Setbacks

I returned back to San Diego on Tuesday night right after Nana's funeral. Our trip home definately started with a jolt. Bri and I took a red eye to Boston and just as we started the descent, Bri started having excruciating pain behind his left eye. He was convinced he was having an aneurysm and was pretty panicked, as was I. I sat there like a deer in headlights just staring at him. We watch way too much house, so then I was just waiting for him to start seizing or something. We landed and the pain started to subside a bit, so we figured it was most likely due to the pressure in the plane. Once he started spitting up blood we decided it would be a good idea to go to the hospital. After a CT and full eval, they ruled out any kind of hemmorhage but said he probably blew out a sinus or something. PHEW!!! That would have sucked.

While it was very sad to say goodbye to Nana, I know she is in very good company and is happy with her Bill and Betty Lou and SOOOOOOOOOOOO many others. It was also great to see family and spend some quality time with all the crazy little ones in our lives. It gets harder and harder to leave the little ones the older they get. No "Auntie JOdes" for me, I am now "JO JO." I'll take it.

I tried to continue some workouts while home but it was nothing compared to what my teammates were doing back in SD. While they were doing a 40 mile ride which included a 7 mile uphill, I ran around the Charles River for about 8 miles. Since it was Marathon weekend there were many runners out there, and I even got to talk smack to a Kenyan and raced her for about .008 seconds. Even the ones who look like they are not that good are FAST.

I also made it to the pool one day and pretty much felt like I was in a race. I shared a lane with a TOTAL SPAZ! This girl was ALL OVER THE PLACE. I constantly had to spot (which is look up to see where you are going and who you are going to bump into during a race) and swallowed more water when I happened to breathe on the side she was on. SHe splashed and thrashed about like noone I have ever seen in a lap pool. Gave me good practice though!

We got back to SD and I was pretty much beat so I took Wednesday off from training and got a whole bunch of sleep. On Thursday I met my teammates at Torrey Pines golf course for our run. We started at the top of Torrey Pines (a giant hill) and ran through two of their trails. It is probalby the most beautiful view of SD. So it went by quickly and I only rolled my ankles on the trails about 4 times. At one point my running coach behind me asked "jody how is your running going?" I say "great, no injuries and I am feeling good." She basically tried to do what all running coaches do when they see me and help. However every time I have ever tried to correct my ridiculous running form (shoulders hunched, knees in, feet going out) I end up injured. I tell her this but still ask her what she thinks. She suggested trying to keep my knees far apart and that that should keep my feet from going out. I will give it a whirl. ANyways we made it through two fo the trails and then ran down the Torrey Pines Hill. Now this is a hill that even when you walk up it, the heart rate sky rockets. I have walked it, biked it and now I have run up it. I am not sure which one is harder. I made it up running the whole way YAY ME!! I then ran back through one of the trails but it started to get dark so we just nixed the second trail so we could make it back to the cars with some light. I think it ended up being 6 miles,but with those hills, I felt like I was satisfied.

I took Friday off because I wanted to be fresh and ready for Saturdays "MOCK TRI." My coaches put together an olympic length tri (.8 swim, 28 mile bike, 10K). While I was excited for this, I woke up around 5 to get all my gear together and felt pretty sick. My throat hurt and I was rather sick to my stomach. I figured I would just suck it up and see if that feeling would go away. After packing my car up and getting the bike on the rack, I sat in the car in the driveway for close to 15 minutes. I was pretty much waiting for the sick feeling to go away. It never did. So now I am on my couch sipping alka seltzer and praying I don't throw up. I am so totally aggravated. I guess the travelling and all that has caught up with me. I am hoping that I feel better later on so I can at least get a good workout in. I am going to have to figure out what to do tomorrow if I feel better. I have 3 months left so I am not going to fret, but this is now two weekends in a row that I missed my group workout.

I would like to take this time to make note of a wonderful woman who lost her battle to Ovarian Cancer yesterday. Tina Duca was my friend Gianleo's mother. She was diagnosed about 3 years ago, and fought so hard for her life and for her family. Please keep her and her family and friends in your hearts and prayers.