Extreme Crossfit and Four Days To 2015 Games

 We have moved four times in 5 days, no exaggeration necessary.  We thinned belongings and organized. We separated long term storage and short term storage, and set aside race necessities.  What could possibly go wrong?  For starters, a bank screwed up and postponed closing on our house 3 times.  This messes with Atlas Moving schedule, possible storage needs, and our closing on new house.  Anything else go awry?  Well, the apartment we need locally for now 4 months was not ready to move in when it was implied it would ready.  So, switch gears and find pet friendly hotel reservation for a few days, arrange change of plans for local  short term storage. Call out the friends and favors.  So yes, we packed and moved with Atlas, drove to College Station immediately to receive movers unload and our unpacking.  Move ourselves with help of wonderfully gracious friends into storage after separating out what we need in short term for ourselves and our very fearful and upset pets.  Into the hotel I move all I could cram in my car including kitties while Ben worked.  When we saw yet another delay on acquiring apartment keys, we decided to keep hotel room for one more day to ease the next phase.  Hotel manager on duty determined if we stayed we would have to move across hotel to another room, as ours was "promised and reserved" to another incoming guest.  OMG!  This place did not seem to be full.   We cannot fathom another move, doing the kitty grab and stuff into carriers, not one more time.  Irritated, we decide to get up in the am at 5, go borrow my friend Debra's truck again and do the next move fast ourselves before the late checkout time they gave us.   Leaving kitties hiding in room, we left before sunrise, and began our loading our stored furniture into the truck, up and down stairs the day we removed this batch from house.  In less than one hour, up and down the hall of the storage place, pushing carts, lifting, tugging, jumping up into truck and back down ramp, we learned first hand what Crossfit training must be like.  I am not sure how long the training sessions generally are, but we put in a good 5 hours of it before the day was done.  We drove to new apartment, and of course no one would open the door.  It was a little early, but they had told us the manager comes in at 7:30 since they left early day before and did not make our keys. We would be able to get our keys at 7:30, first thing they said.    NICE.  We went to Starbucks, had breakfast drove back.  Still not gonna let us in so we sat in the large lovely rocking chairs on the front porch of the building and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  OK now at this point I am not nice, so I send Ben in to collect our keys when they door unlocked at 8:30 and I rocked away.
The problem is, we had the clock ticking.  The truck was full, the car crammed,  ATT coming at 9am to install, had to be out of hotel,  Ben had to be to work by 11 am.  Kitties did not cooperate of course.  More Crossfit and Aerobic fun!
We got into security gate to front of apartment, and we unloaded truck in an hour and 1/2 piling stuff up outside door to conserve time.
Ben left me at apartment to haul our stuff from outside the door, into the apartment alone, while he drove the truck back to drop off, get his car and go collect kitties back at hotel.  Molly was by now entrenched under the hotel bed, and was not budging.  Ben thus had to totally disassemble the king size bed, grab  Molly, be scratched up his arms, and stuff her into the carrier.  Emily cooperated.  Ben's arms looks like he tried to do himself in unsuccessfully.  He brings them to apartment, drops them off, ATT arrives so he has to go back alone to clear our short term necessities into the car.  Races back to apartment soaking wet and speaking a foreign language of sorts, and heads in to take a shower and get to work only 30 minutes late......yep, no shower curtain.  We totally forgot.  I convince him baths are nice and showers overrated, when lathered up his face and neck with Dawn, splashed water on his face, dried off with paper towels and asked me where his clean scrubs were.  I don't know.  He can't find them anywhere.  Suddenly I recall starting a load of perceived "dirty laundry" and washer had just stopped.  I opened the washing machine and I see socks, underwear and blue scrubs.  I asked him if he thinks he may have put clean pair into laundry bag.......yep!  So he went to work and put on pair he kept there in case of blood splatter.  Wowsa!  Only an hour late.  For this of you who know him, he is never late, hates keeping patients waiting.  Just sort of adds to the whole moving experience.  He has a job he can't take time off to move.  So I lug and tug the rest of stuff inside, Norma brings me a fabulous salad from Navrovsky's, and I have to run out to the gate with my clicker to let her in, as no one gave me a code to use yet.  When Laura brought my frig contents I had stashed at her house, I had to make the trek to the gate with my umbrella this time, as in every life a little rain or a lot in this case, does fall.  We ordered take out Indian food at TAZ on the way to Target in search of the every necessary shower curtain, and planned on passing out.  In case you think this is every possible detail of our days, rest assured it is not.  We had many more bumps and potholes in the road that one day we will laugh about, and maybe share, but not now.  Unless you have moved that many times in that many days out of house into storage, into short term storage, out of short term, into hotel, out of hotel into apartment.....  you cannot appreciate the magnitude of our past week, with work and training to get in the way.  Oh, and last night I found on my door a notice that our apartment is due pest control treatment today.  I must have all my cabinets empty ( I just cleaned and put our stuff in them!) and all pets must be contained and or removed from premises while the "treatment" occurs Hahaha.  This could not have been done BEFORE we moved in?  No. No Way. Not gonna happen note is on my door and deadbolts are in place.  You can wait four months and then do it.  Our stuff is still everywhere and the kitties are not getting wrangled or going car cruising again today.  NOPE>  And 4 days to the biggest race of my life.

