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Sunday, September 18, 2011

Big Jo training Sept 12 - Sept 18

A weekly update - oh my! I had planned to resume weekly updating at the start of September so it has taken a while but I have made it back...

SWIM

~11.5km

Longest swim of 5.9km this week - you may ask why I didn't just do an extra 100m to make the full 6km but it was in a 33.3m pool and its so hard to keep track of distance... The bulk of the swim was in the squad and I thought I had kept count of how far I had gone but underestimated it slightly and it wasn't till I added it up later that I realized I was closer to 6km than I thought.
Anyhoo I think I shall use the squad for my long swim for a while because it makes swimming in the arctic pool a bit more bearable, I just have to suck it up and keep swimming till I reach 5.5-6km after everyone has gotten out.

BIKE

Have been a bit slack and haven't downloaded TapTap for a while so not sure of the weekly total but it was probably pretty average.  The weather has become a little bit unpredictable and I even had to crank out some efforts on the windtrainer to avoid the squally storms and gale-force winds earlier in the week.  I think its about the 2nd or 3rd time I have used my windtrainer this winter so its not too bad.

RUN

Exciting news - I got my very own Gayman!!
Not so exciting news - I was a DNS for The Legend Marathon... :(
I have had a niggly shin/deep calf pain for the last couple of weeks which kind of came to a head after my long run last Saturday, it's never been anything bad but just there even when I am walking around.
I had some physio and was dealing it myself and didn't run at all during the week.  By the end of the week I wasn't noticing it with everyday stuff so I strapped it up and headed out for a 10min trot to test it and to test out the new Gayman.  It was sore from the first step - not super sore but definitely there.  Most importantly I broke in the Gayman with a 4.38 km so the standard has been set :)
After that I felt like I had set myself back at least 3 days of rest and was back to fidgey-widgeyness with walking.  I fretted about it all night and decided to start the race and pull out after the first loop (7km) if it was no good, but in my heart I think I knew it wasn't going to go away so at about 3.30am I made the decision not to even start the race.  I had my gear all laid out and everything so it was pretty gutting.
If this race had have been my one and only then I would have given it a go but with all I want to do this triathlon season I know that I made the right decision and the ghost of Kona certainly helped me to make up my mind.  It certainly wasn't a decision made lightly and a few tears were shed and I had a headache for the most part of the day from thinking so hard.
I don't there is anything too major happening in my leg - tib post is certainly a bit incy-wincy and judging by the way it presented with running I suspect there could be a bit of periostitis where tib post is attaching to the tibia.  I wonder if the area below where I had my Kona stress fracture is now under a bit of extra stress due to the massive bony callous which formed to heal the fracture.  But I'll just take it as it comes and start right away with the pool running and hopefully be back on the road to show my Gayman whose boss in a couple of weeks.
On a more positive note, my friend Mikki had a stellar race to come in as 2nd lady - yay Mikki!
1st and 2nd Melissa and Mikki - clearly good runners have names with start with M


 

Monday, September 12, 2011

Big Jo training 29 August - 11 September

SWIM

13km of swimming last week - weeeeeeeeee! Biggest swim was 5.5km and I even added an extra swim into the week because I was so keen.  I'll be building up to 6km so am almost there but have to admit I am using a few of the swimming toys to get me there, while I have always turned up my nose at people who use a whole assortment of swimming condiments I have actually found fins and paddles to be quite helpful.  One of the biggest goals of my swimming is to get my stroke count down and by using fins I get a better appreciation of the water and can slow my stroke right down while still actually moving through the water.  If I do it paddle-less I don't have the strength to pull against the water effectively since I am gliding so much more than usual hence the paddles to make my pull actually pull.
So don't point and laugh if you see me finning and paddling up - at least I am not using a pull buoy as well...


BIKE

Averaging out at around 10.5 - 11hrs on the bike with ~3hrs being the longest so nothing super exciting.  I have been making a concerted effort not to pootle as much on the bike after getting my own WKO+ and actually looking at the graphs and realizing how much time I spend in the pootle zone.  So now I ride to work with a purpose.

We had a very wet ride last weekend which turned into a very cold and shivery ride after an untimely puncture stop.  I had flashbacks of IMNZ.  My hands got so cold that I could change gears because my fingers just crumpled everytime I pushed the gear lever.
No matter how wet it is this jacket is never acceptable

I am loving my new short little bars and feel super speedy whenever I use them, and have also been admiring my lovely bar-tape job which I had to do myself (thanks to Google for the best way to do it) since nobody else in the house was interested.
Why RooRoo what lovely bartape you have

RUN

Ugh.  Not going so well.  I have been struggling with my calves a bit for the last year, just getting super tight when I run for no good reason and they seem to be getting worse, plus I have this burning pain/incy wincyness near my shin/side of my calf which is bothering me and the last couple of long runs I have done I have felt like a bit of ITB syndrome was knocking on my door.  And I am scheduled to run a marathon (a very hilly marathon) in 5 days time... 
I think my shin/side of calf problem is my Tibilais Posterior or Flexor Digitorum/Hallucis Longus revolting against me because it seems to be worse with plantarflexion but I can't really get to them myself to try and work it out.  I wish I could do acupuncture because I feel like having some needles stuck in there could really help.
I have a theory that since my dreaded posterior tibial stress fracture in 2009 and subsequent 4 months off running, I have become less of a heel striker which has in turn loaded up my calves but they are not strong enough to take it.  So I have started doing heel raises but it is too late to see any change before the weekend.
I am seeing my go-to man Graeme White - physio extraordinaire, tomorrow and will just do the dreaded pool running up until the weekend and hope that things hold together...  Is this what getting old is all about?!


IN OTHER EXCITING NEWS
Spring has sprung!
Daffodil safe from the neighbours thieving fingers...

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