Semi-Wordless Wednesday: More Aqua Jogging

As I noted in Monday’s post, I hit the pool for some aqua jogging for the first time in a month. My trick of wearing a tight top under the “floaty belt” helped with keeping some the rubbing problems at bay:

At the pool’s edge, ready to “jog.”


The worst of the rubbing post-jog.

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Another Big Swim Week (and LOTS of Strength Work)

Here's a snapshot of last week's (too-injured-to-run-or-bike) training:

• SWIMS: This was my 4th week of this basic layout: "normal" swim workouts on Monday and Friday, and a slightly easier/shorter "drills" swim in-between on Wednesday. Monday was my pyramid workout, and Friday was 200s. I wasn't pushing off the walls much to let my heel rest.

• STRENGTH: I hit a big number this week: exactly 7 hours (which is [obviously] an average of 1 hour/day). My average for all of 2019 is under 5 hours/week. So 7 is pretty big. I had good upper body workouts after class both days last week at the Hamline University weight room. And good core and good "physical therapy" (PT) leg workouts. At a quick look back through my training log, I think I've only had 2 weeks over 7 hours of strength work in the THREE YEARS before this last week (looking back to April of 2016!). And both of those weeks I "doubled upped" my workouts: I did upper body for nearly an hour, and then did some of my PT leg exercises later in the day. In May 2019, I did that 2 times to break 7 hours, and in March 2019, I did that once to break 7 hours. (This past week, I "double upped" on Tue/Thur: upper body and then some core later, which is why those are my biggest days.) This past week and those other 2 weeks in 2019 were the only 3 weeks with over 7 hours of strength work in the last 3 years!

• AQUA JOG: Yesterday I aqua jogged for the first time in 4.5 weeks. I stopped doing it back then because I thought it was still hurting my foot/heel, but I know it's not now. I did the simple hour workout of 10 min warm-up, 40 mins of 1 min hard / 1 min easy, 10 min cool-down.


I'm heading back to the Doc to see whats's up with my foot shortly. Because all these non-weight bearing workouts and no running and no biking is still keeping me in pain.

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Semi-Wordless Wednesday: A Solution to the Aqua Jogging Rash

I cut aqua jogging from my training routine 10 days ago in the name of letting everything heal up. (I should be re-incorporating it again shortly.) In my 4 hour-long sessions before that, I had some issues.

My first time, I realized I used too large of a belt, and it cut into my love handles a bit. My second time, I used a smaller belt and all was right with the world. My third time, I thought I did everything right, but I still got a little rubbed raw above my hips:

Later in the day on Aug 20.

So for my fourth time, I finally really figured it out. I wore my normal triathlon race shirt just to have a layer between me and the floaty belt:

Headed to the pool.


Floaty belt on, ready to go.

Bingo. That did the trick.

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Aqua Jogging = Funnnnn

No wait, it's not fun. Not at all.

After my failed test run on Tuesday, I hit the pool for a short swim on Wednesday. Then I went "aqua jogging" on Thursday. I did a simple hour-long workout: 10 minute warm-up, 40 minutes of 1 min hard / 1 min easy, and a 10 minute cool down. I forgot to use the "narrow" belts and used the ones that get really thick on the sides. So I earned a nice raw spot on either hip:

Once I got home from the gym.


Later that evening. Doesn't look like much, but it was sore in the shower, in the sheets, etc.

Friday I went for a pretty normal swim.

And this morning, I went for a mid-distance ride. I didn't push the pace because of my heel, and I stayed on the flats per doctor's orders as well. So just a ride down the Greenway (through the detour) and back for 27 miles. I finished my ride and soaked in a hot tub to help loosen things up more before having a good stretch:

Tomorrow morning I get to do more aqua jogging! I think I'll do some sort of ladder - like 1 min easy between efforts of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 minutes. Maybe I'll turn that into a pyramid and come back down again.

Anyway, back to work for me! My boys AND my wife are gone (Grandma's house and Ragnar), so I'm getting house projects done!

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Aqua Jogging and Bone Spurs

Well, I've been resting a bit on the running front lately. I noted back in March that I suddenly had some foot pain on a (normal) long run on 3/18. I raced the next weekend and it was fine (although my race SUUUUCKED possibly because I took it so easy leading up to it to rest my foot). I just ran twice the next week, and it wasn't good.

