Recovery....

I wrote this blog post about a week ago regarding my lovely sinus surgery, but I never put it up. I have edited it a bit and figured now would be a good time to post something!

I have to give a shout out to Marit for answering a ton of my questions once I got back home from my surgery. She was extremely informative and helpful, and I really appreciated it! She even let me whine a bit =).

Basically I had splints in my nose to keep my repaired deviated septum in place, an unknown amount of gauze in my sinuses from the endoscopic surgery to make my sinuses drain better, and a ton of pain. I had instructions not to blow my nose, and if I were to sneeze, to do so through my mouth (not a problem as I don't do much with my nose to begin with).

I have had one trip to the ER for a pain control issue. I had my husband take me to the ER where I work, which was fabulous. They were great and sent me home after a pain shot, and with a new prescription for percocet (which I asked for initially but my surgeon didn't want to give me). I was lucky it was not busy when I went in.

After I started the percocet, my day was been split into 4 hour intervals. I didn't really like being this dependent on a drug, but I am a wuss when it comes to this type of pain and hoped against hope I could stop the narcotic once the dreaded splints were out (a week after the initial surgery).

My friends and family have been great. David stayed with me on Wednesday after our midnight trip to the ER. My friend Jen came over on Thursday armed with Jamba Juice and we watched a movie (okay fine, we watched New Moon =>). Friday I was on my own but my dad made a trip to get me enough pain meds and gauze to last me through the weekend. I feel like I should buy stock in Odawalla and Jamba Juice. I have had numerous offers from others to go and run errands for me, etc., and I appreciate them all.

My splints came out the Tuesday after my surgery. I was very scared that their removal was going to hurt, a lot. We got to the doctor early, and he actually saw me early (?!). I asked him to numb my nose, but he responded that it is a pretty hard thing to do. He cut the suture that was holding them in and pulled them out, one at a time, with some medical tweezers. It was painful, but not horrible. I felt immediate relief. It was wonderful. Here is a picture of what the splints look like before they're inserted this is almost to scale, I couldn't believe how ginormous they were when I got a good look at them:


Things have been much better since the splints have come out. I continued to sleep in fits though, last night was the first night I actually slept an entire night without waking up, so it took about 2 weeks in total to get back to a normal sleep schedule. I lost my taste for a little over a week, but it's back now so that made me happy. It's so weird when you can't taste.

Advil has been good enough for the pain. I haven't had any more narcotics since the day my splints were removed, that's good enough for me. I don't know how all of these people get hooked on narcotics. All I have to say about that is they must eat a TON of fiber in their diets.

May marked an exciting anniversary for me as well. It has been exactly one year since I graduated from Nursing School. That is just, well, crazy! I cannot believe it has been a year. I am looking forward to a summer of not studying and worrying about taking my boards, and whether or not I am going to find a job. The time since graduation seems to have just flown by. I have been in my current job in the ER for 6 months now. I still LOVE my job. I work with incredible people and I still have much, much, much to learn.

Here's a picture of David and me at graduation:


I have started training again, albeit slowly. Which is fine with me. I could feel the pressure in my nose yesterday with some of the TRX moves, but it wasn't too bad. Running and biking don't seem to bother it at all. I am going to try swimming tonight. I have chosen to attend the late night practice, because I am not really sure what I might be adding to the pool. I know, gross, but hopefully no one will see it, and I will be in my own lane!

In the meantime, I need to convince my husband/mechanic to put my new road pedals on my bike so I can figure out how to clip in and out with my new road shoes. I have ridden with mountain bike pedals and shoes for ten years, so it should be interesting. It was definitely time for new shoes!

The weather is supposed to be beautiful for a few more days, and then it will be summer. This seems to be the year of the "one week of Spring". Oh well. At least it's not raining!

Uvas Tri Race Report

Pre-pre race:

Decided the best way to rest on Saturday would be a pedicure with my mom. My reasoning was three fold: 1) I needed new teal toes to cheer on my Sharks, 2) I knew the tech would massage my feet, and since my feet had been bothering me, I figured this woudl be a good thing and 3) Mom had had a tough week and needed to be pampered!

