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

11 down....

I just had my 11th radiation treatment today. I go every day, five days a week at 8:50. It is about a 30 minute door-to-door trip so I try to tie it in with workouts and or errands. 3 days per week I leave a bit early and hit the pool for 30 to 45 minutes, 2 days per week I head to another pool that has a deep end and water run and then lift. Tuesday’s I have a set ride with two of my Tri for Hospice Teammates, Becky and Dina. They are nice enough to meet me at the Battleground Park around 9:30, right after my appointment and we head out for a 2 hour hilly ride.
Getting my workouts in early has been key, as I have been feeling a bit more fatigued each day. This Monday it really hit me and I just took the entire day off—no pep, no motivation, just blahhhh. This is really hard for me to handle as I am a “doer” and just “resting” is definitely not my style. But, the coach in me says, “Listen to your body” and I am doing my best to practice what I preach to my athletes. I have also found with my training these past couple of weeks that anaerobic efforts really toast me—so, I am trying to stay very aerobic (building a solid base for the IM). With St. Croix on the horizon, my hill strength is not where it needs to be, so I am trying to settle into a comfortably hard pace and spin up the hills as best as possible. If my heart rate goes to high, it generally settles down quickly after the climb—a good sign.
This afternoon will be my first “key” brick, a 1.5 hour ride followed by a 45 minute run… I have completed some short runs off the bike all winter, but this will be the longest and a real test of where my fitness is. I am 7 weeks out of St. Croix and 19 weeks out of the IM—time is flying by….
The nurses, technicians, aids and doctors at the Cancer Center are all really nice and upbeat. I generally see the same people who treat me each day as well as other patients coming in for treatments. It is a very sobering feeling to walk into the main waiting room and see so many people, from all walks of life in various stages of fighting cancer. Often, I feel like I do not fit in, as I do not look sick. As I have learned from Ironman racing, “just when you are feeling really bad during a race and start to feel sorry for yourself, you just need to look around because there is always someone else out there who is feeling worse than you or dealing with bigger issues….” This is how I feel when I go for my treatments—I am sad, frustrated and sometimes angry that I have to deal with this, but it goes away quickly when I see all of the other patients who are much sicker and dealing with much bigger issues than me. That is the point when I tell myself that I am the lucky one—mine got caught early…..
So about 19 more treatments to go—I will finish about 2 weeks before St. Croix. I will continue to train as much as my body allows and enjoy whatever happens in St. Croix. I am a lucky one—I am strong and healthy; my cancer was caught early; I have great doctors, wonderful family support, terrific friends and training partners. I will get over this “bump in the road.”
Train Smart,
Karen

Workout of the week:
One-Legged Drills on the Trainer:
Warm-up for 10-15 minutes of easy spinning
Then complete 30 seconds right leg (unclip your non-working leg), 30 seconds left leg, 30 seconds both legs focusing on proper form at a comfortable cadence (Aim to build the interval to one-minute as your form and fitness improves).
Repeat 3 times through.
5 minutes of easy spinning and repeat the sequence.
Cool-down for 10-15 minutes of easy spinning.
Total Time: Approximately 44 minutes

And I said that I would never get….

A tattoo and now I have three—well three tattoo dots…. These are markers for radiation, which I start this Thursday.
I am four weeks out of surgery—the recovery has gone much slower than I expected and I think that it is due to the two surgeries in one day and the loss of blood. I have found myself much more tired than usual (the doc said I am anemic) and am wiped out after workouts. From this I have learned that I need to get my workouts done early in the day. If I wait too long, I am just too tired and very unmotivated. Last week was a solid week with three swims, two long bikes (2.5 and 3.0 hours), three runs (with the “long” run at an hour) and a couple of strength sessions.
I am 8 weeks out of St. Croix and 21 weeks out of the IM…. I am focusing now on building back my base and building back some strength. I have lost about 5 pounds over the past month or so—good for running, but not so good on the bike as I am very “weak” on the hills. I rode last week with a group of five guys and just could not hold on---very frustrating as I am not used to having people wait for me (they were nice and did). I keep telling myself what I would tell my athletes, “be patient, it takes time and you will get your fitness back.”
So, I am plugging along, slowly increasing frequency and duration each week—I will keep St. Croix in perspective, looking at it as a workout, not a race and just enjoy being out there. I have two clients attending and it will be good to be there to support them. Spring is here in NC and my kids are home for spring break—life is good!
Enjoy,
Karen

Back on Track….

