Rough Weekend, Part II

We made it to Kelly’s house and popped in for a quick bathroom break.  I wanted to break off on my own and ride home but the girls convinced me to keep riding with them.  As we set off from Kelly’s house Ally wobbled and wound up falling, landing sharply on her elbow.  We were concerned something was broken, but Ally wanted to keep riding.  I would have rather called the ride right there…but we forged on.

As soon as we were back on the highway, right away, I got dropped again.  I was ready to turn my attitude around though, so I got comfortable with being in the back.  I figured I’d just ride along and perhaps make a turn later to take me back to Cochrane then back home.  I did want to get my entire 5 hour ride done. 

As I kept riding I realized that my legs were getting shaky and I was seeing spots.  Classic bonk.  I pulled over and started having a bit of a picnic, having some Infinit, some Fig Newtons and a bike to Honey Stinger bar.  Ally and Kelly saw I had stopped, gave me a call and I rode up to meet them.  I don’t know what happened but I just started crying. 

Apparently, bonk = tears.  According to my coach.

Ally was hurting so we turned back around.  The good news for Ally is that nothing is broken, whew!

But wow, this ride was one heck of a roller coaster of emotions.  I wound up heading home, having lunch with the Boyfriend, and we went for a nice ride nearby.  It was easy and it was fun, just what I needed to fall back in love with my bike.

So, lessons learned?

• My ride is my ride.  I need to worry about my speed only, and not worry about keeping up with my riding buddies.  Not if it is going to affect me so negatively.
• Um, welcome to Ironman training…an emotional roller coaster!
• Calories matter, but so do the type of calories.  I needed to have some protein earlier on in the ride.

Anyhow, time to move on and looking forward to a better week of training this week!

As for my hip?  I saw my ART practitioner today and it isn’t my IT band.  It is just off to the side of my IT band.  It will be fixable…hopefully with my session today and one on Wednesday I’ll be good for my long run this week….let’s keep our fingers crossed!  Walking and riding don’t cause a problem luckily. but hopefully things will be good for running!

Final Indoor Spin! (hopefully!)

This week I have no scheduled workouts. Whatever I do is up to me! I'll be taking it easy, but I won't be taking it off completely. Recovery is going well. I wasn't feeling too stiff and sore for the most part, but I did have a big knot in my right calf. I went in for some ART today to take care of it and it is feeling infinitely better.

Awesome swim this morning! I had a tough time falling asleep last night and thought that my 4:30 wake up might be tough. My eyes snapped open as soon as the alarm went off though, so it was no problem making it to the pool on time. The two super speedy guys weren't there today, so I swam with three other ladies in the lane. It was nice - we worked hard, but it wasn't some crazy, all out speedfest the entire time. The focus was an endurance swim and I felt strong and efficient in the water. 2200m done.

Tonight was also our last indoor spin class -- hopefully -- this evening. We had a one hour session, then followed it up with a pot luck. Since I raced the Police Half on Sunday I had permission to to take it easy since the legs are still recovering. Hanging out with my teammates after the class was awesome. You can tell that we are all ready and raring to go for training outside and racing triathlons. I feel very lucky to be a part of such a wonderful and supportive group of people!

Thanks for all of your congratulations on my race...and thanks for all of your supportive words about my break up with Beef. I'm going to miss Beef...but I'm pretty sure it is for the best. I've been doing a lot of thinking about nutrition lately, so this is just one step in the process!

Busy!!

Wow, today was one busy day!

I was up at 4:30 and at the Y for swim practice today. Our instructor has been throwing plenty of speed intervals our way lately and I love it! I think it is really helping me to get faster. When I first got in the water it was a bit miserable because my goggles kept leaking and my eyes were burning. It threw everything off - my head was raised, my rear end was sinking... Finally my goggles stopped leaking and I was able to knuckle down on my workout. Yeah...I love speed work in the pool!

I didn't manage to get all the way through the workout because I needed to get out of there early and in to the office. So 1550 meters done. I hustled in to the office, scarfed down some breakfast and took care of a few things, then made my way over to the passport office. I got there early enough that getting in my application was relatively pain free, unless you count having to look at my absolutely atrocious passport photos. And I thought my last passport picture was awful...

Later that morning I went in to visit my chiro for a little ART. I needed to get my piriformis looked at, especially considering that it started to make my lower back hurt this morning. After some ART and a good crack...it still hurt... But thankfully after a bit of spinning tonight it is starting to feel good again.

And speaking of spinning, Angie's spin class tonight? Was insane!! And I loved...almost...every minute of it. We did some "cresting over the hill" simulations. 1:00 of low cadence, super high resistance. After that we crested the hill, and spun at a high cadence for 2:00 at a high resistance, like we were chasing someone down on the flat. This was to help us to keep the intensity up, not only up the hill, but when we crest it as well. We did 7 repeats of that...holy smokes! After that...I can't remember what the specific workout was...but it was 8 repeats of 1:00 hard at a high resistance...and I worked my tail off. Wow, it felt so good to work hard today - both in the pool and on the bike!

