This week - still not improving

I'm not improving. But then again, I haven't rested well. I wanted to, but with the bathroom remodel comes certain obligations, unless I want to spend even more money, and it's already stupid expensive. I took Sunday & Monday as rest days, but I had to paint on Monday & Tuesday (Tuesday was a holiday here, and I'd arranged for the long weekend). I didn't want to, but that was how the timing went with the remodel. I did have some help from Kathryn (church friend) and Calvin, thank goodness, but even with that it was VERY taxing. It's not a small room, and I had to do the ceiling, and I wanted to do a really, really good job since the rest of the room will be a high end remodel thanks to my amazing contractor Jesse. I got it done, but at the cost of my health I'm afraid.

Add in the 10K "race" I was registered for that I did on Tuesday (the Deseret News 10K, which I usually LOVE to do), walking casually with Calvin, and racewalking just 3K (time 1:22), and that put me over the edge. I was really just dead on my feet. 

I went back to work on Wednesday and felt terrible. Definitely no exercising. I intended to just work a few hours and take some sick time, because of how I felt, but I ended up staying for my usual ~7 hours. Same on Thursday, though I felt a bit less terrible and did 20 min elliptical before work. On Friday I actually felt better, and did 30 min elliptical before work.

On Friday I also had an appointment with the hematologist to see what he thought about my anemia. Remember, I have mild anemia with a hemoglobin of 12.3 and hematocrit of 37.5. Normal for women is 13 and 39, minimum. I have a history of at least 7 years of mild anemia and my family doc thought I should get it worked up with my continuing fatigue and my desire to racewalk competitively. Add in a low white count and mild neutropenia (low # of neutrophils, which help fight infection) and it was cause to get a referral. The hematologist was excellent (and in fact, knows my boss in a roundabout manner), and we hit it off well. He looked me over carefully, took a thorough history, and had good news and bad news. The good news is that I don't have a major hematologic disorder (like, say, blood cancer). The bad news is that I have what they call "anemia of chronic disease", which means that my anemia is merely symptomatic of some other disease process, likely chronic inflammation of some type or some autoimmune disorder. Since I've been to rheumatology (the autoimmune specialists) and they didn't find anything, this is more perplexing. There is something wrong, but no one knows what it is. He suggested an immunologist, perhaps, but the direction is a bit unclear from here. I am definitely going to go back to my family medicine doc and sports medicine doc and see if they have further advice.

Meanwhile, something is very, very wrong, and I have no idea what or how to feel better. It's bad enough now that it is affecting my work and personal life, which is worse than just affecting racewalking. It's bad enough that social media is painful because then I see all my racewalker friends' accomplishments and feel worse. On the bright side, I seem to be over the worst of it as far as my antidepressant withdrawal. I'm still pretty emotional, but the nausea, dizziness, headaches, and brain zaps are gone. Still, it will take my body a while to make more serotonin, and I'm likely to feel fairly lousy for a bit because of that, which is definitely not helping things. I'll get through this, but it's not fun.

a new low

I'm feeling very, very bad.

I think it's mostly because of quitting the escitalopram, but this is the worst the problems have been in years. Fatigue, headache (splitting, in the morning - ibuprofen and acetaminophen at max doses calmed it enough so I could get to work on Wednesday & Thursday).

So...

Wednesday and Thursday - rest days. Just felt awful. Made it through work and all the other required activities, but just barely. To be fair, work has been unusually demanding in terms of attention required (many undergrads in lab) and time (just a lot of experiments going on), which is fine, but adds to exhaustion. Plus our bathroom remodel has demanded a fair amount of decision making power, which is a good thing, but adds in to the mix.

Friday - went to the track, which I was supposed to do on Thursday. Warmed up, and my legs were like lead. I feel like I have to do the workouts now though, because of Spain. But as you'll see, a course correction is in the plans now. Anyway, I did the warm-up, then 3x1km @85% effort (though perhaps I gave it a little more - it's hard to hold myself back). I felt really terrible, and was extremely slow - 6:15, 6:18, 6:22 with HR in the low to mid 160s. Not good at all. This is the worst it has been, and my muscles HURT.

Saturday - rest day, because I just have to. My body feels dead and unresponsive, and I am VERY sore - reminiscent of the weird muscle soreness I had back in 2013-2014. Makes me think that it might have to do with the escitalopram, since the time proximity is correlated. But correlation is not causation, and this might just be a random relapse with nothing to do with the medication change. Regardless, I'm doing some VERY easy trim painting today and some light errands, but otherwise have been resting. Got Calvin and Loren to do some necessary yard work :) but I think I also need to do some laundry. Have also been planning for our trip to Spain, getting some accommodations and asking friends who live there (Jill) or are from there (Paula, our kids' former teacher) for advice, so that's coming along.

