Very Tough Week

So if you read Marty's blog (and you should), you'll know that we had an extremely hard week last week.

I thought that knowing that Tassie's heart was going to give out soon-ish would help me come to terms with her death but I don't think it did at all.  To say Marty and I are sad is a huge understatement.  I had dogs growing up but never felt this type of attachment, understandably as she was our first 'baby.' And she did SO much with us. We really tried to include her in as much as possible. And she was just the best dog. So sweet, so well-behaved, so happy - all the time. And she was too young. She would've been 9 on July 23rd - but that dumb heart of hers! Everything else on that dog was 100% healthy.

I don't think one can even understand it unless you've gone through it. I certainly didn't know how it would affect us. 

We made the best of the long, holiday weekend. My birthday was on Memorial Day this year and we had a nice time. We hooked up the bike trailer and the three of us road to a local park before riding to get ice cream.  And that evening we went to a Durham Bulls game which are always a good time. The prior night we went to a cookout at our friends house where they bought me a Publix cake and sang happy birthday. I do feel like the luckiest person to have my birthday close to a holiday like that -  if people are in town they usually want to get together. And I wind up with some impromptu party. I probably have had more actual birthday parties than any adult should.

But there is just this gray cloud coloring everything right now. I tear up every time I think about her. Knowing that I won't ever hug her or pet her and get a lick from her.  One of the hardest parts was picking up her ashes. We all went to get them and we all drove home, together in the car, just like always. She 'sat' in her seat and it was unbearable. I guess I'm just very sad still and have a feeling I will be for awhile.

Happenings

Um, hi.

So yeah, after the Wrightsville Beach half marathon, things got busy.

·        We went to Ocean Isle Beach for a long weekend with a handful of athletes to get some solid training in. Or any training, to be more exact. A good chunk of us had not been on the bike or in the pool much at all, so this was a tiny springboard. It was here that I decided to sign up for the Beaverdam Sprint (or its real name: TOA sprint).

·        We hosted our OSB spring cookout at Casa de Gaal. That was fun.

·        The sprint triathlon went better than expected. Except it was a wee bit chilly. I warmed up with lots of internal whining in the cold lake. Once I started, I realized what racing feels like when you haven’t been swimming. It hurts. Like my arms just noodle-slipped through the water after 300 yards because my lats were all “what the heck do you think YOU’RE doing?!” In conclusion, my swim was pretty bad, but with a longer transition run and my usual speedy transitions, I caught up a lot. Off on the bike, I felt surprisingly good. Even Marty said he was impressed with my bike. I chalk it up to prior years of biking finding their way out. Got onto the run and didn’t feel very snappy. Probably the swim/bike took it out of me. At the turn around I realized I could probably catch the 1^st place girl if I put a little effort into it. Mind battle ensued (but ugh it’s going to hurt). I decided to run really hard for 3-4 min and see what happened. I passed her and then let off the gas a little bit so I wouldn’t implode and won the race. That was a surprise.

·        Then back to Ocean Isle Beach for a little pre-summer vacay/long weekend again. We have nice friends that let us use their beach house. Tassie and Logan had a lot of fun. So did Marty and Bri.

·        Our first open water swim race was held the next weekend out at Jordan Lake (same location as the Raleigh 70.3). It was very popular again (thanks, Ironman!). The weather was less than desirable with lots of wind from a Tropical Storm off the coast which made the water a bit washing machine like. I actually got to participate in this one as we had a handful of volunteers not racing. I didn’t actually think the chop was THAT bad, but I know I’ve been doing open water swimming for a very, very long time.  Shoot, one of my first sprint triathlons was down in Jupiter, Florida when Hurricane Hugo was heading up the east coast. NO WAY that swim would’ve gone off nowadays. But back then? Eh. Ya’ll are fine. Anyways, I had a few more swim sessions under my belt since the Beaverdam (1x week, 1500 yards) and boom. Felt much better.

·        We were supposed to go up to DC this past weekend (Thu – Sun) to celebrate 11 years of wedded bliss as well as see our good friends who currently (but not for much longer) living there. However, dude at work decided to resign and I was tasked with taking his biggest, most complicated, most hands-on project and was not able take the time away. So that stunk, but alas, we shall forge ahead. Mom-in-law was on a non-transferrable flight so she was here and freed some of our time. What do we do instead? The Cary Duathlon. 2.5mile run/18.5 bike/2.5mile run.  Another fun race, tons of our friends, and a beautiful morning.  I finished 2^nd and Marty won his age group. Then we had a nice dinner and movie out that night.

