Race Weekend and Yoga and Ultimate

The 24 Hours of LeMons race left me incredibly sore. For the first day, there was a mirror mounted low that I couldn't see over when turning right. So every time I turned right, I had to pull myself up as much as possible, extending my neck like a turtle (a racing turtle!). It got better as the day went on and I was more familiar with the track, but my neck and upper shoulders were left in a lot of pain. The other thing that hurt pretty bad were my legs...but nowhere I'm ever sore with my legs. It was a weird inner soreness, and my hips hurt. I think it was again because of my having to really extend my legs so much to reach the pedals. And then my lower back sides (love handle area) were tight and sore. That tightened up with every turn, which makes me think I wasn't secured down in my seat well enough.

Amazing how strenuous racing is! I really start to find my groove around an hour. So the next day when I drove for 1:45, it was pretty awesome. I was hot, but then started to sweat a lot and cooled off some. I was tired but elated at the fact that we were coming into 1st place. We kept it out there - that's the name of endurance racing! I am still reliving moments. It was so incredible.

Tuesday was back to yoga. It went better than I imagined it would given my soreness and missing last week. But I think swimming is starting to kick in with helping my strength. And things like my quads weren't sore. Oh, I had a charlie horse in my bicep Tuesday morning. Never had that happen - it hurt really bad.

Sunday night as we were driving back from Joliet, I started wondering if I was getting sick. I had had a sore throat all weekend. It definitely hit Monday - running nose and sneezing all day. Tuesday I wanted to just work a half day but all the emails and responsibilities piled on and I couldn't leave until 4. I tried to sleep a little before yoga but that didn't work too well. Wednesday morning I got up at 5:00 a.m. for a 5:45 a.m. spinning class. It was intervals and surprisingly easy! After an hour of that and then a stressful morning at work, I was pretty beat but feeling pretty energized at the same time. Good thing because Wednesday nights are Ultimate. And I happened to be the only girl that showed up at first. The news that I'd have to play the entire game (in only the second game of the season) didn't make me too excited. Luckily a girl on the other team came to our team, and one of our girls showed up a little late. So it wasn't bad, but I certainly played more than I planned. I was going to try to stay out as much as possible and let the other girls play since I was sick.

Today my lungs are hurting. My throat is scratchy and I'm coughing a lot. It might be a good day to just rest a bit and recover. I am looking forward to swimming on Friday!

Friday Early Swim Before LeMons

I got to the pool the earliest I ever have on Friday. We were leaving for Joliet, IL as soon as we dropped off the dogs, so I had to get there early. The earliest I can go with my membership is 6, so that's when I got there.

I was sore from yard work and Ultimate, I soon discovered. My neck was tense. I took it kinda easy. I did 4 x 200 for 800 yards total. It was challenging to do 200 yards, but I did it! I'm pretty happy, but still have a hard time believing I can ever swim a half mile straight. Certainly glad I started this swimming thing when I did.

The rest of the weekend was car racing! Very physically exhausting. My neck hurt, my lower back on the sides hurt, and my legs hurt in places they've never hurt. More on that later though...

Today is my rest day and I need it. I hope I can get to bed at a decent hour tonight. Not sure what I'll do tomorrow morning. I don't think I should swim. Maybe I'll bike.