Thank the G.O.D. that it is FINALLY Friday.

It's Friday and I don't have much to report. My week has been good and very busy, yet uneventful. I will be glad when today is over so I can crawl into my bed and sleep sleep sleep. I'm pooped!!

A few things from the week:

I had acupuncture yesterday. It was bizarre. I don't know if I buy into all the voodoo hoodoo of non-Western medicine, but frankly, I don't have many other options at this point. And no, it didn't hurt...I could barely feel it. If you have ever done acupuncture, let me know, I would love to hear your story.

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo starts today!! It's Go Texan Day so I hope you wore your boots and hats to work today!! Watch out for the trail riders - they will end up at Memorial Park around 4 today (according to Lisa Rivas on Channel 13 - Eyewitness news).I hate stupid drivers. This morning, I drove to work at 4:30AM, so there are NO cars on the road. None. Yet, this stupid ho felt the need to cut me off at least 3 times. Wanted to punch.

I gave up the Fbomb and candy for Lent. So far, neither thing is going well. Tommy gave up booze. He said he will take a sip of booze (one ounce) for everytime I say the Fword. So, if I want to go to happy hour, I will have to curse repeatedly to get him to drink with me. Ha. Fun! Can we say enabler??

I ran 10 miles on Wednesday to see if my knee still hurt. It did. Sooo, I got acupuncture on Thursday. Ugh. I'll keep you posted.

This girl's parents should not have procreated. Their genes are clearly not intelligent enough to produce non-idiots - http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/6282511.html

Buffalo Fred's is an icehouse near our house (ha). It looks awesome, but we have never been. Tommy just sent me a text message (at 7:23AM) saying that he just drove by and it was open and there were people there. This is clearly the bar for me. These are my people! Friends, we have found the bar of my dreams!

This is my favorite blog EVER. You should read it - http://www.ihategreenbeans.com/

Tommy and I got invited to go to a timeshare sell this afternoon. Since we already have a timeshare and have no intent of owning another, this seems dumb. BUT if we go, we get a prize - at the very least a 4 night vacation or a cruise...and at the most a $1500 shopping spree. I'm in!! And the best part is that we will be in the 'burbs during the dinner hour which means we get to eat at a chain restaurant!! I'm so excited. It's been awhile since I've had some good quality Outback or TGI Fridays. You don't miss 'em till they are gone. Promise.

I heard Enter Sandman on the radio the other day and I got sad that I haven't played RockBand in a looooong time. That may be my quest for the weekend.

I will blog about Mardi Gras and the gloriousness that it was very very soon. Once I get a nap.

Have a good weekend my friends. Aggies play against Rice, 7pm at the JuiceBox. Gig them.

At a Pool Party, No One Ever Gets Out To Pee.

My shoulder is still kind of hurting. Apparently. I went for a swim last Monday and had a nice enjoyable swim. Since that went well, I went back on Wednesday, but did not have the same results. About 15 meters in, my shoulder started hurting. It wasn't so bad that I couldn't swim, but it was bad enough that I knew I shouldn't. Sooo, I swam a few more laps and practiced my flip turns.

I suck at flip turns. I've been swimming pretty consistently for about 3 years and hadn't really seen much point in learning to flip turn since I swim in open water in races and don't need to flip turn. However, flip turns make you faster when swimming laps. There was this little old lady at the pool awhile ago who was swimming slower than I thought possible, but with her flip turns, she was able to give me a run for my money! Unacceptable. You get a slight heartrate increase because it requires a little more energy, you have to hold your breath and you get all the speed from not having to stop, hold the wall, turn around, and push off. So, all in all, it's not a bad thing to learn. Sooo, I practiced my flip turns. I still suck at them, but I can make it work. I miss the wall enirely about half the time. Ha. Ooops?

I also worked on peeing in the pool while swimming. Yes, I know you are thinking about how disgusting that is. But let's be honest, at the last pool party you went to, where you consumed at least 6 beers, how many times did you get out to pee? Never? Then shut up. Triathlon is a disgusting sport. A really really disgusting sport. The elite athletes pee their pants while on the bike or while running because they can't afford to stop. I'm sure age groupers do this too, but I try not to think about it. If you ever see a biker with a wet tire line on the ground, back off...that dude is peeing his pants.

