My first day of training, MY FIRST DAY, I had a problem.  I could tell when I felt the actual weave of the socks under my feet (sports socks, made for athletes).  This happened to me during the Knoxville triathlon.  I remember how painful it was to take every step.  I considered crawling for the "run" portion of the race. After that race I ended up with big, fat, painful blisters right on the balls of my feet.  Walking the next day was definitely an issue. This can't happen again, not ON MY FIRST DAY of training.  How would there be a second day? I'm on a time crunch here!  I changed my socks, changed my sneakers and bought something called liquid skin.  It stinks but it provided a barrier between my feet and my sneakers.  It was pretty effective because my blisters healed quickly and I haven't gotten them back.  I just wish that I put some between my toes.  Guess where I got blisters on my long training day?

And people wonder why I hate running.

OK, so I did it again.  I am a bit impulsive sometimes.  I really am. I was scrolling through facebook when I saw an ad for a half marathon.  Now if you've read ANYTHING in my blog you would know that I HATE running.  I HATE! HATE! HATE! running, and I’m not even supposed to run after back surgery.  But THIS half has a really cool medal with a pirate scull on it. (I’ll include a picture.)  I really WANT that medal, so I signed up.  I wouldn't have signed up if it was a traditional half marathon, but it is a “do it yourself” half marathon.  You register, they send you a bib and the medal. You do the miles and then log into the website with your times.  I can walk the whole thing and nobody will be giving me poor, sorry looks as the last struggling athlete.  The catch is that I have to do the event by July 31^st.  The 31^st is a Thursday.  I have plans on the 27^th so I really need to do this thing by July 26^th.  I saw the ad on the 1^st.  That gives me about 3 ½ weeks to train, and I’m starting from couch potato status.  Yeah I’m a little crazy.  I’ll let you know how it turns out, and NO I won’t wear the medal until AFTER I complete the 13.1 miles.

Frustrated

The FOURTH doctor in as many weeks has told me that biking and running are out.  He’s the second one that actually laughed at me when I suggested triathlon training.  Poor guy, I drilled him.  What about a stationary bike? (yes), spin class? (no)  Can I hike? (no)  What activities can I do outside? (swimming – really?  It’s February)  

I am SO BUMMED!  I actually ENJOYED doing the workouts last year.  I would bitch and moan about riding up a difficult hill in Northport, but I secretly liked it, and felt so good about it afterwards. I had my little training calendar and followed it like it was my bible.  (Well, I followed it the best that I could).  I would go to work that morning and put a check next to the completed workout.  I was never a fast triathlete but I had a routine, and I loved it.

I’m going to see the doctor again tomorrow.  I’m writing a list of questions to ask him.  Can I use the elliptical?  How long am I banned from training?  Until I feel better?  Until you tell me I am not?  Forever?  Maybe I’ll have to change the name of my blog to Former Slow, Fat, Triathlete.

Still benched

The doctor said that if I injure my back any further I will need emergency surgery.  I'm still raising money though.  As soon as I get the thumbs up I want to be back on the road training.  Meanwhile I am mentoring other athletes so that they will find their Team in Training experience a positive one.  Together we can find a cure!!

Since my back hasn't gotten much better in the last few weeks I went to see a back specialist this morning.  He looked at the MRI that I brought with me.  He poked me and prodded me, asked me a few questions and then ordered another MRI.  I told him that I needed to get fixed right away because I am training for a triathlon I wish it were that easy.  He told me that training would only exacerbate the problem.  I, not wanting to stop training tried to pin him dawn.  What would the problem be? Is it the swimming, the biking or the running?  I was hoping that he would say the running then I could explain to him that my run is more like a slow meander and he would tell me to carry on, plus I would have a great excuse to not work harder on my running, but he banned all three. He said that any exercise will be tough on my body right now.  UGH!

Too cold to workout outside (I'm a wus.) and my gym had no hot water for the last few days. So proud of myself. I found a new place to workout and didn't miss a single day this week

Introducing: The Lady Lenore

I've had my bike close to sixteen years, and FINALLY found a name that suits her.  The Lady Lenore is named after a fictional violin and I'll buy a drink for anyone that knows who owned that violin.

On the road again……..

