Two weeks in pictures ...

In an effort to (quickly) catch you up on my progress over the past few weeks, this blog post is mostly made up of pictures (each one is worth 1000 words, no?) So here we go ...

Plantar Fasciitis is on the mend ... or at least being held at bay. Almost every other night I wear "the boot" over night after stretching the crap out of my calves and rolling my foot on "the ball" for a good five minutes. Seems to be working as I'm having little foot soreness and it doesn't hurt much anymore when standing/walking in bare feet.

The Boot

The Ball

The Book

My runs have been going well. I'm still fore-foot running and am ever-reading and researching to ensure I'm doing it properly. THE best description I've come across to date has come from a book my CrossFit coach told me about. Given the great content on running, I can't wait to get to the parts on biking and swimming.

The Shoes
Left - Inov8s / Right - Mizunos

I recently dumped my Mizunos and am running in my CrossFit shoes (Inov8 F-lite 195s) Because of the height of the heel and the heel-toe differential of the Mizunos, I realized that my heel probably hasn't been dropping like it should and that essentially, I've been running on my toes for the past while. Since switching to my Inov8s, my calves feel better and (surprisingly) so do the balls of my feet.

The Training Video

Biking is going really good - probably my favourite discipline right now. My trainer rides are up to about 2.5 hrs now. TV episodes don't cut it anymore so I've turned to movies to keep my mind occupied. In a few weeks time I will try out the training DVD my hubby got me for Christmas - a 56 mile virtual training ride of the Lake Placid course.


Lastly, I got my bike zones re-tested the other day and I've made progress! My new Zone 1 is my old Zone 2 meaning my body has become more efficient at clearing lactate and my base speed has gotten faster by about 4 km/h.

F*#% YEAH!

Tough weekend slog ...

This weekend was tough. Thursday was my rest day and I'm usually good to go for whatever my training calls for the next day but not this week. My legs still felt pretty fatigued. 

I blame the added weekly training (3.5 hrs of swimming). When I started my run/bike program it took my body a while to get used to the added activity so I figure this is the same thing. I also didn't get to bed on time later in the week and that's becoming more and more crucial to having a fully functional body/brain the next day. 

Friday's training called for a 130 min. bike (Zone 1). Typically I complete my long rides at the top end of my Zone 1 but this week it took all I had to stay within the bottom end. I also got antsy in my seat after an hour, couldn't stay in aero position and was up and out of my seat constantly. My left hip flexor was also bothering me during the last 45 min. Always seems to be the left side that goes first ...  

Saturday's training consisted of a 1.5 hr. swim, 50 min. bike and a 70 min. run. I managed to do them back to back with only about a 30 min. rest (read: drive home from the pool and get on the bike) between swim/bike and then about 10 min between bike/run. 

The swim went ok although I did feel slow. I tried breathing every 4 strokes again but couldn't maintain it after 4 lengths so switched to breathing every 3. It will take some time to get used to breathing on the other side but I'll figure it out. Coach says it will help me go faster. Here's hoping.

The bike, again, was at the lower end of my Zone 1. Hip flexor seemed ok though. The run was fine and at the upper end of my Zone 1. Left calf was bothering me in the last 20 min. and I had to stop once or twice to stretch it out. The rest of the day I was just zonked. Had a wicked headache and felt mildly nauseous. I think I need to eat and drink more ... but that's a topic for a whole other post. 

No backing out now ...

As my training intensifies, I try to do various things to make it harder and harder for me to feel like I can back out of doing the Ironman (as if losing a $600 registration fee wasn't enough :)



Appropriate motivational
poster for this post.

Two things I've done lately is:

(a) asked family and friends to come to Lake Placid and watch the race.

My thinking is that if people are going to spend money to come and stay in Lake Placid to support me, I've got to follow through and show up on race day.

(b) started to talk about the race more openly with friends and colleagues.

I realize this might not seem like a big deal given I've had this blog for a while now but, to me, writing about it is different than talking about it. Talking about it makes it more real somehow.

In the past, if someone asked me about the race, I'd be pretty tight-lipped or try to shut down the conversation pretty quickly. Now though, I'm (trying) to be more open, talking about the race, my training, my diet, etc. The benefit has actually been two fold on this one as there's a number of athletes at my office and talking to them has yielded a wealth of information, from tips on technique to ideas on nutrition and training. 

If anyone has any other ideas to help keep the motivation up, send them my way. I might need them in the months to come.

Small mental victories ...

Today was Day 2 of my swim program. Despite some lingering inner thigh soreness from Saturday's swim I felt pretty good when I woke up this morning. It was a different story 30 minutes later.

