Less walking, more running

My body vs the run. It’s been a battle for months. Mostly lows, very few highs. Every time I thoughts I was finally on the mend, I’d do something to set myself back again. Half marathon, half Ironman, 10K, running 40 minutes slow. It took less and less to piss something off. It wasn’t even one issue. Once one injury would finally start to heal, something else would pop up. For 4 months my runs were mostly less than 3 miles. For weeks at a time it was less than 2 miles. I tried, hard, to be patient. To let my body heal before I did any more damage. In the past I would always push through the pain but I didn’t want to make that mistake this time. If nothing else, I hope I’ve learned from my various injuries what to do and not do. I taught myself the hard way that green boxes are not the number one priority. This has been a bigger struggle mentally than physically. The pain I can handle. The moments of freaking out that I have an Ironman in a few months and I’m barely running became harder to hold at bay.

I spent months learning what my body needs to be healthy. It’s been an interesting experiment. I’ve taken advice from multiple physical therapists, my coach, other coaches, articles, books, personal trainers, other triathletes/runners. I’ve sorted through it all and figured out what works for my body. I’ve learned that it takes time, not only to heal, but to protect my body from further injury. I’ve done more clamshells and monster walks than I care to count and I have a larger ass to prove it. My husband loves to point that out.

About three weeks ago, the magic finally happened. I had another short run and I was able to complete the whole time on the schedule and with almost no pain. Then I ran again two days later and the same thing happened. Then again a few days later. And now for three weeks I’ve been able to complete my runs 100% as intended feeling the best I’ve felt since February. I even completed two runs on Saturday which included some harder efforts and my legs are still a-ok.

The last piece of the puzzle I’d been searching for was speed. Not drugs, but maybe that would make running feel less tiring. The natural assumption is to run slow when dealing with injury. The problem is my already marginal form falls apart when running slow. So instead of running slow to keep my HR down, I run faster and walk when my HR gets too high (aka up every hill). This has been my method for a few weeks now and that seems to be what has allowed my body to finally get better (along with lots of mobility work and clamshells and PT of course). The best part is the consistency. I’ve seen before how consistent training is the best way to get stronger and faster. Consistently running 3 miles for a few weeks is already showing improvements. I’ve gone from being forced to walk constantly to wishing my HR would go up so I’d have an excuse to walk. Less walking and more running… and more importantly just plain old running, has brought a level of joy back into my life. I’m trying not to get to wrapped up in the happiness of being able to finally run again and to be able to finally run over 3 miles. Something could happen to set me back again. But I’m very hopeful. Less than 12 weeks until my IM and it’s time to start ramping up…carefully!

Clemson Sprint Race

This past Saturday I finally had the ability to do a race. I signed up for the Clemson Sprint last year but it was on Mother’s Day. Given everything that suddenly came up around that time, I decided to defer the race and go to VA instead. They ended up moving the race to July this year due to Clemson’s sport schedule. So this race as on my schedule with the only thought that hopefully I could fit it in with training. Leading up to it I was a little concerned about the running portion as I still wasn’t running even 3 miles. That meant the plan for the race was to swim and ride my ass off and take the run easy. Irrelevant of what the race plan was, I was happy to be able to race again. Also excited I got to do the same race as a girl I’d been helping prepare for this race. This also meant that a few of our friends came out to support her and cheered me on as well.

Swim 16:24

Goal: Swim hard. The thing about swimming is your effort is all based on feel. No numbers to hit, especially in open water. I lined up somewhere near the front and middle, right behind girls I knew were faster than me. The really-loud-made-us-all-jump gun went off for the third time and we were off. Course was very simple. Straight out, turn 90 degree right, straight, another 90 degree turn heading us back to shore. If I couldn’t stay on course for this swim, I would have considering myself a lost cause. I sighted often, was with the pack the whole time and never had issues finding the buoy. FINALLY! I successfully stayed on course for a race. Water was fairly calm and warm. Like I wanted to take my cap off towards the end warm. I felt like I swam hard the whole time but I could feel my effort start to drop a little after the first half. I still feel like in general I struggle with open water. I’m completely comfortable swimming in it but it always ends up being slower than I expect. Obviously it will be slower than a pool but it just seems way slower. I think I have lots of room for improvement on all the things that make pool swimming so different from open water but of course I only ever swim in a pool. I’m not exactly sure what my real swim time was as the time included a long run to transition.

T1 1:21

Speaking of room to improve… this only included the time I spent inside the gated transition area and for a sprint, I should be moving faster. I wasted a bunch of time trying to get all the dirt and grass off my feet to put my shoes on. I wanted to put my tri shirt on after the swim but had some technical difficulties since I was wet and the shirt ended up completely rolled up. After several seconds of struggling and making no progress I realized it wasn’t worth the time just so I could hide my stomach so it came back off. Sooo lucky you gets to see lots of pictures with my shirt off... I'm sorry. Apparently I found the struggle humorous. Better than getting angry.

Bike 29:10

Goal: Ride hard. I set my own power range based on what it should be for a sprint but Katie’s instructions were pretty clear. Go as hard as I can. Since I didn’t have to run fast off the bike, there were no concerns about blowing up from going to hard. My power range was large but I really wanted to stay at least in the middle part of it with hopes to go higher. Being it was a sprint, I knew my time on the bike would be short so I didn’t try too hard to hold very steady power numbers. If I felt I could go harder, I went harder. If I needed to back off to take a turn, I didn’t freak out about how quickly that drops the average power.

