Happy Thanksgiving

And so it begins... the most wonderful time of the year.... at least in my book. A time when we gather as families with those we see a lot, and those we don't' see quite so much.

A time when we share Turkey and Pumpkin Pie and watch the parade on TV. The eyes of children fill with wonder as they witness those massive floats swimming down the New York City Streets.

We are off to visit Pody Eggers, Curt's mother, my beloved mother in law. She's a pistol of a woman, no wonder Curt turned out the way he did. Neat, tight and trimmed at the edges. I imagine she ran a tight ship, with her husband Ernie.

I miss Curt's father, he passed away almost three years ago. It was Thanksgiving time when I first met the Eggers. A cute as a button couple in their eighties.... Curt's father had the most charming of all smiles.

Together they masterfully cooked Thanksgiving Dinner. Somehow all food arrived to the table steaming hot and delicious.

To this day I don't think Mom - in - Law has ever used any kind of artificial sweetener in her food. She makes the most delicious homemade gravy. In fact... I thought homemade stuffing was Stove Top, until I had hers.

Curt's father would carefully carve the turkey, just right. Dark meat, white meat....

They took such care in preparing the meal, for just the five of us. That care, thoughtfulness, it was all about love.

Believe it or not I adore these trips to Schoharie New York. There's no Wi -Fi, no cell phone range. Not a whole lotta anything. It's life, pure and simple. A one horse town. I will often think of Curt's Father, and his empty chair at the table. I'll run next to the river. We will wander through the woods with Luc. The air will be crisp, there might be snow, and we'll be surrounded by trees.

The silence of the weekend will be cathartic. Silence is always so powerful. Silence and stillness lend time to step back, look around and be thankful.

Thankful for one another. Thankful for the opportunity to be together. Thankful for memories of years past, and thankful for the ones yet to come.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

With much Love..... Mary

The Dream Team

If you know me and Kelly B., you know we are great friends. I call it more like a sisterhood that began way back in 2002... the last time I ever beat Kelly B in a race.

We had just done Ironman Lake Placid 2002 and I bombed it, she nailed it and qualified for Hawaii. 5 weeks later we toed the line against each other at the Hamlin Beach Triathlon. The Who's Who of Western New York triathletes always went there.

Kelly exited the water 2 min in front of me, I out biked her by four, and she came in off the bike ready to erase my 2:00 lead. And she nearly did. I only beat her by a close 29 seconds and believe me not only was I running scared, I was running for my life. I remember we hugged at the finish line.... and that's really where our friendship began.

In 2003 we spent hours and hours of training together. Miles and miles of heat, Popsicles, and running.

Once we met in Mendon Ponds Park. I drove over, she rode her bike. While we were executing a 20 mile run she stored her bike in my car. After 10 miles we stopped back at the car. While she ran to the bathroom I restocked our nutrition. And then locked my keys in the car.

We thought quick and realized Curt's office was only about 10 miles away. We ran to his office, nearly dying of dehydration, and then layed in the grass outside his office window, half naked and exhausted before he came out to rescue us.

We've ridden in a lot of rainstorms. We've ridden in 110 degree heat. We even spent a week training with Heidi Grimm. God that was the hardest week of our lives.

On one particular day we rode long.... I can't even remember how long. It was Tarzan hot out. When we got back I went home and took a nap while Kelly ran the first part of the run with Heidi. After my nap I came back and ran the second part with her.

We breathed such a sigh of relief when Heidi finally left town, only to be told by her brother that she had decided to stay 2 extra days and we were to be at the park at 8am!

And the bastard wasn't kidding.

Actually, Hamlin wasn't the last time I beat Kelly. Ironman Lake Placid 2003 was. Kelly did IMLP 02, went to Hawaii and was back for a third IM in 18 months. Our plan was simple, she'd lead out of the water, I would catch her on the bike, she'd stay with me and then we'd run together. Kelly would even wear these neon green bike shorts so I could find her.

I remember seeing those shorts way ahead of me, and they slowly got closer. It was IMLP 2003 and it was hailing. We had trained in it and we were prepared for it. I finally caught her. She told me she wasn't feeling great and to go.

"We trained in this!" I shouted at her..... "Come on!!!"

"GO" she shouted back. I felt like I was leaving a fallen comrade. I didn't want to go.
But I knew she'd be mad if I didn't. I had to listen to my team mate.

On the run we'd see one another on the out and backs. She told me she was having stomach issues but she was still smiling. Later I learned she was having bad stomach issues and when she saw me... she would put on a good face because she did not want me to worry.

That was the last time I got her ;-)

Kelly has done about 7 Ironmans and even though she's nailed an 11:05 at IMLP (with three flat tires) she has not hit her peak. Her 1/2 Ironman time is low 4:40's and we've traveled to some great races together.