My problem is that I am just not okay with peeing my pants. I am also not okay with having to stop every 20 minutes to pee. Sooo, my plan is usually to pee as much as I can during the swim so that I can at least start at a reasonable level of bladder fullness by the time I get on the bike. Unfortunately, I can't pee while kicking. Since my shoulder was hurting and I couldn't really swim hard, I thought that practicing my Peeing While Swimming technique would be a good exercise. I determined that I can't pee while kicking, but if I just take a few strokes off of kicking, I can get started and then I'm good. I think I have my pee strategy down for the race in April. I'll pee through the whole swim (I'll get a bad time because I won't kick for half of it, but whatever), and then I should be able to make it through the 3 hours on the bike pee-free, I can stop at T2 and that should get me through till the end of the race. Assuming the weather is good and I stay on my nutrition plan.

Practice makes perfect!

I know you are pretending to be disgusted, but you know you have done it. You also know that everytime you do it you look down to see if that red dye was in the water that would show other people that you peed. Does this stuff actually exist? Or is it just what parents told us so they wouldn't have to chlorinate as regularly?

You probably pick your nose too.

I'm like a newborn.

I have a retainer thing that I sleep in every night. It's supposed to help me sleep better. I haven't found much noticeable difference, but whatever. I paid for the thing so I'll use it.

It is like a retainer or snore guard in that it has two plastic pieces that cover my upper and lower teeth. The pieces are connected with small rubber bands type things that are intended to pull my lower jaw forward and therefore keep my air passageways open and therefore not choke to death while sleeping. Sounds like a good plan, eh?

The beauty of the device is that:
1. It hurts. Not in the painful, I-Just-Got-Braces-Way, but in the I've-Had-Braces-And-They-Changed-Out-The-Rubberbands way. Not excruciating, but definitely not fun.
2. It causes me to drool. A lot. Like, I don't wake up from choking anymore - I wake up from laying in a pool of my own saliva. I'm gonna drown, brutha!
3. It causes me to have some of the worst morning breath known to man...or caveman for that matter. The fact that Tommy pretends to enjoy kissing me in the morning is a testament to our love.
4. My jaw is messed up for the first few hours of the morning and I can't chew properly. I find it's best to eat soft things until about noon.

And after all of these wonderful side effects, they wonder why I can't sleep. Hmmm.

But, I've committed to giving the thing a try. I've been wearing it consistently for about 3 months. Tuesday night, I thought it might be time to upgrade the bands - the bands stretch out over time and to increase the forward movement of the jaw, you have to slowly increase the sturdiness of the bands. I upgraded to similar length, but less flexible bands. This hurt.

I was able to fall asleep, but I awoke around 1am in a lot of pain. I decided to take out the retainer. Normally I get out of bed, go to the bathroom, take out the retainer, and rinse with Listerine. Several times. This night, for some reason, I decided to be lazy and stay in bed. I took out the retainer and took a giant sip of water. I swished it around in my mouth for a minute, like I do with Listerine, and then I spit it out, like I do with Listerine. The problem was that I was still in bed and in my sleepy stupor, I spit an entire mouthfull of water on the bed. Are you kidding me? Apparently, in my old age, I have reverted back to a childlike state wherein I sleep in large pools of liquid. And just like in Big Daddy, I just threw a towel on it and went back to bed.

I need to change those sheets tonight, mkay?

Wish me luck. Me and my mandibular oral advancement device are not really hitting off. Christy need sleep!!

Poor Tommy.

I have been feeling really good lately and have gotten some really awesome workouts in. The new gym at the office is great - I can do pilates at lunch and get my heartrate up for the rest of the afternoon - and the 'gym' at home makes it SO much easier to have productive workouts without ever leaving the house. I had a great swim on Monday - my shoulder didn't hurt at all - and I had a good Turbo Tuesday on the bike trainer, although I bailed on my transistion run afterward. I don't really do rain. Ooops.

Unfortunately for Tommy, he is broken. Somehow, someway, he hurt HIS knee on Saturday and it hurts to walk. Sooo, he can't bike or run right now which is making him crazy of course. And then, on top of that, his shoulder isn't completely healed, so he can't even do a big swim workout. Basically, we determined that he can do crunches. And that's about it. He is going stir crazy, but he knows that taking some time off and taking it easy are the only ways to heal. If it still hurts after this weekend, he is going to the doctor...but not my doctor because his insurance sucks even more than mine.

I think he just likes to mimic the pains I have...my shoulder hurt, his shoulder hurt, my knee hurts, his knee hurts. I wonder if he will get sympathy pregnant when I get pregnant. That would be awesome. I don't want to do it alone!

