Somedays

Yesterday, on an average sort of not very hard 35 mile training ride, somewhere around mile 25 my right hamstring seized up.  In fact, it was so bad, I could NOT be in my aero bars without pain shooting down my leg.

I slowed down, I sat up, tears started welling up in my eyes, it really hurt.

My other hamstring has been hosed up since last year.  It’s frustrating, my PT ditched me and says she has done all she can.  That can never be a good sign.

I ask an awful lot of my body, I know that.  To what end?  For what reason?  Would I push until it makes no sense to push any farther and damage myself?

My drive is strong.  Being an athlete is part of who I am.  It gives me an identitiy.  It has always been a piece of me.

As I rode home in pain yesterday, I realized how hard it would be for me to be sidelined due to injury.  How even harder it would be if I injured myself to the point of no return.

So with that, I take a step back for a day or two.  Listen to my body, (try to) be smart and know it will all be ok.

It better all be ok.

Summer 2011: Day 17

5:54 am.  Meet Gretchen.  It’s raining outside and we are meeting for a lake swim.  She has her wetsuit AND umbrella.

Yes, umbrella.

One week to go

I have always loved “last of the last” sort of things.  Those are the what are you going to do the last day before school gets out or what are you going to do the last week of summer vacation, types of things.  It’s a strange way of eking every last second out of what is left.

This is my last week of training before Boston, which falls right in line with my “last of the last” thinking.  It is pretty unconventional with all the biking, but really, we are already behind on all that business (no need to worry about that until next Tuesday morning) so why not tie it into a taper?

Monday:

• 10-20 mile bike, mostly flat. Yes, you can do the greenway if you want to stay in your comfort zone.
• 30 minute clearance run afterwards

Tuesday:

• Track work. Likely about 10-15 x 120 on the turf with full recoveries and some dynamic stretching.
• Easy clearance swim.

Wednesday:

• 10-20 mile bike, mostly flat.
• Good day for yoga or a massage.

Thursday:

• 5 mile EASY Foundation run with 8 strides at the end. Also any form running drills you want. Stretch WELL.
• Easy clearance swim.

Friday:

• 30 minute clearance run. Optional strides at the end. No more than 4 strides.

Saturday:

• OFF. Drink a ton of water and keep your feet up, as much as possible.

Sunday:

• 20 minute clearance run, a few form running drills. Do strides until you feel loose and fast.

Monday:

• 26.2 miles. I’d like you to choose a fairly hill course, preferably somewhere in the northeast. I’ve heard Boston is nice this time of year.

Downhill from here

As far as Boston marathon training goes, we have just left the hardest training week in our wake.  That last week was a mighty tough one for me.  Finding myself with little desire to run on two of the five days is never a good sign and my body felt like it was breaking down under all of it.

If you find an extra hamstring laying around, I will gladly take it and find someone to replace my left one.

As a little pep me up, my coach shifted my interval workout from today to Thursday to help with my aged legs, that I am asking a lot of, and then told us that we really only have about 5 key workouts left, so stay the course!

We have 3 interval runs and 2 progression runs.  Which sounds nice.  Right?  The interval runs this week are 10 x 800s, next week 12 x 800s and the following 14 x 800s all at 6:20 to 6:30 pace with 1:40 rest between each one.  Since I am basically speed sensored, stride legnth senored and cadence sensored to my coach, there is no way of getting around these workouts, only going through them.

These are the kind of workouts that can make you crumple into a heap and cry, they can make you wonder what the fuck you got a coach for, they make all the negative things you ever thought about your abilities well up right before your eyes, they make your mind numb and then they allow you to evaluate how much time you can actually tolerate in your pain cave.

At this point, on the way down the hill, it’s all about keeping your shit together, all the way through to the bitter end.

Urban training

Boston marathon training has kicked off in full force these past couple weeks.  Our long run this past weekend was 17 miles.

I find 17 miles to be that point in which your body starts screaming at you, it begs you to stop and then you suddenly remember why you told yourself you would never do it again at mile 21 of the race.

