Injury #1 (ALREADY!!)

Ha -- So last night, I went out for my run. Remember how I said they were teaching me a new way to run. Well, on Saturday, I had started a pretty nasty blister on my big toe from running. I don't know if it is from my shoe or this new way of running.

Anyway, I had hoped that the blister had calloused over in time for my run last night. Unfortunately, it had not. My left foot was compensating to the side in order not to irritate the blister. My leg was uncomfortable during the run, but I just thought it was muscles adapting, etc..., so I kept right on running, trying to get in the time assigned to us. Well, five minutes short of that time, I realized that the discomfort in my leg just wasn't dissipating at all. The injury prevention clinic we had on Saturday came to mind, and I decided that despite my "5 minutes to go," I should probably stop and assess the situation. I found myself barely able to walk with pain streaking up and down the side of my calf and ankle.

The pain got worse progressively as the evening wore on. I slept with my foot in the air and took 2 ibuprofen this morning. I'm hoping it's simple a muscle thing and it will clear up in the next couple of days. Fortunately, we are swimming today and tomorrow. I don't have to run again until Saturday. I think I will try to run in a different pair of shoes and see if that helps.

I'll keep you up to date!

Week 1

Well, I survived my first week of training. I feel like I'm relearning how to do everything. They are teaching us a different technique for swimming. It's called total immersion, and it's great for endurance swimming, but it's weird to be relearning how to swim. Same thing with running. Apparently, I've been running from heel and I should be running from the ball of my foot. I'm holding my arms wrong, etc..., so I'm retraining my body from a lifetime of improper technique. It's very difficult and my body feels strange and achy. It will help a lot in the long run though (no pun intended).

I love being in the pool two times a week. It makes me feel like a kid again. I didn't realize how much I miss swimming and just being in the water.

My team is wonderful. The coaches are really great, and the people are a lot of fun. There's definitely not a lack of support amongst the group. It seems like there's so many people around to help out. It's pretty amazing. I'm looking forward to week 2!

Phew!

Well, good news! The new bike seat helps -- alot. My butt will survive to live another day!

On Saturday, we had our big Kick-off day. I met most of the others on our team. We got our official training schedules (which starts out much lighter than I expected). We have our first team training this Wednesday. An hour of swimming. It's a good thing I love the water so much! Today, I have some running to do. Tomorrow is supposed to be an off day, but I think I'll spend a little time on the bike in the morning.

This weekend we have our first run team training in Griffith Park. We're supposed to do our team biking there, too, but we're waiting to see if it will be opened again in time for us to train there. I guess the paths that they normally use are closed right now because of the fire. We shall see.

Solution??

So I found this bike seat randomly in my old apartment. It's a little softer than my sister's seat. I've taken the other one off and put the new one on. I hope it helps! I'll let you know....

Tomorrow is the big Team in Training Kick-Off! I get my official training schedule and everything. Here we go....

And thank you so so so much to all of you who have donated thus far! I'm amazed at how generous you all are!

Note To Self

Must get new seat for my sister's spinning bike!! (Don't worry, Kim, I'll put yours back on when you get back.)

1st Run

Well, my official training does not start out until the kick off day which is this Saturday, May 19, 2007. If anyone would like to join me for the celebration, just let me know.

I have been starting to train on my own, like I said in my first post. I've been running on the treadmill at the gym and riding on my sister's painful spinning bike. Well, yesterday I decided to go to the high school running track to get a little outside exercise. When I run on the treadmill at the gym, I always run on at least a 2 or 2.5 incline because one of the gym trainers told me that makes it equivalent to running outside (frictionally). They lied. I had easily been doing almost 3 miles on the treadmill at the gym (after doing at least 20 minutes on the elliptical and 15 minutes on the stairmaster). I ran two miles on the track and I probably could have kept going, but I decided to stop. When I stopped, I realized my legs felt like jello. Boy, do I have a long way to go. But I'm choosing to look at the positive -- I'm 1/3 of the way there, and I haven't even officially started training yet!!! I'll be a rock star in 4 months, right?? ... right? :-)

I did it!

After years of telling myself that someday I'm going to do a triathlon for Team in Training, I FINALLY got off my butt and bit the bullet. I've signed up, paid my registration fee, and have started fundraising to do it! I've also started training for it (barely): jogging on the treadmill and riding my sister's spinner bike (whose seat seriously hurts my butt). I need to do it more though so I can work my way up. Officially, my team training gets kicked-off on May 19, and my first team swimming session is May 23.

I'm very excited and a little bit nervous, but I know I can do it. So, having said all of this, this is going to be my training blog. I will be updating it pretty frequently to let all of my friends, family and contributors know how I'm doing.

Rock on! LOL