Eileen Swanson's Tales

I have been asked a bunch of times recently about how I “maintain my weight” and “how much I weigh.” The first question is fairly easy to answer, I try to exercise often or alot and not overeat too many times a week ) I no longer weigh myself as I believe it is just a number. Yes it can tell me something if I compare it to what I weighed the last time I stepped on a scale. But does this really mean anything? I know how I feel training and racing and I know how my clothes fit. I see what I look like in the mirror, so why stress over a number? It seems as though everyone lately has been obsessed with how much they weigh. I was remember being told recently, “I bet you weigh XXX.” I replied, I have no clue and the lady looked at me like I was crazy. She could not believe that I didn’t know. I thought to myself, if I am going to be as stressed as her, it definitely confirms why I should not weigh myself.

Lately I have been thinking about this woman and how concerned she seemed with my weight and how it compared to hers. I know the pressures society places on woman and how they should look, makes people stress about this. I know too well, about these pressures. Being an elite gymnast, I struggled with weight, being too thin and having coaches weigh us in every morning and give us a look like “what the heck did you eat for dinner?” At times they would voice their opinions to us and it hurt. I was always one with alot of muscle, the powerhouse type gymnast, not the long skinny type. So, as you can imagine it was tough trying to convince my coach that there is no way I could weigh what some of my boney teammates weighed. At one point in my life I got to a point of no body fat and in serious need of help. It was at this time in my life that I realized that weight meant nothing. 30 lbs heavier I was at the top of my game, and 30 lbs lighter I was barely getting out of bed.

So now I’ve learned that I can be a good healthy athlete with a little bit of meat on my bones I had to go to the Dr’s office for allergies a week ago, and guess what? They had to weigh me with all of my clothes on and my shoes. Ok, I have to admit I freaked out a bit because a) I have not weighed myself in ages and b) I was wearing 3 layers on top, my True Religion jeans, and Uggs. When I saw the number, I told myself who the heck cares? It was more than I had seen the last time I was on the scale BUT this is the fastest I have run track ever and the fastest I have run a 1/2 in a long time. I’ll take it! Remember not to let the “number” control you. You are in control and do not obsess over it. No need, no reason! If you feel healthy and you’re happy and you’re eating right, then you’re doing awesome!!

What a crazy ride yesterday! Not only was it extremely cold and on the verge of pouring down rain, it was a bit chaotic. But it was still a good hard effort, as it SHOULD be on this ride! We started the ride thinking we were late to the start of the ride. It’s a nice 8 mile flat stretch to Peet’s coffee shop, where the ride starts. Reid told me that we had to “go,” which means I need to get ready to hang onto his wheel and work my butt off. He powered down the rode and I hung on for dear life! There was one point where I had the guts to look at my computer to see that we were moving at 34mph. Yup, crazy! Crazy and cool that Reid is that strong! I wish I could be that strong, maybe someday, who knows

We get to Peet’s with 5 mins to spare, BUT no one is there. Usually there are about 10 or so cyclists waiting around until a group of a dozen or more other cyclists ride by to pick everyone up. Well, no one was there so we thought we had missed the ride. Reid again says let’s work hard and see if we can catch anyone up ahead. So I put my head down and again hang onto Reid’s wheel. I was hoping we would catch the group sooner rather than later because I wasn’t sure how long I could go at that pace We hit a long stop light at one point and I was so thankful. A good friend, Mark Deterline, rolled up behind us and said he had been time trialing to catch us so we could work together to catch the group. He also thought the group was up ahead. When we finally get another 12 miles up the road, we come up on Deterline’s teammate who always waits in that same spot for the group to roll by. He tells us that we are ahead of the group by probably 5 mins. I head over to the next gas station to go to the bathroom and Mark and his teammate keep going and tell us that they’ll roll really slow and wait for us. Unfortunately as soon as I come out of the bathroom, Reid yells “they just went by.’ Oh crap, here we go again. Head down, work HARD, and HOPE!

