Typical Calgary Spring Time

Well as predicted the first few days of spring in Calgary were greeted with a nice snow storm that started Saturday night and continued through yesterday morning. All in all, Dave and I figure we shoveled about 35cm of snow off the drive way yesterday. It was definitely a two person job and today my arms are killing me! (I meant to take a pic but got a little side tracked yesterday). As much as I would like to say how much this stinks, how Calgary weather is the pits sometimes, it is March in Calgary which brings a mixed bag of weather and one just needs to go with the flow (though another trip back down to Tucson right about now would be quite nice!).

Training over the last two weeks has gone really well. I did another 500m TT on W. March 11th and was really happy with my time. In the 50m pool I managed to swim an 8:05. My best time to date was an 8:01 in the 25m pool but it wasn't a "clean" swim. In otherwords, by the end of it I was basically flailing my arms to get me through it. Both Jack and I agreed that yes it was fast but not quite as "pretty" as either of us would have liked. Now typically when one gets into the bigger pool one's time tends to increase as you have less "breaks" because you are only hitting the wall 3 times over 100m rather than 6 times. However, we have been training in the bigger pool Monday and Wednesdays and I make a point to swim Friday mornings when the pool is available. So back to the 500m TT.... The first 100m was a blazing 1:27 (much faster than my anticipated 1:40ish). The remaining lengths came in slightly more on par. All in all it felt great. I got to the end comfortably feeling like if I had to go further I could. A "clean" swim by my standards! Cycling and running have been going well, however, a stressful four days at work last week left me very tired and my stomach has taken a turn for the worse.

Two weeks ago I went to see the GI doctor. As much as he and I both want to optimisitic that things can stay on the up and up withouth any sort of help, we both know that when dealing with colitis that isn't a very realistic approach to take. Also, back in the scope from December Dr. Devlin took some biopsies of what appeared to be healthy looking tissue to see if it was in fact healthy (under the microscope). It turns out that some of what looks like healthy tissue is in fact inflamed. He guesstimated that I was at about 75/80% of "being good".

For some reason, like clock work, about three days after my appointment my stomach seemed to do a 180 and took a turn for the worse. Although it is not nearly as bad as it has been in the past I know that just ignoring does nothing but make things worse. So after a few melt downs, a few sessions of getting mad and a few training sessions that were just not up to snuff, I called his office to let them know what was going on. As far as treatment goes..... I am a death before steroids type of person. Yes they work and put a person into remission quickly, however, the side effects are nasty and can be long lasting. The typical drug that they recommend to try first is known as a 5-ASA line of drugs.... basically an anti-inflammatory. Unfortunately, after two test runs of two different brands ending in an increase in symptoms (imagine a really bad flu) it was deteremined that no 5-ASA is an option. That significantly decreases the options available. The next step appears to be looking at immunosuppressants. A scary thought and unfortunately it seems that the only way to approach treatment is by trial and error. This is something that I am still trying to wrap my head around (being a very black and white thinker) and needless to say I will probably continue to do so for some time to come. I know what sets off my stomach, however, unless I win the lottery or Dave strikes it rich some time soon, not working is not an option. The quest to find balance continues. It is not an easy journey but as I am realizing, this will not be going away any time soon so the sooner I can find coping mechanisms the sooner I can learn to live with it rather than live by it.

Well I am sure that this post has put some of you to sleep.... understandably. I just needed to get my thoughts out because let's face it, when you see something actually written down it can shine a whole new light on a situation!

A Wee Glimpse of Spring

Well even though we have been home for just over a week, things have been so busy that other than one great farmers tan, the warm temps and great memories of Tucson are starting to seem like a distant memory. Work was very busy and on Tuesday it finally came to a head, where I needed to stay home for the day and catch up on some much needed sleep. Wednesday brought with it a 3min and 20min TT workout. Not quite the numbers I was hoping to see but seeing as I was still "absorbing" all the riding from a week earlier, I have been told it is all on the up and up!

With a snowstorm predicted for Saturday night I opted to use Saturday to crank out a much needed run. As most runners can attest to, every so often you have a run that is just blissful. Where it feels as though you could run forever. I was really needing to have a good run and it was great! Heck, it was warm enough to wear short pants! As I write this I am looking out at 10cm of fresh snow and -29 degree temps... you just have to love March in Calgary. Monday will bring the start of my next three week block. MAP work out the bike and weekly track workouts to get back on top of my running. I can hardly wait! Add to that my tri-weekly swims and I am really starting to see my fitness come around, YAY.

This week I also had a really good meeting with Jack where we discussed the race season. I will do another post later this week with all of the details on each race. It works out to 5 tris, a few running races and maybe the odd bike race.... there is just more value in using weekends to clock some really strong training hours rather than the whole traveling and racing thing. I am really looking forward to it. My mom has volunteered to be my "groupie" for all away races, so another bonus!

On that note, I am going to sign off. I have the day off from training so will be helping Dave re-do the bonus room as we transform it into a theater room!