Fun at the beach

Was I sunbathing? No! Playing volleyball, playing fetch with the dog, having a picnic? No!

I was with the other 10 people crazy enough to get an open water swim in a 60 degrees (or less?) water, and 64 degrees air near the waterfront, at 10 am on a Saturday morning.

And I had fun :) The water was so clear that I could see the bottom almost everywhere we swam. Not that it's so cute down there...Lake water...you know...Clear usually also mean cold, and it was! Yet another ice cream headache for the first two minutes of swimming. After the first minutes, I could enjoy how good it feels to be out there.

I was not really fast today. It must be because I haven't been doing a lot of stuff this week...Just a swim and two sessions of Yoga. It's recovery week, and I think it was welcome. I felt like I had no gas left. But I might have slacked a bit too much, because restarting the engine was kinda hard today.

But the motivation is there, and I can't wait for the long bike ride tomorrow or on Monday. We usually do it on Sundays, but it's a long week end. Hurray for Canada Day! So it pretty much depends on my husband.

By the way, he is doing very good in his training, I'm so proud! He's been improving his swimming a lot, and we're getting closer to the same speed in our HR zones, so soon we might be able to ride together. It always improves faster when you're just starting. We'll see if he can catch me :) (I'm sure he will)

I'll blame it on caffeine...

Caffeine Crash!?!
I didn't swim yesterday. Didn't do yoga, and I still have to kick my behind to at least get my ride in today.
My body is out of sync. My joints are great, even my fingers feel normal lately! But my energy level is down. I'm blaming caffeine.

About two weeks ago, I decided I wanted to get rid of my caffeine addiction. I used to have a big cup (more like 2 cups) of coffee every single day. I know it's not that bad, but as soon as I would spend a day not having coffee, I'd get a crazy strong, handicapping headache, that would go away if I would drink coffee. So I decided I didn't want to depend on my daily coffee to function normally. I tried a couple of days without coffee. Ouch! It really hurts and doesn't stop. I guess I wasn't patient enough with it...

So I decided I would try to drink green tea. It has much less caffeine, compared to coffee (15mg compared to 135mg), but that's depending on how strong you make your tea/coffee. So I suppose I've been making it too strong, because after 1 week of green tea, I still have a headache if I don't drink green tea. Yesterday, I had no caffeine intake. And I was not functional.

I've been doing research and found that bit of information, according to Wiki:
"Withdrawal symptoms—possibly including headache, irritability, an inability to concentrate, and stomach aches—may appear within 12 to 24 hours after discontinuation of caffeine intake, peak at roughly 48 hours, and usually last from one to five days...may cause feelings of fatigue and drowsiness... A reduction in serotonin levels when caffeine use is stopped can cause anxiety, irritability, inability to concentrate and diminished motivation to initiate or to complete daily tasks..."

Yep, except for the anxiety and stomach aches, it sounds like me right now :(

I just have to be patient and wait until the effects go away. It shouldn't take too long. Wiki also confirms that a small dose of caffeine should ease the withdrawal, so I'm going to reduce dramatically the strength of my green tea!

I was able to quit smoking, cold turkey, 6 years ago, so I'm sure I can get rid of my caffeine addiction as well! I love coffee, but at least I'm going to be able to enjoy it on my own terms, instead of needing it!

First Open Water Swim

I did it. Lake Ontario, 60 degrees. It IS cold! Even with a wetsuit. Especially the first couple of minutes in the water. Filling the wetsuit with water was a shocking experience.

After waiting for the water to warm up in my wetsuit, I started to get used to the cold on my hands and feet. Then another shock. My face! Arg. For two minutes I get an ice cream headache. Probably my brain trying to tell me this is not such a good idea. But I ignored it and pushed to get to that first buoy.

Once I started swimming, I forgot about the cold. All that was in my mind is the openness, the fresh air, the smell of the water. Anything else than chlorine is good! And my goal, different from usual, getting to a buoy, swimming straight. How wonderful it is not to look at a line at the bottom of a pool, feeling the waves and trying to be in sync with nature. This is how swimming was meant to be.

It might sound weird, but my first experience with open water swimming was far from being scary. Just a bit cold. So I did only about 1100m, which I think is acceptable for a first time, and in 60 degrees water. I really enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to the next group swims, I'm actually thinking about going twice a week, when my initial plan was once a week in the lake and twice in the pool.

