2008 in Retrospect
So, friends, I tend to write one of these every year (Well, at least starting last year). It’s fun to look back at all the things I’ve done and been through, and pick lessons out of all the things I haven’t been able to see so far.
January: Glad to be back in school with my friends. Didn’t miss the work, but definitely missed the people. Joined the marathon clinic with the intention of doing the marathon. Remembered how much work school and having a job at the same time was.
February: Found out that ‘Reading Week’ is actually supposed to be used for reading, and catching up. Wrote some papers, did some reading, and decided on the Half-Marathon instead of the full marathon. Met one of the best Running Buddies in the world!
March: The month before finals. Busy. No blogging. Running only to keep me sane. Started to realize that the job I was doing wasn’t making me happy—for the first time in 5 years. E-mailed a friend who raved about her job and she got me an interview. Started the process of revamping my diet. Had to give up the habit of Mr. Noodles, Macaroni and Cheese and 6 pack a day Red Bulls. I was a pretty grumpy person for awhile...
April: First set of University finals. It was intense. Noticed that you can walk into a room with 1500 other people, and there can be absolute silence.
May: Agreed to coach my first half-marathon clinic at the Square One running room. Got excited about it, and started to plan routes, find speakers, and get allies for helping me coach, and giving me feedback. Mom went into the hospital for a ‘routine procedure’, and ended up there for over a month. Ran a half marathon with Jeanette and broke 2hrs. No med tent this time. Watched my brother do his first race and get hooked as well.
June: Mom comes home, doped up on every kind of drug possible for every possible kind of pain. Realized that I don’t like doctors, and that I don’t like medication. Started having some pretty cool conversations with my Running buddy. It’s amazing the kind of things you can discuss on a 3hr run. Decided that it was a marathon I would be training for and basically told every single person that came in contact with me—This way I couldn’t get out of it! Started coaching the clinic at the Running Room with the most exciting, dedicated people I’ve met.
July: Turned 2 decades old. Bought my first road bike and fell off of it into the middle of Queensway into Oncoming traffic. Injured my knee and pretty much wasn’t able to cope with life for the month. Reconfirmed my dislike for doctors and medication. Got my first taste of ‘goal setting’, and went in with 3 pages of goals that I had written at 4am...things written that I never wanted anyone to see. Realized someone had looked at them and left work that day crying. ( as soon as I walked out the door of course—I don’t cry in front of people).
August: Accepted an invitation to go to landmark. Worried about it constantly. Just ask my best friend. Was getting tired of training for a marathon, running 5-6 days a week. Possibly burnout. Remembered why I love to run by putting away the Garmin and speaking with people who were no longer able to do so. Tried and failed at planning an event.
September: Year 2 of University. Hard, but fun. Learned that you can make as many lists as you want, but if you don’t have enough time, the list is worthless. Fed everyone around me Vitamin C, in hopes that I wouldn’t get sick and still ended up getting sick the week before my marathon. Met bloggers Marci, Marlene and Laurel. Ran a marathon. I’ll say that again... Ran a marathon! What I can describe as the most difficult thing I’ve ever done in my life. Only got through it thinking about the fantastic people that helped get me through the previous four months. The idea of pacing no longer eludes me. (We’ll test this one at Around the Bay in March)
October: Attended landmark. I thought the marathon was hard. Cried for the first 2.8 days, but what I got out of it was invaluable. Started to not feel well and have trouble breathing. Experienced the post race blues. Had an asthma attack on the bathroom floor at work when nobody was home (classy, I know). Learned that you have to treat your body well, in order for it to be responsive and do what you ask. Had my first (forced?) DNS (did not start) at the Toronto marathon due to pneumonia. Still got up to support my clinic at the race. They all finished, so I guess that makes me a good coach.
November: Indoor allergies got exponentially worse. Couldn’t breathe on a frequent basis. School went on strike. Experienced disconnect from life. Hated doctors even more when mom said she would go to the seminar, but they should she couldn’t go, and just gave her more drugs. Realized how much words can actually hurt, even though than don’t mean anything. Got very excited when a bunch of people I knew did Ironman.
December: Bought a bike trainer. Decided that I was going to do Ironman. Pretty uneventful, actually.
Things I’ve learned:
I learned that Life isn’t actually that hard.
I learned that things only mean what you make them mean.
I learned that you can’t help someone who doesn’t want to be helped
I learned that you can’t make someone want to love life
I learned that you can’t always be happy
I learned that anything is possible
I learned that it's better to wonder than to worry
I learned that tears aren’t a sign of weakness
I learned that it’s okay to need people
I learned that I have the best friends in the world
I learned that sometimes I bend, but I am UNBREAKABLE
Interesting Week and Holiday Greetings.
