Almost at the finish….

Today marked my 23rd radiation treatment and this is my last full week! The time has really gone by quickly and I am ready to be “done with it.” I will go three days the following week and “double-up” one day since I will be traveling on Thursday of that week. My symptoms (fatigue, breast soreness and rash) are very minor—every day I see other patients who are dealing with way more than me, I am the lucky one.
The fatigue is different than any other “tired” I have felt—I just get really worn out and nothing I do or don’t do makes it go away. I think that pushing through the fatigue with some of my recent workouts will really help me mentally during long races. I have been keeping up with my training and I am sure to take one or two complete days off each week or just go for a short easy swim. This is my last big build week to St. Croix. Next week I travel again and will only be able to run while I am gone and then it is off to SC on May 3rd. One of my Tri for Hospice Teammates, Becky, and I rode to Hanging Rock and back on April 7th (60 miles RT). It is a very hilly route and the climb up Hanging Rock is really tough—I made the climb and it was a real confidence booster for the upcoming half ironman in St. Croix. We will head there again this weekend and add one more climb up Saurtown Mt. (another tough one) and then do a short run off the bike.
I am 14 weeks into my cancer diagnosis, two weeks away from finishing radiation, three weeks out of St. Croix and 16 weeks out of the IM... I am 10 pounds lighter, a little rashy and tired, but fortunate that this is the “worst of it.”

Workout of the week:
30-30’s
This is a great “bang for your buck” workout, especially if you are short on time. Do this workout one time per week during the build period and build to 20 repetitions. I prefer to complete it on a trainer—you can focus more on the efforts and not have to worry about road hazards
Warm-up well and then do 10 to 20 x 30 seconds at 90% effort (9 on 1-10 RPE scale) with 30-second spin recoveries. Cool down easily and stretch.
This is a workout that I have used successfully in the past, but not so much now as too many anaerobic efforts zap me….
Get out there and get after it!
Karen