Tired but Happy

What a weekend that was!

Last Friday I said that, if all goes well, I will get 63.5k worth of exercise done before the weekend was over.

Well, I got'er done.

I cycled 28k on Friday morning. It went well and I was grateful for the chance to move and get my heart rate up before a long day at the office that involved much more sitting than I would ever want.

After work, Doug and I enjoyed a wonderful evening on the golf course with friends we haven't seen in over a month.

Things have been going well on the golf course lately and every game I have played in the last two weeks has been better than the last.

I logged a 105 which, for someone who has been struggling to break 120 for months, felt pretty wicked.

Saturday morning, we got up early and I headed out for 14k. I was not sure what to expect because a) my shoes are probably 200km too old for long runs but the new ones I ordered weeks ago are in running shoe neverland so I had no other option but to try it b) the humidity was pretty oppressive and c) when I tried 12k the weekend before, I had to quit after 11k due to a pesky plugged ear low blood pressure drop like the ones that plagued me last spring.

All that being said, I headed out with a water belt full of Nuun, back up salt tablets and a goal to run at a pace that kept my heart rate down. I did, my shoes didn't cause too much discomfort, my ears didn't start plugging until 12k and I ran 14k without much of a problem.

A quick shower, coffee and lunch later we were back on the golf course for the afternoon.

The golf gods much have been feeling generous because I had an even better game than the day before. At the end of the game, the golf pro drove by and said "I heard you played a 105 yesterday". "That's nothing" I replied. "I just shot a 102 today".

That got me a big grin and a fist bump.

Sunday morning, we were up before the sun and en route to Toronto. I met up with my sister and we headed to Toronto Island for the Lake Swim event.

The lake looked as flat as a pane of glass and was 20C. I pulled on my wetsuit expecting a fun, easy, fast race. Which it was for the first 100m or so. Until I ran into the rolling waves that were not noticeable from shore but were surprisingly high and rolling when you were face down swimming in them. As someone who trains in very flat and calm open water, this was when things got a little hairy.

I quickly developed some swimming skills I didn't have before. After a few mouthfuls of water, I learned to breath only on one side so that I never turned into the wave to breathe. The were a few times when I turned to breathe and a wave rolled over my open mouth but, for the most part, my trick worked. I also discovered that I get rather nauseated in that kind of environment. Who knew seasickness was a concern in open water swims? I sure didn't. I learned that every time I raised my head to sight, the dizziness got much worse so I cut down on my sighting. I usually sight every six strokes. I was doing it every 9-12 instead, trying to space out the stomach lurching.

At one point I debated turning around to see how my sister was holding up and make sure that she was ok. I figured that, if I was struggling, she certainly was too. In the end, I couldn't stomach the thought and just kept moving with the goal to finish as quickly as possible. I just hoped she was doing ok.

All that being said, I finished 1,500m in 31:25 and, after stumbling over to a log and sitting with my head down for a few minutes, I felt much better. My sister finished a few minutes later and announced with a smile that it was the easiest open water race that she had ever done.

Guess there was no need for me to go back for her eh?

The weekend was over in a flash and roared by at a pace that I couldn't sustain for too long. But it sure was fun!

Monday, in case anyone was wondering, is most definitely a rest day.

Sixty Three Point Five

By the time this blog post is posted I will have gone for a Friday morning 28k bike ride.

After work tonight I am playing 18 holes of golf which means I'm walking 10k.

Saturday morning, I'm running 14k as part of my half marathon training plan.

Saturday afternoon, we are golfing another 18 holes of golf which means another 10k of walking.

Sunday I am heading to Toronto for a 1500m open water swim race in Lake Ontario.

If all goes well and there are no rogue thunder storms to ruin my plans, I will have clocked 63.5k of exercise between Friday morning and Sunday afternoon.

Some people look forward to weekends so they can relax.

I look forward to weekends so I can move.

Moving, as we all know, does a body good.

It's also rather addictive. The more you do it, the more your body wants it. As an added bonus, the more I do it, the more my blood sugars are happy.

By Sunday evening, I will be pleasantly worn out and more than happy to flop on the couch. But it will be that good kinda worn out where the body feels powerful and strong and proud of all the things it can do. And my blood sugar will be hovering in a range where I can enjoy a few pieces of chocolate and probably not even need to bolus for them.

How wonderful is that?

July Report Card

It's a few days late but I blame it on the long weekend and a brick workout that seemed more interesting to write about. Here's July's workout report:

Cycling
I have been making more time for cycling and am loving the quite early-morning rides. I cycled 8 times in July and covered 251km

Running
Running has been going well. It's taking a bit of a back seat to cycling at the moment which is fine since I'm not training for any long-distance races at the moment. I ran 9 times in July and covered 68km.

