Saturday, February 23, 2008

Leave of absense

If you have now or have ever had any sort of creative block in your life (and who hasn't?), go out now and buy this book. I finally understood where my imfamous writing block is coming from...whew! Now I can get back to work!
All this means that I've set due dates for myself and announced to various people that projects I've put off for---ever are now coming before the summer is over. I have to put in more concentrated time on my projects and less on superfluous internet activities. I'll still put stuff out there once in awhile (ps - I'm leaving in an hour for Rome to run my half marathon--so excited to have a weekend with friends!) , but the concentration will be on THE project.
Wish me luck!

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Yoga 201 (!)

I went to my doctor yesterday to get my blood tests ordered up. He asked me a couple key questions which sort of all added up to the type of tests that he's asked for. I'll have to wait until the end of february to have them done (Hello nationalized medicine!) but when I went home I looked up one thing in particular. The key symptoms are:
  • Fatigue (yes)
  • Weakness (um, yes)
  • Difficulty in losing weight (check!)
  • Course, dry hair (battling all the time with that)
  • Cold intolerance (I use hot water bottles during the day while I work to keep warm)
  • Muscle cramps (day and night! Do you remember my swims last summer while I battled not drowning while I worked out cramps that would last for several minutes. Happens during yoga too)
  • Depression (I try and keep it at bay...)
  • Irritability (hard to say...ya know when you just get bitchy?)
So, the verdict won't be in until the end of the month and I hate to do an internet self diagnosis...so I'll just wait on it. ZZZzzzzz...

In the good news my yoga teacher, after ten lessons together (once a week) asked me to switch classes and go to the Level 2 with another teacher. She thought I needed something more challenging so yesterday I tried the new class. Apart from the fact that I was totally intimidated by it because whereas my "class" had lots of nice comforting housewives in it, this one had YOGA BABES. But I just closed my eyes and concentrated on myself. Everything was a lot more challenging and there was even one position that I totally could not do. (like the above bridge pose but with your legs shooting up towards the ceiling. You achieve this my just flipping your legs UP) . I asked the teacher (and studio owner) afterwards if he felt this was the right class for me (cause I was feeling TOTALLY like it wasn't) but he told me that I'd done really well and that most people in the class had been practicing for years. Whew...I decided to go twice a week. Once with the advanced class and once with my first teacher - but on friday when she has a few more advanced students. One of my 2008 goals was to make it to level 2 - I just didn't expect it with a month!

Sunday, February 03, 2008

Time for a check-up

I know I haven't blogged lately about my running or triathlon training...so now is a good time as any to do that! In three weeks I'm racing the Roma-Ostia Half Marathon. I've been regularly training since the beginning of december but for some reason haven't gotten into the kind of shape that I would expect from regular workouts. I always think that it's just because I'm just not fast or that my back is hindering any progress but I always leave any real physiological reasons until last. Thursday was a holiday here in Modena, the patron saint's day "San Giminiano". They have an annual race every year which I already wrote about last year. For the 2008 edition there were only two girlfriends instead of five - well we know WHO is consistent now! The race is an odd distance: 13,400 metres and I was able to average 5'55"/km for the race , which I was happy about considering how I've been feeling lately. The only problem was that my heart rate was really high for that measly speed. How am I feeling you ask? Run down, tired, sleepy. I went on another run friday and had to take a nap in the afternoon and then another run this morning where after twenty minutes I had to take walking breaks. There are some huge red flags waving here and I need to get it all checked out. Tomorrow I'm going to the doctor to order some tests. Mostly iron levels and hormone levels. If nothing shows up I will be going back to my homeopathic doctor. To all the naysayers, he's the only one who's ever cured my energy problems (no, this is not the first time that I've had this problem).

This is the Military Academy where the race starts from...

Here I am walking in after the finish line...and while I was running my race...

Piero and Evan were assisting Bald1ini while he ran a lactate test (I think he's preparing for the London marathon again ...)

Kind of humbles you when you're complaining about your energy problems and six minute k's!