Tri Training Day 32: Private Lesson

No one except me and our swim coach showed up for practice tonight!  At first, I was a little upset because I have to drive across town to get to the pool, but I tried to put a positive spin on it by viewing it as a private lesson with our coach.  I only swam for about twenty minutes, but I did get some one-on-one attention and some customized drills to try while I’m swimming on my own.

Also on the bright side, my leg is feeling much better.  The Tuesday night burrito bowl definitely helped, I think. 

Tri Training Day 31: Zig Zag

I spent twenty minutes in the pool today, and my calf was really cramping up. 

Our swim coach has given us quite a few drills to work on, and many of them involve swimming on my back.  I could NOT swim straight today in the outdoor pool.  It’s very different in the indoor pool that we train in on Tuesday nights, because I can follow the lines on the ceiling.  Today, I was bouncing off the lane line and the wall like an air hockey puck. 

I can only picture myself swimming out to sea during the triathlon when there’s no black line to follow on the floor of the ocean. 

Tri Training Day 30: Lazy Sunday

I slept in today, didn’t go to yoga, and didn’t swim.  So there!   

I considered going to yoga, but knew that it might exascerbate my calf strain, so I did the smart thing and stayed at home with a cup of coffee this morning.  Later in the day, I went to the beach and kicked around in the water for a while.  Swimming, surprisingly, bothered my calf more than biking or running.  That’s definitely not what I expected, since there’s no impact. 

Today’s scheduled workout was a 40-minute swim.  I’m going to get in the pool during my lunch hour tomorrow to see what I can do.

Tri Training Day 29: Easy Like Saturday Morning

I have to keep telling myself that I got something out of this morning’s workout so that I don’t get depressed or angry about my calf injury.

The scheduled workout was an 18-mile ride followed by a 2-mile run at Jacksonville Beach.  Because my natural tendency is to ignore injuries and train throught them whether I should or not, I purposely left my running shoes at home this morning. 

One of my teammates, Mary, is just joining the training because she has been injured up to this point.  She was there this morning, along with me and Andy for his last day of coaching the team.  We set out on the bikes, rode together for about three miles, and then Andy and I took off toward Mickler’s Landing and left Mary behind.  We made it there going full-speed (averaging 19.5-20 mph), but I was really hurting.  My left leg (the non-injured side) was taking a beating because I was barely using the injured leg at all.  Rather than ending up with two busted legs, I decided to take it slower on the way back.

I’m happy because we did get the whole ride in, but I’m still cranky about the injury.  More frozen peas today . . .

Tri Training Day 28: RICE, continued . . .

I’m in a lot of pain today due to yesterday’s calf injury.  I hope it’s just something minor.  I’m continuing to RICE it and hope that it will magically feel better before tomorrow’s brick workout.

Sadly, tomorrow will be our last workout with our current tri coach, Andy.  He’s resigning because of some unexpected family circumstances.  We’ll definitely miss him!

Tri Training Day 27: OUCH

Today’s workout was a Fartlek run: 10-minute warmup, 1 minute sprint, 1 minute easy (x10), and a 10-minute cooldown.  I didn’t make it much past the warmup. 

About a mile from home, I took a step down on my right foot and something didn’t feel right.  On the next step, as I was slowing, a treetop sniper shot me in the back of the leg.  As I turned to look for the gunman and to examine the gaping wound, I realized that I hadn’t been shot, but had definitely injured my right calf.  I’m going to eliminate some of the details of the remainder of the story–there were choice words involved, believe me–and just say that I spent the next 30 minutes or so limping home. 

For now, I’m on the RICE plan–rest, ice, compression, and elevation.  I am sitting here on the couch, holding a bag of two-year-old frozen peas on my leg.  I get really angry when I get hurt, so I’m really disappointed right now.  This will be the first workout on the training plan that I’m not going to complete.

Tri Training Day 26: You Spin Me Right Round

Today’s workout called for “short hills” on the bike.  As my fellow Floridians know, the only hills “round these here parts” come in the form of bridges, so I decided to go to the spin bike class at Bailey’s Gym.  I used to go three days a week at 6 a.m., but when my coaching schedule changed in March, I was on the river at 6 a.m. instead and haven’t been to a spin class since then! 

I got a good workout in–I could definitely tell it had been a while–and also spent some time rowing in a double with one of our adaptive rowers tonight.  We went about 2500 meters, Trunk and arms only.  I have a feeling I’m going to be a little sore tomorrow.  My body is not used to that much upper-body work!

Tri Training Day 25: Sweet Spot

Luke and Christy (two of my team members) and I hit the pool for the third time tonight for swim practice.  To be honest, I was not in the mood to train and really just wanted a burrito bowl from Chipotle.  However, once we got wet, things went well.  We are still working on efficiency drills–including swimming in what our swim coach calls the “sweet spot.”  (For some reason, I seemed to swallow a lot of pool in my sweet spot tonight–not so sweet.)  Next week, we might even take our arms out of the water!

Tri Training Day 24: Meet Canon!

Let me introduce you to Canon!  He is our honored teammate for Team in Training.  He is five years old and was diagnosed with High Risk Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL) on June 5, 2008, at age four.  I am very proud that he is my Team in Training teammate, and I can’t wait to meet him and his family.  We will celebrate his 6th birthday just three days after the triathlon, and that’s one of the reason I have chosen to participate in Team in Training–so kids like Canon can keep having birthdays! 

Canon and friend.

Such a cutie!

Please consider helping out families like Canon’s by making a donation to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society today.  We all know someone that has been touched by cancer.  I found out just today that my mom’s brother, who passed away when I was just a baby, had lymphoma.  Lymphoma is the reason that I never got to meet my Uncle Charles.  Please help me fight it.  Cancer affects everyone.  Let’s make it stop. 

As for training today, I completed a 40-minute run on the treadmill comfortably.  I really need to get back outside, despite the weather, because running on a treadmill is so different than running on the road.  I have been taking the easy way out to avoid the heat, but for the next run on Thursday, I’m hitting the road again!

Tri Training Day 23: Yoga? NOga.

This morning was one of those mornings where EVERYTHING went wrong–overslept, couldn’t find this, couldn’t find that, the dog wouldn’t come in from outside, etc.  Although I tried, I didn’t make it to the gym in time for yoga class.  I opted for a beach day and decided to take the day off from training.  That means I’ll be running tomorrow!  I hope it cools down some.  It’s been close to 100 degrees during the days here now for the better part of a week–and even the typical Florida afternoon thunderstorms are nowhere to be found.