Scratch the Record

Last week E and I outed ourselves to everyone - we're knocked up. We've known since the day before we went on vacation back in August, but we've kept it to ourselves since we've had a few upsets in the past. We are officially four months along this week. It's a boy - I'm too old for surprises so I figured its better to find out now. Looks like the meaning behind the 'B' in my blog title is once again changing - Boston/Bikes/Bambinos....

On the one hand - the timing is convenient - most of it will occur outside of the mountain biking season and snowshoeing and cross country skiing are safe activities to do while pregnant, but it does put off attempting the Leadville race (at least for me) for another year. My professional career is now delayed....

I've also started researching this whole 'relaxin' thing on ligaments and praying some of it goes to my IT band so that I will automatically be cured to never worry again once I do give birth. I live in a rosey colored world.

We've begun the myriad of purchases - jogging stroller, bike trailer etc., we've got our priorities apparently. To say that I'm not scared out of my wits would be an understatement. I'm not all that good dealing with the unknown - pain threshold, terrible two's, that sort of thing, but I won't be the first person on the planet who is faced with all of this stuff, definitely won't be the last.

It's an interesting spot to be at our ages - first kid, first everything but I'd wager to say we'll do ok. For me the biggest challenge is surrendering my body to the process - letting nature take its course with weight gain and things spreading and growing and moving and, well you get the picture. There are days when its extremely difficult for me to breathe through it, and other days where I believe in myself enough that it will all be ok and I will bounce back from it quickly. Again its the unknown with which I'm dealing. At this point I've been very consistent with exercise and nutrition so things are going well.

This is a completely different chapter in our lives, one that we're excited for and scared of all at the same time, but its good to know we are going through it together, I can't imagine going through it with anyone else.

The First Snowshoe of the Season

Well after the 42 inches we got last week over two days - we headed out for our first snowshoe. If I were nifty I would have taken pictures but I have currently misplaced my camera. I forgot how heavy those things make your feet feel - but on the upside when you take them off you feel like you are walking on air. I felt my left IT band a little during both the uphill and downhill but nothing that would stop me from doing it.

This weekend we also stopped by the running store so they could analyze my gait with the orthotics and the neutral shoe. She said I wasn't pronating at all so I can mark that off of the reasons why I might still be having IT band pain. She was also a bit surprised when I told her the shoe I used to be running in, apparently they over corrected me or something. That's two people now who said I was in way too much shoe.

I've run a couple of times since my last post - still with the walk intervals - and still with pain towards the end of the mile jog interval. I'm going to just plug ahead and mix up biking with pilates with running in hopes that it never gets to the level of pain where it was initially.

I watched the NYC marathon this weekend - well the last three to five miles of both the mens and womens portion. I have to say its just amazing to watch people with that level of talent. I would have loved to see Radcliffe move to third and Hall move to third, but overall it was a great showing. Meb was very emotional and its great to see someone at that level still appreciate what they have just accomplished - its something that I need to keep in mind for myself....

A Mile In My Shoes

Wednesday I ran two miles - one mile sandwiched between half mile walk breaks. By the second mile I could feel my knee - for whatever reason nothing has really improved and I can't for the life of me figure out why. The walk breaks helped the nagging disappear, but I guess I just figured I wouldn't feel a thing. I plan on trying it one more time to see whether it was just the day but for some reason I think I already know the answer to that one. I'll keep trying....

My Bike

For the two lovely ladies who I miss 'chatting' with in the BQ forum - almost as much as I miss running - you asked for a picture of my bike. This is the mountain bike, a Yeti 575 - I loved the orange color and it was WAY too much bike for me when I started riding it - eventually it just became 'too much' bike for me. Someday I believe the bike and I will be evenly matched. The components on this bike aren't the same as mine - when I went to the Yeti website I discovered they are no longer doing the 575 in orange. My frame is a year old - maybe 2, but you get the idea.

Currently my road bike (a Scott) is collecting dust in the garage - although I will agree watching the Ironman (although I only got to see the end) does inspire you to try and do something crazy and completely outside yourself. (What about that second place woman? She was hauling tail on the marathon portion) If I can get up to 3 miles running I might just think about doing one some day.

In regards to running - I'm up to 3/4 of a mile in between half mile walk breaks - at a heartbreaking pace - its really still only a jog. If I can get a few days of that distance under my belt this week I might try and do a mile next week between walk breaks. It's a slippery slope.

The weather isn't making riding all that palpable at the moment so I've started spinning on my own with some audio tapes, so far its working pretty well although its not outside and its not on a trail, I'll take it until I can whip out the snowshoes or cross country skis. I do think if I'm ever able to run any sort of distance, that it won't be the one thing that I do - I think my hips just aren't able to keep any sort of strength if I am only running. Who knows - it might work to my advantage.