Kelly moved to Colorado this year, changed jobs and now the dust has settled. And she's found Coach T. So now we are teammates, and there is no one I would rather have on my team than Kelly B. More than I want to break 11 hours again... I want Kelly to nail her eighth Ironman. I want her to train right, train with a plan, and train with a purpose.

Now she's got the right leader. No pressure Coach... but you see Kelly has never fully had a plan. She's a distance natural with a whole lotta talent. She's a diamond in the rough. Her liability is her passion for endurance.

It is a misconception that when Kelly and I train together it is a competitive moshing of abilities and wanting to kill one another. Actually... we are the opposite. I think we can chat for 100 miles and I think we can chat for 100 miles about Luc Van Lierde, Brian Rhodes and our number one .... Gordo Byrn. You have to scold us to go faster. Instead of coffee.... we ride or run.

If we were neck and neck at Ironman lake Placid and there was only one of us who was allowed to cross the finish line at 10:59.59..... we'd both miss it because we would want the other to do it first.

You don't find friends like that often.

This week I begin 2 weeks of structured active recovery... and only because I stalked Coach T so much he threw in the towel. :-) Then on December 3rd I officially begin the journey to Ironman Lake Placid. Kelly B will be in Colorado... but she'll be making the same journey (at altitude!!!) and we will get to race together on a really great day in our favorite place on earth. Lake Placid.

I have a busy 6 months coming up with a lot on the plate. The light at the end of the tunnel is Placid. The prize through all of the hard work.... physical.... career..... school..... makes everything I am about to endure worth it.

Thanks for stopping by.

:-) mary

The Fork In My Road

Something terrible has happened. And I never expected it to. I may have fallen back in love with being a nurse.

As you know I am a pediatric emergency nurse ... very... very... part time. Not too long ago I had set out to change careers. In January of 2009 I would quit the nursing profession and embark on the Education Pathway. Teaching, of course. I can change the world!!!!! My chosen career has left me burned out (at four hours a week???) and dreading the medical world altogether.

And then last Tuesday night happened. Burn Boy rolled in. He was the age of 7, and he spilled chicken soup on his lap. His thighs had 2nd degree burns and suddenly.... my passion flourished. I used to work in the Pediatric Intermediate Care Unit, and burns were our specialty. At that time a new Doctor came aboard and changed the way we care for burns.

Dr. Christopher Lentz and his wife Dixie Ried, PA, reinvented burn care for children in Rochester. Gone were the painful burn scrubbing sessions. Along came new dressings, new treatments, conscious sedations.

I fell in love with burn care because it was something I could look at, get my hands on, not theorize about. It wasn't white blood cell counts or transplant failures... it was right in front of me. Day by day I could see the healing, day by day I could do so much.

So on Tuesday when Burn Boy came in there was something I could do and start without the blessing of anyone else. I could medicate, dress, begin IV fluids, begin the healing process, and the family was wonderful. They asked great and appropriate questions. They listened, they were supportive. Mom felt so horrible, and it wasn't her fault.

For the first time in so very long I felt like I was a nurse again. And I realized that I had become the product of my environment.

Why do I stay in the Peds ED? Because I have control over my schedule and I love my colleagues. I have the best colleagues ever. Form a former ARMY nurse who served in Vietnam.... to new grads.... we have an amazing group.

A kid once came in with one arm and my friend Amy and I together infused blood and kept him stable until we arrived to the OR's door (his arm was reattached).

This is a team that watches out for one another.

As I left the hospital on Tuesday night I remembered that I don't have to work in the Peds Ed forever. I don't have to deal with shootings and Medicaid and abusive people. I am there because I choose to be.

Which led me to realize that I am back at the fork in the road. Leave Nursing completely? Trade it in for the headaches of the educational system? Or Pursue my Masters and as a Nurse Practitioner ... search for something I love.

Practice Therapeutic Yoga as an NP.... or as an Educator......

I will now have to say I don't know what to do. Except to stop thinking about it. For now I shall again postpone decisions until next September. I will allow the semester to come as it does, I will keep my eyes open for opportunities. In the meantime I will continue to be the best coach I can be, the best yoga teacher I can be, the best nurse I can be.... the best me I can be.

Thing always happen for a reason and I really learned one thing on Tuesday night....
I ain't over yet.
:-) Mary

I'm IT!

I got tagged! I have never been tagged before! E.L.F. gave me a tag to tell 5 random things about myself....... and now I have to tag 5 others!

So the 5 I tag are Kitima, Cindy Jo, Courtney, Ed and Aurora!