I've taken a hiatus for the last couple of weeks after the doctor told me to lay off exercise.  Eight or so years ago I herniated a disc in my back.  It’s never been quite right since.  It always bothers me a little, but most days it is like background noise.  I am used to it and I barely notice it.   Sometime between Christmas and New Year’s it started to bother me a lot.  By New Year’s Eve I was walking with a limp.  I had to cancel my plans and go see the doctor.  I told him that I was training for a triathlon and I was hoping that he would say “good!  Exercise is just the thing that you need.”  But he told me that I could swim.  He hesitated about the biking and told me flat out to not run.  I asked if I could do the elliptical in lieu of the run.  His answer was: “You know what, just stay off the exercise for a while.”  I was going bat crazy and becoming lazy, neither of which is good.   The doctor gave me a week’s worth of meds and told me to contact him if it still bothered me in a week.  It did, but not as bad.  I spent the next week playing phone tag with the doctor and have now given up getting a hold of him.  Unable to get his permission I've diagnosed myself ready to go back to the gym, and I was SO HAPPY to be back there this morning.  Still got to get my back better though.

SUPER BOWL POOL to benefit The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

Join me on my journey as I train for my third triathlon 

and raise $1,800 for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society.

SUPER BOWL POOL

to benefit

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

$10 per box

Box sales and selection are on a first come, first serve basis

 

How to pay for your box:

If you are unable to see me to choose you box and pay cash I will be happy to select a box for you. 

Payments may be made to PayPal. 

My PayPal account is LauraCBergman@yahoo.com.  

Be sure to select the Friends & Family option in order to avoid PayPal fees.

 

What are your odds?:

All boxes have an even chance to win.

The numbers that correspond with each box will be randomly drawn after all boxes have been sold. 

This makes it so that everyone has the same opportunity to get any set of numbers. 

It also means you don't have to know anything about football as it all comes down to the luck of the draw.

 

$500 to the winner

$500 to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

Winner is determined by the FINAL score of Super Bowl XLVII

 

A late post about the TOBAY tri

I know that I haven’t updated my blog since August.  I’m about to train and fund raise for my third triathlon and I never wrote about my second one. 

I was really nervous going into the TOBAY tri.  I know so many people that do that event and even more that volunteer there.  In Tennessee nobody knew me.  It didn't matter if they had cleaned up the finish are before I even got there or if I was followed only by the street sweeper.  At TOBAY I knew tons of people, some of who are excellent triathletes to whom fitness is paramount, who spend months working on shaving two seconds off of their finish time.  What would they think of me just put-putting my way to the end?

Well, there was no hiding it.  They knew that I was there and that I was competing.  I just had to make the best of it.  Knowing other people in the race actually turned out to be fun.  I ran into them in the transition area, joked around, took pictures, and sipped one of their beers between the bike and the run.  I even found out that a friend of mine was right next to me in transition.  (which turned out to be a little embarrassing later.)

The most interesting part of the race was the swim.  I was not worried; Team in Training prepared me well for it.  I was not the fastest swimmer around, but I thought that I wouldn't embarrass myself too much.  I always heard that the swim part of a tri was a dangerous affair, with people kicking and clawing to get ahead of the other swimmers.  I did not have that experience in Tennessee.  I wish that I could say the same for TOBAY.  Somebody hit my face, scratched it a little and knocked my goggles askew.   The goggles felt weird, but kept their seal so I left them.  That was not the interesting part.

About halfway through the swim I did something that you should not do.  I looked up and compared myself to the other swimmers.  That’s when I saw something odd.  The swim section of the race was shaped as a semi-circle.  We entered the water at the boat ramp and swam around an arch of buoys until we exited the water at the beach.   When I looked up I saw a whole lot of swimmers on the right side of the buoys.  They were supposed to be on the left.  Typically you can expect one or two people to misunderstand the rules and get disqualified as a result, but this was well over a third of the athletes.  What was going on?  I kept swimming to the left of the buoys.  The swim was supposed to be half a mile but it seemed awful long to me.  Why was the swim taking so long? I know that I am not fast, but I thought that I was faster than this.  Well, apparently a couple of the buoys got loose and stared drifting away.  Most of us swimmers were unaware and followed them, going way off course.  I still wonder how the other swimmers knew the situation and followed the intended swim course.   I didn't find out any of this until after the race.  I’ll never know how far I went, or if I would have finished the race within the time frame I was hoping for.  Kind of a bummer.  After the swim I saw my transition neighbor heading out for the run.  He had already completed the entire bike segment and I was just getting out of the water.