I don't know what I did but, when coming back into the house after brushing off the car (I live in a place where there is LOTS of snow right now), I bent a certain way and *ping* ... I felt a big knot form in my back. I tried to do a few stretches over the next 10 minutes as I was collecting my gear to see if I could loosen things up but, no luck. The knot was in tight.

These knots aren't new to me. I get them from time to time. Typically they take a few days to work themselves out so I usually take a day or two off so as not to further exacerbate the situation. But this morning, I kinda felt like it was a defining moment. If I passed on today's swim, it would be easy to pass on future swims when I'm sore and achy (which I'm sure I'll be feeling alot of in the near future) so despite the knot, I headed for the pool thinking 'I'm up, I might as well try it. If the pain is really bad, I'll just get out of the pool.'

MENTAL VICTORY #1

Hooray! I'm glad I went because I managed to complete the full hour swim. The knot is still in my back but it didn't seem to bother me during my swim and I think the swim may have actually helped to loosen it up a bit. (Note to self: Really need to remember to stretch after swimming. I didn't stretch at all after Saturday and I'm thinking that's s a big reason behind the knot.)

This morning's swim:

- 400m warm up
- 100m legs only
- 100m pull (arms only)
- 2 x 200m (swim + pull)
- 4 x 100m front crawl (rest 15s in between)
- 4 x 100m front crawl (rest 10s in between)

MENTAL VICTORY #2 : I did my crawl breathing every 4 strokes instead of every 2.

I guffawed at the coach before the holidays when he suggested I try it because there are times when I can't even seem to get comfortable breathing every 2 strokes. But this morning I finally gave it a go and IT WAS AWESOME! I'm thinking it's because breathing every four strokes gives me more time to (naturally) get all the air out of my lungs, where as when I was breathing every two, I was rushing to get all the air out before my next breath. Hmm ... I'll see if I can keep this up in future swims.

My first threesome!

Ok, ok, that's a sensationalized title, but it is kinda related to today's post. Yesterday was my first triple discipline training day! I swam, biked and ran.

The day started off with an early morning 1.5 hr. swim (first day of new swim program!), then after a few short errands and a refuel, I did a 2 hr. brick (bike/run).

Swim workout consisted of the following (2 km in total):
- 200m warmup
- 3 x 100m IM (Individual Medley = 1 length fly, 1 length breast, 1 length backstroke, 1 length free)
- 10 lengths x legs only (w/ a flutter board)
- 3 lengths butterfly
- 5 lengths breaststroke
- 5 lengths dolphin kick (w/ fins)
- 5 lengths front stroke (10 kicks per stroke w/ fins)
- 5 x 200m front crawl (20s rest in between)

My butterfly was ridiculous. Dolphin kick practice was fun -- with the fins you just flew through the water -- and after all the drills the final 5 x 200m went pretty smoothly. Later in the day my bike went by pretty quickly without any issues, as did the run. I thought my first triple was a great success until this morning when I woke up with uber sore inner thighs. I honestly didn't see that one coming.

I'm planning for this to be my standard Saturday workout from here on in and in time, doing all three one right after the other (so my body has experience doing the three disciplines continuously).

Now that I'll be swimming Monday/Wednesday/Saturdays I've had to shift my run/bike program a little to make sure I still have two full rest days so here's what my weekly training schedule now looks like:

Monday - AM Swim + PM Run (Z2 + Z1) + Strength
Tuesday - AM Bike (Z3 + Z1)
Wednesday - AM Swim + PM Run (Z5 intervals + Z1)
Thursday - REST
Friday - PM Bike (Z1)
Saturday - AM Swim + Bike (Z1) + Run (Z1)
Sunday - REST

Aches and pains ...

For some time now I've been worried about getting planter fasciitis. Wikipedia defines it as inflammation of the thick tissue on the bottom of the foot -- the symptoms of which are pain and stiffness in the bottom of the heel. Uhg.

I've been worried about getting it because of my increasing mileage and the fact that I'm forefoot running now (which puts more stress on my arch/planter fascia). Well low and behold, PF reared it's ugly head just before the holidays. Granted I haven't gotten an official diagnosis but all signs point to it : first few steps in the morning are uncomfortable, as is walking around barefoot in the house (when previously it was no problem), etc.  It's not really painful at this point, but I don't want it to get worse. What to do?

Over the holidays I took a few extra "rest" days and that seemed to help but I can't really do that on a regular basis so I'm going to start a strict regiment of foot exercises and ice in the evenings and first thing in the mornings and see if that helps. Wish me luck.

Jan.5 addition: Wow. Seems like alot of readers have suffered a similar fate. Thanks to all of you that responded with suggestions on how to treat my PF!!