Ok, so Mark asked me last night if I had written about my new Neti Pot habit or not, and, well, no, I hadn't. It's already become a twice-daily ritual for me, so I guess I had just sort of absorbed it into my life without thinking too much about it (once I got past the initial revulsion that led me to it- see below). But it is a rather unusual piece of health care equipment and it's been such a god send, I would be remiss if I failed to make a note of it.
So what's a neti pot and how did it save my spring? Well, my mom calls it "waterboarding oneself" which isn't so far from the truth. You take this small teapot type thing filled with saline solution and stick it up one nostril and let gravity pull the water all through your sinuses and out the other nostril. When the water leaves, it takes with it all the horrible stuff we breath in that will only aggravate allergies and make problems. Here's a video of how it's done.
It's hilarious, but honestly, it works. I had been having SO much trouble with seasonal allergies. I missed a couple days of work last week and when it looked like I had pink eye, I finally went to the doctor who said that no, it wasn't pink eye, it was just that my sinuses had gotten so clogged that the mucus was coming out of my eyes and sealing them shut while I was sleeping. EWWWW! I was so completely grossed out by my own head! Besides feeling lousy, now I felt revolting. Lovely.
Rather than prescribe an antibiotic, which would have probably solved the problem, but left me open to more trouble later, the doctor told me to get a neti pot and start doing it every time I brush my teeth-- at least twice a day. It uses a gentle saline solution to irrigate the sinuses and is a preferred homeopathic remedy for lots of allergy sufferers. Who knew?
The first couple of times I used it, I could see all the crud it was washing out-- pollen, dust, mucus, blood--- all that stuff that will only make things worse when it stays up my nose. The past few days, though, there's not been much left to flush out, and I'm cleared up again and feeling MUCH better. But I'm going to keep with the routine of cleaning out the sinuses every day so that I don't get in trouble again. It's really hard to swim when you can barely breathe!
Thank you Neti Pot!
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
We haz tix!
Lots going on over here! One week to go to Manhattan and we finally bought our plane tickets to England for the Channel. It's all suddenly becoming very, very real. And coming up so quickly.
First, Manhattan. We are leaving next Thursday and looking forward to a nice weekend in the Big Apple. I hope to catch up with a few friends while there, not least of which is a dear old friend from Georgetown who we'll be bunking with on the Upper East Side while we're in town. We still have some planning to do to get ready-- mostly just finalizing my feeding plan and making sure we have all the supplies ready to go. Also have to figure out what sights we're going to try to squeeze into the short visit. Can't wait to see the new pedestrian mall they've made out of Times Square!
Second, the Channel. We have all the major bookings out of the way now-- pilot, B&B, and plane tickets. All that's left is arranging either a rental car or train tickets to get from Gatwick to Dover. I'm leaning towards renting-- it'll give us more felxability and, well, I do want to learn to drive on the wrong side of the road-- but we'll crunch the numbers and probably opt for the cheaper of the two.
Did two long workouts at West Side over the holiday weekend- 12,600 on Saturday, which was a tough one, and 11,800 on Monday, which felt much, much better. Both were hard interval work, and I was surprised how well I managed on the Monday workout. Going for one more long workout before Manhattan with that crew on Saturday. Apparently I'm in for something long, so I am hoping that it will be a chance to just find my pace and get my head together for the race.
The holiday weekend was, as usual, too short, but I got some rest and saw some friends. Got together with P&P, my girls from AMCAP who I haven't seen in probably over a year, and it was just so good to see them. Also got some BBQ action at Greg & Wendy's (the Finnians!) with Lisa and Thomas and Carter. Good times with good friends, some good beer on hand too- what else can you ask for?
First, Manhattan. We are leaving next Thursday and looking forward to a nice weekend in the Big Apple. I hope to catch up with a few friends while there, not least of which is a dear old friend from Georgetown who we'll be bunking with on the Upper East Side while we're in town. We still have some planning to do to get ready-- mostly just finalizing my feeding plan and making sure we have all the supplies ready to go. Also have to figure out what sights we're going to try to squeeze into the short visit. Can't wait to see the new pedestrian mall they've made out of Times Square!
