20 mile run. Check.

So today I ran the furthest I have ever run in my entire life. 20 miles. Previous to this my longest run was 2 weeks ago and that was 15.5 miles. It was a 3 loop course. 6 miles in each loop and in the last loop I added on 2 miles. It was hard. The first loop was great. I have been running 2 minutes and walking 1 minute. This is what I have found helps keep my hips in tact. Running longer than 2 minutes is too much pounding. However I have been averaging 12:30 minute miles even with this much walking. I've come to accept that I am slow. Slower than almost everyone else in my group- especially when it comes to running. The worst part is that I don't have anyone around to talk to. Most everyone else runs about the same pace so they run in a pack and chit chat the entire time. That's ok. Part of me really likes running alone- and even prefers it. Then I don't have to worry about if I am going too slow and that people are slowing down just to be with me. I usually end up running faster when I'm with others and then I get hurt. So back to my run.

Loop 1- the first 6 miles
It was a small group of us running today. XXX, Hairy, Rainbow Bit**, Ken, and the twins. Dianne started with us but went a different route. We started out and it was dark and cold. Yes, 60 degrees is cold. I had my long sleeve shirt on. It was nice. Loop 1 was pretty uneventful.

Loop 2- mile 7-12
My right hip started hurting. This is normal. Half way through Kristen and Desiree rode past me on Narcoosse and stopped. They asked me how far I still had left to go. I jsut stood there and couldn't think of a number. All I could muster was, "A really long way." They laughed and said I was already sounding delerious. That was prolly the truth. They drove off. I was later informed that they pulled up to Hairy and asked her why she deserted me. This is a joke because Hairy normally runs slow next to me (even though she is a speed demon). Around mile 10 my right hip really started to hurt. It felt like it was going to snap (like it did for real a couple of months ago)and then I was out for a month. I learned my lesson from that so I stopped and walked for about 10 minutes. Luckily it started hurting less so I just kept on.

Loop 3- mile 13-20
I hadn't seen anyone in a really long time. Mile 13-16 felt pretty good. I ran into Hairy and XXX. They were doing great. RB was doing good too- she picked up a friend and was running next to her. I got honked at by some people. I'm sure i knew them but I couldn't tell who they were. Instead, they just scared the crap out of me. Mile 17-20 I saw Hairy drive past me in her van like 6 times!! She was out picking up the water stops. That lady is hilarious. EVerytime I saw her she was waving frantically out her van window. Hairy is like the Sunday run mom. She is always out making sure everyone has water and is still alive. She swears it is "her job". Too funny. :)

AFter 4 hrs and 38 minutes I was done. This included 3 potty stops, food stop for pbj and a coke, massaging my foot for 10 minutes by the side of the road.

It is now 9pm and the only thing that hurts is my foot. It's bruised. Hopefully some naproxen, ice, ace bandage and sleep will cure it. I guess it is pretty common. Oh well. No worries. :)

I am now ready. 12 more days. Lookout IMFL, here I come!

91 days left until the big day!

Well folks, it's been a while since I've posted.... mainly because all I do anymore is eat, sleep and workout. Here are the highlights since April..

Races I've completed in:
1. Danskin Sprint Tri on May 13th. That went really well. I scored in the top 3 in my age group again so I get to do it for free  next year.  Yay! I would never pay to do that race ever again especially since it is only filled with newbies that don't know what they are doing. One girl had gotten on her bike in the very beginning, biked up a huge hill (it was in Clermont) then was pedaling so slow she fell over right in front of me and I was 2 inches away from rolling over her HEAD. I just about had a heart attack.

2. Florida 70.3 on May 20th. I was really sick for this race.... 2 ear infections and a sinus infection to be exact. I was half dead, but I finished in 6:30ish. It was not as fast as the 70.3 in Miami last fall where I went 6:14. Oh well. That's ok. I went slow and tried my best to stay in my IM heartrate zones so that is ok.

