Stephanie's Micro - little questions.
I finally got the nutrition down and have lost 15 or so Pounds. I quit wheat and dairy, voila! Feel good, sleep good etc. I still have a good 30 to lose, which will help with injury issues. I have ankle and foot problems, some are from high school sports and some are just age, I'm afraid...but they are manageable if I warm up cool down etc. I turned 50 last year...on the plus side, I scored two podiums! It's ok to be old, fat, and slow if you just GET OUT THERE. Anyway, the swimming. I haven't been in the pool in months. I know you aren't big on swimming at this stage but the one thing it does for me is helps with lower leg issues. I tend to recover faster if I swim a little when I'm done running. The pool is less than a mile from me.
The unique thing about the pool is...it's 75 meters long. It's really beautiful and I love swimming there, but none of the canned swim workouts I've gotten figured for 75 meters. I just swim. I have all the toys but am not sure how to work them into a swim program either. I have a net that I can drag for resistance, paddles, snorkle etc etc. I even have one of those metronome things for my cap. Never use any of it. Should I?
Comments
Re the swimming, I am all for it if you find it restorative and not logistically costly (sounds like you win with both!). As for the actual intervals themselves, that's really up to you. I'd probably do 150s instead of 75s, as the 150s will at least get you back to where the clock / water / your stuff is.
The toys aren't really that important as you re-enter the water. About the only toy I consistently recommend is a pull buoy after harder bike / run days. Otherwise the other stuff there is really to keep things interesting when "regular" swimming simply won't cut it!
Thank you for the feedback!
Yeah there's no clock at the Biltmore pool! But the 910xt is handy. I usually just try to swim with good form. Sometimes I even get the rythm down and it feels like I'm moving! I do love to swim so I need to get myself over there.
The Bike Test on the trainer was educational today. The calorie burn is inspirational if nothing else! I have a long way to go, but I feel like I can do it with this group.
Ran the Tropical 5k today, the official start of the Miami Marathon weekend. Old hamstring injury was "present" but overall it was a beautiful race. It always is. I set my HR monitor to scream at 160bpm. and I'd walk a bit. Net net I ran it in 40 mins. Pretty good considering I've been running 14 minute miles (hr <135 or so) as part of this metabolic nutrition thing I'm doing. 12:49 miles felt much more fun. If I would have ignored the HR I could have gone faster. Interesting thing about this 5k is the bridge over the intracoastal at mile 2ish. No PRs for this race!</p>
Half Marathon is tomorrow, LSR for me. I'll set the HR to yell at 160 and again when I get down to 125. It's a gorgeous half with bridges, water, palm trees etc. Icing the hamstring.
Good run today. Accidental PR. Feet hurt a lot, going to have to strengthen those and continue to lose weight.
Hamstring felt kinda funky at 7 miles and then was an intermittent 'problem' until the finish. I'm going to have to deal with this hamstring/hip(trocanter), issue for the long haul. Certain stretches really help but if you have any magic suggestions, that would be great. I've never received a cortisone shot, but this may be the year.
At the very least I'd look to de emphasize the running for the short term...can you tell me what plan and week you are in?
I'm only Week 2 beginner. I used to look at athletes for athletes all the time! Thanks for the reminder. I think I'll be OK, it's early and I did run pretty hard for me. I took yesterday as rest and will use the upper hamstring foam rolling video she has. 3 years ago she got me through a plantar facia "thing" behind the ball of my right foot...and helped with big toe mobility. She's amazing.
I can deal with this, thank you for your concern. If the self-care doesn't work, I'll let you know.
Had a nice little 3 mile jog today and mostly just down to aches and pains. Massage was good, in a painful kind of way, and the foam rolling is just as much fun as I remember! Yes I do appreciate the many years of sports without injuries. I'd pay good money for a pain-free day these days!! Thanks!
Bike accident! more pain! very exciting. Nothing broken though, so I'll just do what I can. What else is new?
Ran a couple of miles this morning. Sore foot, same hamstring issue (doesn't like inactivity), and the mid-back thing from the accident. All getting better, I think I'm pretty lucky. 12 hour ride this Saturday Bike Sebring. I'll be practicing my UCAN and Vespa routine for fueling. I hope to make the whole 12 hours and I hope to ride 158 miles. We shall see. Any suggestions? It's going to be cold... well cold by Florida standards. I know I know, you don't want to hear it... brrrr
Practice the nutrition but don't be afraid to fuel up at an aid stop if you are feeling like you are out of energy , etc. We want a good session, I don't want you to end up needing a week to recover from the ride because you bonked and ran out of energy!