Second, the Channel. We have all the major bookings out of the way now-- pilot, B&B, and plane tickets. All that's left is arranging either a rental car or train tickets to get from Gatwick to Dover. I'm leaning towards renting-- it'll give us more felxability and, well, I do want to learn to drive on the wrong side of the road-- but we'll crunch the numbers and probably opt for the cheaper of the two.
Did two long workouts at West Side over the holiday weekend- 12,600 on Saturday, which was a tough one, and 11,800 on Monday, which felt much, much better. Both were hard interval work, and I was surprised how well I managed on the Monday workout. Going for one more long workout before Manhattan with that crew on Saturday. Apparently I'm in for something long, so I am hoping that it will be a chance to just find my pace and get my head together for the race.
The holiday weekend was, as usual, too short, but I got some rest and saw some friends. Got together with P&P, my girls from AMCAP who I haven't seen in probably over a year, and it was just so good to see them. Also got some BBQ action at Greg & Wendy's (the Finnians!) with Lisa and Thomas and Carter. Good times with good friends, some good beer on hand too- what else can you ask for?
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
West Side Story
Well, it's been an interesting couple of weeks. Lots going on, and lots of swimming. First off, thanks to Dennis Colgan, Vicki Miller, and Jen and Jon Schoenberg for donating to the cause! I really appreciate the generous contributions, which will help get me onto French soil in just a few short months. Seriously, thank you so much for the kind words and vote of confidence, gang. It means a lot.
In other news, Nate McBride, the webmaster at New England Masters Swim Club (the brains and technical know-how behind www.swimnem.org) and also the head coach of the West Side Swim Club in Sudbury has been inviting me to Saturday distance workouts with his crew at Atkinson Pool. And it's been just the greatest addition to my swimming routine. Rather than struggle through several thousand yards on my own at MIT or with Lisa and Greg for part of it (god bless them for always being willing to help me out!), at West Side there's several swimmers and a few who do the whole long-long workout of around 15,000 yards. In particular, Ellen Stanley has been a huge help. She's training for the Middlebury LCM meet in June and is putting in the work to try for some records in the distance events. I've no doubt she'll do it-- she's one fast chickie.
The workouts are real killers. The first week, after a lungs and legs session in the well (something I haven't done since college) and a warm up, we had a choice between a set of 120 X 100s or 28 X 400s. We opted for the 100s and I had a great workout, surprisingly. (I don't think of myself as much of a 100 swimmer, but I was able to keep the intervals and just about all the 100s were within 4 seconds of each other.) The 100s were broken into groups of 30 and there was a pattern of fast and moderate paces that increased through the sets of 30. There was also some funky stuff going on with the intervals that made it harder to make the 100s as we got more tired. In the end, I was really pleased with how fast I swam and how strong I still felt at the end despite being tired. It was a really helpful confidence booster that showed me that I have been putting in the work and I'm on track for the things that lie ahead this summer. The nearly 15,000 yards went by a lot quicker than I expected, which is always a good sign.
The following week we were left with the 28 X 400s. Those were broken into 7 sets of 4 X 400s. I struggled with this workout a lot. We were supposed to descend each set, and I think I only did that on 2 of the 7 sets. Not my best showing, and I was also quite a bit off pace; instead of being able to hold a 5:45 interval, I was barely making a 6:00 interval. I had been struggling with allergies during the week leading into Saturday, and I think that may have been the main culprit for the less-than-stellar performance. But the good news is that I survived another 15,500 yards West Side style!
The awesome-est thing about these two workouts is that Nate stood over us and got every single split for the whole thing. That's a lot of skill with a stopwatch and just the whole paying attention part is very impressive. I got a spreadsheet after both workouts with all the splits, which is so helpful for taking a look at where I'm falling apart and learning where I need to push a little harder. Nate is an incredible coach and I'm so glad that he's reached out to me like this. It has been the best boost of support right when I needed it most. Thanks, Nate!
