Phew it was a busy week! This week will be about the same, and I'm really not complaining.

Work - love my new job. I'm now getting into the soy of it (I don't eat meat... ok, lame joke). I just hope I can keep it. Next round of layoffs by end of Q2. Hate my workplace sometimes.

But now for the fun stuff! Last week was run 6 walk 1 repeats - each run I found my pace increasing. I didn't feel I was pushing it any more than normal, it never once felt easy, but never once did it feel too hard to continue. Yesterday marked the beginning of 8/1. And it was awesome! The weather was in the 20's (Celcius) all week, and yesterday no different. The wind wasn't too bad, there were loads of people out, it was just so nice! The 8's never felt overly hard, except for one repeat (3rd last I think) where my heart rate got a little high (ok, considering I'm on meds to keep me from going into SVT, I shouldn't be seeing 180's!) and I knew it was happening before I looked at the watch, because I could feel my pace slow dramatically, and effort increase at the same time. It righted itself after my next walk break, and it felt great again. I was almost at the end, and there were two women running behind me chatting away, who never overtook me, and I wasn't about to stop to walk at 8 mins when I only had about 2 mins left, so I ran through it to 10 mins. I know I'll be able to do 10/1 next week. I'm BACK! :D Oh, and I passed several people. That hasn't happened in years!

On Friday we went for a ride along the Rockliffe Parkway. I realized I never got there last year once. How sad is that. They paved it last year, and they paved a little shoulder! There's one part that was redone a few years ago, and isn't that great (and my speed dropped accordingly). My bike fit was so worth it. My speed increased on average by 7 - 10 km/hr. It was really windy and a little cool (the storm hit just as we finished) so in perfect conditions I should be about 15km/hr faster. That's crazy talk! I loved it. And my flat repair held :D This Sunday is the Tour Nortel. We're doing the 35k and hoping for no rain!

So got all my runs and bikes in, but for the third week in a row, forgot to do strength training. I have a serious mental block there! I even asked Steve to remind me and he said he did, however we were in the car at the time.

Weight loss down 2.8 lbs. But the week before I was up. Taking the last two weeks into the equation, I'm down 0.3 lbs. LOL. But my body is changing rapidly. My post-surgery skinny legs are getting muscle tone back, and my hip bones and ribs are starting to be feelable again. :D I still have my big belly, but it's shrinking. The city - the daffodils came up on Tuesday and are in full bloom everywhere. Saturday Steve had to get a run in, and I came along to the Canal and went for a 40 min walk. I saw my first tulips of the season - most beds are still green, but the two that weren't are a beautiful shocking red. It was so gorgeous out!

I'd better get to work. Not sure if I'll run today or not, I have three more to get in this week, but I'm feeling a little piriformis since last night, which is normal for me after an increase in pace/distance the day before. A slow treadmill run usually works it out.

I don't know what we did to deserve this, other than put up with several 60cm+ snowfalls, but as of today, there is no more snow on our lawn! Not that I'm surprised, because once again we had a day in the 20's... 23C/74F to be exact. SERIOUSLY!! The normal high is 12C. We've been doubling that. We're having summer!

Nothing much to report, other than we slept in until 8:45AM, raked the very flat from the heavy snow lawn (filled 2 leaf bags), cleaned up the back yard a bit, and planned our deck. At 1PM we went to the canal for our run. Oh, and we had to buy gas, at $1.21 (rounded up) per litre (approx. $4.80/gal). If our road to the canal was safe enough to bike on, we would have. And it will be in about 2 years, when the reconstruction is finished. As it stands right now, it's a death wish. After getting over the shock and pain of paying $0.10 more per litre than a week ago, we made it to the canal.

Today marked the first of run 6 mins, walk 1 min. The first 6 mins were horrible. My chest really really hurt, my shoulders were tired and stiff (from raking?) and I contemplated stopping. My heart rate monitor was acting up again (I even bought a new battery for the strap, might help if I put it in) showing insanely high numbers (220) but while I felt it was really hard, I knew the numbers were wrong. So I tried to ignore it and went by feel. By the time I hit the turnaround, it all came together. So much so that I added another set at the end. And I felt great. KT came with us so that she could study under a tree, and I met up with her and we walked while waiting for Steve to finish. It was amazingly beautiful out.

