Sunday, January 23

Limping thru and turning the corner..

So, as much as I didn’t want to, I did get Thursday’s bike intervals in.  My problems were several, first and foremost was my attitude – it sucked.  Fatigue has been building more than I’d like it to during this part of the training where we are “raising the roof” via VO2 max intervals week in, week out.  I was getting to the point where I would do most anything to not go down to the pain cave… I’d put it off till it got so late then realize I couldn’t live with myself if I did the wimpy thing and sat on the couch eating chocolate and channel surfing.

Somewhere along in there my feet started to bother me like I had athletes’ foot.  I got more diligent about washing thoroughly and using Tinactin a lot.  I even went so far as to do the Epsom salt soaks.  Nothing seemed to be helping.  That’s when I started to realize it was more of tissue damage from being crammed into the bike shoes that don’t fit so good for more hours than I would like.  Now, after skipping 1 bike workout and pampering the toes, my feet are feeling better.  Maybe it isn’t fungus or bad fitting shoes, but I definitely need to find something more comfortable before the long rides start – these make my feet numb after about 90 minutes…. That’s a long way short of the 6+ I need for Placid……

The last thing was the calf from last Sunday’s run.  It kind of scared me into getting the blinders off.  Yes, I did the Thursday bike but not the Wednesday run.  I didn’t really feel that great (my calf) so pushing it was not in my best interest.  I also scrapped my Saturday bike – the long one – giving me 4 rest days this week.  Two scheduled ones and 2 sorely needed ones.

Today was my first run since Tuesday.  The plan was to go easy for a few miles on the deadmill and see how the calf felt and take it from there.   Well, I ran…. Wasn’t pretty, but not bad either. Started easy @ 8:49 and felt good…. As I got near the 2 mile mark I was thinking ‘this is good, maybe I can up the speed….’ Then at 2.05 the twinge in my calf came back…..

I kept going…. Kept it at the easy pace…. Then at mile 3…. It got bad enough to make me walk and I’m thinking ‘this is gonna suck!’ so I slowed to a walk…. Not sure if I need to call it or walk it off. Seemed better after a few minutes so I hit the go button and resumed my easy 8:49 pace.

At first it was a mile at a time. By mile 6 I was looking for 8 miles, at 8 I was aiming to 10. Ten miles was probably far enough and I could tell it was getting harder… not the calf, just the distance…. In the end I managed 12 miles. Nothing fancy or fast, but made me happy that get lame in the process.

I think this next week I will drop the Thursday bike, move Saturday to Wednesday and Tuesday to Saturday. Kind of like what the EN Marathon Hack calls for.  I just know I need more run, more consistently and do less bike… at least for now…..Sure glad the VO2 sessions are almost done…

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