This past Saturday, we did 6 different sets, rather than one enormous set. I can't remember everything we did, but we got up to about 16,000 yards. The main focus was a set that went like this (I'm not sure I have all the intervals right, but this is what I think they were):
800 negative split on 11:20
8 X 100 descend 1-4 and 5-8 on 1:30
600 negative split on 8:20
6 X 100 descend 1-3, 4-6 on 1:35
400 negative split on 5:40
4 X 100 descend on 1:40.
I felt pretty good on this set but the only thing I really remember was that last 4 X 100. I pushed those hard and brought the set home in a 1:20.4. Not too shabby.
After the workout, there was much running around at home to get ourselves together for my nephew Jack's 4th party. His birthday was Wednesday and the kid's party was on Saturday with about 23 of his closest friends (what 4 year-old has that many friends?!) at the Planet Gymnastics in Natick. The kids had a blast tumbling for an hour and then they went into a separate party room for cake and ice cream, and who was there? Jack's hero, Batman! Mark won the husband and uncle of the year award for his star turn as Batman to surprise the junior member of the Justice League. Jack was adorable, naturally, and didn't know it was Mark at first and was hesitant to enter the room. Once my sister-in-law indicated that it was actually Uncle Mark under that bat cowl, he warmed right up and seemed very pleased with the whole situation. And the other kids, for the most part, were excited to have Batman there (there were two kids who wouldn't go in the room because they were afraid, but the rest were so excited to meet Batman). They peppered him with questions about where he sleeps, what he drives, what he eats, etc., and Mark was so patient and answered every question in a faux Superhero American accent and with "Bat" as the prefix to every answer. A lot of the answers were hysterical to the parents, who were getting a real kick out his performance. Mark was a natural-- more evidence that he's going to make an excellent teacher. After the party, we went to dinner with my nephews and sister-in-law and my mom and got to spend a little time with my mom after dinner. She seems to be feeling much better, so that was a relief.
I had planned to try again for the 6-hour swim this past Sunday, but woke up feeling like I'd been hit by a bus. I think one of the kids at the party might have passed along some germs, or even more likely, I got whatever my brother had. I spent all day in bed on Sunday and am still feeling lousy now- actually stayed home from work today to try to recover. I spent pretty much all day today in bed as well. Still have a sore throat, but I'm hoping to be back to normal tomorrow. *sigh* I hate being sick and it feels like lately I've been struggling with allergies and colds a lot. Ah, spring in New England.
Looking ahead, Manhattan is in a little over 2 weeks. Hard to believe it's come up so quickly. I think I'm in pretty good shape for it, especially in light of the recent West Side workouts, but it's always a little nerve-racking to be in the last couple weeks of training for something that big. We're all set with bus tickets and we're all set for staying with Melissa in Manhattan. Just need to sort out some of the final logistics of getting around town for the pre-race meeting and on the morning of the race, and we're golden.
So that's the scoop- hope the long post isn't too daunting and that I get back on schedule with more regular posting from here on in.
In other news, Nate McBride, the webmaster at New England Masters Swim Club (the brains and technical know-how behind www.swimnem.org) and also the head coach of the West Side Swim Club in Sudbury has been inviting me to Saturday distance workouts with his crew at Atkinson Pool. And it's been just the greatest addition to my swimming routine. Rather than struggle through several thousand yards on my own at MIT or with Lisa and Greg for part of it (god bless them for always being willing to help me out!), at West Side there's several swimmers and a few who do the whole long-long workout of around 15,000 yards. In particular, Ellen Stanley has been a huge help. She's training for the Middlebury LCM meet in June and is putting in the work to try for some records in the distance events. I've no doubt she'll do it-- she's one fast chickie.
The workouts are real killers. The first week, after a lungs and legs session in the well (something I haven't done since college) and a warm up, we had a choice between a set of 120 X 100s or 28 X 400s. We opted for the 100s and I had a great workout, surprisingly. (I don't think of myself as much of a 100 swimmer, but I was able to keep the intervals and just about all the 100s were within 4 seconds of each other.) The 100s were broken into groups of 30 and there was a pattern of fast and moderate paces that increased through the sets of 30. There was also some funky stuff going on with the intervals that made it harder to make the 100s as we got more tired. In the end, I was really pleased with how fast I swam and how strong I still felt at the end despite being tired. It was a really helpful confidence booster that showed me that I have been putting in the work and I'm on track for the things that lie ahead this summer. The nearly 15,000 yards went by a lot quicker than I expected, which is always a good sign.
