Factory of Faith

Run – 40 minutes and 30 seconds. 4.05 miles. Did the first mile slow to warmup. Then picked it up for the next three. Did hills. Knees felt ok. My tape stayed on for the whole run so I was very happy about that. To test it out I left it on through my shower to see if it would stay and it did. Maybe I am getting better at the taping. My running hasn’t improved much but I am happy to be out running more regularly!

My legs didn’t feel particularily fresh after running in the morning but it was time to Bike! Did 1 hour and 9 minutes of hellish hill repeats. Basically rode out to jumper road and rode it a few times. Jumper road is a long ass hill with some serious grades at points. Covered 14.27 miles. My tape still stayed on for this too! Although I do have to admit the hill climbing does make the knees strain. At one point on this hill I think of a roller coaster everytime because when you lookup and see the angle of this hill ahead it just reminds me of a roller coaster because of the pitch. Gotta get the legs strong for IM Pocono mountain!

I have some races coming up soon. I am doing a 10k run this Saturday – Totally flat course. Ill see how that goes before deciding on other running races for the month. I also have a 28mile road bike race next weekend. I really want to hit it as hard as the knee will allow until Pocono.

what to do

swim - 500 of drills to warmup, then swim 500 in 8: followed by 600 as 50 fast 50 easy. i always like that kind of workout! then 4 - 50s on 15 seconds rest. i was swimming them in about 42 seconds. then 6 - 50s as distance per stroke. this slowed my efforts down to 48-50 seconds. 400 of drills to cool down.

bike - 16.85 miles with 1, 190 ft of climbing in 1:10. avg 14.3 avg hr 144 ma 163.

felt like a good training day overall. knee is hanging in there. feeling going about that!

Hold Up

I was able to get my run in yesterday even with the hurricane and such. While my 10k race in the morning was postponed. I decided to let myself recover a bit from the hard day of training before and let the weather clear out a little. took it to the roads in the evening with my husband. Did a 7 mile loop with hills around town. It took me 1 hour and 10 minutes. The leukotape didn't stay on though! damn! It actually feels really good when I tape my knees but It didn't stick so i ran a good portion without it. We were running in a little rain but I think it was more from the sweat and the movement of the knee than the light rain. I am going to have to try this again and see if i can get it to stick. If not maybe some kind of kneecap supportive brace would be a better idea. legs are a little sore today but its a full on rest day so I got to sleep in the morning and i have the rest of the day to let them recover. I noticed my achilles was tight yesterday when running and it felt tight again when i woke up this morning.

high water

Did my first 5K Open water swim race. I think that is the farthest I have ever swam and especially in open water for sure. It took me 1hour 54 minutes and 32 seconds. I didn't get my spits from the race yet. Overall it was a good time. I'm curious to see how consistent my splits would be. I didn't go out too hard because i knew it was going to be a long way to swim.  I felt ok during it had a few issues my with goggles i had to correct but that was about it. I didn't not think my time would be this high. The water temp was cool. it was wetsuit legal. The water conditions were good. there was a little chop when you were crossing the lake but for the most part it was a good course. I must have been getting tired towards the end because i was swimming with my eyes closed. I have no idea why but it must have felt good at the time. I must admit I was pretty cooked afterwards. I had a gel before I got into the water. I didn't eat or drink anything while swimming. I was kinda out of it when i got out of the water. not sure if it was fatigue or dehydration of low energy stores or what. But it was dragging. I had a bike ride yet to do and i needed a break to refuel and reload before heading out. We were getting some of Hurricane Irene when it as time to bike so I ended up riding for 3 hours in the house on my trainer instead of dealing with the rain/wind combo. I watched the Tour of Colorado while doing it and i got a good workout in even on the trainer. My legs were sore afterwards and still are a bit today. I tried some of the Stinger Chews yesterday and I have to admit i am really impressed with their products. They actually taste pretty good! I was supposed to do a 10k running race this morning but it got postponed because of the weather.  If it lets up later today I will go do my 7 mile run. If not I will take today as a rest day which was supposed to be tomorrow and i will just have to do my running tomorrow. we will see. i got my leukotape yesterday so i used to before my bike ride and to my happiness it actually stayed on. def gonna use it for running and hope it really helps with my knee issues. Ironman Pocono Mountain 70.3 is actually coming up pretty fast. I basically have a month to train for it.

