Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Half a 1/2 marathon!

Since my race at the weekend when I suffered with a tight butt running (again) have been to see physio & he thinks I have a bit of hamstring tendonitis due to the tight pirformis muscles so had some massage & accupressure needles + some self treatment

Tuesday I did 5 x 3 shoulder press, very happy with results 25/27.5/30/32.5/35kg my best is 30kg

Weds (today) I had a 1/2 marathon to run, physio told me I probably only had a 10km in me and not to run if I started to get the tightness back, well I thought I would be ok so off I went on the same course that I ran before - I took it a bit easy and felt really comfortable no issues with butt managed 10km in a very slow time then turned round to run back, got to about 12km and things started to tighten up managed to make 15km before I had to stop and walk the rest of the way home. My butt tightened, then this extended down my hamstrings to the backs of my knees and to top it off my thighs decided to join the we're all tight club - so trying to be sensible I stopped and walked.

Jumped in the spa when I got home and had a stretch too, hopefully not done too much damage and have to keep on with the self treatment and back to physio next week.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Duathlon Race Repot

My first duathlon today due to not being allowed in the river to swim, I think the first run was about 3km then we rode 40km & ran 10km

First run was good, felt that I ran pretty well, the ride was 2 x laps of a fairly undulating course with about 3 hills on each lap - I need to get my head in gear for the ride as I find myself not "racing" the whole of the bike I end up just riding not racing - need to work on this!

Got off the bike with lead thighs from the hills they did ease up pretty early into the run, ran an even pace for the 10km (2 x laps) total time was 2hrs 16mins 40secs

1st run ?km 15.35
bike 40km 1.14.25
2nd run 10km - 43.43 (not sure if this was short as I didn't think I was running this fast!)

Pulled up ok'ish, my butt is tightening up when I run - this has been happening for a while now - I will need to get this sorted as it is affecting my performance

Friday, March 26, 2010

Feeling better :)

Have had a down couple of days this week, but after a strong talking to myself last night I got up much more positive this morning :)

Ended up having yesterday as a rest day as just not in the right head or body space to actually do justice to any training and I want to do quality sessions.

I also forgot to post my 5 x 3 back squats from Weds I managed 45 /50 /55 /60 /65kg which is a massive PB for me - the most I think I have done before is 57-60kg so very happy with the 65kg

My race on Sunday has now been changed to a duathlon, the freak storm that we had on Monday which has lead to widespread damage has resulted in sewage leaking into the river so we are not allowed to swim. I've never done a duathlon before the thought of 2 x runs always put me off, but I'm about to experience my first one - I am though looking forward to it.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Under the weather - literally

It's been a bit of a strange couple of days recovering from this freak storm - I mean we don't get hail or ice normally!!

Spent all of Tuesday organising stuff at work so that we could dry out all our records and arrange shifts out the front of the offices so that extra green waste bags were available for residents as well as contingency planning for how we would get back working with the loss of two whole departments work areas - anyway we managed to fix this and everyone worked really hard so Weds we were at least able to work even though we have had to setup a temporary work area in the Council Chamber!

Then when I got home I swept the debris from the road (we are the youngest in the street so it seemed the right thing to do) then had parents evening!!

So training, did not get to swim yesterday morning as pools closed due to storm damage, so did PM CF WOD instead which was 21/15/9 burpees and 500m rows in between, did this in 11mins 55secs very happy with how I worked on this - rowing time was a bit slow but felt that I worked well.

Next morning I got up feeling a little under par, but needed to run 10km at 80% well I ran 10km but I'm not posting my time it was painfully slow and I thought I was running ok until I saw the km splits then I freaked at how slow it was and how I knew I wasn't going to get any faster this was all I had - then later I worked out what 80% was and I basically ran at 80% and my km splits were evenly paced so that is good, what is scaring me a little is that I could not have run faster and I don't feel overly great today - but talking to others at work I think all the effort we had to put in yesterday has definitely had its effect on people and I woke up with a cold sore so am still run down :(

I have a race Sunday my last one before the half in May - its mainly to practice my nutrition and transistions but I still want to do well, I'm worried that I am a downward trend from getting ill last week!

