Let's keep things brief

[Day 30]

I was definitely not very productive today so let's keep today's update brief.

Some things that happened today:

• Had an interesting conversation with Henry about nutrition and race weight. Still figuring that stuff out, but we're gonna make little changes one by one and see what happens with it all.
• Got to think about why it is that I do what I do. I didn't want to say this out loud but I feel like the kind of love I have for racing and training is written into my soul, sort of like the kind of love I have for medicine and human health/functioning. A lot of people get to look at things like sports from the perspective of it being an optional thing they could partake in if they wanted to. I feel like I'd be lost without this. It's weird. It makes me feel a little bit different and a little bit separate from everyone else. But at the same time I know what my callings are, so I guess I really can't complain right?

Weekly recap time!

• 3 swims, 2 trainer rides, 2 runs, 1 lift for a total of 8 sessions and a little over 8 hours.
• I was worried about it being a crowded week because the number of sessions was high given the number of days, but since the runs were short and the overall hour count was low, it actually felt completely fine. It was a good week, I'm still a little worried about the little joint issues (back, wrists, knees) but things are looking up and I'm okay with that for now.

Things are going to ramp up by a lot the next two weeks. I'm a little bit terrified, but that's always how these things go before you really dive into them. I think I'll probably feel better once I'm in the midst of it. Tired but determined is usually how that plays out. That starts with an easy morning run with Molly tomorrow morning (slowly continuing that distance increase) and what will likely be a pretty rough two hour trainer ride in the afternoon. Wish me luck!

Much love,

Jess

The good and the bad

[Day 29]

The good was this morning's swim.

Today's AM Workout: CSP practice, IM day
Summary:

• WU: 400 free swim
• Pre-set: (all were done on flexible 3rd person rest, I gave pace time estimates instead of hard cut offs)
• 4 x 100 @ 1:50, 25 free/50 IMO kick/25 free
• 300 free pull w/ paddles
• 4 x 75 @ 1:20, 25 free/25 IMO drill/25 free
• 200 swim free
• 4 x 50 IMO @ :55
• Main Set: 
• 200 free @ 3:15
• 4 x 150 @ 2:45, 50 fly/50 back/50 breast
• (break)
• 200 free @ 3:10
• 4 x 100 IM @ 1:50
• (break)
• 200 free @ 3:05
• 4 x 75 @ 1:25-1:30, 25 fly/25 back/25 breast
• WD: 100 easy
• As written, the main set had another round of 200 free @ 3:00 and 4 x 50 IMO, but we ran out of time. I want to try this set again straight through (which was how it was written) and do it all and maybe bump up the pace times a bit.
• Total distance: 3800 SCY (4200 SCY as written)

Hit Rate: 30/31 (96.7%)

Notes/thoughts:

• It feels so good to be getting back into the groove. I would have preferred pace times to be a little quicker this morning, but I wanted to be fair to my lane and I knew I couldn't hit the fast lane pace times so I couldn't move up, so I've been committing myself to doing my absolute best with these pace times as they stand. It meant that today, I led (and felt really confident doing it, which is the first time I've felt that way about leading all year) and I attacked every single repeat because I knew I was going to get in with lots of time to rest before I attacked the next one. I can't be up there swimming the challenging pace times, so I'm going to challenge myself to execute every single repeat at my best effort regardless of the pace time.
• I will, however, probably find an opportunity to swim alone at some point and try to hit this workout again with some adjusted pace times and straight through. I really liked this set, so I'm going to put it back on the calendar probably sooner rather than later, just for kicks.

The bad was this afternoon's run.

Today's PM Workout: Easy 3ish mile run

Summary: 3.11 mi, 29:41, 9:32 pace

Pace splits by mile: 9:09, 9:44, 9:39

Hit Rate: 31/32 (96.8%)

Notes/thoughts:

• Okay it actually wasn't that bad because my knee felt fine! I mean the occasional twinge, but those were more likely isolated bad steps and I'm a little bit hyperaware of it all right now anyways because it's what I'm paying attention to.
• I did, however, have some back pain that's been creeping in the past day or two that actually made me feel really tight and uncomfortable while running today. Still have to work on that form and getting lean from the ankles instead of the hips. Also need to really have that be something I pay attention to during the day when it comes to how I sit and stand. I need to have my posture be minimally taxing on my back during my non-training time so it doesn't become an issue during training time.
• It was about the pace I wanted it to be but it felt really slow and sluggish. It wasn't hard in the physically taxing sense but it did feel hard. Like my steps just felt really heavy and I wasn't getting the same kind of reflexive bounce off the ground that I usually do (I usually feel pretty light when I run) and the cadence felt slow even though at 172 spm it's not as bad as it had been previously (I was really consciously trying to work on this because I know it helps with the knee issues). I also felt very locked into a single pace, not in the sense that my pace didn't vary as the run went on but more so in the sense that if I wanted to go faster or slower, I don't think I could have made those pace adjustments very easily. It's like I got stuck in that one gear, which is how I used to always feel about running but had made a lot of improvements on in the past year or so, so it sort of sucks to feel like I'm back where I started in that regard.
• In any case, I think all of that really adds up to feeling a little bit disappointed with the state of the running. I just feel like I'm very very very far from where I want to be and it's just not exciting to think that all I can really do in the next few weeks is do a lot of slow runs that will get me back up to running longer distances and help me build the right kind of aerobic fitness to try and tackle other things. And it really is like adding insult to injury when even a short and slow run doesn't feel good. There's work to be done. I just have to set the feelings aside for now and do the work. It pays off in the end, I know that, I can look to things like my swimming for reassurance that it does pay off in the end. I'm just impatient is all.