3. Pineapple Man Sprint on June 3rd. That was a really fun race. However getting started was a bit of a fiasco in the morning. Believe it or not, when I was on my way to the race I needed gas so I stopped at a 7-11 at 4:45am to pump up my car. As I was standing there a car drove into a retention pond right in front of me! I was the only person around who saw it.... so I grabbed my phone and called 911. I was on the phone with the operator when I ran across the street to see if the person was ok (with the gas pump still in my car) and when I arrived the black BMW was almost completely sumberged underwater. There were maybe 4 inches still showing. When I first got there there was no sign of life. I was freaking out thinking I should jump in the water and save this person.... because I did of course have my tri suit on! Luckily, about 30 seconds after I ran over there the person was able to wiggle out through the window. Long story short, the police, ambulance, fire dept came... however before they showed up the guy offered me money to drive him home (b/c he didn't want to be around when the cops showed up). I went into Counselor Katie mode and kept telling him "My dear, I don't think that is a good choice." Luckily he was nice and still had some sense in him to listen to me.  Oh, and the triathlon went good too. I won a pineapple. Yay!

4. Heartland Tri in Sebring, FL. This was a fun road trip with Leslie, Becky and Keren. We stayed in the same hotel room. The funniest part was when we walked in and saw our room only had 1 king size bed and that they were sold out of hotel rooms. That was an intersting night! :) Luckily there was a pull out couch too!  The tri went well. The run was a little annoying because you ran through every fork off of a roundabout. I didn't know that going into it (I couldn't find any maps of the course) so after the 2nd time coming back to the roundabout I wanted to scream. You feel like you aren't going anywhere when you keep coming to the same darn place! However, it was fun in a way because I got to see Becky (aka the Shuminator) about every 1/2 mile. She beat me at this race but just by a little bit. It was funny because afterwards she said she was going crazy every time she woudl turn I would still be right behind her.


Training updates:
1. Hip/groin injury
My right hip has been hurting quite a bit lately. It used to only hurt when I ran but now it hurts when I bike on the trainer also. My new best friends are naproxen, the gel ice pack (or any other random frozen vegetable bag- who knew frozen edamamae was such a great ice pack!), foam roller, and the couch. My hip was doing fairly well until this past Sunday when I was out running. I was at mile 10 (of 12) and my groin muscle just popped suddenly. I couldn't even walk at first so I sat on the sidewalk on Narcoossee trying to think of what I should do. Luckily, my knight and shining armour (XXX) saw me sitting there and rode up in his SUV on his way to church. I jumped in and he gave me a ride home. Thank goodness! That was going to be the longest 2 mile walk of my life.

2. In general I have been working out 13 days in a row with 1 rest day. If you asked the CL she would disagree and say that every Friday is a rest day in addition to the 1 every 13 days because that is when we have our "recovery run". A recovery run is defined as running 3-4 miles staying in zone 2. In my humble opinion, anytime I have to run that is not a rest day. :D

3. Since I last posted in April here is a summary of the weekend workouts since then:

April:
Sat 7th: 56 mi bike
Sun 8th: 8 mi run (right hip hurt)

Sat 14th: 50 mi bike; 6 mi run
Sun 15th: 8 mi run (but I rollerbladed b/c right hip hurt)

Sat 21st: swam
Sun 22nd: hip hurt- rested

Sat 28th: 65 mi bike (right hip hurt)
Sun 29th: supposed to run but instead ran in pool for 1 hr 45 min (b/c of hip)


May:
1st weekend in Destin for family reunion. Rested

Sat 12th: Bike 35 mi; Ran 2mi
Sun 13th: Danskin Tri Sprint

Sat 19th: Sick
Sun 20th Florida 70.3

Sat 26th: Tried out cross-fit as a break of training.
Sun 27th: Ran 4.5


June:

Sat 4th: Biked 1 hour; Ran 2 mi
Sun 5th: Pineapple Man Sprint Tri

Sat 9th: Ran 7 mi
Sun: Rest

Sat 16th: 76 mi bike; 4 mi run
Sun 17th: Heartland Sprint Tri

Sat 23rd: Bike 70 mi; Run 4mi
Sun 24th: Ran 7.5 mi


July:

Sat 30th: Biked 50 mi
Sun 1st: Rest

Sat 7th: Biked 38 mi; Swam 2,000yrds at lucky's; Ran 6 mi
Sun 9.1 mi run

Sat 14th: 71 mi bike
Sun 15th: Rest

Sat 21st: 1 hr bike (out of town)
Sun 22nd: 1 hr bike (still out of town)

Sat 28th: 76 mi bike; 4 mi run
Sun 29th: 10 mi run (right groin popped)



Ok. That is all for now. Time to go to bed. Tomorrow is a 60 mi bike and 4 mi run in zone 3. Tubby is sitting next to me on the couch right now. He gave up on me going to bed (since it is past my bedtime and it isn't even 10pm on a Friday night). I will have to carry him to bed. Gnight ya'll!

Wild racoon at swim practice

Monday: Swim

Warm-up: 400m pull NO pull buoy 10sec RI; 400m kick with fins. 10sec RI

Main-set: 6 x 200m alternating with fins and without trying to maintain the same pace for all 200's 30sec RI (I didn't use fins b/c I don't have any and also because I don't like them. :) )

400m kick, 50m on each side 30sec RI

4 x 50m descending 20sec RI

4 x 25m descending with 10sec RI

Cool-Down: 200m back

RUN 2 miles at recovery pace. (I didn't run. Instead I ran in the pool for 25 minutes with a granny belt on.)

 

 

Tuesday: Bike trainer & TRX core workout

I took it easy and didn't add too many heavy gears on the bike today. Right hip still hurting a little.

 

 

Wednesday: Swim

Warmup: 4 x 200m EASY as 100m free, 25m kick no board, 25m breaststroke kick no board, 50m backstroke. Rest 30sec between 200's

Main Set: 6 x 200m as 100m HARD, 75m easy, 25m kick no board 30sec RI

10 x 50m alternating HARD, EASY repeat. 20sec RI

Cool-down: 200m back

 

 

This was a good workout. The 200's were pretty tough. I feel like lately we are doing shorter yardage but more sprinting/intensity. Going from doing a 400 or 500 going a slow-mod pace to a  200 hard is a big change! I used to hate 400 and 500's. Now I am beginning to like them a lot more than doing a 200. :) Oh how the times have changed! :)

 

 

Thursday: Bike trainer & TRX core workout

Pretty uneventful on the bike trainer. I took it easy again b/c of my hip. The TRX workout was pretty tough. We had the TRX around out feet this morning. We started in the plank position with our legs suspended in the air. We then did a push up, followed by a pike up and then repeated that. I felt like I was going to die doing this. My lower back wanted to give out... this is only because my core is weak. Wow. That was a WORKOUT!!

 

 

Friday: Foam roller & Killer Abs

Today's foam roller workout was pretty nice. CL didn't try to kill us too much with the core exerices. That was a nice surprise. At the end of practice Mini Me had a 3 minute core test for us. It was basically 3 minutes of plank broken down into these incriments (1 minute regular plank; 30 sec right arm plank; 30 sec left arm plank; 1 minute regular plank).

 

 

Saturday: 65 mile bike

This was actually a pretty crappy day. Long story short, I almost got hit by a truck and I fell off my bike... among other things.

 

 

Garmin Stats:

Distance: 65 miles

Avg HR: 141

Avg pace: 17.2 mph

Time: 3:46 (doesn't include a couple breaks)

Total Calories Burnt: 2980

 

 

Sunday: Run in pool for 1 hr 45 min

I was supposed to run 8 miles today but because of the hip I ran in the pool. The 8 mile run was supposed to be in zone 2 (meaning very slow). So I figured it would take me about 12 minutes per mile if I was going to actually run. So I took that and converted it into time I would run in the pool. I ran for 1 hour and 40 minutes with the granny belt around my waist. Guess how many lengths I ran during that time? Answer.... 76! I wanted to shoot myself after about an hour. Luckily there were a lot of little kids at the pool and people around so I had a lot to look at. I would say it was once step above watching paint dry. :)

Monday, April 30: Swim

Warm-up: 200 free, 200 breast, 200 kick

Main Set: 8x200 build R 30 sec

4x50 hard R 20 sec

Cool down: 200 back; 200 kick

I stayed up wayy too late last night.... so at practice today I was moving like a snail and was very unmotivated. I did complete everything... but just barely.