On the bright side, the bathroom remodel is coming along, and I'm posting pics of the new windows. We are enjoying them even though it's just a big empty room with lots of drywall dust and a lonely toilet right now!

dragging

Dragging today.

Last night: brain zaps (minor, but annoying), fatigue, diarrhea. Up at 2am feeling very ill, and was awake for ~2hr stressing about various things including the finances for the bathroom remodel (which turns out to be mostly fine now that I've run and re-run the #s, though it's gonna be close...) and the tile choices and other things. Finally went back to sleep.

Got in to work and realized I'd messed up something and will have to work late today and a bunch on the weekend to fix it. Sometimes I really hate research. Actually, it's more that I hate my own stupidity.

Feel dizzy and ill but am trying not to take any more escitalopram. Want to be done with it.

I did 20 min on the elliptical hoping it would make me feel better. It didn't make me feel worse.

It must be Friday the 13th.

Back to work insanity now.

slogging along

This week has been +/-.

Monday night: dug up some weeds. Think it aggravated the hammy a bit.

Tuesday morning: elliptical.

Tuesday night: mowed very long grass in yard. Definitely aggravated the hammy a bit.

Wednesday morning: 5K fartlek was the workout. I made it to 3K; legs were heavy, and hammy was more sore than I thought it should be, and I was very slow. Got to 2926m (~3K fartlek on indoor track) in 17:54 and HR was only 157 average. Yeah. Slow. I called it quits, which I think in retrospect was definitely the right call. No sense beating a dead horse. I think it was just a minor setback due to the yard work, because today was better.

Today: 6K on JRP with Kelly and Sugar. Nice weather, 52F (11C) but pretty windy as a storm was blowing in. The first 3K was slower (into the wind) and then the last 3K felt better. Total was 39:59 for 6:39/km ave HR 143. Then I did 5x200m @85%...well, more like a nice hard effort :). Harder than 85%. But I wasn't fast; the fast twitch muscles still need work. I did 5:29 for the km.

Hamstring felt OK the rest of today. Tomorrow is PT and Saturday is the Salt Lake 1/2 marathon. I think it'll be OK for that.

I'm going to have to decide in the next couple months whether to go to Perth or not. Right now it's hard to know if I'll be able to train, so I'm trying not to get discouraged and make a pre-emptive decision. Hopefully things will improve soon or it'll be a no-go.

6.4km on indoor track

Woke up late :/ but did still make it to the track; it's just as well. I planned to do 8K and could've, but it might have been unwise. My pain in the butt was fine (1/10 after sitting a lot last night doing computer upgrade) but my glutes tired quickly today, perhaps because it was actually my third day in a row racewalking. That's good! But bad that I got tired. Well, we will fix that in a hurry. More workouts, better fitness, less tired.

After doing my glute activation exercises diligently and carefully, I did 22 laps on the track, stopping twice to roll on the ball (more preventative than anything; I didn't have much pain). I forgot to stop my Garmin the 2nd time so it's off a bit. Total time for 6437m was about 42:00 spot on, for 6:31/km. Hey, that's pretty good, except that my HR was quite high doing it. It was a moderately hard effort and my HR was in the upper 150s/low 160s at the end. My fitness will return if I can train, so I'm trying not to be at all concerned about that part. The good part is that I could train.

Weight Watchers is going pretty well. I am adjusting to a few changes in the program, but that's going fine. My biggest challenge (as usual) is not eating too much after dinner. I did well for a couple nights but not as well last night; still, I am within my points. I just need to watch it more carefully tonight. I can do this!

In other news, I made a house cleaning plan and the kids now have a schedule for their responsibilities, as do I. So I've done everything I set out to do almost a week ago except figure out how to fit in strength training. That schedule is coming soon, so stay tuned. But I've 1) gone to the doctor, 2) gone to Weight Watchers, and 3) made my household cleaning schedule. That's a start. I feel a lot better mentally tackling all of this rather than just feeling sorry for myself.

day off; 4x1km

Yesterday: had a friend over for dinner the previous night and then stayed up late installing a new thermostat (ecobee3, smart thermostat, at left - so awesome!) so I didn't even try to get up early to do my track workout. I was exhausted and needed the sleep. Plus my resting HR was up to 56...high for me...so I decided it was better to take it easy and take a day off.

