Santa Cruz Tri Geek

Sick Disposition

Sometimes, you just have a sick disposition.  Sometimes, you just need to move.

I managed my first multi-mile, multi-minute run since my hip injury.  Last night I clocked 2.2 miles in 22 minutes, with no stops.  My previous best was five minutes of running (during rehab) so this is a major step.  I headed out for my run at 8pm too, which was a suprise.  Fiance wondered why I was going; I told her the truth:  I'm scared shitless of my upcomming race.

This morning I knocked out 2400 meters in the pool at masters.  I could have done the last 600 for 3k, but had to get to work.  Next week, perhaps.  I'm feeling good.  Time to go hike some granite.

Keeping Up

Got in a nice ride on Monday night and a decent swim with Masters this morning.  More stats to follow; for now, work calls.

Life in the Fast(er) Lane

Day One in the fast(er) lane at masters.  Ok, these folks are fast.  Granted, they are all wearing fins and paddles, but they are fast nonetheless.  Great workout though.  Around 2000 meters and I left before the last set!  I've earned some rest and I'm going to take it.  Just as soon as I go work for 10 hours....

Making the Jump

Yesterday morning's Master's was cut short for me.  I had to take the car into the shop for service, so I only got in about 40 minutes of work, about 1200 meters.  When did 1200 meters become a short workout for me?  Anyone know?

Today was distance day at Master's.  Hit it up again.  Swam strong for the second day in a row.  I don't remember that ever happening before.  Coach Heidi told my fiance and I that she's moving us up from the slow lane to the not quite as slow lane.  Now we'll be swimming with the faster folks.  Yay!  Um, if anyone knows how to teach a flip turn, drop me a comment.  I need to learn before Friday morning.  :-)

Epiphany

Breakthroughs come at the strangest times.  This morning, I was only able to stay at the Masters workout for 40 minutes...stupid 7:30 am car service appointment.  At any rate, somewhere during the last 20 laps, all of those catch up drills paid off and I actually started gliding on top of the water instead of sinking like a lead weight every time I took a breath.  Very cool.  I also managed to start swimming on my side a bit...again, a very cool feeling.  Hopefully this new progress will be there tomorrow morning.  Can't wait to get back in the pool!

Master's Session No. 3

3rd session with Coach Hiedi.  She is a taskmaster, but I'm liking it.  1:20 in the water this morning at 6 am.  Drill day, so lots of pull, kick, strock, free alternations.  Managed 2400 Meters again.   That's 900 over the distance of my target race, so should compensate somewhat for the addition of the ocean current and wetsuit.

The flip side of swimming 3 times in four days is that my lats are really tired.  And sore.  To the touch.  Sitting in a chair is a challenge.  I think I'll go take a nap.  Catch you all this weekend.

Masters Rocks...Posture is Rocky

I managed to join the 6 AM masters crew at the pool again this morning.  My fiance slept in, anticipating a run with our group that evening (I'm still on the running shelf for another 3 weeks...more on that later).  It was endurance day and I knocked out 6x400m, in various permutations.  Just two sessions with Coach Heidi and I can already feel my stock improving.  I may move from the really slow lane to the slow lane if I keep this up.

On the flip side, my PT has me doing a new set of exercises for my hip.  They are postural correction exercises, designed to get the ball of my right femur to rotate correctly back into the socket so its not rubbing the hip bone when I walk/run.  This is the theory of the month for the cause of my various hip/back issues.  He says I can run train again in 3 weeks if I continue doing my therapy.  I'm doing my therapy; if I can run in three weeks w/o pain, he gets a nice bottle (or three) of wine.  The down side of posture stuff is that my back is tired all the time now from sitting and walking how I should have been sitting for the past few years.  I suppose things will adapt; in the meantime, I look like the tin man.

Nutritionally, things are going well. I'm consistently hitting 22-2400 calories a day in intake.  Contrast that with a BMR around 2100, plus somewhere between 500 and 1000 in exercise burn (not counting post exercise metabolism boosts).  With any luck, I'll be able to lean up a bit despite not being able to run right now.  This should make my return to the pavement even more enjoyable.

Things that make you go hmm....

Apparrently the ball of my right femur sits too far forward in my hip socket and this is the root of all the evil that plagues me these days.  So says my new PT.  I don't know if he's right or not, but he uses a tablet PC, so that's instant geek cred in my book.  No running for at least three weeks and lots of goofy exercises to undue the "damage" I've done over the last decade and a half.  We'll see if he knows his stuff or not.  I told him I was doing my Oly race, even if I have to walk the run portion.

Otherwise, morning training went well.  Did 30 min in the pool, working on the new stroke technique.  Its awkward, but I didn't drown, so I consider it a good workout.  2231 cals in yesterday; looking at round 2k today.  Nutrition tracking seems to be working well.  Now if I can just make it to spin tonight, it'll be a good day.

Cortisone is the Best!

Its nice how quickly things can turn around.  On the heels of last nights ride washout, I dragged my ass out of bed at 5:30 a.m. and hit the local masters swim at 6:00 a.m. for the first time.  I never swam in high school like my uber-athlete fiance and her brother, so this was new to me.  Great hour of swimming though.  Aside from open water swims, I can't imagine any of my upcoming swim workouts won't involve these workouts.

The biggest bonus for me was that the coach was able to vastly improve my stroke in like 3 seconds (thanks Heidi).  Apparently I was pulling my forward arm back too quickly, not allowing my recovering arm to get far enough forward before the pulling arm went underneath me.  Result was my head dipped down and created drag every time I completed a breath.  Now, I hold the forward arm out longer, keeping it extended until the recovering arm makes it to about my ear.  Speed up, drag down.  I like it.

Oh yes, and then there's the workout:

WU:  2x100 (100 FS, 100 BS)
Main:  3x200 (short sets of FS, kick and pull)
           16x50 (4x each of FS, kick, pull, other stroke)
           2x250 (100 FS, 50 kick, pull and other stroke).
CD:  2x100 (FS, BS)

At least, I think that was the workout.  We did a total of 2200 meters in just under 60 minutes.  That was a very tough swim workout for me.  But I felt great afterwards.

And there was something else happening today...my shot!  Dr. Quinn hit my nerve with that lovely cocktail of Novocaine and cortisone and I was feeling better almost immediately.  The Novocaine is only masking the pain while the steroid works, I know, but its nice to be relatively pain free again.  The real test will be in a few days time, when the Novocaine has worn off and we see if the cortisone did its work.

That's it for now.  I have to go eat a disappointingly small PB&J snack.  2280 calories yesterday, going to definitely be higher today.  Swimming always jacks up the appetite beyond my ability to control it.