Pre-race:

I woke up at 4:30am. I slept like crap. Have I mentioned I work night shift? 4:30 am in the morning is really early for someone who works nights, unless you're already awake! Anyway I got up, made my coffee, grabbed the oatmeal I had made the night before and was out the door.

Once I got my truck parked, I decided to have my oatmeal. Oh wow, that did not taste good. I was not hungry by any measure of the term, but I choked it down because I knew I would appreciate it later. Which I did. But ugh, that was gross. I drank about half of my coffee, which was just enough.

Swim: .75 mi = 20:29.8 min

Swim was a water start, which I liked. I warmed up my wetsuit (=>), swam around a bit to get used to having my face immersed in darkness with every stroke, then lined up right at the front. At the horn, we were off. There was a little contact, but nothing horrible. I was certainly not in front, but I could sight well and just got going. I turned the corner around this peninsula thing, I could NOT see the buoy. Seriously! Where was it?? Luckily, I knew the general location where we'd turn again, but maybe an extra buoy would be nice for next time! After the race, another racer agreed with me, he turned and couldn't see the buoy either. I tried to save my legs for the most part, took a breath every stroke and would sight every 4th or 5th stroke.

Thanks to David, Molly, Jeff, Melissa and Nigel who cheered for me.

Transition 1: 3:39 min

Was slow...I am so befuddled as I get out of the water. I wasn't as dizzy as my ocean swim, but definitely not all brain cells were firing. I fought to get my wetsuit off, got my shoes on, decided against the arm warmers and cycling gloves, put my helmet on and stumbled out of transition. David said I didn't look to happy coming out of transition. He took this picture, he'd gotten a great spectator spot!



Bike: Total time (via Garmin): 1:05.6, 15.96 mi, avg 14.7 mph/hr

My legs did not feel great for the first 5 mi or so. LOTS of lactic acid and my hamstrings were kinda tight. So I tried to spin as much as possible. My goal was to finish the bike in less than an hour, but there were lots of little hills here and there, I tried to push the downhills as much as I could safely (30mph max - HA!). The big hill hurt like a mother, I was out of the saddle a bit, but just tried to spin my way up. I felt much better on the bike than I did at Showdown, and I am happy to report that I didn't get passed by any mountain bikes =). I didn't do any passing of my own, but that's okay we can be sure I didn't draft, LOL. People were pretty courteous about signaling when they were going to pass me, so I appreciated that.

The weather was gorgeous, overcast and almost no wind. Ahh...makes it worth getting up so early. I loved hearing the disc wheels come up behind me, they sounded really cool.

Miles 13 - 15 were a bit up hill. I was hoping for down hill toward the finish, and even though I have ridden the course before, I had conveniently forgotten the uphill. Since I knew I had a run coming up, I just spun up the hills and tried not to redline. My goal was to finish the bike in under and hour. It didn't happen, but I am okay with that, I didn't blow out my legs so it worked out just fine.

Coming into transition, again David's tallness pays off!



Molly was doing the race as a relay. They began 20 minutes behind me. I fully expected her husband to pass me on the bike, but I never heard him. I saw Molly when I came into transition and realized I would probably be seeing her on the run.

Transition 2: Not sure, but certainly faster than T1!

Run: 52:37.8, 5 mi, avg 10:31 mi.

By far, I am most proud of this leg of my race.

Let's see, I felt like the tin man running starting out. My legs were just so stiff. It was incredible! Oh and my feet were numb. Nice. They finally showed up around mile 2. Happily, my heel didn't hurt one bit, and my breathing was labored, but not over the top. It was nice and even. I just picked my own pace and went with it. I really didn't look at Garmin other to see what the mileage was. I did see the total time so I had an idea of what was going on. I really wanted to complete the run in under an hour, so I am quite happy I did that, and ran FASTER than at Showdown even though it was a longer distance by almost 2 miles. Good things happen when you don't have to run a 1/2 mi in and out of transition =).

