Love this Life...

I bought this shirt in NYC with this poem on the back. I loved the message and hope you do too!


Love this life ....
Is about celebrating the moment
and that we are not guarenteed
or owed another day and how cool it is that what we hide
can actually be the fuel towards our glory
and that it's not so bad being proven wrong

Love this life...
is about welcoming the blind turn
and the the possibility that
there is no such thing as coincidence
and that empathy is incredibly sexy
and that is never too late
to pick up a a guitar or a paintbrush
or to make an amend or make a new friend

Love this Life...
could be about rekindling a past flame
or igniting a new one
or shapeshifting from a dreamer into a doer
or savouring the caress of a love long gone

Love this life...
means whatever it is you want it to mean
because

Love this life...
is a celebration of you and your path

Love this Life...
cuz it could go at any second
YOU ROCK!

Acu...TORTURE!

Acupuncture is one of the main forms of therapy in traditional Chinese medicine and has been practiced for at least 2,500 years. Certain points on the body are stimulated by the insertion of fine needles.
It is thought to restore health by removing energy imbalances and blockages in the body.

Yesterday, I decided to go for some acupuncture followed by a deep tissue massage.
I did not think to much about the process until I was lying on the table,face down and she put the first needle into my body. I believe the needles first went inbetween my toes and fingers. One was to increase the blood flow,one was for the heart and sad feelings. I assume she figured I was depressed as I could not train. The one's that went into my glute and hamstring were deep and took my breathe away as the needles hit the nerves. She would make comments like good and great every time my body shook and I screamed. She finally left the room and I lay there, needles all over wandering how I got myself into this. It is definitely not the most comfortable experience but I am always up for trying things to help my body. A friend of mine had heard me yelling from the next room and called me a wimp. After about 20 minutes she came back into the room and slowly removed the needles....that was a little uncomfortable too.
But by the end of the deep tissue massage which was well needed I had forgotten the discomfort I had felt earlier.
I was told not to do any working after, so despite it being a gorgeous 70 degree day I stuck to the no workout rule and just went in the steam room and later took a epsom salt bath to get rid of the toxins. I also tried to hydrate well.

Today, I have to say my hamstring felt remarkably looser. My shoulder still hurts but that may need a few more sessions. So I will go again next week.

For now I look forward to a relaxing but busy weekend in NYC with my daughter Sydney. We are having a girls weekend as Hank and Tanner are heading to a football game.

Good decisions!

Coach Paulo decided I should take another 4 weeks off before I get back to training. This is a very smart decision...one as an athlete I would not have made due to my eternal desire to train and to race as soon as possible. This pressure I put on myself was actually hurting me as it was forcing my body to do too much too soon and setting me back. I am thankful to have a coach who always puts health first.
Therefore I have 3 weeks left where I am not to think of training,racing or triathlon. I have of course already broken that rule a few times. After skipping a few days in the pool I found myself today swimming with my friends and slowly pushing the set harder and harder. I had to really force myself to go swim behind them at a much slower pace, which I did. After no running for 5 days I attempted to run again...but I stopped at 1 mile! I have not biked in 8 days. Four weeks will go FAST and I told my Physical Therapist I will wait 4 weeks and no longer. He laughed and told me to tell my body that. Today was another painful session over the glute/hamstring area. Next week I will go get an MRI done of this section to see exactly what is going on.
I found myself tonight going over some racing pictures and reflecting on my trip to Ironman South Africa. I miss the excitement and energy of racing and shall use this misfortune to fuel my fire. I have big expectations of myself for 2010. But for the next few weeks I shall continue with my recovery!

Things I miss about training!

Swiming,biking and Running!

The beautiful sunrises on early morning training days!



How great it feels when things are going well!



The adrenaline of racing!



Being in shape!



I could go on...but I am sure you get the point!

Chillin....or trying to anyway!