Last night I was in Avalon hanging otu with my friends at the Food Trucks. Wow. I didn't know the Food Trucks were that popular. I had heard of them but didn't know people went that crazy over them. For those of you not from Orlando, there is this thing called the Food Trucks Bizzare. Local vendors have a food truck (similar to a food truck at a carnival) that they park on the street. There were like 40 food trucks. It is good food too... not crappy carnival food. The Food Trucks Bizzare travels all around Orlando. I had a chicken waffle. Weird name but very tasty. I had to wait in line for at least 20 minutes for that thing! Some of the food trucks had a super long line. One truck was called the Yum Yum truck. It was a cupcake truck and it had at LEAST 75 people in line. Wow.

 

 

Back to swim practice. One last thing I will share..... at the end of practice this morning I got out of the water, wrapped up in my towel, looked across the deck and saw a RACOON!! It was daylight at this time. The racoon squeezed through the fence and was walking towards the pool. The lifeguard took a scandal and tried to throw it at it to scare it so it would run away... but it didn't work. To make matters worse, the racoon looked really sick. It was walking really slow, staggering back and forth. Jabber Jaws (Melissa) freaked out, ran to a chair, then proceeded to stand on the chair yelling at the lifeguard to call animal control because it could bite someone and make us very sick. All while this is going on, Emmett and Little T are still in the pool swimming laps. LIttle T sees Jabber Jaws standing on a chair freaking out so she perks up to see what is going on. The racoon then proceeds to get IN THE WATER.... standing on the edge drinking the pool water. It looks like it is drooling from the mouth. Then we all get an idea that Emmett should shoot the racoon because it looks like it could have rabies, or some other awful disease. Emmett then procedes to laugh at us and tell us he can't shoot racoons. He is a cop. Oh boy. The lifeguard then starts to get the hint that we should all leave after the racoon starts walking the perimeter of the pool in the gutter drinking the water. On my way out I told the front desk ladies that it wasn't a joke and then they called Animal Control. I'll have to get an update to morrow morning to see what happened. Never a dull moment.

Frustrated

Today I was supposed to run 8 miles but that didn't happen. My right hip is in really bad shape. It has been throbbing all weekend long... even though all I did was swim yesterday. The rest of my weekend was pretty low key... with lots of time spent on the couch. I have been icing my hip non-stop... even putting ice packs down my shorts and leaving it on while I sleep at night. The only thing that seems to help has been taking prescription strength naproxen twice a day. I hate taking medication, but I felt like I didn't have a choice. However, the moment it wears off it hurts again. I think the main culprit is my bike. I don't know if it is my new tri bike and the different angles or if it is the intensity of the biking on the trainer. Usually it is the running that tears up my hip, however I haven't really been running at all. I think this week at practice I'm not going to run, and when I bike I will stay out of aero and not add heavy gears. Hopefully this helps. Last time my hip was this bad I couldn't run for 3 months.

That brings me to my next thing.... I feel like this is what always happens... I get in good shape and then my body falls apart. So frustrating. Why can't my body just deal with it for once? I feel like I have the drive to do all of this training, the motivation, and the endurance... it is just this one thing. Ugh.

What a great day!