Rain on tin

Swim – super light tease of a workout! 500 of drills to warmup then a 500 yard TT whilst wearing a t shirt for drag. 9.11. it is almost funny how much I huff while trying to drag myself through the water with just a shirt on. Then 500 more of drills just to cooldown. Felt weird getting out of the pool after such a short amount of time especially since I love being in the water but since I will be swimming 5,000 meters tomorrow in an open water race I didn’t push it and got out of the water. I’ll get my fix tomorrow.

I was supposed to go to crossfit and do step-ups today but I actually forgot shorts so since I had to go home and get them I found it was just easier timewise to take my bike out. And it turned out to be a hell of a workout too. I did a 3 mile warmup ride to a my local school where I had an almost half mile loop that I can ride really aggressively as it doesn’t have traffic on it.  So then I did 7 repeats as 1 loop (half mile) all out effort followed by 1 loop as recovery. The interval was taking me a little over a minute when I was hitting it. I was topping out at 23 and 24 mph on it and pushing more gear than I normally do. The recoveries started off keeping a good pace and by number 7 they were definitely slower than number one being almost 2 minutes. But I didn’t coast through any of it I kept pedaling the entire time although I did use an easier gearing. Then took a little cooldown ride of a few minutes to get back home. I was actually pretty tired from this effort. I only intended to go six repeats. But I lost count and ended up doing 7. If I knew I would have done 8! But having not done serious bike speedwork in awhile I don’t know how many more quality efforts I would have had left.

Tomorrow morning is the OWS race. Hoping to get it in before the rain/winds start from the hurricane. I am also hoping to get my 3 hour ride in on Saturday before the weather sets in. Then Sunday is the 10k race. I am pretty sure it is going to be raining and windy for that. I really don’t care and hope they don’t cancel it. So far I haven’t heard about a cancellation but this is already a rescheduled date. It was cancelled a few weeks ago when the temps were really high.  It should be a great weekend.

Massage the History

Got a nice run in this morning. 46 minutes out on the roads with hills most of the way.  I taped my knee with athletic tape hoping it would be more aggressive than the kinesio tape but it didn’t stick very well. It was raining while I was running so I am sure that didn’t help but I just think we the constant movement of the knee it is going to be hard to keep the kneecap pinned in place until I get the tape I ordered online. Because of the ran I didn’t take my garmin to get the distance data. I was pretty happy with this thought I dealt  with the hill action and I even had some speed. With the way my running has been going lately anytime I feel good about it is a huge for a my confidence.   Today was my rest day from CxF so I went to the Farmers Market and stocked up on some fresh produce. Tomorrow is a lite day schedule wise with a short swim and some step ups then a big training weekend coming up. I have a 5k open water swim race on Saturday morning. That’s going to be a long swim for me. Hoping the weather holds out for it. I also have a 3 hour bike ride. I’d like to get about 50 miles in for that. Then on Sunday I have a 7 mile run which I think I am going to do a 1 mile warmup and then race a 10k. I use the word race lightly because with where my running is at I won’t really be in contention but I think it is a good idea for me to go do it at a race because I think I will put in a better training effort if I am at the race than just out doing it myself. And my running needs all the help it can get right now. Hoping that race is a good because Sunday is supposed to be washout from the hurricane.

Bike – 8 minute warmup. 10 x 1 minute hill repeats. Recovery was descent. 10 minute cooldown. Knee did  fine.  

I ordered some Coverall and Leukotape to start doing the mcconnell taping method to help my patella tracking.  Right now I’ve been taping it with Kinesio tape but because that stretches I don’t think it is holding my kneecap in the proper alignment enough.

I also found a doctor (who is a cyclist) that does ART and Graston Technique for PatelloFemoral pain and he takes me insurance so I’m going to give him a try out. I ordered the Garmin Edge 500 for my tribike. This is my last resort since I can’t seem to get anything to fit on Damon even with the special xlabs mount. It works with the Heart Rate Monitor and Cadence Sensor I already have so that helped to keep the cost down a bit. It even works with a power meter although I haven’t used that kind of data yet.