I have not blogged in a while as I have just been facing the reality that my season ended over such a silly unexpected crash! The impact of my fall took alot more out of me than I initially thought. I had visions that I would be back training within 2 weeks and would be able to continue my training for Ironman Florida but that has not been the case.
I have been in Physical Therapy 3 times a week and ART the other 2 days a week getting my body back to functioning correctly. I was very lucky to have no broken bones yet I still suffered alot of bruising and swelling and trauma to my neck,back,hip,glute,hamstring and shoulder. So it's been a slow process, although everyone keeps telling me it's been really fast!!! I am not pain free yet but I am getting stronger everyday and am starting to bike every other day and swim daily again. Running is still slow and short as I do not want to irritate my hamstring but I am running every other day too.

I have taken this time to really enjoy the family and we have been really busy the last two weekends doing things I love but at a slower pace :-)

Here are some of my favorite pics from the weekend. There is a race up here in New Paltz, NY called SOS, Survival of the Shawungunks. I have always wanted to do it so I thought we would come check it out. We stayed at the Mohonk house which was an experience in itself.



First on the agenda was to check out the trails on our bikes. This turned out to be a 4 hour ride in rolling hills with a few wrong turns and plenty of bribery going on...but the kids survived and loved it!





The long ride was followed up with eating like kings and queens. The Mohonk house gives you huge buffet breakfast dinners and lunches so you never go hungry.





Next day I got to do a short 30 minute run as the sun was coming up before heading out on a 3 hour hike/walk up to the tower which sits at 1400 feet and then down in some of the gorgeous trails they have.

Two steps forward 1 back!

Today was another day of progress. I managed to find my old snorkel that I used to train with a few years ago. I figured that would allow me to keep my head submerged without having to turn my neck. I could then focus on my shoulder and my stroke. I managed to do 30 minutes of drills...first pulling under water,then getting my arm out of the water to do a fingertip drill and lastly managing to get my arm out of the water and pulling through all the way. I did not want to push things so I stopped after thirty minutes when I started to freeze in the pool.
I then spent another half hour in the shower and hot tub warming up which felt great!
It was such a gorgeous day I decided to head over to the reservoir for a little walk with the possibility of seeing how my neck felt running. This is the softest surface and one of the prettiest area's to run around here. I headed out walking and then started a slow shuffle. My first mile was 12 minutes,second 11 and third 10 minutes. I never jogged faster than a 9 minute mile. This is HUGE but a few hours later I was advised by my PT that running is still not a good idea. I have been getting pain which has got progressively worse the more I do in my glute. Jimmy is still thinking I may have hurt/torn a hamstring attachment. I have definitely got some bad bruising on my hip socket bone/and (ileum/ischiem bones) and glute and hamstrings have no strength. So today's physical therapy was so painful that I threatened to hit him if he hurt me anymore.
I am so achy from all the prodding to my body but will get a good nights sleep so I can do it all again tomorrow!

One day at a time!

One must not forget that recovery is brought about not by the physician, but by the sick man himself. He heals himself, by his own power, exactly as he walks by means of his own power, or eats, or thinks, breathes or sleeps.
Georg Groddeck

Today I got in the pool for the 2nd time. Two days ago was just a kick and roll to breathe...20 laps as I still did not have full ROM on my shoulder. Today I managed too pull through gently with my left arm, with little pain, just weakness. I need to get over the fear of turning my neck as I am able to turn it slowly left and right most of the way. Every time I talk of the crash my neck decides to go into a mild spasm though....so this will be the last time I mention it so I can forget about it and move on.

I am not running yet but have spent the last two days on the elliptical. Today's 1 mile took me 30 minutes...yes laughable and embarrassing...I know but something to mark my improvement with.
I spent 20 minutes climbing stairs...and 20 minutes pushing 150 watts on the stationary bike. I think it's time to see if my neck and swollen glute can manage my bike on a trainer.

I am anxious to get back to training where I am happiest!

Looking at the glass half full! Thankful!

Well, over the weekend I was unfortunate to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I was biking down Casino street in Freehold Township with two friends Bob Reilly and Tom Manzi who I had just hooked up with, when we saw a garbage truck in the distance.I always pay close attention to my surroundings when I ride so I watched the garbage man walk across the road back to his truck which was facing in our direction on the opposite side of the road. I saw the cans were on our side of the road all standing up, 3 of them. So I assumed he was moving on. We were riding around 22-23 mph and we were meeting a few friends further up the road. As we went by out of the blue a can was rolled very fast right in front of me. I am not quite sure as I had no time to react but I believe the can went either in front or hit my wheel and I somehow did a flip landing on my head,neck, shoulder then hip. I do not remember hitting the ground but I do remember my head pounding and my shoulder throbbing. I was lucky to not get any road rash as all the impact went down into the ground and into my body.
Tom who was behind me said he will have nightmares for a while as he said it looked like I was going to either crack my head open or break my neck. Thankfully neither is the case! I am thankful for helmets as their were 5 cracks in mine that could have very easily been my head. My head however did receive a few staples.

