The past week was a rest week. Not exactly like the picture shows to the right (this is me in Hawaii after the race) but but it was nice to back off training somewhat. It's something that I always look forward to. If you recall typically I have two very intense weeks and one rest week to recover, so I did a lot of recovering last week.
Something really cool that happened last week was the Charlotte Observer ran a story on me in regards to the race in Hawaii. You can see it at the following link:
Something really cool that happened last week was the Charlotte Observer ran a story on me in regards to the race in Hawaii. You can see it at the following link:
Kristine Crane from the Charlotte Observer is the journalist who worked on this for about 2 months and did a great job. I think after the last two months she has heard all she wants to hear about triathlon, but I will admit she was very detailed and thorough in her story and I thought it came off very well.
Speaking of this story, thanks to the mass of e-mails I received from everyone. If I did not personally send you a thank you, I am very sorry. I tried to keep up with them all but I keep finding a few that have fallen through the cracks. They all mean a lot to me though, and have certainly let me know I have people supporting me through this undertaking.
On the subject of this undertaking let’s talk briefly about it and what’s happening. Last weeks swim really was just as long and intense as they usually are mainly because it doesn’t put the strain on your body like a 100 mile bike ride or an 18 mile run. So I was hitting my regular long distance swims last week as well and the higher intensity swim on Tuesday. I did however get an “OFF” day on Friday which was GREAT!! It felt like a vacation actually
As I said the run and the bike last week was much shorter, but Sunday’s ride was fairly hard (3 hour bike & 1 hour run) because I was up all night for the most part on Saturday night with 14 10& 11 year old boys spending the night for my oldest sons birthday. Just to show the important of nutrition and sleep; after eating, Pizza, Ice Cream Cake (b-day cake) and having a couple glasses of wine with the adults earlier in the evening, along with 14 rowdy boys on a sugar high from the S’mores and ice cream cake (who I don’t think ever went to sleep “like me”), you have a recipe for a tough training day.
Yes, I really sat there at 10am thinking to myself, since it was a rest week I should really rest and not even hit the training circuit at all and get ready for another tough week of training. Then, like always when these thoughts creep into my mind, I knew I would be absolutely in a bad mood for the rest of the day if I cheated on myself and my training. It’s hard to change the way you’re wired.
So off on the bike ride and run I went. Luckily, I had Michael Heredia ride for an hour and twenty minutes with me to help me along. Michael has been a great help and great support on my longer rides. Having him link up with me for 90 minutes in the middle of a long ride is very nice and breaks up the monotonous rides. So after I survived the bike, which wasn’t too bad, I hit the run and felt like I was going to hit the wall. I felt completely OUT of energy due to a lack of sleep and poor nutrition. That’s one thing, when training at these distances there is no fooling your body when it comes to sleep and nutrition!!!!!
Health issues. Everything is ok, not great, but ok. Three things I am watching and working on. First, I had a plantar wart on my foot which finally got to the point where it was bothering me on the run so I froze it on Friday and it’s been very painful for the last few days especially on the run, OUCH!!!. I have an 18 mile run coming up so I am sure it will feel delightful but I had to get it taken care of before I got any closer to my race.
The other problem I am experiencing is my right foot on longer runs. Just below the ankle on the inside, I have had some pain. It really didn’t feel good after my last 18 mile run. It doesn’t appear to be a stress fracture because it came on quickly and after a day of rest it went away for the most part and it seems to be more in the joint rather than the arch or a mid point of a bone. I think it may be caused somewhat by running on the side of the crown of the road where that ankle would be turned inward. So my next long run I am going to stick to the top of the crown in the road or the sidewalk to insure a flat surface.
The last thing I am watching is the flare up of the quad tendonitis that I had last year. It feels ok right now but again after some of the long runs or very hilly bike rides where I am climbing and standing up, it gets a bit sore so I am begin very careful on this.
We’ll see how this week goes!!!!
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