Crossfit – AMRAP 20 Minutes

10 Pushups

10 GHDs Situps/Back Extensions

Did 20 full rounds and all of the pushups in the 21^st round. However, the first 13 rounds were done with GHD situps. Then I got a really severe pain in my head and I thought I can not do another one of these. I’ve had headache pressure from them before but nothing like this felt. So I decided to switch over to Back Extensions and that helped. So the last 7 rounds were back extensions not GHDs.

Still doing the stretching, mobilizing thing on my lower legs. Not sure if it is really working or I am just destined to turn into an aquabiker.

shaking hell

Swim – no warmup or cooldown. No enough time today so 300 swim (5.08), 300 pull (5.04), 6 x 75 fast(1.07.1.08,1.09,1.09,1.05,1.07), 300 pull (5.25 ha! Tired!), 6 x 50 fast(.44,..42,..43,..42,..43,..44), 200 pull (3.33)

EVA (mod)

5 rounds for time of

Run 800 meters (round 1 .6m rd2 .4m rd3 .6m rd 4 .4 m rd 5 .6m)

30 Kettlebell Swings @ 35lbs

30 Pullups (rings, aussie)

Time 41 minutes.

Slightly longer run than rx due to loop size around the box.

Watched a bunch of videos on ankle mobility to try to work on getting this knee situation sorted out.working on the taping too to see if that can help.

Nationals Race Report +

Thursday – took a full on rest day. Slept in, went to the farmers market. Packed and got myself ready for Burlington!

Friday – Finished packing and headed up to Burlington. It was a long drive and due to various circumstances I was only able to get a few minutes in riding my bike on the run course before I had to check it in to transition. Didn’t get to swim or anything like that but sometimes your just not ready to race it just becomes time to go do it. Overall felt really stressed out about getting up there and getting myself ready to go. It all worked out but it wasn’t easy.