Came home to have chocolate milkshakes (chocolate frozen yogurt and skim milk) and bean/corn quesadillas. Yum!

The rest of the week looks just gorgeous, even with the couple of rain days forecast. Must take advantage!

Oh, and moron that I am, completely forgot sunscreen, and now have a sunburn. When will I learn!

The ride that wasn't

I was so excited to get to the Rockliffe Parkway for our ride yesterday. There were a lot of cyclists there already.

My rear tire needed a top up, so Steve pumped it, but then had problems getting the pump off. Oh crap, I've seen this before, the presta valve is tearing away from the tube and I'm about to have a flat. Steve was annoyed that his pump job 'caused the flat', which it didn't, so of course, we snapped at each other. Blah. I sent him on his ride, which he didn't want to do as he wanted to fix the flat, but he hadn't changed a tube since he was a child, and neither of us had done it on a rear wheel. I knew I had at least 20 minutes to remember what I learned in bike class two years ago. Yes, I know I should be practicing this! It started to come back to me as I was fiddling with it, and 20 minutes later, I had it changed. Wow, glad that didn't happen on a race course! I'm was a little concerned about the tube around the valve though, it doesn't want to sit nicely under the tire and might be pinched. By this time we were into rush hour and the traffic was a lot heavier (which isn't that bad on this road) but I didn't want to test my tire change in traffic. Because I'm a wuss. And don't fall gracefully.

So we came home, Steve only got a portion of his ride done, and I got none. I've caught the plague from KT and my lungs are not happy. I may take the bike out later, or I might just forfeit the long ride this week and practice changing my tire instead.

It hit 23C today! It was warm, the wind off the ice and snow was cold. I LOVE spring! The snow, at least in the city, should be gone by the end of the weekend. Steve and I were contemplating a run or mountain bike ride in the Gats this weekend, until I found these photos... I think we'll wait a week or two!

I had a dentist appt. this morning and the tooth with the filling problem actually has a hidden cavity underneath! Hot dentist said it's not really visible by the naked eye (yes, he said naked :D) but the x-rays confirmed it. And he even found another little tiny one. Sheesh. So that's two more appts with hot dentist. Um, if I must. On the upside my gum exam was stellar, even better than last years'. Let's hear it for being anal about flossing (I almost wrote anal flossing, which is a whole other ball of wax! Sometimes I crack myself up).

I wasn't really feeling a run today, but it was 23 degrees! So we toddled off to the canal after work and my legs were a little cranky. 5/1 - not a problem whatsoever, though I was 3 sec/km slower than Tuesday's run. And I really wasn't pushing it at all. Actually, had I not taken an extended walk break thanks to a phone call from my sister, I might have even been faster! Food for thought. I was feeling a little ache in the PF region so I'll be using the golf ball the next few days. My shin is a little tender too - but it's only Thursday, and my 4 runs for the week are done, so two rest days from running coming up.

Yesterday we took out the road bikes. It was beautiful out, but windy, and with still too much dust on the roads and paths, I was grateful my sunglasses wrap as well as they do. I'm such a boob, when we were half way to where we were going to bike Steve remembered he'd forgot to swap out his inserts for his orthotics on his new shoes. It took me 10 minutes before it hit me... I forgot my orthotics too, but I didn't have inserts. I was going to bike foot to shoe. Ouch. This is why I'm feeling the PF today :). This was my first outing since my bike fit, and oh wow, what a difference! There were a lot of people out (it really was the first nice day) and I swear, some are stunned stupid. A whole group of runners blocking the path staring right at me as I'm coming at them at 30 km/hr, shouting "HELLO" repeatedly, until finally one of them woke up and grabbed another to give me room to go by. I was worried he was going to go the wrong way and I'd hit him. Thankfully, no. Sadly, this scenario repeated itself a lot.

We cut the ride short at 31 mins, because my feet were screaming, and Steve needs to make some adjustments on his new bike. Tomorrow I'm going to work earlier than normal because at 3PM I'm bolting and we're going to hit the Aviation Parkway. There will no doubt be a lot of cyclists as it's one of the preferred training grounds for the Ottawa Bicycle Club, and with good reason. Hopefully the traffic won't be too heavy (it will be Friday afternoon in this gov't town!) and the wind off the river too strong.

