A trip to the ER and 11 stitches later

This past Thursday I was doing my usual TRX routine, and it comes time to work my swimming muscles with some bent over arm band pulls.  Run of the mill right?  Normally yes, but I had not properly anchored down the tubing and in a split second of letting up on the resistance, WHAMMO it hits me and all I know is my head is GUSHING blood....my thoughts, what do I do now?  Mark was an hour away by train ride as he hadn't driven into the city that day.  I'm in our garage and thankfully there were tons of old tshirts available to stick on my forehead immediately as I didn't want to go into the house and get blood all over the carpet.  Why is this my first thought?!!  Can't get blood on the carpet...we rent for Pete's sake!  Easier to clean blood off of the garage floor than it is carpet.  Score one for Hailey.

Before:

I call Mark in a complete panic, making him extremley nervous that he was an hour away and not able to get me to the ER and not knowing the extent of the damage.  I went to our neighbors house (thank GOD for good neighbors who are home) and I must have been a complete sight...shorts, a sports bra and a head covered in blood...uh can you please help me?  And to the poor PG&E guy driving by, sorry to have scared you...picture me walking next door on the phone holding a bloddy t-shirt.  Again a sight.  They immediately got me some ice, looked at the wound and said yes indeedy we are going to the ER.  Not a band-aid type situation.  Rat Farts!  I put on a t-shirt and off we went.  Mark was now en route to being home to take are of his patient. 

At the ER they ask questions like are you a victim of domestic abuse?  Nope, just a dope victim of not properly securing down workout equipment.  So even with all of this trauma, my pulse is only 49...they must have thought I was dead!  They say, yes stitches will definetly be needed and the first through is, Oh no, the scar that will result from this.  This brought me to tears!  Viatamin E, and NO SUN on wound and we should be OK.

Dr Ko, stitching me up...please no scar

They quickly saw us- total ER time was only like an hour and a half which seems AMAZING to me.  Next up we had to numb the wound and wash it out before the stitches.  YUMMY!!  I am not a fan of shots, I would almost always rather do an Ironman in 100 degree heat before getting a shot.  Wussy huh?!  Well this shot was the Michael Jordan of all shots, a nerve block is actually what it was and I have to tell you I actually made a loud moan before the tears started rolling...it was like taking a needle and then continuing to slam push it along my forehead and THEN insert the burning medecine.  Great.  Although I am sure that that pain was less than I would have felt if they had cleaned the wound and stitched me up without anesthetic but seriously people, it was HORRIFIC. 

Practice Safe Exercise People

Dr's Orders no swimming until the stitches are out...gonna get those bad boys out tonight thank you very much and to take it easy.  I took Friday and Saturday completely off and enjoyed going to watch Mark race at Snelling and being a super supporter in the feed zone.  I was able to ride for 4 hours yesterday and then looked my enemy directly in the eye, albeit this time with a helmet on and got back to TRX'ing (not with a helmet) and my arm band exercise.  My swim is gonna get better dammit!!

My treat for being feed zone girl

Thanks for all of the support and messages!  Next up a big week of training a bike fit with Cheif Bike Mechanic and Coach Mark!  Pics of that to come!

Two days later, looking better already!

Aye, Aye Captain!

Team in Sin City...Vegas Worlds

Last year I had the GREAT fortune of getting to meet and work with the team as my kit sponsor.  I had heard wonderful things about their kits, thin chamois made of fleece and no "double bagging" of the girls needed.  Seriously?  SIGN ME UP!  Needless to say, it was a match made in triathlon heaven and I was immediately hooked on these kits.  So comfy and that oh so perfect, never chafing, always looking good kit. 

This year things are getting even better.  Hard to imagine right?  I have been asked, along with two other amazing women, to be a co-captain of this fantastic team. Needless to say, I am over the moon.  I was gaggin' to be the captain of my swim team in high school after seeing my sister be the captain and do a great job.  Alas, it wasn't in the cards and some other awesome gal beyatch got the gig.  Good thing like a fine wine, I have improved with age.  You couldn't pay me enough to go back to those days. 

Anywho, I am already super excited to meet our new team mates and have begun cyber stalking them to find them via social media to keep me tided over until our first real meeting.  There are some FAST gals on this team and this just makes me more excited.  Nothing to elevate your game like other fast women.  I read today that Mirinda Carfrae thinks of Chrissie Wellington as her Road Runner and is disappointed that Chrissie will be sitting this year out.  Eveyone needs inspiration to make themselves go faster.

