Mmmmm.....Lemonade

I'm well aware of the old adage, "when life gives you lemons...make lemonade." Today, I finally rose to the challenge... My hip has still been bothering me, so I decided to go swimming instead of running. This may seem like a common sense solution. It certainly has been recommended to me by everyone who I've talked about my hip problem with -- doctors and non-doctors alike. But I don't like to swim. It gets BORING. And, it's WET. Duh. But I don't like the transition of getting into the pool or worse -- stepping out of it.

Today took special motivation. I had plans to show up at the Sherman Oaks public pool at 6:30 to meet my friend Kelley. Thankfully she was up to this crazy idea and knowing she would be showing up was the only thing that convinced me to follow through with the plan. I set out my suit and accessories last night so that I could sleep in till the last possible moment, and I set out to meet her.

My car's thermometer read 47 degrees. Did I mention that the pool is an outdoor pool? I knew it was supposed to be heated. But then again, the city is broke, so I wasn't sure just how hot or comfortable it would be. At least it was cheap and easy to get to. It's literally down the street, maybe a mile away. And with a library card, it only cost $2.

When we arrived, every lane was taken. Some swim team took up all of the lanes in the deep end of the pool, and we ended up with the generic short end of the pool, wedged between two lanes that didn't actually have a divider. So basically we created a new lane and likely pissed off two other swimmers. Oops. The pool, however, was AWESOME to get into. Especially because we had to shower before we left the locker room, and then we stepped into the 47 degree air. The pool, a warm 81 degrees, was like a heated blanket and hot cocoa on an snowy day. Perfect.

So with that, we began to swim. It wasn't so bad. I had recently replaced my old goggles and the new ones were tinted to block out the sun's glare. They also fit better than my last pair and didn't leak. I quickly realized that I will need to obtain a swim cap if I intend to enter the water in the future...my bangs kept falling into my mouth whenever I turned my head to breathe. Inhaling wet hair...lovely.

Leave it to Kelley to make the workout challenging and fun though. She suggested that we do some drills....time one lap. Then recover on the return lap. Then try to beat our previous time. Then recover. It was just like a hill repeat. Only lateral. I felt like there was suddenly a purpose to my swimming.

One of the nice surprises about the pool was all of the accessories that were included: kick-boards, whatever-that-thing-you-put-between-your-legs-so-you-only-swim-with-your-arms-but-you-don't-kick-is-called, and even the aqua jogger belt!!! We attempted the aqua jogger in the 4 foot deep water, and made it across the pool a few times. It felt very awkward. Were we doing it right? We had no idea. But it got my heart rate up and it felt like I was doing something. And it was fun, because with our heads above the water, we could talk. Like actual running. That felt nice.

Finally, the swim team cleared out and we got to move into the deep end. It became nearly impossible to propel ourselves forward with the aqua belt on, but we did it anyway, and really pumped our arms. My later YouTube research has led me to believe that we don't actually need to go forward when we're running in the deep end, but alas, it wasn't a bad thing. We mixed it up, used the kick boards and that other between-the-legs-thing, and finished our 50 or so minutes.

It wasn't a continuous workout -- I stopped after most laps. But it was probably the most fun I've had working out in the water. And my hip didn't hurt once throughout the entire time. And even better, when we finished, I felt like I had worked hard, but could keep going. And even more amazing...I actually wanted to.

The most difficult part of the morning -- even more so than getting out of bed -- was getting out of the warm pool into the cool air. I won't lie. It sucked. Big time. But I survived, and I'm looking forward to doing it again. Lemonade, anyone?

Yet Another Setback

I'm starting to get really frustrated. On Friday evening, my hip started twinging again, and when I woke on Saturday morning, the twinging had turned into pain. So once again, I chose to sit-out practice instead of pushing myself and causing additional injury. But I'm getting very concerned that maybe the physical therapy isn't really helping, and maybe the pain was mis-diagnosed. I'm frustrated and disappointed and ready to get to the bottom of this.

On the upside, once again, our practice was not rained out. So at least I wasn't sitting in the rain. And on the upside, while I sat and waited for the rest of the group, I watched everyone's stuff, did my stretching and strengthening exercises from the physical therapist, and hung out with friends. So all things considered, it could have been a lot worse.

I'm just mainly disappointed because I really felt good and ready to re-build my base again.

On the upside, I purchased a very cute bathing suit this weekend, so I can do my cardio at the pool. I haven't tried the public pool yet, but I understand that it's heated year-round, and pretty inexpensive. I plan to try it out sometime this week.

