Patience is a virtue

OK, I am happy to be able to follow up that whiny post with an ecstatic, positive one!!! I MUST remember this so that the next time I am experiencing road blocks, I can keep in mind that everything can be overcome if I work hard and have patience.

So - after my rather painful run on Wednesday, and my missed swim, I took it easy for a couple of days. I went to the gym on Thursday but didn't do squats. I tried some self-massage and had hot baths and stretched. Friday was a day off of course, and the top of my foot was still tender but feeling better. I was in a quandry about whether I should run today but decided to give it a try and see how my foot and calves felt.

I was a feeling bit tight before I left but once I started running, I felt fine so I did 2X2:00 runs, and then 4X3:00 with 1:00 walking in between. I felt great and think I could have run longer than 3:00 but I know better than to push my luck so I kept a rein on things. Got back in 30:00 with 16:00 of running total. Yee haw!

Then my biggest excitement was my swim today.

I started with the warm up and build up parts of my swim plan (400m in total). I stopped for the :10 rest breaks at 25m or 50m when I needed to. Then when I did the core, I decided to go steady and do the whole 400m without stopping if I could. And I did, fairly easily to be honest. 400m in 10:20 made me very happy. Well, at that point, I still felt strong so I decided to do 500m instead, and then of course I couldn't stop after that and went on to do 800m in total, without stopping!!! 21:00, not a bad pace for me to maintain. I am super excited that I can do the entire 750m of the triathlon in a reasonable amount of time, without stopping. Now I just need to work on that in a regular way until summer when I can learn the next stage, which is an open water swim, in a wet suit. Baby steps... :)

Next week is likely to be a whiny week. I won't be able to workout most of the week and I'll be in pain from my eye surgery. It'll drive me nuts to be stuck at home, with nothing to do, and I can't even play on the computer much because it'll hurt my eyes. Argh. I am trying to remember that the rest week will be great for my body though. :)

More Road Blocks

Just going to cut and paste this whiny diatribe from the BT Blog...

With one comment - Randy Pausch stated in his inspriational video on youtube - "Roadblocks are there to test your committment to your goals."

1:30pm Ugh. I am always so tired on Wednesdays. I went to bed latish after volleyball last night (11:30), then woke up feeling crappy in the middle of the night AGAIN. This is really start to annoy me. (Maybe it's because I had a clubhouse at the pub for dinner? I dunno...) Anyway, I was awake for close to an hour then felt better and went back to sleep. Had turned the alarm off the day before and forgotten to turn it back on so woke up with a start 20 minutes late. Had to get ready and leave in a rush.

I am SUPPOSED to run right after school - calves are aching where they were stripped yesterday. They hurt to touch. Not sure how the run is going to feel. Plus it looks like rain.

I am also SUPPOSED to swim from 5-6pm. I hope I can make myself go....

************

3:00 PM

Run - 14:00min 1.65 kms 08m 29s/KM

Well my run sucked. As soon as I put my shoes on, the top of my left foot hurt a lot, even with the orthotics removed. I walked for 4 min and all the while, my foot was killing me. I could barely stand it. I knew it was going to be bad when I started running and I began to worry that I might on my way to stress fracture. I did 1:00 run and owie in the shins AND the foot. Walked a bit, then another 1:00. Still hurting. Next interval I went longer thinking maybe I could work it out. Everything felt a teensy bit better but still pretty bad. At 7 min decided to turn around. Did 2 more 2:00 intervals on the way back and then walked. Insert swear words here. Iced my foot and shins. Try again another day. %#^%$#$

6:00 run
14:00 total

***************

6:00pm

I am so PO'ed right now. I finally made a very hard, what I thought was well-informed, decision to get the PRK laser eye surgery next Tuesday. After I got home from work, they called to go over some 'details' and make my final measurement appointment. This time they informed me that, because of my high prescription, they will be doing the surgery in two phases, about 4-6 months apart. The short story means - it will take 4-6 months for my vision to stabilize and I will have to wear glasses all summer. Then I will have to go through the whole procedure again - the week of pain and/or discomfort. The 4-5 days off work. The week or so without driving. The months of eye drops and artificial tears. Then finally, the 1-2 months of adjusting to monovision. In other words, if I get the surgery on Tuesday, I won't have 'normal' vision until next Christmas.

I have to make a new decision by tomorrow.