The main thing I noticed on the bike was I felt like I was flying past people. Only two guys passed me in the beginning but I was passing people like crazy. And it wasn’t like I would very slowly approach someone and then have to pass them. It was more like I’d stay to the left and pass two or three people at a time without worrying about getting a penalty for taking too long to pass. Now I’m not trying to say I’m some amazing cyclist because I’m not. But this is the one area I’ve probably seen the most consistent growth. That’s probably because it’s the only sport where I haven’t had to back off due to injuries and I also had the most room to grow. It was nice to see that all hours and hours I’ve put in the saddle is paying off and it’s clearly my strongest area now. So the bike portion felt like it was over in a flash. Sprints seem so short to me now but it was a good amount of time to dig in and feel the burn. I was happy with my effort. I rode hard. I even rolled a back into transition with my mouth hanging wide open and probably some snot still on my face so there's the proof of a solid effort.

T2 1:16 
Running into this transition and T1 felt more tiring than the actual run. That is all I have to say here.

Run 29:10 
Goal: Protect the run. The goal wasn’t to go so easy that I didn’t feel like I was in a race but the goal was to not go so hard that I pissed off my healing injuries. I was so excited when I got a higher HR cap than I was expecting. The higher HR enabled me to actually run without having to stop and walk every 3 minutes. There was one super steep hill that I had to walk up which even walking up it my HR wasn’t dropping at all. The run was still a solid effort though since all I’ve done for months now is very short easy runs. Felt good to push a bit more and the HR cap ended up putting me at a very good pace in regards to how my legs wanted to run.

As I expected, a lot of people passed me. Although I can be really driven to truly race when around competition, I was totally ok with it. I wasn’t upset that I couldn’t try to pass people and run until my heart felt like it would explode. I was simply happy I was running, in a race, even though I wasn’t “racing”. I was happy my body was allowing me to do that. It might have only been 3.1 miles but to me the distance didn’t matter. Of course at the end I couldn’t resist the urge to push a little more than I was supposed to for the finish but I didn’t go all out. I got to see my husband and friends and other locals cheer me on at the end and I was happy. Content. 

Overall 1:21:05

I ended up getting 2^nd place AG, only 29 seconds behind 1^st. Would it have been nice to have pushed during the run to fight for 1^st, of course. But still not complaining one bit. It was a good race and a good morning. I topped it off by stuffing myself at IHOP while feeling like I was going to fall asleep and then riding my bike back home to which everyone thought I was crazy. Seriously, where do you people think I ride all the time? I managed to not throw up breakfast or end up in a ditch like family worries about or overheat and I wish I could say not get lost but I was having GPS issues. So another successful day in the Ironman training bank!

Bonk to kick off recovery

This week I'm experiencing my first recovery block in Ironman training. As this is my first time training for an IM, it's interesting to see how much it varies from my previous training. Yesterday on July 4th I got the whole day off with instructions to sit on my ass, eat, drink and sleep. I didn't completely follow the instructions. I did some shopping with gift cards from Christmas, a did some laundry and cleaning up around the house. But I did take a nap because I didn't get enough sleep the night before and felt exhausted. This of course resulted in me not being able to fall asleep last night. I drank a bunch of water which I'm pretty sure is what was meant by drink and not alcohol to celebrate the 4th. And naturally I ate a lot. No one has to tell me to eat. Ever. 

I've certainly had my share of days feeling very tired and sluggish but when I first saw the recovery block on my schedule I thought I didn't need it that much. That was until Sunday. Friday and Saturday both had long rides with some harder efforts. My energy held up fairly well during both rides. As soon as I was done with training on Saturday, my body started to feel very tired. Sunday I woke up to do a hard swim. I was planning to do my strength right after while at the gym but I knew after I finished swimming that it wasn't going to happen. The best deal I could make with myself was to do all the exercises that required machines so I could go home, eat a full breakfast and then finish at home.

I pulled food out to start making my typical breakfast but all I wanted was heavy carbs. I called my husband to see if he had an interest in going out for breakfast and of course he didn't because he already ate and never wants to go out for breakfast food. So I went back to making my breakfast. My carbs come from the huge lump of steamed spinach and a sweet potato. Unfortunately the already too small potato turned out to be half rotten so I wasn't left with a lot. After I ate I laid on the floor saying over and over that I wanted carbs to my husband who was busy painting molding. I wanted french toast and pancakes and waffles and bagels and all the yummy breakfast carbs I don't eat anymore and normally don't crave. I felt like I was bonking which was weird because I just ate. I felt like I was on the verge of tears from pure exhaustion which once again, really confused me. 

Mom? Are you alive?

I finally dragged my ass upstairs to finish the strength workout. After about 15 minutes, only 3 exercises and lots more laying on the ground, I couldn't do it anymore. This time instead of wanting to cry, I started laughing to myself because the whole thing seemed ridiculous. I came back downstairs and told my husband I needed food and we didn't have anything I needed/wanted in the house so I was going to go out for something, didn't care what. I didn't have the brain function to decide what was best for me so he decided on Chipotle so I could get him food as well. Not the best choice but I didn't care. While driving I thought maybe driving isn't the smartest idea but I needed food. Now. I finally learned what happens when you try to lock your car with the button on the handle while the keys are still in the car (long beep). Good thing they idiot proof that for when my brain is not working. Thankfully got the food quickly, went home and started eating as fast as I could until the whole burrito was gone. That would be my second full meal in about 2 hours. Of course after that I was full so there was more laying around to digest before I was finally able to find the will to finish my strength workout 4 hours after I started. 

This was the moment I knew my body was ready for the recovery block and I'm happy for it. What's sad is I know I haven't come close to the low points I'll feel weeks from now while training. Less than 14 weeks to go and lots of hard training to put in!