So then I took over a week off from running: I ran on Friday 3/30, and didn't run again until this past Sunday 4/8. I aqua jogged on Wednesday and Friday of last week (my normal run days). Here's my red belly in the locker room after some aqua jogging belt rubbage on my tum-tum:

I've been icing and heating my left foot 1 or 2 times every day (ice for 15 mins, heat for 15 mins). I took 2 hot epsom salt baths this week and last week to help "flush" anything out. During my first one, Charlie came up to read his tractor book to me:

Adorable.

Two days ago, I had my hardest/longest Spinnerval workout of the winter. I did most of Spinnervals 15.0 (just skipping the 3rd part of the warm up and the final 5x1 min efforts at the end) only skipping 15 minutes of a 2 hour DVD workout. It was brutal: after 2 warm ups, it was a 10 minute tempo, 30 minute tempo, 15 minutes tempo, some 1-legged drills, and then I forget... I was BEAT UP. Here was my sweat running off the mat and toward the drain as I was about 60 minutes in:

Normal pic on the left, sweat trails highlighted in red on the right.


1:45 of sweat. Gross. I went through 2 big water bottles
and 1 smaller one with electrolytes in it.

Yesterday, I had an appointment with a podiatrist to talk over these recent foot issues to make sure I wasn't royally screwing something up. Here's Charlie and I waiting to see the doc:

Here's the Cliff Notes version of our meeting:

- No stress fracture. (I didn't think I had one.)
- "Very obvious" signs of 1 or 2 bone spurs on the top of my left foot.
- Also most likely some osteoarthritis in that foot.
- The bone-on-bone action (hot) is what's causing the pain.
- Surgery is an option WAAAY down the line.
- I should do what feels good: keep icing/heating as I want.
- The metatarsal pads I was given to wear in 2016 are still good to be wearing; that's a separate issue.
- Loosening my shoes (running and normal shoes) as much as I can will help the pain go away.
- Doc showed me a way to lace my shoes to remove pressure from that point if I want to try that.
- Doc also gave me pads to cut into "U"s to put in the tongue of my shoes if I want to (to relieve pressure from the sore spot).
- Some good orthotics would help. (Every podiatrist is required to say this by law. I'm pretty sure.)
- If nothing helps, we could have an MRI, but that's far from needed right now.

If I'm recalling correctly, here's where he felt the bone spurs. Way down
the line, I may have to have the metatarsals and cuneiforms screwed together.

So hopefully scaling it back a bit for another week will help get me back on the right track.

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October in Review

October started and ended with a race (on the 1st and 28th), and I sort of "limped" through (not literally) some training in the middle as I was trying to keep my ankle in check:

(Purple is "sport" minutes, which is either aqua jogging or trainer time.)

• SWIM: 1600 yards. Yep. That's it. My ankle wasn't in good shape after the TC 10 Mile, so I figured it wasn't worth trying to push it. I hope to hop in the pool in a few days.

• BIKE: 97.38 miles. And 3 hours and 42 mins on the trainer/spin bike for an (estimated) 70 more miles (19 mph) for 167.38 total "miles." Nothing was too hard here. Lots of simple endurance work or easier spinning to loosen up the legs and stretch out.

• RUN: 78.26 miles. And 1 hour 47 mins aqua jogging for an extra 14 "miles" for 92.26 total "miles." I took a week off between the TC 10 Mile and my long training run for the Minneapolis Halloween Half Marathon, and I aqua jogged in there. That was a good call because my ankle felt fine for the race, and the aqua jogging kept my endurance up.

Overall, this is one of my lowest Octobers for swimming (yes, I've had at least 2 or 3 Octobers with LESS swimming than these 1600 yards). And this has been my best October for biking. This whole YEAR has been good for biking! (For me. Comparatively.)