Today: woke feeling good and went to do my 4x1km. Weather was good for the season at 3.9C (39F) and calm and partly cloudy. I saw a few snowflakes but I can't say that it was actually snowing much. It was too warm for it to stick anyway! After my warm-up of 1600m plus strides, I did the 4x1km. I felt good and strong on these, and was able to go a bit faster on each. I did them in 5:42.0, 5:40.2, 5:40.2, and 5:39.4. My HR was in the upper 160s at the end of each 1k, which seems appropriately hard, and my HR during the 2 min recovery period went down to the low 110s each time, which is also good and normal for me. So all seems well.

Hopefully I'll be good for my 20km tomorrow! It's supposed to get very cold tonight (27F) so I'll have to dress for the occasion. Oh yay...winter is coming :(.

Garmin data here. 

cross-training; 10K

Yesterday: elliptical, felt fine. Was glad to not work out outside - it was WINDY and nasty out. Brrr!

Today: 10K with Kelly and Sugar (my dog) on the Jordan River Parkway. It was 38F (3.3C) but not windy, though it was raining lightly on and off. Still, I wasn't cold in my long-sleeved technical shirt and tights; I felt fine. I was grateful that it wasn't windy after the past couple of days of wind.

Met Kelly really early (5:50am) so she could get to work afterward, and that was rough as I stayed up until 11pm last night doing stuff around the house. Loren and I got the claw-foot tub all set up (see left; plumber did the drain and faucets but we did the shower curtain ring and the shower plumbing) and it's working well, though the shower head that came with the shower kit was really lousy and leaked a lot, so I went to get another this morning before work. Moving is a lot of work...before AND after. I had forgotten all the stuff that you do when you move - next up on my list is replacing the thermostats with smart thermostats. It's going to be a while before we are fully settled in.

Anyway, I was VERY tired this morning and my resting HR is back up to 56 (from 50 when fully relaxed) though I'm not sure why, as I don't FEEL particularly stressed or anything. I will keep tabs on this though, and make sure I'm not pushing too hard. The workout went fine; we just tried to keep it very easy, and because I forgot my Garmin (duh!) I didn't know my 500m splits and we were a little slow. I know where 5K is on the trail, so the out and back was no problem. Plus we used map my run on our phones to track things; though that said 6.45 miles instead of 6.22. I know it's GPS and it's off a bit, but my Garmin is much better than that. Hmmm. Anyway, no matter. It took 1:05:10 for the 6K, and yeah, that's a bit slow, but it's done, and I was tired, so there :). Here's a link on map my run. Oh, and I had extra time on my phone because I couldn't stop it a couple times when we stopped for a drink/my phone rang/etc. Kelly timed it too and hers was the more accurate 1:05:10. HR was about mid-140s to low 150s, typical for this workout, so that seems good. I'll try to get some extra sleep tonight and monitor things and make sure I'm doing OK.

Good 7.9km walk!

I was moving all weekend, so I didn't blog.

Thursday: 5K with Calvin, some slow so he could racewalk. Yep, I'm teaching him! We'll see if it sticks but he seems quite interested...finally! Most 500s he walked a bit and ran a bit, so I had to go a little slower for him on his walking parts...thus the overall time is a bit slow; 33:14 for 6:38/km.

Garmin data here. 

Friday: 6K with Kelly around Liberty Park. MOVING DAY! Tired from packing...and it's time to start moving stuff to the new house. But the walk went well, and the weather was warm and very nice. 13.9C (57F) and cloudy and a bit windy, but not too bad. Legs felt pretty good, and we walked well, at 6:30/km for the 6K in 39:03.

Garmin data here. 

Saturday: 45 min easy with Kelly on the Jordan River Parkway. This after both of us were moving furniture and boxes all day Friday. Exhausting! We had to go early (6am) because Kelly had to work, and so got stuck in a light to moderate rain for the whole time. Fortunately, it was relatively warm out so I didn't get cold, but I didn't have my baseball cap because I'd packed it (GRRRRR) so got pelted in the face with rain. Oh well. I lived :). It was 12.8C (55F) and not windy at least. We did pretty well on very tired legs, at 6:34/km for the 6.86 km (45:02).

Garmin data here. 

Sunday & Monday: rest days from exercise - on Saturday afternoon after we got out of the house, I was SO dead tired. Felt terrible! Sunday all day I did pretty much NOTHING and I'm sure that helped. Monday we had to redistribute furniture in the new house (could only put it in one (big) room prior to that, as the seller needed to live there through Monday morning), and that was enough workout for the day. Whew.

Today: Wasn't sure how my legs would be, but they actually felt really, really good. I met Kelly at the JRP for an easy 50 min, and we did very well in nice weather (16.1C, 60F and breezy). 7.89km in 50:03 for 6:21/km with ave HR 150. Felt great to move well. Legs a bit sore afterward, as is the rest of my body, probably from moving. But other than unpacking and moving one more big piece of furniture (a bookcase that has to be disassembled and reassembled to move it into our bedroom), we are done. YAY!!!!!