I've got up this morning still feeling a little "off" and have decided not to do the training session this morning will aim to do this later today when hopefully I start to feel better!

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

hail, rain, storm & 8 x 400m runs

Well what a day its been, first proper training session this morning which was 8 x 400m runs at 5km pace with 3min recovery

Felt pretty good running which is a big improvement on how I have felt running the last few times.

Happy with my times, which got faster with each rep, in the rest times I did some pose running drills - not sure if these helped me run faster!

This was my only session for the day, but I didn't bank on the weather!

We have had the worst hailstorm in about 20yrs - I have no idea where it came from as its been so hot and we haven't had rain for over 100 days - but late this afternoon hailstones the size of golf & cricket balls started to fall, the ceiling collapsed in parts of my office and we had to abandon the building - then when I got home our lobby & garage were flooded (the garage is where my gym is!!!!!!) so my daughter and I had to sweep the water out and move all the stuff while my husband unblocked all the gutters as the water was overflowing and coming under the window & door frames so I ended up doing 2hrs of physical work! Managed to clear everything up ok - it could have been so much worse having seen tv of some of the flooding that has occured.

Just need to try and get the office sorted today no idea what we will do as I have only just started working on a business continuity plan so we don't have one!!! Will be an interesting day or two or more!

Sunday, March 21, 2010

I'm back - well sort of :)

After my 5 days of no training and feeling very under the weather I started to feel better so Saturday would be the day to do a training session - although as my naturopath reminded me it should not be my "best session" but something to ease me back into training

I had planned on my schedule bike intervals of 3/6/9/12 miles with rest of 1/2/3 mins - I converted this to km and decided to ride the freeway cycle path as this is new and a lot like the terrain in Bussleton.

I rode fairly steady and realised early on that I would not be able to push myself, wasn't until after I got home that I worked out I did the distance wrong - I rode 5 / 10 / 15 / 30km so 60km in total so 6miles more than I should have!

Did no other training, thought it was a good idea to just stick to 1 session.

Sunday I picked a couple of sessions from earlier in the week so I did 21/18/15/12/9/6/3 situps + 200m row (chose rowing as have not run for a while) managed this in 11mins 12secs then followed this with 30 x DL 50% b/w 30kg did this in 1min 10secs found the first 18 ok then started to feel this at about 18 onwards

Am feeling ok this afternoon and looking forward to training this week with an olympic distance race planned for this coming Sunday - not an important race but the last one before my half ironman in May

Monday, March 15, 2010

I'm sick :(

Haven't posted for a couple of days so will catch up with what training I have done

Saturday
5 x 5 push presses - did some warm up sets first then 5 x 5 main sets were
30kg / 32.5kg / 35kg / 37.5kg / 40kg - was absolutely made up with this result my best for 5 reps was 30kg so a massive improvement :)

Squad swim at 1pm this was fun, on Sat they do a lot of really cool stuff like drafting practice, drills, paired sprints etc really enjoyed this, could feel the push press in my arms though!

All week have had a very minor niggle in my throat & thought nothing of it, but it got worse Sat eve, when I woke up on Sunday morning I had a really bad throat it was so painful to swallow & I had 150km bike ride to do! Now the sensible thing would be not to go but I wanted to ride & I felt obliged to the team I was riding with so off I went!

Managed the 1st hour ok, this was flat then we hit the hills (it was a ride in the hills visiting 3 x dams) I was fine for about 2.5hrs then the wheels started to fall off - I felt awful, my whole body ached and everytime I saw another hill my heart sank I made the 2nd checkpoint in 3.5hrs and promptly burst into tears as I knew there was no way I would be able to finish - I felt such a sense of failure / disappointment - I was really looking forward to this ride to show my strength, work on my nutrition (which I did manage to do) and generally have an enjoyable time.

Then because I was so far away I wasn't able to eat for 3.5hrs as I waited for my lovely husband to come & get me - we stopped at a petrol station & I ate 1/2 cooked chicken & a banana - I so needed this!