Since the race on the 28th, I haven't swam, biked, or run. I've only done some weights / strength / core work. My ankle NEVER hurt after this past weekend's race, and any slight daily "ache" is getting better each day. I'd like to try aqua jogging this weekend (that puts NO pressure on it), and then I might try swimming a day or 2 after that (that puts pressure on the top of my foot as I'm kicking, and that's what made it hurt last month, but I'm in a much difference place with it, so I'm hopeful swimming will be OK). The chriopractor (Dr. Backus) who I was seeing for ultrasound on it a few times these last few weeks says swimming and aqua jogging should both be totally fine. But he'd like to see me take 1-2 weeks off from running.

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Not (Currently) Running

Here's what the last 2 weeks have looked like:

THE BIG THING TO NOTE IS THE RED: WEDNESDAY THE 18TH (nearly 2 weeks ago) WAS MY LAST RUN. That was an easy run 3 days after the YWCA Indoor Tri, and ran on a treadmill just so I wasn't slipping around outside. But my knee was quite achy. I decided to not run for a while. It's been aching a lot ever since.

The last 2 Thursday's have had big spinning classes, and those have gone over well. I think those have aggravated my knee a LITTLE, so I'm not sure if I should do those or not. (All the purple in the week of the 16th is bike time, and T and Th the week of the 23rd was bike time too.)

This past Wednesday and Sunday (yesterday) each had a 50 minute workout, and those were Aqua Jogging. Yes. I'm Aqua Jogging again. (I'm only capitalizing it so it seems less wussy.) That's always a good sign. On Wednesday, I did a warm up and then 30 mins of 1 min hard / 1 min easy. And yesterday, I did a warm up and then a ladder of hard efforts with 1 min of easy in between them all: 1 min hard, 2 hard, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1.

THE GOOD NEWS?

My swimming is coming along pretty well. I still can't do TOO much because it still makes my swimmer's shoulder a bit angry, but I'm happy doing this amount. Here were the 4 swims listed above:

- 1/17: 3x500 averaging 7:32.9 (1:30.6/100 pace)
- 1/20: 10x100 (with SHORT rests) averaging 1:26.0
- 1/23: ladder (100, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1) with short rests keeping everything at or under 1:30 pace
- 1/27: 5x200 averaging 2:59.2/200

I'm going to see my A.R.T. Chiropractor (Dr. Folske) later today for the first time in about a year. I'll see what he has to say about my knee and what he thinks I should be doing for it.

p.s. In the meantime, if you're so inclined, stop by my Photo Blog. I recently posted some interesting photo-related links, and now that the semester is starting for me this week, I'll probably be posting a bit more there. (When I'm always talking about photo stuff in a college environment, I'm always a bit more inspired to make more photos and post more on my photo blog.) So bookmark it if you're interested!

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Thirsty (for knowledge) Thursday: Aqua Jogging Tips

No one WANTS to aqua jog, but there are times injuries deem it necessary. I've been in the pool for hour-long aqua jogging sessions 9 times over the first 3 weeks of April before throwing in the towel to try 100% rest this past weekend. I feel like I learned a few things, so here are my 8 aqua jogging tips.


ONE: Have a workout.

Aqua jogging is about the worst thing to do. I can run on a treadmill for an hour and not flinch. I can hop on my bike trainer for a while as long as I have a TV. But aqua jogging can get boring FAST. Having a specific workout to do helps the time go by faster than just hopping in the pool and moving your legs in a running fashion for 60 minutes.

Here's a post with some of my initial workouts (near the bottom), and here's a second post with some more. The 3 workouts I ended up liking the most were 40 minutes of 1 min hard / 1 min easy, ladders with short rest times (like efforts of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 minutes with 15 sec rest), and 3 x (8 x 90 sec hard, 30 sec easy) with 2 mins of "easy" between sets of 8. I always warm up and cool down for 5-15 minutes, and I add in other random efforts (often starting and/or ending with 5-10 x 30 sec hard/30 sec easy or 5-10 x 1 min hard/1 min easy) to make most of my workouts between 55 and 70 minutes.


TWO: Wear glasses or contacts.

I'm pretty blind without my eyewear. So I make sure to wear my glasses while aqua jogging so I can actually have things to look at around the pool. It helps with the boredom.


THREE: Wear a new(ish) suit.