Today we were supposed to swim at Lucky's (3 crossing = 3,000 yards) then run for 90 minutes. Lucky for me the weather was supposed to not cooperate. There was a 60% chance of t-storms this morning so practice was canceled. When I found this out I went back to bed. (Even thought it was hard to sleep because I had already slept 8 hours... but I did manage to sleep another 2!) I can't remember the last Saturday I got to sleep in!! I woke up starving... almost dizzy and weak. So I knew I needed a good breakfast. So I cooked some good ole pancakes and turkey bacon. It was amazing. :)

Around 10:30am the weather looked ok so I went to the Y and swam 3,000. (6x500 to be exact... alternating pulling and swimming). Gator Bait was there. He showed up to life weights and came by the pool. He threw cold water on me while I was doing a flip turn. Boy did that freak me out.... and it was COLD!! :) Afterwards I went home and took an ice bath. When I got out I was so cold that I put on my fleece pants to warm up. When you do that, does that cancel out the ice bath? I hope not. :)

I am really starting to get worried about my hip. It was throbbing last night as I layed in bed doing nothing. I've decided that I am going to start taking my vitamins everyday (I was slacking for a while- BAD!), start up my PT in my living room again, start taking naproxen religiously, ice everyday, and do an icebath as much as possible. I was reading online about my hip last night. I read how sometimes you need your bursa to be aspirated. I wonder if I need that. It mentioned that sometimes they do that at the same time they are giving a cortisone shot. Hmm. What do you think about that Mom? I've never heard of that being aspirated. Have you seen that at work?

Tonight is hibachi & sushi with the girls, then movie night. Yay. I am so excited. :)

On another note, I saw this video. It is hilarious. Maybe Tubby isn't so fat afterall.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/​news/article-2133018/​Meow-40-POUND-cat.html

Less than 200 days now!

Monday:  Swim

On Monday I swam with XXX.  He is getting to be my normal lane buddy as Wings and Jen are not able to come all the time. We have a good time. I normally push off first and lead the lane. He tries to draft off of me and pull on my foot. Every so often I can feel him getting close as he will barely touch my toes. When that happens I kick just a little bit harder. J

Today’s swim practice was not as exciting as my dream. Last night I dreamt that I was driving down the highway and decided that I needed a job. I saw a McDonald’s and thought … hmm well I should work here. I went in, and they hired me. They then told me that my first couple paychecks would be really small because I had to buy this hideous, but expensive shirt to wear to work. I put my shirt on, then they walked me in the back of the kitchen and I saw a mountain of shoes that went to the ceiling. All of the shoes were like elf shoes where they curled up by the toes. I was then told that I had to buy AND wear a pair of these shoes too. What?! I then drove home, 1 hour away, and thought why the heck am I working so far from where I live?

Tuesday: Bike & Core

I’m not sure what was going on but there was a really small crew that showed up to the bike practice this morning. The DS didn’t even come due to an injury. Speaking of the DS (Drill Sargent for those of you who forgot), last Saturday we had a Team Social at the Nona Tap Room. When most everyone was drinking beer, I was drinking water (with grape Propel of course). She told me for every glass of water I drank, I would get -5 pushups. I am still waiting to cash in my credits…. especially because I drank 3 glasses of water.  Even though she did say that the nachos I ate canceled out my credits… I don’t care… and that wasn’t part of the deal!

Wednesday: Swim

Again, a very small turnout. I actually swam in a lane all by myself all practice long. I can’t remember the last time that has happened. At the end of practice, we had some kicking in our cool down. Emmett had already started picking up the kickboards to put them away when Little T asked him to leave hers because she still needed it. Emmett, a police officer by day, then thought it would be funny to start chucking kickboards at her in the middle of the pool. We were all laughing hysterically. Little T was saying that she only needed one, and he kept tossing kickboards in her lane. J Oh boy. Emmett then started saying that he could arrest her because he was sure that there was something she was doing that could equate to a felony (since the police dictionary of what you can arrest people for is supposedly never-ending). I like seeing that side of Emmett.

Thursday: Bike & Core

The bike practice went really well. Mini Me helped out the CL with Core. Mini Me was in charge of telling us what to do on the TRX equipment and the CL did floor exercises with us on mats. Wow. This core work that we have been doing is really making a difference. Every day I do a core workout I can feel it at work the rest of the day. I make just the slightest turn and I can hear my abs saying “please don’t hurt me. I’m still tired.” It also makes you hungry I have noticed! Wow.

