Oh May, why you gotta be like April?

I had good intentions this weekend to get some good biking and running in. Alas.

I intended to run 6 miles on Sunday. I'm a little bored on the path so I was going to run 1.5 miles up and back in one direction, and then run 1.5 miles up and back in the other direction. I was 2 miles into the run when the heavens opened up and dumped on me. Now I'm not a shrinking violet, but I was running through the woods and was a little concerned about potential lightning with all those trees. Since I also was having a really hard time with my pacing I decided just to give up and go home after 3 miles. Monday morning when I woke up I was very sore in my quads. I don't know if it was a nutrition thing, an hydration thing, or what, but I was not happy. Still hurts a little bit today even.

I think we are getting far more rain in May than we did in April, weather adages or no. Today I figured I was going to be wet anyway so might as well go to the pool. I started in the deep end to work on sculling and open water "techniques". Then I went over to a lane for laps. I am still far from where I would like my stamina to be. It's very hard work! I'll be able to get another pool session in Thursday and Friday. If the rain cooperates I will bike outside tomorrow. If it doesn't, and my lazy tendencies don't interfere, I'll do a spin session at the gym.

Two Months To Tri

I'm a little less than 2 months away from my first triathlon. Meep!

I have continued to do more swim workouts than biking or running for fear of injury. On May 8 I visited my friend Andrew so he could use myofascial release to release the pressure in my calves. The words "why are you being so mean to me?" may have come out of my mouth, for it was a painful process. Necessary, but painful. Since then my calves have felt so much better! I need to follow up with him for more work, but just one session helped enormously.

On Mother's Day I went for a 20-mile bike ride. I didn't have food in the house so I didn't really eat beforehand, which was a dumb thing to do. I did have a vanilla flavored gel with protein at the 10 mile mark. It tasted like warm super sweet frosting. Yummy? I was very cognizant of my heel position, as I am not interested in screwing up my legs again. For the first 10 miles I was riding against the wind, so that was not quite so much fun. The return trip was much easier with the wind helping me along. Still, that last 1/2 mile was excruciatingly difficult to do! I completed these 20 miles under two hours, which is pretty good for me. I'm going to attempt to get all the way to Manayunk next time.

I started at Betzwood (number 3 on the map below) and biked a little bit past the Spring Mill train station (number 8 on the map) before turning back.

Yesterday (May 14) I did a little running on the treadmill. Earlier this week I bought some new shoes, to have backups when my Saucony's get too worn out (which I don't think they actually are yet). I got another pair of Saucony ProGrid shoes like my current shoes, and I opted to get a pair of Nike Structure Triax 11 shoes instead of the Mizuno Wave Rider(?) shoes. They both felt comfortable in the store, but the Nike's felt a little more comfortable I thought. Skip back to yesterday's run, and boy are those Nike's not comfortable! I don't know what the problem was, but my feet got very hot and uncomfortable. I stopped at one point to loosen the laces, then I stopped again to pull out the insole. Even that didn't really help. I ran about 3 miles all said, but they were the most uncomfortable miles for my feet. I'm going to see if I can take them back to the running store and exchange them for the Mizunos.

I bought some flippers, a nose plug, and some ear plugs last Saturday, which really helped my last swim session! I can even breathe while swimming, some times! I will keep plugging away at the swim; in fact I'll be swimming again today, and hopefully tomorrow. After that the summertime hours kick in, unfortunately.

Mostly Swimming

After my last brick workout on April 19th, my shins have been really hurting. I think I have a little exercise-induced Compartment Syndrome. When I first started running in October 2007 I could feel a lot of pain in my soleus muscles. After a while there wasn't nearly as much discomfort, although it is a consistently weaker area for me. I think the combination of new pedals (and possibly the wrong orientation of clips on my shoes) and running created too much injury. Consequently, I refrained from any biking or running last week and instead went to the pool 3 times. I also worked on stripping the muscles (firm pressure along the muscle fibers), had one of the chiropractors I work with do some ultrasound and muscle stripping, and also did some fascial work to break up the adhered layers. I need a lot more of that kind of work, especially because when I touch the skin on my calves it puckers which means everything is stuck together. You'd think as a massage therapist I would take better care of my muscles, but alas. Happily I am getting some bodywork next week. Woohoo!

If I make it to the pool tomorrow morning I will have swum 3 times. On Monday I didn't get to the gym on time because I was spacey, so instead I did some lat pull downs. I did the pool and lat pull downs and 1.5 mile very very slow paced jog on the treadmill on Tuesday, to see if my legs would cooperate. It was sore, but I made it through. On Wednesday I did the pool and lat pull downs and 30 minutes on the bike. I didn't make it through the entire 45 minute spin because I wasn't feeling great. I still have some paresthesia, and I'll feel the muscle cramp, but overall it's been tolerable. I hope to do maybe some running or biking outdoors on Saturday. Not both, it's too soon for that.