Holy crap!

It's been a week already???
I work,
I Twitter( microblogging, see the feed to the right),
I blog in my head all the time. If there was a way to auto feed my thoughts into my blog I could avoid this typing thing that hurts my hands anyway. Between my nails falling off....( oh yes my nails are falling off!!!) from the chemo and the fingertip pain from the chemo and this new strange phenomenon of my hands hurting after any activity that I use them a lot. i.e. swimming, gardening... mmmm typing!!!
I guess when my mom's nails were a mess near the end of her chemo I did not understand why... but now I understand that nails are also a fast growing cell just like hair so why wouldn't they get damaged???

So this last few weeks has been nuts! Trying to have fun before summer ended, trying to train for the potential of racing this triathlon, trying to spend time with my kid etc etc. Oh, and then there is this annoying work thingy that keeps getting in the way! I was on TV last Thursday on CH Morning Live, and dragged my tired ass to the EX with Luke and his pal. Thanks to the construction workers here in the Witherspoon hell pit I did not get a nap. So up at 4:30am, work for 3 or so hours, then off to 7 hours of walking on concrete. Have I ever mentioned I hate junk food ( well except for cotton candy and it is not on my diet) and rides?? So imagine me at the freakin' EX! ?

We have yet another street festival coming up this weekend- The Locke Street festival Sat Sept 6th. Drop in, say hi, rub my fuzzy (yup, you could actually call it fuzz now, not stubble!) head and then, well you know.... buy something!

So, about this triathlon thing. I did it.
I raced the darned Women's Tri( super-sprint distance 375m swim, 10km bike, 2.5km run) in Milton on Sunday.
I had a "Swim Buddy" to help me through the swim portion just in case I freaked out. God love her, but I may have been faster if she did not chat with me the whole time. But hey! I was there to prove I could race again... so I listened to her chat. The bike portion was a breeze (I hate to say this, because now y'all won't think I am sick anymore) and the run suuuuuucked. Running has been and will remain my hardest sport of the 3. I may be a slow swimmer, but it does not really scare me anymore. Cycling? well how could that be hard? Running? in the sun( curse the women's tri for moving the course into the open sunshine- the old course was waaaay better) wa hot and hard. I pulled a Whitfield at the end, and tried to sprint to the finish, but had nothing left and let the girl behind me pass at the last minute. So, I had my kid run the last 50m holding my hand... but I did it.


I finished a triathlon 6weeks and 3.5 days after my last chemotherapy. Ya hear that cancer???

The studies say that ( quoted from my smartypants swimmy pal in my BC support group)

"women who stay, or become, physically active after being dx'd with BC have a better chance of survival. They're talking about a reduction in the risk of death of 67% from 2 or 3 hrs of "brisk walking" per week during the year before and 2 years after dx. Women who were "sedentary" pre-dx could reduce their risk of death by 45% if they increased their level of activity to 2 or 3 hrs of brisk walking per wk during the 2 yrs after dx.

This is the original article: M.L. Irwin, et al. "Influence of pre- and postdiagnosis physical activity on mortality in breast cancer survivors: The health, eating, activity, and lifestyle study." Journal of Clinical Oncology 26(24):3958-3964 (Aug. 20, 2008). It was highlighted in a lot of news releases this past week"

So cancer? I will take your walking "2-3 hours of walking briskly" and raise you by 2-3 hours of triathlon training. SO THERE!

I am off to some hand hurting gardening ( y'all know how much I love the garden right?) in the last 3 hours of day 1 with my kid in school.

Shout out to my mom's late in life pal Jeff Goodes host of CBC radio's Fresh Air, apparently a note about me and the tri got to him and he mentioned it on the air on Sunday morning. If any of you heard it tell me all about it. Thanks Jeff!!!

Cheers, and I wil post pic later.. I pwomise!

N

P.S. I added a pic for you! see above