Being efficient is hard work

Mid-September I got a shoulder injury. I typically only go to the physical therapist when a pain gets so bad it affects my daily life. When I woke up and it hurt like hell to even lift my arm I knew it was time to go in. Turns out I had bicipital tendinitis which was caused because of my horrible swim form. Few visits of getting dry needles and taped and many many week of PT exercises and more exercise from Katie and I am FINALLY all better. Only took about two months…

During those two months my swims were pretty much limited to short, easy and form focused. I’ve never thought about the way my arms moved through the water so much. First it was about learning how to properly move them and how to keep my elbows up and use the right muscles. That took a long time to figure out. It felt so awkward. Over time it slower turned into something I didn’t have to think about so much but something that felt more natural. Now, I’m not saying my swim stroke is perfect. It’s still far from but I can see how much it’s changed for the better during that time.

This week I finally started getting back into some normal swimming and some hard sets. And you know what you guys… I think I’m faster! I was so concerned that I lost fitness from swimming so much less that it didn’t occur to me that fixing my stroke would make me more efficient and therefore faster. That’s the funny thing about swimming. You can be super strong and in super good shape but if you have a crappy stroke, you are wasting a whole lot of energy going nowhere fast. You have to be both strong and efficient to be fast.

I’m not saying I didn’t realize all of this before but it really clicked for me this week. Trying to improve your form in anything is very difficult. It’s actually hard work, mostly mentally because it can be so frustrating and feel so weird. But I can visibly see the results from improving form and it makes me want to continue working hard to improve all the other things that I know I do wrong. Yes it will suck and yes it will be uncomfortable for a long time but in the end it will pay off.

And this doesn’t just apply to swimming. I tend to be injury prone from running and I know part of that is due to not having perfect form. It’s far better than when I first started running but I know my legs and feet still do some weird things. Irrelevant if fixing those issues makes me a faster runner, I simply want to fix them so I can stop getting injured. I have knee and hip pains that constantly come and go and for the most part those are manageable. Those aren’t so much injuries as they are just nagging pains. Now I have an injury with my Achilles tendon which is not that manageable and hurts to simply walk.

All I want is to be pain free, even for just a week would be fantastic. I’m sick of trading one injury for another. It’s time to do the work to prevent injuries instead of treating them. Time for lots and lots of drills and constantly analyzing how my body is moving and grinding my teeth while foam rolling. I can’t be the ironman I hope to be with a beaten down body.

Savannah Half Marathon Race Report

When I originally signed up for this race I randomly decided that breaking 2 hours seemed like a good goal. I don’t know why. I honestly think it was just because I have this weird thing with numbers. After my triathlon I thought there was a decent chance I could do this because I ran a 9:19 average pace after swimming and biking and all I needed was a 9:09 pace on fresh legs to break 2 hours.

The last week before the race I was starting to have serious doubts that I could do it. I ran my last long easy run too hard and followed that up with a tempo run which I totally failed and actually quit which I never do. That was followed up by another run with hard miles which I once again gave up and quit early. All of this convinced me that I couldn’t meet my goal and that I should never have time goals in the first place. All I thought about was how I couldn’t hold a really hard effort for 2 hours and I had no idea how I did what I did during my last triathlon.

After kind of falling apart mentally and pouring all my doubts to Katie she set me straight. She confirmed that I should never have a goal time especially for a race that isn’t a priority race. I dropped my time goal and instead picked a mental goal. This race was about finding that pain and facing it. This race was seeing if I gave into the pain or if I could push back. And so I set off for Savannah with a very different goal than I originally intended.

This was meant to be a fun girls weekend and so it was! A group of 8 of us came from all around for a fun weekend in Savannah. A bunch of running girls before a race sure do know how to party! Beer pong? Psh, water pong all the way! (and OSMO PreLoad for me)

Ashlee who set up this whole weekend had the idea for Mystery Marathoners where we were randomly assigned a person to give a race goodie box to. Ashlee (who assured me did not rig the system) got me and man did she do an AWESOME job! She actually made those jars which I LOVE (wish you could see all the sides of the jars) and provided lots of good running quotes which I read through that night and again the next morning before the race. Couldn’t ask for a better friend! Love you girl!

Race morning went as race mornings do. At the race sight while it’s still dark out. Waiting in porta potty lines multiple times and still having to pee before the race. Mass amounts of people everywhere. Late start. Typical stuff.

I decided to start the race by myself since I knew I would run a different pace then rest of the girls anyway. I wanted to be focused on what I wanted out of this race. Race conditions weren’t good. Low 70s and 100% humidity. I had a hydration and fuel plan though which I stuck to and I don’t think I could have handled the conditions that much better unless I carried a second bottle of OSMO. Nevertheless, the conditions wore on me. They wore on everyone. In fact I passed a man getting CPR about half way into the race and he actually died. They even cut the marathon course short. I wasn’t going to let conditions affect how I handled the race though. This was just another thing to face.

