62 times 2

SWIM:  2800y in 62 mins, sub8 400s

RUN: 7 mi in 62 mins, fartleks

Just now realized both sessions were 62 mins :)

I slept through my alarm and missed Masters. Once again I got a late start leaving the house but I did manage to get to work at 9! That's a good goal for this week-- get back into my normal schedule.

The swim was 3x400 swim pull swim. Then I added a 400 pull bilateral breathing. I wanted each 400 to at least be sub8 min but not really race pace. Just a "be pushing it" pace. The time were 7:58, 7:44, 7:59. Humph. I was hoping for better.

Spent a good deal of time trying to find that right hand catch. Also wondered if I should at least let CHG know I haven't given up on Masters! And let the YMCA know I don't want to pay the bill for the Saturday masters I can't attend this cycle! Oh and I'm finally caught up in my GTD challenge with 66-some miles. I've been behind since the injury.

The run was after work. I don't run as well after work but maybe after last weeks awesome brick run I should learn to bike first! My legs were heavy, stiff, and tight. I was dehydrated and a little under carbed. But after a 15 min WU I did fartleks until 5 miles. I like longer intervals, not short tree to tree ones so I do t quite do 5K speed. More like something in between 5 and 10K. But I got it done, came home, did grocery shopping, then kinda gorged on dates and cashews. Nuts. I set myself up for that one by getting so hungry and behind on nutrition. :(

Very tired tonight, just like I want to be. But my motivation for things outside of work and training is suffering. I just don't have the spare mental energy right now , there is so much going on! And I fear that although I spent most of Friday and today on a work presentation, I'm still not prepared :(

I need to get my life schedule back on track. It fell apart with the injury but that was a month ago. Time to get time back!

And get to bed!! It's after 10pm! Put the phone down!!

Sent from my iPhone

Get done what I can!

BIKE: 60 mins and 18 miles.

I was short on time and on instructions. I had no more workouts for the week! So I decided to just do what I wanted, hit some other goals, and just do something so I didn't end up with another day off.

A lazy indoor ride wasn't the best thing, but considering the wet, leaf/branch strewn roads from last night's storm it wasn't an all bad option. And it gets me that hour of riding I sort of "missed" yesterday by doing only a 4 hr ride.

I did some big ring intervals, but tried to keep it unstructured and mindless. Oh, and Not Sloppy!!  No pains.

The rest of the day was at the Club picnic. I had another bad eating day, munching on pistachios and fruit. Then coming home to an unstructured dinner of protein powder. :(

I had a realization that I wasn't as tired as I thought I should be. My other taters say they are tired and fatigued and worn out, yet I feel OK? Or I feel tired but since I expect it I don't think much of it?  I just get the feeling I'm not working hard enough!!  CP pointed out that it's better to be healthy like this, than over-trained and too cooked. After some thinking, I'm wondering if skipping the group events the past month has worked against me in this aspect. I do work harder at group events because I'm pushed more.

But I'm not ready to return to Master's yet. And the Thursday group is still in the dark a bit. And my training plan schedule has really changed (for good and bad). I really need to work this out, only 3 weeks til TTT!!!
AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Just the 3 of us

RIDE: 3:55 and 67 miles, the normal Co IL loop.

We gotta get some new loops, this one is getting stale. I keep saying that (not out loud) but then there are parts of that course I completely forget about!

Just me, CP, and TH which made for a very calm and more steady ride. A small group can stay together better. While another century sounded nice, there just wasn't time and besides--the Vino is next weekend!

My nutrition came apart in the last half of this ride. I didn't bring enough because I thought I'd eaten too much before hand. I kinda thought that the food was "on board" already? Or that I would eat too  much and be sick? Then I didn't have a recovery meal on hand and ended up re-fueling on Energy Barty foods. Yay for the Energy Barty! Boo for eating fruit and nuts the rest of the night.

That gives me some goals for next weeks Mondo ride.

Knee was taped up, no pain at all in the ankle or knee but I do have a "spot" in my left hip now.  I'm chasing pains...

Rest Friday, get taped

I've been told that I should rest with as much intensity as I train. But I train in a concentrated 1-4 hrs a day. How do you rest like that? :)

I don't think sitting at my desk for most of the day counts :(

I saw Dr H in the morning for knee tape. He described it to a person he was training as "getting sloppy on the trainer". Ooof, he's right. I knew that, but I didn't know that.