I have to say this boosts my swimming motivation, which was extremely down lately...

My First Clipless Ride

I said I would come back to that short and not so sweet ride. So here it is.

It was about a month ago, when I decided that it was about time to take my tri bike out for a first ride. Let's see. First ride on something that is not a mtb, first ride with clipless pedals. Mmmm calls for some scratches and a bit of pain.

So, that day, I figured, because it was an easy ride in Zone 1 that it was the perfect time for a non-stressful ride. HeHe (sarcastic)


I thought that slow was equal to low heart rate. Errr no. Stress = high heart rate. So my low intensity training was gone. Oh well, at least I'm learning to use the clipless pedals! Everything was perfectly fine, I was able to unclip/clip properly, until I arrived at a cul-de-sac.

I stop and put one foot on the ground by unclipping successfully. Hurray!
I start to pedal again, with one pedal clipped in, only to realize that I forgot to set my bike to a lower gear. Oh No!
My leg cannot rotate with enough strength, I need my other leg. Quickly. Arggg!
I cannot clip my second leg. Cr*p!
I have to stop and put my unclipped foot on the ground. I said my unclipped foot!
I'm leaning on the wrong side! Nooooo!
I wipe out at 1 km/h. Even if I had one foot unclipped. Great! First reaction: Get back up as quickly as possible, and make sure nobody saw me. Second reaction: Go back home as quickly as possible, before it happens again, avoiding humiliation in front of high school students heading out home.

Oh well, I bet I'll be careful about leaning on the right side the next time! I hope at least you've had a good laugh on that one! :) I am still laughing about it myself!

Lazy Swim

Yesterday I had a 2500m swimming workout scheduled. Usually, I would go in the morning, right after yoga. But I had a tight schedule and I decided to wait for my husband, who had a scheduled 1 hour swimming when he comes back from work.

We hit the pool around 7:00 pm. I knew before touching the water that it would be hard. Not hard physically, but mentally. I just couldn't push myself to go harder. And I couldn't keep a proper form. It's the first time I felt so lazy in the water. I had to call it a day, and jump back in the whirlpool...It would have been useless to just continue swimming lazily without an acceptable stroke form. So, that was it.

A 300m warmup, 200m fist drill, 200m look forward drill, 300m straight. A loooong 29 minutes 15 seconds 1000m, for a terrible pace of 2:55/100m. Ok, it was mostly drills and warmup, but still, it doesn't look good!

Oh well, at least I did my modified (to give my finger a break) strength training, including legs and core, and also yoga.

Today I have a short bike ride schedule, I should go very soon. I promised I wouldn't go outside with my bike until Sunday, to make sure my right index finger is not too stressed by impacts. So it's indoor training for now.

Talking about my finger...it's a bit better, but it starts to feel like an inflamed tendon, a problem I've had before and where I had to have a cortisone injection right in there (ouch). This is arthritis related, and I guess it's part of the stuff I have to expect from time to time...

At least my morale is good, and we are planning a mtb ride to Albion hills on Sunday (pray for a nice weather!!), where I will be able to try my wetsuit in the lake! Can't wait!

Rest Day

Last week was great! I followed most of my training schedule, except for my 2nd strength training session. Not that I didn't want to, but that nerve in my hand was pretty bad after my bike ride on Friday so I decided to let it recover.

For the first time since a couple of months I did all my planned swimming workouts! After my 5000m charity swim, I lost some interest in the pool (by lack of goals, or by boredom...probably a bit of both). But since I got my wet suit, it gave me some sort of boost to be consistent with the swimming part of my training. Being consistent with biking is not so hard, as I'm really enjoying it (especially outside!). New straight-swimming pace: 2:03/100m for a 2500m swim. I can't wait to go under 2:00/100m.

Yesterday was the long bike ride, and it was the nicest long ride ever for me. The Becel Ride for Heart is a charity bike ride (my husband and myself chose the 50km route). They close down the highway in Toronto, and it's all bikes! Great landscape, no cars around, lots of people (around 10,000 every year) and an acceptable weather!

It was also my first time doing a mass start on the bike. It wasn't so bad, surely because people were rather relax...it's a ride, not a race! There were just a couple of road racers who were cutting in way too close, flying at high speed through the mob within 1 foot or so from other bikers. This was not really nice and rather frustrating...