SO, I am calling the past week CROSSFIT.  We need to rest and get miles in and then rest again before race day.  It sounds mathematically impossible.  Today I ran slow 2 miles this morning, just to show my sore, tired muscles they still know how to.  I am going to rest.  Later this evening I am going to run 2 more slow miles with Ben after work.  Tomorrow we are going to both run 3 to 4 miles with a touch of speed work just to wake up the legs and lungs.  Saturday we rest, i.e. travel to Minneapolis, and check in to the Games and check out the race route, and  have a long slow run, just a tune up.  Sunday we rest.  Monday at 8 am the adrenaline will kick in and we will do the best we can do.  Thats what its all about.
I will post the events.

Focus and Staying Strong

Ben and I got emails from The  Texas National Senior Games inviting us to join them in the Parade of States, a newly reinstated tradition. Since we qualified in Louisiana, we had been waiting to receive notice which team we would be considered a part of.   We were told the attire was to be denim shirts.  Those who have participated previously will have the NSOG Texas Logo embroidered on them.  First timers will not.  This is all new to us.  Although we live in Texas, neither of us currently owns denim shirts.  Really.  I am not running out to buy them, as the parade happens on the evening of July 10.  With so much going on in our lives, we planned on being home the night of the 8th, unless by some miracle one of us places or medals.  Then the travel plans would be changed.  I assume the mall of America would have denim shirts if we end up needing them!

After  we close on two homes and a lot we also sold recently, packing up our belongings for storage and the attending a tax appraisal hearing in Houston,  Ben will also be  working a full week before moving into a local apartment.    Then we will head to Houston to fly out on July 4.  That gives us one day to scope out the course and acclimate before our race on the 6th.  When we tried for this Bucket List event, we did not know Ben would be changing job paths, our land would sell finally and need to be moving right before the games.  This is a test of mental and physical strength for us.   Running is so much mental as physical.  Commitment and goals are needed to get to your personal best.  The greatest challenge right now is the focus on what is necessary, which hurdles are necessary, and which ones you can run around instead of over.  I know what I want to do.  I know what I need to do.  I have a lot of family and friends supporting me to set my personal best at this upcoming event.  I am doing my best.

This is a crazy overloaded week.  Fitting in the training runs will take more mental focus than physical work.  Running helps me get my mind off things and relax.  When I am done, I feel accomplished and like I can take on anything.  Bring it on!

How The Bar(re) Jumpstarted My Speed Work

I run, I cycle, I walk, I row, at least 3 days a week.  So far since June 1st I have logged in more than 25 miles.  I have not tried to push myself or go all out yet, trying to safeguard against injury.  However, I still think altogether, I am pretty fit.  I am on target with pace, compared to how i trained for the NASA race at the Johnson Space Center this spring.  Why then does one Barre class kick my butt?  Cross training like this is difficult.  Misty uses some of the Tabata technique of doing difficult activity for short periods of time, with brief rest in between sets.  This is powerful.  If I am this tight and sore today, I waited too long to get back to the barre.  This class uses literally all your muscles.  I feel strain in my arms, rib area, abs, shoulders, not just quads.  Today I am working, but otherwise taking a rest day.  I don't attribute this to just the barre class although it was strenuous.