Swimming 
I did not set foot in a chlorinated pool in July which was fine by me. I did manage to get five open-water swims in and covered 7k. I'm much happier when I'm swimming with the fishes...so to speak.

Golf
Golf has been wonderful lately. I'm getting several games in each week and it's so nice to be outside and moving so much. I played 10 games in July and walked 77.5km.

I think this month may be the month where I covered the most distance...ever.

Four hundred and three kilometres!

That's crazy.

By the end of June I had covered 1382km in 2015. Add this month to it and I am now at 1785.5km.

So how far am I in my journey to Regina? Well I blew past Thunder Bay and have left it in my dust. I am now about 25km outside of Dryden and am closing in fast on the Manitoba border. Getting there!

Just Like a Fingerprint

When I first started running, I noticed pretty quickly that every runner seems to have their own particular stride. In fact, most are so distinctive that I can usually spot the runner I'm looking for when they are still a pretty small spot on the horizon. Perhaps it's the way they bounce when they run. Or the fact that they don't bounce at all. Or the way their arms swing, or don't swing. It's most likely a combination of a bunch of tiny things that each runner does but the end result is a running stride as unique as a fingerprint and it has helped me scout for runners in all sorts of races.

Swimming is apparently like that too. I have spent a lot of time swimming but I haven't spent a lot of time watching swimmers. Especially swimmers I know. I've never watched Doug compete in a triathlon from a position where I could see the swim portion. So I have no idea if I could spot his arms among all the other wetsuit-clad arms out there. He has assured me that I was pretty noticeable in races that he has watched so I guess it must be true.

Cycling, well, I haven't noticed too many different kinds of cycling techniques. At least not to the point where I can recognize someone from afar by their spinning legs. Usually I am watching for helmet, bike and shirt colour combinations. White helmet, grey bike and red shirt typically means I've spotted Doug. Long lanky legs usually help confirm this but are the last thing I notice, not the first.

I'm saying all this because yesterday after work I squeezed in a 15-minute golf lesson. During the lesson, I had to hit balls at a Trackman which is basically a large screen with all sorts of funky sensors. When my ball hits the screen, it analyses the angle, the speed, etc etc and it spits out all kinds of data that can help explain why I do things like hit beautiful long drives that always fly way off to the right.

Turns out I have a 'weak grip'. My initial reaction when I heard that was 'what!?! I have a strong grip! You should see when I shake hands'' but I quickly realized that weak had nothing to do with grip strength and everything to do with the angle with which I held the club. A weak grip = balls flying off to the right. A too strong grip, I quickly discovered, sends them careening off to the left. I finally found a sweet spot and the balls starting going where they should.

The trick now will be to remember that feeling and be able to repeat it. Over and over again.

On the way home afterwards, I mentioned to Doug that it must be hard for golf instructors not to burst out laughing sometimes when they see the way some people swing the golf club.

"Go to a driving range and watch people" he replied. "It's crazy how different everyone swings. It's pretty darn funny to watch too."

Sounds like golf is a lot like running. You can spot your favourite golfer a mile away once you figure out how they move.

PS. during my Trackman session, the following two things happened as soon as we switched my grip:

1. I swung the club, whacked the tee cleanly out from under it and the ball plopped down to where the tee had been and just sat there.

2. On the second try, I swung the club and the ball shot straight up in the air, hit the ceiling, dropped back down onto one of the narrow metal beams holding up the Trackman system and had to be pushed back down to earth with a golf club.

Neither feats had ever been seen in that room and, odds are, neither will again.

A Reunion, lots of Doug time and a golf lesson = a great weekend

The weekend is over and, as usual, it went by much too quickly.

But it sure was fun!

Doug and I enjoyed a Friday evening golf game together followed by a Saturday morning run and a Sunday morning bike ride.

I also managed to squeeze in a brunch with three of my dearest high school friends, one who I see regularly, one who I see every few years and one who I haven't seen in almost a decade. Other than one receding hairline, we pretty much look exactly the same and it was great fun to reconnect as a 'gang' again.

I also had my first golf lesson of the season. I know, it's the end of July, but we figured it was time for me to get a few of the kinks worked out. So one hour later and two key tips (don't bend your left arm and fix your alignment) later, I was ready for a Sunday afternoon game. It took a few holes to get things feeling right but, once I did, look out!

I managed to get my best ever golf score (110), drop my handicap and get two pars, all thanks to a few tips. Here's a video of me looking like I know what I'm doing. And yes I realize that I'm not actually hitting a ball. We were just working on my swing.

Swimming and Cycling Adventures with an Errant Golf Ball Thrown in for Fun.

We are down to a handful of days before the Gravenhurst Olympic distance triathlon.

Which means that:

• it's taper time,

•  there is nothing I can do at this point to improve in any of the three activities I'll be doing. I am as prepared as I can b, physically anyway, and

• there is a lot I can do to screw things up before race day like not getting enough sleep, not eating well, not keeping an eye on my sodium intake, twisting my ankle, catching a cold, dislocating my shoulder or getting arrested.  