Garmin data here. 

news, news, and more news

I've been absent from blogging-land because 1) I severely bruised my toe last Tuesday moving a bookshelf to our new house when a shelf fell out and landed on my toe, point side down (we had to move our stuff out of our garage to the new garage so we could demolish the old garage), and 2) we have been completing repairs/upgrades to the house necessary for the contract to go through.

So...what have I been up to?

Wednesday: rode my bike to work, and my toe was sore but manageable. Got it x-rayed and it was NOT broken! YAY! It sure looked ugly though:


Thursday: rode bike to work and did the elliptical.

Friday: rode bike to work; too busy to do anything else, and too tired, after demolishing the garage on Thursday AND moving ALL the stuff out of the kids' rooms so that new carpet could go in on Friday morning.

Saturday: Felt like it might be possible to racewalk, so I met Kelly at the Jordan River Parkway for an easy 45 minutes. We did 7K and it felt mostly fine - a bit sore, but totally tolerable. Pace was 6:28/km and it felt a bit hard; my legs were tired from demolishing the garage Thursday. Garmin data here. 

Sunday: Kelly was going to do 60 min easy, and I agreed to go along. She wanted to be able to go slowly, so we kept it relaxed and didn't push, which was fine with me because my legs were still very tired. We did go slowly but that's OK, and my toe was doing all right. Again, some pain, but not bad. We did 9km at 6:39/km pace. Garmin data here. 

Today: biked to work and did elliptical. Toe still lightly sore. It looks a lot better though.

Tomorrow: 8K fartlek on the schedule. Here's hoping I'm up to it :).

cross-training; 10K

Yesterday: did elliptical for 40 min with Kelly.

Today: more house stuff, busy and a bit stressful but all OK. I couldn't work out in the morning, though. Instead, I managed to carve some time out of my work day to go over to the Student Life Center and do 10K on the track there. I could have gone outside, but it's so hilly at work and this way I invited Kelly to come too, and we did a bit over 5K together. Then Kelly did abs and strength training stuff while I finished the 10K. I worked quite hard and pushed a bit but it felt good to let some of my stress go that way. The 9948m (34x around the 292.6m track) took me 1:02:50 for 6:19/km. I left my Garmin in the lab by mistake, so I don't have Garmin data; I did the stopwatch time on my phone so I could pause for water breaks as needed (I took three because it was pretty hot in there this afternoon).

6K fartlek

Sunday: biked to work. Worked for an hour, biked home, went to church, came back to work for several hours. Lots to do! Was extremely fatigued in the evening.

Yesterday: biked to work & did elliptical. A bit tired in the evening but not like Sunday night.

Today: 6K fartlek. Kelly met me at the track just as I was finished warming up (1600m plus strides in 10:13, with bridges before, during, and after warm-up to activate glutes). It was warm at 20C (68F) and very, very windy. Garmin says 19kph steady (12mph) but I think it was more at the track than at the airport, plus it was gusty. Ugh!!! If it had been just me I'd have taken this one indoors, as the wind was definitely a hindrance. It wasn't as windy as it was on my last leg of Portland-to-Coast, though, so that was a relief.

The fartlek went OK; not as good as last week, but the wind totally explains that. I was pretty slow on the "fasts" and on the recoveries. Total was 36:37; here are my splits (below) and my accumulated times as well as average and max HR for each split. Garmin data here. Given the weather, I'll take it.

1	02:53.7	02:53.7	146	156
2	02:55.0	05:48.6	159	163
3	03:09.6	08:58.2	158	163
4	02:54.0	11:52	165	168
5	03:14.5	15:07	160	167
6	02:55.6	18:02	165	169
7	03:14.8	21:17	162	168
8	02:57.1	24:14:00	166	169
9	03:13.7	27:28:00	164	169
10	02:58.9	30:27:00	168	171
11	03:13.8	33:41:00	165	171
12	02:56.3	36:37:00	169	173
Summary	36:37:00	36:37:00	162	173

My hamstring was bothering me a bit but definitely not as much as last week, so I'm happy about that. Iced it and massaged it with tennis ball after the workout. I thought A LOT about my form, about using lower abs to keep posture good and tuck my rear end under. I think it helped, along with the bridges to activate my glutes.

Oh, and the stress is going to be better now I think: came to an agreement with house buyers on repairs/upgrades to be done. Now to just do the work and get on to our move!