I was taken to Jersey Shore Trauma hospital where they did cat scans on my head and neck, and xrays of my shoulder and hip. My cat scans showed inflammation from the middle of the back of my head down into my neck with no severe damage..thank goodness. My xrays showed no broken bones. For that I am relieved!
As I had cut my head and I was in the trauma ward the attending nurse was so kind not to cut my biking jackets or my hair instead she sweetly jammed three staples into my scalp without any medication saying it wasn't really worth it!!! Thanks!
Another very sweet nurse then kindly informed me that I would have to get a tetanus shot in my arm...and we decided to put it in the same arm that was already in pain. (Looking back now probably not such a good idea!)
With a steady flow of morphine going( which in itself felt awful), my pain seem to steady. Bob, who I had been riding with came by to check on me which was very nice. We both could not believe how absurd the accident was. Hank and the kids had arrived very concerned but happy to see me in one piece and took me home. I was warned that the next few days were going to be the worst and they were right. I called Coach Paulo right away who always puts things into perspective for me. He right away told me not to think of doing anything for 5 days and then we would reevaluate.


I am very lucky to have some great people in my life. Gerry Goldberger, friend and orthopedic surgeon from Advanced Orthopedics and Sports Medicine in Freehold, set up an appointment for me on Monday. What an amazing facility they have there and everyone was so nice. He confirmed with an Xray that my neck muscles were in total shock/spasm. I could not move my neck and my left shoulder was very swollen. It was great to see someone who understood how I was feeling as he too is a triathlete and understands the importance of recovery/training/racing. Gerry set me up with Karen from his Physical Therapy section which is right in the facility. She did some gentle massage,heat, a few basic exercises and some good kinetic taping to push out some of the swelling. I don't like to sit in bed and being around pleasant happy people I feel was better therapy for me than resting at home! I am thankful to my friend Judy who dropped everything she had to do to drive me there. Things like that mean so much!


My next visit was too see Dr Liz Perez. She not only saw me on her day off but let me come to her home as I was in the area. She is the best ART(Active Release Therapy) therapist in America...and I mean that! She has got me through many a sore /strained muscle and she is always the last person I see before I leave for a race as she fine tunes my body. I trusted my aching body over to her. I asked her if she thought I would be back to training by the weekend and she laughed :-( and said no way! Thanks for keeping it real Liz!
What she did was got the range of motion going on a neck that would not move and gave me some exercises to do to help loosen them up. She strongly advised me to rest and ice ALL day! Liz is truly one of the most giving and caring people I know!

Today I made a trip to see another great guy. Jimmy Smith from Crest Physical Therapy in Wall. I have been going to see him since I moved down to the NJ Shore 13 years ago. His PT facility is where I like to spend my winters getting strong and ready for the following season. His office is filled with good energy and happy people and I always leave there feeling great. His hands are like magic and I trust his opinions greatly. Without hesitation he got me in today and got to work in his lunch break. He is one of those people that go above and beyond! He has no mercy and his hands go to work digging deep and finding the source of pain. Well today he too did not want to touch the shoulder but worked on the neck muscles moving them around and trying to get them to relax. Soon I will be back to training I know it!!!
Thank goodness for having a strong body! He was a little concerned over a possible hamstring tear but will let some of the swelling go down before he digs in to see.
Thanks Jimmy for your time today!

I appreciate ALL the calls/texts/FB messages I got over the last few days. It is nice that friends are so caring and thoughtful and it really helps when you are down and hurt to have that support. Thanks to the Cole Family for their lovely fruit basket and to Liz for dinner.
Hank and the kids have been great too, bringing me and making sure I am icing on a regular basis and doing alot of the stuff a mom does!
I will write an update soon!