Anyway, including yoga, bike, strength and swimming, it's a total of 8 hours and 40 minutes of training for the past week. And that was a recovery week.

Next week: 9 hours and 45 minutes planned. But, I don't think I'll do strength training, as my nerve in my right hand isn't back to normal. I'm starting to think I might need to have it checked...It's not numb anymore, but when I move in certain ways or apply pressure on certain spots, I can feel jolts of electricity in my index finger. It's not painful, but really annoying.

At least riding my mountain bike doesn't affect it, so that's my mountain bike I took for the ride yesterday. Even with my hand being OK, I don't think I would have taken my tri bike. I'm certainly not ready for a mob ride with clipless pedals! He He

Numb, Numb and Still Numb

I've had my bike for over 6 months now, but I haven't ridden it much outside yet. There was winter, and I did a lot of indoor training, but come spring, I took my mtb out for rides instead of my tri bike, the main reason is that my seat was very uncomfortable. So now I got a new saddle (Fizik) which I love very much, and there's no more reason not to go out with that bike.

I guess I'm a chicken , I just started using the clipless pedals and that was very scary for me at first. It took me a lot of kicks in the butt to get out there with my tri bike. I love biking, but I'm far from being comfortable, compared to my mtb.

In fact, today was my second time only. Clipless was fine, didn't have a problem and I can really appreciate how useful they are. I didn't talk about my first ride with clipless yet, but that story will be coming soon.

Of course I'm not very confident, and I suppose it's going to take a while. But the main problem is that after only a couple of minutes, my right index finger became numb, especially the tip, and it made me even less confident about controlling my bike. I suppose aero position would be more comfortable, but don't get me started on this one, I'm far from that point right now! So after a 25 minutes ride only, I came back home.

My finger is still a bit numb now, 2 hours after my ride, and I was wondering what might cause that. If it was my bike fit (and I got a bike fit at my LBS), than I thought I would have felt something in both hands if my weight was too much forward (which I found out is wrong)...I also wear biking gloves with a very good padding.

So I discussed on the Trifuel forum about my problems, and here's the feedback I got.

Problem #1: There might be too much weight on my hands, caused by either my seat angle pointing downwards, or by my handlebars being too low. This could be compressing some nerve.

Problem #2: My grip is too tight. But without confidence, I don't see very much how I can loosen up a bit. Hey, I'm just holding on for dear life here! :p No but seriously, I think I'm a bit too stressed, but you can't blame me, it's a lot of new things at the same time for me!

So, I'll have to experiment a bit I suppose, but I also don't want to damage any nerve. I'm hoping that numbness goes away quickly! I think it's getting better...or am I just getting used to it?

The Wetsuit Challenge

Last weekend I got my first wetsuit!

I should be excited about it, but in reality I'm not that thrilled. Don't get me wrong, I can't wait to swim in the lake, to feel the openness and the waves. As opposed to most people, open water swimming is very attracting to me. It's a synonym of liberty and fighting the elements.

Much more appealing than the line at the bottom of the pool, which I've gotten really bored of lately.

I hear you: What's the problem?

Short explanation: Arthritis

Longer explanation:
I've had a really hard time to try on the different wetsuits. In fact, I couldn't put them on, I had to ask my husband to pull them up. My fingers wouldn't cooperate.
These dawn fingers!! This is the one thing that has been annoying me the most lately. I suppose I shouldn't complain, because I used to be much worse than that, and now in comparison, I'm doing so good! But the reality is that once you get better, it's not enough. You want more, you want it to be perfect. At least that's how I feel.

See, the thing is, with bad knees, or ankles, it's possible to compensate by improving the muscles around and make these muscles bear the weight and absorb the impact to lower the stress on the joints. How do you do that for fingers?? I have yet to find a method/exercise/stretching that will help to improve these. So that means my fingers aren't in sync with the rest of my body. They're weak, and painful.

I'm trying to be positive and remind myself that I was sweating a lot, and that it just got stuck on my body, that most people probably have as much difficulty to put them on at first, that I will get used to it and will find effective and painless methods. But part of me believes that I will always need my husband to help me put it on! Not that I don't like my husband's presence and help, but I like not to depend on anybody.