One last note - I received a letter from the Heart Institute today - one of the Doctor's reviewed my file from the Cardiologist, and because it's not life threatening and they prioritize, I can expect to hear from the Doctor in 9 months or so. I hope they will do the ablation in 9 months, and that it's not just the preliminary appt! I'm ok with having it done in mid-winter, I won't be training too heavily. The recovery is next to nothing anyway.

Well, I'm off to bed.

Best run ever!

Ok, well best run in recent memory.

I woke up feeling a little funky yesterday, drained and tired. By noon whatever it was had lifted, and I have been going by my resting heart rate anyway, which has been solidly in the 50-55 bpm range. No change there, so not sick/getting sick/injured. :D. Since the cardiologist is a little worried about my 'high blood pressure', I'm back to daily readings. It's the white coat people!

Since we were running after work yesterday, and I had a break in the workday (unlike today's 6 hours of meetings... SIX?!?), I zipped out to get my passport photos done (hahahahahahha, I look like a lizard! I hate the Canadian rules - no glasses, hair down falling at sides, no smiling. All mug shot, all the time), my printer inkers re-filled, the April issue of Vegetarian Times (sure, give us a free e-zine, then don't let us print out the recipes? sheesh), a new bird feeder, and Subway, for the still sick and feverish KT. That was a very productive hour!

Now the run. It was 11C when I headed out to meet Steve at the Experimental Farm. It wasn't what one would call windy, however there was enough wind over the fields that I kept my jacket on. I ran 5/1 as planned and it was FANTASTIC. My goal was 40-45 mins or a minimum of 5k if my legs weren't there. There were times when I questioned why I was doing 5/1 and not running straight through, because I felt I could. But I stuck to the plan (main goal is to stay uninjured!). The second last repeat (the one after I hit 5k) I realized the road was cambered. Never noticed it before, and only noticed it now because my knee felt like it needed a good cracking. Hmmmm... not liking that! So I ran in the middle of the road until I turned around - farm road remember, no cars. Then my favourite Arcade Fire song came on the iPod and I felt so good, that I ran the last 5 mins at a pace 30-45 secs/km faster than I had been. I was floating on air. Overall, took off 14 sec/km from Sunday's time. But it was definitely a different running day. A great running day.

Today's high is 16C - the highest temp of 2008 so far. The road bikes are coming out!

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG

Check out the long term forecast!

Now if I can avoid KTs plague and enjoy it, my life will be complete.

Wow, what a weekend! It was great. I love great weekends.

But I forgot to do my strength training, or rather, ran out of time. Nah, I could have made the time, but I truly did forget! I'll add it to this week. Just because.

Yesterday we headed to the Canal for our run, Steve had an easy 60 mins on the schedule, mine called for run 5 walk 1 repeats. There's something up with my heart rate monitor, or it's the vaseline gumming it up that I put over my incision, but it's not reading correctly at all when I run. There were a few times yesterday where I thought I'd be nearing my limit and it read 111. Steve thinks it's the meds, but I don't - I saw 140's running last week. The first repeat, feels like my heart stops for a beat or two. This is the 'new world'. It's really strange, there are a few things different since my surgery. When I start running my heart feels like it's stopping for a split second and then settles down, when I eat, the first bites feel like they are getting stuck in my esophagus, and I have a tough time swallowing stringy food (Chinese broccoli, spaghetti, etc), I can't swallow properly and feel like I'm going to choke. Weird!

So back to the run (must learn to focus!), the next few 5/1's went really well, to the point where I thought I'd set the repeats wrong to 4/1, but my math told me they were indeed 5/1, but it felt so good! Then the wheels came off :). I don't know why, but as soon as I hit the 5k mark (this is where I thought the HRM was reading wrong) I couldn't push myself any longer than 2.5 mins each time. That was a little disappointing, but it's ok, my first return to fitness goal is a 5k at the end of May. And I know if I had to run it today, I could run that feeling great!

We did make it to the cottage and back yard show, nothing stellar, no great deck ideas, but we got in for free thanks to the couple in front of us as we were heading to admissions (here, don't pay we have extra passes!) and entered a few draws. I'd be quite happy to win that little jacuzzi!