In other news, I'm going ice skating tonight! It's a sponsored event school is hosting and I'm really not one for turning down free ice skating in the park. Will have to stretch tonight and then tomorrow is a day off! Yay! Days off = so glorious. I'll do my weekly recap tomorrow. (:

Much love,

Jess

Patience

[Day 27A]

Took that test run this morning. Knee felt okay. It was a little bit sore honestly but it wasn't hurting in the IT band spot, was more diffuse anterior pain, which might just be residual stuff from Monday's ride and not too run specific? It wasn't bad enough that I felt like I had to stop, so I did the 20 minutes and just left it at that. I had been thinking about maybe taking a 20-30 minute row afterwards if my knee felt good, but it was super great so I thought I would just rest it seeing as it'll be getting some more action this afternoon when I take my trainer ride anyways. We'll see how it holds up as the day goes on, I'm making a trip to the grocery store today and that walk will probably tell me a lot about how things are going. Here's the summary:

Today's AM Workout: 20 minute easy treadmill run, testing the knee
Summary:

• 2% incline, 6.2 speed throughout
• Treadmill numbers: 2.10 mi, 20:36
• Garmin numbers: 2.19 mi, 20:09, 9:12 pace

Hit Rate: 27/28 (96.4%)

I honestly feel like I shouldn't even call that a workout, it was so so chill. But I know that if I don't count these workouts as legitimate workouts, I would get tempted to do too much too fast because I like to feel like I'm training, I don't like to feel like I'm rehabbing a poorly looked after joint. So I'm going to count them and legitimize them because it'll help me be patient with the process which will be good for me in the long run. The sad part of this I think is that this week is actually going to be strangely low volume since I'm planning on running again on Friday and both of these workouts are slash will be super short compared to my typical workouts and it was already a short week to begin with. The upside though is I got up at my usual time, finished super early, and go to shower and eat and head out to school and get some work done before my morning classes, which was really nice.

I pretty much spent my 20 treadmill minutes this morning thinking about the process going forward. I was really looking forward to doing more speed focused run training this year, since I got some of that in last October before my half and it made such a huge difference to my running. With the setback though, it looks like we'll be back to just focusing on getting the right kind of volume and building back up in a pretty purely aerobic sense to try and make sure I'm not taking on too much too fast. I'd rather play this a little safer and be a little slower than go all in and get hurt again. I tell myself that it'll be okay and I'll run slow this first half of the year and spend my month in Boston (when I'm away from my bike and the gym and will probably be swimming with CMSC there) trying to get back on the speed/strength/interval work bandwagon. If I can stay healthy that long, that'll be the plan. I just have to be patient. There's no cheating the process when it comes to building up the right kind of base.

Time for class now! I'll be back with the afternoon trainer update later in the day. (:

Much love,
Jess

Treadmill is a no go

[Day 21]

So I decided that swapping back and forth between the urg and the treadmill would be a pain, and I figured instead I would just do 5k of each thing and be done with it. I was little more aggressive on the urg today and was surprised that it was much harder than it felt yesterday. I don't really think I got my heart rate or breathing up very high yesterday, just kept it nice and smooth and comfortable, and today I was pulling a bit harder and it was actually a really great workout. The treadmill was a definite no though, I was really barely on it for like a minute before I could start to feel my leg getting unhappy so I just shut it down. I was on the wards shadowing in the morning and knew I was going to be on my feet a lot so I figured I couldn't afford to have my knee be irritated today. I think I'm going to just lay off the running this week and maybe see how things are doing next week. Ideally I think I want to not feel any pain when I push on that part of my knee before I test it out again, because I figure if I try to get back at it too early, I'll just end up aggravating it. Next spot on my calendar is Wednesday, but we'll see how the weekend plays out and take it from there.

I thought about doing something else for the remainder of the planned duration of my workout but I figured it would be nice just to come home and take care of some errands and work and whatever, so that's what I ended up doing. Here's the summary of my very short day!

Today's Workout: AM rowing (5k steady state, resistance of 7)
Summary:

• So I had to reset the machine halfway because the display paused for some reason, I have the numbers split because of that.
• 5075 m (3354/1721), 24:36 (16:21/8:15), 2:26.2-2:23.5 avg/500 m, 22-24 s/m

Hit Rate: 20/21 (95.2%)

Okay I need to like pay attention in class now.

Much love,

Jess