Watch out tomorrow...I have a super fun unscheduled workout planned. You guys might fall off your chair when you see what I decided to do...and am calling super fun. And something else big is happening tomorrow too. Stay tuned!

Weekend Wrap-Up

Friday

I had a 90 minute massage scheduled for after work on Friday. I aim to go once a month just to keep any nagging tightness in check, and this was also my first chance to get in and see my massage therapist since the marathon. I had a few things I wanted her to look at, one of which was piriformis. After my piriformis got worked on...ow...I was even more keenly aware of it...

I accidentally fell asleep on the couch that evening, and finally woke up around midnight and made my way upstairs to bed. Unfortunately I was pretty awake after this and I wound up lying in bed and listening to the crazy wind whipping around outside for awhile. Ugh, talk about a crappy sleep that night.

Saturday

I had a 10 km run on the schedule for Saturday. Even though it was somewhat cool and windy out there was some nice sunshine. We had gotten a light dusting of snow earlier in the morning. Ugh...conditions on the sidewalks in my neighborhood these days are not good. Thanks to all of the snow, then the crazy cold temperatures, followed by some slight warming, then some more cool temperatures...we have quite a bit of packed and icy snow around here. The light dusting of snow complicated things even more as it hid a lot of the packed ice. This run was not fun and it was slow going as I was either worried about slipping or was slipping around a bunch. My piriformis was pretty painful on the run too. It felt like I had this huge knot of pain right in the centre of my right butt cheek. Sounds like I need to get back to my chiro for a little bit of ART. I was just happy when the run was over and done with.

I had meant to get in a bit of strength work after the run, but after grabbing a quick bite to eat I was freezing. I headed upstairs to take a hot shower and when I got back downstairs I had a text message from my sister-in-law inviting me to see Twilight later that evening. I fully admit that I am a little late to the party where Twilight is concerned. I was only 100 pages in to the book. I threw all other plans aside and attempted to get as far into the book as I could before the movie. Alas, I didn't make it to the end, and as I drove to the theatre I remembered that I had neglected my strength workout. Oops. I enjoyed the movie and had a great night out with my sister-in-law.

Sunday

I had 60 minute spin workout on the calendar labeled spin/strength intervals. This was a great workout! Single leg drills, long sets of high cadence, and long sets of low cadence including 3 x 3:00 stand intervals. Still loving my bike fit and my new seat... I followed the workout up with 10 minutes of core.

After that it was time to hit the grocery store and get to work on making dinner. I found a yummy sounding recipe in the latest Food & Wine magazine that I was keen to try - chicken sofrito. Chicken legs and thighs seasoned with chili powder and cooked up with a mixture of rice, onions, garlic, jalapeno, red pepper and tomatoes. I served it with a 2006 Alamos Cabernet Sauvignon from Argentina. Delicious! The chicken was a pretty simple dish to make, so I would highly recommend it.
I hope you all had a great weekend!

An attempt to get back at it

Last night I skipped boot camp because the focus of the evening was lower body endurance. I didn't think I needed to test my lower body endurance ability quite yet so I got together for dinner with family one last time before my mom heads back home. This morning I thought I would head out for a nice and easy run just to see how things felt. And yeah...my legs are still pretty tired so I only went for 1.5 miles. My legs were stiff and sore all of Monday and Tuesday, but things finally started to loosen up Wednesday. I have some pretty big knots in my right calf though that really need a work out, so I'll head to my chiro later this afternoon to get them worked out with some ART. Tomorrow is a massage to help some more. Like the nutter that I am, I am off to Edmonton this weekend to hang out with friends and run the St. Albert Sprint Tri on Monday. I doubt I'll be doing too much activity between now and the race so hopefully I'll be nice and rested up. With that said, I'm just racing to have fun so I won't be pushing myself too hard on the run.

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I have a dilemma about the race though folks. Apparently September equals the start of fall weather around here and the forecast doesn't look too wonderful for this weekend. On Monday the forecasted low is 3 deg C (37 deg F), the high is 17 deg C (63 deg F). What are your suggestions for how to handle coming out of the pool and hopping on the bike in such cold temperatures? What should I wear? Do I wear a long sleeve tech shirt that won't be super warm, but will allow me to dry off (maybe)? Or do I throw on a long sleeve bike jersey/jacket that may not allow for much drying off?

Shopping Spree

Yesterday I was inspired by RoadBunner's post of finding some great gear for her first tri so I did a little bit of online looking myself. A tri top, a pair of bike shorts, and two bike jerseys later I think I am well on my way to getting outfitted. Well, as soon as they arrive in the mail that is. The tri top was a fantastic deal and I thought, "Hey, I'll need that next year..." Then of course at some point the wheels in my brain start whirling and I remember a women's only tri that I had heard of that is coming up in August. Surely at a beginner friendly, women's only tri I may be able to doggie paddle my way through 750 m... Could I? Should I? Maybe one of these days I'll get down to one of the community pools to see just where my swimming is at...