"Two a days.'.....are better known am and pm workouts for football teams.  Yesterday I in addition ran for 1/2 mile on a tread mill then another 2miles of speed work on the indoor track.   I did splits of 8.3 min per mile pace  and instead of walking for recovery periods, I ran at a 9.5min/mi pace.  I plan to rest and allow my muscles to recover today before adding on miles.  Next week will be 4 mi/day, build up to 5 at a decent pace.  I plan to rest the two days before the race, so that means my workout program will end July 3.  Then my preparation and adrenalin will be in charge.

A high school friend passed away recently, who has been one of my encouragers.  Walkin' William, Billy Karl had told me to keep on going.  He could walk but he could not run, and for me to give them hell!  I will do that Billy, I will do!

20 days and Counting....

A Tropical Storm is settling in on my outdoor track, so we are heading indoors to workout for this week it seems.    We had not planned on this glitch of weather either!

Today I started my run, and the track was filled with walkers and runners.  It was really good to see so many taking advantage of fresh air and motion.  Maybe the weather forecast helped encourage people to get there walking or running in before the downpours come.  It was 81 degrees and 90% humidity with a moderate wind.  All was going well with a goal of having a steady pace for a 5 mile run when my phone started ringing.  It was business, and several of them, that I needed to stop and take the calls although a bit breathless.  How do you then switch gears again, and return to running?  I needed to change my expectations to get a meaningful workout in with the race date coming up fast.  Instead of my plan of 5 miles today, I decided to speed up into speed work.  After catching my breath, taking care of the calls, I used the distraction as a recovery time of slow run, and then ran as hard as I could for a straightaway, following up with a slow run pace for recovery.  This allowed me to take the calls I needed, arrange the things related to our move timely and also get speed work in at the same time.  My speed segments averaged close to 8.3 min/mile.  This was not all out speed, just a chance to awaken the fast twitch muscle fibers, and prepare them for the tune up I have planned.  We are currently on track to move and be ready.  We will move into temporary digs, and then head to Minneapolis/St Paul.  This is also not ideal, but adversity is part of the challenge and life.  Adversity, tough times make us stronger.  Mental strength and core strength kick into play when the race begins.  So much of running is mind over matter, at least to get you started.  Beginning is always the toughest part.  I am so happy when someone comes up to me like today, to tell me they see me running, and find it motivational.  I feel better when I get my run in, first thing in the morning.  It just sets the pace of the day better!

My entries are getting fewer and less material, as the closer to my move and my biggest race ever approaches.  I will check in with brief updates and blog about the experiences as they happen in Minnesota.  Thanks for hanging in with me!

Know Your Strengths And Your Limits.

Yesterday was a rest day.  I still had lots to do as far as getting ready to move, so the rest again was from running, not from work altogether.   I have been tired lately, more so than usual.  I told him I felt like I had had a recovery set back.  I tried to process and do too much and my head started to feel like a shaken snow globe again, and foggy.  It is very upsetting to feel that way.  It hurts to think, literally, at some point.  I went to see my Doctor yesterday, and he told me that he thinks I found my limits.  When life gets too crazy, instead of trying to do everything that comes your way and juggle events like I did a few years back, he says I need to back off, take more down time, and delegate the rest to my husband.  People who see me think I look the same as always.  No one but Ben knows when I say it hurts to think, or I cannot process anymore, that I really really mean it.  If I take on too much, my head feels bad, it has a buzzing, shaken felling  inside and my ears roar too.   After a day or so of "too much"  I don't sleep at night well either.  It had a cumulative effect.  Stress is bad for me.   If I am going to feel well enough to race in a few weeks, I need to listen to his advice.  I need to plan the day out, keep to my routine which helps guard against over stimulation of the brain, and get the afternoon nap or rest in, and be in bed to sleep by 10 pm.  Its what has worked best to retrain my brain.  When I asked if this would too get better and go away completely one day, I was told, "lets look at the glass being half full.  You have had two severe brain injuries.  You are alive, when you could have easily not survived either time.  You know you are here; you know you have limitations and are aware of all that goes on around you.   Let's not worry about what does feel right and work to get back to where you feel the best again.  No going backward allowed.   If resting your brain, or zoning out as you call it makes you feel better, so what?!  Thats what you do.  If you say no, I can't handle that bit of business for you now, you will need to wait for my husband to be available, if no one listens and heeds that, don't give in.  Distance yourself from things that contribute to your brain being overwhelmed.  You are so lucky to be here.  You may continue to get to where you can adjust and handle stress and hectic schedules, but if you don't so what?  You need to avoid them and there's nothing wrong with that at all."

