Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Goggles, Granite and Ghosts

I'm up bright and early on this Wednesday morning (4:30am) in preparation for daylight savings time this weekend. I'm gradually going to bed earlier and earlier, and waking up within the 4:00 hour so that the time change won't mess with my body clock during my final taper week.  But alas, today is a rest day, so what does one do at 4:30am? Blog!

Ghosts
There is a phenomenon that occurs during the taper known as "phantom pains". It's minor aches and pains that suddenly show up during the taper, but then quickly vanish for no known reason. Some folks say it's purely psychological and that you are just more paranoid about stuff, making you more aware of your body. Other folks say that that reducing your training volume causes things to in the body to settle and that there is a physiological reason for it.

On Saturday, I ran my last long run of 15.5 miles and it went well. Nothing fancy, just a progression run starting at a pace of about 9:15 and speeding up to just under 8:00 for the last bit. For the rest of the day, everything felt fine. I woke up the next morning, and my legs still felt good. My husband and I went to the grocery store, and during checkout I noticed that the inside of my knee was hurting. It was whenever I put weight on the leg. On the car ride home, I kept trying to feel exactly where it hurt, but I couldn't really pinpoint anything. I would think that I found a spot, but then it would move.

I didn't freak out, because I knew that logically injuries didn't just appear after a walk through the grocery store. But I did ice the area, which kept moving. Was it the inside of my knee? The back of my knee? My upper calf near the knee? My shin? All of these areas were suspect. But then 5-6 hours later, it vanished completely, never to be felt again.

To play it safe, I went pool running and swimming on Monday and everything continued to be fine. I did a track workout yesterday, and everything still was fine.

Goggles
I think I mentioned in a previous post that I have goggle issues. When I first started swimming for fitness about five years ago, I was fit for a pair of petite women's goggles. These never worked well for me, but I lived with them. Usually, I would spend the first 5 or so laps stopping at the end of the lane, dumping the water out and re-adjusting. Then I would be able to swim nonstop for another 5-10 laps, but have to readjust again. It was weird because they were so hit or miss. Sometimes they would work better than others. Sometimes I just got so frustrated that I would cut the swim short.

About a year ago I got fitted for another pair. This was also a women's goggle, but I think the difference was the shape or the sealing technology. The Aqua Sphere Kaiman Lady-- for those of you who know your goggles. These goggles didn't work well either. Sometimes they did, it just took awhile for me to position them exactly right so that water wouldn't get in them.

TYR Swimple for Kids
Last weekend when my husband drove past the swim store, I thought I might try yet again for another pair. I thought I might need a junior pair, so I tried a few on. I didn't immediately ask for help because I had been to this store for my previous two pairs and neither of them works. But one of the saleswomen came up to me and said "those are too big on you" very decisively. She told me I needed kids goggles. I tried on the TYR Swimple for kids and she said they fit me perfectly.

I went for a swim on Monday and wow! It was as easy as putting the goggles on, swimming, and then more swimming. No stopping. No water in my eyes. Very comfortable. This has changed swimming for me. Now maybe one day I might enter an open water swim. With unreliable goggles, that idea had kind of terrified me before. I can't believe it took me so many years to try this.

Granite
On Monday afternoon, I came home to find new granite counter tops in my master bathroom. The only problem-- it wasn't the granite that my husband and I had ordered. And it didn't match the cabinets or the tile!

Let's back up. Greg and I are having our master bathroom remodeled. We're changing almost everything except for the basic footprint and the cabinets. Back in December, we had spent several hours going from granite warehouse to granite warehouse to select the perfect one for our bathroom counter tops. We wanted to make sure we were matching the color of the new bathroom tile. We put a slab on reserve and the remodeling job started on Monday of last week. (There was a back order on our tile).

Everything except for the glass surround and the granite counter tops was complete by the end of last week. My husband and I spent a large part of our weekend dusting, sweeping, mopping and vacuuming from all the demolition dust. Naturally, we were super excited that the granite would be coming on Monday of this week.
Granite that we ordered

Granite that was installed (dots are the lights reflecting)

Bathroom that the granite needs to match.
 The cabinets are white.

I was so angry about this! I know it's just a counter top and I know it can be fixed, but it just angers me so much that they got it wrong! And now we have to have more demolition, more mess, etc. Apparently, our contractor thought that the granite place had sold our slab to someone else (even though they did not) and decided to just pick a different piece that they thought would be close. I think they were hoping we wouldn't notice, but there is a huge difference! They are are going to re-do it, but they are claiming it's not much of a difference. It's a huge difference!

I refuse to let this stress me out. I was very angry on Monday night and lost a few hours of sleep, but the morning track workout made things all better and I'm much calmer about it now. The correct granite should be installed either Friday or Monday.

It's only 5:35am now. Maybe I'll got take a nap.

4 comments:

  1. 4:30am! you are dedicated, sheesh! and goggles are like running shoes, for me. find something that works and then NEVER EVER change!

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  2. The granite that you ordered is what we have in our Kitchen! I would be pissed if they installed something else! Hopefully they are coming back out and putting the correct color on your vanity.

    Oh and goggles that fit = awesome!

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  3. I'm impressed by your sleep adjustment plan!

    As for googles, I've found that the ones like you got, with a one size nose piece, never work for me. I need the kind with an adjustable nose piece in order to get the right fit. But if those stay sealed I say stick with them!

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  4. Ugh! I hate dealing with contractor mistakes. We really need to re-do our kitchen and I'm just avoiding it 'cause I hate dealing with stuff like that.

    Glad you found goggles that work. I actually picked out a new glasses frame recently and found that the kid sized worked better than the adult.

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