GrooveTime!group - CLOSED!!! (Page 12)

After seeing Denise's post, I realized that I never completed an official bio.  So here it is (sorry for the length):

Story:

I had been active most of my life, mostly in team sports especially hockey.  I played goal for many yrs and have just in the past few yrs hung up the pads and started playing out full time.  In the 90’s I worked out regularly with weights and various cardio machines.  Around this time I started watching the Ironman broadcasts every yr.  I decided that I wanted to do that one day.  I took up running and bought a road bike.  I continued to have some long standing issues with water and swimming.   In 1997 I completed 2 duathlons.  I didn’t attempt another race until 2000 when I was the biker half of a duathlon.  After that I completed a number of 5 k’s and 2 ½ mary’s.  I think my last race was  a 5 k in ’07.  Since ’01 I have been having great difficulty maintaining consistency in my workouts.  I will do good for a few weeks, miss a day and then totally fall off the wagon.  I’ve tried the ‘sign up for a race’ to motivate me, but this has backfired on numerous occasions.  In ’03 I signed up for an October ½ mary to ‘motivate’ myself.  Well I did well for a few weeks.  Unfortunately my last (and longest run) was approximately 7 km in July.  I did run and finish that half mary.  It was very slow and very, very painful !!!  I have just recently clued in that I stopped doing the consistent workouts around the same time period that an inner ear issue surfaced.  The constant fear that I’m going to have a bad vertigo attack has, for lack of a better phrase, has held me hostage for many years and kept me back from pursuing many goals in my life.  I want 2010 to be different and I would really like to get on track to completing a number of goals including a triathlon.

Personal:

I’m a 44 yr old female.  I live with my partner of 10 yrs and our “children”: 2 dogs, 2 cats, 1 green cheeked conure and 1 plecostomus.  I have been a police officer for the past 17 ½ yrs, 15 of which was in uniform patrol.  I am currently in an office-type position out of HQ.  I am also 1 ½ yrs into a 3 yr veterinary technology program.  It’s done via correspondence sept – apr and on campus may, june, july.   I am not sure exactly what I want to do with the diploma when I graduate, but it is something I have always wanted to pursue.   I just found out this past week that my request for unpaid leave of absence to attend school next summer has been denied, so I may be entering an animal care career much sooner than expected.

Current training:

I was following the BT beginner cycling program.  I did very well for 4 weeks, but then fell off the wagon L .  Other than hockey once/week I haven’t been doing much of anything.  I have an awesome gym in my basement (treadmill, bike on trainer, weight benches, pulleys etc) so I really have no excuse not to be working out more.  I leave on Tues for vacation in warmer climates.  On all my past vacations I have been really good about working out every morning so I intend to carry on that tradition again.

2009 races:

Notta, other than racing to my car at the end of every shift.

2010 Races:

So far nothing concrete has been planned.  A few things that I have been considering:  Waterloo half mary at end of April, Victoria du in May and Milton women’s tri in Sept. 

Weight loss:

I lost 13 lbs at school this past summer and have managed to keep it off.  The 4 weeks of the cycling program dropped a few more lbs.  It’s very frustrating as I know that when I work out consistently the pounds fall off, but I just cant seem to keep the consistency going.  I would love to get down to the 150’s which would be a 15-20 lb loss.

Anne:  If it's any consolation, I took a statistics course and I still had to google MODE as I didn't know what it was.  Mode is the "value that occurs the most frequently in a data set".

M: A plecostomus is a fancy word for a particular kind of big, ugly fish . 

Steve: The Meniere's has caused me to permanently lose most of the hearing in my affected ear (as of last test I'm at 8% functional hearing).  I've been told a hearing aid will do me no good as it will only amplify distortion.  When it is flaring up I get rather loud tinnitus which is 24-7.  Think of listening to a seashell on your stereo with the volume turned up loud.  The nausea usually only happens during the bad vertigo.  I have lots of what I call 'mini spins' where I just feel off balance for a bit.  Kinda look like I'm drunk too.  I decided if I can't beat 'em, join 'em.  I went out and dyed my hair blonde so that I could officially be a "dizzy blonde".  No offence to anyone here who may be blonde

The medical tx I'm on is a diuretic everyday (theory is it will drain the potassium rich fluid from my ear) and a mild histamine called Serc.  When I am bad I'm supposed to take valium (try not to take that one too much).  I'm supposed to be on a low sodium diet as they think excess sodium will cause water retention.  I'm also taking a whole load of natural supplements.  I've also started back with the naturopath.  When I first started seeing him when I first got this I soon went into remission for a few years.  

The way I understand the condition is that it is a result of either a leaky or a rupturing membrane in the ear.  That causes two different types of ear fluid to mix which leads to the various symptoms.  There are a number of theories about what causes it.  The one getting a lot of research right now is that it is a viral cause.  I've been told by the ENT that it is ok for water to get in my ear as it wont affect the inner ear.  I personally, however, try not to as it does seem to make things worse.  I'm thinking if the membrane is damaged/leaking what is to stop other water from getting in?

My biggest fear with this whole thing is that one day my good ear will also be affected. 

STEVE B,

I want to ease back into running starting next week and was wondering how you would tackle that, given my running history (or better put, lack of it).   I'm not interested in ANY speedwork for January.   I have done NO running in December and my longest run in November was 10km.   

Thanks,  

Anne