares lately. The one this morning was quite vivid. I was in Hawaii getting ready to fly back home. I was looking for my bags- it was a very Ironman-esque set-up with numbered bags everywhere. I couldn't seem to find mine. Then the room was getting a little bit dark. The TV was on and there was an announcement that there had been a pre-volvanic tremor. I looked out the window and in the distance there was a volcano. It was smoking a little bit. But then...

BOOM

The top blew off of it and lava went shooting into the sky. It was very powerful. Then I looked outside and there were sunbathers running everywhere and getting hit wih pieces of falling lava. We all knew we were going to die but we were just standing there in the room, silent, and watching the TV announcers excitedly talk about how amazing the eruption was.

2. About the Cleanse... You really don't have to worry about me. I actually have a very decent handle on nutrition. A biochemistry BS, Pharmacology PhD, and med school have taught me a lot about nutrition. More because it is kind of a passion of mine. I regularly read nutrition journals and have been to an international conference. I'm not starving myself, I promise! I would never have agreed to do it if I thought it was dangerous. The only major differences from my normal diet will be: No peanut butter (gasp!), no Cliff bars, no sugar, and a lot more fruits, veggies, and fish. I'll be eating 4 times a day and my caloric intake won't be more than 500 calories less than I'm eating currently. No worries! The increased water will be a good thing. I generally run a pretty steady state of dehydration. I do have my own views that excess water daily is completely unnecessary, but I want to practice drinking when I'm not thirsty for Ironman. You can't wait until you are thirsty to drink in an endurance event. Why now? I don't want to run a caloric deficit when I'm in high volume training close to my races. Why at all? I have knee problems. The less I weigh, the better they are. My long runs are already up to 2 hours and I can really feel the impact already. I have been thinner in the past, and I know the maximimum weight I can be and be pain free running. Damn these wide hips!

3. Tomorrow is the day when I cut off all distractions and start to write my thesis. My committee meeting keeps getting postponed so my thesis defense date keeps not being set. It would really help me focus if I had a date. I'm great with deadlines! Not so great without them. So to celebrate my last day of freedom, I'm about to lace up my big clunky snow boots, pack Maddie in the car and head out to the park. Then when I get home I have to head to the towpath for my 2 hour run, and then it's off to water polo for a 2 hour smackdown. Should be a good day!

My running...by the numbers

Running Test

I haven't posted about this before, but I have been very frustrated with my running. It has been really slow, the the HR hasn't been going down and the 156 top for my zone 2 wasn't workin for me. When I really looked at my race HRs, I realized that my zones were most likely quite off (I avereaged 184 for my half marathon). So Coach Angela and I agreed to get my anaerobic threshold tested.

Here are the numbers:

Anaerobic Threshold: 181 (surprisingly low, given I can run 2 hours at 184...)

Aerobic base: 168 (HR at maximal fat burning)

VO2 max: 50.0

New top of zone 2: 164 Wooohoooo!

Here is the kicker- It has been really, really hard for me to drop my last 5-7 pounds to get to race weight. Well, now I know why! My body is really, really efficient:

Calories burned in 1 hour of zone 2 running: 350

Now I understand how I can run 2 anaerobic hours!

Are you freakin kidding me?????

Next week I go back for basal metabolic rate testing. I'll be surprised if it's >800 calories!

So I'm going on my coach's 2 week cleanse to kick start the diet. It will take a lot of willpower (no sweets, very low caloric intake, lots of water), but I can do it! Don't be surprised to see a very cranky JT posting in the next 2 weeks, though...

New weekly Blog Entry

Accidental bits of wit and wisdom from my roommates

Todays entry courtesy of Matt AKA Supertramp AKA Tough TT's

Matt: I went swimming today

Me: Oh yeah?

Matt: Yeah....I've decided that women look better underwater

Me: Hmmmm... why do you think that is?

Matt: Well I have a theory...

Me: What's that?

Matt: Well, you know how fat floats?

Me: yeah...

Matt: Well, when a girl is swimming, her fat floats to the top so all you see from underwater is nice, toned body

Me: Wow. That is genius

I am hopelessly behind on blogging. And more hungover than I've been in ages. Went to the med-school prom last night. Put a couple of the pics from the drunken madness here . Now I get the great honor of a 1:50 run to sober me up. Serves me right...

I've been tagged... twice!

Okay, so I've been tagged by TriAl v2006 and AmateurTriGirl so here goes...

1. Find the nearest book.
2. Name the book & the author.
3. Turn to page 123.
4. Go to the fifth sentence on the page. Copy out the next three sentences and post to your blog.
5. Tag three more folks.

Fast Food Nation; The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
by Eric Schlosser

"A smell can suddenly evoke a long-forgotten moment. The flavors of childhood foods seem to leave an indelible mark, and adults often return to them, without always knowing why. These "comfort foods" become a source of pleasure and reassurance, a fact that fast food chains work hard to promote."

Hmmm... who shall I tag...

Aleks
Eric
Trisonq

While I'm here...

