Back on Track, or, FEBRUARY BEGINS.....

It's February.....that means no more slacking off. 6 months to the Tri..... Time to buckle down and - hey, is that cake???

Nah, I'm just kidding, I'm not trying to be a world-class athlete - I just want to complete a tri - and a sprint tri at that - the only way I'll do that the first time is to live my life normally and exercise to get my body ready to complete the event. No, I'm not quitting beer, wine or chocolate, the essentials....

What I do need to do is focus on the workouts, not skipping or slacking off. I have done that. Swam twice this week, ran on Saturday and biked on Sunday.... This week, the first full week in February, I'll need to do all the workouts - er, most of the workouts. The runs, swims and bikes, but I don't think I'm up for the track workout or indoor bicycle training on Wed and Thurs evenings. I'll just run on Wed evening, not certain what to do on Thurs, but it will work itself out....

I swam for the first time in 2 weeks on Tuesday, 1/29. Boy, it's amazing how quickly lessons learned disappear.... I was flailing in the water. My left shoulder was killing me, I was swimming like a windmill, and felt like I couldn't catch my breath. The coach watched me and helped correct the shoulder issue - I've had that since starting the swim in November, and obviously tore some soft tissue, since the pain has been pretty persistent outside of swimming, but not during swimming when I swim the correct stroke. The pain stopped, and I worked on the catch-up drill to stop the windmill flail, and somehow muddled through the workout. My lower back killed me, but that was due to the 20-hours we spent in the car over the weekend for a family trip.

Come Thursday, I was doing much better, and made it through the workout without the shoulder pain - I quit 10 minutes early - felt muscle fatigue in my left arm, and figured that would lead to bad form and the shoulder pain again. They say it's best to stop a workout early than muddle through a bad workout, so I figured I had the best strategy at that point - I could leave feeling pretty good about the workout.

I ran on Saturday, about 40 minutes out (not 40 minutes running, but 40 minutes outside before I made it back home.....). I ran about 25 minutes - attacking the ski slope outside my house by a variety of flanking maneuvers - one block up the slope, a couple blocks to the side, another block up, and repeating the pattern until I had made it to the top - a series of L's with long bottoms..... I worked on my form - and was reminded about the fact that bodies are not symmetrical - I focused on my left leg - lifting it up and dropping it in the right location compared to my body and ensuring the proper placement of the foot (not landing on the heel, but closer to the ball of the foot).... then focused on my right leg, and had to start from square one on that leg. You can't focus on one side of the body and expect the other side of the body to automatically fall into line with all that focus. It at least kept me involved in the run, not just listening to the music (I think I prefer to focus on the music, though....ah well - that hopefully will come in time).

My right leg does not like running - something to do with the hip flexor - I need to check up on that at some point.

Sunday (today), I rode the bike - for about 12 miles or so. after mile 8, a long way from home, (well, about 4 miles, since I made a beeline for home after that..... My usual home route #2 (I'll tell you about #1 some other time) is around Hains Point and The Awakening sculpture - unfortunately, due to some short-sightedness and idiocracy on the part of Federal Government entities, the sculpture that has been the keystone of the park has been sold and will be moved to a commercially developed location in Maryland in the next couple of years - how inane is that? DC pretty much gets the short end of the straw on multiple issues due to the fact that Congress, with little inherent interest in the area, controls most of DC, though that is excruciatingly slowly changing as DC demonstrates its increasing ability to govern itself and manage its own money. I won't go any further into it at this point, but suffice it to say, DC has basically been a battered alcoholic wife in the past who is working to change the old habits and crawl out from under the oppression. Unfortunately, divorce is not an option, so a show of strength and backbone will continue to be necessary to get its own voice back.

Now, where was I? Oh yeah, around mile 8, I stopped to figure out how much longer I should go - while my right leg does not like running, my left leg does not like biking - which shows that a Tri is the right training for me - I can't overdo any one thing..... Anyhow..... I sat and stretched, and figured I'd make a beeline for home. Keep the hills out of it, but keep away from traffic as much as possible so I didn't feel pressure to ride too quickly.... Except, in DC, with all the tourists, there is no light traffic on weekends - the places you can expect to have light traffic during rush hour - get filled up on weekends with lost tourists trying to find wherever it is they want to go. I ended up going up the steep part of the Hill, right next to the Capitol, in order to avoid the idiot drivers that I kept meeting on all the other streets. It wasn't as hard as I anticipated, but some more strain on my leg than I wanted. I got home, iced it for 20 minutes, and am now working with a heat pad. We'll see how that goes.

