Let's Play Catch Up!

Hi. It's Laura.

We make rules for ourselves. When we abandon them we feel guilty. When we follow through we feel good & justified. I created this blog for me to chronicle my triathlon journey. Yet this year, sitting down to diary everything, has been such a chore. I just can't seem to find the time. The writing is not the chore, finding the time is.

I feel like I should start with:"Father, it has been 6 days since my last oversharing...” penance: two days of zero activity followed by a day of Burpees with a 2 mile swim.
 

After I slammed my toe into a piece of furniture last week, I was absolutely convinced that I broke it. I have broken enough toes in the last decade to know what one looks and feels like when broken. So I should be an expert by now. However, I am not convinced that it is actually broken. The simple solution to this is to go get an x-ray and find out for sure. Not this time. I am in the midst of training for a half -marathon (which happens to be this weekend) and training for a triathlon. If it is broken, the Dr. will tell me not to run on it, which would stop me from training and that is just not going to happen. Ultimately, I took last week off from running. I did continue to swim and cycle. I am running the half marathon with LI Lolita. I know for sure she would be disappointed if she had to run it by herself. My ultimate goal though is NYC tri #3.

When I decided to take the week off, I thought maybe I would run the half but I could not jeopardize my "A" race.

The cycling was easy. Good cycling shoes are as hard as ski boots (almost). Pushing the pedals with the ball of the foot did not affect the toe whatsoever (FYI – it’s my second toe that is at issue). With swimming, it took a little more concentration. Generally, I do not kick during a swim. I use a pull buoy to hold up my bottom half and use my arms to stroke. I do kick some, but for the first week I decided it would be a bad idea to have the toe hit anything else including water. Let me explain, during triathlon, I use a wetsuit for buoyancy and try to save my legs as much as possible for the bike and run. Of course some kicking does happen, I just try to keep it to a minimum. The kicking turned out not to be the issue. But pushing off the wall, that's another story. I don't do flip turns in the pool, there is no need. I take a breath and push off. My first swim of last week, I swam without tape on my toes, which was a mistake, I kept forgetting not to push off the wall with both feet. Lesson learned. I kept the tape on my toes for all swims going forward and have had great success in doing no more damage to my toe.

During the off run week, as I mentioned, I continued to ride. Cycling has proved to be the biggest challenge for me this year. It started with not knowing where to go from my new home base to indoors trainers failing. Bike drama has certainly been consistent, and even with a broken toe, it continued. The Friday before Memorial Day, I took off for a ride before going away for the weekend.

I wanted to make sure I got in a good ride so I took my normal route down Riverside. The upper part of Manhattan tends to be very hilly. As I was ascending a climb, I heard a pop when I switched gears. This is the same sound an ACL makes when it tears. At the top of the hill, I realized I lost all of my low gears. I got down the hill just fine but I was never going to make it home at the end of the ride without low gears there was no way I was going to be able to climb any hills.

 

I called The Husband and asked him to come pick me up. Then I changed my mind. Then I changed it again, I asked him to pick me up a different point. Riverside is pretty flat. I think I can do the entire ride in one gear. A gear or two would have been nice to accelerate and pass and adjust with the wind but I managed to get down to Battery Park City in the one gear. I checked the time once there. Just about half way through the ride. I called The Husband and asked to change our pick up location. Not a problem. I managed to get an hour forty ride just 20 minutes short of my scheduled ride. Not too shabby.

 

It turns out the line that runs from the gear shift to the gears had popped. Thankfully an easy fix (not by me of course) by the bike professional.

On our way down to the bike shop, The Husband and I were discussing if perhaps all the mishaps are a sign NOT to do the tri this year. Or are all of these obstacles a test of character? Would a different person stop trying after the pedal incident or the gear incident? Would a different person not try to run after the broken toe? Perhaps it’s just a sign of crazy.

The week continued with cycling and swimming. I set a deadline of Friday at noon to decide if I was going to run the half marathon or not. Lolita needed to get in the mindset of she may have to run 13.1 by herself. I of course would go to cheer her on. I did decide to try running Friday morning as part of my brick workout (ride followed immediately by a run). After a 20mile ride, I ran my 2 miles. I was not quite sure if the toe hurt or not because my feet were numb from sitting in the saddle for 90 minutes. I texted Lolita: “Plan A”. Meaning the half will be run as planned, unless of course I continue to hit the toe all over the apartment. Why is it that we continuously hit the injured body part?

That brings us to this week. I know that, before a race, you are supposed to taper. However that is not happening for me. Just the opposite, I am trying to get all my tri training done before we leave on Friday morning. If I had not mentioned previously, we are running the Heartbreak Hill Half in Boston.

My thinking is that if I pack all of the "heavy lifting' in the front end of the week, I can get some rest before Sunday. It has been a crazy training week and so far. Free of drama: Monday, 6 mile run, 12 mile bike, Tuesday 5 mile run, 2000 yard swim, Wednesday 90 min ride, 1600 yard swim, Thursday 1300 yard swim 4 mile run and finish the week off with a 60 minute ride on Friday. Not my ideal schedule, but I will say, I am sleeping well this week.

Laura