Yesterday Steve drove his son back to Toronto after our run, and KT's friend left his Wii here, so we played for a few hours. It's cute. While boxing was the most fun to play, watching the opponent's expressions of pain was too much for me to watch. It's a cartoon! I couldn't handle it. Softy.

Going to run on the treadmill at lunch. Then go bike shoe shopping with Steve after work... he bought a pretty new tri-bike with Look pedals, his shoes fit SPDs, and besides, he needs a bigger shoe to hold his orthotics!

Oooh, and lost 1.6 lbs :)

Well, I'd better get to work.

My exercise week is almost over - 30 mins of strength training today will cap it off. I'm not sure what I'll do though. How do people do 45 - 60 mins of ST? What do they do? Any suggestions? I generally do 2 sets (or 3 if I'm feeling really energetic) of squats, lunges, calf raises, pliés, overhead tricep whachamacallems, bicep curls, seated rows, a couple of shoulder ones, then crunches, reverse crunches, hamstring curls all on the ball. That usually brings me to 20 mins.

Had a great run yesterday on the treadmill, I wanted to take it easy because it was day 5 in a row of leg cardio and my legs were tired! I may have gone easy, but I got good and sweaty! Thursday Steve and I opted to take the mountain bikes out. It wasn't horribly windy, but I watched enough dust/salt/sand/gravel fly around all day that I knew I didn't want to have to deal with that on the bike too. My brother also noted that since the post-winter (it is? really?) street and sidewalk cleaning is to begin next week, I'd better bring an extra inner tube and co2 cartridge. Seriously, not worth the effort :)

So back to the bikes. We did 15k on the mountain bikes again, but it wasn't quite as tough as last week. Yes I needed to stop a few times to prevent myself from imploding, but not as often as last week. There were several sections where I know I stopped before, and was able to make it through this time, although I would have been more than happy to stop :). Steve is so sweet, I know he'd rather go all out but he patiently rides back while I catch my breath. He says that as long as he keeps his cadence up, he's happy. And on the mountain bikes you can be going 5km/hr and still have a cadence of 100, so it works for us.

I am horribly out of shape still, but I think my fitness is getting better. Tomorrow will be my third time of re-starting running after a layoff, and usually run 5 walk 1 I find a really tough increase. Truth be told, I did this last January (remember? sigh...) and both 4 and 5 mins were tough. 4/1 was easy peasy this time around, so I'm feeling pretty confident that 5/1 will go just as well. Time will tell.

I'd best get this house tidied up, it is Saturday after all. Steve and I are going to look at a tri bike this afternoon. He's been using a very very entry level giant for the past 4 years and I've been pushing him to upgrade to a less entry level bike ;). Of course if he likes this bike it just means that I'm going to be left in the dust even more. But I'm cool with that if he is :). After looking at the bike (and maybe buying it) we are supposed to go to the cottage/backyard show, but Steve's son is in town this weekend and Steve invited him over for the afternoon, then we were going to go out to dinner, and then drop him off at his buddies'. It's his 20th birthday tomorrow, so pretty exciting for him.

Alright, off to clean!

I ran out of mini peanut butter cups. Because I ate 10 of them in one afternoon. Probably good they are out of the house! But they sure made yesterday's run uncomfortable.

We didn't end up running Sunday's run on Saturday because KT had a friend stay over, and the running clothes are in the guest room. Not too cool to walk in on a guest. So we went out to breakfast, something we rarely do. Found out later that her friend crashed in the basement. Oh well! Saturday afternoon my body started to ache, and by Sunday my joints were burning. That's not cool! So I postponed Sunday's run to Monday.

And it was fine, though my joints were still a little sore.

Yesterday we ran at the Experimental Farm again, there was hardly any spring wind, and it was fantastic. 4/1 felt really good. I felt light on my feet. Heavy in the belly. Thanks Reeces. Oh alright, I'll take the blame.

Today I had 5 meetings... 5 hours of meetings!! No time to run outside, so on the treadmill it was. It was over before I knew it. Love that!

