Friday, March 21, 2008

Currently breathing giant sigh of relief

No stress fracture! Tri season '08 is back on!

And I will start training hard again....umm....right after vacation. For the next 9-days I will be "cross training" by searching out secret stashes of powder in British Colombia, and all the best little mountain town breakfast places between Whistler and Fernie.

I'll be getting my quad burn on the 8 mile run at Revelstoke, but any pool time will probably be in hot tub form. Which totally counts if you ask me. ;) I mean sometimes you have to get all the way across the hot tub to refill your drink...that's hard work.

I can't tell if I'm more excited about not having a stress fracture, or leaving on vacation....but really, does it matter? The only thing I need to worry about right now is how many pairs of shoes I can fit in my suitcase.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Denial....its a really pretty place to visit...but you shouldn't stay too long

I haven't written in a while. I've been avoiding the blog for a number of reasons....none of them really good, but most of which are legitimate excuses for being at least a little bit of a slacker. Problem is, now I have the accountability of the blog. And just like when you were young...no matter how many days you faked sick, you were eventually going to have to go to school and face the math test, or the mean girl, or the boy who embarrassed you...whatever silly thing that you were avoiding because it felt like the end of the world.

So here's what you've missed....

Last week I found myself lying flat on my back staring at a fuzzy TV screen waiting to see if the black and white dots organized themselves into a picture of a very early end to my tri season. Not a fun place to be. If you listened you could hear what $700 being just flushed down the toilet might sound like. And you could see my pants size increasing exponentially.

The thought of it was just depressing. Too depressing to blog about.

So what brought me to contemplate my '08 retirement? Well, mostly pain. Very inconveniently placed pain. Inconveniently located in the very near vicinity of my previous stress fracture.

Now for the record, I'm known to visit the land of "denial" on a fairly regular basis. Especially when it comes to the aches and pains that come along with working out. In fact, in 2002 I was so completely planted in "denial" that if my little imaginary vacation destination had a government I probably would have been elected mayor. My extended stay in denial caused me one stress fracture (left tibia) and one stress fracture turned total fracture of the medial talus (that's a little bone in the arch of your foot).

Um...oops.

So this time, when that little ache started getting to the "annoys me even on my walk to work" stage I figured I'd bypass denial and head straight for the doc.

I ended up getting a bone scan (on Thursday), and a prescription for Physical Therapy (which I start tomorrow). I haven't heard the outcome of the bone scan, but I can say that after two weeks of not running the pain has almost completely disappeared (whew!). So ideally the bone scan would rule out a possible stress fracture and PT will have me on track to some pain free running after 4-6 weeks of working out some imbalances (and some sort of bursitis and knee thing that the doc wrote on my Rx in a medical language I do not understand).

Time will tell, I guess. I'm hoping for the best.

Sunday, March 2, 2008

2 cups coffee + 3 ibuprofen = 1 great run workout

My legs had been feeling a little achy after Wednesday's 4-mile run, so I took a few days off. Which was convenient since life's been a little nutso lately and I wouldn't have had much time to workout anyway.

But today I was back at it. Got up early...had coffee....half a bowl of stale organic rice crisp cereal....popped three ibuprofen for the knee....and headed off for the gym.

Since faster running seems to hurt less than sustained slower running I opted for intervals today. Which made my workout surprisingly fun, and less painful.

4 miles running
1/2 mile warm up walking at 3.7mph
3 miles of 1/2 mile @ 6.8-7mph, 1/4 mile walking at 3.7
1/2 mile cool down walking at 3.7mph gradually tapering to 3mph
*I had a crummy treadmill right under the TV so I had nothing to focus on but the wall and my music. I tried to use it to my advantage by paying extra attention to my posture and form.

Abs
planks and dead bugs (I don't know if anyone else knows them by this name?)

20 minute swim (wimpy, more for form and to make the legs feel better after the run)
400 swim, kick, pull, swim
200 free
50 breast
100 free

I messed up the schedule a bit by taking so many days off, but I'm planning to do the 90-minute ride tomorrow just so I don't miss one of the long workouts. Especially because I'm not sure how many workouts I'm going to be able to squeeze in this week either.

Needless to say I'm not really feeling like I'm pulling the volume of a half-irongirl in training. But my life schedule should lighten a bit now into March. The running is what I'm the most worried about, since I was the least prepared for that leg in my first 70.3, but I'm staying on track with that so I'm not stressing too much. Yet. ;)