Fifty: The Review

Since I'm now a week into being 50, I figure it's time to give it a review.   I'm not usually someone who pays a lot of attention to age, but the idea of turning 50 really freaked me out.  So I spent a couple of months freaking out and then, last spring, decided to get my act together and see if I could change and improve some things about myself before I turned 50.  Here's how that turned out...compared to a week after turning 49, I am:

• Lighter.  I had gained about 6 pounds from my normal weight at this point a year ago, and went on to gain another 9 by the end of last spring.  I am happy to report that all 15 of those pounds are now gone (well, they were gone before my 50th birthday celebrations; due to stuff like this

          a couple of them have returned.  They will be dealt with appropriately.)

• Less moody.  Well, mostly.  I do have to admit that the last song I put on my iPod is Get Set Go's "Die Motherf@#ker Die," but it's nicely counterbalanced by American Author's "Best Day of My Life."  Never mind that I can play one right after the other and identify equally with both.  For the most part, my anti-cranky supplement is working well.
• Way hotter.  Well, at least 30 times a day or so I'm hotter (and yes, data geek that I am, I have counted).  Yup, hot flashes.  Whee.  I'm trying some supplements for those as well, but with limited success thus far. This past week, although it was in the 30's, I had to put the air on in my car on the way to work four out of the five days.
• Slower.  At least on inlines; I haven't yet hit the ice since turning 50 (I still need to do my 50 birthday laps).  I had a nice interval workout at the Dome last night, my first intervals there in years.   I was quite pleased that I surpassed my time goal of 1:10 (the laps are 600 meters) for all 12 laps; three laps were 1:09, one was 1:07, and the rest 1:08.  However, these were one lap on/one lap rest.  Back in 2008 I could do 1:10's for five straight laps.  Oh, well.  And anyway, my inline times have been getting slower for the last five years, but my ice times have been getting faster. I think maybe my technique improvements are relevant only to ice, and they're making me faster than my age is making me slower.  And since I think I made another huge technical leap during my visit to Milwaukee this August, I'm hoping for even more speed this winter.
• Just as clumsy as More clumsy than ever.  Yesterday, when skating at the Dome, I needed to use the bathroom.  I've gone into the bathroom with my skates on probably a hundred times with no problem, but this time, well...while standing up, my skates rolled out in front of me and I fell over backwards, which made my legs fly up and bash both shins on the underside of the stall door.  I suppose it could have been worse: I could have fallen into the toilet, or hit my head on it (I did have my helmet on).  Or, worse yet,someone could have come by and asked if I was OK.
• Fitter. In another post I'll do a review of the goals I had set for myself last March, but in general I've had a better preseason of workouts than last year, I'm now foam rolling and stretching for recovery, and I'm going to CrossFit twice a week, which is way more core and upper body work than I've ever done.  As a CrossFit T shirt that I covet says, "Strong is the New 50,"
• Happier.  Back in early October of 2012, I wrote this post.  As far as skating went, I was burned out, unenthusiastic, and slow.  I had had a bad summer thyroid-wise, which contributed to a bad summer of skating.  I was feeling unmotivated and in danger of losing my skating obsession--and since I'm one of those people who is happiest and functions best when in the grip of an obsession, this was a bad thing for my happiness in general.  Now, though...well, now, I've had a good summer season; I've found a way to work on core, flexibility, and upper body strength that I actually enjoy (in fact, the Hubster recently accused me of becoming obsessed with CrossFit as well as skating. Yay!); and I'm feeling excited about the upcoming ice season.

So...fifty is looking mighty good so far!

Fifty!

I turned fifty two days ago. It wasn't as traumatic as I feared it might be.

In fact, it was a whole lot of fun.

The Hubster kept asking me, in the weeks leading up to my birthday, what I wanted to do.  I always said the same thing: be at the cabin with him, my parents, my sister Energizer Bunny and her husband Sherpa Boy, and also my best friend from college.

