My theme of the week was…
Patience.
Because of my impatient nature, I tried to muscle my way through an exercise towards the end of the week and ended up hurting my shoulder. Based on my work in massage therapy I knew there was something up with my rotator cuff. It felt mostly like a partial dislocation, and I tried to deal with it via self-massage (and boyfriend-enlisted-slash-mandated shoulder massage) throughout the weekend. By the time Monday rolled around and I still felt terrible I set my first appointment with a chiropractor. More on that in next week’s recap blog.
So I don’t know about you but I’m getting pretty impatient with…well, it seems like everything. How many more weeks of base training do I need before I’m “good” enough to start my real IM training? Is putting the word “base” in front of training a way for me to soften the blow or onslaught of sheer terror when I actually begin “real” training? My eating has been a bit off for about a week now — I’ve completely stopped logging my intake. It’s really hard to log in ethnic foods (like dumplings, onion pancakes, dim sum, etc). Or maybe I’m just making excuses. The TrainingPeaks app is pretty awful, but it’s much easier to navigate than the website when I’m trying to log my food. I wish I could re-design it. Maybe I should just submit to them some proposals. After all, they are a paid subscription service! They must not be hauling in as much to make some of these user-facing updates.
But, I digress.
Yes, impatience…impatience mostly with myself and the process. I feel like I’ve put myself in a perpetual state of living in the future. It’s kind of annoying. It feels like my goal keeps getting farther and farther away (at my own doing) and that I’ll never cross the finish line. I’m really trying to put myself in a position to succeed, but it just feels like IM is so long from now.
I also have a ton of questions. How far into my training do I need to schedule a full marathon? What about tune-up races? What I am going to do with the HITS Marble Falls entry? Is April too soon for a half-Ironman race if my full Ironman is in late August? How soon should I start bikram yoga? What’s my hangup with even starting, anyways? Why did I stop logging my food intake? Why is my shoulder out of alignment?
Gahhh. Yes. It was the week of sheer frustration.
I did, however, have some wins. It was Shant’s first week or so getting into his groove with small group training with my coach. He’s seen a lot of improvement with his swim already and seems more energetic. Good for him! It’s also nice because we get to head to the gym together…a novelty of months past when we used to live within a half hour of each other. It’s really nice.
Also, with my friend in town, she was trying to keep some semblance of her workout routine going as well. She made it to the gym with us on occasion, during her vacation, which was kind of cool. It’s nice to see us all heading down a path together, even if we all have different goals. I think what makes me most sad is seeing friends who create goals and then fail to execute their plans. It’s like they end up in a perpetual state of wishing, wanting, and disappointment. I wish I could help them, but all I can really do is be supportive, understanding, and be a good example.
Hopefully next week turns out better!
Recap of week 12 base training:
8.5 hours; 5,904 yards swimming; 21.05 miles biking; 6.25 miles running.
Monday, February 4: 1 hour 15 minutes/0.9 miles swimming with the tri training team.
Tuesday, February 5: 1-hour strength training with the tri training team in the morning, followed by a 40-minute/0.5 mile swim. Evening swim session for 30 minutes/0.5 miles.
Wednesday, February 6: 30-minute/0.5 mile swim in the morning. Evening tri training swim class for 45 minutes/1 mile.
Thursday, February 7: Rest day since my friend came into town.
Friday, February 8: Strength training with the tri team for 1 hour. This class aggravated my shoulder a bit since I improperly muscled my way through some challenging sets.
Saturday, February 9: Long stationary bike ride. 1 hour 30 minutes – 21.05 miles. I’d rather be riding outside.
Sunday, February 10: Fun run around Lake Union. 1:22:39/6.25 miles. I promptly break out into hives immediately following my run, most likely because of the transition from cold to hot temps.
Things I accomplished this week:
1) Made it to my long run/ride even with a gimp shoulder. This should probably be filed under TERRIBLE IDEAS versus accomplishments.
2) Somehow managed to get both Shant and Aimey into the gym, at the same time.
3) Made it training. (Does that count?) And I guess we’ll also throw into there that I exceeded my hours by 3.5 this week. That seems pretty good.
4) Cut my stroke count from 29ish to 23 or 24 in 25 yards. I still need to work on efficiency though.
Things I’ve learned this week:
1) I should really be focusing on the tough exercises rather than muscling my way around them. Then I end up injured.
2) Paying attention to body signals is really important.
3) Cold weather mixed with steaming hot showers is a really weird, uncomfortable experience. (Except I’ve learned this about five times over.)
Amara in Training 