I Miss Running

I miss training, I miss looking at my huge laminated calendar on the wall and seeing what I have to do that day - I kept that calendar up for six months after my injury - I don't know why, I just did.

I've been wogging a few times - still only a half mile jog at a time sandwiched between walking spurts. It's depressing to feel that everything that was there before is still there, even after breaks and pilates and everything else. The idea of running 5k's isn't appealing to me, although I'd take three miles at this point. There is a part of me that is tempted to put away the orthotics and go out and buy a pair of shoes - any shoe - not a stability shoe, not a neutral shoe, just any shoe that appeals to me and attempt to run in them to see whether I've 'overfixed' whatever is broken. There's also a nagging thought in the back of my mind that is begging for a second or even third opinion, someone to tell me that everyone I've gone to has missed a key thing that could fix whatever it is that is broken. I miss running.

Catching Up

Well I seem to have gotten a bit sidetracked lately. I'm still here though.

We went on vacation in September - Park City and Crested Butte - rode six days with a total of 120 miles. I have pictures I'll post later. It was really fun, and tiring - 30+ mile days. I may be suffering from a bit of mountain bike burnout.

I've started 'wogging' - basically its running a 1/4 or a 1/2 of a mile in between walking spells. My thought was I could work up to a three mile threshhold and run 5ks but sadly my knees (both of them now interestingly enough) and my left hip are still there - just whispering "I know what you're doing, I know what you're trying to do, watch it!" I can't believe after Pilates and not running and yoga and staying on a bike that it's all still hanging around. I miss running, the long runs especially, it's still heartbreaking to think about.

We had our first (and second) snow, on the last day of summer, and the day after. Living at 8500 feet is always a bigger wake up call sooner than 5000 feet. I believe we got a total of five inches, and it looked and felt like Christmas. We're looking at a 70 degree weekend though, so obviously its not here to stay. Makes me think the snowshoes and cross country skis are going to come out sooner than I thought.

Plenty more is going on, but I don't have the imagination to make it interesting at the moment. Try me again later.

Leadville

This one is a little late coming – Lance beat Dave Wiens at the Leadville 100. Honestly no one probably finds that a surprise, but there was that piece of me that was just praying it would be a fight to the finish – and that didn’t even happen. Lance beat him by 28 minutes on a flat back tire. Here’s a picture of him coming to the finish. If you look really closely at the right side of the photo you can see his head coming into the frame:

I was really rooting for the local guy – call me a traditionalist, it would have been his seventh win – like Lance’s seven wins, I have to believe that didn’t go unnoticed by Lance, but perhaps it did.

While I appreciate Lance as an athlete – there will forever be a doubt as to whether he truly is clean. Is that there because of the stories given by people that have been involved with him, yes, but in all honesty they are also there because can anyone really be that good? Usain Bolt comes to mind, and I have to say I have some doubt in my mind that he’s perfectly clean as well. I hate to tarnish the accomplishments of either athlete if they are clean, but still, there’s some lingering doubt that prevents me from getting on the ‘Armstrong Train’.

I’ll be the first to admit that I tuned in to the Tour this year religiously, because he came out of retirement. It wasn’t to see him win, I wasn’t rooting for him to win, it was to see him, and to see whether all the years and all of his experiences would give him some humility – and there were moments I saw that in him. Those again were immediately tarnished by the idea there were ‘peleton conversations’ going on with himself and other riders as sort of a recruiting tactic for next years’ race. People he knows will pull for him to win, Leipheimer and Hincapie as two examples, and true to form they’ve signed up. This year he didn’t have that luxury – would the result have been any different if he had? Perhaps.

Which all comes back to Leadville – and the advantage he has with the best coaching, nutritionists and the added bonus of getting two of his teammates in the race to help him. This seemed like an unfair advantage of sorts, but I suppose that goes with the sport, or any sport for that matter. Wein’s relies on his training and his legs and his experience, Armstrong, well it’s a little different for him.

He says he’ll be back next year to defend his title – I don’t doubt that, I imagine he’s spent some time thinking about how much time he could cut without having to ride on a flat tire. I imagine next year he’ll probably best his current time and then that will forever sit in the record books until some new young amazing rider comes along to beat it. It’s the nature of the game I guess. One that not many are blind to so none of this is a surprise.

On a side note – I really want to do Leadville – it’s a stretch a 100 mile stretch, but watching the mortals come in and realizing what an accomplishment that would be when you are all done, really makes me latch on to the idea of doing it. Apparently they really encourage women to sign up, so maybe I have an in. I’ve got a year to train – which means endless winter hours on a trainer – that’s not too appealing, but I think I can do it. I think I’ll put in my application and see whether they allow me to try. E’s going to do it as well- he’s done it before so for him it will be a reunion. Apparently we’ve found something to train for.