During a 70 minute aqua jog near the beginning of the month, I was still wearing an old suit, and my "boys" jostled around too much during the workout. I actually had a little uncomfortable chaffing on "righty." Yes. Really. It hurt for the next 24 hours. This problem was solved by wearing a newer, tighter fitting suit where the elastic wasn't so worn out. Fellas, you've been warned!


FOUR: Pick a small "floaty belt."

The 2 pools I've "jogged" at both have a wide assortment of belts to choose from. Both have some belts that were so wide/long that they'd wrap so far around my back and around my sides that my elbows would rub against them during the workout. I learned the smaller/shorter the foam floaty part of the belt, the more comfortable I'd be during the workout. (Save the bigger belts for the grannies floating around while catching up on the latest gossip.)

This belt is about as big as they come. See how you could rub your elbows on that?
Choose a smaller one. And look: someone with a butt smaller than mine!

FIVE: Wear a lap watch, and start it on the minute of the lap clock.

This is actually 2 related points rolled into one. First of all, I like to wear a lap watch to make sure I have my overall time correct. And if you're doing any longer intervals, it helps me note what minute I'm on. When I do a ladder aqua jog workout (like that 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 workout listed in the first point above), it's easy to watch the big lap swimming clock for the short 1 or 2 minute efforts. But I like to hit the lap button on my watch for the 4 and 5 minute efforts so I don't start thinking "wait, was that 3 minutes or 4 minutes?"

And make sure to start your workout (or at least the main sets of your workout) at the same time as the start of the minute on the lap clock, or it will just be annoying. My first few workouts got old when I would glance at that clock and have to think "OK, it's the start of minute, which means I have 12 more seconds left because I started my watch 12 seconds after the start of the minute." It seems minor, but it got to me.


SIX: Choose a pool with a bigger (meaning "longer") deep end.

The pool at my normal gym has a deep end that's about 1/3 of the length of the pool (maybe 8 yards). The pool at the college where I teach has a deep end that's about 1/2 of the length of the pool (around 12 yards). (The college pool has a diving program, so I think the deep end is larger because of that.) The longer deep end of the college pool is MUCH nicer for aqua jogging because it's less turning around. It actually got annoying going to my normal gym after a few workouts in the college pool.


SEVEN: Drag a buddy along for the workout.

One of my 9 workouts this past month was with a running buddy, and it made the time go by a LOT faster. This is no surprise. The workout maybe wasn't AS intense, but that wasn't the goal.

Leah and I pre-aqua jog (as seen in this post).

EIGHT: Plan your workouts during other scheduled events at the pool.

This relates to #2 and #7. I learned it's much less boring when I can watch swim instructors teaching 10-year-olds how to dive a few lanes over. Or when they're teaching 6-year-olds how to swim under water for part of a length. It's fun to watch! And a couple of times on Thursdays in the college pool, the entire female lacrosse team would come in to cross-train with their coach. They were loud, silly, and entertaining for anyone in the pool (but usually visibly annoying to the lifeguard on duty). They helped make the time go by faster.


If you're looking for aqua jogging tips on form, check out this post from earlier this month where I had coaches, trainers, and other fit friends give me some pointers. I also mention a few workouts in that post.

For more "Thirsty Thursday" posts that highlight workouts, body science, and all kinds of interesting information, CLICK HERE.

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A (Boring) Week of (Boring) Workouts

My training log last week looks boring, but it's not horrible considering the boot I'm still wearing:

A good portion of that orange "strength" work is PT for my legs/ankle.

And that purple "sport" work is every-other-day of bike trainer (M/W/F) and aqua jogging (T/Th/Sat), totaling 3:11 aqua jogging and 2:55 in the saddle. Here's the daily break-down:

- Monday was just an easy/moderate spin because my stomach was still getting over some issues.
- Tuesday I did a ladder aqua jog as noted in this post.
- Wednesday was a hard day on the trainer where I tried to stay in the saddle as to not put too much pressure on my leg.
- Thursday was a good but brutal aqua jog of 3x(8x90sec) intervals. Those got my heart going!
- Friday was a short, hard interval spin because I was starting to develop a saddle sore after Wednesday's workout from not standing.
- Saturday was a final aqua jog. This was my first aqua jog with a buddy to chat with:

Pre-aqua jogging selfie with Leah.