Most of the above are very likely in case you were worried I was trying to tell you that I've been arrested but there is always a chance that life will make it difficult for me to sleep or eat as well as I would like.

In the past few weeks, I've made an effort to cycle more and to get more open water swimming in. I'm happy to report that I did both of those things and had a few adventures in the process.

While open water swimming:  

• I have had aquatic plants wrapped around my goggles as I swam through what felt like a kelp forest but what was probably just a few aquatic plants growing madly in the warm, sunny, shallow waters.

• I have had a complete stranger ask if I was wearing a heart rate monitor to which I replied 'that's an insulin pump' to which she replied "that's a heart rate monitor" and pointed to my heart rate monitor that she could see through my bathing suit. Yep, you're right, it is a heart rate monitor. 

• I have had aquatic plants wrap around my arms and even whip across my face as I swam through another kelp forest (and yes I know it's not really kelp but I like that word better than 'aquatic plant')

• I have finished a swim, removed my wetsuit and goggles, and then walked around for the next two hours with goggle marks on my face and fruit chew package outlines on my ankles where they were tucked in my wetsuit. 

While cycling, I discovered a great way to pass the time and keep me motivated to go faster.

•  My goal (which I can't yet do) is to maintain an average cycling speed of 25 km/hour. I can do about 23 km/hour at the moment. 

• Twenty-five kilometres per hour = a pace of 2 minutes and 30 seconds per kilometre. 

• My Garmin watch beeps every kilometre and tells me how long it took me to cycle said kilometre.

• So, at 5:30am, I am cycling up and down the back roads racing against my watch.  

• If my first kilometre is 2:33, I am now at +3 seconds. Next kilometre is 2:25, well I am now at -2 seconds. When I have a few kilometres of tailwind, I can usually bank 45-60 seconds that quickly evaporate when I get to the rolling hills or turn into a headwind. 

• It's surprising how quickly the kilometres go by as well as how much harder I'll push in a headwind knowing that I'm gaining or losing seconds. 

I also managed to squeeze in a few golf games. My favourite moment of late was this: 

• I stood at the tee of a par three hole, hit the ball far right of the green, watched it hit a tree, bounce left and land 5 feet from the hole. And no, I didn't sink the putt for a birdie. Nor did I sink the second putt for a par. But it still pretty entertaining!

Mid-Term Report

June is behind us, Canada has celebrated its 148th birthday and we are now closer to the end of 2015 than we are to the beginning. 

The end of another month means it's time for another fitness report as well as a mid-term report on how my goal to virtually swim, walk, run and bike my way from our front door to Regina, Saskatchewan is going. 

Race Report

It feels like months ago already but I managed to cross the finish line of the Niagara Falls Women's Half Marathon as well as the Welland Triathlon. Woot! 

Running

Running went well this month. My mileage is down but that's because I'm no longer training for a half marathon. Now I'm training for triathlons so weekend runs are 12k or so rather than the high teens and low twenties. In June I ran 11 times, covering 86.7km in a little over 10 hours. 

Cycling

In the past two weeks I've really increased my cycling in an effort to build some endurance on the bike. I've been getting up early and squeezing in 2 to 3 weekday bike rides in preparation for my Olympic triathlon in July. In June, I cycled 174km in 7 hours. 

Swimming

Swimming was hit and miss in June. The pool was closed for three weeks so most of my swimming was in open water which was also hit and miss. I only swam four times and covered 5450m in 2 hours. Gotta get those numbers up in July! 

Golf

Golf was also a little lacklustre in June. That I blame entirely on rainy days. I only managed to golf four times, walking a total of 30k in 12 hours.  

Total number of workouts: 26 

Distance covered: 296km

Wow! Adding some extra cycling to my routine has gotten me a lot closer to Regina. By the end of May I had covered 1086km. Add June to it and I am now 1,382km into my 2356km journey. 

1,382km brings me smack dab in the middle of Northern Ontario. There is nothing on the map near that location so the best I can say is that I am exactly 100km from Thunder Bay. 

Getting there! 

Rained Out

Yesterday was supposed to be a pretty crazy day. 

Up before 4am. 

Pick up my sister and arrive at Turkey Point before 7am. 

Swim 1500m in Lake Erie. 

Home before 11:30am for a shower and a quick lunch. 

On the golf course by 1pm for a golf tournament. 

Dinner around 6:30pm and collapse into bed by 8pm. 

And then it rained...

Rained the way I'm guessing it rained when Noah was putting the finishing touches on the ark. 

It started on Saturday morning about 30 minutes after I came in from my run and it ended on Sunday morning around 11am. 