I got the steroid/phono treatment (icy hot massage type thing, nice but weeeeiiiirddd), I need to learn more about that!

He said to continue the ankle taping as a prophylactic measure and come back next Weds. I've decided that I should probably add Dr M and Dr H to my blog as sponsors/supporters :)  And I'll send them a finisher's photo from the races with a HUGE THANK YOU for keeping me rolling through the injuries :)

Triathlon Thursday

SWIM: 80 min 3600y swim, 8x250 descending 1-->4 and 5-->8
BIKE: 90 min ride in FP with the new group, about 23 miles
RUN: 34 min brick run in FP, 4 miles

Wow!! Glad I had Friday off to recover!

This is a catch-up post...so I will sadly miss some of the highlights I would have like to remembered.

With my long run on Weds, Thursday suddenly took on a new schedule. This worked for me and felt good probably only because I had Friday off. And with Thursday being the group ride night this summer, it could work for me. But I really miss the Thursday run and the benefits of it.

The brick run was maybe my best run all year, it was at least the best I've had in the last month (haha, considering how little I've run in the last month...). I felt my body weight forward on my feet, I felt light, strong, and like I could go forever :)  I had a nice 8:20 pace in the last 2 miles.

Injury transition--no pain during this week on either joint, excepting some fatigue-pain in the ankle from the long run Weds. I expected that, so I'm not counting that as injury-pain but rather recovery-pain.

Also Dr M today for the ankle/knee. I had some doubts about going, was it a waste of time? My knee wasn't hurting right now...? But it was good to go. He agrees that my sudden indoor bike habit was behind the knee issues, but also pointed out that the bike should be fit for the trainer. As much sense as this made to me, why didn't I know this?!? He explained that laying down further, getting sloppy, and changing my position irritated the pes anserinus (a birds-foot shaped tendon in the medial knee connecting hammy to tibia) was inflamed and could become a more chronic issue if not treated. So tomorrow I come back for more tape by Dr H.

I also learned today that he's done IMCDA!

Finally back to long runs! One month later!

RUN 9.7 in 1:30. Ave HR 145 bpm

CP called for a 90 min run but no more than 10 miles. I can usually clock 10 miles under 90 but since this was my first long run in a month (!) I shouldn't set my goals too high.

I waited til later in the morning when the sun was up so I wasn't running in the dark. No need to make it too easy to roll the ankle again! I'd also adjusted my left shoe orthotic to see if I could alleviate that pain. On top of that, the only libido tape I had on was the spiral wrap for stability. I figured that since I was seeing Dr M tomorrow I not only needed all the data I could get but also didn't need to waste tape in case he took it off. Can't believe that with everything riding on this I'm worried about wasting tape.

I left the FPVC and headed out going up Wyd for the extra miles. Everything was great- no pain, warm sunshine, and a long run. It was during this segment on Wyd that I remembered why I disliked it. Wonderful slow rolling hills but a shit-ton of asshole drivers.

Back in the park I got back to some mental Perk-Me-Up games--saying HI to everyone and smiling. It really does help! I went by a guy near the Zoo right near my turn-around. I came up behind and passed him soon after, we talked a bit then I moved on. He caught up to me at a water fountain, then continued to run with me the next mile. He wore headphones so we didn't talk, but we were stride for stride. Kinda fun, but kinda awkward! Should I speed up? Slow down? To anyone else it probably looked like we were running together! At our run split, we said Bye and that was it. Weird. But fun, it left a smile on my face.

The orthotic move did good, my left foot was much better but maybe not perfect. My ankle was good too, but tired and a little sore later. Knee also good. Things are improving!!

Slow 300's

SWIM 2500 in 60 mins
BIKE 27.7 in 90 mins.

The swim was a 3x300 and for some reason I was super slow. More slow than I normally am. As in doing the 300's in 6:15-ish. Fatigued? HA! Ya think?

Did the bike indoors due to lack of time and worry about my knee starting to hurt again. It did, but it was pretty mild, nothing to stop me. The schedule called for a hilly ass ride (my kinda ride!) but those are hard to do indoors. So I did some big ring intervals and jumps to get some strength training and leg burn out of it.

Monday was rough but I've recovered pretty good from the century. Wonder what's on tap for this coming weekend? :)