Have been to see my wonderful naturopath today (much better than a Dr) & I have a virus he has advised no training until the weekend - although he did say maybe some very, very light CF work - am off work today, feel better than yesterday but not right - so hope to be feeling better soon - but have faith in the naturopath so looking forward to the weekend.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Bike & Pressups

15 x 1 mile repeats with 1min recovery was the order for the morning - not really able to compare this to January as the wind had changed direction so today was slight incline & headwind instead of slight incline & tailwind for January.

I felt that I was cycling well until a guy passed me who looked like he was out for a Sunday stroll on a bike and I was trying my absolute hardest - he made me look like I was standing still!

Tonight had 100 x pressups - happy with this too 3mins 40secs

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Blog Fixed - I Think

I removed the countdown timer and this appears to have fixed the problem, if anyone gets anymore problems with my blog can you let me know

Thanks

5km TT

Swapped 5km TT from yesterday due to having to attend the Uni for the sweat assessment.

Was not sure what to expect, and also decided to try & run in my racing flats, I think I may have run a little more than 5km - I have decided that tonight I will go & measure the course properly so that I know exactly where the km splits are!!

Left my watch at work so had to borrow Phil's & I could not get it to work so had to go by the clock time - my left side still not right, not collapsing anymore but very tight in my butt which seems to restrict my range of movement & power then this spreads to my right butt too!!!

Managed to complete the run in 21mins 54secs last did this on 2nd Feb and ran 21.52 so not bad considering I know I'm not able to operate at full capacity.

Made sure that I stood in the cold spa for 5mins, then did some stretching & trigger point (physio said ok) just did a little work on butt then did the strengthening exercises that the physio prescribed.

Can still feel backside is not happy - want to be able to get back to normal soon so I can train without pain - well this kind of pain anyway

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Blog Problems - Anyone else?

Is anyone else experiencing the same issues as me?

When I go to my blog it starts automatically jumping to other websites!!!!

I don't know what's happened & I haven't done anything different???

Any help gratefully received as I'm having to go to my blog & then press Esc or the stop button to prevent the page jumping to another website

Sweat Assess

This morning I had a follow up sweat rate assessment - I took part last winter in a sweat rate assessment at one of the Uni's & now they are doing a follow up to see whether we have acclimatised over the summer & are more efficient - I definitely lost a lot less weight than last time, but will have to wait for the final results.

So sessions today were 30mins cycling in a sweat chamber followed by a short drive home and then 75 of pull ups / push ups / sit ups / squats - completed this in 20mins 34secs - its those darn pull ups that get me everytime! They took me nearly 10 mins as I had to break them into sets of 5 - the push ups I did in sets of 10, situps in sets of 25 and squats non-stop.

Body is feeling better today, but tomorrow will tell as I have a 5km TT to run (should have been today but had to do the sweat assessment) - stretched today for the first time since I've had these issues too - that felt good & bad :)

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Getting better??

Squad swim this morning, did 1800m as w/up drills then did 1000m TT - this was not great for me, I struggled as the distance increased and usually I'm pretty good as the distance increases - I'm putting this down to my body imbalance thing I have going on at the moment.

2nd WOD I did at lunchtime as I had an evening meeting to attend for work, 3 x 400m run + 12kg KB swing + 12 x pull ups - I subbed the running for rowing I figured that this was a wise move - I'll save my body for the 5km TT later in the week.

I worked really well on the rowing managed 1.33 / 1.35 / 1.36 so was pleased with those efforts and with the KB & pullups (with small orange powerband) time 12mins 02secs

Had a bit of a downer this morning after the swim - just need to keep positive & optimistic - I'm just so annoyed with myself that I caused this issue and secondly that I compounded it last night by trying to do really heavy DL's after having treatment at the physio!!!

I am my own worst enemy at times!!!!

Monday, March 8, 2010

Loss of Power!

Following the races at the weekend I had 5 x 800m run at 80% with 2min rest today, had to give this up & sub it with rowing instead.