Cons
• go thru the whole procedure twice
• wear glasses this summer, can't wear sunglasses like I wanted
• spend $3800
• chance of infection
• time off work twice, no swimming for two weeks twice, no driving for a week, twice

Pros
• Whether I do it or not, I will still have to wear glasses this summer
• my temporary glasses will be much lower prescription, cheaper, more style choice with lower prescription, may not have to wear them all the time
• I can get prescription goggles that are my actual prescription
• I will have better vision this summer even if it isn't as good as I had expected
• I will be glasses-free by fall/Christmas.
• I get a week off work twice.

I am still so angry about the fact that they did not tell me this in my consult that it is clouding my judgement. DH thinks I should probably go ahead with it but I just don't know right now. Urgh....

And now, I missed swimming because I was too upset to go....

I should just go to bed and start again tomorrow..... Frickety Frick Frick.

End of Week Seven (Feb. 17-23)

Well it was yet another up and down week. I wonder if I'll ever had a week where I actually do everything I intended AND feel good doing it?

Overall, I am happily surprised that I have had the energy to do most of my workouts each week because before I started, I was usually so tired and sleepy after work that I couldn't imagine working out. However, not surprisingly I guess, exercise seems to give me energy and I usually have no trouble being motivated to get out here and do it.

The highlight of this week was my PT appointment with Roy on Tuesday. I was actually there for 2 full hours although admittedly some of it was waiting time. We had a long talk first and he did some initial checks of my legs, hips, shins etc. Then he had me go out onto the track and run a bit. He got me to loosen up my upper body because I carry my arms too tight and he also noticed that my knees sometimes bump when I run. This is consistent with what the pedorthist noticed when she videotaped me running. Once in awhile, my foot crossed over a bit and landed in front of my body instead of straight in line. Roy thought this could be adding to my leg problems. He thought that I could probably correct it just by the simple awareness of it. I did try to keep it in mind during my runs later in the week but I guess I won't really know unless I get Erik to videotape me again sometime in the future.

Anyway, after the run, we talked a bit about the squats and he watched me do double leg and single leg squats. Again, my knee was pronating (?) inward a bit and he thought that I probably need to strengthen my abductors, just like Erik, so from now on, I am going to do squats with no weights, but with a band around my knees to hold them apart. The one-legged squats hurt my glutes and they were sore for a few days afterward...

After evaluating me, he told me that he believes my orthotics are doing their job, I don't seem to be pronating and that the pain is likely because the initial injury never properly healed. Since rest (for months) didn't help, he did not think any further rest would be of any advantage so he encouraged me to continue my walk/run program and to listen to my body as I always do and cut back if necessary. Then he had me soak in the hot whirlpool bath for about 15 minutes and then stretch my calves on the leg press. After, I had to lie down while he tried to work out the knots along my shins by digging his knuckles into the sore area and rubbing firmly up my leg to 'strip" the knots out. It was supposed to be very painful but I did not find it too awful. He did both sides until they were pretty warm and red but they did not feel too bad. We decided I would go see Josie the following week and have it done again, and then again one week later. If I do not see reasonable improvement in that time, he thinks we should consider doing acupuncture although he admitted that it would be fairly uncomfortable.

By the time I left, it was too late to go to the gym but I had a plan set in motion.

1. Run as usual. Listen to my body and adjust as usual.
2. Do the calf stretches on the stairs every day.
3. Make two appointments with Josie to strip my shins again, one week apart.
4. Do the abductor exercises with the elastic band.
5. Adjust my squat exercises and use the elastic band as well.

My calves were really sore to the touch for the next 3 days and I had to adjust my workouts a bit but I did do my planned runs as usual. I did not do any squats on my next gym day though.

• I had two good swims this week (Mon and Wed) and I did go to the gym on Thursday.

• I did all 3 of my runs this week, running about 3.6 km each time with 13:00-15:00 of running over 30:00 total. Did more 2:00 run intervals.

• Friday night we had a late steak dinner and I woke up feeling sick in the middle of the night. On Saturday I did my morning run, had an appointment with the financial planner so had to skip my swim, and then went out for our first outdoor ride of the year! Did 1:45 on the mountain bike. I worked fairly hard but my Garmin battery was dying and HRM data was not accurate so it's hard to say how I really did. My overall avg speed was terribly slow (18 kmh) but we did do some toodling and some hills in the neighbourhood... But even on the flats, I only avg about 24 kmh.

