Back on the Bike

Yesterday afternoon I got back on my bike for the first time since the OCTRI. I have felt a little unmotivated because I am done with triathlons for the year, but I needed to get back into shape. I did the Weir Canyon ride. 8:34 to trail, 33:49 to Weir Canyon, 35:18 back, 10 minutes home. It was definitely not my fastest time, but it was great to be back on my bike.

Huge Slacker

I have taken a lot of time off from training. I needed time to recover from the OCTRI and then I got sick. As much as I wanted to train while sick, I knew it wouldn't be wise. But on a good note, I have started my training again.

Sunday morning I went on a mountain bike ride with Carrie. We rode Peter's Canyon. It takes us less than an hour.

Monday I swam 88 laps. I discovered that the pool at my gym is 25 yards, not 25 meters, which means I have been measuring my distances incorrectly. 88 laps is 1-1/4 miles. I swam 88 laps in 39:05 minutes. Next, I ran one mile in 8:30 minutes. I ran so that my shin would swell up a little bit so when I went to my physical therapist appointment on Tuesday, I would be able to have something to show. 

Tuesday I went to my appointment. It went very well. I got my foot taped and she showed me some exercises to do. I seem to have lazy muscles so I have to re-learn how to walk on my left foot. Crazy! No running for a while, but I will survive.

Today I would like to bike. We will see.

Swim!

I finally got to the gym this week! I went on Tuesday after work. I swam 78 laps in 33:40 minutes. I wanted to ride my road bike so bad yesterday but I went home early from work because I am sick. I didn't want to make it worse by pushing my body. I might go swimming tonight, I haven't decided yet. I am not fully recovered yet. I can't wait until I am back to normal. I went for my bone scan on Tuesday afternoon and it came back negative! Oh, that's just great! Now there's nothing wrong with me! I must just be making it up! Boy this is beyond frustrating. I go to the physical therapist on Tuesday and hopefully that doctor can shred some light on my problem. I hope I can run again someday!

OCTRI

Here are a few pictures from the Orange County International Triathlon that Skyler and I did last week. Skyler's muscles look like they are bulging out of his skin! That's my husband! 

A Little Relaxation

I am taking a few days off to recover from my race. My legs are finally feeling close to normal again, although my calves are still sore. I want to jump back into training, but I don't want to injure myself. But doing nothing is really hard. I can't eat as much because I don't need to calories because I am not burning any. I don't like limiting my food intake. My plan is to swim tomorrow and enjoy it!

Whoa!

Sunday I raced in my last triathlon of the season. It was a great race and I feel like I raced very well, especially since I have only ran once in the past 5 or 6 weeks (and that was for the Pacific Coast Triathlon). Because of that fact, I can barely move today. My legs hurt all over. My knees were hurting pretty bad during the race, but I didn't want to give up. So here are my times:

Swim- 28:01 (time out of water, my time will probably show as 28:48 because of the run out of the water)

T1- 1:49

Bike- 1:19:45

T2- 1:38

Run- 54:40

Total- 2:46:38

My bike time was better than Camp Pendleton by about six minutes, but my run time was slower. I finished eighth in my age group. Surprisingly, I beat Skyler by 5 seconds. Boy do I feel bad! Talk about an ego bruise! He doesn't train as much as I do, but was still expecting to beat me. Well, this just proves that time put in is what counts, not just ability. I can't wait until next season. It was be a tough one with the Oceanside 70.3 at the beginning of April. Hopefully my legs will be fixed by then so that I can race to the best of my ability.

Bike Ride

Last night I did the Weir Canyon bike ride. 7:15 to get to trail. 32:23 to Weir Canyon. 34:19 to get back. 8:31 to get home. My legs felt tired last night, which is good. Tonight I will do an easy swim, then I will relaz for the rest of the week. Good luck to me on the race!

Taper....