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Otherwise I've managed to bike to work three days out of this week, plus I hit all of my midweek runs as planned. I was a few minutes late leaving for my run to boot camp last night and wouldn't you know it, it turned into the downhill run that went nowhere but downhill. I had a massive knot in my right calve that felt mighty unpleasant. I rolled into bootcamp one or two minutes late, but since everyone was running to warm up I just joined in. The workout was a pretty good one - lots of work on the legs.

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Coming up - a trip to the chiro to work out that nasty knot in my calf and a 12 miler tomorrow...

Hot Yoga

Boy, how swiftly things can change in this town. Yesterday afternoon...snow. Today, sunny and 12 deg C (53 deg F) outside. I ran my errands in capri pants, a t-shirt and a light jacket. Glorious! This afternoon I went for a great massage - I think this combined with the visits to the chiro has really helped to work the kinks out in my legs. The massage wasn't a comfortable one by any means, but she really worked out a lot of knots and tension in my legs. Afterwards I decided to suss out a different yoga studio in town to try out some hot yoga. 90 min in a heated room...holy smokes do you sweat a lot! I found it really invigorating and relaxing at the same time. I stepped away from yoga a few months ago but I really believe I need to get back into it more as I'm sure it really helps to keep my muscles nice, loose and flexible. Tomorrow...the Calgary Police 5K!

Blech

I can think of only one word to describe my run last night...blech. When we flew back Sunday night the view from the airplane window looked like a black and white photograph. All of the snow on the ground was insane. Apparently it was pretty awful weather here while I was gone. It was cold all day yesterday and more snow fell off and on. After work I hit the grocery store, then went home and put some salmon in a marinade of soy sauce, lime zest and juice, honey, garlic, ginger and chili sauce. I then got out some winter gear and went out for a run. I guess I should mention that while my shins hurt during the race on Sunday, my right leg was still bugging me all day at work. And....I ran anyway. It was -8 deg (17 deg F) and snow was coming down as I started out. After trudging through the snow for a mile my shin started acting up so the run was one of those "get it done" kind of things. Remarkably the temperature didn't feel that bad though. It really wasn't a great run though and you can see it in my average pace - a dismal 12:19/mi average pace. On the plus side that salmon was fantastic for dinner!

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I did visit the chiro for a little ART this afternoon on the shin. Boy I love ART. After poking around the shin, calf and my hip flexor it is feeling better. Apparently my ridiculously tight hip flexor is probably one of the main reasons my shin has been bugging me. Tonight BBC starts up.

BBC #12 - Arms of Jello

Last night's BBC session...wow... We met back at Edgemont last night. The session started with almost a half mile or so of a run uphill to a set of stairs. The workout involved climbing the stairs many, many times - sometimes running up, sometimes hopping up, or taking two at a time, or going up sideways. The kicker of the workout was not the stairs though. We were required to stop about 4 or 5 times along the way for 10 push ups against the railing at each stop. I think we may have done somewhere around 200 push ups last night. We also did some tricep dips, tricep push ups and rhomboid pinches with resistance tubing as well. Plus a couple of hill sprints as well. We finished off with the half mile run back to the start and a good stretch. I hope that the day only requires minimal use of my arms today because they feel like jello after all those push ups. They don't hurt yet, but I know that will be coming later...

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On another note, I went back to see Dr. Iron Man A for another active release session this morning. I have to tell you that my piriformis feels infinitely better thanks to him. I'm sure I'll require a tune up every once in awhile, but for now things are feeling good.

Yoga, pilates and a little active release

On Sunday I opted for a double shot of back to back yoga and power pilates classes. I loved the yoga instructor, except the fellow next to me in class was so chatty it was getting in the way of me getting my om on. The power pilates class was amazing. We did a bunch of great moves for abs, followed by a pretty serious hip and leg work out. My piriformis was letting me know that it still existed during those moves despite some massage work the day before.

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I talked to Instructor S about my piriformis issues at BBC on Thursday, and she was able to notice my tight hips while running that day. This was again confirmed by my massage therapist on Saturday. S recommended a guy to me, Dr. A, who would supposedly "help me work out my hips." Not knowing exactly what this meant of course I called and made an appointment right away. Turns out Dr. A specializes in Active Release therapy. He's a pretty serious athlete as I was able to admire his Ironman medals hanging on the walls as I waited. We chatted about what was going on and he was able to pin point the painful spots and helped to stretch them out. He believes my piriformis issues stem from a weak lower back, and my hips work to compensate instead. Pain is coming from scar tissue that has formed within the muscle that is lying on top of my sciatica. The good news is the scar tissue can be broken down, and with some specific exercises I can strengthen the lower back muscles to avoid this, and running won't make it worse. So....if that means I can run then I'm shooting for between 5 and 6 miles tonight.