Then it was that evening that I started having testicle pain, and that was a good reason to take Sunday off.

Speaking of testicle pain, another buddy from the Y is in nursing school, and she sent this this Facebook message and photo the other day showing me what she was currently studying:

(Click here to see Monday's post if you don't know what she's talking about.)

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Instagram of the Day: Freezing Pool and HARD Aqua Jogging

I just posted this on Instagram:

"Pool heater has been broken, so this was the coldest pool I'd ever been in. I thought I'd
try some belt-less aqua jogging today to stay warm. HOLY HEART-RATE BATMAN!"

First of all, YES, the water was cold. I thought it was a bit colder than usual on Thursday, and the lifeguard today confirmed that. It's been down for maybe a week. It was COLD.

Secondly, aqua jogging withOUT a floaty belt on is intense. I tried it for JUST a few seconds at the end of an aqua jog over the weekend, and it WAS do-able, but it was hard. Today, I thought I'd do 4x or 5x 2:00 or 2:30 efforts withOUT the belt. Well, I barely got to 2:00 the first time and had to take a break (because I was breathing so hard and could barely keep my mouth about the water). After that, I did only 90 sec efforts (with 30 sec rest). I was able to do 5. I took my heart rate over 15 seconds after #3, and it was 41 (or 164 beats/min). And as I noted in last week's post about some recent aqua jogging workouts, your heart rate drops FAST in the pool - it slowed up a lot over the 15 seconds that I counted it. Had it kept the pace of when I first started timing, I bet it would have had 43 beats over those 15 seconds, or a heart rate of 172. AND THEN I HAD 2 MORE INTERVALS LEFT. That was brutal. I'll do it again, but maybe not for a while.

I started the workout with a 7 min WU, did 10 mins of 1 hard then 1 easy, then took off the belt for the brutal stuff above. And I ended with a descending ladder of 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 min with 0:15 rest between. Then about a 5 min CD for a total of 52 mins: my shortest aqua jog in recent history.

Back with a week of workouts shortly.

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Ball Buster

I had a nice aqua jog with a buddy from the Y on Saturday morning. Except for this:

Then, SUPPOSEDLY UNRELATED TO PREVIOUSLY MENTIONED TWEET, Saturday evening got rough. I posted this on Facebook on Sunday morning:

I deleted it just after I took that screenshot (24 minutes after being posted) because I knew I should go in and I didn't need THAT kind of detailed info on FB. Also in that time, I got 3 direct messages from friends too. Thanks everyone! My wife worked this past weekend, so I found a sitter and took off for the ER before noon. They sent me to Urgent Care, and then they sent me back to the ER. I finally got checked in and back to the room:

My pee in a cup. Someone on Instagram teased that I filled it up.
I replied with "I don't half-ass things."


Grading student projects while waiting. Lots of waiting.


I love my wife. (She works at this hospital, so that's why she was asking who was seeing me.)

After being poked by a Doc and ruling out a hernia, I went back for an ultrasound on my junk:

From my Instagram: "Just had an ultrasound on my testes. It's been a weird day."


The ultrasound nurse needed to go check to see if radiology needed more images. So this
is a selfie with my man-bits covered in ultrasound goo as I waited for her to come back.


Blue ultrasound goo all over the towels after LOTS of wiping down.


Another FB post...


... and a comment on that previous thread.


Back in the waiting room to wait to talk with the Doc again, and I COULDN'T
TURN THE TV FROM MALE FIGURE SKATING. I tried. Twice. Super annoying.

So no torsion, no abnormal growth, no hernia, no infection, nothing twisted or pinched or causing blood flow issues. Officially, they're saying it's hydrocele, like baby boys commonly get: some liquid around "righty." I don't know if I fully buy that (would that cause sharp pain out of nowhere?), but they ruled out all the bad stuff that could make me lose a nut. And now that I know I won't be known as "cranky ole' 1-nut Stenzel" in 60 years, I'm OK with a little pain for a few days. I have no restrictions: I can bike, lift, do core work, etc. We'll see how this goes.

Back with more tomorrow that will NOT be all about my manhood. I promise.