I'm hoping that the first open water swim will just erase that negative part of the wetsuit. I will find out soon, as the group open water swimming in Ontario lake starts on June 13. Hopefully, I will have a chance to try it before that, it would be a shame to just let it sit in the closet for another 2 weeks! :)

Elliptical Tentative

As I said in my previous post, my husband started triathlon training about 3 weeks ago. Because he was running on the treadmill at the gym, and I was feeling particularly great and wanted to spend more time with him, I decided to follow him in his debut of running, by using the elliptical machine.

I figured that the reason I can't run is because of the impact it has on my joints (ankles and knees), therefore the elliptical should be good for me! The first couple of shots were great, as I was going for about 15-20 minutes at a generally slow pace. I felt the new range of muscles working, and of course I liked it!

Then the first disappointment came.

When I started to go over 30 minutes, the ball of my foot was starting to be painful, and if I continued, it would evolve in a throbbing pain where my toes would become numb. So I did some research to find out what I could do about it. I got inserts for my shoes and tried them the next day. I saw the difference in my left foot. But for my right foot, nothing improved. The pain disappears after the workouts, but on the mornings, I generally felt like I had been hit by a car during the night. This is typical of arthritis flares, and is something I didn't experience so much lately, due to a very good medication and a good level of fitness. That told me it was enough.

There are a couple of problems I see, some I could do something about it others I can't do anything.

First, my shoes are totally inappropriate for running, which I just found out. I know elliptical is not exactly like running, but the movement is very similar, and with my sensitive foot, I need a rocking shoe.

Second, my feet are so different, that insoles are no good to solve the problem on both feet at the same time, I would need orthotics (read more $$$). If you want an idea about how different they are, my left foot is about 3/4 inch shorter, and with a pronounced arch, and claw toes, thanks to arthritis! My right foot looks totally normal, with a normal to low arch.

Third, one of the first joints that got diagnosed with arthritis when I was 5 years old, were the metatarsal joints (ball of the foot joints). There's nothing I can do about that one. There might be permanent damage in these.

For these reasons, I decided to give up the elliptical until I can talk about it to my Rhumatologist (arthritis specialist) in July.

The good news is that I was able to continue with my training, and I started to do yoga regularly again, as it helps a lot with my joints.

Oh well, another learning experience! I'm getting to know my body's limits better!

Hubby is in!

I have been working out more regularly in the past 6 weeks. I decided to incorporate a strength training program in my routine, following Crucible Fitness's Triathlon strength training plan.

I've been doing just fine, even enjoying the strength training. The only problem I have with strength training, is that my arthritic fingers don't enjoy it so much. I found out it is worse with free weights, so I'm trying to keep the exercises to the machines as much as possible. It seems to help tremendously.

Then, 3 weeks ago, my husband decided that he started triathlon training! Wow! I was so glad, plus, I didn't even try to get him to do it!

He said that the main reason he started is because he wants me to be able to participate in local triathlon and not get a DNF. How sweet!!! There are no Aquabiking competitions in the Greater Toronto Area. The closest is about 400 km away from here. For me, that means traveling for each competition, or register for a full triathlon here and DNF.

My husband's solution: Relay! I do the swimming and biking portion and he does the running. Wait a minute, why is he training for the whole thing? Well, hopefully the triathlon series here will include Aquabike to their competition sometime soon, and I'll be able to compete by myself. At that point, my husband might be interested in doing the whole thing, or not. We'll find out. But he seems to really enjoy it, which is great because I can talk about my biking and swimming stories and worry less about annoying him.

So it looks like we might register for a sprint this summer, for the Toronto Islands Triathlon. We'll see, I don't want to push him too much, he's just starting running, and I want him to feel comfortable. And to say that last year he was a smoker!!! I'm so proud of him!

In fact, he's the reason why we started biking last year, and that escalated into Aquabiking for me. He decided to buy bikes after he quit smoking, as a reward for his decision (yes, I got rewarded even though all I had to do was endure his bad temper for a couple of weeks. My husband is spoiling me a lot. No complains here!) After that I started swimming again, and heard about aquabike competitions. Since then, there has been ups and down, but my motivation is still there, and I'm really hoping for a first competition this summer.

I think the biggest problem is money! God it's expensive! There's always something missing, or nice to have. And now we're two. But hey, there are other hobbies that are expensive too, and it occupies most of our time, it's a healthy lifestyle, and it's very satisfying. So why not?