My legs didn't feel fabulous (and I guess that's normal), but I didn't have any side cramps, all though I could tell I would get them quickly if I picked up the pace, which is why I stayed where I was. I got passed, a lot, but it was nice to get passed by people in my age group in the fact it had taken them that long to catch me.

Molly made an appearance right after I turned around. She caught up to me around mile 4 I think. I wasn't surprised that she caught me. I knew it meant she was having a good run, and again was glad I didn't get caught on the bike!

Total Time = 2:23.12

Thanks to David, Molly, Jeff, Melissa and Nigel who cheered for me. I liked the cheering section, and the cookies that came along with it (he he Melissa, those were yummy!).

Now I am home, watching hockey.

Next up is the dreaded sinus surgery on Tuesday. I know having the surgery is the right decision, however I am more than a little bummed that I am really starting to get in shape only to have to take a week or two off from training. Ugh. In the pool, I finally started making intervals I haven't seen since I was in my early 20s. Oh well, everything will be okay, and I will be able to breathe better!

Take That!

Well, they did it. My San Jose Sharks beat the hated Detroit Red Wings and are headed to the conference finals for only the second time in the club's history. To say I am excited is putting it mildly. Look how excited the players were:


The game was exciting to watch from home, even if I can only watch the parts when my team might score. If the other team has a scoring chance, I tend to do other things like: read a book, hide under a blanket, or play on facebook. It's just too hard for me to watch.

Finally the handshake we'd all been waiting for:

I am hoping to go to a game, as I have never seen a third round match up before. We'll see. Tickets get a lot more expensive the futher the team progresses in the playoffs. One thing is for sure, I will get to watch my team play while recovering from my sinus surgery. Yay!

I made it through my long run and my long ride this week. My long run was great - 7.5+ miles, the longest I have ever gone. I brought my dad along with me (he rode his hybrid bike), for some security. It was a beautiful day. I think my left heel is trying to develop plantar fascititis so I just keep stretching as much as I can. My calves are pretty tight, and I am not great about stretching regularly, so have to keep on top of that. I have my next tri on Sunday, then figure I can let my heel heal while recovery from my surgery.

My ride on Thursday was supposed to be 2:30 min. I moved it to Thursday so that my brother could ride with me again. It's good bonding time. Not more than five minutes into the ride, I heard a loud pop behind me and a curse from my brother. He had ridden over a huge screw and his back tube popped. Luckily, I had brought an extra tube and tools. My brother changed his tire quickly (another reason I brought him along), and we were on our way.

We had a great tail wind the first hour of the ride, but I knew we'd have a hideous headwind on the way back. As such, I decided to turn around after an hour. We took a cliff bar/water break and then headed back into the wind. Not five minutes later, my brother hit something else and I heard the tell tale pop yet again. I didn't have a patch kit with me, or any other tubes. He told me to keep going, luckily we were on a bus route, so he bused it back to our town and had Dad pick him up. He has since bought extra tubes and a new back tire!

So I was on my own for the rest of the ride. It was still quite nice, even with the headwind. I figured the rolling hills and wind would be a good training experience as my 70.2 in July has similar terrain. I made it over the one big hill a mi/hr faster than this time last year, so that made me happy.

I am on my third night at work. I am having a really tough time wanting to do any sort of work out on my work days. Nights are tough, and I am just not sleeping well. It's annoying. I wake up and I don't feel like I have really slept at all. I also really don't feel like swimming no those days, so need to talk to coach about that. I don't know what it is, would just rather run or play on my trainer the days I work. So will have to see about that. I really hope I start sleeping better! Ugh.

This week is a light week due to my tri on Sunday. My wetsuit is here, and the weather looks to stay nice so it should be a blast.

So far, so good....

Things are going well here in Northern California. The sun has been out for almost 5 days straight, and I am pretty sure it was around 80 degrees for my hill run on Monday.