I bought my first triathlon outfit last night...or should I say that I invested in my first triathlon outfit last night. Those things cost more than a designer purse.(not ALL designer purses, and not all SIZES of designer purses, but let's just say you could go to Coach and buy a nice sized bag for the same price - ouch.) I'm pretty excited about it, even though it was significantly more painful than swimsuit shopping. SIGNIFICANTLY. With hips as GIANT as mine and boobs as tiny as mine, it makes finding a combo that fits quite challenging. But the best part is the chamois in the bike shorts! I've never had a chamois in my bike shorts! I always just tough it out and ride in cheap shorts from Academy...even for 5+ hour rides. I can't wait to give my toosh a little TLC on my next ride!

My bottom and I are very excited.

WIPE OUT!

I crashed on Sunday. Ouch. Tommy and I were riding along peacefully, when we passed our friend Grizz on the trail. We all stopped to chat for a few minutes...or, should I say, I attempted to stop and chat for a few minutes. I stopped, clipped out of one pedal, but forgot about the other. I toppled over, as is expected, and my bike seat rammed itself into my butt cheek.

When it comes to falls, this one was very uncatastrophic...I fell on grass and I didn't break anything, but daaaaaam, that bike seat is gonna leave a bruise.

Ow.

The Weekend.

This was my first weekend of working out...at least it was my first weekend of working out in awhile. It is SOOO hard for me to work out on both days of the weekend. I'm used to having Friday and Sunday off, so working out all three days is hard for me to wrap my brain around.

I bailed on the Friday workout - my parents were coming in town and I had rehab in the morning. There just wasn't enough time. And the Friday workouts are optional and easy anyway. It's more of an active recovery day instead of a workout.

Friday night my parents got in town around 8:30, we hurried them back out the door so we could grab some Cafe Adobe before the show at the Improv at 10:30. Cafe Adobe was amazing...as usual and worth every single delicious calorie. The show at the Improv was funny, but the openers were way more funny than the headliner, Pablo Fransisco. He mostly just makes sound effects and segues into each soundeffect by saying, "ARe you in good hands?" from the Allstate commercial. It just wasn't that funny. Around 1am, when the show still wasn't over, the Bennett clan left...Pablo just wasn't worth staying up till 4am for. Sorry Pablo. The openers were hysterical though.

We got into bed around 2. Ouch. Mom probably hasn't stayed up that long in decades. Ha. Tommy and I got up early and went for a 9 mile-ish jog. We took it easy - my knee is still very questionable. It didn't hurt too bad, but it was ready to be done when I got home. Then mom and I went for a 3ish mile walk with her pooch. It was a nice morning. We all showered and ate and then drove up to the park to play frisbee golf...we had water bottles full of wine, some baguettes and some tasty cheese - Cantal, Gouda and Pepper Gouda - DELICIOUS! We ate and played around in the park. Mom and I were exceptionally bad at the golfing. Who knew? Cathy was a natural...I think it's because she didn't drink as much. Haha. It started raining, so we went home and made dinner of prime rib, scallops and mac and cheese. Dinner of champions!! We watched season 1 of How I Met Your Mother, aka the The GREATEST SHOW EVER! and went to bed early.

Sunday, we got breakfast at Cedar Creek, which was okay, and the parents left to head back to Dallas. I took a nap and when the sum came out around 3, Tommy and I went for a 30ish mile bike ride. On our way home we stopped at Cedar Creek (again) to have some beers with Froehlich. Got home, made dinner and went to bed early.

All in all, a fabulous weekend. My family is amazing and I am so lucky to have them!!

I swam this morning - only about 45 minutes though. I wanted to take it easy to see how my shoulder reacted. It seemed okay, but I didn't want to push it too much. I did 7x100 easy on 15 sec rest, 4x200 hard on 20 sec rest and then 5x100 easy on 15 sec rest. I figured out the volume on my SwiMP3, so it was pretty magical. I'm gonna do core and my rehab stretching at lunch...big fun.

And Facebook is gone at work again. Today is a sad sad sad sad day.

Rehab is for Quitters

And apparently I am a quitter. I started rehab for my knee today and it was...interesting. My first session was 20 minutes with a fascia (spelling?) machine that is supposed to relax my fascia. Fascia is a part of the connective tissue that surrounds muscles, bones, tendons, etc...it acts like the protective casing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascia Before using the machine, we tugged on my legs and made me push against his arms - it was really hard and I didn't do very well. Certain muscles have become jammed and it is due to some of the fascia not being able to work properly...or something. Anyway, he used the machine on me (I wish I remembered it's name) - basically it was round thing, circular, not spherical, that vibrated and he put it on certain joints on my legs, arms and head. Most of it was relaxing, but the head thing was a little uncomfortable. After this he made me repeat the pushing on his arms and I was AMAZED at how much easier it was. It was bizarre.

