I'm back, I guess.

Remember when I rolled my ankle?  And how I blew it off and continued running until I couldn't walk?  Well, here's a reminder if you missed it --> here

I've been a really good girl and stayed off of it.  Mainly, because I literally couldn't walk on it.  Haha. This week, I have finally felt very close to normal.  Heels have been my remedy, I think.  

Truth!

No, really.  I wore flats and realized that in heels, I walked normally.  I must have been taking the pressure off of whatever the heck I injured in my foot/ankle and I had my natural (and much missed) high heel stride.  No limping!  I figured I would be jogging sometime this week to test out the mechanics but haven't had time yet since I'm flying solo this week.

The other night I ran into my friend aka elite marathon trainer at a restaurant party/event/bday thingy. She looked down, asked me about my ankle and before I could finish my sentence about it being better, she said "good, see you Sunday bright and early...we'll start with 6"  If I could insert a big eye emoji here, I would.    

I'll work on abs and my legs on the bike until then.  Wish me luck!  

Update Monday! 

Valerie

Holding out, staying positive

What else can you do?  On my last update here, I mentioned my ridiculous ankle/foot injury and how it's sidelined my running and the goals that are attached to that (i.e Woodlands Half Marathon that I had JUST registered for! $$ :/ ).  I also mentioned how I was going to keep on moving and hope that it will heal enough for me to at the very least, complete it.

I haven't waivered on that.  I have been upbeat and positive and made a heck of a lot of lemonade this last couple of weeks.  I have modified P90X video workouts and I have become reacquainted with my road bike, Blu, after many months of separation.  So much so, that I will probably be ready for the MS 150 in April if I keep it up!  I have found that much like my injury a little over a year ago (fibular stress fracture, same leg), the best and really only workout that can keep me in check cardiovascularly and still build leg muscle is by riding my bike.  No pain to the leg then, or the ankle and foot now.  The trickiest part is clipping out which concerns me (a little) about riding outdoors versus off the safety of my indoor trainer.

I will continue doing that until I can walk normally without flinching.  It seems there is still pain to apply weight on the foot which is bitterly frustrating but I know I have to patient. Sigh.

I said I would see a doctor. Ummm...yea, I don't wanna.  :P  BUT, I did take a pause from typing this to visit the doctor's website. I found this and it confirms that I can't do much about it but rest it.  Yes, it's self-diagnosis.  No, I don't recommend it.  

So carry on I say...find something to make today better than yesterday.  Be grateful for every second.

Hasta la proxima,

V.

Recovery week wrap up

I cried "uncle" this week. Lack of sleep must have caught up to me because I just felt under motivated and tired. I listened to the signs and called it a recovery week mid week. It seems to have worked because I feel way better!

Here goes:

Monday - Power One Cycling - killer hill interval workout (early morning after a long swim night before). 

Tuesday - Skipped early wake up to swim so made it up with a quick 5k late afternoon. 

Wednesday - another skipped morning so I called it a rest day. 

Thursday - Hot Yoga at lunch (because again, I couldn't get up in the morning)

Friday - 30+ miles w dad aka cycling phenom. I'm not ashamed to say that I have a hard time keeping up after hearing the dreaded 4 words: "Stay on my wheel".  He just puts on the turbo boosters and he's gone.  It's truly a struggle to stay on the wheel to draft.  He's an inspiration and I loved our bonding time together doing what he loves best.  I always come away with great tips be it on form, power, nutrition or on ways to improve efficiency while in the saddle.  I'm hoping we can make this a regular outing. 

Me and my bro...I mean, er...my dad! :)

Saturday - rest 

Sunday - Indoor tri - see recap here

Next week,  a concentrated & condensed workout week due to travel. Next Tri coming up May 9th! Open water! Ahh!

Have a great week!

Valerie

1st Recovery week round up

I guess recovery week means lesser effort rather than fewer workouts.  I straddled the line between the two this week tweaking away as is the norm.  No travel for hubby this week but yucky cold and wet weather coupled with evening commitments made for another week of switcharoos.  I won't bore you with the details but here's the round up depicting the prescribed plan in bold and what actually went down following.

Monday - Day 15 -   Rest - 1 hour, PowerOne Cycling class (indoor bike on trainer)

Tuesday - Day 16 - 1:30 Bike easy - Rest since I did hard class yesterday (and have birthday brownie/ice cream dessert) :)

Wednesday - Day 17 - Rest or swim 900M - 1000M swim (10min time trial w/o warmup: 300M, 100k, 100p, 10min time trial warmed up: 400M, 100k)

Thursday - Day 18 - 1:15 Bike easy - thought I'd wake up early and knock this out but sleep felt too good.  A little regretful since fitting in for the rest of the week will be tough. Birthday happy hour will make early Friday workout a little more difficult too.

Friday - Day 19 - Rest - Um, yea...I swear they put everclear in those margaritas. Rest it is.

Saturday - Day 20  30 min Swim, 850M  - Feeling guilty for all the rest days, pulled the trainer in and did Thursday's workout. About 14 miles...I started with easy effort and then pulled out all the stops in the last half hour because...me.

Sunday - Day 21 1:30 Run Z1-3 -  I was hoping to leave the house early and get the "or swim" from Wednesday in before the long run.  I forgot how toddlers wake up at the crack of dawn full of energy.  Hubby got my distress signal late morning (he's so awesome) and took the whole crew out so that mom can have a "free" day.  No nails, shopping or massage but rather a solid 2 hours of putting my house back in order from 2 littles (I'm looking at you, Mateo aka Monster-teo) transporting random household items to all the places they don't belong.  A good solid 20 minutes were spent looking for remotes, not even joking.  Is it in the trash? (dig through trash)  Did he put it in the snack drawer? (dig through drawer and reorganize the mess) What about the shoe basket?  Oh, no...is it in the washing machine?  High cardio, super fast hide and seek and put stuff back before I lose time to run counts for a workout right?

All this, followed by the prescribed hour and a half run.  A little over 9 miles that I couldn't keep below Z4 because that would be walking?  How is that possible?  Anyway, it was a non issue because Garmin went dead before I made 3 miles.  Pace was fairly slow so I know I didn't over do it and given it was the longest run since my injury, I'm feeling pretty good.  Success!!

So how'd I measure up?  Well, I didn't do the extra swim and never made it around to Yoga and the foam roll effort really was pathetic.  But all the other stuff was done!

Coming up this week are brick workouts (8 total workouts +- 6-7 hours), crappy weather (cold, wet and dreary) and a travelling hubby.  Great recipe for getting it done dontcha think?

Here we go!

Happy Monday all!

Valerie

Is there a badge for that?

I've earned a recovery week apparently. Based on how I felt last night , the sound of that should entail at least confetti, balloons and a whole week off. Nike and Swarm give me badges or stickers yet, this recovery week includes 2 bike rides, 2 swims, strength training session and a run. What?! Sigh.

Since the marching band didn't come by to celebrate for me, I decided to give myself a little Monday inspiration/motivation for recovery week and good 'ol pat on the back for last week. :)

Goals this week: all SIX workouts, yoga and plenty of foam rollin'.  With hubby home, I should be less of a taxi so rest days will be somewhat more restful. :)

Happy Monday!

Valerie