Good surf session saved the day

I decided to salvage my Sunday by going to the beach and took my board just in case there was anything remotely resembling a wave out there. It was the first time my poor board has seen the ocean since last summer. I get out there and the wind is howling, people trying to get a tan are just getting buried alive in sand and people who got in at the south end are now drifting past me on the north end....RIDICULOUS! I stood there thinking how much I'd rather be in Costa Rica but paddled out anyway, against all odds, in desperation of something to take my mind off my stupid foot. All I can say is that someone was smiling down on me and I'm SO grateful. I had the best little surf session I could hope for considering the conditions. It was like the waves were being aimed in my direction and they were effortless to catch. I probably had more fun out there today than I did all of last summer! Yes, unfortunately my foot still hurts, but my motivation is somewhat renewed and that is what I need the most.

Pulled out of Kure Beach...plantar fascitis

I haven't blogged in a week because I haven't had anything positive to say, now its Sunday and I'm still stuck, so I thought I'd just write about why I'm so miserable:

Last Sunday I did a workout in preparation for the Kure Beach triathlon where I swam for 30min, ran 7miles then swam another 30min. It went fairly well, but I had a little pain in my right heel. I tried not to be concerned because I had two days off of running after that. Then on Wednesday when I tried to go for my next run I couldn't...not at all, it was very painful. My heel hurt even to walk on. So I immediately went to Active Care Chiropractor (Dr. Eric McGraw), who does Active Release Treatment as well as chiropractic stuff. I've been to him before (he fixed my hip), hes great. The following day (Thursday) it felt a lot better. I decided to just cancel my runs for the week and let it rest for Sunday (race day!). By Saturday it felt totally normal to walk on, so that night as I was putting my race stuff in the car I decided to give it a try....I jogged not even 50yds and couldn't handle the pain. It was the worst kind of pain I have ever felt from a sports related injury. After some research I diagnosed myself with Plantar Fascitis, and Dr. McGraw agrees. Here's a little excerpt from WebMD:

What is plantar fasciitis?

Plantar fasciitis (say "PLAN-ter fash-ee-EYE-tus") is the most common cause of heel pain. The plantar fascia is the flat band of tissue (ligament) that connects your heel bone to your toes. It supports the arch of your foot. If you strain your plantar fascia, it gets weak, swollen, and irritated (inflamed). Then your heel or the bottom of your foot hurts when you stand or walk.

Plantar fasciitis is common in middle-aged people. It also occurs in younger people who are on their feet a lot, like athletes or soldiers. It can happen in one foot or both feet.

What causes plantar fasciitis?

Plantar fasciitis is caused by straining the ligament that supports your arch. Repeated strain can cause tiny tears in the ligament. These can lead to pain and swelling. This is more likely to happen if:

• Your feet roll inward too much when you walk (excessive pronation).
• You have high arches or flat feet.
• You walk, stand, or run for long periods of time, especially on hard surfaces.
• You are overweight.
• You wear shoes that don't fit well or are worn out.
• You have tight Achilles tendons or calf muscles.

What are the symptoms?

Most people with plantar fasciitis have pain when they take their first steps after they get out of bed or sit for a long time. You may have less stiffness and pain after you take a few steps, but your foot may hurt more as the day goes on. It may hurt the most when you climb stairs or after you stand for a long time.

How long will it take for the pain to go away?

Plantar fasciitis most often occurs because of injuries that have happened over time. With treatment, you will have less pain within a few weeks. But it may take time for the pain to go away completely-from a few months to a year.

Stay with your treatment. If you don't, you may have constant pain when you stand or walk. The sooner you start treatment, the sooner your feet will stop hurting.

Not good. Not good at all. I am swimming in a pool of self pity right now....no...its more like I'm drowning in that pool. So no Kure Beach Triathlon, which just so happens to be my favourite race in the North Carolina Triathlon Series (NCTS). I went down to the race this morning to do Tech Support for Two Wheeler Dealer (TWD), then I left. (Side note: I am done with PT's Grille!!! I work only at TWD now, no more greasy burgers for me!!...The only good thing that came of this week.) I probably won't be doing Triangle Triathlon either, seeing as its in two weeks.