The bike was relatively uneventful, hilly and challenging, but doable.  The best part of it was being on roads that were closed to other traffic.  There is this hill on 25A that I hate riding down.  Once you pick up some decent speed you have to stop for the intersection at the bottom, then continue up the next hill from a stopped position.  I loved picking up speed and cruising through it. 

The run sucked.  I can’t run.  The run always sucks. 

The Best part of the race was the end.  By that time I had kind of given up on the half walk half jog thing that I try to do.  Mostly I was walking.  Many of my TEAMmates had passed me along the way, cheering me on, so were the volunteers that I knew and the ones that I didn't.  I LOVE being cheered on.

When I got to the end my entire TEAM was waiting for me.  They all cheered and clapped for me then they filed in behind me and ran me across the finish line.  I definitely felt the TNT love!

My official time was 2 hours 9 minutes.  I was hoping to finish in less than 2 hours.  Who knows if I would have had the swim buoys stayed in place?

Tapering

The week before a major event athletes are supposed to "taper".  The point of tapering is that any exercise that you do within 10 days  of an event will not add to your strength in time and may actually fatigue you.  For me it is too easy to become a lazy couch potato.

I've been tapering all week..  My definition of taper is as follows:  
ta•per  [tey-per] verb (used without object)1. to sit around and drink a lot of wine.

TOBAY tri here I come

I’m not sure if I mentioned the big dilemma that I have this tri season.  I had the choice of doing two triathlons with TNT.  One is on September 9^th in DC and the other is this weekend here on Long Island.  I REALLY wanted to do the one in DC.  One reason is that I found that it was a lot of fun to travel with the TEAM.  You really get to know the people that you maybe didn’t get to know too well during the season, and you create a good bond.  I am also a TEAM mentor.  I would hate to have my mentees in doing an event in a distant city without me.  I want to be there and be a good mentor.  Plus the September course is flat.  Sunday’s course is hilly, VERY hilly, and you know how I feel about hills. 

September’s course is an Olympic distance triathlon, like my last one.  The one this week is a sprint tri.  You would think that I would prefer to do the shorter event, but I see the difference between the two much like I see the difference between running a marathon and running a 5k.  When you complete a marathon everybody cheers for you.  You can be as slow as molasses and it really doesn’t matter to anyone.  They just care that you finished, and afterwards you can say something like “I’ve completed four marathons”.  When you complete a 5k either nobody cares or they want to know your times, which for me would be worse than nobody caring.  My times are embarrassing. 

Now add that embarrassing time to a local event where I know a couple of dozen of the participants.  For these particular people it IS about the time.  They care a lot about breaking a personal record or beating their friends.  They have little competitions and they smash talk each other all year.  If I am going to embarrass myself I do NOT want to do it in front of these people.  I’d much rather do it out of town where nobody knows me. 

My predicament is that my cousin’s baby’s baptism is on the 8^th in NY.  There are not a lot of things that I would skip my desired triathlon for, but Baby Sebastian’s baptism is one of them.  (I really wish that my family and friends would consult me before planning anything.)  So the TOBAY tri it is.  I’ve trained and practiced on the course twice.  I’m able to finish, but, again, I am VERY slow.  Wish me luck!

The Olympics has me thinking about medals

One of the things that I was really looking forward to, while training for my last triathlon, was winning a medal.  Unless you finish among the top three (and most likely not even then), triathlon medals are not made of gold or silver or even bronze.  They are just a symbol of an accomplishment and I SO wanted one.  Though I completed the entire tri, technically I don't think that I qualified for a medal, since it took me so long to finish, but the guy running the race said that I could have one as long as I finished the race, no matter how long it took me. So when I crossed the finish line I got a medal.