14K

This morning I got up really early to go to the Jordan River Parkway. Kelly has moved back to Salt Lake (YAYAYAYAY!) and agreed to meet me for my last 5K, but she wanted to be home by 8 am to watch a soccer game with her fiancé Chris. So I started at 6:05 am and she met me at 7:05 am after I'd done my first 9km.

It was a bit chilly by the river this morning; it was 59F (15C) but by the river I'm sure it was at least 5F colder. I was still fine in shorts and a T-shirt, but was chilled until I got warmed up a bit. Otherwise, the weather was lovely - calm and clear.

The house selling stress has been worse at the end of this week. It's complicated and I'm not going to go into it here, but let's just say that last night was not a good night. A glass of wine at dinner with Loren helped immensely though :). With all that on my mind I pushed a bit harder this morning, as if the exercise would purge the evilness of it all, and it did help a bit. My resting HR spiked up to 56 this morning, which is NOT good. I can't have a relapse. I'm going to have to manage this somehow. I'm working on it - suffice it to say, w/o going into details, that I have a plan. Unfortunately extra rest isn't in the cards today as I have to work a good portion of the day today & tomorrow because we have a deadline on a paper. But I think I can get home by 3pm today and get a quick nap before Calvin's soccer game at 4pm.

My legs felt great this morning, and not at all compromised by yesterday's 3x1km. The only problem is that niggling pain the butt on the left side. Kelly had a look at it and thinks it's the upper hamstring :(. Boo. She told me to ice it (I did) and to massage it (I did) and not to stretch too much (I didn't). I'm going to have to baby it.

My pace was 6:18/km through 9km, and then the last 5km was a bit slower; I was tired, and I was talking to Kelly, well, sort of. I was breathing hard enough that I didn't converse with her so much as she conversed with me. She was running, because her left knee has been bugging her lately while RW, so she opted to run today.

Garmin data here. 

***

In other interesting news, my boss did the Wasatch 100 yesterday. It's a 100-mile trail race in the mountains with 25000 feet of elevation gain and loss along the course. It's pretty much insane. Another friend of mine did it a few years ago and made it to 80 miles then DNF'd; the next year he finished. I think the first time doing a race of that distance it's going to be a learning experience, and it was for Josh yesterday. It was really really HOT and he had trouble staying hydrated, because his stomach pretty much quit accepting liquids. Of course, this also meant he couldn't eat anything either. I decided to go cheer for him at the 52.5 mile mark at Lambs Canyon, which is easily accessible from Salt Lake. Loren and I drove up there and saw him come in at 9:15pm, and he looked very tired but OK-ish (still smiling after 52 miles - photo at left). But his wife was worried and told us he hadn't been able to eat. He did manage to get some broth and soda and potato chips and noodles down, but in the end he decided not to continue the race and DNF'd there. All the same, I think it was an outstanding effort and it's the farthest he's run (previous long run was 38 miles; he's also done a bunch of trail marathons), so there's a lot to build on there. He said, though, that this distance is as different from a marathon as the marathon is from a 5 or 10K, and I believe it. It's just a totally different animal. It was good we'd gone up there to cheer for him, because his pacers just had one car between them and needed to fetch the other car; since we were there we could take him home, for which he was grateful. I hope he is feeling better today.

cross-training; 6K fartlek

Monday: 1 hr elliptical followed by a delightful soak in the hot tub at the gym. It was our Labor Day holiday, so I enjoyed the day off. Slept a bit later, and even got a nap, too. I needed the extra rest badly with all the house stuff.

Tuesday: still pretty tired; lots of house negotiations with buyers. Looks like things are moving along well though. But I was too mentally out-of-it to manage a hard workout, and besides, I only have 3 workouts per week right now to maintain fitness until the house stuff is over, which gives me added flexibility. So I opted to bike to work and do the elliptical for 30 min. That was a good choice, as I felt much more up to a hard workout today.

Today: Got to the track about 6:30am and it was pitch black out; the moon and a planet (Venus probably?) were out and were beautiful (see photo at left). Fall is definitely here, though at least the weather is not too cold yet. It was 57F (13.8C) at the track by my car thermometer, with about a 10mph breeze from the east (16kph). The wind wasn't a problem, though, and didn't make me cold. I did a 1600m warm-up with strides in 10:12, and my left piriformis (or maybe another muscle in that area) was acting up a bit. It continued to bother me throughout the workout though it did get better as time went on. I stretched thoroughly before starting the fartlek and also after my workout. Definitely need to get in some strength training, though the when of that is problematic right now.

Anyway, I got started on the workout and just told myself not to think too much, because my mind is busy putting forth negative thoughts about a lot of things. Not thinking was easier than I thought it would be; I just focused on staying in the moment and relaxing and thinking about technique. I didn't judge my performance (much), which is good because it wasn't stellar, but that is completely irrelevant at the moment. My body is only going to do what it's going to do given the current constraints, and I pushed hard and worked hard, so I am proud of that.