Again, Life is Crraaazzzyyyy.
My trainer is amazing--cycling legs are WAYYYY different than running legs. I don't have either right now.
My Crazy week went as follows:
Wednesday:Trainer ride, great run with besest running buddy. Didn't feel like we were running at all. Agreed to shovel driveway while she was gone. More on that later.
Thursday: 30 minute trainer ride (at this point, 30 minutes is my "Long" ride) while watching Grays Anatomy.
Friday: Work at 8am. Had a lot of trouble breathing. I know that's been happening a lot lately. I do have asthma. It's really bad at work cause there is so much dust and the air circulation is so bad. Basically what happens is I'll walk into work and my airways seem to close up, and I hang out like that until I start getting coughy and wheezy. Even then, I'm fine. I'm learning to deal with it. However, nobody understands this, and they make me sit down. If my fingers start to get crampy then I know it's beyond me and I need to sit down.
I couldn't convince them that I was okay, and they tried to call an ambulance, but I insisted on being driven across the street: a) because it wasn't a real hospital, and I
despise hospitals and b) because I didn't want to be alone and nobody had a car.
So after having machines attatched to me (it's a fake emergency room) and fighting life and limb to not get an IV, and having a doctor and a nurse stay with me for the first 20 minutes to make sure I was okay, my friend called work and they tried to get ahold of my emergency contact (which I didn't know I gave them, btw). They gave me some pretty good relaxing drugs too. I ended up calling them and not getting ahold of them until 2 minutes before the doc came in to let me go.
I got home at 4:40 ish, and slept on and off until pretty 11am Saturday. It's absolutely exhausting when you have to work 10 times harder than normal to breathe.
The girl that was with me was fantastic. She has asthma and her mom called, and her mom got me the number for the asthma doctor, and told me to go to my doc to get a referral. SO! Oh, and I was also goal coaching my nurses.
Saturday: Shovelled super Danielle's driveway! New plan: When I get a house in High Park, I purchase a snow-blower first. Worked from 4pm-2am. Fun times.
Sunday: Still absolutley exhausted. Wanted to get up to do trainer ride, but it wasn't in the cards. I slept until aboutttt 1pm and my mom took me to work in a blizzard for 2pm. Came home at about 8, slept until my brother ordered dinner and it got here, had pizza and my new steriods (which have some pretty scary side effects) and went back to bed until about 20 minutes ago. I'm starting to feel almost human.
Todays plan: Finish last minute Christmas shopping. Go to movie with brother because that is our thing and we haven't done it in awhile. Come home, 20 minute trainer ride to something ironman related on Youtube. Possibly some core strength depending on the energy I have. Decorate nook, and put up all the pics on my camera that I have yet to put on facebook. Take pictures of nook and decorations, and make facebook album on my Ironman nook as well.
Then its off to Landmark for what is apparently the best of all sessions. Then I'm sleeping.
Hoping to do Hot Yoga in the morning...
And this will
probably be my last post before Christmas, so for those of you who celebrate Christmas:
MERRY CHRISTMASAnd for those of you who don't...Happy Holidays:)Love, Tiger
IRONMAN Nook.
Hi Friends,
I know you were expecting a post a day or two after I got my trainer. So was I! However, I set my trainer up on Saturday before I went to work, and went to set my bike up and I had a flat tire. The tire pump I had didn't have the right adapter so I was going to have to wait until I could get to zellers to get a pump, and Sunday was not a day that was going to work.
Monday following a 9-5 shift at work, I headed off to Zellers so that I could get a bike pump. I got one for 20$ and thought that it would be fine. But it wasn't. It had no pressure in it, AT ALL. So, after about an hour of frustrated trying, I gave up and decided I would have to return that pump, and go to Mountain Equiptment Co-op to get a new pump.
After a long Tuesday shift, I headed off to MEC. There was no way I wasn't going to try that darn trainer. Absolutely no way. So I went to MEC. Took the Subway and a street car, and walked in the dark (at 7pm) and got my pump. I walked, and crossed the street but I shouldn't have crossed the street cause it was darker, so I was sorta glad I had this big metal pump incase anyone crossed me.
I got home, just as Rick was coming in the door. Perfect. So I grabbed him and Charlie (my bike) and brought him to the living room. We got her pumped up (Well, I tried for 1/2hr first, then grabbed rick for help) and started loading him onto the trainer.
