So I didn’t beat my time in Steamboat and actually came in about a minute slower but here’s what I’m taking into consideration and here’s what’s making it all seem so much better:

1) I trained for 2 weeks for this race
2) I rode my tri bike all of 2 times since IM
3) I’ve been swimming once a week
4) I had yet another self-inflicted traumatizing run in a pair of Mizuno’s (tied my shoes way too tight and the entire run felt like I had hot rolling pins under the balls of my feet) and no, I didn’t stop to loosen them I chose to suffer and learn my lesson the hard way
5) drank a bottle of wine between Friday and Saturday night, definitely not my normal pre-race regime

With all that, I finished 2:10:41 - 13th in my age group and 6th out of the water.

I’ve decided to race Tri for your Cause on the 6th to redeem myself….first things first, loosen the laces and cork the bottle.

Getting ready to head out this morning to our condo in Winter Park where we’ll spend the night before heading to Steamboat tomorrow for the race on Sunday. Staying with our long lost friend and pseudo family member Bobby. Can’t wait to catch up with him, I know BJ and the kids are very excited too.

Took a short ride on my bike yesterday, she’s feeling good and is ready to race. Got a few quick attacks out of my system and coasted home. It has never failed since IM, every time I get on my bike, jack up the volume on my shuffle I slip back into remembrances of my IM training. I recall the emotions of the my training rides and certainly of the actual race experience. Yesterday I drifted back to CDA, walking through the village, waiting in line to turn in my bike, suiting up for the practice swims, meeting friends for lunch. Every thought empowers me to keep the pedals turning and poses the question of when my next IM will be. That my friends, is a secret, I have a pretty darn good idea of when and where but that is information that is just for me right now. I’m very good at keeping secrets, especially my own.

We’ll see how the weekend turns out - one thing is for sure, I will thoroughly enjoy myself, it’s all about the smile for me and of course, pushing it. I will be in pain but hoping to make that last for just under 2hrs. We’ll see, 2006 I did a 2:09:30.

The viscera, a place that many ignore, an area that grosses people out but one that should be respected, loved and touched. The visceral cavity is where the vital organs of the body live. They are an intelligent bunch, a wise old group, some more forgiving then others. The liver for example, you don’t want to be messing with this dense diva, she is one of wisdom who has been working for you since before you were born. Not an organ that is likely to regenerate after years of abuse but a damn tough one. The pancreas….who even gives their pancreas the time of day? Not many, but this organ is one that you simply cannot live without, be nice to it and love it up. Because if this baby goes, so do you.

Last night in class we practiced visceral massage, relating many chronic body aches and pains to different organs in the body depending on symptoms and the nerves that innervate. We listened to the organs with stethoscopes and could hear them talking to one another, carrying out their duties and some just resting, waiting their turn. We also listened to the brain which sounds a bit like a computer room, white noise, a hum of the main frame at work. To bring sound to your organs brings life and awareness to an area of the body often ignored. Abdominal massage is not something I give or receive often because we’re always thinking of the immediate needs. But the immediate needs, many times, have a relationship to these vital organs. So rub your belly, google your organs, find out what they do. Don’t ignore them, they are way high on the food chain of the body far surpassing muscles, hair and exterior appearances. Think about your organs, send them a nice message of thankfulness because they are working damn hard for you all the time, 24/7, 365.

Visited our close friends Gayle and Stan Brooks last night up in Nederland. These folks gave us a precious gift 3 years ago, our little or not so little, girl Lhasa. Since this meeting of fate we have kept in touch with them and visited the clan many times. As seen here, Lhotse, Tashy, Sumo and Kailas are Lhasa’s first family. Missing from the photo is MoMo the latest addition to the gang, she’s only a year old.

So Harry and Lhasa in the car and up the canyon we go.  It’s always a scene when we first arrive, all 5 Berners charging the deck barking their heads up.   Sumo is the biggest, the alpha and also the biggest baby once he establishes that he is king.  Believe me, noone is arguing with him about his stature.  It’s just hysterical to see all 6 Berners running around and then in the middle of it all is our sweet golden Harry.   As always we had a great time with lots of laughs.

This week is race week, so preparing for Steamboat.  Checking my results from 2 years ago I place 16th in my age group out of 70+ women.  Hoping to have even a better result, we’ll see.  I feel good and I’m excited to race.  Ran 7.5 miles yesterday, starting my hill workouts as we’ve recently found out that the Cape Cod course is one hilly sucker.  I’m psyched to train hills as much up as down, get my legs accustomed to it so that I can achieve a marathon PR and my goal of breaking 4:30.  Sounds slow to many people I know but its all relative and reaching this goal will be huge for me.

