Sunday, March 29, 2009

Little by Little

I'm slowly getting better, feeling less cranky about not being able to run.

I was feeling pretty darn frustrated on Friday about my constant state of injury. My left calf, which had NOT been hurting me AT ALL, was extremely tender after my massage and felt quite a bit worse on Friday and Saturday, to the point of forcing me to limp. On Friday morning, it felt a sore so I thought that I'd take it easy on my cross-training hike and went very slowly when we were going uphill. It didn't really hurt while we were walking and we really enjoyed the long walk. The dogs loved being off leash for an hour and a half as well.

Later that afternoon, the calf really hurt, mostly when I got up from sitting. I couldn't stretch it at all so I had a hot bath and took it easy.

Saturday it felt pretty much the same and my butt muscles were quite tender as well. I did my swim in the morning without any problem - 45 min, 1500m - and then we went for a long fairly chilly bike ride. I was supposed to stay in zone 2 so we rode pretty lsowly the whole time, only covering about 33km in the 1:45 we were out. My toes were frozen by the time we got home and I had to stop at Kelowna Cycle to buy a new headband, but it was still a much nicer ride than sitting on the trainer for 2 hours. My leg and butt felt fine for most of the ride but started to feel a bit sore after the first hour so I went reeeeally slowly up the hill home.

Erik took a picture of me downtown, where we rode along the boardwalk. You can see the hills are still covered in snow in the background. I live about halfway up the mountain, pretty much above my helmet, about at the snow line.


Today, Sunday, I had a lot of work to do around the house and at school, so I didn't go to the pool until this afternoon. I found out I can use my YMCA swim pass at the Rec Centre so I decided to save myself 10 minutes of driving and swim there today. I swear the water in that pool is warmer than the Y. I did a speed workout today, first time in a long while.

300m warm up

3X100m fast (I ranged from 1:55-2:15) 1:55 was a PR for me)

50m slow kick.

3X100m fast

50 slow kick

200 freestyle CD

I didn't actually get to do my last 50m because the pool closed at 5pm and everyone was standing there at 4:56 waiting for me to get out. I was the last one in the pool.... :)

Anyway, I did 1150m in about 36 min.

Today, my calf is feeling quite a bit better and my butt is ok as well. I am going to do a bit of gentle yoga stretching tonight and see how things go.

I don't think I'll run until later in the week unless I feel perfect on Tuesday and might want to try 1-2 easy slow kms. We'll see...

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi. I saw your comment about not being able to run and immediately related. I too have been living the couch potato style for years and recently decided to pick myself and brush myself off. Decided that triathlon sounded like it may be fun and invested in a bicycle. Shortly thereafter I discover plantar fasciitus and haven't really been able to run for quite a few months now. In any event I wanted to lend you support and tell you that you have to really be patient because it's getting better but it takes a long time to do so. I understand that you have a different injury but the frustration is the same; I want to train and I can't. All the best and get well soon. And lastly I wanted to mention that breathtaking scenery in your photos. Gorgeous. -Slow

Marci said...

You are slowly getting back into it... though it is frustrating... that I can relate to!

Kelownagurl said...

Thanks Ken and Untpawgal - I am so impatient sometimes. And stressed a bit b/c my first race in May 24th. However, feeling much better today. First trial run on Wed. Cross your fingers!

Bruce said...

Thanks for the comment. While I am a regular listener to your podcast and do enjoy. Coach Ken of Running Stupid bribed with a Kazoo. I know I can be bought cheap.