I was thinking...

...it is a really good thing Denise and I did not go to High School together because I am sure we would have gotten into a lot of trouble. I can see it now...


Denise: "I saw a movie with this totally hot dude called Jake Ryan, and his girl friend threw a huge party and some dudes got drunk and it looked totally awesome."
Me: "Fer shur, we should totally try drinking some beer?"
Denise: "Dude, I got us a keg!"
Me: "That's totally awesome! Let's see if we can finish the whole thing tonight!"


***

Me: "Like, I am totally going to fail my History final."
Denise: "Like, I know me too! I am totally freaking out?"
Me: "Dude! I saw this movie where these dudes travelled through time and met a bunch of other dudes. Then the dudes passed their history exams."
Denise: "Totally Awesome!"
Me: "Like, all we need is a time machine."
Denise: "Dude, I got us a time machine."
Me: "Excellent! Let's go!"

***

Denise: "Like, I could totally use a break from school."
Me: "Dude, I saw this movie where this dude tricked his Mom into thinking he was sick, and..."
Denise: "Oh my God! I saw that movie too. We could totally do that!"
Me: "As if...we don't have a car!"
Denise: "Dude, I got us a red Ferrari!"
Me: "Bitchin!"

It's All Her Fault!

Note - She Didn't Say No!

I mean, she didn't really say YES either... but she didn't say no..

I'm just saying..

Aaaa-CHOO!

I hate being sidelined by a cold.  I don’t DO sick.  I don’t have time to be Sick and I get really crabby when I get knocked out of the game by a cold. 

It’s Thursday.  I have done NOTHING this week as far as training besides sneeze, self medicate and work (on top of child rearing, etc).

Today is the first day I didn’t wake up feeling like I was run over by a semi.  I HATE being sidelined when I have so much on my plate in the immediate future.  (Hi, 5K NEXT Sunday!).  But I have to listen to my body and my body said REST.. who am I to argue?

Elise is sick too.  We share our crazy goals and apparently germs across the miles.   Having a cold and not working out while also having quick access to Easter candy is not a great combination.  (Note: my kids, who requested turkey jerky from the Easter Bunny – polished that off before they hit the chocolate…  Now I have bite size Reeses’ peanut butter cups within arms reach.. BAD BAD BAD!).

I was doing a little research… looking for some justification for me sitting out this week as my immune system was losing it’s battle of the germs and stumbled across this, from the American  College of Sports Medicine..

Rest or exercise when sick?

Most clinical authorities in the area of immunology recommend:

• If one has common cold symptoms (e.g., runny nose and sore throat without fever or general

body aches and pains), intensive exercise training may be safely resumed a few days after the

resolution of symptoms.

• Mild-to-moderate exercise (e.g., walking) when sick with the common cold does not appear to

be harmful. In two studies using nasal sprays of a rhinovirus leading to common cold symptoms,

subjects were able to engage in exercise during the course of the illness without any negative

effects on severity of symptoms or performance capability.

• With a symptom complex of fever, extreme tiredness, muscle aches, and swollen lymph glands, 2-4 weeks should probably be allowed before resumption of intensive training.

• In general, if the symptoms are from the neck up, moderate exercise is probably acceptable and, some researchers would even argue, beneficial, while bedrest and a gradual progression to normal training are recommended when the illness is systemic. If in doubt as to the type of infectious illness, individuals should consult a physician.

And this is why the internet SUCKS.

I had fever.  I had body aches.  I DO NOT HAVE 2-4 weeks to start intensive training again.  I was looking for justification – NOT – for excellent adventure crushing advice.  So, I am going to pick and choose what web-based medical advice I’m taking… and that’s the Dr. Denise  version that says tomorrow, if I wake up and it’s not raining, and I don’t need to grab a tissue before I’m vertical, and if my glands are no longer the size of a golf ball… I run.  I run hard.  I run through.  I run away!  J.

Getting Inside My Head

It probably IS as scary as it sounds! 

My name is Denise and I don’t fail.   Its really an easy thing to say when  you  never really even attempt something unless  you know that you are able to complete it.. and excel at doing so.

It was years ago that I realized this little tid-bit about myself and set out to change that.  I began setting unrealistic goals for myself to see what I could achieve if I wasn’t scared to death of failing at it.  And you know what?  I’ve had a hellovalotta fun!  When you write down these goals or share them with someone it makes them real – no longer something you can sweep under the rug and easily ‘forget’ about.  So I write them down, I tell people, I rope other people into my crazy ideas, I blog…

I still don’t LIKE to fail… but I no longer let that fear of failing stop me from LIVING, from EXPERIENCING, from BEING..

This fear of failing… it was what inspired me to start on this excellent adventure with Elise.  Seriously, ME climb 94 flights of stairs??   Well, I’ll never know unless I try!

And every now and then I freak myself out.  Like yesterday, I realized the warrior dash was 8 weeks away.  56 days.   I am NOT ready to finish RUNNING a 5K yet – not even thinking about the tires, mud, fire jumping, etc.   

Will I be ready to do this in a mere 56 days?  (During which I have no less than 3 business trips, a first communion to host, a pre-school recognition day to plan, a children’s resale to co-chair, a boyfriend 3 states away that I’d like to see, and 2 other 5K’s)

WHAT AM I THINKING??