The reason I write about this is because many people who have not had  a traumatic brain injury or a a subarachnoid hemorrhage have other trials in life that can get them down or make them feel less than 100%.  We all strive to be our best, and on any given day our best may not be what it once was.  If we are still alive, aware of our surroundings, and other wise enjoying life, it should not  bring us down.  Tomorrow will be better I hope.  The lesson is to learn what is not good for us, and avoid if we can or modify if it cannot be avoided.  I do not want to go back to how I felt the first year of recovery, , and a few days of it got my attention.  If I don't return calls timely or seem to be flying or running under the radar, please don't take it personally.  I (or in fact others in you life) may be trying the best they can to stay sound and well.

My cross training for today was 40 minutes, level 8 on a stationary bike, 20 minutes level 7 on a stair master, 30 crunches, bicep curls, shoulder presses and then I stopped.  I weeded, swept up the storm mess - leaves and flowers around the patio, took the pool water to be tested, and did some house work.  i met some friends for lunch on my Wednesday Lunch Group where we can decompress a bit, and am now going to take a nap, before heading out to our quarterly accounting meeting late this afternoon.  If I feel brain tired, I am sending Ben and not going.  Thats what my doctor was telling me yesterday.  I listened.  I will miss him once we move.  He is a smart man, a good friend, and a great doctor.

Doing My Homework for Smart Training

Now that I have a copy of the race map, I am planning out how I will attack the course in advance.  Those runners who live close can actually now be out training on the exact course.  I do not have that advantage, so I am going to try to plan out how I will run in in my head.  For the mature runner, it is not advisable to push your speed on turns.  It magnifies the pressure on the aging joints.  This course has a lot of curves and sharp turns.  Familiarizing myself with those turns and the straightaways, I am currently of the mindset that I may be able to maximize my performance by planning my increased pace for the straight parts of the course in advance.  Of course on race day with adrenalin, and the highest level of competition I have ever encountered, the planning evaporate when the starting gun sounds.  But, since I am not an elite runner, and have not been running for more than a handful of years, at this point, I need to be smart and use strategy to help me plan and over come the race day jitters.

My guesstimate is that the elevation is about 100 feet less than the run around Cuba Lake, in about the same climate.  The graph looks to me like the race starts on higher ground, the first mile is a gradual down hill, with a slight rise at about mile 1.5, then declines to level before the climb to the finish line.  Because of the terrain I live in, I will need to start adding hill climbs on the tread mill to give myself a chance to be the best prepared I can be.  The New Orleans Qualifier had several climbs with one at end of race with a sudden downhill to the cross the finish line.  At that point, I understood why they chose the levees along the Mississippi for the race course!  Makes it a bit more taxing to say the least.  Today's a cross train day............ maybe I will run up and down stairs!

Motivation for Today......

Due to the hot steamy weather, it is necessary for us to get in our training runs early in the day or late.  We could run inside on a short track, or on a tread mill but that is not going to help as much on an outdoor road race.  Trying to get myself psyched up to hit the trail this morning, I went online to the National Senior Games website to send a question in regarding the Athlete Packets we are supposed to be receiving by mail and have not yet!  It is less than a month until we are boarding the plane for Minneapolis, and want to be sure we are all set to run.   When I logged into the site, this is what I found!

The elevation map is comforting!  Living here, our training is reasonably flat terrain.  I expect humidity, and hope for cooler early morning temps than we have here that time of year.  

What I did not anticipate, is on one page of the roster, I recognized names of at least 4 elite runners are unfortunately ones with birthdates falling into my bracket.  Two of them have existing National Record times!  That is discouraging for a few moments, but then, I am lacing up and getting out there.  I plan to do my best, and my best that day I hope will be a personal best time FOR ME, regardless of the type of competition I will be up against.  

This is but one page of entrants!  Its going to be a HUGE race by numbers.  Another boost for me is this will not only be the biggest competitive event for me to run in, but the biggest race by far in participants, and everyone who runs has met the timing criteria in qualifiers.  At this moment I feel slightly out of my league!  I best get out to the track before it gets much hotter today!  I have to try!