In the meantime, I'm planning to buy a new, road, bike in the next couple of weeks. Right now, I've been riding on a mountain bike with slick* tires (vs. the knobbies** - yeah, I'm cool with all the proper lingo and all....). Right now, since I have a mountain bike, I work about twice as hard as those riders on street bikes......


*Slicks - smooth tires - like on normal road bikes
** Knobbies - the bumpy tires on most mountain bikes - good for riding up dirt hills and the like, but require extra effort on roads, so most road riders switch to slicks if they use mountain bikes primarily on streets

Victory is Mi-............*

Took the new year off, mainly due to illness, but went back to swimming just after that. On Tuesday, 1/8, I swam in the slow lane, and we talked as much as swam. The coach was egging us on to keep working out. So, come Thursday, he had his eye on us and got us swimming the complete time, with each one of us pushing the other to keep going and get as much of the workout in as possible. At the end of the workout, he pointed out that we had swum the length of a sprint tri - the distance I needed to complete for my tri in August.

Now I'm not saying it was easy, but at least I know now that I can do it. Mind you, if I did the tri tomorrow, I would come out of the swim sputtering and breathing hard, not really able to get on the bike and ride in a straight line...... but I can do it. And within 50 minutes at this point!!! That's a big weight off.

I've run/walked the 3 miles, so that will be no biggie. My biggest concern is slacking off on the bike. I already know I am capable of a 20+ mile bike ride, but haven't really focused on building up to that again - which means I could keep putting that off until too late. I'll at least ride once a week to keep building up - but that would be the first thing I would let go, if I slack off, so I need to keep an eye on it....

Now, to follow up on the asterisk on the title - well..... the following Tuesday, I missed the swim due to picking up my car, where we had the bike rack, among other things, added to the car. I have a cute little mini - for anyone who wonders about that type of car I only have two things to say - 1. the inside is like Mary Poppin's Purse - amazing the room (my man compares it to a tiny circus car where a ton of clowns pop out) - and 2. can't beat parking in the city...... The only down part is that any dealers are about 30 miles away from DC - either Annapolis or Sterling or near Baltimore, so for any work, it's a bit of a trek... short story long - I missed swimming. The bad part is that, at work during the day, something popped in my spine and it spasmed - can't say what it was, but the muscles radiating out from the spine at a particular point just spasmed greatly - felt like bat wings were sprouting and trying to take flight - except for it was extremely painful.... the actual spasms lasted a few minutes, but the pain lasted a few hours, then the ghost feelings went on for another day. Figured I 'd skip swimming the following Thursday and let it rest. I'm aware of the spot now, but it's not painful. (I should probably point out that I didn't literally pick up the Mini - no, that's not the cause of the back spasms......)

Anyway, I missed the swims the following week due to taking a class and studying for a professional certification, so two weeks off of the swim. I did run on the treadmill on Mon & Wed - how more boring could that be? I've never done that before - can't see how anyone can. I had the ipod going, but man!!! The TV was missing in the workout room (great hotel - they had the remote there, but no TV.....) I finally put a towel over the treadmill display so I wouldn't see how slowly the seconds and miles slipped bye.... I forced myself to listen to three songs on the ipod each time before checking my watch - that was the only way I could get through it.... and getting off the treadmill after running - the room keeps trying to move while your legs aren't - it's really weird. I'll take running outside in 20 degree weather before dealing with that if I can help it in the future. On Tuesday I did the elliptical trainer - what's that about? Couldn't figure it out, but it did check my pulse and told me I was above my threshold - ok, so it was a workout, but still am not certain about that machine - it wasn't as boring, just because I had no idea what I was doing, I suppose....

Ah well, talk about this week next time I log on.....

* ouch