Training has been okay. I had a mini training setback. I didn't take off any time after my crash and it kind of accumulated to a bad near-overtraining situation. I was having trouble sleeping, high HR, gaining weight. I finally told my coach and she gave me a nice and easy week. I am getting better, but stupid me stayed up until 2am on Thursday. *sigh*. But I'm feeling much better. Lost 4 pounds this week, body is getting back into form, did some wonderfully bad bowling, went out to see a band, and now I'm back! And it was nice to get a little taste of what a social life is for a change.

Bike isn't fixed yet and I've been on the Cannondale for training... Knees are wonderful... and now I have to get started on my brick. I have so much to do today! 2.5 hour workout, grocery shopping (eating nothing but Cliff bars and peanut butter sandwiches may have contributed to the 4 pound weight loss...), cleaning, taking all the X-mas decorations down. It will be a busy day!

I put some New Year's pics on my picture blog here . Festivities were fun! An all-girl's brick workout, B-day party, and Polar Bear Swim. Brrrr!

Oh my God, how could I forget! I joined a team! Visit our Website . My profile isn't up yet, and we're getting a real website set up in the next couple weeks. Why they wanted me, I'll never know...

Adventures in Melbourne in 2004, Volume 2

Still busy writing- committee meeting in 3 weeks. So I'm back to old journals. Getting closer to my first tri race report now...

Introduction of my first "tri" bike

2/26/04

Journal

Let me tell you about my wheels.

A guy in my lab has a son in his late teens. He’s outgrown a bicycle that has been sitting in their shed for several years. So Rob tells me I can use this bike when I’m here. I’m thinking I have definitely hit the jackpot here because the local bike shops are fresh out of used bikes for sale since the new school year has just started at the Uni. Plus people in my lab have told me that Rob’s son is a bike enthusiast, so any bike that he would own is probably better than a bike I would buy for myself. On our way down to the bike shed I was chatting with Rob about the things I need to buy for the bike. It needs some brake pads…. I need a helmet… I need to buy a bike lock… with that Rob laughed and said, well that might be a little overkill. Hmmm… And when we got to the bike locker I realized the meaning of his words. The Black Fox is a beauty. It is about as rusted out as they get. And underneath the rust and layers of mud is a lovely pink and white mountain bike. Now don’t let me give you the impression that I am ungrateful. I love this bike and it gets me everywhere that used to cost me $5 a pop. But it’s humbling when the local kids heckle you as you drive buy. I hear pre-pubertal voices trailing behind me saying “nice bike, lady”. I was just getting back tonight from the random people party and there was a guy smoking at the entrance to the building. I looked up as I was locking up the Black Fox and I could tell that he was doing all he could to keep from busting out laughing. I think he’s still rolling on the pavement out there. Bastaad.
Ahh, the random people party. Where do I begin? Well there’s not much to say. Suz’s random firefighters were huge boxes of rocks. Complete meat heads. And there were about 15 people there and there was about enough space for 6 on her patio. So I ate her food and then snuck out to spend some quality time with the Black Fox. That was the best part of the night. I had actually found a random person for the party, too. But he was a nerdy scientist so I was happy to see him strike up conversation with someone else so I could fade into the background.
While we’re on the topic of boys, let me mention the main disadvantage I face here. I’m an American. I’m pretty sure I’d get better responses from guys if I’d introduce myself by saying: Hi I’m Jodi and I have a flaming case of genital herpes. We’re not really on the rest of the world’s best side right now. So if I spend the rest of my stay here dateless I’m blaming Bush.
What else can I tell you about? Well I’ve found a great pool to swim at. It’s about a mile from here and it is outdoors. That in itself makes it enough of a novelty to keep me showing up. But it’s really nice and I picked up a 10 swim pass for 22 bucks that includes locker rental. It’ll do for now. I went over there this morning and it was a hell of a way to start out the day. I had a great start yesterday too. I had a nice jog around Prince’s park and on my way back I passed Royal Park just in time to see 2 hot air balloons land. Right in front of me! It was so awesome.

Update: Saturday night- 1:30am

I have a couple of last things to update before I send this off:

1. Remember the random people party? Apparently Suz had a much better time than I did. She apparently had a slide down the fireman’s pole Thursday night.
2. I am in love. Well, not quite, but I have been ruined for other men. We went to a concert tonight- it was a local band that has just started to tour internationally. The lead singer was the finest specimen of the male sex I have ever seen. My new job as formal band groupie begins tomorrow.
3. There was just a cockroach the size of my head in my bathroom. After screaming like a little girl and chasing it throughout my house it took up residence in the crotch of my swim suit that had fallen on the floor during the commotion. From there I threw it into the toilet and let the 2 cups of water work its magic. The real trauma is going to come when I next go swimming…
4. I spent 3.5 hours on the Black Fox today. I got myself hopelessly lost in Melbourne. I narrowly escaped death as the comedians that put up signs for the bike path directed my right onto a highway. So there I was in a rusted out pink and black bicycle peddling for my life going down the wrong way on Melbourne’s busiest thoroughfare. Sons of bitches.

I’ll catch up with y’all next week.

Jodi