Today marks 4 weeks with no running. Pretty hard to believe. I'm actually sitting here with ice on my knee. After about 2.5 hours on the trainer today my knee injury kicked in again after 2 whole weeks of no pain. Which has me questioning my bike position.
My injury: Pes Anserine / Tendinopathy. Apparently common with triathletes. Nevertheless its frustrating to say the least. Its funny because I went through a hip injury at this time last year for a few months. Our bodies limit us so much!
On a brighter note I've discovered strength training (without weights) and stretching exercises that have really opened my eyes to injury prevention. They are really perfect exercises for a triathlete as they stretch everything from my ankles and calves to shoulders and neck. I'm commited to doing them 1 hour a day everyday. I swear it has made me a faster swimmer.
Swimming has been such a major part of my life lately. Fact is swimming is not getting easier. What happens is that swimming harder longer gets easier. I'm down to doing 100 meter repeats comfortably at 1:30 w/ 15 sec rest. Easily 5 sec faster per 100 than last year. Its so important that I see improvement in my swim. So I'm obviously happy about that. I think the biggest improvements have come from me not dragging my heavy legs and pushing my stroke through all the way.
I've put up a very tentative race schedule for this year. I would love to do all those races, but truth is I can't afford it.. its the travel. I hate to say I can't afford it because I could, but then I would have no savings. Another option would be downsizing my house then I could have more $$ to travel and race. Uhh I'm rambling... Bottom line, some of those 70.3 races will be removed, especially if I qualify for 70.3 Worlds.
Picking a schedule is really important. What I like to do is try to schedule a shorter race before a half ironman. This gets me that race feel before the more important half ironman race. I also like to bundle races together as it allows me to use my race form back to back. I also like to allow a break mid summer to train real hard without worrying about being rested for a race. Races take a big toll on training let alone my body. I basically lose 2 weeks of solid training when tapering for a race. In that affect I can see why Full Ironman races could be attractive. You only can do maybe 3 of those per year while spending the rest of the time having fun just training.
I keep getting told I should just be a cyclist as my speed and power are at the Cat 2 level right now. I added my first 'cycling only' races this year. As I don't have a road bike I can only do time trials for now, so I'll do as many as I can as long as they don't interfere with my triathlon schedule. Cycling does come easy to me.
That's about it right now. In spite of not being able to run ,training is going very well. I just hope my knee injury goes away soon because not running is killing me.
2 comments:
What is the qualifier for 9/11 70.3 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS LAS VEGAS, NV?
Also, what are the strength exercises you are doing? I'd be really interested to see those as well.
I'm telling you man, move. I'll come to and make rent cheaper...somewhere warm and more triathlete friendly than freaking Virginia Beach
70.3 World Championship qualifiers include all 70.3 Ironman races.
The idea behind the strength training is to increase range of motion in the muscle not really build muscle. I'll see if I can give an example of this.
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