The Motions
“The Motions” as in “Going through them”
Training is coming along OK. I’ve been keeping up with the blog – I dutifully update the tables on the right every day – but I haven’t been posting very often. My physical training and my psychological mind-set are in a weird place right now, which definitely affect my motivation to sit down and write.
I am training for Boston. It’s now less than 12 weeks away. I’ve been slowly ramping up my running (and run-walking) for the last eight weeks. So far, so good. My knee is still achy sometimes, but strangely it doesn’t hurt while I’m running and the bad days don’t necessarily correspond to my running schedule. My worst day last week was Friday, which comes after Monday, Wednesday and Thursday runs and is my day off. So maybe that makes sense. But I woke up Saturday morning relatively pain-free and did my “long” run. No pain during the run and still now (Tuesday afternoon, after a run on Monday morning and indoor rides Sunday and this morning) no pain. That’s great, right? Except it’s impossible to learn from, or fix, my issues, if I can’t figure out why they’re happening. Also, after another month of taking the anti-inflammatory, I’ve been off it for about a week. Thankfully there hasn’t been any noticeable change in my knee, but I am starting to feel a little bit of pain creep back into my low back/butt/hip area. And I’ve noticed that my hamstrings have gotten tighter. Am I just bitching? Should I just accept that no distance runners/triathletes can expect to be pain-free? Is this “pain” an acceptable level of pain that I should just suck it up. It doesn’t really “hurt” so that’s fine, but I am constantly worried that this is the first step to the next level of pain.
Every week John sets up my training schedule and every week I go out and do it. But my heart’s not really into it. It’s becoming more of a duty: “follow this schedule and you’ll run Boston” instead of a reward: “have fun training and Boston is the icing on the cake.” When it comes down to it, I’m nervous about my running “career”. Just about every day I worry if the previous run, or the next one, will be my “last”. (Not last forever, I know, but last for now.) Is this the run where my knee will really act up again? Will I feel that pain that I can’t run through? I’ve accepted that that might happen. And it takes the fun out of it. Sure, I should probably look at it in a “glass half full” way and tell myself that because of my fears, I should make a point to enjoy each run as if it were my last. Easier said than done…
The short of it is that I’m still doing it. And I’m happy when I’m running or swimming (being the trainer on the other hand, is killing me). So I’m not going to stop. But the whole process – training, thinking about training and racing, reading Slowtwitch, keeping abreast of race schedules, etc. is not as much fun as it used to be, that’s for sure. That’s probably the biggest reason why I’m not posting very often. And even though I’m not sure what my running or tri schedule will look like for the rest of 2009, I am still certain that at some point I will get back to that place. For now though, feel free to ignore my whining…
Run/Walk – January 18
Distance: 5.5 miles
Time: 1:01 (10 min. warm-up walk, then 3 min. run/1 min. walk)
Location: Barton Springs Greenbelt trails, Austin
Conditions: Sunny, low 50’s = really nice!
Indoor bike – January 20
Time: 30 minutes
Average heart rate: 123
Strength – January 20
Run – January 21
Distance: 3 miles
Time: 25 minutes
Average heart rate:
Course: Washington Square Park
Conditions: Sunny and clear, but COLD (18 degrees, but “real-feel” was around 8)
Swim – January 22
Distance: 2,000 yards
Time: 50 minutes
200 yard time: 1:35 (1:17, 1:18)
Treadmill run/walk – January 22
Distance: 4 miles
Time: 45 minutes (10 min. walk warm-up, 35 min. of 3 min. run/1 min. walk)
Run/Walk – January 24
Distance: 8.2 miles
Time: 1:20 (10 min. warm-up walk, then 4 min. run/1 min. walk)
Average heart rate: 145
Location: West Side Highway
Conditions: Clear, cold (high 20s) and gusty winds = brrrr!
Indoor bike – January 25
Time: 30 minutes
Average heart rate: 119
Strength – January 25
Run/Walk – January 26
Distance: 4.5 miles
Time: 50 min. (10 min. warm-up walk, then 4 min. run/1 min. walk)
Location: Washington Square Park
Conditions: Clear, 19 degrees, are you kidding me!
Indoor bike – January 27
Time: 30 minutes
Strength – January 27