My sister, whose job gives her some extra insight into such things, insisted that we could not swim. After that much rain, the water quality would be very very poor. It's not worth our health to swim this race she said. I had no problem agreeing with her. 

I'm ok with swimming in cold water. I'm ok with currents and waves. I'm not ok with swimming in water that had a 'red alert' on its water quality status. 

So the race was off. 

Twenty-four hours of steady rain on a clay-based golf course meant that the bunkers and the fairways had turned into water hazards so the golf tournament was cancelled as well. 

I got up early anyway and headed to the pool, figuring I could at least get a good swim workout in. And since the pool had just re-opened after three weeks of closure, I was really looking forward to a good swim. 

I drove through the rain and made my way to the main doors hidden under my rain coat. A sign on the front door made my heart drop. 

"Lane pool closed."

Apparently all the rain had caused a power outage which had messed up the electrical system which meant that we couldn't swim until the electrician showed up and fixed the problem. I was home again by 8:15am and switched my swim workout to a weight/core workout in my living room.  

So Sunday became a quiet day. We watched Sunday Morning. We completed some of the final touches in our 'paint the entire house' project. We put on a pot of homemade bolognese sauce to simmer. We watched golf. 

Not the day I had planned but quite nice nonetheless. 

Sunday Madness

I'm all signed up for the 1500m (1.5k) open water swim this coming Sunday.

I checked and the race starts at 8am.

Which means that we need to be parked and unloading our stuff from the car by 7am at the latest.

I'll be picking up my sister at my parent's house.

The drive from my house to theirs is 20 minutes. The drive from their house to the start line is predicted to be 1 hour and 50 minutes.

Which means that I will be leaving my house before 4:30am on Sunday morning.

So that I can swim 1.5k in freezing cold lake water that may or may not have really big waves.

There are no medals at the end of this event, although I will have a new brightly coloured swim cap to add to my collection.

There are no t-shirts. There may or may not be food.

There will only be that addictive, compelling sense of accomplishment of having done something that most people would never do. For whatever that's worth.

And we have to be back in the car before 10am so that I can be home by noon in order to play in a golf tournament that Doug and I have signed up for.

Anyone want to guess what time I will be in bed on Sunday evening?

May Report Card

I started off my April report talking about April showers bringing May flowers. Well it certainly did and the month of May in southern Ontario was sunny and glorious and heavy with the scent of lilacs and magnolias.

In fact, the only rainy day I can remember in May happens to be yesterday, the last day of the month. The temperature dropped from 30 degrees and humid on Saturday to non-stop rain and 8 windy degrees on Sunday. Bit of a shocker and a surefire way to ruin our cycling and golf plans.

You won't hear any complaints from me though. It was a wonderful month and one day out of 31 of miserable weather simply means a lazy Sunday and lots of time for colouring and watching golf.

So May. Thanks for the golf games, the bike rides (outdoors finally!), the return to the pool and the long runs.

Golf
I was able to play 12 games of golf in May. Most were 9 holes. A few were 18. In fact Doug and I played in a golf tournament as well as a mixed match play. We had fun and make a pretty good team. I walked, carrying my clubs, a total of 79.5km and it took about 34.5 hours to do it.

Running
Twelve seems to be a favourite number because, not only did I golf 12 times but I also ran 12 times. I covered a total of 119km in 14 hours - all thanks to half marathon/triathlon training.

Cycling
Doug and I have resumed outdoor bike rides again. Sunday mornings are our time to ride and we got four of them in last month. Would have been five had it not poured rain all day yesterday. Anyway, we covered 74.5k in 3 1/2 hours.

Swimming
I'm back in the pool again!! I went back two weeks ago and my tendonitis survived just fine. I am now swimming twice a week, 2k per visit. The goal is not to regain my strength and speed I had when I was in full Masters training, I just want to be able to confidently hold my own during triathlon swims. And after two weeks back in the pool, I already feel so much stronger. Four swims in = 8000m in 3.25 hours.

So the grand total for May?

20 workouts plus 12 golf games (are they an official workout?)

281km covered in 82.25 hours.

And my goal to run, walk, cycle and swim my way from my front door to Regina, Saskatchewan.

By the end of last month I had covered 805km of my 2356km 'journey. Add another 281km and I'm now 1086km away from home. I'd love to say that I have now made it to some sexy destination but no such luck. It's been two months since I made it past Sault Ste Marie and I'm still another two months away from Thunder Bay. So I'm somewhere in beautiful northern Ontario but there are no Starbucks in sight. The closest thing on a map is White Lake Provincial Park, less than 100km away where I am.

June will be a busy month. A half marathon and my first tri of the season. A whole bunch of golf games as well as an increase in swimming and cycling to prepare for my Olympic distance tri in July.

See you next month!

Back in the Saddle Again

Last week I took an unplanned blogging holiday.