My Achilles tendon has been bothering me the last two weeks and my knee started bothering me the week of the race. I went out looking for pain and I found it. Immediately with my ankle and some more a half mile in with my knee. I knew that the pain would be there no matter how fast or slow I went so I accepted the pain and carried on. There’s not really much to say about the race itself. It’s a half marathon, it hurt like it was supposed to. I was very much in a zone to the point where I didn’t even notice passing some of my friends and didn’t really take in my surroundings. The last several miles were a struggle but I kept chugging along. I faced the pain and I didn’t back down. There were times where I slowed down a bit but then I’d start to fight back and speed it up. It was a very uneven pace throughout the race and that probably correlated to how much I wanted to stare down the pain. My questions for the day: What am I made of? I asked myself that repeatedly during the race and told myself “some tough shit” whether it was true or not. I figured telling myself that was a good start.

Did I make my original time goal? Nope. Do I care? Not at all. I could blame it on the cruise where I ate impressive amounts 3 weeks before the race or the cold I had right after vacation that was still lingering just a few days before the race. I could blame it on the melted chocolate and peanut butter I ate almost every day for a week before the race or the ice cream I had the day before the race. These are all factors that have effect on race day, yes. And other than being sick, these were all choices I made knowing what the effect could be. But I don’t blame any of these on how my race day went. I own those decisions, as bad as they might have been. Could I have broken 2 hours if none of those things had happened? Maybe, I’ll never know. But it doesn’t matter because I went out there with a question and I got an answer. What am I made of? Some tough shit. Maybe not as tough as I hoped to be but I’m not weak like I was afraid I’d be. I did not give in. And that right there is some more pennies in the piggy bank. 

Rest of the girls survived with their own hurdles. Honestly everyone looked pretty miserable at the end of the race. But if you look happy when you cross the finish line, you didn’t push yourself so I’d say that’s a good thing. Happiness comes later after the pains gone and you can see straight and you’ve had time to process what just happened.

I’d say all in all it was a successful weekend and a lot of fun! Can’t go wrong with a girls weekend away with a race somewhere in there. What are girlfriends for if not acting crazy in front of, looking like complete crap in front of and popping very massive blood blisters for? Can’t wait for the next girls race weekend! Until then I’m officially in the off season… dun dun dun…

Alive, well and not panicking

I’m sure you have all been worried about me with my lack of posts this month. Probably worried I was started to have “oh my gosh what did I sign up for!” thoughts and pondering if I slowly disappeared that no one would notice or remember I signed up for an Ironman. Well I assure you, that’s not that case. I’ll admit I have had a few moments of “what did I agree to do?!” but not really in a panicky way. More like “gosh that’s a lot of work and time” type of way. I absolutely don’t regret signing up for the race even one bit. I’m very excited for the race and everything next year. But first I must make it through rest of this year. So time to revisit October’s goals…

-     Make weekly meal plans – I made some plans but not whole weeks. Plus there was a cruise in there so that removed like a quarter of the month. Overall didn’t do very well on this one.

-     Actually follow meal plans – Um I sort of followed what I made. Sometimes I’d get lazy though and wouldn’t feel like cooking when I got home.

-     Eat lots of greens or at least one green every day – Most days? Don’t think I managed every day. That’s just sad.

-     Don’t go crazy on the cruise… round two, let’s try to actually do it this time! – Hahaha yea once again, not sure why I made this goal since I knew I’d fail. Big time. At least I drank a lot less than everyone else for whatever that worth.

Ok so pretty much a bit fat fail last month. I feel like I should stick to food goals since I did so poorly in October but doing well is even more of a challenge now that we are entering holiday season. I’m not going to try the approach of “don’t eat pumpkin pie and all other yummy desserts” because that is just crazy and I know I’ll fail. I’ll focus on things I should do, instead of shouldn’t do.

-     Focus on healthy carbs aka fruits and veggies.

-     Experiment with fall veggies before they all disappear. I know butternut squash is good, move on and try something else.

-     Increase protein and focus on getting protein in every meal and in more forms than just protein powder, Greek yogurt or peanut butter.

-     Don’t overeat during Thanksgiving week (see first goal – don’t go crazy on rolls and pasta!). I know the holidays seem like it’s all about food but it’s not…shocker family, I know! It’s about being with family.

-     Eat all the veggies I buy. If I’m going to insist on continuing to buy from Costco, actually commit to eating it all and stop being wasteful!

To wrap up October I’ll touch on the fact that I did actually go on a cruise. It just took me a while to get a hold of the pictures. Already seems like a while ago. My one complaint was not being able to spend more time in the ocean. Have a mentioned I love water…

 And when you can't find a bike to ride, why not try out a zebra...

 The sisterhood of the traveling fox sweater. No, I'm not going to explain any further.