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Three Recent Aqua-Jogging Workouts

Last Thursday, I hit the pool between classes for some aqua jogging (as I noted in my last post). After my workout, I posted this question to my friends on the YWCA Endurance Sports page (tagging some coaches):

Here's 5 bits of advice from the group:

- Coach Laurie mentioned keeping my feet flexed (which I hadn't thought of), and she liked a simple "1 min on, 1 min off for 40 mins total" workout.

- Another trainer from the Y mentioned that you only need a bit of rest when water running because heart rate decreases quickly in the pool. She also said to keep a straight back. She gave some workouts with different kick variations, but that scared me. Two main workout ideas she shared were things like 10x 1min hard, 1 min easy or 30 sec hard, 30 sec easy. And a pyramid: "1 min hard, :10 easy, 2 mins hard :10 easy up to 5 minute (at 80%) and back down."

- Someone who I didn't know said they like 30-60 mins of 60 sec on / 15 sec off. She might be Satan because she also said "you can do intervals with your hands above the water or your arms held above your head for a harder strength effort (this works only if you're aqua running without a belt)." NO THANKS. That person also shared this link which has 2 months of aqua jogging workouts! Here's a screenshot of those workouts:

This is a little hard to read, but it's just sort of my backup should this link ever stop working.
Check out this link for a more readable version.

- Coach Kym confirmed that you need less rest when in the pool. She also said this which I found helpful: "You also need to really push for intensity because of the lack of gravity. So generally I suggest a more vigorous arm pump and a greater hip range than you would use on land. Think about using your 100m sprint form and intensity for :30-1:00 with :10-15 rest but it doesn't do the the physical trauma that you would have on the track."

- And finally, someone mentioned keeping her sanity by getting an waterproof iPod case and headphones and listening to podcasts.

SO HERE ARE MY FIRST THREE AQUA JOGGING WORKOUTS:

The first one I mentioned in my Facebook screenshot above:

- 15:00 WU
- 4x5:00 efforts with 2:30 easy (that's 30 mins of hard and easy)
- 15:00 CD
- 60 mins total (stretched out of 62 with some extra CD)

As people mentioned on Facebook, that was a LOT of rest between sets. So my second workout over the weekend had shorter rest. I did Laurie's workout:

- 10:00 WU
- 40 mins of 1 min hard / 1 min easy
- 10:00 CD
- 60 mins total

Then yesterday I decided to up the intensity a bit more. I've mentioned in the past that I HATE ladder workouts (swimming freestyle in the pool or running on the track), so that means they MUST be good for me. So I did a version of that recommended ladder workout. Only I did 0:15 rest instead of 0:10 because (1) I was afraid of THAT short of rest, and (2) it was easier for my mind to keep track of 0:15 rests vs 0:10 on a dial clock.

- 6:00 WU
- 20 mins of 1 min hard / 1 min easy
- 1 min easy rest

(The following "hard" efforts are at roughly 85% effort - NOT all out, but still "hard enough.")

- 1 min hard, 0:15 easy
- 2 min hard, 0:15 easy
- 3 min hard, 0:15 easy
- 4 min hard, 0:15 easy
- 5 min hard, 0:15 easy
- 4 min hard, 0:15 easy
- 3 min hard, 0:15 easy
- 2 min hard, 0:15 easy
- 1 min hard, 0:15 easy

- 1 min easy rest
- 5 mins of 0:30 hard / 0:30 easy
- 8 min CD
- 68 mins total

I did the math pre-workout and saw that the ladder part of that workout was only about 30 mins, so I added in some 1 min efforts before, followed by some 30 sec efforts at the end, and both of those were a good idea. I could easily flip-flop those too, but what I did worked well.

Also, I was glad that I was wearing my watch for that last workout - it's easy to keep an eye on the big pool clock for 60 sec efforts like workout #2, but it got harder when doing 4 min and 5 min efforts like in this last workout. So I took a few splits on my watch during this last workout just so I wouldn't be thinking "wait, was that 3 mins or 4 mins." TIP: if wearing a watch for an aqua jogging workout, coordinate the starting of your watch with the big pool clock so one isn't off by like 12 seconds every minute. That gets annoying. (I did that for my 2nd workout, and it bugged me after a few minutes.)