My first km was 5:49.7, and then my fasts were all about 2:54 except the last one, which I pulled out in 2:52. The medium effort 500s were 3:07-3:12 which isn't great, but again, no judgment. It's what came out, and I was working hard, as my average HR was 161 for the workout. Total time was 36:16, which isn't bad considering I haven't done a 6km fartlek in a while. 
Garmin data here.

Thursday-Sunday: rest, x-train, 5K, 14K

Thursday: was supposed to do a 6K fartlek, but work on the house had kept me up late, AND the kids brought home some stomach virus on Tuesday that made me nauseated Wednesday night and weak on Thursday morning. I bailed and took a rest day, which was a good decision.

Friday: cross-training - biked to work and did the elliptical at the gym at the Student Life Center.

Saturday: was going to do 14K, but took Calvin out for the first 5K and my legs and body were really tired from the week's accumulated house stress, work stress, etc. I'm not going into detail here about everything but let's just say that a lot of physical labor and related stress does bad things to one's body. The 5K was laborious but it was nice to be out with Calvin. Garmin data here (though the satellite didn't kick in for 100m so it says 4.9k but it was 5.0k); 33:01 for 5K - sloooooow but done.

Sunday: after feeling mad at myself for not doing the 14K, I determined that I would do it today. And I did! And it went all right! It wasn't fast, but I felt pretty strong until about 12k and then that last 2km uphill was tiring but I still had some spunk left in me to kick it in gear, and I finished well I think. I made myself NOT think about house stuff, NOT think about work stuff, NOT think about whether or not I'd be able to train and go to Perth for WMA next year. Just stay in the moment, and enjoy the crisp fall weather. We had a cold front come through and it was so nice and refreshing out this morning. Saturday morning it was 22.8C (73F) for my 5K, but this morning was a huge contrast at 8.9C (48F) for my 14K. It was delightful!!! Calm, clear, and beautiful. I tried to really enjoy it, and mostly succeeded. Total time 1:31:33 for 6:32/km with ave HR a nice low 142. Garmin data here. 

Portland to Coast 2015

I was on the winning team again this year; first to the coast of 400 teams! I went in a bit undertrained and it showed on the last leg, but the conditions were adverse so it's hard to know what would've happened otherwise. Regardless, all my teammates put forth astounding efforts and despite a storm for the books, we arrived at the beach only 5 minutes past our predicted time, in 22 hr 19 minutes. Now that's amazing.

Leg 14 (my first leg; the 2nd leg of Portland to Coast). I'd done this one once before, back in 2009, and found it challenging because of the length (6.04 miles) and the gradual hill the last 2 miles for a total of 40m elevation gain and 32m elevation loss in the distance according to my Garmin (though they've changed the leg because it was 5.49 miles in 2009). This time I had someone to chase, as Ashley, a fast 31yo RW that Carmen is working with, got a 30 second head start on me. I narrowed that gap a little to about 20 seconds, but then couldn't hold the pace and ended up finishing about 2 min 30 sec behind her. Still, I'm pleased with my aggressive effort. My HR was quite high for much of the leg (>170 for the last 30 min or so) and it was warm outside and sunny (only 18.9C at the start of the leg, but I am sure it got a lot hotter by the end) and uncharacteristically humid for Portland. I finished in 59:35 (pushed start on my watch a bit late) for 6:08/km (assuming distance as marked in race handbook). The last ~4km were a very hard effort, harder than I'd have liked because of my unpreparedness, but Garmin data here. 

Leg 24 was a new leg for me, but I liked it. Mostly flat, 4.87 miles (7.84km), and I started at 7:30pm when it was a bit cooler out. Still humid, still warm, but not too bad. I felt pretty good for the first 6K, and only the last 2K were difficult, and I was able to go a bit faster at 6:02/km (assuming the distance was as marked in race handbook) with average HR only 160 this time; smaller hills and cooler weather helped a lot (though oddly enough Garmin says it was hotter...22.8C...maybe it was, but no sun and some breeze was great).  Garmin data here. 

In between 24 and 34: a little nap (2 hr), some spaghetti and meatballs, and some digestive upset (not too awful, but a few porta-potty visits required). And a storm came in...

