Wow! I don’t remember being this sore and having so much pain ever after any race except the marathon last year. The Bix 7 kicked my butt. I had plans to ride Sunday, but my lower legs hurt so bad that I opted to rest and not risk an injury.
Monday I woke up and my first steps were nothing but pain. I hurt bad. I headed to the pool to get in a workout and prayed my legs would loosen up. They were tired in the pool. It was tender to push off the wall, but as the workout went on I was able to get them feeling better. They were tired, but not quite as painful.
Here is a breakdown of my swim workout
Warm-Up
200 Free @ 3:30
200 Pull @ 3:37
200 Kick @ 3:46
Main Set
1100 Paddles @ 18:55
100 Kick @ 2:02
1 x 200 @ 2:59
4 x 100 with 30 second rest @ 1:26, 1:25, 1:26, 1:26
4 x 50 with 30 second rest @ :38, ::38, :40, :39
4 x 25 with 15 second rest @ :17, :17, :18, :18
Cool Down
200 Pull @ 3:29
100 Kick @ 1:49
Total Time : 49:45
Total Yards 3000
After my swim I had about 10 minutes to spare for the sauna. I have been loving me some sauna. For some reason it just gives me time to gather my thoughts while I sweat out some toxins. I did not have much time as I had to get to school to prepare for Moving To Middle class that I am teaching.
I got home from teaching, tore up some lunch and took a power nap. I was wiped out from getting up at 4:30 and getting back into teaching mode. I jumped on my bike around 2 for a 40 mile ride. I had to jump on the trainer as Amanda was out getting school supplies for the kids and I had Ava sleeping.
For this workout I decided to work on riding with a higher cadence. I need to learn to ride with a higher cadence which I hate with a passion. I like to grind and pedal in the high 60’s – low 70’s. Every 5th mile I picked up the pace for a 1 mile interval.
My legs did not feel bad, but I could tell they were tired. The weird thing is that as the workout went on my legs felt stronger. This has been the case the last few times I have rode. About halfway through I had to move my bike to another room as Aiden and his buddies were having a Spiderman/Wipeout battle going on. I had to turn off my Breaking Bad show(major bummer) and watch the Olympics. The event was kayaking – oh boy! That really held my interest, NOT!!
This morning I was up at 4:15 to get my run in. I had 10 miles planned for today. I ran to the Y to meet up with the group. I knew I needed a few miles to myself. My legs hurt and were heavy. I ran nice and slow to not force anything and to allow my body to warm up. This was rough I am not going to lie. I ran 2 miles to the Y. I met up with Phil, Emily, and Katharine and we headed out. Phil ran to the track and Katharine ran with us until Hy-Vee. I was struggling the first three miles of this part of the run, but felt better towards the end. Emily and I ran back to the Y where I snagged some water and GU. I then ran a cool down two mile run home. My body had enough. I need to get to Dr. Walden to get worked out. I have some tightness in my feet and my hips hurt again. It felt good to get 10 miles in today. I need to get some longer type runs built into my training to help my body better prepare for the 13 mile run in the long course triathlon.
One thing I am mad about with this run is how much weight I lost. I dropped 5.8 lbs. That is way too much. It was humid this morning and I knew I should have brought more to drink and consume but I was too stubborn to bring a hydration belt. I think I need to wear just for training to practice consuming at timed intervals or mile markers. 6 lbs is stupid for me to lose. I have my pre workout nutrition almost all figured out and my cycling nutrition is really coming along nicely. My running nutrition and hydration is not good as you can see. I know better. I have studied and studied material to know that this is not good. I will work on this for my next run. I need to practice consuming nutrition and hydration during the run. I never do it, but the only way to learn is to practice. I have learned my lesson after this weigh in.
I am back on track to eating much better. I am hoping to have things back on track by today and see the effects of good eating today. I know the way I ate this weekend is paying me back right now, but I think I am back on track.
The one thing I am slowly working on is removing junk food. By junk food I mean the foods that take the body the same amount of energy or more to break down to use(if anything is useful). These types of food do not provide the body any benefit which is why your body is always hungry and you just keep consuming and consuming(a bag of chips for example). Each week I am working on trying to improve one thing. This week it is a reduction in cheese consumption. I eat a ton of cheese. This is not good. A bit of cheese is fine, but not the amount I eat.
To replace those junk foods I am trying to replace them with fruits and vegetables. I have been eating a ton of both. Veggies could be better, but my fruit eating is top notch. I still have one major snack breakdown each day. I am constantly hungry when I am training. It is absurd how much I eat. Journaling really puts it in perspective for me.
Well, with tired legs I am out. Time for a quick rest after teaching all morning and then painting of another room in the house. It is also time to finalize my race schedule. I mapped out all the races and have a good plan in my head. I just need to make it real by signing up and making it happen.
I think your model for why chips are junk food is a little off; potato chips take almost no energy to break down, but what happens is that this causes a bunch of glucose to be dumped into your blood stream all at once, much faster than your body can make use of it. This triggers a severe insulin response that then moves the the glucose into your fat cells for storage. If you eat non-junk foods, glucose and other energy sources get delivered to your blood stream more gradually and thus leave you sated for longer.
Kind of like if you were to water your lawn from a fire hose, most of the water would just run off onto the street, but if you use the same amount of water in a sprinkler, your sod actually gets the needed moisture.