Last Thursday marked a week following my surgery (s) and it was a week of good news—my pathology came back with solid margins, so no more surgeries and I should be able to begin radiation treatments in 2 more weeks. I see the radiation oncologist this Thursday and my surgeon on Friday. Another piece of good news came from my mom who found out her cancer had not spread. However, due to the aggressiveness of her form of breast cancer (inflammatory) and the advanced stage (it did spread to her lymph nodes) she must undergo chemo and radiation.
So it feels good to be back on track. I cycled three days last week, water ran two times (tried to swim each time, but there is still swelling, so it was pretty uncomfortable) and walked the dogs every day. It looks like the weather will be really nice here this week, so I will hit the bike as much as I can, keep trying to swim and will give land running a go soon.
24 weeks out of IM NYC….
My workout of the week was a Deep Water Run:
In the deep end with a belt easy run for 10 minutes.
Then 1 minute straight leg kicking hard (be sure that your toes are pointed and that you "feel" the water on the front and back of your legs) and 1 minute easy and repeat this pattern 5 times through for a total of 10 minutes.
Then easy run for 10 minutes.
Total time 30 minutes

Not in the plan….

Well, Thursday rolled around quickly and I headed to the Breast Center for an 8:45 appointment. I only got in a couple of workouts that week—just did not have much energy. I was going to run before I headed in but I did not want to get any more dehydrated as I was thirsty enough from not drinking or eating anything since the night before. So a long walk with the dogs was my exercise for the day.
At the Breast Center they had to insert two wires into my breast to mark the two cancer spots for the surgeon—I will never complain about the discomfort associated with a mammogram again! With my breast in the mammography machine, I was numbed, 2 large gauge needles inserted, then the wires were thread through the needles, needles removed and pictures were taken at every step. I was wrapped up with two wires coming out of my breast and sent over to the day surgery hospital.
I was prepped and ready to go at 11:00 for what the doc said would be an hour or so surgery. He said that I could shower the next day, return to normal daily activity on Saturday, swim in a week and run in two—no impact for a while for the jostling could cause a hematoma to form in the breast and that could be a problem. So, did not sound too bad—I was already planning my trainer ride for Saturday and a swim and water run for a week from Friday. I awoke in the recovery room a bit groggy but feeling okay—I guess pain killers are a good thing. I was adorned with really cute tube top and sexy boxers—got to love the swag from surgery. The nurse said that all went well and that I would be discharged in a bit. All going as planned so far….
I got home around 4:00 and assumed my position on the couch. My friends Donna and Kristen brought dinner over—not so much for me, but for my husband, Terry. I am the cook in the family and they were afraid that he would turn to cereal or gasp, take-out; so, liquids for me and real food for him. My friends asked if I were in pain and I said “that a hot poker in the eye is painful, this is just more discomfort.” I have a pretty high tolerance for pain—guess this comes from having gone through child birth two times and completing nine Ironman races. Around 6:00 I felt a bit of a twinge in my breast and it started to swell and swell and swell. It did not seem like normal post surgery edema and it started becoming really uncomfortable.
I called the doc on call and he said that it sounded like I developed a hematoma and that I could come in to the ER and he could take a look or I could try to tough it out and come in to the office in the morning. Thank goodness I did not run too soon—no one mentioned reaching for a glass of water could cause a hematoma!!!! Not wanting to spend the night in the ER, I decided to try to “tough it out” for the night. He said to double up on the pain pills, so I tried that. He called me back around 8:00 and with my pain level (pills did not touch it) he suggested that I come right in—he would call ahead so I would not have to wait too long. So off we went to the ER.
They checked me in pretty quickly, gave me something for my nausea and finally for the pain. The doc took one look at my quadruple D and said he was rolling me into surgery. Ah two surgeries in one day—that was not in the brochure…..
So another hour in surgery, another wake-up in the recovery room and another nurse saying all went well. Still not in much pain—this time they were dosing me with morphine, but my throat was pretty sore from breathing tubes x 2. I arrived in my room around 1:00 AM and after a restless night, the doc came in around 8:00 AM and said that he removed a small grapefruit sized hematoma but could not find what caused the bleed—how could that fit in there?! My first surgeon also came in to check on me and said that I should take iron for a couple months after losing “so much blood.”--wonderful…. My husband broke me out around 3:00 PM on Friday after they weaned me from liquid pain killers to pills. I resumed my position on the couch and started “recovering” one more time.
I am not a big TV watcher and I have seen enough in the last several days to last a long time—thank goodness there were some college basketball games on this weekend and a Law and Order marathon. I finally had to turn the Food Channel off as I started seeing the same shows again. Today was a better day and I was expecting a call from the doc about the pathology of the tissue removed—I called him after lunch and no report yet. Hopefully he was aggressive and took large margins—I do not want to go in for round three, that definitely is not in the plan….
Make it a good day,
Karen