Kona Underpants Run

I would like to thank Kebby and Steph as for giving me this opportunity to take on more responsibility within the team and to let me help develop what is quickly becoming THE women's triathlon racing team.  Here's to an Ab Fab 2012!

No Guts No Glory: The Road to Cat 1

No guts, no glory. You hear this all the time right? Husband/Coach Mark went to Arizona this past
weekend to race his first 3 day stage race in over a decade at Valley of the Sun. Yes, he’s a bit older than me but don’t let his age fool you, the man can still get his heart rate above 190. Can you? Not I said the fly. So while I was busy enjoying my mom visiting from Ohio and getting in much needed family time, Mark was off in sunny Arizona. I may have had a bit of FOMO going on and originally had planned to race as well but mom time is more important than bike time me thinks.
Happy 60th to our Madre!

So at the beginning of the season Mark had, after a decade away from racing in the 1/2 Category had
decided that racing masters just wasn’t fun enough (even though most of them are ex-world/regional
champs)and he wanted to see how he stacked up against the current 2’s, most of whom are likely 15-20 years younger. The ultimate goal is to get enough points to at the age of 46 earn his Cat 1 status. If you can find it, you can read all about it on his blog if you can find it.  Mark hasn't had his blog coming out party and is still a bit shy.

Enjoying the bike

I don’t know, but something about this just resonates with me. Yes, he’s my husband and I think he’s
pretty darn cool, but also he is LIVING the motto “dream big”. I’ve been reading a lot of Joel Runyon’s Impossible blog and how NOTHING is really impossible. And that brings me back to Mark. Many people are kind of like, you’re doing what? And you’re how old? And he just keeps working hard. And you know what? I know that he’ll get it done and won’t really say a word about it along the way. Nope, “nothing to see here folks, just riding me bike”.

Sister time on the bike is priceless

The race was not a huge success in garnering any points towards the upgrade, but it was a great season opener showing Mark exactly what he needs to work on…needless to say, we’ll be on our matching Argon’s quite a bit in the upcoming months, racing each other around our local time trial loop. Watch us on Strava to see if I can out-Strava him…for those keeping track, it’s only happened once.

I LOVE his passion for the bike and for his drive to continually get better and succeed. I can’t wait to see the season unfold and will keep you all up to date as it happens!

Keeping it All in Perspective: The ups and the downs

So against the advice of Show No Weakness coach I am going to just touch on something that I don't think gets enough press.   And that is the training funk.  Fact is it happens to everyobody.  No one has perfect rosey amazing training sessions every day all year long, no matter how much time they spend Tweeting the contrary. Can you find at least ONE thing that went well in each session?  Yes. That you can do- and you can have all the right thoughts knowing it will be OK that the workout didn't go as planned and that tomorrow will be a better day.  Thise are essential tools in your mental too kit!

I am writing about this as I think that I am on the other side of Struggle St. (thank you Hillary Biscay for the name) headed straight to Breakthrough Ave.  But maybe you read this blog and you have never had to deal with this cycle before.  The cycle that includes thoughts like, Why isn't my weight budging?  Why am I so tired?  Why am I not running like I did in October? Why is Suzy Triathlete able to do so much and not be tired?

There are a few simple answers to these questions.  1.  It's EARLY people!  I need to be reminded of this often.  We take a break after the season to rebuild our bodies and minds, much needed!  I didn't run for 7 weeks.  Should I be able to run like I did in Kona?  NO!  And why do I expect to?  Expecting grateness all the time from ourselves is a great quality but it can also hold us back and throw us into these cycles.  Will the speed and strength come back quickly?  Yes, but you must be patient and above all, keep the faith in yourself.  Otherwise you may find yourself burnt out by March and injured from trying ot do more when a bit of rest might be just what the Dr. ordered.

I am getting to a point where I have been doing this long enough that I am starting to recognize these cycles.  This one in particular.  It comes, I get down on myself and wonder why life is so tough.  Thankfully this year, I stopped the pity party for one afterjust a bit of sulking and said OK chica, you know this happens and you also know that on the other side of this is the strenght that you have been looking for.  Keep Calm and Carry on as MBK would tell you. 

So that is what I did, coach took one session off the books last week and then it was back to normal.  I had a BIG weekend and had fun doing it.  So just know that when you hit a rough patch, you are on your way to better things.  If you keep on keeping on with your healthy eating and being consistent in your training, you will appear on the other side of the street and be ready to knock out your goals for the season.