I should probably be doing some work training right now, or our taxes, but instead I think I'll catch up on some blogs and maybe read more about Tom Cruise. The Andrew Morton book so far is boooooring.

Tomorrow we'll be biking after work. Still undecided whether it will be mountain or road. I don't care either way!

My tummy issues kept up for most of yesterday, not sure what that was about! The windy Tuesday run was still giving my ears a bit of grief, ringing and a case of the dizzies. But the weather was too nice to pass up, having climbed to 7C.

Wow, the mountain bike is sooo sloooow. There were times where had Steve been running next to me, he would have left me in his wake. But that's ok! It was non-stop spinning (or you pretty much stop) and after 1:15, give her take 10 mins of seat fiddling and stretching my quads we'd covered the 15k. We'll never win any speed records but I'm sure it's a huge win fitness-wise!

Today was my last run of the week at run 3 walk 1. Since my legs were burning yesterday after the ride (I almost fell down the stairs afterwards because my legs were lead!) and I'm pushing Sunday's R4W1 up to tomorrow, I decided the treadmill would be best. I wanted to give up after 15 mins, but forced myself through to 42 as planned. And feel better for it!

I'm so glad it's Friday, it was a fast week, but a tiring one. Weekend plans are tomorrow's run, my nephew's hockey tournament, and dinner at my sister's. I hope to get a few batches of soup in the freezer and some reading done too!

The Cardiologist

I finally had my long awaited appt with the Cardiologist yesterday afternoon. He started with an ECG looked it over, then we got chatting.

When he reviewed the ECG print-outs from the surgery he diagnosed it as a straightforward SVT. He thinks that I was anxious going in to the surgery (I didn't bother telling him I was having cold sweats of terror), and the surge of adrenaline set me off. He noted that I'd had this a few times in the past, 3 times requiring hospital visits since the first episode in 2003, usually from some sort of stimulant (ginseng/caffeine supplement the first time, an iced cappucino the second). He said as we get older the body has a more difficult time managing stress and adrenaline, so it's going to get worse, and could eventually lead to heart damage/failure.

I wasn't surprised when he said he was going to refer me to the Heart Institute's Arrhythmia Clinic, for Catheter Ablation. The procedure is as safe as an invasive procedure can get, but it's not terribly invasive. I'm a little freaked out that I'll be awake for it mostly, and that they put you into arrhythmia (I read somewhere else that they actually cause a heart attack, but I'll hide that little thought away) to find the location to blast with the radio waves (do you think it's ABBA? Because that can kill anything... ;))

His only concern is my first problem with SVT I also had an atrial flutter, which is more difficult to cure. The good news is there was no flutter during my surgery, or in the recovery room, and I haven't had flutter since, only SVT. SVT is cured in 99% of patients, atrial flutter he says in about 50%. Of course if things go wrong worst case scenario is death (almost never happens, honest!), or perforation, which would result in an automatic need for a pacemaker. But we won't focus on that either.

Because it's not life threatening, the wait time is long (6-9 months). The Heart Institute has critical patients to help, and I'm fine with that!

I'm to stay on the beta-blockers, to keep running and biking, and if I'm training by heart rate, to drop my numbers, because my max heart rate on the meds is lower. He expects that I'll be off the meds after the procedure. I wonder if I'll be able to have caffeine again?

Then he told me to check in with my GP for regular blood pressure checks, because it was 'a little high'. I told him it was 110/65 at home, that it's just the environment. He told me it measured 160/90. I responded "that's that adrenaline thing I have issues controlling". He laughed and said "yes, that would explain it".

I'm not too thrilled about yet another procedure, but if there's a good chance (and there's a great chance!) that it will cure my heart arrhythmia, bring it on!

The Bike Fit

Tuesday morning I had my bike fit. We started with some flexibility measurements (I scored in the normal range, which is better than I expected), though my right hip is a little tighter and may have the beginning of some arthritis. Doesn't hurt now, so stretching it is! My legs are good and straight (not bow legged or knock kneed) though I am pigeon toed (I knew that) and apparently have bunions! I never noticed since my feet have always looked like that and I could count on one hand the number of times I've worn high heels so it's just the way these things were born. I can add that to hammertoes! Such pretty feet ;)

The bike fit took 4 hours! This is the first photo (Mary added the sticky dots for tracking and measurement):

I feel like a complete boob, because if anyone had taken a picture of me before, I would have said "hey there quasimoto". I have horrible standing posture but never thought it would translate on the bike.