Right now I'm thinking that if I'm not running for another month and then after that month I have to build my running back up from zero miles, I will never be ready for B2B (iron distance). How can I build a long run from 2-3 miles to 20-22miles in 3months!? Should I just quit now, and try for next year? Any advice on this would be much appreciated.

I'm going to go see a podiatrist name Dr. Robert O'Malley this week. He was recommended to me by a local phenom in the triathlon community, Phyllis Mason. She spoke very highly of him and his treatment of the same injury on her. Pray for me.

PS:
"DNS" = Did Not Start (in my race list, where an overall time would normally be posted)
"DNF" = Did Not Finish....hopefully that will never happen, it seems tragic to me.

Meet my commuter bike -- Herbie

A couple of weeks ago Mike bought an old school road bike (Miyata) on Craig's List. It is a lugged steel frame, black with blue detailing and all around classy looking. The only problem was it was too small for him!! Soooo....now its mine!! My only gripe is that some idiot removed the old drop bars and put a straight handle bar on it, so I feel the need to eventually return it to its original look.

Anyway I have made a lifestyle decision to ride a bike everywhere possible, thus needing a bike, other than my triathlon bike to ride around on. The Miyata couldn't have come into my life at a more perfect time. After my first commuter attempt however I found that he (yes, its a "he") has a personality all of his own, and likes to change gears at random.....you can rely on him to skip a couple gears every time you hit a bump too. Hence, he has been christened with the name Herbie, after Herbie the race car who also had a mind of his own.

Although he is now referred to around the house as Herbie, I am attempting to fix his glitches so that my commuting is a little less....exciting.... Today Mike showed me how to take brakes and hubs (the center of the wheel) apart and clean everything and re-grease everything. I also changed the seat to a more comfortable one I had in the shed and attached a bike bag with all my necessary flat tire stuff. Herbie also got a good wipe down. I must say he is quite a handsome bike!! Without further ado, meet Herbie....

Soon he will also be sporting a rack over the rear wheel to carry stuff (like groceries or beach gear), a water bottle holder, lights, possibly fenders, and eventually drop bars (different style of handle bar). He also needs matching tires, the white walls on the rear tire are stylish! I figure I might as well fancy him up to show my appreciation for all the gas money hes going to be saving me!! I'm going to get him a bike computer too, so I can keep track of my mileage and calculate what that would have cost me in gas. I'll keep you all posted!

I'm SO LAZY!

I skipped my swim and my strength training today and I feel like crap. I just wanted to get that off my chest. I hate when I skip workouts, but sometimes I just want to be at home and catch up on all the stuff I never get to. But the whole time I'm doing what I think I want to be doing I'm upset because I'm missing my workout and I beat myself up about it. Such a conundrum...I'm never going to make it to that finish line in November if I skip workouts!! AAAGGGHHHH...I should have gone to the pool.

I'm going to change the subject....I got a new job, and I love it! I work at my favourite bike shop, and all though I don't feel like I know anything about bikes, I'm trying to learn as fast as I can. I feel a little useless when I'm there right now, but when a customer comes in that I can help it feels great! People are always happy when they are there. I'm trying to jump on the bike building train soon too, I think it would be bad ass if I knew how to build bikes. It would help me remember all the differences between them if I had to put them together also. The down side to this is that I now want to own half the bikes in the store, and its looking unlikely that my career choices are ever going to make me rich and famous....the upside is that I'm working with a couple Ironman athletes and I'm hoping that all their greatness will rub off on me!

From what I hear Bree Wee (awesome, super hardcore triathlete) worked in a bike shop......just thought I'd throw that out there....

Swim & Run Time Trials...I'm getting faster!!

Today I pulled myself out of bed at an un-Godly hour (5am) yet again, to make it to the track before the sun got too hot. It's my weekend for tests, to see if all this training is paying off. So like my bike time trial 2 days ago, I want the best conditions possible.