Di and I are running Boston together.  I guess I didn’t realize until yesterday that she ran ONE marathon.  ONE…and made it to Boston. Pretty cool.

Needless to say, we have been doing a lot of running in the city.  We have been doing a modified hill workout in parking ramps downtown.  If you want to feel hardcore…try sprinting up a ramp at 6:00 am then do it again and again and again.  That will do it.

What has been great is our long runs.  Not that I didn’t know this before, but we live in such an amazing city.  Our runs have started off by the lakes, meander though beautiful hilly neighborhoods, straight through the heart of the city and then we run along the river.  What else could you ask for?

OK, besides warm weather.

Thuy

I have been fighting a bit of knee trouble these days, so I decided to take some time off of running, thinking that would solve my problems.  Since it has not, I starting seeing a Chiropractor, her name is Dr.Thuy Katzenberger and she is the fiercest little woman who inflicts the most amount of pain, I have ever met.

I always love it when you go in and try to get one thing fixed, full well knowing (or maybe not) it is stemming from something else all together.  Here is the email I sent my coach of the rehash (from my perspective of what Thuy (pronounced Twee) said to me.

What is wrong:
1.  My pelvis is the biggest issue.  I actually stand with my pelvis tilted way forward which causes a whole host of alignment problems. Also in the position that I am in all the time, it does not allow for my hamstrings to be used to their full potential.  Instead they sit there contracted and shorted up because they are not allowed to be in their normal state.  This pelvic tilt also has my lower back in a constant contracted state, which is no good.  All of this pelvis stuff is causing my gate to be funky.

PLAN:  I have to retrain my pelvis to live in a different position.  I basically have to stand shoulders back, butt out, then breath and try to relax those muscles.

2.  My feet.  She was appalled at the state of my feet, their wear pattern, how crocked my toes are and the callouses I get.  I have some very strong muscles in my feet and then I have some that have atrophied.  She wants them all in play and wants my foot to strike differently.  Which supposedly it will once the pelvis is fixed.

PLAN:  Straighten my toes out (I’m not exactly sure what kind of Chinese voo doo can help with this, but let me tell you it hurts) and she wants me to walk around in Vibrum 5 fingers 30 minutes a day to get all the muscles in my feet working.  She feels that walking around in these is better than any exercises she could give me.

3.  The knee.  Again an alignment/weakness issue.  I’m asking muscles to do things they should not be doing because the others are not up to the task and I just keep burning through to the next stabilizer muscle.

Thuy said that my pain progression from IT band to other side of the knee is exactly what happens right before you tear your lateral meniscus, which usually happens suddenly due to something stupid like tripping over a sidewalk or rolling over a stone.  The constant ache in the back of the knee is all my muscles just trying to keep their shit together.

PLAN:  Get in alignment, strengthen hamstrings.

4.  Weaknesses:  hamstrings and glute medius.  My glute medius is like jello…I am hoping for a better ass in 2011.

PLAN:  I have hamstring exercises to work on and glute work will come later.

5.  Balance:  I forgot what she said about this besides the fact that when asked to balance on one foot for 10 seconds I begin to shake, which someone in my physical condition should be able to stand there for a good minute before this happens.

PLAN:  Go back to bed and wake up in a different body.

This is what I get for asking my 40 year old body to race hard.  Better get on it, the start of marathon training is just around the corner.

Queen of the tundra

I have taken on a part time gig at the City of Lakes Loppet Foundation as their Sponsorship Coordinator for their big Loppet weekend in February as well as the Junior Olympics which they are going to host in March.  Needless to say, because of this, I have suddenly found myself on skis.

Every Tuesday night I go to a ski class.  So far it has been a bunch of dry land training, which I have no problem with.  Last night, due to the snow, I found myself on skis for the first time since I was 7.  The images of me laying in the snow crying because I was cold and frustrated all came flooding back.