I was still working my regular job. I was still doing my regular stuff. But, for some reason, I wasn't into blogging. So I didn't blog.

Perhaps it's because the week before had been D-Blog week and, as much as I love it, I'm usually pretty tired of writing by the end of it.

Perhaps it's because Doug and I are busily repainting all of the rooms in our house so evenings and weekends revolve around when we can squeeze in another wall, another handful of doors or some baseboards.

Whatever the reason, it was nice to have a break and just as nice to be back.

Since we last spent time together, I've managed to play in a Mixed Doubles golf tournament (my first golf tournament ever) as well as a Mixed Match Play game. Doug and I did not win the golf tournament (no shocker there) but we did end up with a respectable final score. We also managed to win our first Mixed Match Play game so we are off to play a second round...yet to be booked.

I took a deep breath and signed up to play Thursday golf with some of the more experienced ladies at my golf club. I played my first game with them, followed by wine and dinner, and loved it. I'm all signed up for this coming week and look forward to some very supportive yet challenging golf.

I also ran my last two long runs before my half marathon. A 20k run that turned into a 13.5k disaster thanks to a blood pressure/ear plugging nightmare and a 16k that was the perfect redemption run. I sailed through that one without a hitch.

I got back in the pool again and managed two 2k swims last week. My tendonitis flared a little bit afterwards but not enough to hinder my Sunday golf so I'm hopeful that my poor elbow has turned a corner and is on the path to a full recovery.

I was knocked down for a day with the stomach flu but the diabetes gods didn't seem to notice or perhaps they felt too bad for me to cause any mischief. Twenty-four hours after the first stomach twinge I was back to feeling great with hardly a high or low blood sugar to show for the ordeal. It felt almost too easy.

Other than that, I signed up on a whim for a local Spanish conversation group and will be attending my first meeting next week. I had been looking for a local French group to practice with but couldn't find one. Spanish works just as well since I'm just as rusty in that language as I am in my French.

Well that's my big news.

See y'all tomorrow

The Mind is a Funny Thing

Every once in a while I am at a loss of what to blog about. It doesn't happen very often since my life seems to be chock full of diabetes (mis)adventures as well as plenty of running, cycling, swimming or golfing stories to share. Some days though, I don't feel inspired and I stare at my white screen for a few minutes.

Then I will look up at Doug sitting on the other couch and say "what should I write about?".

He usually comes up with something and then I'm off to the races.

Last night I asked "what should I write about?".

Without a moment of hesitation, he said "you could write about hitting three balls into the water that wasn't even there". "You could call it 'the mind is a funny thing'."

So let me tell you a story about a golfing lass who was out golfing with her handsome golfing lad.

When they got to the 7th tee, she watched her lad hit his ball over the water and on to the green. Lovely!

The ladies' tees are closer to the hole and, based on where they are located, the ladies don't need to hit over the water. In fact, the only way for the ladies to go into the water is to hit right. And I mean really really right. Like 90 degrees right. So the golfing lass never even thinks about the water other than to notice how pretty it is and check to see if her friend the blue heron is hanging around.

The golfing lass loves this hole because a) it's a par 3 and par 3 holes always hold the possibility of a hole in one and b) it's not very far and has a nice big green to land on.

As she walked to her tees, the golfing lad said "swing easy baby. Don't go into the water".

"I didn't even think that was possible" she laughed and proceeded to set up her shot.

She hit her first ball into the water.

She burst out laughing and said "that's crazy. I have never done that before". "I'm hitting another ball!".

She hit the second ball into the water.

"Bloody hell" she said, knowing full well that was not proper golf course language.

"I'm doing that again. This is ridiculous."

The third ball flew towards the green, bounced off a boulder and went into the water.

Three balls lost in a water hazard that wasn't even a water hazard until the golfing lad said it was a water hazard.

The mind is a funny thing.

A Bit of Faith

Diabetes is just enough of an a$$hole sometimes that it makes it impossible to have faith in the system.

Even when those devilish diabetes gods behave themselves and do the same thing 15 times in a row I I have trouble believing they will do the same thing on the 16th time. Why? Because, in the past, when they have lulled me into a state of compliance and I lowered my guard a tiny bit, that's when they like to throw a curveball (or a hand grenade) my way to shake things up.

Which is why it made it very difficult for me to have faith last Friday when we headed out to the golf course.

It was my first 18-hole game of the season. Eighteen holes means four hours of walking. We cover about 10k at a fairly leisurely but non-stop pace. We walk up hills and down valleys and back up again.

I learned a lot last summer during our rounds of golf and one key lesson I learned was that the only way to survive 18 holes was to play with my basal rates. Trying to do it by eating a few extra carbs was a recipe for disaster and I ended up eating way more than I wanted to.

Last summer I learned to lower my basal rates down to 40-50% for four hours, starting an hour before the game. At some point during the front 9 I would eat a Clif bar without bolusing any insulin for it. Seems pretty simple but it worked fairly well.