It took me 5:39 to go up Gordon Hill. Last year, I did it in 6:00 on the MT Bike so this was an improvement I guess. I was not trying super hard though. Before and after the ride, I still felt a bit off, and then we went out for dinner at a friend's and I ate a lot of rich, heavy food, which again did not agree with me over night. Today I am feeling a bit nauseous and tired and have not yet gone to the gym OR ridden the trainer. I'm not sure I will either. I think I just might have a nap and do some stretching... So - I'm not sure if I have a bit of a bug, or if it's just the bad food that I'm not used to... I tasted good though. :)

On a personal note, I balanced my cheque book and paid all my bills today and found I still had money left in my account! What a great feeling! I have enough to pay for my laser eye surgery next week and will only have to dip into my savings for my new bike. I also learned that I really can retire at 55 which means only 7 more school years to go!!! Erik should be able to retire in 2 more years.

Plan for Week Eight (Feb. 24-Mar. 1)

Sun - gym and trainer? (Probably not)
Mon - run 2:45, (dentist 4:00) swim 5-6pm (assuming my tummy troubles are gone)
Tue - gym 3:00, massage 4pm (volleyball 8pm)
Wed - run, swim
Thu - (staff meeting) gym in evening?
Fri - rest day (or gym if I didn't go Thu)
Sat - run, swim, bike

Plan for Week Nine March 2-8

Sun - gym and bike
Mon - run, swim, (volleyball meeting 6:15)
Tue - massge 9am, laser eye surgery
Wed - rest
Thu - rest? (easy trainer?)
Fri - rest? run?
Sat - See how I feel.

No swimming for two weeks....

End of Week Six (Feb. 10-16)

Well overall, this was a great week! Apart from my relatively crappy runs on Monday and Wednesday, everything went pretty smoothly and I was able to do all of my planned workouts with the exception of the gym on Thursday (Jesse's dentist appt conflicted). I am optimistic that I will begin to solve my calf problems by cutting out the squats and should start to see if that's the case by Wed/Thurs.

Plan For Week Seven

This is supposed to be a rest week but I am loathe to cut back since I've missed workouts on an ongoing basis the last week few weeks. I think I will listen to my body and if I'm tired on any particular day, I'll cut back mileage or intensity, or just skip it.

Sun - gym this morning, easy trainer this afternoon
Mon - Run at 6am if I can, or in evening. Swim 5-6pm.(eye appt at 3pm)
Tue - PT appt at 3:15. Gym after if I can fit it in.
Wed - Run 2:45, swim 5-6pm
Thu - Gym, easy bike if I feel like it
Fri - rest
Sat - run, swim, bike as usual

Trying to solve the leg problems

I've been trying to figure out why doing squats hurts my quads so much, when in theory, they should be the strongest part of my body. After my 2nd run this week (Wed), my calves were hurting quite a bit again and I was getting frustrated. I know that doing squats doesn't hurt my shins per se, but it does tire my legs in general and I can't help that it all might be connected.

My quads may tire more easily than I expected because I run one day and go to the gym the next day and repeat this, with swimming thrown in as well, then on the weekends, I ride the trainer. Pretty well all of these activities work my quads, and affect my calves. Every day it's a different exercise but there's no real recovery happening.

So, I've decided to try something. For the next two weeks, I will not do squats at the gym. I'll do the upper body work and the leg press, which feels good but doesn't hurt, and I'll do all the stretching. I will continue to run and bike and swim but I am hoping that without the extra 'squats" stress, the legs will get more of a break on T and Th and I might find a little relief from the leg pain. This is turn might help calf and shin pain when I run if I don't work my legs much on the days in between runs.

So, let's try it and see.

I did not go to the gym today because Jesse had a dental appt and it's Valentine's Day and we're having a special supper, and most of all, I'm so tired, I could fall asleep sitting up. :)

Here are my running times for the build up. Let's see if there's a pattern.

Week 2 - Jan 6-12
- 1X - 3.1km - 11:00 run - 27:00 total (1:00/1:00)

Week 3 - Jan 13-19
- 3X - 9.5km - 42:00 run - 74:00 total (1:00/1:00)

Week 4 - Jan 20-27
- 3X - 10.4km- 44:30 run - 82:00 total (1:30/1:00) pain

Week 5 - Jan 28-2
- 2X - 4.8km - 19:00 run - 39:00 total (2:00/1:00)

Week 6 - Feb 3-9
- 3X - 9.1km - 32:00 run - 79:00 total (1:00/1:00)

Week 7 - Feb 10-17
- 1X - 3.8km - 13:00 run - 30:00 total (1:00+1:30/1:00)
- 1X - 3.8km - 13:00 run - 32:00 total (1:00+1:30/1:00) pain
- 1X - 4.0km - 15:00 run - 33:30 total (1:00+1:30+2:00/1:00)

- 3X - 11.6km- 41:00 run - 95:00 total