After doing these 3 workouts, I don't know if I could easily do the first workout again. It might be too boring. The last workout was a BIT more to remember (I actually wrote it down and had it on a sheet of paper next to me in the pool), but that made it a bit more interesting with less chance of boredom. I'll hit the pool again tomorrow, and then I have a "date" with some ladies from my gym on the weekend for some company in the pool. Looking forward to that!

p.s. I took my heart rate at the end of my last aqua jogging workout. I had 39 beats over 15 seconds starting right after I finished my final 30 second interval. Kym and Angela were right - heart rate drops QUICKLY in the pool. I noticed it dropping a LOT over those 15 seconds! So 39 beats over 15 seconds is a HR of 156 beats/min, which isn't bad for no-impact aqua jogging. And really, it was actually well over 160 beats/min at the peak because it was slowing up drastically over those 15 seconds.

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Boot-Wearing Workouts

After getting outfitted in my lovely boot last Tuesday, I've had 3 decent workouts:

A week of strength training (in orange), and some "sport" workouts (in purple).

Wednesday, I hit the bike trainer for a quick 50 minute interval session with Coach Troy.

Thursday, I hit the Hamline pool between classes for an hour of aqua jogging:

From my Instagram: "62 mins of aqua jogging. Kill me now."

It actually wasn't that bad. I just made up a workout: 15 minute warm up (easy to easy/mod), then 4 x (5 mins HARD / 2.5 mins EASY), then a 15 minute cool down. It wasn't too boring.

Then you notice there's no "sport" workouts on my calendar on Friday or Saturday. I was PLANNING on doing another aqua jog and a longer trainer workout, but my body had other plans. I'll let these 2 tweets of mine explain:

Yep. From late morning on Friday through Sunday morning, things were NOT OK. In fact, if you look at my week of training at the top, you'll see that I weighed myself on Sunday and I was 159.2 lbs. That's the first time I've been under 160 lbs in the last 5 months. And it wasn't just water weight (I was drinking plenty - I just couldn't eat much).

So then on Sunday I tried to hit the pool for more aqua jogging. I wasn't sure if my stomach would be 100% OK, but it held up just fine! I did a 10 min warm up, then 40 mins of 1 min HARD / 1 min EASY, then a final 10 min cool down. Nice workout. I'll have more thoughts on aqua jogging workouts in the near future. (I asked some coaches for advice and got some good feedback that I'll share.)

Here's a boot-wearing aqua-jogging-belt-marks-on-tummy selfie post-jog:

I realize this is mainly of my crotch. You're welcome.

Sunday afternoon ended with a short cat nap. Literally:

Me, my boot, and my cats.

Hoping for a solid week of aqua jogging and trainer workouts this week! Then HOPEFULLY just 1 more week of the same with MAYBE the boot coming off next Friday. Fingers crossed.

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More Mindless Aqua Jogging

Just over a week ago, I did 45:00 of aqua jogging. I did a few 9:00 intervals (6 hard, 3 easy). Here's my belly afterwards, all beat-up from the floaty-belt-thingy:

Of COURSE I'm flexing. Duh.

It's been over 6 weeks since I've ran, and over 3 weeks since I've biked. My knee is barely getting better, and my hip has it's moments. My hip hurt a lot more a few weeks ago, but my knee just really hasn't changed in the last 4 weeks. (Here was my last update 2 weeks ago.) I think my next step is to get an MRI.

I was "proud" of myself for not missing running that much until about a week ago. I didn't like watching the TC 10 Mile and not being a part of it. It was a BEAUTIFUL morning for a race!

Check out my post from this weekend that shows some AWESOME photos from the TC Marathon!

And stop by again soon (hopefully tomorrow) for a $150 shoe giveaway!!

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Instagram of the Day: HIS Pool

I Instagrammed this photo Tuesday along with the caption "Henry had the entire pool to himself!!"

After we swam for a bit together, I dropped him off at "Kids Care" so I could aqua jog for 30 minutes. Oh joy. So much fun. I did 3 5:00 intervals of hard "running." Good news: it didn't hurt my injured back / leg. I took off my "floaty belt" near the end of my 2nd interval because I wasn't working too hard. But it hurt my back a bit, and it got a little TOO hard, so I put it back on for the final one.

