Tri Limbo

People keep asking me what triathlons I'm doing this summer.

I'm not sure what to say to them.

As much as I love cool spring weather and as much as I prefer 12 degrees to 28 degrees when it comes to running temps, our freezing winter and less than balmy spring have meant that the water temperatures are taking their sweet ol' time warming up.

Last year, we had a super early and unusually warm spring. Despite the warm temperatures we didn't get into the canal for open water swimming until June and, even then, it was breathtakingly cold.

This year, I'm not sure what's going to happen.

The first triathlon on my radar is Welland which is in the middle of June. At this rate, the water will still be so cold that the swim will be wetsuit mandatory.

And no, Jeff, I have not yet jumped on the wetsuit bandwagon.

There is a triathlon in Toronto in early July but it's in Lake Ontario. Last year I swam in Lake Ontario near Toronto in August and it was still agonizingly cold.

I feel like I'm in a weird sort of triathlon limbo.

I'm keeping up with my swimming, cycling and running. All three are going well. I could do a triathlon tomorrow if I needed to.

And yet I have no firm plans lined up for what my tri season will actually look like. After last summer's über-organized triathlon schedule, it's bizarre to be training but not really sure what I'm training for.

It's also kinda freeing.

I'm just enjoying the activities for what they are and am not at all worried about the details.

It's kinda nice to be honest.

One More Activity to add to the Calendar

Some of you might have noticed that, when I've talked about golf during the past few weeks, I also made reference to 'our golf club' or 'our golf course'.

Doug has been a member of the local golf and country club for a while now. I've been a curling member there for several winters but decided to jump in with both feet and sign up as a golf member too. At least for this summer. To see if I like it.

Being a golf member has its privileges. One of which is a small but serviceable gym.

You know, the kind with weights and a treadmill.

I haven't used a real gym of any kind in years and years.

I run outside in all weathers and all seasons. If it's just too awful to run outside, I don't run.

I cycle outside during the spring, summer and fall and cycle in the basement in the winter.

The only facility I actually drive to and pay fees to exercise in is the community pool.

Now I have use of a gym. With weights. And a treadmill.

I used to love lifting weights back in my YMCA days but haven't done that since discovering my love of cardio activities on the open road.

Now I have the use of a gym. With weights.

It's pretty much there for the taking.

Problem is finding the time in my fitness schedule to squeeze in some weight lifting.

Finding the time? Or making the time?

Considering how much I love my swims, rides and runs, and the fact that I'm taking full advantage of golf season, it really will be about making the time.

Any scheduling tips for how to squeeze it all in? While working full time, sleeping 8 hours a night and spending quality time with Doug?

Zip-a-dee-doo-da!

Pssst! It's Zip. The Fitbit. 

You have to help me.

I have been purchased by a madwoman. 

Do you know what she did on Saturday?!? 

She woke up at 6:30am. On a weekend for heaven's sake. After waking me up at 5am or earlier all week. Who does that??

She pulled on her running tights. I have already learned that running on a Saturday means that we're headed out for a run that is longer than the runs we do before work. Last weekend we ran 10k together on Saturday so I figured we'd be back home within 75 minutes and enjoying a warm cup of coffee while we stretched. 

She headed out along the same route we took last Saturday. So far so good. 

I've noticed that she starts off kinda slow. It seems to take her a few kilometres to warm up. She slowly found her rhythm and her pace picked up bit by bit. 

As we approached the corner we turned at last weekend, I smiled and prepared to congratulate her on being half done her run. I was also looking forward to heading back into a warm living room as it was starting to drizzle a bit. 

She didn't turn. 

She didn't turn at the next corner either. Or the one after that. 

When she finally turned, we were 8k from home, I had no idea where we were and I was starting to worry she was running to Toronto. That's about when Doug pulled up in the car to see how she was doing. She said she was fine, feeling pretty good actually, had a few sips of water and carried on. 

At 10k, she turned left down a street we have never been down before. She ran 2k down that street and then, if you can imagine, turned around and ran 2k back to the 10k spot. Except it was now the 14k spot. 

She pulled over at Doug's car, drank some water and Nuun, checked her blood sugar and compared it to Dexter (who, to my happiness, was along for the ride. At least I had someone to talk to). She had a gel, half a pack of fruit chews and headed off again. 

I had no idea where we were but home was nowhere in sight. And it was still drizzling. 

She ran another 3k and she actually got a bit faster with every kilometre. Like 20 seconds faster than she was running at the 10k mark. One last quick pit stop with Doug at 17k for a drink and then he left and she carried on to run the last 3k home. 

Twenty freakin' kilometres!! On a Saturday morning. Before 10am. 

Twenty one thousand steps. 

She's a complete nutter. 

She bounced into the house and announced that she felt great. Her blood sugar behaved, nothing hurt and her energy held. I'm learning that these are really important things. 

I am also learning that there are different definitions for 'sleeping in on Saturday morning'. 

Looks like I'm going to have to learn to love the wee hours. 

5am Chafing, Quinoa Shampoo and Speedy Sprinting

I haven't written much about swimming for a while now.

