Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Bump In The Road..

Happy Autumn!!!




I have been absent for a while. I know I need to keep in check, but life keeps throwing me curves.

For the last three weeks I have been having alot of head pain on the left side of my head. And when it gets real bad it runs down into my neck, shoulders. Early Monday morning 3am, I was up with such a pain I thought my ears were going to pop out of my head. My ears have been so sensitive to sound and my eyes to light. I called off of work and went to the doctors. She said I have TMJ. Inflammation of the Jaw.Temporomandibular joint. And she said stress can cause it,or grinding of the teeth while sleeping,and our friend arthritis. {oh great} So I am on an noninflammatory, and a muscle relaxant. It has been bugging me on and off for three weeks, after the Duathlon on Sunday, it has just been a steady pain in my head. I have missed 2 days of work, and I am going back on the weekend. I worry about all the monitor noises with my ears being so super sensitive .All caused from the TMJ.

Sunday was my second to the last race of the season. At this race I was trying the Hammer Nutrition fueling method. I ate my breakfast 3 hours before the race. Forgot my fueling bottle, and I carried water and my flask of gel. One was raspberry and vanilla mix, with 2 teaspoons of chai seeds. My main source fueling bottle was going to be the sustained energy one hour bottle, flavored with a gel. It keeps your fueling intake about 200-250 calories and protein. My bottle on my bike was the heed which is the organic gator aide, I used 2 scoops instead of one. This is to help keep your electrolytes balanced so you do not have to take in salt tabs. I usually bottom out after the 10 miler on the bike. And instead of taking in large amounts of everything. I sipped on it. I started it just before the count down to start the first mile sprint.
My first mile was my best ever.11:50. I felt so good, my first Transition was just over 2 min. I fought with my biking gloves, and the transition area was huge. I scaled the Causeway both times, made it back and I was sipping on my fueling bottle the entire time. But I was getting in the way of the faster riders. I was listing to the left and not knowing it. I did noticed my balance was a a bit off too.My 10 miler was 39:16. T2 was almost 2 min. I headed out for my 5k run. My legs were stift this time instead of feeling like jelly. It took a mile before the legs limbered up. And then it started to rain. No more like pour. Then it let up a bit and sprinkled for the rest of the race. And the cool part was there was a huge rainbow hanging over the run. I didn't have my phone on me, I could get disqualified if they saw me handling it so I just don't carry it. And I did intervals, and did my 5k in 44:44!!!! I ran across the finish line!!! I felt great. So my total time was 1:39:24 UGH... I thought I finally made it out of the 90 minute window. I was the only one in my category again so I got first place.
They are doing the points awards on Saturday. I do not understand how when there is still one more race. It is listed on my series, and as a points race. When I run the last race, I will get my bonus points of 500, it will put me in first place in points in my category and I will get recognized for that. It will help for the lottery for next year. :) {Kona} I am awaiting an e mail about that. Then the next season starts in Feb.2010 and I will be doing the Olympic distance triathlons. There is only 4 in the series, the distance will be .90 mile swim, 18-20 mile bike, 10k run. But I will still do the sprint distance triathlons.

Things are still tight here. My next goal after the last Duathlon in October is the new Miami Halloween half. Here on out I will be concentrating on mileage and working on the arms for swimming.

I did the weekly challenge last night. I did 1080 in jumping jacks. I can not do jump rope. That was during the Biggest Looser. 2 hour show. Plus I did a arm workout. I used my 5 pounders and I did 4 set of 12 in butterflies and chest press,and this other thing on the balance ball. I did 100 crunches and 100 scissors.

If my head calms down I plan on going and doing some rowing, and stairs. And hopefully 6 miler today. I haven't put in any miles in 8 days. Well except for the race.

And no news on our plans for Jan .2010.

4 comments:

DebWDW said...

I am in awe of your training! And I do hope your jaw starts feeling better and gets back to normal soon.

Chris said...

Outstanding, Rae! Given everything on your plate you really should stop and be as proud of this accomplishment as we are of you :-) Did you think you'd be "here" a year ago? again, Outstanding!

Let's wrap some of the January planning into the conversation we're going to have soon. No reason why you should have to field all of planning, right? We're here to help! Probably need to do a roll call for Team Voicers as to what races they are doing that weekend. Quite the mix this year as I understand it.

Rae! said...

No I never thought I would be doing any of this!!!!
I am very proud of myself. And everyone for completing all their goals.

Amanda said...

Another great race, great training and times!!!

TMJ is very painful. I grind my teeth and added to migraines - I totally understand the light/sound sensitivity. It makes me sick to my stomach! Hope you're feeling better.