Fashion Update

Apparently my little brick session on Tuesday did a number on me. Or more likely, it was that on top of last week.

I rode to the outdoor pool on Wednesday morning, and cut my swim short by about 1,000 meters (I only did 2300 m) not because I was tired or anything--I was cold! The water was just chilling me to the bone, and my fingertips were very cold, and I wished I was wearing a wetsuit. It didn't really matter how much I swam anyway, since technically I should be cutting back.

Around mid-day I got ready to go for a run, and even before I headed out, I could feel the overwhelming tiredness in my body. I really dialed it down and started slowly at about 9mpm pace. Something didn't feel right about my gait, and after 4 miles I decided to walk for about 1/2 mile. I just didn't want to risk any sort of overuse crap. When I finished, I felt pretty much trashed, made sure I ate well and got to sleep early, and decided for sure I'd sleep in and not go for a swim yesterday.

I got 10.5 hours of sleep and felt like I could have slept even more. It was raining when I got up, and that made me feel good about having already decided to not swim. I could feel there was something up with my lower back since my hamstrings, particularly my left ones were feeling extra tight. It also seemed like something was just out of alignment. So I decided to skip my planned bike/run session--I'd already done enough biking for the taper week anyway, and the run could just be skipped altogether or I'd see about doing it on Friday.

I know it sounds odd, but sometimes lifting can help me diagnose or get over what I was feeling, only because it helps me to pinpoint whether I have actually strained a muscle or whether maybe it's just trigger points in the muscle or somewhere in its kinetic chain. When I did some hamstring curls, I knew my hammie muscles were actually OK, so good to know there's no real muscle damage. Nothing else felt particularly weak, so I got that done, and thank God, because I would have gone nuts not doing anything physical yesterday!

Sometime during the evening, I could feel something deep in my upper left back not so much hurting, but just not feeling right. I thought hmmm....maybe I've been swimming too much...so I did what I normally do when I feel something like that which was to do a few slow, perfectly formed lat pulldowns. They felt fine, so again, no muscular damage. But during the night, I awoke with that same thing feeling much worse. I was somewhat concerned, but just got up and took some NSAID's, which I probably should have been taking for a few days anyway.

When I got up this morning, I did some upper back stretches and movements and rolled around on my foam roller, and sure enough, I knew that something was out of alignment, and while I didn't get to 100%, I figured I could try and swim. So I drove to the outdoor pool, since today is the last day of morning lap swim there, which basically means it's my last day there this year (yes, I am very sad about that).

I had written in my training plan to do another 5,000 meter swim, but truthfully there was no need for me to swim that much. Still, I got in, the water felt great (air was pretty cool), and swam 1,000 to start off. Then I kicked for 500 and noticed that my head was cold in the air, but I kept going and the back felt just fine, and ended up doing 4,000 meters total. I felt it was prudent to stop at that point in the name of tapering and getting my upper back back to normal. I was shaking when I got out, shaking while I showered and shaved, and my teeth were chattering on the drive home (and I turned on the heat in the car!).

But on a good note, the "thing" in my back is a whole lot better, which means I can work it out either today or certainly tomorrow. So next I am going to try a short run and see how my legs are doing, and I promise to just stop and walk if anything doesn't feel right, since I'm going to try and run for a little over an hour tomorrow morning with a friend who is coming into town that I haven't seen in a year, and I don't want to disappoint!

So yeah, my body is telling me I've been pushing the envelope a bit. And so I am being cautious, yet continuing to test out the system to ensure things are good to go for next week. And I'm pretty sure they are!

Puttin' the Hurt to Myself

With my house remodeling done for now (a frozen pipe crisis in the new upstairs bathroom was averted yesterday) and my house put back together, I'm finding that I am getting myself back to "normal," meaning I am on my training plan.

Last week was a pleasant deviation from my written plan, since all I could do while out of town was run, but that was perfect. The weekend was great, as Shelley was willing to do what I needed to do or figure something out different for herself.

This week I am full on my plan, meaning all the strength work, running, biking, stretching, everything! As I've picked up my hours, I realize my diet needs to change. After I finish what's left in my fridge (or maybe before) of salad fixings, I am done with that shit. My body needs more carbs, so it's time for me to revert to my usual staple of brown rice or couscous with my evening meal. Besides, my body doesn't like digesting all that salad crap, don't ask me why! I've always thought my body was wired to process a lot of protein and very gentle carbs (and beer!).

As I've begun to add intensity to my workouts, too, my level of fatigue has increased, thankfully! Which gets me to sleep earlier and sleeping a bit longer. I'm not quite on my optimum sleep needs, but I figure that will happen soon enough, especially once I stop eating rabbit food at dinner!

My weight is about 2 lbs. up from where I'd like to be, and I feel like a total fatty. That will fix itself automatically as my stress levels go down, less drinking (not that I've been going overboard--but less is more in this case), more strength training, and I'll be good to go. On a positive note, I'm now up to 5 chinups (almost from a dead hang), so I'm pretty confident I'll hit my 10 in about 6 weeks!

That leaves one remaining challenge: the state of my back. This weekend will make 5 weeks since my little act of stupidity. I have nearly full range of motion in terms of twisting, and obviously, I'm able to do all my sports just fine, even getting through a 50-mile running week. I am experiencing no pain while exercising. I am now at the point where I am experiencing discomfort mainly while sitting, and through my own investigation and with confirmation from massage therapists, I am down to my QL (quadratus lumborum) and iliopsoas muscles being the last remaining ones that are still a bit distressed. Listen up peeps--these two muscles are key to triathlon and well, just holding you up, sitting, twisting. They are the workhorses for your back mechanics and hip flexors.

I had some awesome work done on these muscles Monday evening, and am arranging to get some quality massages during the next 2 weeks. These are deep muscles, and while I can do some work on them myself, there's nothing like having someone else put the hurt to me!

I have to say that 5 weeks seems like a long time to me to be dealing with unhappy muscles, but I know how crucial it is to keep the QL and iliopsoas happy, so I am being patient and conservative--although my definition of conservative probably doesn't match to most people's! My real test of the system will be ZebraMan next week, and I'm really excited about it! Ordinarily, I wouldn't take pics of event clothing before the fact, but hey, I got the suit, so here I am. Bonus, spot all the zebra things in the pics!