Different kind of weekend

Yesterday I was supposed to race Chattanooga 70.3. However, I decided to skip the race as I discussed here. I watched as everyone got ready for that race and another local half, Mountains to Main. I saw pictures and read as everyone tapered and discussed fourteen thousand times if M2M would be wet suit legal. I tried to not be bothered that I didn’t get to be part of the excitement of nearing race day but instead focused on the positives.  I’ve been surprisingly ok with the fact that I skipped my race. Even when Facebook was kind enough to remind me several times that I had an event coming up… thank you, I wasn’t aware.

What’s even more surprising is how ok I’ve been with the fact that I’ve barely been running. Before I was so freaked out about it because I had a race looming over my head. Once I dropped the race, that stress dropped away with it. I am 100% positive it was the right decision. I feel better than I have in probably months in regards to injuries and this has given me a chance to really focus on healing. I’ve been able to make some more baby steps forward in the running department. I’ve slowly worked my way from 2 run/ 1 walk for 15 min to 3 run/1 walk for 20 min. That’s still a sad amount of running but I’m thrilled I can do that without being in bunch of pain afterwards.

I’ve been able to get in some solid riding recently since I haven’t been tapering. That included a not so solid 4 hour ride Saturday where the goal was to climb as much as possible. I did the Bakery Ride and then a northern loop in the North Carolina mountains. Unfortunately I only stop at the bakery to use the bathroom. I did that loop for the first time earlier this year and decided to try it in reverse thinking riding up the switchbacks might be better. Don’t know what the hell I was thinking because that was a way steeper grade than going up the other side. That was the lowest point I’ve had in riding in a long time. I actually got off my bike and WALKED!!!! I’ve NEVER walked my bike up a hill or at least not since I was kid. In all fairness this was a mountain, those hairpin turns had me mashing some very high power numbers and I was struggling even trying to walk my damn bike up. I think I walked about a half mile before I threw my ass back on the bike to finish out that one climb. I did redeem myself a tiny bit when I later made a last minute decision to do one last hard climb on the way home. Still, that was horrible. But I will say that by the time I was driving home and already felt ok with what had happened. I’m having an easier time letting go of bad training days. It happens just like really good days happen. Try not to read into either of them too much. I still did a 4 hour ride with a bunch of climbing so that counts for something.

The other good thing about not doing the race is I got to be home for the weekend which was nice for two reasons. One, I’ve been out of town the last two weekend and leaving again in a few days so it was nice to have some time home. And two, it was my 5 year wedding anniversary on Friday. Instead of spending the day with my husband in a car and being careful about what I ate, I got to actually celebrate it. This meant I got to surprise him with a nice home cooked meal followed by his favorite dessert, lava cakes. I even added some peanut butter to mine as an experiment. The next day we went to Melting Pot. That’s always been my favorite restaurant but now I think I might be ready to venture out to different places for special occasions. Don’t get me wrong I still think that place is amazing and sooo yummy but it is the complete opposite of how I eat now. It’s all sugar and dairy and grains and more sugar and alcohol and more sugar. Like I said, yum. So not the weekend I had planned but still a good weekend in a very different type of way.

Observations while in NJ

I’ve made a food observation (yes always about food with me). This past weekend I had a last minute trip to NJ for my husband’s grandmother funeral. This is an Italian family so naturally they love their white food. I felt like I was carb loading on white food for a race and by loading I mean LOADING. More than I would eat even for a race. Until about a year ago I never paid much attention to macros but I kept wondering where the protein and healthy fat was when breakfast options were bagels, muffins, croissants and fruit. I can only eat so much fruit. The lunch after the funeral was a fixed multi course menu. I’ll admit I ate it all and maybe 3 of the dessert because not everyone likes tiramisu. I don’t like wasted food… yep that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. Other than a few sips I managed to stay away from all the alcohol though and that was my one accomplishment. 