1. I wasn't called Mary until I began competing in triathlon. My parents named me Mary Michal and people who knew me before I became a triathlete call me Michal (pronounced as the boy's name Michael)

2. I was on the Hickory Hill Swim Team at age 5. I swam the 50 free in 29 seconds but I could not pass the deep end test. I was afraid of treading water in the tank because my brother told me that there were sharks in there. (clear water, no sharks might have been a clue!)

3. My favorite yoga pose is balancing half moon with an arm bind. Whenever I do it next to Phil I fall into him. When I do it next to Tom he sticks his finger into my back to hold me up.

4. Sometimes I steal my husband's socks to race in for good luck.

5. I originally went to college as an art major.... to become a Fashion Designer.

:-)

The Art of Training

Lately I have been involved and reading up on many debates. The debates seem to center on "the best way to train". Heart rate monitor or Pace? Power Meter of Heart rate? Lifting weights or not... and is functional strength training all a bunch of bull?

These debates are very enjoyable to me, I love to hear different opinions and I love to hear different points of view. I think we do however have to remember one thing.... if someone (coach or fellow athlete) preaches to you that "X" is the only way you can train for "Y" you should turn around and run. Run fast and run far. If you believe them.... then I have a bridge to sell you.

For my athletes I use a combination of things, and it begins with what you own. We can't train with power if we have no power meter. I think that the ultimate lesson that all of these devices teach you is how to listen to your own body. The old schoolers call is perceived exertion. In the middle of a race your heart rate monitor or power meter may not work... but your perceived exertion will never fail.

But today's topic is really about weight training. Is it beneficial or not to multisport athletes? In all honesty I have read just as many studies that advocate weight training, and just as many studies stating that it makes no difference. What I am going to tell you is my opinion.

I believe that weight training is very important. I believe that a stronger muscle is a more durable muscle. Those who are over 40 also need to be mindful that muscle mass decreases yearly. Yes, there are studies that show that endurance training will be sufficient. But people are individuals and that needs to be addressed.

Within the past year I have become fascinated with functional strength training. In a nutshell the theory of FST is to train the movement first, the the muscle second. Essentially each movement has a degree of rotation with it, because that's the movement we replicate when we swim, bike, run, walk, rake leaves, etc. The muscles in our bodies work in tandem.

Example: perform a bicep curl and you are working the bicep. Add a squat to it and you are working the core and the legs. Add a slight twist to it and now you are using the obliques. I don't see how this can harm your multsiport career. I really believe it can only help.

I can be my own example. I am someone who has lower back problems, and since I have Incorporated functional strength into my routine I don't. In 2005-06 I partially tore my Achilles tendon. I will not ever remove my rehab for both my AT's from my program. When I don't do it, I start to have problems. So naturally I believe in it.

A question I often get is, how much weight should I lift, how many reps? I think this is very individual, just as the type of weight training is individual. Last season I had an athlete who just preferred to weight train on machines, she just didn't feel the benefit of the FST program. Because we know how much our mind affects our body, I put her back on machines.

Weight training should be periodized just like the rest of training. You evolve through phases of adaptation, strength, etc. So it is hard to say you should lift 15 pounds for 3 sets of 15.

Some of my guys are the difficult ones... getting them out of the weight room or out of the routine of lifting like a body builder is very difficult. So tapering them a bit and changing the types of sets they do is very helpful.

Women are fearful they will bulk up.... and they seem to do great with Functional Strength Training.

Pilate's and Yoga.... excellent methods of strength training as long as you are in a good class with proper instruction. Those two entities are risky in that we may not be tuned in enough to sense our alignment and can risk taking poses too far.

Bottom line.... remember that training is both art and science. We need to look at both sides of the coin in addressing people as individuals. What we as coaches and athletes must do is take a look at the big picture, determine what might fit this person, and know it might not fit that person. Use a combination of activities to promote strength, and above anything else... make sure the athlete enjoys the program.

If they don't' enjoy it, they won't do it!

Thanks for stopping by.

:-) mary

Ironman Florida Pictures

Well, not really. They are pictures from Ironman Florida but somehow I managed to NOT TAKE ONE SINGLE PICTURE OF ANYTHING IRONMAN! I guess when you have been to so many Ironmans you don't need too many pictures.

To see some very cute pictures of our trip, please click here. Thanks for stopping by! :-) Mary

Day In The Life

"Her blood pressure is 144/77." I told her mother.



"Is that high?" she asked.



"For a 12 year old girl who weighs 95 kg, that is high." I said.



"Wow, she weighs 95 kg?" her mom asked in surprise.



"95 kg..." I replied.... "Is two hundred and nine pounds." I wondered if this mother actually thought he daughter weighed 95 pounds. She was obviously obese... like her mother.



"I think it is the headaches and the stress." She defended.



"I think it is her weight." I could only be honest. I can not be politically correct when a 12 year old girl is standing in front of me weighing in at 209 pounds, and everyone is denying it. "I do need to get some blood work." I continued.