We can see the group ahead and we are working super hard and bam, we hit a stop light. Darn! We go again, and now they’re further away and then Reid says STOP!! I slow way down, stop, and there is a stray dog crossing the road. YIKES! We leave our bikes on the side of the road and try to coax the dog over to us. He looks friendly but scared. He stops, turns toward us, then starts slowly walking away from us onto a dirt field into the foothills. We try and try, but he is too scared and starts running. ARGH!! I hate this! Fortunately he is running away from traffic and into the hills. Another driver sees us and calls for help. There was nothing we could do at that point, so we rode away. I was sad! But the driver said he would stay and was super sweet and said thank you for trying to help! Phew, there are awesome people out there willing to help animals!!

At this point we decide to take a short cut to catch the group as we ride backwards on their loop. It wasn’t much of a shortcut since we made it almost all the way back to the regroup point (it’s a big circle loop). It was great to see everyone, finally!! Now after TT’ing for almost 90 mins, we were all together!! Now here comes more craziness….First, Chris flats, then 20 yards later Mark D. flats, some people decide to soft pedal and wait, but some went ahead. I decided to soft pedal and wait until Steve Sexton (pro Nat’l team members, super young and sweet) said he was just going to start working and wait for everyone at the gas station at the base of the last climb. So, I decided to go with him and 7 others. Reid waited with the others, so now there were 3 groups. Oh and then more drama, 2 more guys flat and then I flat within a couple of miles of leaving the others. Geez. We fixed them and were off!

As soon as Steve went to the front to “work,” the pace was pretty BRISK!! I was working and hurting and before I knew it, someone let a gap open up, so Mickey (my hero) said “E, come on” and so we went together and I did all I could to stay right there and not get dropped. We were now back on the train, phew! I looked back to see if anyone was behind me, but there was no one. So I knew I had to stay with this group of 5 or I would be in no man’s land. The pace kept getting faster and I was holding on by a thread. I knew I had to make it to the gas station where the pace would slow down and we would regroup and wait for the others. We were about 2 miles from this point and Pfffftttt….I FLATTED again, but this time on my back wheel! ARGH!! Mickey pulled over with me and immediately took over. He wanted us to get back as quickly as possible. But we both couldn’t get my tire off, it was so flippin’ tight! After numerous attempts, another set of our friends rolled by and stopped to help us. They couldn’t get it off either! YIKES! This was insane. Finally Reid, Lieto, Dahlz and Deterline come by and stop. Well, Reid tells them to go on. So, Superman Reid gets the tire off and now we are in business. We start to ride and yet again Pfffftttt…another flat. Definitely a problem with my wheel, possibly a spoke!! We were both out of tubes and decide that I should ride the flat 2 miles to the Starbuck’s where I could wait for Reid to ride home and drive a car to come get me. It was about an hour ride to our house.

So, I had a nice soy latte, read the newspaper, walked around, sat on a nice big cushy couch almost falling asleep while I listened to the rain and wondered if Reid was ok without any spares. After 90 mins, Reid and Belle rescued me, YAY! What a day!!

After doing the half on Sunday and having it be my longest run since September, I planned to rest and recover lots this past week. Well, that plan almost worked out perfectly until I remembered my role as high school track coach Reid and I coach the distance runners for the Dougherty Valley track team. While it’s loads of fun and very rewarding working with these kids, it’s also another run workout for us which can be great or not so great!

Yes we actually run with the kids. We take them on dirt trails, gravel trails, road, and do speed on the track of course. It is such a fun time watching and providing instruction to these boys and girls. However when we are so beat from our own workouts, it is tough to run with a huge smile on our faces as the kids are used to seeing already! HA!

Monday, we were both SORE from the half and thought that a nice 5AM swim would shake off some of the soreness and loosen us up! It kind of helped, but not so much! I was all excited after the swim to hang out with some friends in the hot tub and just chat. AND very excited to head home for a nice, warm breakfast and snuggle up with Belle. I totally forgot that we were going to have to run with the track team in a few hours. Yikes! BUT it turned out to be OK. I guess it all depends on what your idea of recovery is! Running on trails up and down the hills felt like “OWWWWW,” but it was so worth it seeing some of these young talented athletes all fired up to start their 1st “official” day of practice. We had some fun runs during the past month, but all voluntary

The rest of the week turned out to be great with more running with the team and the usual group rides, swims, and runs with a bit less intensity as I am being smart about my recovery! I am all SMILES this week and look forward to a super fun weekend. Hope you all have a GREAT one too! I will leave you with this little clip of some backyard fun with Belle, check out those ‘hops.’