So on Friday, I lowered by basal insulin as planned. My blood sugar started dropping around the 4th hole so I ate my Clif bar. By the 6th hole, Rose is vibrating to say that my blood sugar was climbing quickly. By the 7th hole, I was above 10.0 and by the 8th hole, I was over 12 and still climbing.

I bolused 2 units to stop the climb.

By the 9th hole, I had stopped climbing and by the 10th hole, I was beginning to drop.

The insulin I had just taken kicked in and, combined with the 2+ hours of walking, I started dropping...fast.

By the 13th hole I was below four, despite having eaten two packages of fruit chews.

The fruit chews finally kicked in and by the 15th hole I was climbing again. Rose alarmed - two arrows up. By 18, I'm over 10.0 again.

A bit of a roller-coaster ride that left me slightly nauseated and feeling sheepish for not trusting my system.

Sunday, I decided to have faith in the system that I developed last year.

I lowered my basal rate. At the 4th hole I ate my Clif bar. By the 7th hole I was climbing. I reached 12.0 by the 9th hole. Despite desperately wanting to, I refused to bolus.

By the 10th hole I was 11. By the 13th hole I was 10. I slowly drifted downward and, by the time we shook hands at the 18th hole, I was 8.5.

It worked!

Four hours of golf are much more pleasant when I'm walking up and down hills and valleys but my blood sugar is holding steady. One Clif bar and a bit of faith is all it takes.

En Route To Thunder Bay

It's May!

All those April showers, both the rain and the snow variety, are now supposed to translate into Mayflowers.

Or is that May flowers? 

It's all very unclear. 

Before we say goodbye to April, it's time to see how the month went in terms of physical activity and how much closer I am to my January goal of running, walking, swimming and cycling my way to Regina, Saskatchewan. 

Running

I ran exactly 100km in April. Not on purpose, it just worked out that way. I ran 10 times, some runs as short as 4k and some as long as 20. In total I ran for 11.5 hours. 

Swimming and Rowing

I swam only once in April for a total of 2000m (2k). It took me 40 minutes. It hurt so I stopped going. Until my elbow is better, I'm out of the pool again. No rowing machine at all because that was hurting even more than swimming was. 

Cycling

The fact that I have not been swimming (sigh) for a few weeks to let my elbow heal means that I've had plenty of opportunity for cycling workouts. In fact I managed to fit 9 of them into the month of April. One of them was even outside on real roads! 

I covered a total of 137km in 7 hours and 45 minutes. Doesn't seem like a lot considering I cycled 9 times but several of those workouts were Bending Crank Arms where I spent more time doing off the bike squats than I did increasing my mileage. 

Golf

I don't count every step I take every day but I do track how far I walk when I'm golfing. Golf season in back in full swing so I've managed 5 games (all 9 holes so far) and walked 19k in just over 9 hours. 

Total number of workouts = 25

Total time spent working out = 29 hours 

Total distance covered = 258km

By the end of March I had covered 547km and had made it to Sudbury Ontario and a bit beyond.

Add 258km to that and I am now 805km into my 2396km 'journey'.

Which brings me...to the middle of Northern Ontario.

Sault Ste Marie is 781km away so I've made it there and beyond. Thunder Bay is the next stop but it's over 1400km from my front door so that will be another few months I'm guessing.

So let's just say that I'm en route to Thunder Bay.

Elbow Recovery

I've been doing some pretty focused rehab on my right elbow for the last five days in an effort to get this tendonitis under control.

After last Tuesday's golf game, when I realized that things had not improved very much, I went online to see if I could find some at home stretching and strengthening exercises.

I found some, seven in fact, that seemed fairly straight-foward and not too bizarre (online being what it is, there is some weird stuff out there). The seven exercises were to be repeated twice per day followed by icing of the elbow.

I began on Wednesday of last week. One of the exercises in particular was pretty painful and I could not do more than 6 repeats (I'm supposed to work up to between 30-50). And by the time I hit six I no longer had enough strength in my hand to grip my makeshift weight (which, by the way, was a half-empty jar of almond butter).

I stretched, I strengthened, I iced and I went to bed.

The next morning, things felt much much better.

I carried on over Thursday, Friday and Saturday and, by Saturday, I was doing 25 repeats of the movement I could hardly do on Wednesday.

My elbow was still sore but much better and the pain hung around mostly for the few hours after I worked it and then it settled down again.

Sunday, Doug and I had booked a tentative golf game. Tentative based on my elbow.

I was nervous but decided to try it. Worst case, I would play one hole and we would go home again.

We played nine and stopped because it was terribly cold and windy, not because my elbow wanted me to.

There was still a fair amount of sensitivity when I swung the club but the degree of pain I felt last Tuesday was much reduced. So while I didn't cure it in four days (which I never expected to anyway) but I certainly made some progress.