Not because I haven't been swimming - because I have - but just because there always seems to be something else to talk about.

I figure it's about time for a chlorine update.

First of all, my new red bathing suit is holding up well. Thank you for asking. I have noticed a bit of chaffing on my shoulders where the straps sit. I have never ever had bathing suit chafe before. It's a whole new way of thinking for me and I can tell you that applying body glide before pulling on my bathing suit at 5am is one too many things to think about at that hour and I have not yet remembered to do it. Thankfully it's pretty mild chafing and does not hurt at all.

Also, I have a new chlorine shampoo that I'm trying. The one I usually buy was not in the store when I went the other day and, since I had waited until the very last minute to restock, I needed to buy something. The lady suggested a brand called Abba and said that their Detox shampoo would be great. She tried to convince me by telling me that it was all natural, gluten free and vegan. She also assured me that the shampoo contained quinoa, barley AND soy.

Thank goodness for small miracles.

I asked if this tasty concoction had the power to strip the chlorine from my hair while leaving the colour intact. She assured me that it did. Despite my reservations that this shampoo sounded more like a fad diet than a chlorine busting superhero, I bought one. And, because I was almost out of conditioner, I bought the Abba Colour Protect Conditioner as well.

I tested them both out on Wednesday morning and, after my initial shock at the bizarre brown colour of the shampoo, I was more than pleased. They both smelled delicious (a huge plus for me), the shampoo worked well and the conditioner left my hair feeling fabulously soft. I also read the bottle a bit more closely and apparently my shampoo also contains molasses and baking soda which explains the brown colour. Happily, the high molasses content did not seem to affect my blood sugar.

Believe it or not, I actually do swim when I go to the pool. It's not all about bathing suits and shampoo testing you know.

On Wednesday morning we had a fun workout. At least I thought it was fun.

After a 1000m warmup, our main set looked like this:

5x100m build on 2:00 (minutes)
4x100m variable on 1:55
3x100m 25m steady/25m hard on 1:50
2x100m 50m steady/50m hard on 1:45
rest for 1:00
100m hard

To explain a few things:

Build means get faster as you go so each 25m of the 100m is faster than the last and the final 25m is pretty darn fast.

Variable means that, in the first 100m, the first 25m is fast and the rest is steady. In the second 100m, the second 25m is the fast one. In the third 100m, the third 25m is the fast one and you can guess which 25m is fast in the fourth one.

I was in a lane with two boys who are faster than I am so we didn't even discuss the fact that I would be going third. They sorted out who was first and second and then, when the red hand touched the top of the clock, we were off.

I knew that the first 5 100m would be ok because I can do them easily in under 2:00. I knew I would be tired by the 4x100m and that I would, at best, get 5 seconds rest between those. I figured I'd be touching the wall and turning right around in the 3x100m and I didn't think I could keep the pace time for the 2x100m.

Turns out I was right on all counts. It also turns out that I kept up fairly easily to the boys and, by the 3x100m, the guy right in front of me told me to go ahead of him since I kept catching him.

It also turns out that when you have almost no rest between 100m, you don't actually swim a bunch of 100m repeats. You end up swimming 900m without stopping. Very very different both mentally and physically. I like it because it appeals to the long-distance runner in me.

I'm happy to say that I finished it all, I kept up and I held all pace times except the last one at 1:45.

I'm also happy to say that, after the one minute rest, I was able to find enough energy to sprint the final 100m in 1:36.

I remember the days when breaking 2:00 for a 100m sprint was tough.

Not anymore baby. Not anymore.

Jumping on the Diabetes Bandwagon

There is something very physical about how it feels to have a high blood sugar. Or a low one.

The pasty mouth and bizarre headache of a high blood sugar and the heart-palpitating, tingly-lipped cold sweat of a low are hard to explain and, I would argue, impossible for someone to understand unless they feel it for themselves.

There is also something quite non-physical about highs and lows. Something, dare I say it, akin to jumping on a bandwagon.

Take a low blood sugar for example.

My body is pretty good at giving me signals when my blood sugar is low or when it is dropping. Sometimes though, it doesn't.

Or perhaps it does and I just don't notice.

Either way, there are times when I feel perfectly fine until Dexter starts buzzing or until I do a random blood sugar check and see the number 2.2 staring back at me.

In less time than it takes me to process that number, my body goes from feeling fine to being attacked by a full blown, sweaty, shaky, blurred vision low.

It's like my glucometer decided I was low and then my body decided to jump on the bandwagon.

Or the other night when Doug and I had pizza for dinner when we were out at an event. I pre-bolused like a good pizza eater and after about 20 minutes, I had my pizza.

Not long after that Dexter, who had only recently been changed and was still having trouble getting his calibration act together, started screaming that I was over 10 and climbing fast. Within 20 minutes he told me that I was 13 and fifteen minutes later I was apparently 16.

I sat through the rest of the meeting feeling more and more like a bag of dirt and was grateful when we finally left and were able to head home. My head ached, my teeth hurt and I felt so dehydrated I couldn't wait to guzzle a huge glass of water.

When we got home I pulled out my glucometer and tested. It told me I was 8.2. Not 16.