Here's a shot post-aqua jogging that shows some slightly red irritation on my torso from the floaty belt:

Jeez, I hope I can run again soon... this aqua jogging stuff stinks.

p.s. I posted some fun / interesting photo-related links on my Photo Blog. Check them out.

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Aqua Jogging Sucks

My left heel is still NOT 100% after taking 2 weeks off from running. So I'm "babying" it, and everything should be OK. I'm not running hard, I'm just getting in some miles. And I'm taking plenty of rest days between runs.

Friday, I hit the pool to do something I haven't done in a while:

Water Running.
Aqua Jogging.
Slow Torture.
Call it what you will.

I found this video on BeginnerTriathlete about water running, and that helped a lot with regards to cadence and length of my movements. I knew if I wanted to not be completely bored out of my mind, I'd have to break my time in the pool into intervals. I was able to get in 40 minutes without really going TOO crazy. After nearly 10 minutes of warming up, I did the following:

3:53 interval
3:14 rest / easier

4:13 interval
3:15 rest / easier

4:04 interval
3:13 rest / easier

4:05 interval
4:46 rest / CD

My intervals were about 168 strides / min with slightly more compact strokes and kicks, and my rest periods were longer more "endurance based" strokes around 140 / min. (The interval and rest times are so weird because they were based on a certain number of laps: I think I did 3 deep-end laps / interval, and 2 deep-end laps / rest.)

Dare I say... I think I could have even gone LONGER had I not had to pick up Henry! I finished with a quick 150 yard CD swim, and then got to the locker room and snapped this photo of how the water running belt had rubbed my belly:

Yep, I might be nude in this photo...

And then yesterday I went on a relatively easy run with Henry. Here he is just before we headed out:

We ran along a BUSY River Road (lots of bikers and runners out on a beautiful Saturday morning!) for a total of 7.25 miles. My heel felt GREAT, but I just got lucky - I'm still really nursing it so I can make it through the MDRA Grand Prix series. I threw in a FEW faster miles near the middle, but nothing HARD. We warmed up for 2 miles (7:29, 7:32) and then went at a "moderate" pace for a few miles (6:56, 7:00, 7:00, 6:31). Then we cooled down on the way home. The little dude slept the whole way.

The LTF Minneapolis Triathlon is 2 WEEKS AWAY, so I need to hit my bike a bit more! And then just under 2 weeks after that are the next 2 MDRA Grand Prix races! Gotta be ready for those!

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Aqua Jogging: Dying a Slow Death

Yesterday, I hit the pool with swimming buddies Julia and Steve. But I didn't "swim." I strapped on a belt, and I "aqua jogged." It looked something like this:

Only I wore less make-up and have even LESS of a butt than she does...

I thought by just having some other people I knew in the pool, it wouldn't make the water running seem like a long, horrible, boring death-march. And it DID help. But it was STILL a long time to just make a running motion while hardly moving.

I strapped on that belt and moved my arms and legs in the deep end of the pool for a solid 50 minutes! I only eased up once (around the 40 minute mark) when Julia shouted over to me "Tighten that belt! It's sneaking up on you!" I paused for a few seconds to re-adjust, and I was "jogging" a moment later.

Here's SOME proof that I did SOMETHING yesterday: After I finished water running, I chatted with Julia and Steve for a moment, hit the hot tub (to mack on some grannies, of course), showered off in the locker room, and then snapped this photo that shows where I was still a little "irritated" from the tight belt that was around my mid-section for 50 minutes:

Not to sound "douchey," but I have to point something else out regarding that photo. I've been THINKING that the strength training over the last 5 months has been starting to show, and that photo confirms my thought. See that muscle on the lower left? I've never had that before! I've never had that many core muscles that were VISIBLE! But it could just be the lighting...

When I posted about my cross-training at the beginning of this week, I mentioned how I've been really focusing on "mixing things up" and not doing the same strength / core routine over and over again. I think it's working. Now if only I could get the "green light" to start running again, things would be GOLDEN! ;)

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