Catch up. Weeks 12 and 13

When we left off, our hero (ahem, me) had developed an ITB/Knee pain problem and was hoping that a combination of Physical Therapy, strength training and adapting workout schedules would help solve the problem. The past two weeks have seen improvement and regression. Sigh.

As you can see, I went ahead on week 12 and took my time to rest the knee more, switching a run for a  45 minute trainer ride on the Monday. Tuesday, I played it smart and  ran a super easy 5k on the treadmill during my lunch hour. The knee felt stiff, but not bad, actually. Still being smart, I did a pre-PT ride on Wednesday and was happy with the way things felt.

Upon hitting PT, my therapist attacked my problem leg and I seriously almost had to ask her to give me a moment the (good) pain was so intense. I joked that I never knew she could hurt me so good. HAHA. I took Thursday off to allow my legs to recover, meanwhile I had been adding in clamshells, leg lifts, butt bridges etc all week to increase strength. By Friday, I decided that I needed to run to at least test my knee before a planned long and hilly run the next day. The run was okay, but that day I headed to the pharmacy to grab a knee brace (ended up being too small) and adhesive spray for my KT tape. I taped up my knee and met up with Jamie Saturday for a challenging, but lovely 27k run around Milton.

Jamie has this way of getting people to agree to climb all of the biggest hills around. I do admit that the view from the top of the escarpment was worth it though! A combo of KT tape, Aleve and a slower pace made the run bearable and I knew I'd be okay to run Around The Bay on April 3rd, but racing it was still in the air. That good feeling was tempted right away when I heard from Sam that she had sprained her ankle on her long run. Man! What is with us training for marathons together!?!?!

Week 13 started well.

It is a privilege to grow older. So many don't get the chance.

A photo posted by Nicole (@macnic05) on Mar 21, 2016 at 3:42am PDT

I turned 39 on Monday and so I took off at 4:36am and run the year. My knee held up really well (with tape, but no Aleve) until about 12k and then it "seized" a bit. I was able to run through and finish. The pain is so weird. It comes and its horrible, but then it just ... goes  away as I run. I have no idea how to temper it.

Tuesday I rested in order to ... rest my knee. I also went back to PT and she used shockwave on me this time. CRAZY! But oh so good! She was telling me that I'd be better pretty much right away and she wasn't wrong! I ran on Wednesday (a treadmill 8k, with 4 at 5:11/km) and had ZERO pain! Again, playing things smart, I decided to hit the bike for a short, if intense ride on  Thursday.

One way to wait for the Swiss Chalet to arrive. #trainerroad

A photo posted by Nicole (@macnic05) on Mar 24, 2016 at 4:14pm PDT

It was all systems go for the now traditional Good Friday Road Races. Per usual, Alasdair was running the 1k but this year Fergus joined in the fun. I like that they stagger the kids races by age, so Alasdair took off with his hockey friend and a few minutes later, Fergus and I were off as well. Both kids put in great efforts with Alasdair coming in 7th (his friend came in 3rd!). Alasdair and I will be running his first 5k race sometime this summer for sure.

Top is Fergus, Bottom is Alasdair. I may not keep up on our 5k!

My friend Kelly came to run the 5k and blasted to a 4th overall victory and 1st in our age group (30-39) with a blistering time of 21:03, netting her a personal best for the distance and a massive truffle filled, chocolate egg as a prize. I forgot to change my 910xt from the display above and ended up running by feel for an average pace of 4:55/km. I'm very happy with the effort, especially considering I managed to call Swiss Chalet with my new blue tooth headphones in the 2nd KM and ended up walking to hang up my phone. I bettered my placement from last year and was 6th overall for F30-39. Net time for 5.11km was 25:07. My knee didn't bother me at all.

On Saturday Ivanka, Sam and I met up to run a double out and back to ensure that neither Sam's ankle, nor my knee would cause us further problems. We ran a very easy flat route in Burlington and kept the pace reasonable. I didn't tape but I did take an Aleve pre run. Not taping was a mistake. My knee was bothersome pretty much throughout the run, even if the weather and company was spectacular. I struggled through the last 8k especially. Sigh. I've got to figure out how to get back into PT this week and I must ensure my knee is taped VERY well for the race on Sunday. But you know what? You can't beat these  morning views.