"She has very small veins..." Mom said. I took a look. She did not have small veins. She had great veins. They were buried in fat.



Here is a little hint.... never tell a pediatric emergency dept nurse that you have veins that are too small to puncture. It is my job to be able to puncture the smallest, most dehydrated spider like veins. I sometimes put IV's in baby's scalps.



And so goes another shift in the Pediatric Emergency Dept. If the patient population was actual emergencies, we'd only need half the staff that we have. The problem is.... the patient volume and the reason that they come to see us.



This morning it was a mom and her 2 daughters that missed their 10am appointment. They came to us at 11 instead of rescheduling. Mom wanted to know how long the wait would be. After all her daughter has had a sore throat for TWO days!



Last night a young boy came in with a burn. I love pediatric burns ... not because a child was burned... but because there is so much you can do to help them and their family. So picture this, burn boy comes in via ambulance (EMS we call it). I check them in, medicate him, apply dressings to his burns, tell the family we will need to begin IV fluids. I finish checking them in so I ask the EMS crew to meet me in room 37 Left, and I will be right there. As he wheels away an 18 year old boy comes in on a stretcher. His mother is next to him. realizing the other nurses were also swamped I begin to triage, assess and check him in..... while my mind is on burn boy.



"He's been sleeping longer than normal" Mom said to me. 'And his left elbow hurts." I looked past her as the 18 year old wide awake boy. On a stretcher. Form an ambulance.



"How are you feeling buddy?" I call to him.



"Fine." He says. After I took his history and vital signs I shake my head at the fact that 911 was called for this.



"I have to tell you..." Mom said in a quiet voice. "He is very irritable and sleeping 13 hours a night." Then she looks right and then left "And the last time I was not impressed with the doctors here."



Okay red flag..... big mistake Mom. Don't come to my hospital and tell me you don't trust the doctors here. Just because you have watched ER, Grey's Anatomy and Scrubbs .... you are not a medical expert. Coming to my hospital and stating to me that you don't trust my colleagues, you just got a red flag. Especially for calling 911 because your teenage boy is cranky and sleeping 13 hours a night.



My charge nurse directs me to place Sleepy boy and Mom into the waiting room. Now vitals were perfect and he said he bumped his elbow. I have a kid with a pretty big 2nd degree burn waiting for me and 6 other patients who are much sicker on my assignment. And a whole waiting room of stuffy noses waiting to be seen.



"Oh no!" Sleepy boy's Mom cries..." He needs to be seen NOW" She is getting loud, and I am sorry, I just don't' deal well with that.



"Ma'am." I say quietly. "We are full, we have a waiting room full of children, we have several children who are sicker than you son is right now, I appreciate your patience we will get to him as soon as we can."



"I AM NOT WAITING!" She screams. "SOMEONE NEEDS TO SEE HIM NOW!!!!" By this time I have created a comfortable place in a wheelchair (as comfortable as they can get) in which sleepy boy could rest and wait.



"Ma'm." I tell her sternly. "You have the right to leave and be seen at another hospital. Right now I have a badly burned child to attend to. Here is where you son can rest and wait." I turned to Sleepy boy, "Are you okay with that?" He nodded looking annoyed with his Mom. "So while you make this decision I need to go and take care of a burn."



And so it continues int he life of the Peds Ed. Where your child, your problems, your situation is always the worst. Where we are always wrong, where the hospital never knows what it is doing.



Let me remind you.... you cam to us, we didn't go out and invite you in.



Better yet, let me explain how things work.



We have X number of rooms. We have 3 times that many patients. The sickest kids come back first. The nurse and resident will see you. The attending will see you. Maybe in that order, and maybe not. If you need X rays you will get X rays. If you need a CT you will get one. It might be in 5 minutes and it might be in 5 hours. There might be a level II trauma that comes in and bumps you back.



We may need to get blood work. Your pediatric nurses are your best bet for hitting a vein. It's pretty much all we do. We poke babies, children and young adults. Your child is a wrestler? We handle it. Your child will cry? We know that, we help them through it. Having your coping skills encompass doubt towards our abilities will not help. Comfort your child and we will get the vein. They won't pull it out because we know how to prevent that.



It is supposed to take 30 minutes before the blood work is back. It may take longer.



Your X Ray results are not final until read by the radiology attending. I can't do anything, even if I can assess the X Ray myself... until the attending gives their read.



If you ask me how long anything will take I will never know. I don't even know the guesstimate. If I tell you an hour and a pediatric trauma rolled through the door, it just because 3 hours.



We are not here to torture your child or to screw you over. Believe it or not we are here to help. But before you berate me for the length of your stay please remember one thing....



Before I walked into your room I just might have been holding the hand of a child who died.



:-) mary