Since this is exactly what had been planned for my birthday for, oh, the last six months, I figured this should be quite a clear direction, and easy to accomplish.

So, we went to the cabin.  We hiked.  We ate.  We laughed.  We hiked some more, ate some more, and laughed some more.

Oh, and we did Burpees.  Lots and lots of Burpees.

It started with this email from CrossFit SISU:
Happy birthday Kaari, SISU has a special gift for you. A Birthday WOD, 100 Burpees for time. 3 2 1...GO!

Make it great day!

PS- Don't forget to record your score as a Thank YOU!

The CrossFit Sisu Coaching TEAM!

And it ended with, well, I'll copy the email I sent back:

Dear CrossFit Sisu Sadists Coaches,

Thank you so much for the lovely birthday WOD gift. While it was a bit large--"50 Burpees" is a better size for me--I do appreciate the thought.  And although it's likely that it was intended to be a gag gift, I can't resist a challenge--even one that may have been issued in jest.  Besides, what better way than 100 Burpees to ensure that I start the next 50 years of my life off on the right foot (or, more accurately, face down on the ground)?

So October 19, my 50th birthday, we held the inaugural "Burpees on the Beach Burpday Challenge" at our cabin on Lake Superior.  Unfortunately, inclement weather forced the competition off the beach and into our half-renovated sauna, but the view out the window was spectacular nonetheless.

 (BTW, there is no view fabulous enough to make up for the fact that Burpees Suck).

My family rocks.  Not only did my husband, sister and brother-in-law cheer me on—they did the 100 Burpees with me!  In fact, you may want to consider trying to recruit my sister to CrossFit; she’s 52 but beat my time of 12:15 by almost three full minutes—then after completing  her 100 Burpees she did 20 more with me as I finished mine, to “keep me company.”  What a bitch supportive sister!

     

          100!

Post Burpee Euphoria

We all enjoyed the “Burpees on the Beach” so much that we’re planning to do it again.

In another 50 years.

(Thanks for helping me in my quest to “Unsuck Myself” as I enter my 50’s.  And remember—“Strong is the new 50!”)

Kaari  

So fifty was fun; a lot of fun.  And there's more to look forward to: I haven't done my fifty laps yet (maybe Milwaukee in a couple of weeks?), and I want to review some goals I wrote in the early spring, when the 2013-14 preseason was just starting.  And maybe I should wax eloquent about the marvels of living for a half-century, and what it means and what I've learned and what I hope to accomplish in the next 50 years.

Or, I could go eat another piece of cake and plan my workouts for the week.

I Dew Realize...

...how fortunate I am to have the co-workers that I Dew!

I'm a special education teacher. Ten kids in grades K-5, all with varying but fairly significant needs. I can't do it alone--and I've been blessed, for the 15 years I've had my classroom, to work with some of the best paraprofessionals there are.  These women are smart and funny.  They're incredibly good at their job.  They make my life easier and the kids' lives better, and I absolutely could not (nor would I want to!) do my job without them.

They also throw a killer birthday celebration.

I think it started ten years ago, when I turned 40.  One of the paras managed to convince about half of the staff in our school to celebrate me by donning my then-frequent-fashion-statement: plaid (oh, hush up.  I'm fashion-impaired).  Such is my oblivion to clothes, of course, that it took me at least two hours to notice what was going on--but it was fun.  Subsequent years have seen a "Playmate of the Month" calendar--featuring my "playmate" cooler lunch box; an "All the Hotness" theme the year my thyroid meds made me heat up (given my current rate of hot flashes, they could have used that one again this year!); and an epic "KU" fest where they celebrated me as the head of the mythical "Kaari University" (complete with school song.  These women are creative.)

So I knew something would happen this year as I brace myself for look forward to turning 50.  My actual birthday is on the weekend--and a long weekend at that--so Wednesday, yesterday, was "Birthday Day" at school.

And once again they outdid themselves.  Having astutely noticed my on-again, off-again affair with Diet Mountain Dew, they crafted a Mountain (as in "over the hill") Dew birthday.