There was no way I could run, it was more of a shuffle :(

Managed 3.20 / 3.23 / 3.24 / 3.22 / 3.23

Saw the physio at lunchtime and he did some more needling on my back & glutes & went over the stability exercises that he wants me to continue to do - he thinks that I will recover pretty soon providing I do the stability work and I'm not allowed to trigger point for another week!

Tonight I had 7 x 1 Deadlifts and wanted to improve what I did in January - that was a pie in the sky aspiration as I started at 60kg and it was soooo heavy - I managed to lift exactly the same as in January but every lift was hard, in fact I only just managed the last couple of lifts.

I have definitely lost some power and strength with this stability thing so lots of work to do to recover the stability and consequently my power and strength.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Sunday's Race Report

Today was another race, but again just a training race - cleared this with Max who said I could race providing I was better (with the body collapsing thing)

This was a corporate team event, very small 400m / 10km / 4km but lots of fun I haven't done this event before but one of my swimming buddies was looking for a team member for a sponsor of theirs so I was in!

Great morning, glorious sunshine, not too hot (to start) and wind was fairly moderate - I got the 2nd leg, the format is 3 x team members who all s/b/r then tag the next team member who s/b/r etc.

On the run to the water I felt my left side collapsing again (not as bad as earlier in the week) it was enough to worry me about whether I would be able to run the 4km - swam well felt good, onto the bike and rode really well if I could keep the same pace for 4 x laps I would have rode faster than I did on this course in January by about 2mins & I felt good especially considering this was a training race & I had done no taper & my left butt was giving me some grief!

Back into transistion for the run, left side felt ok, I think the swim & bike helped to strengthen this up - I took the 1st km pretty stead as was still worried about being able to run - this course had km markers so I managed to get my split times - I managed 5m / 4.27 / 4.24 / 4.18 and I felt great (apart from my butt) I grew more confident with every km as the times show - so very happy with this result today and after the race yesterday - very very early night tonight to catch up on some much needed sleep :)

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Race Report

Up at 5am to eat and try new eating plan - also am trying powerbar gels (they have more sodium) - I'm a heavy sweater :)

Race format today is an enduro style so 3 x 200m swim / 10km bike / 2km run - I've only done one other race like this and its strange but nice getting back in the ocean after running!

After our couple of weeks of around 40degree days we have dropped down to about 30 and it was cold this morning - was shivering on the beach waiting for the swim start (although I probably shouldn't complain you guys have really got it cold - but it was cold for me)

200m swim was like a washing machine with the mass start boys & girls (I hate swimming with the boys) - tried to find someone to draft off which wasn't hard as there were bodies & arms & legs everywhere.

Out the water & across the sand bank (uphill) to transistion - lots of sand on feet chose not to wear socks out on the bike & off for the 2 lap bike course - road ok, have still got this tightness in my butt and definitely felt that I didn't have full power but was still pretty happy with how I was cycling.

Off onto the run - nice only having to run out 1km & back as before you have had time to think you're virtually back to transistion. Definitely not running at full pace butt really tight hoped I would be able to run twice more! Off with the shoes & on with the goggles run to the beach, run along the beach to the swim start and back into the water - this was lovely until about 1/3 into the swim when my arms suddenly realised they were being asked to work & didn't like it gave my legs a rest though!

Back up the sand dune and into transistion for the 2nd bike leg this went ok & it was good because by now the competitors were spaced out (unlike the first traffic jam bike leg) back off the bike out onto the run, ran ok still had tight butt, but felt ok - on with the goggles & into the ocean for the last swim - same as last time took my arms a while to complain (all those CF WODs helps I sure) out onto the bike & by now had worked out that I was about 4th overall so needed to make sure that no-one passed me - onto the last run & tried to run faster than I did before - I think I managed this - I gave up trying to do laps on my watch it was too confusing.

Anyway I think I ended up 4th overall and I won my age group which was combined as 40-49 so a good result.