Last night Carrie and I rode Peter's Canyon. Since Skyler wasn't going to be home until late I decided to go to the gym. I swam 48 laps, but am unsure of the time. It's not important. After work I will be doing the Weir Canyon ride. I don't know how I feel about this upcoming race. I can tell a difference in how I look because of my lack of running. I feel horrible! I haven't heard back from my doctor yet, but my shin still hurts. I am pretty sure it is a stress fracture. I have just recently decided that I want to be good at triathlons, but if I can't do one of the events then I can't be good. The run is so important, as is everything else. How will I be a top athlete if I can't run? My physical therapy appointment can't come soon enough! I will be great at the swim during the race, but I am a little iffy about the bike because I haven't gotten in as much road bike time as I would have liked. I have been mountain biking a lot, which I hope will help my road biking performance. I am not too nervous about this race because I don't think I will do as well as I had hoped. I need a good recovery winter and then will be ready to dominate next year!

Short Break

Saturday night Carrie and I went on another bike ride. We rode 10 miles in Aliso Viejo. It was a lot of fun! Since I worked out six days in a row, Sunday was the perfect day for a rest. I also took monday off because Skyler and I bought a new car. 

Tonight I am mountain biking again. 

Tomorrow I will do a road bike ride.

Thursday I will swim.

Friday I will relax.

Saturday I will relax.

Sunday I will race HARD!

Memories

Thursday and Friday's training, click here.

Today I went to the gym to swim. I swam 80 laps in 34:15 minutes. Afterwards I did a little weight lifting and lunges. Since I did some extra work, I wore my running shoes. It was so weird to be wearing them! I miss them so much! I don't get to wear them because I have only been swimming and biking. I loved wearing them. It made me remember the great times I have had in my running shoes. I wish I could run! I made my appointment for physical therapy, so hopefully they can take care of my shin. Today my shin was hurting. Maybe it was because I walked around (went shopping) and did some lunges. I wish my shin would go back to normal. All I want to do is be able to run again. I miss just putting on my shoes and going for a run. No preparation, no expensive equipment, just me and my shoes. Please heal fast! Pray for me!

Tuesday I swam and surprisingly I swam an even faster time than on Saturday. I swam 80 laps in 34:04 minutes. Even though the swim is the shortest part of the race, I am so happy to be getting faster in the swim. Last night Carrie and I went mountain biking at Peter's Canyon. It is the closest place to bike and we can do the loop quickly. It was fun! Hopefully we can keep riding for a few more weeks before it is too dark to ride. Today I am planning on doing a big bike ride. I have the day off from work so I thought I would try to see how far I can ride. Plus, I will have to ride to La Habra to pick up my car (it is being repaired).

Bike Ride

I started off my week by doing the Weir Canyon ride. It is 21 miles on the trail. It took 9 minutes to get to the trail, then 32:03 to Weir Canyon, then 34:45 back, then 10 minutes back home. I rode hard at the end, but it is always windy coming back. Saturday night I weighed myself and I was 113.6! I almost fainted! I haven't weighed that much in a while and I don't think it was muscle because I have been lacking on my weight lifting lately. Fortunately, as of last night, I was back down to 111.0. Phew! I need to beef up and trim down. Race diet started yesterday. No sweets, no french fries, low fat.

Getting Faster

Yesterday I only had time for a mid-morning swim and boy did I swim! I swam 80 laps in 34:14 minutes! My fastest time ever! I kep getting faster! This beat my last time by 20 seconds. I am happy to be getting faster. During my last race I was 6th of 60 people in my age group to finish the swim. I was in the top 20% for the whole wave. I used to be near the back. Part of it is because I am geting more comfortable swimming in open water. This week needs to be hard. I need to swim 3 times and ride 4 times. I am going to leave running out for now. I have a doctors appointment on Wednesday for my shin splints. Hopefully that goes well!

Beyond Bummed!

Last night it took me 45 minutes to drive home from work, compared to the usual 40. I was so frustrated and didn't have time to swim at the gym anymore. I decided I would do a short run instead. ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't run anymore! My left shin hurts so bad! I don't know what to do. I have been doing the stretches, using a Theraband, and icing my leg as much as possible. I still have shin splints. Since that 5K in March or April, I have probably only ran about 15 times. 15 times in 6 months. That's ridiculous! I made an appointment to see my primary car doctor next week and then he will refer me to a sports therapist. Hopefully something can be done or I will be so sad. I love running! I want to run for hours! I am an enduarnce athlete, yet I can't do 1/3 of my sport. Some people can run but don't like it, but at least they have the ability to run. I ENVY THEM!