The whole reason for the bike fit was because I felt a lack of control on my bike. I suspected it was too big. And I also couldn't do shoulder checks for cars (I could look right or left but couldn't even get close to looking behind me). And of course looking at this photo I know why. When you're hunched over and your shoulders are rolling forward, you lose your neck, and it's impossible to turn it! Of course I just cringed at the photo, Mary mentioned the mechanics of it all, which made perfect sense.

So next she checked my cleats and they were too far back on my shoe. One quick adjustment and hopefully I'll feel less numbness on that right foot (it was much further back than the left). Next we checked saddle height - too low, too much of an angle on the knee, so it got raised 1.5 cm. Naturally, that brings me even further from those handlebars. Seat position? Perfect. We did one thing right. Now that the legs were angled correctly it was time to work on those handlebars.

My handlebars were tilted up in the picture above, because otherwise it was far too much of a reach for me. Mary looked at my bent wrists and asked about shoulder and hand pain. Not much but a little, but it was the only way I could ride. Not that I was being defensive! So more measurements, and she popped out the stem and replaced it with an adjustable one. I was reaching 4 cm too far. Doesn't sound like much, but what a difference on a 6.5 cm (mine was 9.5). She then moved my shifters closer to me by 1 cm and adjusted the handlebar angle (my wrists should be in line, like shaking hands with someone). So tilted down we went :). This is the after picture.

Steve and KT didn't notice a difference but I sure do. My back is much flatter, my knees less bent (more power!), the angle from my back to my arms is now 90 degrees, my shoulders are further back, I have a neck, and lastly, my hands are shaking those handlebars! On the trainer I'm even able to look over my shoulder. So we called the bike shop near my house that knew how to interpret her graph of the correct length and placement of my new stem, they had one in stock, so off I went! Because I needed to get back to work, I didn't pick up my bike until yesterday morning. He looks so much smaller! I can't wait to try him out, but first, the weather needs to get a tad more seasonal. It was - 16C/3F yesterday with ice everywhere from the flash-frozen melted snow. I'll report in after the first ride, to see if I notice a difference.

In other training, yesterday I opted for a strength training day, after 3 days of running. I also woke up to really sore and ringing ears from the wind, and a non-stop runny nose. :( This time I pushed it a little harder, did more core on the ball, and my upper ab area, incision-land, was sore when I went to bed. I need to toughen it up!

This morning my sinuses are still cranky, throat is sore, tummy is off, ears still ringing, and nose is still runny. I'll keep fighting with soup and lots of OJ and garlic (not together). Steve has been sleeping away from me the last couple of nights ;) It's supposed to warm up to 5C, so we're going to take the mountain bikes out after work.

I had my bike fit this morning! But that will be in another post when I get the pictures.

The day started with pouring rain and the front walk and laneway were skating rinks. Then suddenly at 4pm we hit 13 degrees Celcius / 54F! So as soon as I could escape from work, I chipped half of the ice out front (a good 6 inches thick) and basked in the sunlight. I'm going to have one sore upper body tomorrow!

Steve got home and we quickly changed to go for a run back at the Experimental Farm. The sky got a little dark and the wind was picking up. The temperature was dropping while we were in the car and by the time we set out, the wind was insane! Because of all the snow the wind was very very cold, and my ears were aching. I never thought to wear a toque, I mean come on, it was 13 degrees!! Boy did I regret it. My goal was 5k, I cut it short to 4k so that I could get back in the car and warm up my ears. Several times I was worried that I was going to get hit with flying debris. It was the worst wind I've ever run in. I expected to see cows fly by.

Oh yeah, it's supposed to snow again tonight but we're nearing the end. We had a brief glimpse of spring today!

Tomorrow's a meeting intensive day, plus I have to pick up my bike first thing, and then head to the long awaited appt with the cardiologist. Since I've run 3 days in a row I think I'll do strength training tomorrow, and bike on Thursday.

I'm finally warm now (it generally takes me a few hours) so going to clean up the kitchen.