There were sherpas...

Notice the Dew oxygen bottle

...and a sign.

Dew gear...

 Yes, that's a Dew hat, too

...and balloons.

Notice the "case o'Dew" balloon anchor

And best of all...

A really, really cool cake!

So thank you, ladies.  As I walked out of school at the end of the day, carrying my Dew gear and "Mountain" treats and trailing my impressive clutch of balloons (one of which was playing a cheery birthday song), I couldn't help smiling.  Fifty isn't looking so bad.

And I Dew know that I am truly blessed by the people in my life.

Damn Germs, and Other Bullet Points

(I seem to be gravitating to the bullet point format lately.  I think this means that I either don't have much to say, or I can't stay focused long enough to write a "real" blog post.  Oh, well).

• I am now officially sick for the second time since school started Sept. 3.  I almost always get sick sometime in September or October, but I think this is a record for me.  The first one was a mild, fairly short cold; this one has a bit more sinus punch.  Both chose to show up the week before I was planning a Milwaukee skating weekend, resulting in my not having been back on ice since my cornering epiphany in August.  I need to get back down there soon and prove to myself that my improved technique was not just a fluke (the better cornering technique doesn't seem to have the same impact when inlining).  Maybe the first weekend in November...if I'm not sick again by then.

• Between illness and parent/teacher conferences, I haven't skated again since my really successful endurance outing on Tuesday.  I hope to get to the oval today or tomorrow, though, to do my interval workout for the week, since tomorrow is the last day of the oval inline season.  That means that ice can't be far off!

• The loosely-organize MN Masters Speedskating club has now officially joined the Plymouth Wazata Speedskating Club, which is soon to be re-named Twin City Speedskating (yes, the one I wrote about coaching with here).  After US Speedskating sent me an email asking for our club's non-existent officer's names, plus minutes from our non-existent meetings and a copy of our non-existent bylaws, I realized that turning "loosely organized" into "official club" was a lot more work than I was ready for.  So when the guy from TCSS who talked to me about coaching also mentioned having our club become a group in their club, I thought it was a fine idea. MN Masters officially joined Twin City Speedskating last Sunday, and I am the masters liaison on the board.  Check out TCSS at their website  (still with the old name), and if you're a skater over 30 in the Twin Cities area who wants to do either long or short track...this is the place!

• I'm still loving CrossFit (yes, I did just notice that the "F" should be capitalized).  In fact, the other day Hubster accused me of becoming "obsessed" by it.  Good. That obsession is what keeps me skating, so if I also get obsessed about something that gets my abs and upper body working...so much the better.  And I did a skating dryland workout last weekend for the first time in several months and was way less sore than I usually am from "first dryland" workouts--so there seems to be some carryover of CrossFit workouts to skating.

• In other news, I turn 50 a week from today.  I'll wait until then to convey my thoughts on the matter...

Short Track and Handstands and Thyroids, Oh My!

In other words, I have a lot of random crap and no coherent idea for a blog post...so bring on the disjointed three-part post!

1.  Short Track (hi, Sharon!).  Yes, I'm trying short track again...sort of.  Last winter I took US Speedskating's Level I coaching course (taught by none other than the fabulous Coach TieGuy).  One of the requirements for completing the Level I certification is to do 25 hours of coaching.  I mentioned this to a fellow masters skater at an an association meeting a couple weeks ago, and he suggested I help coach short track for Plymouth-Wayzata Speedskating, now renamed Twin City Speedskating.  Well, that sounded like it was right up my alley--or, more accurately, right in my neighborhood.  PWSS trains for short track just a few miles from me, which is a refreshing change from the 30 mile jaunt to the oval.  So I said "sure."

Only problem is, I know squat about short track.  Oh, sure, I tried it a few times--at PWSS, actually, back when TieGuy did some coaching for them--but I never got good at it and never got to enjoy it.  Too many people, too short of a track, too rutted ice and the walls way too close when you crash--which, by the last couple sessions, I was doing at least twice a night.  My short track since then has been limited to a once-or-twice a year slow session with fellow long-trackers at a rink without pads.