This morning I rode on the river trail the same as yesterday morning. It was a little over 15 miles (15.4). I did the ride in 50 minutes, 25:20 there and 24:55 back. I need to improve my times. I also need to get some longer rides in before my next race (since it is an Olympic distance). No working out tonight, but tomorrow morning I will be swimming and biking. Forgot to note, when I ride the river trail, it is actually 3 miles longer because of the ride to and from the trail. So I rode a total of 17.4 miles today.

Bikes!

Well, I took off Monday and Tuesday for recovery. I wasn't planning on taking off Tuesday but when I got to the gym to swim, there was an aqua class that had just started. I didn't have any running shoes and was less motivated to go home and change. Oh well. Last night I went on a mountain bike ride. It was ok. This morning I did a road bike ride. It was 15 miles long. I did the 405 ride. I rode there in 24:45 minutes and back in 25:30 minutes. It seemed windier than usual. Tonight I want to swim and run.

Surpassed My Goal

We did it! Yesterday Skyler and I raced in the Pacific Coast Triathlon with our friends Donny and Jaci. We had a great time and all did exceptionally well! My goal was to finish with a time of 1:25:53. My time last year was 1:33:53. I wanted to improve my time by 8 minutes. I exceeded my goal by completing the race with a time of 1:23:47, a little over two minutes faster than I wanted to go, which makes my time ten minutes faster than last year's! I also placed 4th in my age group compared to 15th last year. I am very happy with my time, but of course nothing is ever good enough for me. I was just one place away from getting an award, although third place was three minutes ahead of me. Skyler finished with a time of 1:20:36, an improvement of 7 minutes. We both did great!

Doing a sprint race is hard because there is not much time for recovery. I felt sick the entire time I was on my bike. I pushed the run hard. I improved all of my times which makes me very happy!

Taper

I am not sure if it was laziness or intelligence that was taking over me, but I decided that I wanted to taper for this race. This is my shortest race of the year, yet I felt the need to taper. So last night I did a nice leisurely swim of one mile (64 laps) with a time of 28:44 minutes. I might try to get a run in tonight or tomorrow but I am too nervous about shin splints. Maybe a short bike ride on Saturday morning!

Double Bike Ride

After work I went on another road bike ride, since my mountain bike ride wasn't going to happen. I did the Weir Canyon ride, which I haven't done in a while. I rode there (10.5 miles) in 32:12 minutes and back (same mileage) in 37:12 minutes (it is always very windy on the way back). Including the ride to and from the trail, I rode 24 miles, putting my total at 42 miles for the day. Go me! I am ready for the bike!

Tonight: swimming and possibly other cardio!

Just a Few More Days

Last night I swam 80 laps in 38:50 minutes in the Anaheim Hills pool. Not sure how that compares but it was a good swim. After that, I did the elliptical machine for 30 minutes. This morning I rode 15 miles. It wasn't my fastest pace so I think I might ride again after work. (My mountain bike ride is on hold for this week) Only four more days until my race. I was inspired by a book I am reading called Ultra Marathon Man. On this race, I need to push my hardest, even if it hurts. This is my shortest race so I can push hard and it will be over soon. So excited to get a great time!

Long Weekend Summary

Thursday- I ran 3.5 miles. About 1.5 miles from home my left shin started acting up! Argh! So frustrating! I was able to find a stride that I could limp home on. I bought some exercise bands so I can stretch my shin muscle.

Friday- Skyler and I went on a 2-1/2 hour mountain bike ride. It was mostly climbing the entire way there. It was hard and I was tired. Skyler said that climbs are good training for road bikes because it will make our legs stronger.

Saturday- Road bike ride to the beach. Got there in 42 minutes. Got back in 40 minutes. On the way back I got in a group of road bike guys. It was awesome. I had to push hard to stay with them at first, but then I started drafting and it was easy.

Monday- Mountain bike ride with Carrie. We rode for about 90 minutes at the Fullerton Loop. It was great!

Tonight- Swimming and running. Tomorrow- Two bike rides. Thursday- Swimming and running. Friday- Road bike ride. Saturday- Rest.