I was so proud.  I wanted to wear it to the victory dinner, but I let my coach talk me out of it.  I, however, put the medal in my purse and slipped it on and off all of  that evening and the next day.  The next afternoon, as we boarded the plane to go home, I put my finishers medal around my neck and sat down in my seat.  The group of us sat in the same section of the plane and joked back and fourth amongst ourselves.  A guy in front of me noticed our banter and asked the typical plane questions:  "Where are you guys from?", "What were you doing in Tennessee?"...  I explained to him that we were all on the same triathlon team and were returning home after competing in a tri in Knoxville.  He asked how we did.  I explained that we all finished, and my teammates did well, but I was actually the winner.  That is why I am the only one wearing a medal.  I had him fooled.  :-)

Zombies, Run!

I am assuming that if anyone is reading my blog that they know by now that I HATE running.  Well, I just found a new app called "Zombies, Run!".  This app is an interactive game that is supposed to simulate you (the runner) running the streets, gathering supplies in order to save your town from the zombies all while being chased by them.  Did I explain it right?  I'm not sure, but it has a website if you want to look it up.  I haven't tried it yet but I am actually looking forward to running tonight.

Out of bed and on the road

After being at home for a week with the flu I decided to try my first workout in a long time.  I thought I would ease into it and decided to go for a run.  If I just can’t handle it I can always walk right?  (I really mostly walk anyway.)  I started out on a walk, but realized that after about a half a mile I felt really good.  I thought that I would try a run.  I told myself that I would run to that telephone pole up ahead.  I got there and felt good and ran to the street sigh a block ahead of that.  I then alternated walking and running for a total of three miles.  Now that I managed that I have no excuse to not workout tomorrow, bummer.  It was so easy falling into the excuse pit. 

Now I put it out there.  I’ve got to stay out of the pit and get on the road.  Once I put it in writing for others to read I feel I’ll be held more accountable.  

Still hate running.

'nough said.

I hate running.

Yesterday, while out on a run I decided that I just hate running.  When I started triathlon training I thought that the running would grow on me, once I got over the shin splints, once I got into better shape, once I got better sneakers, once I got more used to it.  No, it didn’t happen, and I don’t anticipate it happening any time soon.  I just hate running and I’ve come to terms with that.  

Sometimes training just doesn’t go the way you planned……

Last Saturday I volunteered at the LLS water stop for a Century ride to Montauk.  I knew that it would cut into my training hours, but it was for the team so I decided to help.   I had it all planned out.  I would just move my Saturday training to Sunday and my Sunday training to Monday.  Monday is supposed to be a day off so it would even up in the end. 

Well, on Sunday I had planned to take my grandmother to church at 9:30 and do the workouts after that.  At about 8:30 my grandmother asked to go the noon mass.  I couldn’t say no.  So I figured that I would get a run in before, take a shower, go to church, come home and get a swim in.  After church my grandmother asked me to take her to the supermarket. 

Now I don’t know if you readers have an Italian grandmother, but if you do you will know how important food is.  On Sunday morning, before I took her anywhere, Napoleon’s Army could have showed up on her door step asking to be fed.  I guarantee that she would have had enough food in the house to feed them a seven course meal.  She would have apologized throughout the entire meal because it was so small and puny, and if she only knew that they were coming then she could have made a real supper.  Now, during this seven course meal, if the apocalypse should happen to occur, and the army was forced to bunker down in my grandmother’s house for several weeks, they would continue to be well fed, and would emerge from her home fatter than they arrived.  My grandmother, of course,  was convinced that her cupboards were bare.  How do I refuse a little 93 year old lady a trip to the supermarket?  I knew that it would take several (no I am not kidding) hours, but it meant so much to her.  I could get in a swim when we get home.

Who should we run into at the market?  my uncle and his posse.  They invited us to his house for a late afternoon party.  Well, what’s one missed workout?

I’ll wake up early Monday morning, get a run in, go to the doctor for my blood test, and go to the gym after that.  I’ll just have to miss the swim.  I woke up early all rearing to go and was just about to make a pre-workout breakfast when I realized that I am not supposed to eat before a blood test.  I won’t workout on an empty stomach, so I went back to the bed and waited for my doctor’s appointment.  I got up, got dressed, grabbed my packed gym bag, went to the doctor then straight to the gym.  When I got there I grabbed my workout top, put it on, reached in, grabbed another workout top and realized that I had no workout pants.  I got back into my street clothes and went shopping. 