He also 'adjusted' me - I was okay with the back popping but the neck popping was a different story. It felt like he was a ninja and he was trying to kill me. I won't be having that done again anytime soon.

Then I went to the stretching lady who worked with me on proper posture and we discussed why my knees are bad and why the mechanics of my body are making my knee hurt. The way I sit - which is indian style always all the time - has made me really flexible in that direction, however, it has also made the opposing muscles very short and contracted, hence I kind of turn out my feet when I run/walk/stand/sit, etc...this has in turn made some of my leg muscles work over time to compensate for my ridiculous running style. Sooo, today, we worked on proper posture and a few stretching and balancing exercises. It was hard. She also said that I REALLY REALLY REALLY have to stop locking my knees...it is soooooo hard to stand for long periods of time without locking my knees. She said that it's because I haven't developed those muscles...are you kidding me? Ugh. I'm afraid of my legs getting giant like cheerleader legs.

I go back twice next week and I am supposed to do 1 hour of balancing, flexibility and core strength exercies a day - I have no idea when I will find time for this.

My poor knee. I may or may not have teared up a little when she told me I will have to stop sitting indian style. So far, the jury is out on how this approach to rehab will work, but since I've tried everything else, I don't have anything to lose...except a giant wad of cash. Wish me luck!

The plan for the weekend is a couple hour run on Saturday before my parents get up and then a brick on Sunday. Hopefully the knee can survive!

Change in Plans

My life has been remarkably un-drama filled lately. I'm not complaining though...the latter half of 2008 just about killed me and I could definitely use a break!! Sooo, with a lack of material, I am forced to write about un-catastrophic events. I think I will blog about my training for Cozumel...I will make sure to include any crashes or falls that occur to attempt to keep up with the tragic nature of the blog.

So far in the 'off-season'...

Tommy and I ran the Houston Marathon on Jan 18. We had an absolute blast...well, I had a blast, Tommy had giant blisters, so he had considerably less fun than me. We hadn't really trained at all for the race - life got in the way and I got injured and training just didn't happen. Our longest run was 16 miles...a marathon is 26.2 Ooops. Sooo, it was a surprise when we were both able to finish the race - we seriously considered turning around at mile 9. We didn't break any records with a 4:43 time, but we did a lot of goofing around and playing with the crowd, so this isn't all that surprising. We both felt great afterwards, weren't really sore and were able to enjoy our annual post-marathon keg party.

After the marathon, we gave ourselves a couple of weeks to relax and enjoy the time off. And on Feb 2, triathlon training began!! Our schedule is very intimidating, but it we aren't taking it too seriously yet. We have a race in April in Galveston, but right now we are just building a good solid base. The REAL training will start mid-May. I'm terrified.

A typical training week will look something like this:

Monday: 60-90 minute aerobic swim (3500m)
Tuesday: 70 min on the bike trainer followed by a 30 min run
Wednesday: 60-90 minute anaerobic threshold swim (3500m) and an easy 60 minute bike
Thursday: 60-80 minute sprint run and weights
Friday: Easy swim, easy bike, easy run - all, just one or none, optional day off
Saturday: Long bike - anywhere from 3 hours to 7 followed by a 30 min run - and an easy swim
Sunday: Long run - anywhere from 1 hour to 4 - weights and an easy bike.

So far, we haven't done many of the long weekend workouts - life has been busy! But I have done most of the weekday stuff. It's hard to maintain friendships and R&R AND train, but I think I can do it!!

My parents are coming in this weekend, so I think the plan is to run on Saturday morning before they wake up and then bike on Sunday after they leave...weather permitting. I don't do cold and rainy. At all.

The swimming is on hiatus right now - I hurt my shoulder the other day when I swam 2 miles after not swimming in 3 months. Probably not my smartest move. My knee is still hurting quite a bit, but I found a GREAT doctor and I start rehab on Friday. I'll keep you posted. Right now, I can go about 5-6 miles before the pain starts, but once it starts, it escalates very fast. Doctor Man says that I should notice a difference after one session, so I'll let you know how my run on Saturday goes! I'm gonna hop back in the pool next week and take it easy for week or two before I start to push myself too hard. Worst case scenerio, I don't swim till race day - been there done that and I know I will survive.

I'll try to post some of the pics from the marathon - there are some really funny ones.