Woke up Friday morning, trudged out of bed, husband and dogs still strewn all over the place, had to start my brick. Heard something, stopped, went over to the french doors, stood there looking outside at the first rainy, or New England day as we say in this house, we’ve seen in a long time. With squinty eyes and a hoarse whisper I said over and over again, ‘I’m training for a sprint, I’m training for a sprint, I’m training for a sprint’. I’m training for a sprint that I could do today, my husband is still sleeping, my furry monsters need snuggling, I’m training for a what? A sprint? Are you kidding me, get your ass back in bed and listen to the rain. And so I did.

I kept thinking I’ll do my brick later, ahh, maybe I’ll just go to the gym, maybe I’ll catch a yoga class, maybe I’ll pop in a yoga dvd….see where this is going? Yeah well I’ll tell ya where it ended….sedentary day. I didn’t do crap.

So today I rise, only to see it’s another New England day…..but no more sedentary lifestyle for me, I’m going to get out of bed and get on my bike…soon…one more cup of coffee.  Oh, how I love the rain!

Wednesday was one of those days that reminds me of the busy schedule I manage on a day to day basis. It was full to say the least but manageable, never hectic just busy. It’s all attitude and mindset. Here’s what yesterday looked like, this is what I’m talking about:

5:00 - alarm, coffee, snuggle as long as I can with my husband
5:45 - Scott Carpenter pool for masters swim
7:00 - home, make bed, de-dog hair house, vacuum, tidy up (I cannot tolerate a messy home), shower, breakfast, return massage/personal emails
9:00 - work for BCMT, 2nd breakfast
1:00 - lunch, over to office to meet clients
5:00 - finish up with last client, off to school
5:30 - eat dinner in student lounge before class, buy snacks for later breaks
6:00 - Medical massage class, learning to work with wheelchair bound clients, lots of lifting, a little sweating and a minor wrist injury
9:00 - leave class head home, catch up with sister on the phone
9:30 - return emails, kiss my hubby and puppies goodnight
9:45 - read chapter on Spinal Cord injuries in my clinical massage book
10:08 - wake up because 80lb clinical massage book is crushing my diaphragm
10:09 - lower book to floor, kill lights, sleeping deep within seconds

Busy lady, busy day….

Busy shouldn’t equal stress, busy is good, take responsibility for your life, get out there, move around, make a difference and stop your bitchin’.

Monday was my second long run since getting back to training.  This week increased by 2.5 miles over last week’s 8 miler. A big jump for sure but my body has been feeling excellent. It may have to do with the ridiculous amount of bodywork I’ve been receiving, I’m sure that is a big piece.

Headed to the reservoir for 7ish, about an hour after we had planned to be there. I had 10.5, BJ had 20…I figured we’d be finishing within an hour of each other. My husband is getting fast, really fast. For anyone who is wondering he’s going to be really fast really soon. I can’t believe how great he looks out there, form is impeccable and work ethic second to none. He’s earning every bit speed, he’s working his ass off to get it.

So back to me….not too exciting, my run went smooth. I felt strong and consistent. Finished up and took the rest of the time to stretch under a tree waiting for BJ. I saw a quick blur of him passing by and as I expected finished within an hour of me with double the distance.  My recovery went extremely well and today I feel nothing, I have zero fatigue or soreness.  I think it’s crazy how much of IM you lose but also how much of it you keep.

Looking forward to next week’s long run….12 miles probably.  I’m loving the marathon training and if I haven’t said it lately, it’s because it is not that time consuming and not that hard.  It’s nothing compared to triathlon.

Tomorrow morning, masters at Scott Carpenter pool 5:45 - can’t wait!

Wow - it never stops? Learning about the body could be a lifelong pursuit with no end. At this point, after 30 hours of education on inflammation, you’d think I’d be pulling my hair out. Not even close. I’m so full of new information, techniques and tools for my toolbox that I am about to grab someone off the street and throw them on my table for a treatment. I cannot wait to get into my office on Tuesday and start working.

This weekend was very satisfying, BCMT provides an educational experience that would be very difficult to surpass. I have yet further confirmed that what I am doing is what I was meant to do but I also see it as pathway for much bigger things. I just want to continue to build and become one of the experts. I want to be one of the best.

The last two days of class were spent working on each other - passive positional release, lymphatic drainage, facilitated and CRAC stretching…. My body has been stretched, drained and released many times over. I’ve felt the effects of the techniques we practiced. As we’d say back in bah-sten, this is good shit!

Friday was my first of three intense days studying the body’s natural defense mechanism; inflammation which primarily involves the lymphatic system of the body. The lymphatic system consists of organs, ducts, vessels and nodes. It transports clear fluid which distributes immune cells called lymphocytes, among other factors, throughout the body. These cells protect the body against the bad guys (antigens….viruses, bacteria) that attack the body. The lymph system works to carry waste and proteins away from the muscles that the blood can’t handle. The lymph system is paramount with injury rehabilitation.