After doing a bunch of research on the best way to estimate lactate threshold(LT) I decided to use a 30min time trial for my run. I think I've decided to use it for my bike next time. It is a slightly longer test than the one I did, and it seems to be the most popular in all the websites and books I read. I need to find a standard so that my results can be compared. The way this test works is after a sufficient warm up you start running at a pace you think you can hold for 30min. After the first 10min you hit the lap button on your heart rate monitor so that you get a reading for the average HR over the last 20min. That number is your LT.

Because of my trials and tribulations with running I haven't done any speed work, or hill running, or 5K races....nothing that would pound my legs, I'm so nervous about hurting myself now. Hence I was super anxious about trying this time trial. Anyways I got up, rode my bike to the track and did it. My pace hasn't improved since the last time I ran a 5K (November 2007), but I haven't gotten slower either, I'm right about the same....complete miracle if you ask me! Here are my full results:

1st 10min - Dist: 1.26mi Pace: 7:55/mi Avg HR 179 Max HR 185

last 20min - Dist:2.42mi Pace: 8:15/mi Avg HR 188 Max HR 193

Total Dist - 3.68mi Avg pace: 8:09/mi

188 - *New Lactate Threshold*

I'm happy with that, I'm slow still BUT I'm NOT INJURED and NOTHING HURTS ANYWHERE!! Thats huge!


I also jumped in the pool this afternoon for my last test - 1000yd swim time trial!! (NOT FUN) Here is what I did: First I warmed up, then rested 1 minute, and then started a 1000yd swim as fast as I could. (That is equal to 40 lengths of a pool for you non-swimmers). I took a quick second to hit the lap button on my watch every 300 yds, because I've done a test before that was 3x300yds with a 30sec rest in between, so I was just curious to see how it would compare, even though this test is with no rest. After the test I cooled down for 200yds and came home to EAT!!

In swimming most people test for a LT pace instead of a heart rate because its hard to keep track of your HR in the water. Most swim work outs are interval based so having a goal pace to do everything in keeps you on track. Your T-pace, as its called, is the average pace from your 1000yd time trial.

Here are my results:

300yd splits: 4:46, 4:50, 4:49
last 100yds: 1:36

Total Time: 16:03:05

Avg pace: 1:36/100yds *New Lactate Threshold Pace*

In that 3x300 test I was talking about all my splits were over 5:00!!!! I had a T-pace of 1:43, now look at me!! Michael Phelps might not need to worry but I'm moving on up in the swimming world!!

My next set of tests are scheduled in 8 weeks, I'm excited to compare the results!

My Training Program..custom style!

I have FINALLY finished my personalized iron distance training program. It literally took me forever. I used at least 5 different books, including: The Triathlete's Training Bible, The Woman Triathlete, The Essential Week-by-Week Training Guide. I also picked people's brains about their personal experiences, and googled everything I even slightly questioned. I found a bunch of cool blogs while I was at it...theres a lot of amazing and talented people in this world.

I wanted to make my own plan, instead of following a generic one for a couple reasons:
* I need to build my running mileage VERY slowly, and not do too much speed work too soon.
* I love biking, I can sit on my bike forever so I might as well take advantage of it.
* Most plans have you swim 3 days/week, I want to swim 4, so that I can get in 2-3 quality pool workouts and 1-2 open water swims..I love swimming in open water!
* I have Mike and my doggies to consider in my overly hectic schedule...and work too, I guess...

Anyway, I figured every once in a while I will post a page of my training plan so you can see what I've been doing. I just finished my first phase: Base 1. That is the first month of my training, where my body is getting used to everything I'm doing, my strength training is based on high reps, low weight, and there isn't anything to tough, YET. I'm in my recovery week currently (which I love!), today was Bike Time Trial day. (click it to enlarge)

A few things to know when reading it:
~The total weekly hours is the number in the left column
~The time for each activity is in hours:minutes to the right of the activity
~The word "zones" refers to my heart rate training zones (1 -> 5c = easy -> hard)
~Running is written in miles, not time
~My total mileage for the week (for running) is in the column to the right
~Sometimes I do a full 1:30 yoga class on Monday (like I'm supposed to), sometimes I break it into 3 - 30min Flexible Warrior videos through out the week
~the "swim 1:00" is not just straight swimming for an hour, I have a bunch of pool workouts with intervals, or its open water swimming.