Saturday – Race day! I was really kinda nervous for this race. It felt weird. I haven’t really been nervous for a race since my first triathlon but the nerves were going in the morning for sure. I don’t know if it was because of the level of competition I was going to be facing or because I wasn’t feeling confident in my abilities with the downtime and modified training with the injury. I know that I am the kind of athlete that loves to race and feels better about my racing the more I race. The more I am away from it the less fine tuned I become with it. It has been a hard season in that sense. Due to the injury I’ve raced very little and that isn’t to my liking. So I was finally gonna do some racing! I felt a little better once I got a clif bar down. Got to the race early. Got setup in transition. Everything was going smoothly. We could not get in the water until the actual race. So I just got my wetsuit on and didn’t do any warmup because I couldn’t take my bike out and I didn’t want to run. The race organization was very good. However, they really gave you minimal guidance. You needed to just do it they didn’t go over things a bunch of times or call your waves etc. We were herded like cattle through a building on the water waiting to get into the lake. It was a deep water start so we need to jump off the dock and tread water for a few minutes before the gun went off. The water temp was actually 74 so it was pretty nice. Not too cold and decent wetsuit temp. I was a little surprised by the swim course. I didn’t expect the water in lake champlain to be that rough. We were swimming in the breakwater behind the rock walls but I still had some waves crashing over my head at various points. It also had about 5 turns in the swim course which all were heavily crowded. I think this was the swim I had the most contact in yet. I never swam by myself for the whole course. I don’t know if there were just that many athletes but the entire course felt busy the entire time. As we turned back towards to the boat docks where the swim exit was the sun was directly in my eyes so I couldn’t see the buoy at all. I was following the swimmers in front of me at that point since it was all I could see. I thing everyone ended up swimming a little wide around that turn probably because no one could see all that well or the water was pushing up that way. Im not really sure. I felt like I sighted and swim decently through the rest of the course. the water quality was pretty good as I started my hydration plan a little early due to conditions. Out of the water and I was running to transition. I passed several people. I got into transition and I thought I dropped my goggles while I was stripping off my wetsuit so I ran back to look for them because I didn’t want to get a penalty for disregarded gear. I couldn’t find them and I was losing time so that point I just abandoned the mission to find them since I figured I would just take my chances penalty wise instead of looking any longer. Grabbed damon and we were running out onto the bike course. The bike course was basically rolling hills the entire way. There were decent climbs in the beginning to get you out of the lake and the city and onto the interstate. I felt like the bike course was kinda on the technical side. There were a lot of tight turns in close sections. Again the beginning and the end were in the city so it wasn’t an open view. The interstate section was rolling hills including one great descent were you pass under an underpass that had people standing on it just screaming for you. that was so much fun! It was like being on a rollercoaster. I biked pretty decently. I had some sections were I felt pretty bad namely which I first got on the bike after getting out of the water and started climning. Then sections were I recovered a bit and then sections where I felt crappy again. Overall I didn’t redline the bike the entire way although I wish I could have! I need to get better biking legs. Men were just passing me left and right and it was annoying me. Why are they so fast!!!!! Had another decent transition to my run. The legs felt good. The design of the run course has your climbing a big steep hill right out of transition. I mean literally right out of transition. There were tons of people lining both sides of the hill just cheering everyone up it. I was determined not to walk any of the run. I know that sounds funny but with my knee running is tough for me but I told myself there is no way no matter what so up the hill I ran even when others were walking up next to me. That felt good and it set the tone for the rest of my run. Now I didn’t run all that fast compared to most people on the course but I kept a really consistent pace from the beginning to the end. Probably picking up my pace more towards the end. I only walked to drink some Gatorade on the course. I did gels on the bike but I just didn’t want them on the run. It was actually pretty hot so every aid station I grabbed a water that went over my head and a Gatorade to drink. The last 3 – 4 mile are on the Burlington bikeway that runs along lake champlain. It was really pretty and flat so if you can run fast and you have something left you can make a killing in that section of the race. The race was interesting in the fact that the city really came out to support the race. I felt like there were people cheering on the race almost everywhere that was possible. some sections like the interstate or the bikeway werent as populated but overall it was a great crowd.. But it was also a little weird in that very few people were cheering each other on in the race. I had a few people say things to me but overall compared most tris I’ve done this was a really serious really competitive one. It was all good though. As you come off the bikeway into waterfront park you can see and hear the finish so I start taking off and the guy starts racing me. So the two of us are just sprinting down this shoot like there is a fire behind us not giving each other an inch. I mean were banging shoulders as we run. The funniest part is all of the people standing next to the chute are cheering for me to beat him. Sadly I let my newly found fans down as he beat me in the last few feet before the line. But it was good fun and a great way to end the race. The finish line was utter chaos. no one knew where to go people were just piled up. I got my medal, staggered over to medical and got ice for my knees. they i just parked it for awhile and talked to some fellow racers. While i didn't qualify for worlds it was fun to race with the people that did. super motivating to see what level I need to be at. I do really like olympic distance races.

I really loved the city of Burlington. It’s a super bike friendly city. They have bike lanes and parking everywhere and tons of people were using them. They also had lots of vegan food options available which made it really easy for me to be there which I loved!

 

sunday before leaving town. ron and i headed out on the burlington bike way for a 16 mile ride. easy pace took about an hour. legs were a little sore when i got up otherwise felt fine. my knee is pretty much the same still hurts. no really any better or worse.

monday - feeling pretty good. - went to swim in the morning. did 500 of drills to warmup. then 20 minutes of easy swimming. thought about form most of the time since i didn't have to count laps or go fast.  did a little cool down swimming with a pull buoy.

Did some step ups at CF. bw  2 sets of 10 each leg forward and later. repeated it adding ten pounds and then repeated it adding 20 pounds. My knee felt kinda stressed after these this afternoon. Did some stretching between the sets and also did sets of 15 reps each leg of negative calf  raises off a step. Still trying to loosen up these tight lower legs.

I really ready to gear up for pocono mountain. the race isn't that far off and id really like to have a good race there. I've got some limitations because of the knee and the timing but i want to make the most of it.