The following week we were left with the 28 X 400s. Those were broken into 7 sets of 4 X 400s. I struggled with this workout a lot. We were supposed to descend each set, and I think I only did that on 2 of the 7 sets. Not my best showing, and I was also quite a bit off pace; instead of being able to hold a 5:45 interval, I was barely making a 6:00 interval. I had been struggling with allergies during the week leading into Saturday, and I think that may have been the main culprit for the less-than-stellar performance. But the good news is that I survived another 15,500 yards West Side style!
The awesome-est thing about these two workouts is that Nate stood over us and got every single split for the whole thing. That's a lot of skill with a stopwatch and just the whole paying attention part is very impressive. I got a spreadsheet after both workouts with all the splits, which is so helpful for taking a look at where I'm falling apart and learning where I need to push a little harder. Nate is an incredible coach and I'm so glad that he's reached out to me like this. It has been the best boost of support right when I needed it most. Thanks, Nate!
This past Saturday, we did 6 different sets, rather than one enormous set. I can't remember everything we did, but we got up to about 16,000 yards. The main focus was a set that went like this (I'm not sure I have all the intervals right, but this is what I think they were):
800 negative split on 11:20
8 X 100 descend 1-4 and 5-8 on 1:30
600 negative split on 8:20
6 X 100 descend 1-3, 4-6 on 1:35
400 negative split on 5:40
4 X 100 descend on 1:40.
I felt pretty good on this set but the only thing I really remember was that last 4 X 100. I pushed those hard and brought the set home in a 1:20.4. Not too shabby.
After the workout, there was much running around at home to get ourselves together for my nephew Jack's 4th party. His birthday was Wednesday and the kid's party was on Saturday with about 23 of his closest friends (what 4 year-old has that many friends?!) at the Planet Gymnastics in Natick. The kids had a blast tumbling for an hour and then they went into a separate party room for cake and ice cream, and who was there? Jack's hero, Batman! Mark won the husband and uncle of the year award for his star turn as Batman to surprise the junior member of the Justice League. Jack was adorable, naturally, and didn't know it was Mark at first and was hesitant to enter the room. Once my sister-in-law indicated that it was actually Uncle Mark under that bat cowl, he warmed right up and seemed very pleased with the whole situation. And the other kids, for the most part, were excited to have Batman there (there were two kids who wouldn't go in the room because they were afraid, but the rest were so excited to meet Batman). They peppered him with questions about where he sleeps, what he drives, what he eats, etc., and Mark was so patient and answered every question in a faux Superhero American accent and with "Bat" as the prefix to every answer. A lot of the answers were hysterical to the parents, who were getting a real kick out his performance. Mark was a natural-- more evidence that he's going to make an excellent teacher. After the party, we went to dinner with my nephews and sister-in-law and my mom and got to spend a little time with my mom after dinner. She seems to be feeling much better, so that was a relief.
I had planned to try again for the 6-hour swim this past Sunday, but woke up feeling like I'd been hit by a bus. I think one of the kids at the party might have passed along some germs, or even more likely, I got whatever my brother had. I spent all day in bed on Sunday and am still feeling lousy now- actually stayed home from work today to try to recover. I spent pretty much all day today in bed as well. Still have a sore throat, but I'm hoping to be back to normal tomorrow. *sigh* I hate being sick and it feels like lately I've been struggling with allergies and colds a lot. Ah, spring in New England.
Looking ahead, Manhattan is in a little over 2 weeks. Hard to believe it's come up so quickly. I think I'm in pretty good shape for it, especially in light of the recent West Side workouts, but it's always a little nerve-racking to be in the last couple weeks of training for something that big. We're all set with bus tickets and we're all set for staying with Melissa in Manhattan. Just need to sort out some of the final logistics of getting around town for the pre-race meeting and on the morning of the race, and we're golden.
So that's the scoop- hope the long post isn't too daunting and that I get back on schedule with more regular posting from here on in.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
