I'm home from vacation and it's getting close to race day - I can tell because my pulse starts racing every time I think about it. :)
The rest of our week at Shady Lagoon was lovely - lots of laughs, lazy days on the beach, and of course swimming and riding. I gained 1-2 lbs so the good food must have outweighed the riding, sad to say...
Medical Update
My 'procedure' on Wednesday morning went well - pretty simple, not too horrible - if you've been putting off a sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy, don't - it's really not worth the worry. And for you women out there, it's a hell of a lot easier and less invasive than childbirth. :)
The doctor is a marathoner and triathlete so he was familiar with my symptoms. I have nothing to worry about, there was no evidence of any problems of any sort - I'm as healthy as a horse and can continue running without too much worry. He gave me a few suggestions that might lessen the problem and thinks that I'll probably 'outgrow' it - as I slowly continue to increase my running distances. Just as I had suspected... Glad I had it done and ruled out any serious problems. It's well worth it for the peace of mind alone.
Training Update
I took Wednesday off then swam 750m on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday morning before we left. My swim times really suck - I doubt I'm going to be able to do better than 19-20 minutes at the triathlon so I may as well just get used to that.
On Thursday we rode up Richter Pass, part of the IMC route. It wasn't too hard, not a steady uphill - it has several areas that level off. We didn't know where the highest point was so we stopped at about the 11 km mark, at the info sign for Spotted Lake (about 1-2 km past the lake itself.) It was about a 35 km ride all told.
On Friday, Erik, Yogi, and I rode to Oliver for breakfast again. I didn't want to ride hard so I drafted behind the boys the whole way and never got my heart rate up much at all. We met Judy and Jesse at the Cock and Bull for breakfast then we rode back, making even better time than the other day (31 kmh avg.) I was so well rested from drafting that I was able to blast past the boys up Peach Hill - haha...
We got home Saturday afternoon after dropping off Jesse at his dad's and picking up the happy dogs from the kennel. Yogi and Judy arrived a couple hours later and we ordered pizza and sat out on the deck to enjoy the evening. They headed off to the Kootenays this morning.
Three Sport Brick - My Triathlon "Simulation"
This morning, I got my new Sipaway set up on my bike and I think I like the way it works so far. I also took my aerobars off to lighten my bike up since I'm not going to use them at the triathlon. I loaded up all my stuff into the van and drove down to Gyro to do a race simulation. Because it was already noon on a long weekend, I had to park down Swordy Rd and walk across the street to the beach. I swam 750m in about 19 minutes, got half my wet suit off by the time I got to the cross walk, then I stopped my timer while I waited for the light to change, dripping wet, swim cap and goggles in hand. I'm sure people were really wondering what the hell I was doing on a Sunday afternoon.
As soon as the light changed, I ran down the road and started up my timer again as I reached my van. The I found the car lock clicker where I'd hidden it and did a quick transition to bike even putting on my new race belt sans number. I set up a route that had one long climb and the rest was fairly flat so it was fairly close to the race time (42 minutes with traffic lights etc), then I did T2 at the van again and set out for my run. My lower legs felt like crap again and I tried to run through it but by about the 3km mark, they were pretty uncomfortable. It had nothing to do with the biking, it's just my sore shins again. I did a short walk break after 3km but it didn't help so I just ran slowly back to the car. I ended up cutting my run short (4.5 km) because I didn't want to injure myself. I was running at 6-7 min km most of the time - ugh. I hope my legs don't hurt on race day. Crap. On my last long run and my last brick they felt great. I will only run a couple more short runs before the 17th I think and give them a lot of rest and time to heal. I see the PT on Tuesday afternoon so I'll see what he suggests.
Tri practice times
Swim: 19:00
T1: 2:30
Bike: 42:18
T2: 2:00
Run: 29:37
Total: 1:34:25
Est w/ full run: 1:37:25
Not too bad considering I had traffic to dodge, lights, stop signs, getting bike in and out of van, and I didn't go really hard.
Upcoming Week
This week is kind of busy - PT on Tuesday, Wed/Thurs in Vernon with the houseboat girls, then pedicure and body composition test on Friday. (I'm hoping to be down at least 5% from my 30% this time last year.) Anyway, because of all the interruptions, I think I'm just going to start to taper a bit I think. I'll try to swim as many days as I can, and then do mostly easy rides and maybe one more ride on the tri route. I am going to let me running legs rest 3-4 days between runs and do TONS of stretching etc - mostly listening to how they feel when I do run. My goal is to keep them active but fresh.
And here's one funny/dumb story before I sign off. On Saturday morning, I was chatting away with Erik as I was getting ready to swim one last time. I got the wet suit up half way and the one arm in and something just didn't seem quite right. Oops, I had the dang thing on backwards! - what an idiot... It's hard enough to have to put the thing on once, then to have to take it off and put it back on again. D'uh....
I'll post some camping pics after I have a chance to go thru them and see if any turned out. Erik took a video of me swimming - I might post that AVI file if I can figure out how. (OK, I figured it out and it's now been added, as you probably have noticed.)
I'm glad he took this video. It made me notice how much I lift my head when I breathe and especially when I sight. Since then I tried taking a side breath first, then turning my head and taking a glance ahead without having to lift my head so high. When I do that, I don't have to lift my mouth out of the water.
Later!
2 comments:
Hey, your swim technique actually looks pretty good. Yes, as you mention you could stand to reduce the amount of head lifting while breathing and sighting. Something else to consider...when I do OWS with wet suit on I don't kick. Just like swimming in a pool with a pull buoy.
Two reasons for this. One, I have a very poor kick that really doesn't aid my swim times at all and two, I find that it's wasted leg energy as I want to save it for the bike and run. Give it a try and see how it feels. I find that it also helps me concentrate more on my stroke as well.
Really? Wow, I always feel like I don't kick much and I've trying to kick more. I must say I do go faster when I kick and my swim coach (way back in January) said I had a great kick so maybe that's ok. My arms are not very strong tho - it's my big weakness. But I do feel more tired when I kick so it's good to know I'm not being lazy when I slow down or stop.
I also read somewhere that you should kick harder for the last 25m or so to get the blood flowing back into your legs before you have to stand up.
I'm going to have to work on my swimming a lot for next year. Gotta get my speed up somehow. I find when I swim faster, I can't breathe well and that cauaes anxiety.
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