Leg 34. Yeah, leg 34. I'd done this one last year a lot faster. But the conditions were perfect last year, and were horrific this year. Yes, horrific. The temperature was OK, but it was raining sideways and the wind was a steady 32kph or 20mph with gusts MUCH stronger, and oh yeah, it was a headwind. And there were hills. And my legs were done. And I found out about an hour before doing this leg that the buyers we were under contract with backed out and the house is back on the market. Long story...but if you know anyone who's looking in the area, have them contact our realtor, Elaine, at 801-573-4109. So I was NOT in a good frame of mind, and when I hit the first difficult hill (and there were 30m of elevation gain in this 5.59km leg) and my 500m split was about 3:30 I just determined I'd finish and hold on for dear life. Actually, though, given the conditions, I think in retrospect that my time was pretty good. I went 35:50 for 6:27/km, which was only 1:02 slower than my predicted 34:48 (I knew I'd be tired for that last leg). So to only lose 14 sec/km with a 32kph headwind I think is pretty good, especially given my mental state. I cried when the van gave me aid but kept pushing as hard as I had stamina for. I think I forgot to wear my HR monitor, because I have no HR data! Funny, that...the weird stuff you do at 4:30 am on 2 hr of sleep and poor mental state. Y'know, I'm actually proudest of this leg because I stuck it out and didn't give up, and put in a good performance given the poor conditions. Garmin data here. 

When we arrived in Seaside just a couple hours later, the weather had worsened enormously. The tents at the beach finish were in near-ruins, and the finish was moved onto the promenade and then later onto a street in town because of the danger of the blowing sand (I got sand in my eyes, mouth, etc. - nasty!). Despite all the horrid conditions of the last 5 legs for our team, we were only 5 min off our predicted pace of 22hr 14min, finishing in 22hr, 19 min. We were first to the beach (as we advertised on our van :)!) and got our photo with Bob Foote, the race founder, and a few TV interviews. It was cool. Oh, and did I mention I am the youngest on our 10-person team at 45? Everyone else is over 50. Coolest and strongest bunch of "Antiques and Collectibles" (our team name) that I know. I'm proud to have been a part of this team.

Photos here. 

3K fartlek

Yesterday: elliptical

Today: 3K fartlek. Skip the *** section below if you don't want to read a semi-rant about buying and selling homes.

***

Let me preface today's workout commentary by saying that I am giving myself a gold star for doing this one. Yesterday was a freakishly stressful day. The roof repair guys came at the same time as the buyer's home inspector, which in a way is good because they can see that we care (a lot!) about selling a quality home. I want it to be the best it can be for our buyers (not that they are likely to see it that way, though since I don't know them personally I can't say for sure). But this whole home selling process is very difficult, because your home is so personal and everyone is tromping through it and criticizing everything that you have done or not done to make it what it is, when they can't know and don't see all that you have done. Our home is SO very much better than it was 13 yr ago when we bought it - it was a very ugly granny-decorated home (think wallpaper, waterfall in basement!, severely damaged hardwood floors, 70s shag rug and paneling in basement) with only 1 bathroom, and now it's a lot better. But like I said, no one can see that.

I have just felt so raw and vulnerable during this time, and so has Loren. Add in the stress of clearing out for the home inspection, and then returning (after they said they'd be done) to find they needed more time, and well, it was a lot. Add in a very whiny 9yo daughter, and ensuing freak-out by husband which involved some profanity, followed by freak-out by daughter, followed by husband walking away from restaurant we were having dinner at (on the patio...so we could have the dogs there, because they had to be out too), and well, it was not a peaceful evening. Thankfully, said husband apologized later to said daughter and I think all is well now.

Now we wait some more, in a hot home because they are doing radon testing (which we DID 7 yrs ago and it was fine, AND we told them that!) and we have to have the swamp cooler OFF and the windows SHUT for two days. TWO DAYS. Then on Friday they are scoping our sewer. Geez. I feel like I'm getting my own personal colonoscopy, without anesthesia.

The consolations are this: 1) we will (hopefully) soon be moving into our new-to-us home, 2) some friends have been very supportive and understand that it's a stressful time and have pitched in a lot to help, 3) some friends from farther away have been encouraging on Facebook or other ways. Not so consoling: my parents have added to the stress by their critical response to my stress. It's not helpful to call for a listening ear when the result is someone telling you how poorly you are managing the situation. Like I said, it's a raw and vulnerable time, and I am just going to have to surround myself with supportive and helpful people and ignore the negatives. Somehow.

***

3K fartlek - as mentioned above, I get a gold star for doing this workout at all. Let's just say that after yesterday it's a miracle I got up and went to the track. I did go to bed early, which surely helped. And guess what? The high school track is OPEN again!!!! YAYAYAYAY!

It was warm this morning and humid, as a storm is coming through; 22.8C (73F). I did a slow warm-up (first lap very slow, as I wasn't feeling it) but sped up as I went and did the 1600m with strides in 10:33. My 100m strides felt good in about 32-33s each. I stretched a bit and got going on the fartlek.

