The Miracle of drugs..

Well, it is for good reason I have been feelin' so lousy and blue. Seems I had some food stuck up in my gum (gross I know). So then came an abscess and pain and grumpiness, etc..I saw 2 dentists yesterday. Now I am not one to pig out on popcorn or such so do not know how this happened. The only way I can avoid further episodes is to just not eat solid food, I guess. I really do take impeccable care of my teeth! Thank goodness for the miracles of antibiotics because after said particles were "dug out" of my gums (that HURT!), and 24 hours of antibiotics, seems I am good as new today. Wow-sooooo glad this did not happen next week in California or Nevada. At least I would be in the country unlike in December, when I had to trust a dentist in Cancun to diagnose and treat my dental issues. Speaking of dental issues-I think I have had my share now that I have been to the dentist about 6 times in the last 6 months. I need to have surgery for a dental implant in August, after/ between some important races cause I cannot workout for like 10 days after the procedure. Gee, can't wait. At least I will be a step closer to getting this gap in my mouth filled. OK, enough dental talk. I finally slept all night last night, pain free-yippeee!

Tomorrow- 5 hour bike ride followed by 30 min run. Then Sunday a short run speed workout! Thought I would never be able to use the "S" word again-SPEED...Yea-can't wait to let it rip. I am a little tired of the pokiness of slow HR training.

Next Saturday is the Rage in the Sage Half Ironman in Nevada where it will hopefully all come together. That is if I do not freeze in the lake. Tryin' to stay positive here. And as luck would have it, out of the only 19 women doing the half next weekend, 3 are in my age group! The worst I can do is 3rd. I was really counting on getting the 1st place medal with so few peeps signed up. But noooooo, there are other compulsive women in their 50s out there, dammit! Don't these women have anything better to do? When did triathlon become this popular with baby boomers? Still trying to stay on the positive track-maybe I will just show them and win!! I have been training my ass off afterall..

Sucky Day, bitching and moaning..

Some days just suck..this is one of those. I woke up at 5:00 AM with a toothache. Could not go back to sleep! So I decided to just do my run before the bike today and get it over with. The 6 mile run outside went OK, (despite having to go to the BR twice) slow but OK. Then I got home and had to rush to get to the Westside to meet the Wed guys for a ride. I felt rushed, tooth hurting, crappy attitude and in general, a real grump. H got the brunt of that I am afraid. Love does mean having to say you are sorry, despite what "Love Story" and Ryan O'Neal say (gosh Ryan was cute in those days-I digress). About a dozen of us headed south on the bike trail then up a big ass hill, which I had to leave my ego at the bottom of. Keeping my HR below 130 into a 20 MPH headwind was not my idea of fun. I was the last one up. There they were, all waiting for slow poke here. They must have been wondering and SHE is an Ironman? That is what I was wondering anyways. To make matters worse, the dust started blowing at the top and it was freezing by now. Who said winter was gone here in the Southwest? Well, we made it back, my tooth still hurting despite the 7 Advil I had taken. Of course we are leaving town on Sunday so I can't risk a tooth infection out of town again. Having a strange dentist in Mexico is enough to cure me of chancing that thank you. So I will be visiting my friendly dentist tomorrow where he will take my money and hopefully tell me what the hell is going on!

Oh and I found out that the temperature in Lake Mead today is 58 degrees! This is the lake I am suppose to do a half Ironman in next Saturday. OMG, that just sounds like it is way too cold for me! I am trying to have a suck-it-up attitude but damn! The website says the water is suppose to be 62-65 degrees. They are obviously lying..

H just called up the stairs to tell me it is now snowing. Yes folks, here in the sunny Southwest it is snow/raining in April.

OK enough bitching for one day...

Hill, hills, hills..

Here is my new favorite Monday ride:

It has hills, hills, hills. How fun to discover new routes in the hood!

My weekend looked like this: train, eat, sleep, train, eat sleep, then eat some more.. I cannot seem to get enough to eat!

Sat: 65 miles on the bike. Ave more than 15 MPH! Forgot my HR monitor-that's why! Oh, and about those totally ridiculously expensive Assos bike shorts: big two thumbs up! No sore assos here-Worth every penny!

Sunday: Swam 3500 yards. Ran 12 miles in 2.5 hours. HR not behaving on the run! I could not keep my HR down without practically walking.. Imagine a grown woman yelling Shut the f&#^*k up! to her Garmin every 10 min. or so. Like it was the Garmin's fault..I swear if I hear that Gramin beep one more time I will be screaming..

It is never too late people..

My husband rocked the 2.4 mile swim today! Now to put this is perspective, H didn't start out wanting to be an endurance athlete. I got into the sport in 2001 and as time passed, I wanted to do longer and longer races-then came Ironman training (obsession) in 2004. Out of pure frustration and wanting to see me on the weekends, he enlisted my then Coach Mark to help him learn how to ride a bike. Now how, you might say, does anyone not know how to ride a bike at the age of 58? Well, if you grow up in Brooklyn, New York, there are not many opportunities to learn the sport there. So fast forward a few decades and H is learning from the beginning, how to ride a bike. The coach was holding the seat on the back of his bike and everything in the beginning until he got his balance-just like I learned when I was 4 years old! Slowly, he has gotten better and better. He is now faster than me on the bike! Then Coach Mark told H he was going to learn how to swim and do a triathlon-just like that. So he taught him to swim. Now H was not breaking any records there in the beginning. I remember the days after 100 yds in the pool and he was breathless and nauseated. Even last year he complained he was tired after 1500 yds. I have always had the feeling he was born for endurance. This was confirmed after running a marathon with me in April 2005 and at the end, I felt like crap, was sore, tired, complaining. H says: I feel so good I could run another 10 miles! This is just not normal! He has doubted himself in the athletics department for the last 4 years. Now today, he clocked a 2.4 mile swim in 1:24! This is only 5 min slower than my Ironman time in 2004 when I was in salt water and I grew up swimming! He beat the 2 seasoned Outlaws that were there doing the swim also. He was getting their reassurance as he nervously got in the water this AM for his first Ironman swim. Then he proceeded to beat their time! This is my 61 year old, new to the sport, endurance athlete husband..Just goes to show it is never, never too late to start doing triathlons....