But this time I'd be coaching rather than skating, so what the heck.  So last Sunday I grabbed my short track skates and my kneepads and headed to the rink.  After a dryland warmup, one of the "real" coaches filled me in on my task.  She's a very knowledgeable person who has been around skating forever, and she's seen me on the long track ice for years.  Which is why, when she informed me that I'd be watching three skaters and giving them feedback on technique issues, she reminded me that "you know what to look for, even if you can't do it yourself."  This was followed by a very meaningful look, which nicely forestalled my "but I can't skate short track" whine.

So I helped coach.  It was fun, and it did involve some skating, which I survived (well, OK, I did crash once).  I do feel a bit lost when looking for technique issues in short track, but I'll get there, and I'm going again tomorrow.  This means that I am now at three to four skating workouts,  two Crossfits, four or five foam-rolling and stretching sessions, and a coaching session per week.  Oh, yeah, and a job.  Anyone want to take bets on how long I can keep this up?

2.  Handstands.  In Crossfit they do all kinds of crazy things, including handstands.  Now, I was never one of those little girls who goes around practicing handstands and roundoffs and cartwheels on any flat stretch of lawn they happen to come across.  No, I was a clumsy little thing who hated being upside down or sideways and who liked to keep one foot firmly planted on the ground at all times.  So when I saw handstand pushups (HSPU) on the WOD (Workout Of the Day) on Thursday, I figured it could get interesting.  Especially since it was following up the Clean and Jerk Debacle of Monday (those Olympic lifts are tricky for a "motor moron!"). So as soon as we were sent off to practice our handstands in preparation for the WOD, I headed straight for the coach.

"I've never done a handstand," I confessed.

Two minutes later, after some brief instruction and a bit of help to get my feet all the way up, I was standing on my hands with my feet against the wall.  Then the coach moved my feet slightly away from the wall, exhorted me (repeatedly) to tighten my abs...and then removed his hands.

Five seconds later, after he had helped me return to a right-side-up position, he proffered his knuckles for a fist bump (which, in a display of my typical inability to keep up with popular culture, I initially attempted to high-five).

"There," he said, "you just did a handstand."

And, like a five year old whose dad has just let go of her "big girl bike" for two seconds and then assured her that she "rode a bike"--I beamed with pride.

3.  Thyroid.  Well, the tweaking of the meds seems to be working.  On Tuesday I re-attempted the 3x5K endurance workout which had ended so horribly--and so quickly--the previous Tuesday.  This time it went much better: my slowest lap of the 37.5 was a 53, which was, coincidentally, my fastest lap of the six I had managed to complete the previous week.  I consider that progress!  In addition, a quick flip through my data notebooks showed that I haven't done 5K's in an inline workout in a couple years, so just completing them feels like a victory. So once again, I can say "so far so good, and bring on the ice!"

Apparently I Spoke Too Soon

My last blog entry ended with a happy little "so far, so good."  And it was good...right up until I tried to skate this week.

Both skating workouts I have attempted this week have ended early and ugly.  On Tuesday my 3x5K at 50 second or so laps ended on lap six, which took me exactly one minute.  I felt horrible, and in just those six laps my lap times had increased seven seconds.  I really wasn't up for doing the remaining 30 laps, the last of which would likely need to be timed with a calendar, so I bailed on the workout.

I figured there were four possibilities for what was going wrong:  either 1)I hadn't recovered properly from the North Shore Marathon, or 2) my cold was affecting me more than I thought it was, or 3) my thyroid meds were not properly adjusted, or 4) I had eaten the wrong thing before my workout and was having blood sugar issues (what, two blueberry poptarts and a Diet Mountain Dew isn't good pre-workout food?).

I suppose there's also the possibility of 5) some combination of all of the above.