One down...

My surgery (lumpectomy) is scheduled for tomorrow AM and I will be glad to have this behind me. Last week my training was up and down, as is this week’s. My energy level is low---mental stress can really wipe you out….. I was under the weather this weekend and decided to take Saturday and Sunday completely off. I am feeling better this week, but have only gotten in one run. Walking the dogs seems to be my only certain activity each day—Merlin & Tanuki have become my “therapy dogs” and our walks are calming.

After the surgery, I am not allowed to run for a couple of weeks, so I plan to focus on my bike and overall strength. Once the incision heals, I can hit the pool and will deep water run, as well as swim. Yoga still remains on my list of to-dos. I missed it last week and hope to get a friend to meet me for a class at least once per week.
I am 26 weeks out of IM NYC and 12 weeks out of St. Croix….
Workout of the Week:
30 minute 200’s form work:
200 easy swim--50 kick (25 free, 25 breast)
200 drill done as 2 x 100 by 25s (right arm, left arm, catch-up, fast swim)--50 kick (25 free, 25 breast)
200 kick with fins (25 free, 25 fly)--50 kick (25 free, 25 breast)
200 scull with pull buoy done as 25 scull (front, mid, dog paddle), 25 pull--50 kick (25 free, 25 breast)
200 easy pull--50 kick (25 free, 25 breast)
**“Kick” is with a board, no fins and the rest interval between sets is 20 seconds.
For more on the drills and sculling, go to http://www.coachbuxton.com/Drills-FreestyleSwim.pdf and http://www.coachbuxton.com/Article-GetAFeelForTheWater.pdf
Train smart,
Karen

Good News!

The past two weeks have flown by with more visits to doctors and tests than I have ever had—surgeon, oncologist, gynecologist, genetic counselor and radiation oncologist……
I received good news on Friday from the genetic counselor—I am negative for the breast cancer gene! The was a huge layer of stress that was peeled away and now I can move forward with a lumpectomy and then 6 weeks of radiation. Hopefully I can get my surgery scheduled in the next week or so, as I will have to wait 3 weeks after that to begin the radiation treatments. I cannot run for a couple of weeks after the surgery, but can do low impact exercise—cycling and swimming—deep water running (once the area has healed). During the radiation I can continue to do my regular workouts as tolerated—fatigue will be the biggest side affect from the treatments….. I want to at least maintain my base as St. Croix is my first “A” race in early May.
Over the last two weeks I have hit my goal of cycling at least 2 times per week (either spin, trainer or outdoors), but have missed a run each week and missed one swim last week. This week is the last week of prep and my two goals are to go to yoga once this week and hit the pool three times. The weather will be nice and I should be able to get out on the bike a couple of days and will do my usual 3-4 runs and 1-2 strength sessions. This may all be a bust if I can get my surgery scheduled this week…..
With each blog entry I am going to include my favorite workout of the week. Last week I needed to be by my phone so I did my hill repeats on the treadmill.

Hour Treadmill Hill Workout:
30 minutes easy at .5% to 1.5% incline—slowly increase speed until you are in high zone 2. Then:

2 minutes @ 2%, 1 minute @ 1%--2 minutes @ 3%, 1 minute @ 1%--2 minutes @ 4%, 1 minute @ 1%--2 minutes @ 5%, 5 minutes @ 1%. Then:

Increase your speed .25 to .5 MPH every couple of minutes so that you negative split the final 10-15 minutes of the workout. After the hour slow the speed and walk for 5 to 10 minutes for your cool down.

Make it a great day!
Karen