Tuesday, August 20, 2013

First Post!

Well here we go!  I initially was talked into starting a blog by some very persuasive friends of mine :)  But the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. Let's face it, I can't post EVERY workout on Facebook-and there is only so much my friends can take hearing me complaining about injuries.  Thus, the start of this blog. I am intending on using it to post race reports, training/workout updates, goals, injuries, etc. all related to my passion for running/triathlon.  We'll see how it goes from there!

For those that don't know, I am currently in training for the Ironman triathlon on September 8th, 2013 in the beautiful town of Madison, Wisconsin.  This isn't my first rodeo by any means-this will be my 8th attempt at the distance.  Over the years, I've dealt with much adversity leading into these races (undertraining, overtraining, injuries, a terrible bike crash, etc.) and it seems this year will be no different. 

I am a crazy Chicago Blackhawks fan, and their road to the Stanley Cup this year really put my training on the back burner.  Was this an excuse for not putting in 12-15 hours a week in May/June?  Maybe.  But I really didn't care-triathlon is a lifestyle of mine, but let's face it, I'm far from a professional triathlete so my priorities were simply elsewhere for sometime.  I had a blast celebrating the Hawks win yet another cup in 4 years!  But, come June 25th, I knew I needed to get my butt into gear if I wanted to attempt this race. 

So I was able to put in 7-8 heavy weeks of training.  I built up to a few 17-18 hour weeks and started to feel like things were falling into place.  Since my bike crash in 2009 I've been fighting a hamstring injury and with all the biking miles that started to come into play again-but it's nothing I haven't dealt with before, so I was starting to feel really excited as I hit my last really long week of training.

Then-another curve ball.  The last few weeks my heal/Achilles has been really tight, but I've been doing all the necessary steps to be able to get through the day (icing, rolling it out on a golf ball).  But today after my swim, I got on the treadmill to try and get a quick 5 miler in, when the tightness got so bad that I wasn't able to put any pressure on it.  I tried to stretch out a bit, but it just wasn't happening so I bagged the workout. The last thing I need is to tear my Achilles now with Ironman in 19 days.  I'm really hoping that this tightness/pain is really bad right now because of the crazy long ride I put in on Sunday (my longest ever, 125 miles) and the 30+ running miles I put in on top of that last week. 

For now, I am going to stand down and rest.  Swam yesterday and today, will get a short ride in tomorrow, but I am supposed to run 10 on Thursday (not sure what I'm going to do about that quite yet).  I'm doing an 80 mile ride this weekend-my plan calls for the second race rehearsal, but the last 3 weekends I've done 100+ milers all in race rehearsal format (to try out and tweak my nutrition strategy) so this weekend I'm backing off to 80.  Let's hope this heal injury clears up ASAP-I don't need to be tackling a hamstring and heal injury during this year's race!

4 comments:

  1. Wow! I am so excited to read your blog on a regular basis! You are so inspiring!
    Aylin :)

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  2. Whoa! Impressive! I hope the nagging injuries clear up. Keep tri-ing and keep posting!

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  3. Welcome to the blogging world! Excited to get some running inspiration from you!

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  4. The thought of your bike crash still makes me cringe. You are SO tough and will fight through this injury just like you have every other one!! Your race is so soon and I can't wait to hear more inspirational stories as your training continues! Yay to you joining the blogging world!

    Amanda

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