That makes me feel better. Not better enough to get back into the pool and back on the rowing machine but better enough to play golf once or twice a week.

Speaking of golf, we played nine holes and it went so well that, when I entered my score into the golfing scoring system, my handicap dropped. Pretty wonderful way to start the 2015 season non?

The Weekend in all of its Colours

What an interesting weekend. What a lovely weekend. What a tough, tiring, peaceful and inspiring weekend.

We drove to Fergus and spent a lovely evening with friends, chatting about health, house renovations and our favourite iPhone apps.

I got up before the sun on Saturday and drove to Listowel where I had the honour of speaking to a roomful of ladies with type 1 diabetes. I met some wonderful people, made a few people cry, and discovered how many people share similar diabetes journeys.

I headed home after my talk via a slight detour that allowed me to enjoy a 2 1/2 hour coffee with a lovely lady that I met at a presentation I did a few months ago. She's relatively new to the world of type 1 and is adjusting to its ups and downs with grace and humour.

I ran 16k on Sunday morning. Due to several factors beyond my control, I didn't do any short runs last week and had not done any exercise for three days. So running 16k was tougher than it should have been. Toss in some warm temperatures, mild dehydration from the day before and 16k took me longer to run than 18k usually does. My heart rate was higher than I liked throughout the run and my blood pressure dropped pretty significantly from start to finish. Happily, my blood sugar held steadily and, with only one date and a clementine, my numbers were stable the entire time.

After my chores were done, I managed to sneak in a bit of colouring time and got to try out the new markers I got the weekend before. Wow! Markers leave less options when it comes to shading and depth but they sure do boost the colour saturation. It incredibly rewarding to watch the colours take over the page and bring the picture to life.

Colouring with pencil crayons for those days when I feel like taking my time and finessing the shades.

Markers - for the days when I don't want to think too much and I want to be rewarded with rich, gorgeous colours in exchange for very little work. 

And through it all, we watched the Masters. We watched hours of incredible golf and we got to know this year's winner, Jordan Spieth. He's an old soul - a 21-year old with wisdom and composure way way beyond his years. I'd love to be able to channel his focus and his ability to manage nerves under incredible pressure. Not that I have terrible nerves or incredible pressure but I am joining a ladies' league and the thought of playing in front of ladies I don't know does make me a little bit jittery.

Happy Monday. Here's to another great week!

April Showers Bring Hope

It’s pouring outside as I write this. Dark and dreary and it looks hours later than it really is.

Rainy April days are the price we pay for sunny May ones.

Doesn’t matter one whit.

The rain, the darkness, the lack of sunshine.

Because I know what’s coming.

This past Tuesday, the remedial golf ladies and I signed up for another season of ladies’ remedial golf.

Yesterday I researched the best sunscreens to protect me against four hours of rays.

On Saturday, our driving range is officially opening for the season.

On Monday, our golf course is officially opening for the season. Monday is also the day we get to bring our clubs back to their summer storage spot and the day of the golf social where I will take a deep breath and sign up for the Thursday ladies’ league. Rumour has it those ladies play golf a notch or two above what my beloved Tuesday gals do. Tuesdays will be fun, Thursdays will be educational.

Next Tuesday we already have a tee time booked right after work.

Let the rains fall and the sun hide. It doesn’t bother me one bit.

Once golf season starts, spring is just around the corner.

Ladies' Remedial Golf League

I came home tonight to find a letter from a golf course on my desk.

It's the golf course that me and a few of my girlfriends played at most Monday nights last summer.

A little par 3 course that had a pretty sweet ladies' night deal.

We called ourselves the Ladies' Remedial Golf League and there was only one rule. If you're too good, you can't be part of our gang. It says a lot that none of us came close to being kicked off the team.

I liked the course because it was easy - allowing me to focus on my game rather than just desperately trying to get to the hole. I loved it because every hole was a possible hole in one. And I want very much to get a hole in one.

I tried every single time to not just hit the ball but to hit it onto the green so that it rolled into the hole.

Several times I made it to the green. Just as many times I made it into the nearby woods, fields and water hazards.

We laughed at ourselves and each other and we slowly got better.

The letter from the golf course reminded me that it's time to dust off our clubs and gather the ladies together again for the 2015 Remedial Ladies Golf League.

The Remedial Ladies (minus one) decked out in our fabulous matching jackets at the end of season banquet. 

Flexbar

We played 6 games of golf while we were away.

Six games of golf...in 7 days.

Before every game of golf, we went to the practice range and hit balls. A bucket of them.

In 7 days (I'm guessing here) I swung my golf club 1000 times.

Considering the fact that the last time I golfed was October, that's kinda like not running for four months and then easing back into things with a hilly half marathon.

