Checking in..

Between family here, training, knitting and scrapbooking classes, I have neglected my blog, which sucks, because it is my therapy. The training went well this week. I am pooped tonite! My son-in-law expressed his concern that I was learning to knit and talking about shopping at Walmart these days. What can I say? My world is maybe getting a little smaller but damn- I am still training for an Ironman! I LOVE scrapbooking by the way-made my first page today..Knitting-well, let's just say I am learning and it is fun. I think the cashmere sweater may be far distant in the future but we may have plenty of washcloths soon, with my current talents.

I experienced a bit of vertigo this week. I had a similar case about 4 years ago and it was BAD. I awoke on the last day of vacation in Cancun and could not get out of bed without the room spinning uncontrollably (kind of like my old drinking days but this time no Margaritas involved). I was pretty sure I had a brain tumor. When we got home, I went to the ER and they said it was just a case of "Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo", which basically means there is no real reason for it. It lasted months. I had to take anti-seasick pills almost daily. Then one day, it just went away. The only thing, at the time, I figured out was that I had taken windsurfing classes in Mexico and had flipped over the side of the boat several times and thought I had suffered whiplash. The Dr. said there is also a theory now that bits of calcium can break loose in your middle ear and cause vertigo.

All of this made me have a lighbulb moment when the vertigo started in a mild form this week. I have been trying to do flip turns every time I swim for the last 2 weeks. Now I have never been a religious flipper, if you will. I saw a video on beginnertriathlete.com and thought I had it finally nailed. Then the dizziness started. Aha! I think these flip turns are breaking loose those calcium thingies in my inner ear. So no flip turns today and no vertigo.. Hopefully problem solved!

Tomorrow-high in the 50's, sunny-H & I are off for a 3 hour SLOW bike ride so maybe finally I can keep my HR down. I check in with my coach for the first time this week so am looking forward to that..

Oh and may I just add a pet peeve here: When the guy in the lane next to you is swimming faster than you and he has some of those long baggy trunks on and you can see his big fat belly under the water. WTF?

There was a tornado in Memphis..

My sister, Molly got a call from my brother-in-law on his way home from work yesterday in Memphis, with this picture out of the window of his car..Nigel, of course calmly got these pictures..They are fine-no damage to their home, thank goodness:

First Day of Ironman Training...

and it is snowing!! Here is the weather report for today:

Daily Weather Forecast for Albuquerque, NM -
Rain / Snow
Showers
High
40°F
Precip
60%
Wind: WSW 18 mph

So I guess my first official bike workout will be a spin class..Anticlimactic if you ask me.
Hartley and I went to ride outside with some other tri folks in the 25 degree weather on Sat. AM. It was rather humbling as we road to the East mountain area and I think my average up the hills was about 5 MPH. Oh and that is with my HR at around 150. So my new coach, Luis and I will have to discuss the HR thing soon..Either that or I will be walking myself up the hills with my bike which may be quite embarrassing in a race.. Needless to say, most of the rest of the group stood waiting for us at times and that kind of sucked to be holding people back..

I am really excited about the training-that is subject to change over the next 20 weeks. After spin I have swimming today, which is usually relaxing for me. I am thinking about hiring a coach for a few sessions to help me tune up some swim techniques..

Becca, Dan, Heidi, Heather and Jack are stilll here . We watched the Super Bowl yesterday. In case you heard a giant roar from the Northeast Heights, it was the many people in our house screaming simultaneously in the fourth quarter. We are Giants fans, ify ou couldn't tell and man you could hear it with that last touchdown. The dog even got scared and the baby had to be taken from the room it was so loud.! We had a blast though and afterward folks played bowling, tennis and boxing with Heidi's Wii game. What an amazing " toy" that thing is!

More later about training adventures..