I checked again just to be sure and was told I was 7.7.

So apparently I had calculated my dinner correctly and Dexter just needed to get his act together.

Guess what happened?

Yep. I immediately felt better once I saw that I was not high after all. All the high symptoms miraculously disappeared.

Did my body jump on the high blood sugar bandwagon or did I really truly feel all of those high symptoms?

Diabetes.

Sometimes I think it's all in my head.

(Almost) Naked Shower

Yesterday I just missed having my second naked shower since November. 

One in six months. That's just sad when I think about it.

Yesterday morning I went out for an 8k run in the cold spring rain. Dexter, who was already 10 days old and holding on by a combination of sheer determination, the fear of my wrath if he let go before day 10, and some well-placed tegaderm, didn't survive. My wet and heavy shirt kept rubbing on him and, by the end, he had come completely unglued. 

When I got home, I dug him out from under my wet layers, placed him on the counter to dry and headed up for my shower. 

After my shower, I noticed that my infusion site was also barely holding on after the rainy run. There was just enough insulin left in my pump to make it until dinner so I taped it in place, crossed my fingers and went to work. 

I fought highs all day. Not high enough to go home and change my site but high enough to make me think that I may have caused some structural damage to the site and not all the insulin was getting in. 

I changed it the minute I got home and that is when I realized that, if I had changed it in the morning when I was doing Dexter (that sounds worse that it should), I would have been able to have a naked shower. 

Dammit. 

Naked showers, for those of you who get to take one every day, are a luxury that I rarely get to enjoy anymore. 

The thought of not having to gingerly wash around my cyborg parts and just being able to enjoy the shower is, well, I can't even think of the right word for what it is but it's a damn nice thought. 

The thought of not having to think about where and how I stand in the shower so that the water doesn't directly hit one of my sites when the edges are already started to come unglued. 

How many of you actually know how to stand to make sure that some parts of your body get wet but never actually get directly sprayed by the water? How many of you care? I'm guessing it falls in the category of 'who the hell does that?'.

And imagine the whole post-shower drying off process. Dry arms vigourously. Dry legs vigourously. Dry abdomen...oh wait, dab, dab, carefully dab so as not to knock any cyborg parts off. 

Sigh. 

I missed my naked shower by a handful of hours. 

With pump site changes every 4-5 days (usually in the evenings) and with Dexter changes every 8-14 days, the odds of both sites coming off on the same day at the same time just before I need to shower are roughly the same as the odds of my taking up figure skating.

Or ballet.

Or anything else that requires a combination of grace and short skirts. 

Zip's Easter Weekend Adventures

Hi kids!

It's me, Zip. Remember? The Fibit.

Well, I arrived a few days earlier than expected and I was able to spend the entire four-day Easter weekend with my new pal Céline. 

We seem to be getting along (that's a relief!) and I've already learned a few things about her. 

First of all, she's the most active sedentary person I know. It's crazy. She'll be all quiet and peaceful in bed for, like, 8 hours and then suddenly the alarm clock starts chirping and she's up. Next thing I know we're dressed and heading out for a run in the dark.  

Or a bike ride in the freezing cold. I mean I don't really track bike rides since I'm a pedometer but she took me along anyway. Probably to test whether or not I counted steps while she was riding. 

Well I'm pretty smart and I assure you that I did NOT mistake a bike ride for a walk in the park and I didn't count a single step. She seemed pleased with that. 

She also took me to the pool but I'm not waterproof so I sat in her locker. It was a little creepy since I was stuck in there with this guy named Dexter who kept crying out for her until she came back.  It was dark and she took a long time. I almost started crying too but didn't want her to think I was wimpy. Anyway, that's another story. 

So she's pretty active but then she'll also spend hours happily sitting quietly on the couch after whatever activity she just finished. Sipping her coffee and reading. For hours. 

Like hours and hours. 

There were two pretty crazy days though. Friday and Monday she took me golfing. I could not believe how much this lady walked. And she had already been out for her 5:30am swim. 

Both golf games took just over four hours and she walked and walked and walked. She also carried her clubs which seemed a little hardcore but she assured me it was actually quite comfortable and easy to carry them. 

On Friday she walked over 13,000 steps and I logged the distance at over 10k. On Monday she walked about 15,000 steps and together we walked about 11k. 

I've been with her four full days now and, according to my calculations, she had walked 55,000 steps and covered 43km, including a 10k run on Saturday morning. 

That's, like, a lot. 

Now, today is a work day so I'm guessing my job is going to become a little less interesting. She'll run in the morning before work which should be fun but she warned me that her job is pretty sedentary so I'm guessing I'll be having a pretty quiet day. 

Hopefully I can guilt her into walking around the block after lunch...

So far, my biggest worry is that she will forget to take me out of her pocket at the end of the day. Twice I ended up in the laundry bin before she remembered I was still attached to her pant pocket. 

Since I really am not waterproof I'm guessing I will eventually meet my demise in the watery depths of the spin cycle. 

Until then though, I'm going to hang with my new pal C and cheer for her on the golf course. 

She did well by the way...for a beginner.