Now it was pretty intensely exciting. I only road him for about 10 minutes because it was almost 11pm--and I was exhausted. I left him in the kitchen over night but I was told on no uncertain terms that I wasn't allowed to leave him there. Where would he go, I pondered?
There's a nook in my room. Now it's not a big nook--not at all. But Charlie fits there. So does the trainer. And there's a TV, and a place to set my books if I'm studying or my laptop if there's nothing good on TV. It also fits my shoes, my gym bag, a rolled up Yoga Mat and my bike pumps.
I'm still going to add pictures, and a training program to the wall, inspirational stuff-you know?
So that's exciting.
Wanna hear the freaking scariest thing in the world?!
I am going to have to commit to Ironman Lake Placid 2010 by January 5th, 2009 by signing up to volunteer because it appears that all of the Ironmans are selling out to General Entry on site....
Gotta figure some stuff out--find some tri-geeks to ride down with, figure out where I am going to stay, etc, etc.
Training for the Peterborough Half Iron starts....NOW! Well, after lunch with the Best Friend.
We're talking 45 minutes on the trainer followed by a run (brick workout, anyone?) Swimming and running tomorrow after work.
I'll catch up soon, I promise
Love,
Tiger
Look What I got Me!
A Blackburn Fluid Trainer
Regular Price: 399.99
Found at a Sports shop near my house: 199.99
What I learned from carrying it home on the Subway: I need to work on my Upper Body strength!
Question: Am I supposed to ride a helmet?
I'll let you know how the first ride goes:) First it needs to be assembled
Labels: ironman training, trainer
Disconnected
I took last week easy.
I ate healthy, walked a little, ran a couple times, and did pushups and situps everyday, but took it easy.
Note the eat healthy. We`re talking salad instead of burgers, pasta instead of going out.
I am actually pretty impressed with it.
This week we`re back in at full force:) Yay!
I ran 4 miles on Monday in a newish place that I am going to make a concious effort to go there once a week to run there. I`ll take pictures next time. I ran with my friend after the staff meeting. We stretched for about 10 minutes, and I went home.
Tuesday, I did push-ups (ha), sit-ups, planks, resistance using my body. 3 reps of 10 for each.
Wednesday (today) I was supposed to run with someone in High Park again. I left a text message and called a couple of times. Didn`t get ahold of her or hear from her, so I ended up going for a run closer to home and grabbing dinner (No,not healthy). Stretched when I got home.
Tomorrow is going to happen when it happens, and I`m not sure.
So, many of you know that my school is on strike. And has been for over a month. I`m feeling really disconnected from life. Sure, I am taking on stuff for work, taking this success seminar and working more than I have before,but I don`t fell connected to any of it. I haven`t talked to my best friend in like 2 weeks cause she has exams and I dont get to go in and see the same people everyday like I normally would.
No connection. And I`m not reallly a fan of being disconnected.Things are good in almost all areas but I cannot enjoy it.
I feel like I need more stuff to do. Stuff to keep myself busier.
Ohhhhhhhhhhh well.
Tiger
Labels: connection, hbbc, running
My Eventful Day
Sometimes things don't go as planned. I was doing pretty good on the "being active" stuff.
Saturday I started getting "coughy". Pretty awesome stuff.
Sunday, I was just really wheezy. But I didn't think anything of it. Still, I ended up leaving work early (not on my own terms).
Monday same thing.
My mom says I get wheeezy and have trouble breathing during the winter. Something about recycled, forced air, and a lot of dust (which I'm allergic too).
So when I woke up this morning and was still really wheezy, I thought I should probably go to the docs. I couldn't get into my doctor so I went to the Urgent Care clinic across the street from my work. I went in at about noon--a brilliant plan if I do say so myself. I didn't have to work til 4. I figured they'd send me away saying it was just the season or a cold.
I was wrong. Got in, and they gave me 2 masks, a peak flow meter and an aerochamber, and sent me away shaking like a leaf. Thats a side effect of the ventolin masks they gave me. They said I'd be shaking for a few hours, and my heart is still beating 125 BPM and after that I would crash. I'm fading pretty fast...
I went to work to call people to see if someone would be able to come in to rescue me but apparently they were staffed enough and I hopped in a cab to go to bed. I've been sleeping on and off, and I'm pretty much ready to sleep forever.
But I thought I'd catch you up first:)
In other news, i did buy 2 new pairs of shoes. A pair of Asics DS Trainers, and a pair of Asics Gel Nimbus. Rockin'!
Sorry I haven't been around much. I have a date with you guys on Thursday:)
Tigrrr