With 33 years and only a pinch more patience than when I was 7, I plodded back and forth with no poles trying to get the gist of skate skiing.  At least I was laughing as I fell down instead of crying.  My plan is to complete the 33K Loppet race on February 6th.  I have a lot of work to do and honestly have no business doing it, but why the hell not?

Hey, if you ski, come on out and participate.  If you don’t come on out and watch.  There is something for everyone.

One last gasp

The week before the ironman, I came home from a run with such exhilaration for completing the workout so perfectly, that Adam looked at me and said, “Why don’t you run another marathon and qualify for Boston?”

That’s all I needed to stoke that flame.  A quick email to Scott wondering if this was a bad idea or worse yet a HORRIBLE idea went off.  He suggested waiting until after the ironman was done and then decide.

So while Adam and I were driving home from the ironman, I flipped open the computer, Adam handed me a credit card and said, “Sign Up!”

Here is the email thread that transpired next:

Me: I want to go to Boston.  Whislestop…Oct 9.  Get me there.

Scott: Done.

So this Saturday, I will be attempting, yet again, to qualify for Boston.  Since I am now 40 the cushion is a bit thicker, I need to finish in 3:50.

I will see if the gamble of riding this wave of fitness will pay off or if it will all come crashing down.

Bets start at $1.

2B or not 2B

I knew, when I signed up last year to do an ironman, that I wanted to have a coach.  I wanted this coach because I knew that I could readily destroy myself and my race by manhandling my own training regimen.

So I started asking around and quickly came up with a few coaches to talk with.  After a few brief exchanges, it was clear who the most responsive and diligent candidate for the job was and in addition to that, he had a small posse of woman my age that were training for the same race.  In my mind, the combination of the two, was the perfect compliment.

The deal with having a coach is that you have to trust them.  You have to have faith that what they are asking you to do, will reap rewards down the line.  Sometimes that’s hard to do, especially when you know lots of (highly competitive) athletes, doing lots of things and all those things might be different than how your coach is doing it.  You can choose to trust or you can drive yourself crazy wondering if they are skinning the cat the wrong way.  I chose to, as I call it, drink the Welle-Aide.  Needless to say, that trust paid off for me this year.

After all the time and workouts and emails and discussions and races, when it was all said and done, my coach Scott Welle, deserves the highest of praise.  He has made me a much smarter, savvier and wiser racer.  He has made me stronger mentally.  And, he has made me pretty bad-ass-mean physically.  If you want specifics on how much time I have shaved off my race times this year, I can give that to you.  But know this, I am A LOT faster, after training with Scott.

If you are looking for a coach, contact him.  He does loads of other stuff besides training crazy people like me, so check out his web site (you will quickly find out he likes information–don’t be scared).

After 9 months with me…he gets my stamp of approval!

Thanks for the great season Welle!

Look at your own risk

When I signed up to do the ironman, I really wanted to keep track of all the hours and miles I logged, we well as, how much it actually cost me to do the race and all the training.

I am pretty sure I could figure out the hours and miles, it’s located somewhere in the deep recesses of the Polar software system that kept track of every fricking beat of my heart and foot strike that I took over the past 9 months.  Alas, I don’t feel like digging for it…hey Welle, get on that will you?

I did however, keep track of my expenses.  So, if you are at all curious about how much it might coast you to do an ironman keep going.  If you have done one and don’t want to know, look away.  If you have a wife or a husband or a significant other or mother that doesn’t want you to do one, certainly don’t show them this.

Drum roll please….

Gear Cost: $4, 298.47 (this does include my new bike, bike maintenance, running shoes, new helmet, needed apparel, etc)

Race Registrations:  $800

Physical Therapy & Massage: $2497. 38

Hotels and stays in Madtown:  $850

Race & Training Nutrition:  $450 (Gu, Heed products, etc.)

Babysitting:  $245 (plus lots of free babysitting from friends and family…so this could be a whole lot worse)

Coaching: $1,475 (this is from Jan-September and includes Ironman Camp)

Total Cost of doing the WI Ironman:  $10,615.85

Coming in at 11 hours and 35 minutes…Priceless!