My knee was horribly painful for the rest of the day and night. Waking up on Sunday didn't offer any relief either. Still, I jumped on my bike for a 45 minute recovery spin. When I got off, the knee pain was gone and hasn't yet returned. Hmm, who knew? This week will likely spell more rides of similar effort and intensity before heading into my fifth consecutive 30k race at Around the Bay. If nothing else, I'm looking forward to crossing  my favourite finish line on Sunday.  I'll be back to set up the goals once they are solidified. Until then, please do some anti-wind dances for us for Sunday, okay? The weather is looking BRUTAL.

More Off-Season, More sleep

Off-season continues to truck along in these parts. As mentioned last week, one of the things I've been trying to keep on top of in this off-season is my quality sleep. Let's face it, I'm a busy person. I commute 2.5 hours a day and I'm frequently attending my son's sporting events at the hockey rink. Fitting in quality workouts mean that I need to get up early at times. Even on the weekend. 0430 alarms are not new for me.

One of the best features of my Fitbit Flex is that I can set it to track my sleep. Once my sleep is activated, the Flex will also track my sleep, restlessness and awake time (when Fergus comes into my room at 3am and has me take him back to his room). I set my goal of 7 hours of sleep this off season. I've been trying to follow this religiously and thus far, I'm doing well (don't look at Saturday night, I stayed up too late reading and we had to be up early for a hockey game).

Quality sleep allows for good workouts and a repaired body. You can Google the studies yourself, but you know its true. The goal in off-season is to set up good habits which will see me through the spring season strong and healthy. Sleep will go a long way towards hitting these goals.

Last week went really, really well! I'm still in love with the trainer and have rediscovered my love for the pool!

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: TR - Ericsson, 60 minutes - Single Leg Drills and Spin-Ups at 5am YAY!

Wednesday: 8k run, early AM

Thursday: 30 minutes free-weights at lunch, TR - Carson, 60 minutes PM - hill drills! Finally got my big ring on!

Friday: Early AM 15k long run. My son was in a hockey tournament Friday, Saturday, Sunday. They came in third.

Saturday: TR- Eclispe. 90 minutes of riding with 60 of that in the sweet spot. This was tough.

Sunday-Funday: Ignoring all my advice about better sleep yielding more energy and better results:

40 minutes free ride on the trainer
35 minutes of swimming
7k running

So, last week was a win! I hit my goal of increasing my run distance and getting back into the pool. I also didn't skip my weight training (but I wanted to!). Not a bad week, not at all:

7 hours, 36 minutes of activity
1.2k of swimming
30k of running
89.5k of cycling

This is without a doubt, the best off season I've had.

Update on the Bike - weeks 4, 5, and 6

I guess I've been a bit of a slacker over here in blog land. Things have not been very happy on my runs. I will have to give you separate updates for running and cycling. Today will deal with cycling.

Simply put, I am really LOVING the bike.

Of course, it helps that putting skinny tires on my bike has increased my speed significantly. Now I'm always over 20km/h speeds and in fact I've topped out on rides at an average speed of over 25km/h.

Get this girl a road bike!

Obviously, I don't have a road bike yet. I've looked at one. My husband has done some research as well. It is doubtful I'll get a bike in time for this season, but I may be joining the masses at the Fall Toronto Bike Show to see what's what.

Its not just the speed. Obviously, there is rapid improvement with the bike as its a new sport and I'm just learning how to crank it. Best of all, I'm loving the freedom to get out there and move and explore.

Skinnies on the #mumbike

After my solo 50k ride, I went into two down weeks which coincided with pre-vacation and actual vacation. I cranked out 20k in week 4 on the stationary bike at the gym but that was the longest I was able to bike that week In total, I managed only 64k between running and cycling, but I was happy with what I did fit in.

While I was on vacation (week 5), I mananged another 20k out and back ride from our campsite in Ipperwash Beach to Forest and back. The day was gloomy, and a bit windy, but it didn't matter. I loved the open country road with no potholes and limited traffic. It was a beauty ride and one that I'm proud I did. The fact that I was back within an hour made it all the better as I didn't take too much time away from my family.