By no means am I complaining about the food. I love Italian food and NJ bagels and it was all delicious. I think I sent my body into a bit a shock though and even had a hard time sleeping because of it. I’m obviously not doing Whole30 since I did 10 days, went to Universal, did another 4 days, then went to NJ, am now on day 4 and about to wreck it again this weekend. This in itself has been an interesting experiment though doing the flip flopping of how I’m eating which I certainly don’t recommend. Back to the actual observation. I’ve learned that for every 1 day of bad eating it seems to take my body about 2 days to return to normal. It’s interesting to see how long it takes for all of that to clear out of my system and my body to return back to its happy state. Makes you realize just how much food has an impact on how you feel.

Other observations from my trip: I was not at all ready to attend another funeral which resulted in a meltdown at one point. I remembered how much I already miss running in cooler weather. While other were complaining about the colder weather, I was thrilled. I got to do another whopping 15 minutes run/walk. I convinced my husband to join purely because it was a short, easy run so that was nice.

My favorite observation though was the size of my legs compared to Bill’s. I’ve noticed my legs getting bigger from riding more (and eating a bit more). Running normally lean my legs out a bit but cycling has taken over so cycling legs are coming out more and more. After looking at our legs side by side I was convinced my thighs were bigger and sure enough his legs can hide behind mine. I have mixed feelings about that but in the end I like being strong. Plus he skips leg day.

Hello heat & high HR

Oops forgot to hit Publish on this last week...

There are a number of things that plain suck when it comes to not running, many of which I’ve complained about here. Well here’s another. Somehow between when I was running regularly and now, it has gone from winter to summer. I missed that last little bit of decent running weather. Now even the mornings are too warm for my liking for running. I will say that if I had to pick between winter and summer temperatures, I’d pick winter, especially where I live. Winters in SC are perfect. Summers on the other hand I hate and it lasts way too long. Spring and fall which are my favorite seasons last two weeks. Despite all this complaining I do like where I live.

I think it’s safe to say I sweat more than the average person. I remember doing runs first thing in the morning with friends last summer. By the end they would look somewhat damp with sweat. I on the other hand would have squishing shoes from collected sweat and looked like I just went swimming (but didn’t smell like it). I could wring out a puddle of sweat from my hair. It’s a sexy imagine I know but no one ever said the life of a triathlete was glamorous. It’s anything but.

I’ve made comments in the past about how my HR seemed low on the bike, especially when I was on the trainer. Well yesterday that certainly wasn’t the case. I kept looking at my HR during an aerobic ride thinking “why does this feel so difficult and why it my HR so high?! This is higher than during my 70.3 and at much lower power!”. I know I’m a pansy but seriously… I don’t like the heat. Now I’m learning the important lesson that if I’m riding in the middle of the afternoon on a sunny day with little shade, I need to bring a lot more to drink.

I also am remembering how heat slows running pace. And holy hell between the heat, humidity, and fact that I haven’t been running recently, running now feels incredibly tiring. My PT cleared me to run 2 min/ walk 1 min up to 15 min which I did yesterday. Those 2 minutes… sooo tiring! Seriously, when did running become so difficult! I feel like I’m starting over back to the days when I couldn’t run a lap around the track without walking. Part of it is because I was given things to focus on for improving my form which feels awkward as hell. It’s forcing me to use my muscles a bit differently than my normal run which will take some getting used to. Despite being tired from running/walking 15 minutes and running slower and only running 2 minutes at a time and being  covered in sweat from that little bit, I’m thrilled I got to run and it’s the best I’ve felt running in regards to pain in weeks, maybe months. Baby steps hopefully in the right direction. Nikita is eager for me to be pain free and with better form so she can join me again.

Universal pain in the ... foot

We decided to go on this trip because it was a better alternative than sitting around Mother’s Day at home upset. It was a great idea. The trip was awesome. Normally I can find something bad about any trip to Disney or Universal but I really have no complaints. Weather was great, lines weren’t too long, nothing dramatic happened like getting in a car accident. Overall it was simply a really good weekend with my family.