It went reasonably well. Here are my times: 2:52.8, 2:53.0, 3:08.9, 2:51.3, 3:09.8, 2:49.3. Total 17:45.0 with ave HR 160, max 173, and 2 min recovery 122 (good!). That's not fast, but at least I'm able to train and despite the stress my HR is not going crazy. My resting HR has been up a bit (54-56 via fitbit) but not alarmingly so. I will keep monitoring it.

Garmin data here. 

6K

Good news - we are now under contract on our house. One step closer to moving :). It's been crazy, and there is still more to come, as the house has to be inspected and negotiations with buyers over what should be fixed follows. Hopefully the buyers will be reasonable people and we will get through all of this with a minimum of stress.

***

This morning, I did 6K. Portland-to-Coast is this Friday & Saturday, so I am taking it easier this week in preparation. The 6K went fine; I felt much more relaxed than I have because I was less worried about the house business :). I took both dogs, though, and Powder was dragging her feet as usual. I probably would've been 5-10 sec faster per km if not for dragging her part of the way when she got tired. I should quit taking her, but she needs the exercise, so I try to take her on shorter walks.

Total time was 39:20 for 6:33/km with ave HR 143.

***

Oh, and today was the first day of school. Such cuteness on my FB feed from lots of friends. Here's my kid spam...

5K fartlek

There's still been a lot of stress re: house selling efforts, but I'm mostly handling it pretty well. Mostly. My resting HR has remained at 52-53 which seems decent, so at least that's something. But it's hard having strangers tromp through your house and dealing with all the stuff that comes with selling a house. 

I didn't get enough sleep last night and wasn't feeling much like a workout but I'm glad I did it. Not that it went well, because it didn't really, but because I did feel better after I did it. 

The warm-up was a bit sluggish but not too bad, with a few strides thrown in. I had to do the workout on the road (mostly but not totally flat) because the gym was closed until 4pm for staff training (the U undergrads start next week, so they are preparing), so the indoor track wasn't an option. The outdoor track is close to being ready to use again (a week or two more?) but it is still not an option either. 

I started off and in the first km I knew it wasn't a good day. My first km was 5:51.5 (2:56, 2:56 essentially...) and it didn't get better. But it didn't get much worse, either, which is good. I was supposed to do a 6K fartlek, but when my last km was 3:09 (medium effort) 2:58 (very hard effort on slight uphill) I called it quits. I wasn't discouraged but wanted to be sure not to overdo. Am still feeling fine about things, and just figure that today was an "off" day. I can live with that.

My average HR was 165 during the workout, which is pretty high; 2 min recovery was 130, also pretty high. I have to keep an eye on this and see where it trends. It's a bit concerning. Stress reduction is needed, so will try to take good care of myself. 

Garmin data here.

Good news: the scale is moving! I've been tracking carefully with Fitbit and it said 154.0 this morning and it hasn't been that low in at least 18 months. I'm pleased, though I suspect some of that will come back on as water weight in the next day or two. Still, it was 165 this winter, so it's definitely going in the right direction :). 

10K

Sunday: rest day

Monday: was supposed to do 6K + 5x200 but mixed up the workouts in my head and woke up a bit late so I cross-trained instead (biking, elliptical). It's been busier than usual around here because we might buy a larger home a block away and we've been crazy looking at homes, talking to realtors, etc. etc. etc.

Today: got up on time and did my 10K, darn it!!! I was to try for 6:10-6:15 pace, but I only managed 6:18. I tried really hard, but just didn't have the legs for it today. I was at 6:15 at 7.5km but then slowed down and just couldn't hold it. However, 6:18 is still pretty good. I left my heart rate monitor chest strap at work so I just had my Fitbit and manual HR counting, but it was mostly in the mid to upper 150s and even low 160s at the end, so I was trying plenty hard. I am obviously feeling the effects of various life stresses upon returning home from vacation, and am working to manage it better, but it's a skill that is going to take some time. Work is insane because we are moving the lab this Friday, and there's a lot of pressure to do experiments because we have two papers under revision. Home is insane because of the whole possible house purchase. But I'm actually holding up pretty well and don't feel too anxious most of the time. I'm trying to stay in the moment and just go with things.

Garmin data here for the 10K.

kitchen faucet...again...

I put this on FB but forgot to blog about it. Yeah, I'm not terribly handy so I gotta brag about the few things I actually CAN do around the house :).

I've done this before, twice...apparently I'm better at installing faucets than picking a good model. The new one was fairly pricey and so maybe it's better? Maybe. Probably not. But one can hope. At least I'm getting good at installing the darn things.