I am almost half-way through my longest training week to date. Still have a long run left for today, and a bike ride with my brother tomorrow. Then it's back to work. I haven't actually been to work on the floor for 2 weeks, so hopefully I remember how to be a nurse still. I work 4 days in a row, then two off, then work Wednesday and Thursday. Then I am off for a while owing to my impending sinus surgery (shudder).

My next triathlon is next Sunday the 16th. I am really looking forward to it. 3/4 mile swim in a reservoir, 16 mi bike, followed by a 5 mi run. It should be fun. I know it's gonna be cold (for us NorCal people anyway) in the morning before we swim, so thank goodness for my wetsuit. I plan on lining up in the front this time though, I am not trying to win the swim or anything, but I am pretty sure I can hold my own up there, and it's better than trying to pass people. Transitions are flat - WOO HOO!

"So far, so good" also applies to my beloved San Jose Sharks, who are currenlty up 3-0 on the Detroit Red Wings. I know, shocking. But pretty awesome. I am in a constant state of happiness right now. I had the distinct pleasure of attending game two in San Jose last Sunday with some good friends as a birthday celebration.


Our seats were way up there, and the 30+ rows of stairs were not well liked by my legs (who had just completed a 30 mi bike ride) but it was worth it. We could see all the plays develop, and as we were on the goal line, we knew exactly when the puck hit the back of the net.

Last night, the Sharks came from behind and beat the Wings in OT - here is a little gem of a picture I got from one of the blogs, you will notice it is in stark contrast to the picture I posted a few blogs ago =):


Yes, that is Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton hugging back there, the big boys scored the winning goal in OT...

Tomorrow night is game 4. I am dusting off my broom for a possible sweep, but would still be pretty happy if the guys split the games in Detroit. We shall see. The game is early, which means I get to see the ENTRIE thing before I have to go into work.

Weekend Review

This was a busy weekend, in my terms anyway. Having been a competitive swimmer for 9 years, and doing double practices for the last 3 of them, I am very happy whenever I get to sleep in. Yes it has been 16 years since I had to attend 11 swim practices a week, yes I have had other jobs which necessitated waking up at some horrible hour (Enterprise Rent-A-Car, I am talking about you!), and no I do not have any children yet, so yes I am still allowed to sleep in.

What's been great with my new job and my triathlon training is that I don't have to get things done early in the morning. I can wait until 2pm in the afternoon to do my run/ride/swim if I want to. It's glorious. The reason I like my current Masters program is because they offer a practice at 9am (and most days that still seems too early for me....).

But this weekend, I had lots of fun things to do, and I sacrificed my extra sleep. Saturday's workout was to be a nice run, with no heart rate limitations. No heart rate zones? Woo Hoo! Of course I also had a baby shower to attend at noon, and dinner with the moms from the party who were very thrilled to be attending dinner at a restaurant sans their children =). So I woke up early on Saturday and got my run done. It was my longest to date (6.6 mi) and I felt pretty good. Except for one heel, which proceeded to remind me I have been neglecting my stretching....

The shower was great, dinner was great (especially when I noticed the head coach of the Detroit Red Wings/2010 Canadian Hockey Gold Medal team sitting at the bar). I must admit, I did stare at him, but couldn't come up with anything to say that would have been appropriate other than - congratulations on your gold medal. Being that they're the arch enemies right now, I kept my mouth shut.

Today there was a long ride on the schedule, and we were also scheduled to go to see the Sharks play at 5pm. This is a relatively early game and kind of threw everything off. My husband was lovely enough to get up early on his day off and go ride with me. The ride was nice, if not a bit on the windy side, but luckily my husband suggested we ride into the wind first. Brilliant, really. I am happy to say I think I may be finally used to my new saddle. Great timing as I have another triathlon in less than 16 days...ack!

Everything went as planned and we got to see a great, awesome, incredible hockey game. Joe Pavelski is on fire, I think I need his jersey. The tickets were a birthday present from my wonderful parents.

So all in all, a good weekend. Great workouts, beautiful weather, fun activities and my Sharks up 2-0 on Detroit. It doesn't get much better than that.