My family is all about food just like me (in case you couldn’t tell since I always talk about food). I tried to keep my actual meals somewhat healthy in an effort to make up for the other stuff I ate. I think every single meal after polishing off my plate I would eat the leftovers off my family’s plates. My “other stuff” included butter beer (yum), Ghirardelli brownie sundae (drooling thinking about it yum), a big cupcake (not that yum but I ate the whole thing anyway) and we shared a giant doughnut from Simpsons (actually really yum!). The extent of my self-control was not buying a whole doughnut to take home like rest of my family did. And I’m glad for that decision because I somehow gained more pounds than days I was away. Given it wasn’t a cruise I don’t know how that happened but whatever.

My only complaint was my foot. While walking to the park the first day my foot started to hurt and it got progressively worse during the day. These were long days where it was mostly walking or standing. By the end of the day I was limping. The next day was pretty much the same thing. The third day it was a little better and luckily that day involved less walking and we found a guy with a bicycle attached to a cart to ride us from the hotel to the park. I was tempted to ask if I could pedal instead because I was feeling lazy from lack of training. Normally in this situation it would have been a few days of only running and strength training. Being I couldn’t run, I did strength once and the other two days only walked 10+ miles around the parks. It’s really frustrating not being able to run in the first place but even worse when there is a new fun place to explore on foot.

After seeing the two PTs last week I have an idea of some of the many issues going on in my body that could be causing my injuries. However as of yesterday I’m really convinced the foot pain is steaming from cycling, and running (and apparently walking) amplifies the issue. After not running AT ALL for a week and pretty much no running the few weeks before, it’s odd that this foot problem has come up. Why I’m officially convinced it’s cycling related is after a power test yesterday, the same spot on the outside of my foot started bothering me on the other foot. So based on that and the fact that now the tops of my knees are also hurting which I know is from cycling, it’s officially time to bite the bullet and get an official bike fit. Although my previous injuries I know were caused by running and I know I have a lot of work to do to prevent further running injuries, I’ll be really annoyed if the thing preventing me from running right now is actually from cycling and it took me this long to figure it out. But on the other hand I’m just happy that I’m finally starting to figure things out and I know what I need to do. Who knows, I could be completely wrong with this theory though.

Silver saddle lining

 Today I arrived at Universal Studios for a vacation with my dad and two of my sisters. I arrived hours before them so I decided to eat at a bar by the pool which naturally led to a margarita. WholeDay30 officially over… 10 days in. The time to myself (with a little alcohol) gave me time to really think about Chattanooga 70.3 which is in a little over two weeks. I’d been debating for a while if I’d really be able to race given I’m still effectively running. Time away from work, away from training, away from day-to-day life, it’s what I needed to finally make a decision. I’m not going to race. I might still go to do the swim and bike but I haven’t decided if it’s really worth the cost to travel for a DNF. At the end of the day my main goal this year is about the full Ironman and I want to do whatever is best for that. That means not putting my body through another (after doing it twice already) race while recovering from an injury. Instead I’m going to focus on recovering and fixing all the issues with my body causing all these problems.

But instead of focusing on the fact that I won’t be racing or that I’m not running, I’m trying to look at what I am doing. This is giving me an opportunity to focus on riding more and improve my cycling fitness. I road 5 out of the last 6 days. I road 13 hours, over 200 miles. That’s the most I’ve ever ridden in that time frame. None of the rides were nice relaxing efforts either. Each day had serious efforts, several days had max efforts. My legs are done. It’s tiring to walk up stairs and I don’t the energy to do the public bathroom toilet hover. My special place hurts to the point where I’d whimper while sitting on the bike seat and I’ve debated about going commando all day.

 

And you know what? It’s all worth it. I’m seeing real progress in cycling and for a while I’ve considered myself a weak cyclist. Today at the end of my last ride, which was a long ride, I did a 20 minute hard tempo effort and I was 10 watts higher than the first time I did an all-out 20 minute power test 6 months ago. So yea, it’s been a lot more cycling than my body is used to this past week but I’m damn proud of where I’m come. Of course that bubble got burst the minute I looked at the bike camp schedule in 3 weeks… oof that’s going to hurt.