This morning I powered up the Macbook… took a sip of coffee.. and found this on a friends facebook page:

Ever Tried.  Ever Failed.  No Matter.  Try Again.  Fail Again.  Fail Better.  - Samuel Beckett

Well, if that Isn’t the universe speaking to me, I don’t know what is.

So I will be dashing – thru the mud and over fire – and I will do it!  And if I can’t finish or get hurt, you know what?  I will have done it.  I will have failed.  But I will have failed better than I have before b/c I was there.   I’d never have gotten the coveted Viking helmet  if I hadn’t gotten over myself and my damn fear of failing.

So that’s what I will do.. I will Try Again.  Fail Again.  And Fail Better!  Because really, you can’t fail at failing….. so what’s so damn scary anyway?!

I got this.

IM? What's an IM?

Three weeks ago I decided that I had better learn how to swim the right way so that I could do my best in the triathlon in August. I went to our local YMCA and bought a family membership. The kids and I swim two to three times a week now, and it is wonderful.

I told my friend Alan, who participates in triathlons with his daughter, that Paige and I are doing a triathlon in August. I figured he would be the one to ask my silly questions like:

• Will I put my glasses by my bike?


• Do I bring a towel to dry off after the swim?


• Do you put shorts and a shirt over your swimsuit for the bike ride?

I also figured that since his daughter is on a swim team he could help me learn the terms he has been using for the past several years when telling me how well his daughter did in her meets. I never asked before because I did not want to show my ignorance, but I was desperate to know what he was talking about before I go to my first swim lesson tomorrow.

So last week I IM'd Alan to ask how he was doing, and he told me he swam 3000M that morning! Three weeks ago I had no idea what that meant. Now I am in awe since I swam 250M without stopping last week to see if it was even possible, and I was exhausted when I was done. I started firing questions at him:

• Did you get to take breaks?


• How big is the pool you swim in? (3000/25 = 120)


• How do you keep track of how far you swim? (I struggled to remember what lap I was on and I only did went back and forth 10 times.)

I know he was laughing me, but he informed me that he got to take breaks, one pool is 25M the other is 50M, and the 3000M is a workout that he follows.

Oh! There are swimming workouts? Who knew?

Then he began to tell me what he did that morning with the distances, but I was lost in the words that sounded like martial arts moves and rap songs to me.

• Kick - Hee YA!!!


• Pull - Grab your opponent's wrist here, step back, PULL and watch him flip over!


• Freestyle - I picture everyone in a circle as Alan busts a move...Go Alan! Go Alan!


• Breast - Not going there...


• Fly - Like a G6?


• Back - Baby's Got Back!

Of course my interpretations were not correct and he patiently explained what each term meant as I kept asking him questions. Then he said something about IM, and I thought, "Duh Alan! What do you think we are doing right now?", but at this point in our conversation I decided to ask, "IM? What's an IM?" instead.

As he answered this question in detail I got a brilliant idea; I would search You Tube to actually be able to see what he was talking about. What did we do without the Internet? I watched a video on each stroke, and then I watched the Olympics, and then some Michael Phelps videos and the next thing I know two hours of my life had passed by. I know what we did without the Internet we stayed focused and got shit done, but I digress.

Since he is such a great guy Alan sent me a link to Beginner Triathlete which has examples of the workouts he follows, and a ton of other information too.
http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/

Thanks to Alan I feel more confident going to my first swimming lesson tomorrow! He is the Master and I am the Grasshopper!

Glad I Have Medical Coverage...

I think I’ve finally stopped laughing after Elise’s last post (only b/c I can totally relate… I still have the tags-still-on Spanx bathing suit in a drawer as proof).  Never order a FINAL SALE bathing suit online.  Lesson Learned.

I think I’m good with gear for the excursions for the remainder of the year.  Although, I need to get working on the Warrior Dash get ups!   I have a suit I bought last year when I was training for a relay team doing a sprint tri.. But the biker blew her knee out 3 days before the event – which was ok w/ me b/c I developed a nasty case of tendonitis in my shoulder…  I would have swam thru it.. But looking back, it was probably ok.

I will say, Elise is motivated.  My son swam for 2 years competitively and never quite mastered a flip turn (well, he had ‘em down in practice, but never in a meet).  I trained for last year’s event and couldn’t do it to save my life.  There are no flip turns in my future.. which I know will add to my time, but my flip turn is something like a distorted somersault with no contact at all to the wall, and when I resurface I’m going in a direction that I’m not supposed to be.  Coordinated – I tell ya.

That coordination issue is going to be interesting during these crazy times too.  I am the girl who was voted Biggest Klutz in my graduating class.   I sprained my ankle walking into the circus with my kids one afternoon.  My ankle has been fractured, chipped, sprained, strained more times than I can remember.. and never from something that makes for a good story.  Maybe that’s why I so willingly signed up for this stuff.  “I was doing an obstacle course and broke my ankle in the tire run” sounds SO much cooler than, I was walking down the street…

I’m also pretty hard headed and have been known to push through an injury.  Like walking part of day 2 and all of day 3 on a foot with a stress fracture, b/c I’ll be DAMNED if I flew to San Francisco to NOT walk across the golden gate bridge or finish what I started…

The good news is, I have crutches, an air cast, and a few ace bandages and ice packs handy….  But, there’s probably money to be had if any of you want to start a pool on how many times Denise will injure herself during this Excellent Adventure…..