There are lots of pictures that go with all these bullet points but too lazy to find them and post them. Maybe for another blog post, which is hopefully quicker than 1.5 months.

Wrightsville Beach Half Marathon

Short Report: I didn’t break 1:30 which was my pretty arbitrary goal. But I still had a fun time in Wrightsville, ended up winning the 35-39 age group (when did I get so old) and getting a growler for my efforts which was promptly filled with yummy beer.

Long Report: Heidi picked me up Saturday afternoon and drove us down to Wrightsville Beach.  We picked up our packets, checked into our hotel (Blockade Runner – sketchy on the outside, great on the inside) and then got a beer at the Lighthouse Beer & Wine store before dinner. We were in bed early and both actually got a decent night’s sleep which doesn’t always happen the night before a race in a new bed.  We were up bright dark and early as the race started at 6:45 am. Our hotel was about 1 mile from the start so we jogged down there for our warmup.  Everything was really easy and smooth.

So. Goals. I had picked 1:30 way back in the fall because why not.  My PR from the last time I tried to race a half marathon was from the Disney Half Marathon in Jan 2010 where I ran a 1:25:52.  Prior to that, I had run a 1:31 at the end of a half Ironman and 1:33 in Sydney, Australia when we lived there for 4 months and I wasn’t even truly training for the distance. But a lot has changed since then and those times are in the past.  1:30 seemed like a really hard stretch goal for me at this point and it was.  When I did pace work in my long runs I would sometimes hit that (6:52 per mile) but often I wouldn’t. Or I could hit it, but couldn’t sustain it for a many miles. Sometimes I was able to string together some miles that were under that pace. My training definitely didn’t indicate that I would be able to break that 1:30 barrier, but it wasn’t going to stop me from doing what I could during my workouts. I wasn’t frustrated or anything, it just wasn’t there.  I average around 20-25miles a week – this is not a lot, and I think I do pretty good with what I can get in.  Having a half marathon in the spring is a perfect goal for me because the distance scares me just enough.  Anyone who has been around me for any length of time knows I DO NOT like long distance races. I love 5Ks and the occasional 10ks. But those don’t scare me. Signing up for a half marathon would get me out of bed and out the door when it’s 30 degrees and raining. Or out the door for a 12 mile run with 6 of it at goal pace. It’s not easy to train through a winter but this was my way of keeping some semblance of shape.

I lined up with my athlete, Ali, who is a great runner and was also trying to break 1:30.  At first we were right next to the 1:30 pacer, but he seemed a bit back so we moved up so weren’t feeling so claustrophobic. The race itself was pretty anti-climactic. We started off just under what would be 1:30 pace and I was able to hold on until mile 9. I knew I was pushing it a bit to keep that up and that’s when the wheels started falling off.  I had a pretty low point at mile 10 but was able to mentally get myself out of it and rallied for the final 2 miles.  Rallied meaning I didn’t slow down anymore, not that I actually picked it up :) The finish was one of those cruel ones where you are right there but then they  make you run an little extra loop to actually cross the line.  My feet were killing me by this time (I’m thinking I’m going to lose 2 toenails this time around) and my quads were also screaming. My calves, which were always on the verge of cramping the last 3 miles held out (thank you calves).  My final time was right around 7:00 pace. This was not an easy 7min pace with how I ended up running it. I’m pretty sure had I gone out at that pace the whole thing would’ve been pretty comfortable, but where’s the fun in that? Races are supposed to hurt.

I was able to pretty quickly find some friends and catch a ride back to the hotel. I  showered, ate a little, then drove Heidi’s car back to the finish so I could catch her when she finished the marathon (she qualified for Boston with over 10min to spare!).  Everything about this race was easy, from logistics to the course – I have zero complaints.  If you want a fast half or full marathon with plenty of spectators and a nice venue, here it is.  I would say most will admit that the course itself is a bit boring, but most are also looking for a fast time. We both won beer growlers, which is quite a unique award. I doubt many people have their own growler that says 'Award Winner' on it!

