Such a glorious training season came crumbling down this week, due to a lot of different things but mostly an ankle sprain that has me off my feet for a bit. This week was a bit light, to say the least.
I know that a lot of people who are in Ironman training shun a lot of strength training, but I’ve found that I’ve gotten so much results from it that it doesn’t seem worth cutting out of my regimen. The theory is that most injuries that ironmen/women-in-training get are from strength training. So, let’s recap:
1) Shoulder injury during strength training? Check!
2) Hamstring injury during strength training? Check!
3) Ankle sprain during strength training? Check!
Hmmm. There’s a pattern. The common denominator is, of course, ME during strength training. I need to really focus on the work at hand rather than getting distracted or carried away. I’m getting a lot of results but in order to move forward I can’t keep moving backwards (or getting injured). It’s just so mentally draining!
So, what happened this time? I was not warmed up (like, at all) since I had to hop the bus to get the gym that morning. We started off with a session that was promised to be a bit more difficult than usual. There was a great circuit put together, and that dreaded tire from the hamstring injury made its appearance again. I shrugged it off like no big deal, and as I was doing my side-to-side agility jumps, my foot didn’t quite clear the jump and I landed on the soft side part of the tire with my left foot. My foot twisted in, and I tried to rebound by balancing myself on the squishy part, only to have my foot twist out and then I fall onto the floor of the gym. In the middle of workout. With two of my teammates pretty much (what’s the word?) shocked.
I sat out the remainder of the session, mostly aching and sad but primarily icing and trying to get my bearings straight. It was in a lot of pain initially, where I couldn’t stand up or get off the floor. I iced a bit and things loosened up, and then moved to another part of the gym where I wouldn’t get trampled by others. I kept icing and thought that maybe I could make it into the pool, but alas things were too intense in terms of the stiffness so I did what I thought was responsible at the time and sat out the rest of the day.
I had a chiro appointment that morning at 10am and one of the three docs was able to look at my ankle. He did a few range of motion tests and adjusted the joint, and worked on a few moves. I felt a lot of the pain and tension go away after his work and then followed it up with another doctors appointment to make a diagnosis. Nothing I didn’t already know — an ankle sprain, so I got myself into a small ankle brace and actually got to use crutches for the first time. Not fun at all. I headed out that same hour to get some x-rays taken of my ankle, and those came back all clear as well — no dislocations and no fractures. So, it seems like everything is in place and it is primarily a muscle/ligament issue. I have a massage appointment this Tuesday and this work week will be pretty heads-down, so we shall see how I will do. I have a referral for a physical therapist but honestly….the last thing I want to see is a doc. I just want to get back to training. That really sounds dumb but you know how you always try to take the path of least resistance? I probably shouldn’t, but I may consider doing this one by feel.
Week 6 Ironman Louisville Training:
3.7 hours; Swim 1760 yards; Bike 13.5 miles; Run 4.1 miles
Monday, April 1: Off day. Too stressed.
Tuesday, April 2: 1 hour strength training, 1 hour swimming in the morning before work.
Wednesday, April 3: Off day. Too stressed.
Thursday, April 4: 1 hour bike ride, 50 minute run.
Friday, April 5: Twisted my ankle at tri team agility training in the morning.
Saturday, April 6: Primary pity day. I mostly eat and sleep.
Sunday, April 7: Secondary pity day. I mostly eat and watch movies, but I did pick up my bike from the bike shop. I haven’t even gotten a chance to play around with it so hopefully they did a good job.
So, with next week kind of up in the air, it’s really hard to plan for my workload. After a full week off (essentially) I think it would be responsible of me to take it easy getting back into the swing of things. I believe you’re supposed to cut down your workload by half (so, that’s half of a 14 hour week to 7 hours) and to keep everything pretty low intensity. Then, the week after that, cut down the expected workload by 25% (so, that’s 12 hours to 9 hours) and from there I should be able to take on 100% (14 hours) but of course that week I will be traveling so that will just throw a wrench into my plans. I’ve already preemptively deleted those workouts from my plan altogether so that I won’t freak out about how much I’m missing, but I think I have built a pretty good base that I can bank on for the next two weeks. I feel like I’m missing out but I don’t necessarily feel like I’m falling behind, since I’ve done a lot of pre-prep work. Prepping for my prepping. Oh man. I sound like I’m crazy but that’s because it’s true.
Amara in Training 