Week 4 Training Plan

Our recovery week is over and it's time to get back at it. Here is Week 4 of our training schedule. It's only Tuesday, so I figure this is still news.

Stick It In Your Eye

Well, James and I are both having really busy weeks at work. He is closing a construction job. My boss is in town and I'm starting a clinical study. Between the two of us, it's been hectic to say the least.

Today was by far the worst for me. My clinical study was supposed to commence this morning, and we were supposed to be testing a new piece of ultrasound equipment that takes pictures of the inside of the eye. In order to use this equipment, you need to anesthetize the eye, put ultrasound gel INSIDE the eye, and use an ultrasound probe to capture images of different eye structures. It all sounds very simple, doesn't it?

As simple as it seemed, we decided to try testing the device yesterday in-house, using my boss as a test subject. Not yet being an ultrasound expert, I had picked up a few liters of "regular" ultrasound gel, which apparently causes my boss' eye to turn very red, swell, and sting like crazy. Don't ask me how I know. Regardless, I had to find ultrasound gel specifically intended for use in someone's eye. After a few hours of calling around, I was finally able to locate some of this special gel on the mainland, but it wouldn't be able to be delivered until tomorrow. But the testing was supposed to start today! We needed an alternative. After some brainstorming, someone suggested we try KY Jelly, and I was subsequently sent to the pharmacy to procure a tube of lube.

So, mid-morning on a Thursday, dressed in my finest work clothes, I headed over to the Family Planning section of the pharmacy and snagged a jumbo tube of KY. Seeing the "Keep Away From Eyes" warning on the package and recalling the earlier incident with the other gel, I thought it would be wise to consult an expert before inflaming my boss yet again. So, in a most professional fashion, I marched right up to the pharmacy counter, held up my jumbo tube of KY, and asked the pharmacist, "Do you think it would be ok if I put this in my eye?"

Almost instantly, I realized I should have rephrased my question. With a look of utter disgust, the pharmacist leaned back from the counter and said, "I won't guarantee that you won't get hurt, but if you're going to do it, make sure you use the kind without spermicide."

Dreams vs. Reality

Can you guess which is which?

Week 3 Training Plan

There hasn't been a lot of blogging lately, mostly because not much is going on at the moment. Other than training, of course. Let me see if I can think of anything interesting to tell you...

I lost my swimsuit and found it in the washing machine. We discovered that we can buy fresh made corn tortillas from a nearby Mexican restaurant. There are lots of great vegan recipes in Vegetarian Times this month, so we're thinking of subscribing. Oh, and we think Disco may have picked up some fleas at doggie daycare, so she's getting a serious bath tonight. It's a fascinating life, isn't it? ;)

Truthfully, the past few weeks have really been focused on organizing our lives and getting all of our workouts in. To this point, we are doing really well. Our place isn't dirty. The laundry isn't piling up. We're not eating takeout. And we're hitting all the planned training. Hopefully, once we really get the hang of all of this organization, our life will start to get more interesting again. In the meantime, it's a recovery week and we're REALLY happy about that. :) Here's what we're up to this week.

Week 2 Training Plan

As promised, here is Week 2.

Week 1 Training Plan

Since this blog is supposed to be about our Ironman year and what it takes to get us there, we have decided that we will occasionally post overviews of our weekly training plans. I can't promise we will post them every week because, heck, we will be spending most of our time training! But we will try to do it as often as possible.

We will be leaving out all the intimate details of our workouts and instead just listing the amount of time we are supposed to spend doing each discipline. If you want to know more about the individual workouts, email me and I will send you links to our online training logs, where we write the details of our workouts each day along with some commentary. It's true that we could post everything here and keep it all in one place, but out of respect for our coach and the time she spends creating our personalized training plans, we are electing not to share them with the entire world. Because the entire world is reading our blog, after all... ;-)

Enough disclaimers -- now for the training plans. Here is Week 1 (last week), with Week 2 (this week) to follow in a separate post.