So I decided to try to eliminate as many possibilities as I could before I hit the oval again.  For the recovery, I'd take Wednesday and Thursday completely off from workouts before trying skating again on Friday.  For the cold, well, I'd just have to take vitamin C and hope it got better.  I thought I may have taken too much of my fast-acting thyroid med before skating (although still less than what I've typically used over the past three years), so I decided to adjust my timing a bit to address number three.  And for number four, no poptarts...although the Dew got to stay.

So I did all that...and Friday's intervals sucked harder than Tuesday's endurance.  My lap times were a bit better (for the 3.5 laps I managed), but I felt absolutely horrible.  Lightheaded, wobbly, sluggish--in fact, I wanted nothing more than to pull off the track, curl up on the concrete bleachers next to the oval, and take a nap.  Needless to say, the interval workout did not get completed.

Still, I think the abysmal workout gave me some important information.  The "I need a nap in the middle of a workout" sensation is something I've really only felt when my thyroid levels are high, and the "wobbly" feeling correlates pretty well with high thyroid as well.  Add in the fact that I am almost always hot (even when I'm not having a hot flash), and the fact that, despite being hungry all the time this week and eating like a truck driver, I've actually lost over a pound this week, and you've got a pretty good case for "perhaps we need to cut back on the thyroid meds a wee."  So even though I had adjusted the timing for Friday's workout, I don't think I adjusted it enough.  Time to try again.

Of course it rained today, Saturday, so I couldn't try skating with new thyroid med timing--so I decided to go to my Crossfit gym's Saturday "Bütt Camp."  I've never done the Saturday workouts before, and I'm not exactly a Crossfit veteran anyway, so a Crossfit workout is not the best way to evaluate how well my thyroid is adjusted, but it's all I had to work with.

Turns out that Bütt Camp workouts are...interesting.  This one was a partner event, and a long one:  "Annie" (which is 50-40-30-20-10 double-under jump ropes and situps, except I had to do three times as many jumps because I can't do dubs), then two rope climbs, then some toes to bar, pushups, and air squats, two more rope climbs (don't be silly, I can't climb a rope; I had to scale to three "pull yourself up off the ground" things for each climb) and then another workout named for a woman (unfortunately I can't remember which one)--3 rounds of 400 meter run, 21 kettlebell swings, and 12 pullups.  Oh, and a 45 minute cap to the workout.  Which, due to my inability to do more than five rope jumps in a row, my poor partner and I needed almost all of.

But still, I did it all.  A little PVC action in the 400 meter runs, but otherwise I felt OK (well, as OK as you can feel doing all that stuff).  So hopefully I've got the thyroid going in the right direction.   I won't really know until I skate...but--and this has a warmly familiar ring to it--so far so good.

How Did My Legs Get to SLC Without Me?

This weekend (as in, right now) is the Masters Long Track camp in Salt Lake City.  I went last year and the year before and had a blast, but the timing this year is not good for me; it's hard to take two days off so early in the school year.  So I regretfully decided not to go this year.  I was sorry to miss it--two ice workouts and  two "learn the technique but you're gonna do some work in the process" dryland, slideboard and turncable workouts a day for four days, led by ever-enthusiastic and energetic Olympic Gold medal winner Derek Parra.  A great time and a great learning experience--but also an event guaranteed to leave you sore as heck by the time you get back on the plane on Sunday.

However, after last Saturday's North Shore Inline Marathon, Crossfit on Monday, a 13-hour work day on Tuesday that precluded working out, Crossfit again Wednesday and Thursday (rain kept me off the oval), and an endurance oval skate on Friday followed by a hockey game Friday night, by the time I got out of bed this morning my legs were convinced that they'd just spent the last few days doing Derek's workouts.

Yup, sore and tired.

But a good sore and tired.  Workouts are going well, I'm getting stronger, and I'm thinking about going to Milwaukee next weekend to try a Time Trial.  So even though I didn't make it to the camp this year, things are going well.  So far, so good--and only seven weeks or so until the ice season!