You sure have some gall, lady

I had my first ever visit to an Aussie hospital last Monday due to shocking pain and nausea.  I thought my appendix was about to go and pack itself, but apparently my symptoms and blood tests disagreed.  I was prodded, poked with needles, fed IV fluids (give more more of that, I felt ready to run a marathon after the litre of IV saline dripped through!), and then sent home. Tuesday morning I was back for an ultrasound, where they found a filthy great gallstone. Gross!

I was sent on my merry way from the local hospital and told no more fatty food.  No more chips, no more cake, no more biscuits, no more cream, no more of anything like that.  I'm off to Malaysia next week, and I was told no satay either. Crap!  I was also told by the young and relatively good looking doctor that my gall bladder has to come out. Oh joy. I didn't really get anything else out of Mr Hot Young Doctor, so I left feeling rather sorry for myself and rather shellshocked. What the hell?

Well, this left me rather freaked so I rang my GP to book in and get some reassurance from her.  Sadly, I couldn't see her until late October and the idea of being in Malaysia with this foreign object floating around in my gall bladder and not being allowed to eat Satay isn't terribly exciting. So, I saw another Doctor this morning, who works with my immunologist.  How convenient!

Turns out that the gallstone has been in there and growing for at least ten years. And, they can be triggered by rapid dieting as well as by having a crappy diet in the first place. So, what was I doing in 2000/2001?  Dieting!!! I lost about 22kg in about 10 months, so I guess I can thank Weight Watchers for helping with my gallstone growth. UGH! Basically, it is growing at the rate of 2.5mm per year.  In another 10 years, it will be 5cm long. In 20 years, it will be 10cm long! Well, as if that will be allowed to happen.  But still, yuck!

And, the GP has said I don't need my gall bladder out. Sweet as, I'm fine with that prospect. The last thing I need right now is surgery, I have under 18 months until Ironman and the gallstone can STFU until after Ironman as far as I am concerned. At least we know why my cholesterol level is so good - all the cholesterol has been combined with Calcium and some other crap, and baked into a nice gallstone. Mega yuck. I am so grossed out right now it's not even funny.

Basically, this "attack" was brought on by too much fat in my system that just couldn't be broken down.  Clearly a week of eating crap wasn't a good plan. I overloaded my system and I've spent the past week paying for it. Never again!  I do not want to experience that ever again, if it can be avoided then that's all good. Is a cup of hot chips worth hours of pain and suffering? HELL NO! I'm going to have to knuckle down and really get to a point of almost obsession about what I eat again.  

So, no training happened this past week. I've literally felt like spewing all week, and that combined with the pain and the lethargy has meant I've done diddly squat. But, this morning I got up and went to swim coaching.  I felt great afterwards, and have plenty of energy today. First breakfast stayed down, as did second breakfast. Lunch was three hours ago and that hasn't given me any grief so far. Have now not felt like spewing since Thursday and have had no pills since early Friday morning. Wicked.

I got a bit down about the no chips thing earlier this week. Then, I realised that since I'm not meant to be eating them anyway, it's actually a blessing in disguise. Now I HAVE to eat clean, and while I can still have some fat, I have to really watch it.  It's one thing to make drastic dietary changes because you want to, but quite another to make them because your body is forcing you to do it.  That's when the mental rebellion takes over.  

I found myself craving a good old kiwi hot dog (battered sausage on a stick) and a bar of chocolate last night. For the record, I haven't had a kiwi hot dog in about 18 months. They are fat, wrapped in fat, fried in fat.  Now that I can't have stuff, I am starting to want it. The old adage of wanting what you can't have rings loud and true. But, it's a mind game.  I just have to remember the pain and suffering that this crap would cause and the desire lessens. One good thing about this gallstone situation is that my appetite has halved and when I do eat, it's half what I used to eat. The bad thing is that I'm scared my body is going to start eating all my muscle.  Bad body!  

Anyway, aside from all this gallstone garbage, the week has gone by pretty quick. Today I treated myself to a manicure and pedicure. Tomorrow it's off for an eyebrow shape and lash tint. I hit the supermarket today and bought super dooper low fat everything (well, apart from cat food and laundry powder). I'm cooking something for dinner tonight, I have no idea what it is yet but that's okay.  

I had planned to race tomorrow in my club's final duathlon for the season, but I'm totally undercooked for the distance, so not this time. I'll still go along but won't be racing. Besides, I have a club hoodie to pick up!

Catch you later, it's time raid the fridge for risotto ingredients.

Back in the drink

Today was my first swim coaching session in Aussie.  The local pool is glorious, even at the ungodly hour I frequented it at today.  It is directly across the road from gym  number three, so I can see myself doing a few brick sessions there when the weather doesn't want to cooperate.  Sadly, uncooperative weather is fast becoming the norm here. I think Auckland's weather stowed away on my plane over from NZ.  Last weekend was the first one without rain that I can remember since arriving here nearly four months ago.

My new swim coach, Ray, had to nitpick with my freestyle to find stuff I can work on.  I don't need stroke correction, which is great, as it turns out the money I spent on swimming lessons back in NZ was well spent.  What I do need is to beef up my freestyle kick, which is a bit lazy and weak.  Time to break out the flippers, hamstring and glute exercises, and more pilates for the legs.

My coaching sessions will be very structured with Ray.  We're going to work on my kick and my swim fitness/swim endurance.  I will be doing a four lap kickboard warm up with flippers each week, then into blocks of 250 metres freestyle, working up to blocks of 500 and 750 metres freestyle, with a break into water polo stroke for half a length in the middle of each block.  Cool down will be breaststroke and survival backstroke.