Proud Pain

I know of two types of pain -- the pain of injury and the pain of accomplishment. I've struggled with the former for several months now, as I've been trying to heal my hip pain. But at the moment, I'm indulging in the latter -- pain from my amazing strength training workout yesterday.

It's great. Whenever I lift my arms, I'm reminded of the many reps of combination lifts I performed. If I laugh or change positions in my seat, my abs send a quick reminder of the work I did on the balance ball. The high heels I put on this morning are a lovely reminder of my calf stengthening/balance exercises. And most exciting -- the lack of hip pain tells me I did a great job of stretching the muscles in my legs.

I suppose the pain might not be so great had I been consistently working out in this way. But I simply feel proud of what I'm capable of doing.

Kicking out the Lazy

I haven't figured out why I can manage to wake up for long runs on Saturdays but during the week I lose all motivation. That's probably why our team holds mid-week practices on Wednesdays and Thursdays -- I'm not the only one who needs a bit of help. But as I've been easing back into my training schedule, I've had an even more difficult time staying consistent with my strength training workouts.

So this morning, I had the help of an obnoxious phone call at five minutes to six to help wake me up and kick me out of bed. The call wasn't even for me, go figure. I got ready and went to Bridget's insanely cheerful gym. For an hour, she reminded me why I love training -- breaking my mental barriers and accomplishing empowering physical challenges. I left sore, but in that great way where you know you did something tough.

And I was energized and pumped to continue on track to get stronger, healthier and happier.

And then the clock reached 9:30 am, and I crashed.

So now my challenge going forward is to find ways to harness the good feelings I had during my training session and immediately afterwards, and hold onto them for as long as I can. I want to focus on that feeling when I start arguing with myself each morning whether or not I want to get out of bed and go for a run.

It's interesting. I know that some workouts have been better than others -- but there is not a single workout that I've ever actually regretted doing. I definitely can't say the same for the number of mornings I have skipped working out.

First steps ... a second time

On Saturday morning, I woke up 3 minutes before my alarm started wailing "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis and the News (you know, one of the most memorable ones from Back to the Future). I dragged myself out of bed and looked out the window at the black sky with wet pellets cascading down. In my morning daze, I managed to put on my training garb and dash from the front door to my car. Why I bothered to dash, I'm not sure. If the rain didn't stop, I was still going to be outside in it for the next few hours.

I drove to Balboa park and when I made the turn from Burbank onto Balboa and saw the cones that were being placed to close Burbank, it dawned on me that when it rains, the Sepulveda basin floods and they close not only the park, but also the steets leading to the park. Uh oh.

But as 6:30 rolled around, and my fabulous TNT leaders found street parking and met outside of the closed park, we caught a break. Literally. A break in the storm. And miraculously, this break lasted for the entire practice and post-practice pot-luck. We revised our training schedule to account for the weather (i.e., no timed mile on wet slippery ground and no strength training because nobody wanted to lay down on top of the puddles).

Practice was really amazing, all things considered. We warmed up for 6 minutes up and down Balboa, stretched as a group and one of our amazing and inspiring participants led us in our mission moment. She spoke to us about how she was inspired by her mother, who passed away from a blood cancer about ten years ago. 100 pounds lighter, our amazing participant (who has already met her fundraising goal even though it's only the third week), decided to join TNT and run a marathon and celebrate life. Despite being such an inspirational person with such an inspirational message, she was nervous to speak to the group. She read from an excerpt of a letter that she had written. I was moved twice -- once by her story but the second time, by the courage it took her to share it with us. And I thought about how public speaking is probably most people's greatest fear...but at least on Saturday morning, we were all listening to our participant speak publicly not to judge, to insult, or to compare ourselves to her, but to hear what she had to say and to be inspired on our run. That's a good thing to keep in mind next time I need to speak to a group. The group wants the speaker to succeed (usually :-)).

After our mission moment and our "go TEAM" we were off. Because the weather was still nice, we ran through the park from Balboa towards Woodley, 25 minutes out and back. Because I wanted to take things slowly, I ended up walking 99% of the route. But just moving for the sustained period outdoors was so refreshing and invigorating. I saw hawks, an egret, some mist atop of the lake, and even a rainbow. All of which I would have missed had I not dragged myself out of bed. I enjoyed the company of old friends and new, and was reminded of how life is infinitely more enjoyable when I force myself to rise early and challenge myself on Saturday mornings.


A few moments before I got back into my car, the sky opened up and the clouds dumped two hours worth of collected unspent rain. My hips felt stiff.

And I can't wait to do it all over again next week!