For the first 4 hours we built the lymphatic system in clay on these little manikens - it’s called Anatomiken which was a core piece of my 1000-hr CMT education. That is a huge reason why I understand the musculature of the body so well. It is a highly effective way to learn structures in the body. Even after just one class I feel like I understand the lymph system at a much deeper level, this will highly beneficial to my clients with any stage of injury: acute through chronic.

The second part of the day was bodywork - we each had an hour session consisting of full body lymphatic drainage. Very effective work. I negatively stressed my adductors on Thursday night running at the stroke and stride. To a point where I thought, ‘oh man, I may have to take a few days off to get these muscles repaired’. It was not the ‘good hurt’, it was not a general soreness it was a low grade re-injury of an area that is still healing from my bike crash a month ago.

After my lymphatic drainage, my leg felt immediately better. I left school at 5:30 and headed over for a 6pm massage appointment. I thought, well I guess I’ll see what it feels like to have 2 hours of massage (like I didn’t know already). It felt great, I was able to focus on my adductors and neck for the entire session. Last night, I slept sound with no pain, the night before and every minute prior to getting worked on yesterday I was in pain. It hurt to rotate my right femur, a pain the woke me several times on Thursday night. Now it’s Saturday morning and I’m 100%, heading out for a run before class. A run that would have been questionable without the bodywork I received yesterday.

The power of massage is, just that, powerful. But with everything, consistency is key. For my body, my muscles are so accustomed to receiving massage that they start to release immediately and I feel that the effects I experience are longer and deeper then someone who receives once a month. Even though that’s a great maintenance plan, sometimes, especially in times of injury you must be proactive about health. You can’t get receive bodywork once every few months and expect that one session is going to take your tension away, it’s just like training, you must build up gradually and consistently.

Your body is going to do the best job it can but sometimes you need to guide it or it’s healing will get out of control and counteract it’s own goal. That’s what disease and dysfunction of the body is all about. So take care of yourselves, don’t assume it’s going to work itself out. Assist your body in showing the path to health.

And my personal opinion is, don’t overload your body with horrible crap like ibuprofen, that only impedes the body’s natural ability to heal. I hate that stuff, I absolutely loathe it. It’s widely recommended and accepted in our society….I think its because people don’t fully understand the havoc it can wreak on your body. Alternatives like Arnica will reduce your pain and encourage the healing process. The more holisitic methods you turn to the stronger your body will be in it’s repair of injury and sickness. Work with your body not against it.

Woke up bright and early Tuesday morning, reset the 112 miles on my bike computer and headed out for my first ride on my tri bike since IM. Felt great, then again it was 25 miles, about 100 less then my ride right before IM and 87 less then my last ride on this bike. That’s the beauty of training for a sprint distance tri. Training? Really? Can I even call this training…..let’s agree to just call it a treat. Ride was a POC and then onto the run in yet again a new pair of sneakers…..drum roll please, I’m in the Mizuno Wave Rider. 4 miles into these babies and they are feeling fine so far, we’ll see what the future brings. Long day in my practice on Tuesday, coupled with my treat-like training and I was feeling the burn. It was a welcomed visit from an old friend. Tuesday confirmed that I am ready to be back.

Another early day today, up for masters at 5:45. I’m a mastas lova, simply put, I dig it. Of course, swimming masters in Boulder in the summer brings a whole cast of characters. Today was Desiree Ficker - last weekend it was basically Bejing olympians, reigning world champion, IM winners and a bunch of other chumps that continually kicked my ass from several lanes away. Good stuff, noone appreciates a good ole’ass whooping like me. I love the challenge and the innate drive to continue even though you can’t breath, you can’t keep up and you certainly can’t rest so you never really know anything about the sets except for SWIM…..SWIM…..SWIM FOR YOU LIFE LITTLE GIRL!

Tomorrow is the last stroke and stride of the season - looking forward to racing the swim a bit and see what I’ve got in me. Although after masters today, my arms are feeling like el’dente capellini.

This weekend brings 30 hours of in depth education on inflammation and injury rehab. Can’t wait to overload my brain with some serious phagocytosis.

P.S. I got in trouble tonight in class because I wore my holiday dress and the teacher accused my of breaking the ‘no cleavage’ rule.  Without hesitation and with much exuberance I said, ‘I have cleavage?!!!  I’m so excited, I can’t wait to tell my husband’.  I was then told that my dress was inappropriate for massage….sports bra and all.  I guess I owe a big apology to all of my clients and to Mrs. DeBoom, you have certainly succeeded in bringing sexy back!