I'm off to Malaysia in just under two weeks, and my plan while there is laps in the pool, time on the bike and some weights.  It is possible to maintain and even increase your fitness on a stationary bike while travelling, according to an article I read last night (not exactly rocket science, I know).  So, that's my plan. 

I think an hour of slog each morning will be fine, before it gets too hot and sticky during the day.  The last thing I need is to work my butt off now (literally and figuratively speaking) and slack off because I'm in a tropical paradise for six days.  I'll take runners, togs, goggles, swim cap, a couple of Ironman-related books and some common sense!

Slightly off topic, I splashed out on a new TV, with a built-in DVD player for my virtual rider windtrainer sessions at home, VGA input for my laptop, HD for watching foxtel and best of all, I can now watch the movies on my hard drive on a decent size screen.  I also have the option of sitting on the couch in comfort while surfing the net, updating my blog, and typing stuff.  Bliss!  I love my wireless multimedia keyboard, I can couch potato all I like now (after training of course)!

Now that I have the blender, printer, new runners and TV, my next purchases will be a coffee machine, windtrainer, club tri suit, and a waterproof MP3 player for the pool.  Eventually I'll need a wetsuit, but I'm leaving that until I am a little more physically aerodynamic - the same reason why I don't yet have aerobars.  You can have the fastest bike around with all the aerodynamic gear available, but if you're not physically aerodynamic there's no point.

My plan for tomorrow is pretty simple.  Sleep in, have a good breaky, hit the gym and then a quick trip to the supermarket for milk, bananas, strawberries, yogurt and frozen smoothie fruit.  Then, I have washing and housework to do.  Boring but necessary, so all good.

Catch you later. 

Sick mate, fully sick

I've been sick mate.  Not girl flu, but fully sick mate.  It's been bronchitis since Wednesday and I'm not happy.  I've managed to avoid it all year, and hello, here it is.  Can somebody please write an iPhone app to prevent colds and flu?

I'm frustrated with this latest bout of germs because I was meant to start swim coaching yesterday at the local swim school.  I'm less happy that I have had to postpone the swim coaching and postpone what was meant to be my first session with my new Tri Coach.  Ugh!  And, I had to postpone my haircut and colour, my manicure and my pedicure, my eyebrow shape and my massage.  Yeah, it's only a week of postponement, but seriously, the season starts on 28 November and I want to train NOW!!!   

I ventured out of the house today and bought a blender, so my morning protein shake and bowl of breaky will become one drinkable meal on the way to work. May as well get used to drinkable meals on the run now, I'll have 15+ hours of it at Ironman!

I've found my insulated lunch bag (yeah, I'm such a nerd) in the last box I had to unpack, and thanks to online grocery shoppoing I'm stocked up on proper food for meals and snacks.  Lunch for tomorrow is cooked and in the fridge (mmm, gnocchi with a chilli, basil, ricotta and white wine sauce).  The blender is ready for tomorrow morning.

On Tuesday I've got an assessment at gym number three.  Yeah, you heard correctly - gym number three.  Much as I love Virgin Active and all it's cool features and quirks, it's too much of a hassle to get to and I hate the city after living there for five weeks.  Once my PT contract is up in early October, I'm outta there.  I avoid the city like the plague now.  It's too big, too noisy, too busy and I'm much happier in my little seaside village...or in the ultimate oxymoron, Sunshine.  I just can't be stuffed with the city - everything I need is within half an hour's public transport ride, and the city is at least 40 minutes away.  'nuff said.

Gym number three is literally around the corner from my house (200 metres away, to be more accurate).  For less than half the price of Virgin, I can hit the gym around the corner from 6am to 10pm seven days a week.  It's so shiny and so new that the PT was putting together kitset furniture when I went in this afternoon.  LOL. 

I'm keeping my membership at gym number two because of the pool and the awesome PT.  The cardio equipment is basic and well past it, but the pool is very handy and I usually have it all to myself.  Plus there's a Saturday morning pump class, and the pool where my swim coaching takes place is only open for laps in the morning - and three sessions of that a week costs more than the weekly fee at gym number two. 

Two more days off training should be okay before I hit the gym and the pool again, so I'll be back swimming on Wednesday night. I survived a 5km walk today to the laundromat and back with 10kgs of washing on my back (12kg on the way home with the wet stuff to hang up) but there was a bit of spluttering going on.

I bought a new 2XU Project X transition bag last weekend, which I have been drooling over for months, and was all ready to pack it with my stuff and head off to my myriad of training sessions. Then, wham slam bammy, hello bronchitis. At least I can also use it for shopping and the weekly washing trip, the waterproof wetsuit pocket doubles as an insulated cool bag and as a wet washing pocket for those things you can't tumble dry.  The bag absolutely rocked on today with my trip to the laundromat. 

Must away, have some serious planning today regarding my trip to Ironman NZ in March.  I've found a tour which includes airfares from Melbourne, accommodation at the Hilton (in a King Bed room, woohoo!), transfers to and from Taupo ex Auckland Airport, an extra 30kg of baggage on top of the standard 30kg (so 60kg all up, woohoo), training sessions, Q&A session, transport, course orientation plus Huka Falls, the hot springs and a pile of other stuff.  It's a little pricey but I'm worth it.  Just have to figure out how to pay for it!

Ciao.