After getting our awards, we packed up back at our hotel and then filled our new growlers with beer at the Lighthouse Beer & Wine Store.  We were back in Raleigh just a little 24 hours after we had left, tired, happy, and glad to see our families.

 

 

Is it spring yet?

My last blog was about a month ago, talking about the fun relay Marty and I did with the Klaitman’s. Since then I’ve been plugging along with my training for the Wrightsville Beach half marathon. I’ve made it to the track a few times for some actual speedwork, and got the long run up over my typical comfort level of 10 miles.  I did one 14 miler and a few 11-12 milers.  Our February weather sucked at the end of the month so some of the runs were spent dodging ice and snow and one particularly awful run was in freezing rain. At least I had Heidi with me who always keeps the conversation going.  Our temperatures were way below normal and I think everyone was done with winter by the end of the month.  Our winters are typically mild so if you give us a few weeks in a row of days that don’t get out of the 30’s we’re all sorts of cranky down here.

My original goal for the half marathon has been to get back under 1:30.  I think I have a shot, but it will be tough.  I’ve been running 3-4 times a week which isn’t a ton, but with other parts of ‘life’ it is difficult for me to get in much more. Personally, long runs can be very hard, and although my race-pace portions have not indicated that I will actually run under 1:30, overall I’ve been handling the distance much better than I have in the past.  I also ran a 5K this past weekend where I (very surprisingly) ran a 19:10 on a hilly course.  Several months ago I was having trouble even getting close to breaking 20min and when I warmed up on the course and saw the hills I inwardly groaned that here comes another 20:30ish blah. The course didn’t have any mile markers set out and I didn’t wear a garmin so I had zero knowledge of my pace until I made the final turn towards the finish line and saw it was in the low 19’s. Sweet.

I literally did a 4min cooldown and then jumped back in the car so we could shower and get ready for the rehearsal of Rita’s wedding. Rita has been featured throughout mine and Marty’s blog as

‘the best babysitter ever’ and she had asked Logan to be one of her ring bearers.

Rehearsing with the lovely bride and the other ring bearer

The wedding was the next afternoon and after dressing Logan in his outfit (where he told me: you hurt me mommy. The pants hurt my legs) I asked if I could take his picture.  This is what I got.

Luckily he rose to the occasion and did a great job when it came time to walk down the aisle.

Like a boss

And some other pictures:

My boys

When Tassie's naughty, she'll rip up one little sheet of toilet paper. This is her guilty look.

Logan hanging with all the pretty ladies before the wedding


 

Freezing rain run DONE

Occoneechee Speedway Relay

Marty and I did a relay race with another couple a few weekends ago.  It was a first year event put on by Bull City Running out at an old dirt race (car) track in Hillsborough.  Each lap was just over 1K around and you could have teams of 2 or 4 runners – splitting the laps up however you want. It didn’t matter what order you went in or if 1 person did 17 laps and the other 3 did 1.  As with most relays, it was a lot of fun.  We lucked out and had gorgeous weather for a January day. It was blue sky sunny and mid-50’s. Perfect to run in!

I was expecting the venue to look like this:

 

 

But it actually looked like this:

 

 

 

I was not up on my race tracks (although you’d think I should be with how much Logan loves race cars), but this track was closed back in the 60’s. And apparently that’s plenty of time to have very tall trees grow all over the place.  The infield looked more like park and you couldn’t see any other part of the track because of all the trees.  The actual track was as wide as a bridle trail now, so at least they kept a bit of the runway clear all these years. 

We talked about strategy a little bit and decided to have 2 people rotate through the first 10 laps and have the next 2 rotate through the last 10 laps.  We thought going 1 through 4 would be too much downtime. Marty and Ali went first, both not targeting the race itself and both ran long that morning (the race didn’t start until 1pm).  Jason and I were a bit more rested and both of us ran pretty hard for our turns.  We ended winning the 4 person, co-ed team!

 

That's me handing off to Jason

 

The week after the race I was very busy at work and wound up not running again until Thursday, but have now strung together some good workouts and am hoping I’m ready to run well at the Quintiles Half Marathon on March 22^nd.  I’d like to break 1:30 there but we’ll see.