The day stayed gloomy though, so I ended up taking the older boys for a 5k round trip bike down to the beach where they skipped rocks into Lake Huron. It was fun to have my own bike gang.

Vacation week (5), ended with what will be my lowest mileage for this plan at 34k combined. I don't mind. That's what vacation is about.

Week six started with a need to refocus. The run is where my difficulties lay right now, but that's a topic for another post. This week had its own challenges as my husband was travelling for work, and I had to cut out one planned ride, so instead I upped my Monday distance to 16k (which felt awesome and allowed me to hit an average pace of 24.4km/h) and planned another distance record ride of 65k for Sunday:

 

The day dawned with perfect weather. Little wind, cool and overcast when I headed out shortly before 0600. I decided to keep my route pretty straightforward and rode out to Meadowvale, hit Brampton and headed back into Milton along Steeles road. I took a break to eat half a Clif bar at 31k, in Hornby.

There was work on this ride, especially with some rollers once I was back out of the urban part of Milton heading for home. Tremaine Road from 3 Side Road to Steeles is particularly rolly, with inclines that still head up even when they are going down. However, this is good practice for the GranFondo which will see similiar (and worst) climbs over the last half anyway.

The reward of sticking with Tremaine was immediate upon taking off from the stop sign at Steeles though. Heading downhill, cranking hard I was joyful, singing along with Dave Matthews band at the top of my lungs. Glorious in the summer morning, feeling all of those awesome endorphin's of a good athletic effort and simply, being alive and able to do these things.

It was a good ride.

And now, the big bike update.

Mum-bike or no, solo or with friends, I'll be tackling a (metric) century ride this summer for sure. I figure, with the right course and conditions I should be able to finish in under five hours.

And I know, I'll love every minute of it.

Fall Training Update - weeks 2 & 3

Last I posted, I told you all about my fall plan and the fact that I've decided to add cycling into the training regime this time around.

The cycling has been going really well!

I quickly went from a 25k personal cycling distance record to a 45k record in the next week when I joined Irina and her husband and a bunch of other people for a group cycle from Burlington to Stoney Creek and back again.

Spot the mum bike. Photo from Irina

Sam's to my right and Emma is gazing into the distance. That's also Patty's bike in the front (we battled down for best mum bike around!). Patty was the first to turn back after about 12k as she was just learning how to bike and after that I was the slowest, but it didn't matter, Sam, Emma, Irina, Zindine and Kimberly all stayed back with me while I puffed away trying to maintain 20 km/h on the old mum bike. It took my 2hr20min to get through the 45k, but it was a great ride and I can't wait to join the big group again.

I also managed to fit in a real brick with 12k on the bike and 1.5k run right after. WOW. Do the legs ever move off of the bike. My fears about running in the diaper shorts were unfounded, but they DO heat up the ass some!

This past Saturday, I got skinny tires or slicks put onto the bike. I promptly set out to bike 50k on Sunday morning at 0630. WOW! What a difference those tires make. Plus, I finally put my chain and the big ring and plowed away. My top speed (downhill obvs) was 59.9km/h! I can't believe it! I even clocked along at 30km/h on my own power (but um, with a backwind!). In the end, I finished the long solo ride in 2h19m so you can see the improvement the gear has given me.

Boom! Bike Record!

On the running front, things haven't been as good. I've hit my runs with 24k this past Saturday (alone and with at 0530 start), but I haven't felt strong. I've talked myself out of tempo runs and feel like I can't even maintain a sub 6:00/km pace anymore (which isn't good considering I'm the 3hr continuous pacer at the MidSummer Night's Run in August). I've decided to force my mind through the blahs though and just HIT the tempo or try my hardest to do so. I have a lot of time before the Oakville Half Marathon which is now 100% my "A" race as I got the good news today that I will be the 1hr55m continuous pacer at the Niagara Falls Half Marathon in the fall. Let's hope I have another great pacer experience when running by the falls!

Happy with my longest solo run done before many are awake on a Saturday!

So, week one saw me hit 83km in total. Week 2: 100.35km. Week 3: 109.11km.

And sleep. Lots of sleep!

This is a cutback week for cycling and next week is a full on off week as we are on vacation camping. I'm sure I'll still cycle and run while we are away, but the distances will be short and the workouts easy.