6 Quick Unrelated Things

SMART GUY
The Apple Duathlon was Saturday. I had HOPED to do the Brian Kraft 5K on Monday, 2 days after the duathlon. The 5K was part of the MDRA Grand Prix that I signed up to do, and I've had to miss a LOT of their races because of my injury. I'm so behind in the series because I've missed so many races, and I want to start getting more Grand Prix points.

But my heel was a little sore on Sunday, and it was a little achy on Monday morning. So I did the right thing and decided to NOT race. I went for a swim instead. It was the right thing to do, but it was a hard decision.

It also would have been a fun 5K to run because it draws out the speedsters. I'm used to running near the front in small races, or getting lost in the crowd in large races. This race had 300 men, and the first 82 went under 18:00!! The first 54 went under 17:00! Crazy!


DIARRHEA BRICK
Last Wednesday, I did my first "traditional" brick of the year. I did a 27 mile ride, spent 90 seconds getting my bike in the house and getting my running shoes on, and ended with a hard 3 mile run.

The only problem was this brick was fueled by a meal of beef jerky and cookie dough ice cream. (I don't usually eat THAT bad, but I had a weak night - don't judge me.) My stomach was a little upset at the end of the bike, and then I got in the house after the run and did something nasty in the toilet 3 minutes later. Oops. Lesson learned.


LOTS OF STRENGTH
I've been "blasting my ass" a lot lately to keep my glutes strong. That was what my PT thought could be one of the roots of my heel issues - weak glutes that lead to a lot of "hip drop" which pulls at everything the wrong way. Pharmie's been enjoying watching me do my "Suzanne Somers" moves in the living room.

I've been working my core and upper body a lot lately too. Maybe too much. But I'm enjoying it, so I've just been going with it. I did over 7.25 hours of strength in these 3 weeks:

Middle 3 weeks in May, leading up to last weekend's race

MORE SWIMMING PLEASE
That's all. I need to swim more. Lots more. My first tri of the year is 10 days away. Oh crap. Who wants to do a LOT of open water swims with me over the next 7 days?


LIFE LESSON
With the heel injury that I'm just getting over, I took 6 weeks completely off from running - something I don't usually do. Then I picked it back up V-E-R-Y S-L-O-W-L-Y. My last "long run" was at the end of January (over 4 months ago). I did my first intervals just a few weeks ago.

But, after all of this, I'm now running just as fast as ever. I think the lesson here is that once your body knows how to run "fast," it doesn't really forget that. We don't need to go "balls to the wall" all the time, afraid that we'll never be as fast as we currently are if we ease up a bit. We need a break now and then. REST, gosh darn it! (All that being said, I still need to build up my endurance a little bit, but I'm building that slowly.)


RUNNING WITH A BABY BUMP
Pharmie just posted on her blog that if this baby of ours doesn't come by this weekend, she's going to run the Grand Old Day 5K. (She might actually run it with Abbe, her pregnant running partner who is DUE that day!) It's a "fun run," so she'll be able to stop and walk if she needs to. (She'll be 39 weeks pregnant at that point!) If she runs it, I'll probably run as a "bandit" with her. The Grand Old Day 5K was our first race together 9 years ago!

Sure, I've got hairy legs in the photo, but this was
apparently before all my shoulder and chest hair "sprouted."

Back with more photos from the Apple Duathlon tomorrow!