It was fantastic! Cold, but beautiful...nutrition was perfect. Coffee and vespa, then 1/2 a quest bar, and ucan to start, another vespa an hour in, ucan and vespa an hour or so later. Ucan at the turn. 1/2 a quest bar and a vespa at 3/4. At the 80 mile mark they had nasty hydrogenated peanut butter, nasty white bread, and welches nasty jelly sandwiches. MAN was that good! that half a sandwich was all about the peanut butter. I don't like sweet stuff and I forgot to make my ucan peanut butter tamari balls! i like salty! so 8 hours on 636+ calories NO SUGAR yay! if not for the knee issue, I could have gone for hours more.
Feel like I've been recovering from the ride all week! I got 2 little runs in, but that's it. I spent a good deal of time with the foam roller this morning in conjunction with planks and push-ups so I hope that helps the hip. Helping the hip and it ITB I think will keep the knee thing from coming back. Kinda feel like I'm playing operation... the knee bone connected to the _ thigh bone, etc... I'm only week 5 but I feel like I'm way behind already. I know it's not wise to try and catch up, but it's tempting. Any suggestions?
Until you feel closer to 100% recovered, keep training for time, but don't worry about the intensity just yet!
Yeah, thanks for the reality check! I feel SO much better. I finally had a good run on Saturday then I pinched something in my neck...ugh...woke up Sunday feeling better and had a really good brick! My hip has no pain at all today. I think reasonable amounts of foam roller, wierd ITB squeeze toy thing (you'd have to see it), tennis balls, athletestrainingathletes.com work, and proper warm-ups and cool-downs might just get me there. I also decided NO SLOGGING. I found a happy quicker pace and I'm doing longer faster intervals until my HR screams at me, then I walk it down. And go again. I think the plodding and slogging along is hard on my body. Running faster is more fun anyway!
Thanks for the phone chat! The weekly accountability is OUT the window so far. Things have gotten in the way. I may end up changing my weekend plans AGAIN just to get enough running in. Oy. I haven't done a thing since Sunday's 4.8 mile run, so tonight I need to get myself moving!
Everybody has a drone but me.... grrrr.
Did a nice speed run on Friday, a good brick 1:20 on trainer and 3 mile run yesterday, and another 1:10 and 2 mile run today. I think I'm good!
Is that thing armed?
Had an ugly, painful, slow Half marathon yesterday. Going to try to rehab my upper hamstring and do all my running on the grass for a few weeks. I can't afford to be hobbled like this. My chiro straightened some things out so I'm not so imbalanced but the race sucked anyway. I probably should have stopped, but I finished. Onward. My plan calls for nothing but running for a while. Yikes.
Had wrong plan loaded. Ugh! no time to be angry about that.
Physical Therapist appointment this afternoon.
Please keep me posted!
PT. No running for at least 3 weeks. Damaged my upper hamstring tendon. In 3 weeks I can get on the alterG. Meanwhile I can swim and bike. No standing on the pedals.
The PT says it's a tear, where my hamstring attaches to my sits bone. Probably an old one that I've torn again, ANYway, I've been to PT twice now. They'd like me to come 3 x a week. The PT is digging at it...I get heat and stim, then digging and massaging, the stretching then stim and Ice. Yesterday they did all that and added exercises. I'm VERY sore today. I'm not to run for at least 3 weeks probably longer. I tried to ride the bike Thursday morning and I was too sore to sit on the saddle for more than 20 minutes. Hopefully that won't last forever. The PT felt bad because he had told me I could bike. He is trying to get blood flow to the area. I'm sure this is all more than you want or need to know. I have spent the week pouting and being miserable.
SO! now I need to move on and do something. I'm thinking swimming swimming swimming and strength training, abs and more abs. When I come out of this in a month or 2 or more, I'll be very strong, which is an issue for me, at 50 anyway. Lemonade from lemons.
I may not do the half on 5/24 but I would opt for 70.3 steelhead in 8/9 instead. I have Swim Miami coming up and I'd like to do well there 4/19. I'll skip my sprint on 4/4. There's also a Swim festival my birthday weekend 4/23 so I could really work on the swimming. My pool is 75 meters so it's great if I don't have to do the math! What do you think?
Feel free to outline a basic week (that accounts for your PT stuff and swim access) and we can go from there!!