I didn't follow everything exactly, as tends to happen life got in the way occasionally. But all the key stuff got done. (I skipped a lot of yoga....) A couple workouts got switched around too. I am going to try to stick to it as best I can. Look for the next month soon.

Bike Time Trial -- BIG improvements!!

This morning I reluctantly got out of bed and drove down to River Rd (great to bike on - nice bike lane, low traffic, no stops) to do my Time Trial. It's been a little while since I've done a time trial, mostly because I was so focused on what to do about my running injuries. Now however, I am organized again, and I thought it was time to check my heart rate (HR) zones.

First I'll give you some background info on what I was doing. The test is called a Lactate Threshold (LT) Test. This involves pushing yourself as hard as you possibly can, to the point where the body is unable to take up enough oxygen for energy and produces more lactic acid in the bloodstream than the body can clear. Lactic acid is the limiter of athletic performance, when your body can't clear it you slow down to compensate. (Its that awful burning feeling in your muscles, that you feel when you are pushing yourself really hard.) So, the key to enhancing athletic performance is to raise the HR at which you produce lactic acid, and increase your body's efficiency at getting rid of it. Basically, what I want is to push my LT as close to my maximum HR as I can, because that would mean I could exercise at a very high heart rate before I produce lactate. (meaning= I can go really fast for really long!)
There are a bunch of tests available to find out what your LT HR is, I chose the 6mi time trial because its free, and I can do it without an assistant. You basically find a course with no stops and ride as hard as you can for the 6mi with a HR monitor. Your average HR for the test is your LT. So, here's what I did:

15min warm up, which included 4x20sec high intensity intervals, to get my legs ready for what was coming. Then I rested for a couple minutes. When I was ready, I started from standing, set my watch and started riding as hard and as fast as I could 3miles out, turned around (watching for traffic) and 3miles back. When I was finished I hit the lap button on my watch and cooled down for 12min until my HR was all the way back down to 125.

I did this at 7am to try to beat the wind, so that my test would be accurate. I did feel a little wind but it wasn't anything much, and the course I chose wasn't perfectly flat, but its the best I can get. To keep things constant I will always do this test under as close to the same conditions as I can.

The last time I tried to check my LT I did it on an indoor trainer because it was winter (and I'm a baby about the cold). I did a different type of test where you ride for 2 segments of 8min, anyways my LT HR was 167. Today my Avg HR for the ride was 172!! I pushed so hard, I was really happy about that. I was surprised too because I haven't been doing a lot of threshold training, so just wait until I am!

Here are my full results:
Dist- 6mi
Time- 17:04.43
Avg speed- 21.1mph
Max speed- 23.7mph
Avg cadence- 93rpm

Avg HR- 172 *New Lactate Threshold*
Max HR- 180

Weather:
temp- 73F
wind- NE 3mph

Newton Running Shoes Review

I LOVE THEM!! I have spent the past 4-5 years going from one injury to another every time I tried to run consistently. I started slowly, built my mileage up slowly, did everything I was supposed to do, but something always hurt. First I had anterior tibialis tendinitis (sever pain from my ankle to about half the way to my knee on the inside of my legs), then I got over that and my left hip started to hurt, and it hurt to the point where I had to pick my leg up with my hands to step over something. RIDICULOUS! Then for a little while my right IT band was bothering me also. All the while I went to physical therapists, massage therapists, orthopedic people, an athletic trainer, nobody could help me. Finally I started to run Pose Method, which helped a bit but not entirely. Then I heard about Newton Running shoes, which essentially make it easier to do what Pose teaches. I figured, what do I have lose!? Well all I lost is my injuries!!