Friday: 2 mile run, Foam Roller, Killer Abs

The run went pretty well. I went really slow and did 4 min run; 1 min walk. My right hip has still been hurting. The foam roller class is becoming increasingly more difficult. What used to be a more relaxing class where you roll out your muscles is becoming a ½ foam roller; ½ core class. Mini Me was there again with the CL. Mini Me is an Athletic Trainer and is using her kills to torment us. The CL and Mini Me would alternate. CL would have us do 1 foam roller exercise, then Mini Me would have us do 1 core exercise. Wow. That was hard. I do appreciate it. I feel like I am getting in pretty good shape. The DS was back for Killer Abs today. Thank goodness it is only 15 minutes on Friday!

Richard vs. Romeo

Recap of last week:

Tuesday:
I went to the bike trainer class... and even the Drill Sargent's torture core exercises. Like always, I felt like I was going to die at the end of class. Biking on the trainers is so much harder than biking outside. It is good though, as I can tell that I build up a lot of strength and endurance doing these workouts. I guess no pain, no gain really is true...

Tuesday night I had soccer. We won 4-0. It was a great game. Afterwards we went to Mellow Mushroom. Wow, that place is amazing. I could eat their pizza everyday.

Wednesday:
I woke up this morning and I could barely move my right arm. My shoulder hurt really bad... kind of like in college when I had impingement/rotator cuff issues. I did a lot of icing, naproxen, and resting today. No working out.

Thursday:
Shoulder still wasn't great but I still went to the bike trainer class and tried to avoid being in aero. I also didn't do the DS' torture routines. During the bike trainer workout we were listening to Rainbow Bright's music. I don't know where she got that stuff from. I swear it sounded like we were in Africa and there were elephants stampeding by. Weird. We all gave her a hard time.

Friday:
We ran for 30 minutes then had the foam roller workout. Pretty uneventful.

Saturday:
We had a 50 mile bike and a 6 mile run out of Lake Nona. My shoulder was still hurting so I decided to ride my road bike instead of my tri bike. Why? I have noticed that my tri bike has a more aggressive angle that puts more pressure on my shoulders. I know I will eventually get used to it, however I thought it would be good to give my shoulder a rest until it was healed more. Everyone was asking where my new bike was and why I wasn't riding it. Well.... this turned into quite the conversation on the bike. Mini Me and Gator Bait decided that my new bike wasn't being riden by me today because it didn't have a name. They then started talking about names. Names that were mentioned were: Bob, Larry, (others I can't remember).... and then there was Richard. Mini Me decided that my new bike's name is now Richard. My road bike was given the name Romeo. This then turned into a rated R discussion of why my bike's name is Richard. Reasons given (by people other than me!) were that I ride my bike a long time, tri bikes are good for long distances, etc. You know where this is headed.... especially when you think of Richard's nickname. Oh boy. Then they started saying how I was cheating on Richard with Romeo. My team almost went off the deep end. Haha. It was definitely good entertainment for a 50 mile bike ride.

Other good hightlights? Well, Ladies Man said that his dream was to get a speeding ticket on his bike. Haha. That would be a great day. Also, it was super windy today.... gusts at 15-20mph. Everyone kept giving me a hard time saying that somehow I just always ended up in the front of the paceline, pulling when we had the wind to our backs. Haha. I promise it wasn't planned. I'd rather be lucky than good was my response to them. :) I did pull into the wind for a while, just to redeem myself. :)

Saturday's bike/run (in zone 2) stats:
50.1 mile bike
Time: 2:58 (doesn't include breaks)
16.8mph pace
Avg HR 132

5.85 mile run
10:32/mile pace
Avg HR 158

Total Calories Burnt: 2,970

Bad news on Saturday: my right hip started hurting pretty bad on the run. :( I walked quite a bit... in addition to doing the run/walk routine again.

Sunday:
I was supposed to run 6 miles today but my right hip was still sore. Instead, I rollerbladed 8 miles while Amber and Leslie ran next to me. We had a great time. I miss those girls!