We are also working hard on getting Logan out of his diapers.  We haven’t pushed the issue much at all as everyone has told us it’s not worth it and kids will potty train when they’re ready, but it seems like we have been a bit stagnant and he needed a little shove.  We had been putting him in underwear at the house (and he did really well) but whenever we went anywhere we would put him in a diaper. And also for daycare we would put him in a diaper because we weren’t sure what would happen all day – until someone assured us his teachers were used to dealing with the situation and to just send him in underwear (with lots of  extras and spare clothes).  So far, he’s been pretty successful with just a few accidents.  I know it will still be a work in progress but he definitely understands and the other night, he told me he had to poop and then actually went on his potty.  For other parents out there, you know how huge this is!

 

They grow up fast

 

Tassie

We knew we would get to this point, but it still doesn’t hurt any less.  We found out Tassie had a heart condition (a valve prolapse) when she was just 1, and she’s been on blood pressure medication ever since.  At her yearly checkups they would listen and determine if the murmur had gotten any worse, and it wasn’t until a couple of years ago that they thought it had so they upped her dosage.  Her condition never slowed her down and she regularly ran with us and has always been a giant, happy, wiggly dog.

Fast forward to this past fall and she developed a cough.  We always knew that a cough could indicate heart failure, but the vet diagnosed her with kennel cough, which was quite weird since she is not around many other dogs.  But the first course of antibiotics seemed to work. Then she got a cough again around Thanksgiving, and was prescribed more antibiotics, but this time they didn’t work.  Back to the vet and they suggested we go see a cardiologist  at the NC State vet school. We’re lucky to have the finest doctors here, as many people will travel far distances to get to a veterinarian at NC State.  This was happening around Christmas and the earliest appointment I could get was January 21.

Then New Year’s came and she was much worse.  Still coughing, generally uncomfortable and then one Sunday night she was really struggling to breathe.  Marty called one of my athletes who is a vet, and she immediately called in a diuretic for Tassie as she was positive she was having pulmonary edema (fluid in the lungs).  After giving her this, within 20 minutes she literally collapsed into a deep sleep on the floor. Poor thing was terribly exhausted.

My athlete was able to get Marty and Tassie in the very next morning and she diagnosed her with congestive heart failure.  I can’t thank her enough because over the next few weeks we were texting and emailing her constantly trying to get her meds right.  We debated back and forth about keeping the NCSU appointment because at this point what could they really tell us? But getting an echocardiogram would show us much more about how her heart has progressed and what stage she is in.  It would give us a better prognosis and allow the doctors to prescribe the correct dosage.

I ended up taking her yesterday as Marty was dealing with Logan and some dental issues (a whole other saga). The people were absolutely awesome – it is a school so there was a 4^th year and 1^st year student sitting in listening as well as a veterinarian who was a wealth of knowledge. Her own dog actually just went through this exact thing and she could definitely relate.  I was pretty upbeat going in there – Tassie is the same Tassie she has always been.  When I walked in with her someone even asked if she was a puppy because she was so excited and wiggling at every new person that walked by.

I left after the initial consultation and went to work while they kept her for the echocardiogram. They called and said I could come back at 3pm and would I like them to go ahead and fill the prescriptions as some had changed. That was my first clue that this was not going to be a good return visit.  She was already on heart failure meds so increasing dosage and adding new medications didn’t seem like a move in a positive direction. But, I rationalized, maybe they were just zeroing in on exactly the right stuff she needed.

I got there and was a bundle of nerves.  I knew that this was an inevitable scenario ever since Tassie was first diagnosed.  I had also googled enough that once a dog is diagnosed with CHF that the prognosis is not good. But I also did read that some dogs lived several more years and kept hearing that the fact that she had responded so well to the meds and she was in great shape were good signs.  I waited for just a few minutes before the cardiologist came in and she starts off by telling me that Tassie is soooo sweet and such a beautiful dog. But her heart is very, very bad.

So those were not the words I was hoping to hear, and it was hard to keep the tears from flowing. The doctor was very thorough and super nice and sympathetic. She drew me a diagram and showed me the echocardiogram and allowed me to cry and cry.  The gist is her left atrium is 30% too large, over 50% of her blood is not getting out of the heart, and blood is seeping into her lungs.  Prognosis she said, was 6 months, to maybe a year (but I almost feel as though she said that for my benefit).  She said that if Tassie wasn’t on any medication, she would die in a couple of days.