So it should come as no surprise that my body responded with an 'I'm not very happy with you' message.

My elbow started hurting in a way that it has never hurt before and got steadily worse at the games went on. It began to hurt every time I gripped the club in my right hand it and hurt when I then tried to lift my arm while holding the gripping club.

I carried on figuring it was only a few more days and then I had at least two months to recover before golf season in Canada began.

Well I've been almost two weeks since my last golf game and my elbow still isn't happy whenever I try to pick something even remotely heavy up with my right hand.  I have to force myself to lift my water bottle with my left hand to avoid the now-familiar twinge.

So I decided to research 'golfer's elbow' to see what the deal was.

Turnsout I don't have golfer's elbow. I have tennis elbow. Which golfers can get too apparently.

Anyway, I read all about treatment and prevention options and most articles I found kept leading back to the same thing.

This:

 

 Introducing the Thera-Band Flexbar

Apparently the key to fixing and avoiding a recurrence of tennis (or golfer's) elbow is to strengthen the muscles in your arm that become irritated. Doing so is difficult using regular exercises but this little baby does the trick. Check out this article about it in the New York Times if you're interested.There is also photos and a short video to show the move you need to do to strengthen the affected area.

So I texted my friendly neighbourhood chiropractor to get his thoughts and then, with his approval, ordered my very own. It should arrive on Monday and, if it's anywhere near as good as it is touted to be, I should be feeling much better and stronger by the time I swing my clubs again.

Which is a good thing because I plan on spending a lot of time this summer swinging my clubs.

Gently Taking the Bull by the Horns

I'm standing on the edge of 2015 looking into the fog, trying to spot any clues of what the year might hold.

My ability to read the future has never been particularly strong so there is no point assuming that it will work this time.

And, to be honest, I prefer to think that life is what you make of it rather than what it makes of you. Don't waste time waiting around for life to do things for you. Just make it happen yo!

So let's grab this 2015 bull by its proverbial horns and steer it in the right direction shall we?

In 2014, I decided to try a new online program to help me keep track of my activity. It's called Training Peaks and, after a full year of use, I can say with surety that I do like it. I have not signed up for the full version but even the watered down free edition has enough to keep me happy and on track. Getting to see weekly, monthly and annual totals for each activity is ridiculously satisfying and I will be continuing to use it in 2015. 

A few days before the beginning of this new year, I decided to try another new program. This one is called My Fitness Pal. I know I know, I'm a little late getting on this bandwagon. After only a few days, I have already come to appreciate the value of this wee app. 

I had several reason for trying this app but the main one was to get a better sense of the type and amout of food that I consume every day. As someone with Type 1, I'm pretty good at figuring out how many carbs I consume in a day but I am also pretty abysmal at knowing how much protein, iron, calories, vitamin A or B12 I consume. And, let's be honest here, the fact that I am 5 pounds heavier than I was this time last year is another good reason for me to pay a little more attention. 

I've been logging my food and activity for one week already and I have learned that: 

1. I easily consume enough fibre every day for two people

2. I don't eat enough protein. In fact I did not eat enough protein even once during that first week. 

3. My diet is naturally low in sodium but also naturally high in sugar, most of which comes from all the fruit I eat, especially with breakfast. My Fitness Pal usually starts warning me by lunch time that I am over my sugar quota for the day. And that's before my evening baklava treat. 

4. Exercise makes a big difference in terms of the number of calories I can eat in a day. When I run or cycle, the number of extra calories that translates into makes it easy for me to stay within range. When I don't, I have to be more vigilant to avoid going over. 

5. Avoiding lows is a great way to avoid overeating and spotting incoming lows early enough to treat them with something nutritious like an apple or a banana is much better than taking in empty sugar calories. I now wince when I have to add two packages of fruit chews to my daily total. 

6. Wine should really come with a nutrition label so that I know how many calories in each glass. Once I looked it up I realized that I had better really want that second glass before I pour it. And I had better have gone for a run that morning too.

So 2015 looks like it's shaping up to be a year of paying closer attention to what I eat in addition to paying attention to what I do. Stay tuned as I am sure I'll be nattering on about all the stuff I am learning.

Other goals?

Find my swimming mojo again and get back in the pool.

Be able to call myself a triathlete again. Last summer I did not do one triathlon and I mean to change that this year by doing several.

Two half marathons - minimum.

Do more speaking engagements in the type 1 diabetes world. I did two last year and would love to do 5 or more this year. They are a wonderful way to help others and inspire myself at the same time.

Lose those five pounds I put on last year - slowly, safely and without sacrificing my health or my sanity to do it.

Get my damn golf handicap below 35 by the end of the 2015 season.

And, by adding up all the kilometres I run, walk, swim and bike, I want to make it all the way to Regina, Saskatchewan, via Thunder Bay of course. That's 2747km, 300k farther than last year.