Feel pretty good now (late afternoon) but am just going for a snooze as out to dinner with friends tonight and up for another training race tomorrow. Thankfully Max did not schedule any other training for today :)

Friday, March 5, 2010

An up & down day

Today was a very strange day for me - I only had 5hrs sleep (yes I know way too little) but I just couldn't put my book down!

Had squad swim at 5.30am 1100m warm up then the main set was
3 x 100m
1 x 200m
1 x 100m easy
400m TT
1 x 100m easy
1 x 200m
3 x 100m

The 100s & 200s were supposed to be on 1.32 pace on 2mins - I could only manage 1.35 / 1.37 then the 400m TT I managed 6.19 not far off my PB and I got stuck behind the guy in front then I seemed to pick up and managed to swim 1.33/1.32 for the remainder of the set??

Had a pretty good day, until 2pm when I was almost falling asleep at my desk and I had a bit of a headache - I had to go and have a 20min power nap in my car - felt better after but not great - I seriously considered missing this evenings WOD!!! Then I told myself to suck it up and at least give it a try - I put it off by preparing some food & packing for my race until I knew I could put it off no longer.

4 x 400m + 20 burpees - still have a pain in my left butt and definitely not running at 100% which shows in my 400m times, managed to do this session at about 80% effort in 11mins 55secs

Wanted to get an early night tonight but have to go & pick my daughter up from the train station at 10pm she's been away on a school trip and have to get up and race in the morning!

Thursday, March 4, 2010

All good now :)

Managed to get in to see the physio today & yes it is the TP work that I have been doing!

Apparently I have made my muscles too "loose" and then lost stability so have to restrict TP work to twice a week & not before a running day + have to do core stability exercises every day.

Am happy that it is fairly minor and something I can fix quickly :)

So last night as I couldn't run I did 5 x 500m rows on 3mins 20secs managed 1.59 / 1.59 / 1.59 / 2.01 / 2.01 very happy with these.

This morning had 4 x 5km bike intervals with 3mins recovery.

Tonight was AMRAP 15mins 20 box jumps / 5 x 25kg push press / 10 burpees - 6 rounds + 16 box jumps

I found the box jumps as usual hard, but I decided to do these on the 18" box instead of the 24" as I can only jump on the 24" and step down & I want to try and jump up and jump down continuously - this is sooo hard, but I got better with every round on the 6th round managed to do 4 x 5 jumps in a row and on the last 16 jumps did 10 in a row followed by 5 & 1

Body seemed to hold up well, back is a little sore, but I did have it needled by the physio.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Houston - we have a problem!

This morning I was due to run 45mins - I didn't even make the end of the road :(

I mentioned yesterday that I had a pain in my left butt when I was running - well last night I did trigger point therapy on my body and had lots of referred pain from my calf right up to my butt and lower back. Woke up in the night & felt that my lower back was very tight but thought that this would be ok I've had this before, so got warmed up & felt ok until I started to try and run - my left side collapsed as soon as I tried to run - I was all lopsided, gave it a couple more tries but no there was no way I could run.

Back to my garage gym and did the CF workout that I had planned in the evening which was 5 x 50kg DL + 10 x burpees + 15 x squats managed 9 rounds. DL were hard due to the weight that was going through my back & legs, burpees were good form enjoyed them!! did I say that - squats left a lot to be desired and I'm usually really good with these struggled to get the depth I normally do.

Am booked in to see the physio on Friday (also on cancellation list) I'm wondering whether the regular TP stuff has uncovered some underlying issue??

I'm racing this weekend so need this to be fixed! (race is not important its a training race only)

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Helen x 5

5 x 400m run + 21 KB swings 12kg (26lbs) + 12 pull ups (small orange powerband)

Managed this in 18mins 52secs

Had a pain in my left butt this morning which hindered my run a little, still have the pain now - not really sure what this is from??

The only thing I have been doing differently the last few days is trigger point therapy - I have rolled my body every day since Thursday - I'll have to see what happens tonight when I roll

This is my only session today

Monday, March 1, 2010

Public Holiday & a Rest Day

Today its a public holiday so I get another day off work and I get a rest day too :)