Treatment is medication (lots) and monitoring her until we feel her quality of life has gone down too much.  Then we can make that awful decision of putting her down. She also could die suddenly, which actually seems more likely at this point with the shape that her heart is in.  They saw some irregular heartbeats on the echo, so sudden death is a definite  possibility. I’m not sure which is worse.

But, until then, we will continue to love her as we always have. And be thankful for the time we have had with her. She is the greatest dog.

 

 

Ramble Ramble

Another year almost gone! I really can’t believe that Logan is 3 years old. I read somewhere or someone told me: ‘the days are long but the years are fast’ and that is such a true statement. Particularly when you have a baby, but for most of us in our daily lives.  How many times do we say, wow, where did that week go? But during the week you’re toiling away (doing whatever you do).  This year for me wasn’t very spectacular. I took a risk taking a job that I ended up really hating and it bled into many different parts of my life – most obviously in my motivation with sport. And if you happened to pay attention, you may have noticed my lack of all around racing and training.  I’m not  planning on making some giant comeback this year or anything, but I’m hoping to see a little more competition.  I ended up returning to my prior company a few months ago (in a different department so new-to-me) and I’m much happier.  The other side of the coin is I’ve always felt that there is more to life than racing and training, and I don’t want to miss out on the most important parts of my life – which are, of course, my family.  I will be the first to say that I was reluctant in having a kid, but it is absolutely the greatest thing and I can’t imagine going through life without Logan.  The amount of joy he brings and how much he fills me up is just not quantifiable.  Several years ago, a friend was describing this to me and he used this analogy: you know how much you love your dog? (yes, yes I do, Tassie is the greatest dog ever) Well, multiply that feeling by 1,000.  (hmmm, I don’t quite believe you, but I’m glad you are enjoying your daughter so much). 

Well, he was right.

So I’m looking forward to 2015.  2014 wasn’t bad, really, but there are things I’m glad to have put behind me.  Certainly these are more ‘first world problems’ to have, but you have but one life so might as well make it as fulfilling as possible!

And since this particular blog post is quite rambling, I will start a different topic. I did my run workout on a treadmill this morning. I was really, REALLY dreading it. I don’t really like the treadmill, but the weather outside was super yucky, and doing hard intervals in freezing rain just didn’t sound fun to me.  So I got my butt out of bed, not even early to be quite honest, so I could get to work and use the gym there (love the perk of having an on campus gym!).  Couple of things I hate about treadmills:

• I have never been able to sync my effort up with what I would think is my pace.  It seems like many people don’t have this problem, but the pace it tells me always seems so much slower than what I run outside. I don’t know if it’s my form (I do have a longer gait than a lot of people, despite working on my cadence through the years) or what, but it is mentally disturbing.
• The treadmill in the gym is pushed flush to a mirror so you are forced to look at yourself the entire time. The tv is directly above your head so you can’t really watch it. But I also don’t want to stare at myself in the mirror – the treadmill itself blocks most of the view so it’s not like I can check my form (there is not a mirror to the side), and looking directly into my own eyes does funny things and then I end up almost-but-not-quite stumbling.

So I look other places, but there aren’t many options: the clock – who wants to watch seconds ticking by while you’re running? This is extreme torture. The little man running in place with some computer generated graphic behind him – and seriously, why is one of these graphics A TRACK?? Who wants to run on a TREADMILL pretending to be running around the circle of the TRACK? And watching the time tick by? OH MY GOD I’M GOING INSANE.

But. But. The workout ended up being all right.  The one thing I do like about the treadmill is once you actually get going, you can really talk yourself into ‘just one more level up’ for a specified period of time. This works well when trying to run intervals.  Although I really suck at trying to convince myself to run a decent cooldown. I just want to get off the damn thing.  It helped that I had some new music to look forward to on the Ipod: Shake it off (I hate myself for liking this song), Rollercoaster by The Bleachers (I don’t know, it makes me happy listening to it. I think the lead singer was in Fun, although I didn’t really like their songs. Also he is (or was a couple of months ago)dating Lena Dunham so there’s some random facts for you) and Doses & Mimosas by Cherub which is another song that I’d hear and be all be-bopping my head to but now that I actually listened to the lyrics while I was warming up I was like, oh hmmmmm. Still like the tune, though. 

Anyways, rambling post of 2014 done. Seacrest out.