The shoes are light, comfortable, so easy to run in. The "actuator lugs" (pads under the forefoot) help you land in the correct place instantly, and they make the landing nice and soft. They also react to you landing on them, and move in/out of the shoe, so it feels like you are barefoot. I have run maybe 30miles in mine so far, with no re-occurrence of any of my injuries, and no new ones. I was worried that trying to completely change the way I run would take months of drills and trial and error, but this took maybe 2 runs to get used to. And really, the only thing that you have to get used to is using your calves a bit more than you probably did before.

I would HIGHLY recommend these shoes to anyone who is a forefoot runner, or who is trying to become one. I will never run in another shoe.

(Thats me, running the Cooper River Bridge in my favourite shoes!!)

Its my rest day!

Its been a week since I posted here, but I've been so busy. PT's opened another store, so I've been helping out by working over there, and its a 30min drive from my house!! I also talked to Two Wheeler Dealer about the possibility of working a bit over there. I'm nervous about that, I don't know if I'd be any good at it. I've always thought it seemed like an awesome job though.

Besides all that this was training week 3, the week before a recovery week, my total training hours was 16..and I skipped my yoga AGAIN. The weekend's workouts went really well, it was a good week all together. On Saturday I got up early and rode 53miles, with 2 15min tempo efforts. (I just worked really hard for 15mins, twice) Then I followed that with a 2mile transition run to get my legs used to running off a long bike ride. On Sunday I got up early yet again (because its SO HOT) and did a 7mile run, including the bridges that I have to run over in the race TWICE. So I took the run easy but powered up all the bridges as hard as I could. It was oddly fun. Then on Sunday afternoon I did an endurance/speed workout in the pool, 2800yds. And now I get the whole day off...except that I have to go to work.

I'm wondering how big of a deal it is to just do yoga at home instead of going to a class. Its so time consuming to go to a class, and they always make you work so hard. I'm just trying to stretch and relax. I think I'm going to take it out of my training schedule and just do it at home for shorter periods of time. Those Flexible Warrior videos that I talked about earlier will work just fine.

Cooper River Bridge training run & visit to Charleston

While I was in Charleston for the swim I also visited one of my best friends who just had a baby (Iris) and she is absolutely precious. I just thought you all should see how cute she is...














I also got the chance to run over the Cooper River Bridge, something I've wanted to do for awhile. It was so hot and SO windy but super fun. I wish we had something like that in Wilmington. My total run was 6 miles, the bridge took up about 5 of that. Its a tough run, but the view makes it worth it. Thats me running over the bridge...(white shirt)

Low Country Splash

That was definitely the fastest 2.4 mile swim time I will ever have!! The river was kickin' that morning, and I got done in 52:40!! For me thats amazing...for all the hardcore swimmers that were competing...well they finished between 35-45mins....insanity. The race was great though. It was point to point. You park at the finish line and they shuttle you up to the start, the only bad part was that no spectators were allowed at the start. Then you all line up along a floating starting line and then GO!! And before you know it you're in a sea of 300+ people heading for that enormous bridge....the cool part is you always have a goal...first you're swimming thinking bridge, bridge, bridge, then you get past the bridge (sooo cool) and now you're thinking boat, boat boat...(the USS Yorktown is parked up near the finish line), then after the boat its pink, pink, pink....the finish line is 2 big pink buoys. Then you float around to this big plastic slides where volunteers pull you out like a beached whale....then just as you think you're getting your equilibrium back you realize the dock is of the floating kind and you are rocking every which way!!! This is was made up for by receiving an unexpected medal for finishing the race...I didn't know they had medals, so it made my day!

The river current was so strong it made it hard for everyone to stay behind the starting line. The water was pretty chopping in some parts too. AND to add to all this excitement a barge went by and the wake rolled through making you think you were swimming in a washing machine. Regardless of all this though I had a blast and I will be back next year. Its a great challenging event.

I came 15/24 in F25-29, and 127/164 overall females. I'll take that seeing as I'm not a die hard swimmer like everyone else there!

(for more pictures click on my Online Photo Album)