Hopefully I’ll get back on tract today.  

First fundraiser of the fall season

As part of my fundraising for the fall season I decided to get together with a few of my friends and have a tag sale.  I really didn’t want to send out letters and emails asking people for money again.  You can only do that so many times without being a (insert adjective here).  So my friends Rob and Tracy agreed to host one with me.  We decided that we would each gather stuff and whatever each of us sold would go to our individual fundraising.  Tracy and I both posted “GOT JUNK?” messages on facebook.  I’m not sure if Rob did or not. 

I collected every old picture frame, unused Christmas gift, hardcover book etc. from my house, rampaged my best friend’s house, and left flyers in mailboxes in my Grandmother’s neighborhood.

Rob, Tracy and I all live in apartments so we decided that we would hold the sale at my Grandmother’s house.  She lives in the Hamptons and at the beginning of the season people are always looking for wine glasses, small furniture, etc. to get their house prepared for the summer. 

A couple of my grandmother’s neighbors called me and told me that they had items to donate.  I went to their houses and picked up some beautiful things that ultimately sold.  Another neighbor, Steve, the nicest guy in the world, had a garage sale a few weeks before and promised to bring over the things that didn’t sell.  For weeks I drove out to my grandmother’s house with a car full of tag sale goods and unload them in her garage.  My mother had some things sent there too.  We had to do this sale early in the season, because you couldn’t even move in her garage by the end of May. 

Tracy backed out early, citing a friend coming to town that weekend.  Rob’s mother died just a few days before the sale.  He clearly had more important things to do.  So I was on my own. 

The morning of the sale Steve showed up in a truck filled with boxes.  Behind that truck was a trailer filled to the top with more boxes, all for the sale.  I’ve never seen so much stuff.  I must say, Steve I love you, but there is a reason most of this stuff did not sell the first time.  It was all junk, mismatched coffee mugs, children’s toys that were missing pieces, etc.  I was all by myself and I spent the entire day Saturday just going through the boxes unpacking the items inside and displaying what was presentable for sale. 

Saturday sucked!  It rained off and on.  I kept dragging things into and out of the garage.  Some things never made it out of the garage at all, and I never even got some of the boxes open.  I had a bunch of customers though and made over $250.  Sunday was much nicer.  It was sunny, but I did not make that many sales.  I priced things really low just because I wanted to get them off of my grandmother’s driveway.  I made a little over $100 that day.

The problem was: What do I do with all of the leftover stuff on Sunday afternoon?  There was TONS of stuff.  I had no problem sorting through it and taking the better of it to the Southampton Animal Shelter Thrift Shop.  So by mid afternoon I started packing boxes to bring there.  I took two car loads there and was packing the third carload when my uncle came out of the house wanting to know what I was going to do with all of the leftover items.  He clearly was worried that I was going to put them back in the garage, though I assured him that I wasn’t.  He started asking me what he should pack.  I still wanted to take time to go through things.  He was very anxious and kept on asking and asking so I told him to pack everything. 

Maybe it was good and maybe it was bad.  I think that I would have rescued some of the items, I know one that I would have found a use for since, but would I have rescued too many?  There is something liberating about not going through the items, so when I threw a box away I didn’t have second thoughts.  I had no idea if that particular box had the purse that I liked, or the beautiful wall hanging that I loved but had no place for.  I filled up the car three more times and lugged the three car loads to…(for grounds that I may incriminate myself I will not disclose the exact locations the unwanted items ended up.) . 

Lots of lifting, carrying, sore muscles, and boredom, early mornings and late nights: all for less than $400.  I wonder if I should have enjoyed my weekend and just written The Leukemia Lymphoma Society a check for $400. 

At least my friends and family got to get rid of a bunch of stuff. 

lazy, lazy, lazy

I have become a lazy sloth since my triathlon, always planning to exercise, but rarely getting around to it.  It didn’t help that my iPod stopped working and I refuse to run, walk or bike without it.  (I know, I know!  It’s dangerous to bike with an iPod – but I WONT bike without it and I only use one ear bud.  I put it in my right ear, the one away from traffic.)  I’m convinced that I have another ear infection, so I won’t swim, and we have not gotten the training schedule for the fall triathlon season, so technically I am not in training and don’t have to exercise.