The Life (and Near Death) of Bo and Tina

My friend Cara, who sits next to me at work, has two goldfish who live on her desk -- Bo and Tina. Until recently she had three goldfish, but sadly, Johnny B. Good passed away earlier this week. We think his early demise was due to the dismal conditions of his bowl when no one was cleaning it over the holidays. There was a short service in the ladies' bathroom. But I digress. This story is really about Bo.

This morning, during our daily meeting, we noticed a funny sound coming from Bo and Tina's tank. Because we all love our animal companions, we put the meeting on hold to investigate. As we approached the tank, we realized that the weird sound was in fact Bo throwing himself against the glass. Upon closer inspection, we discovered that he had a rock (a piece of gravel from the bottom of the tank) stuck in his little fishy mouth and was thrashing about, trying to dislodge it! We're not sure exactly why he tried to eat a rock (feed those fish often, Cara?), but it didn't really matter -- Bo was clearly suffering.

As panic set in, we all gathered around the tank, shouting out ideas. "Help him!" someone shouted. "Press on his gills!" None of us could stand the thought of losing yet another fish this week. Instinctually, Cara reached for a drumstick (the drumming kind, not the eating kind) on her desk and proceeded to poke and prod Bo with it, squeezing him between the stick and the side of the tank in what appeared to be an attempt at an aquatic Heimlich maneuver. The compression didn't seem to help Bo at all, rather it only made him thrash more vigorously. I can just imagine him thinking, "Great! Not only am I choking on a rock, now they are attacking me with a musical instrument!"

Abandoning the underwater Heimlich idea, Cara ran to the lunchroom and returned with a teacup, which she used to scoop Bo from the tank. She placed two fingers on either side of his torso, and again attempted to pop the rock out by pressing on Bo's belly. Not only was this second attempt unsuccessful, but Cara was also entirely grossed out by the feeling of fish scales on her fingertips. Cara stepped back from Bo, head hanging in defeat, while the rest of us stood trembling around her desk, anticipating yet another fish funeral. And at that moment, Dave stopped by the office to see what all the commotion was about.

"It's Bo!" we cried. "He tried to eat a rock and it's stuck in his mouth! He's dying, and we can't get it out!" Perfectly composed, Dave surveyed the scene. Calmly, he picked up the pair of tweezers sitting on Cara's desk, gently removed the rock from Bo's gaping mouth, and returned Bo to his tank where he enjoyed a happy reunion with Tina. "Hooray for Dave!" we shouted. "You're a hero! You saved Bo's life!" Dave merely shrugged and walked out the door. All in a day's work, I suppose.

In other news, today is James' 26th birthday! Everyone please wish him another happy year and tease him for being such a geezer.

2007 - The year of IRONMAN

Well 2006 came and went. It started off with Kristi and I joining the Tri club at our local YMCA not really knowing how to run, bike or swim and before we knew it we were in line signing up for Ironman Canada. A race that seemed impossible to complete and only attempted by elite athletes at the beginning of the year has became our goal for 2007. Now neither of us are elite athletes and the distance still makes me shudder when I think about it , but one important thing has changed in my life. Triathlon has made me re-evaluate what is possible and what I as a person can accomplish.

So here are my totals for 2006

Bike: 101h 16m 06s (37.2%)
Run: 85h 54m 33s (31.6%)
Swim: 55h 43m 54s (20.5%)
Strength: 15h 15m (5.6%)
Yoga: 14h (5.1%)

TOTAL HOURS TRAINING = 272.15

That works out to roughly 45min a day every day in 2006. Up from probably 2 -3 min a day in 2005. Also as a comparison to 2007 I figure from the first bit of training schedules our coach has given us, this year I will surpass those totals by June! It looks like my life will consist of sleeping, eating, training and working. I know it will all be worth it though when I cross the finish line at Ironman.

Now I have to get back to the working part. I hope that everyone had a wonderful 2006 and has an even better 2007. Take a chance this year like Kristi and I did last year and do something you think is impossible. I'm sure that you will find as I have you are capable of far more then you could ever imagine.