"Rest Week" is Over

"Rest week" was a success: last week, I cut back my running mileage by 1/3 and took out all intensity. I only did 1 swim last week for the first time in MANY months (usually I do 2, but my shoulder got achy early last week). And I had a few nice rides (2 outdoor for 63 miles, and 45 mins on a bike at the gym). Time to ramp it up a bit more before the TC 10 Mile on Oct 1.

The only thing a rest week is NOT good for is my mental strength. My "long" run of 6 miles yesterday with the boys felt a bit too hard, which is depressing:

A group of "skiers" slowly passed us, and I wanted to shout "MUSH!"

Well, 11+ miles this weekend, maybe 12 later the next week, then 9 days of easier runs before the race!

Here's my TC 10 Mile prediction from Saturday's post. (Which seems SOO not possible after an easy/slow week.)

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Rest is OVER

Yesterday marked 4 weeks since the TC 10 Mile (and the end of the Loony Challenge). I didn't run for a week after that, and that easy run 3 weeks ago was still a little painful for my achilles. So I took the next 3 weeks off. No running. No swimming. A few SHORT easy rides. Just mainly core work, leg exercises, stretching, and rolling.

Here's what the last 3 weeks look like in my training log:

The 2 short bike rides were trying out bikes before getting my new ride,
and then the 14 miler was when I just HAD to go for a ride
and try out my new bike (as seen in Saturday's post).

I didn't foam roll, PVC roll, or stretch every day. I feel like there are days I just need COMPLETE rest - I think that ALWAYS stretching isn't good for me. My heel sometimes feels better when I just let it rest for 2 days. (But at other times it needs a lot of attention, so I try to balance it out.)

After a week off, my sacrum injury from 2 years ago started to get achy. It's like that NEEDS some attention all the time. Total rest makes it hurt a bit.

My achilles (as expected) slowly felt better during the 3 weeks off. It wasn't constantly an upward slope - some days it felt a little worse, and some days it felt a little better. I wore 1 calf sleeve on it on days I'd be on my feet a lot, and that helped.

AND THEN I RAN 2 DAYS AGO! I did 4 miles easy, and my heel felt 100%! I know it's NOT 100%, but I was happy it felt so good and had to tell myself to quit while I was ahead. I'll use this easy 31 minute 4 miler as my base for where I start thinking about the next few weeks/months...

GOALS/PLANS FOR THE NEXT FEW MONTHS:

• Run easy, 3x/week, running the same distance all week while building by about 3-4 minutes each week. This was essentially what I did after my sacrum injury 2 years ago, and after spraining my ankle 18-months ago. It worked. I need to remind myself to just run easy for 2 reasons: first, building a good base will help keep me injury-free next year. Second, as I pointed out in my 2014 Waseca Triathlon race report, running a lot of HARDER workouts DOES make me faster, but not too much. So why not ease up for a bit, stop abusing my body, and just build some distance? Sounds good, right?

• No running on the track at the Y. I'd LOVE to be able to do this because it's easy to do when I drop the boys at the "Kids Care" at the Y. But when I went on an shorter, easier run on the track a few months ago, it made my ankle upset. (From the sprain 18-months ago being aggravated by all the turns on the 6-laps-to-a-mile track.) No need to be dumb with that.

• No weight lifting or swimming until the elbow heals up. I'm getting really, really, really. Really. Really. REALLY. REALLY. Pissed off at my elbow. I'm contacting my orthopedic elbow Doc again today to see if there's something more we can do. That's all I want to say because I don't want to get upset by this.

• Eat better. I've had a lot of junk in the last few weeks. I LIKE junk, but I need to eat it a bit more in moderation. I ate an apple yesterday after my ride, so we'll call that good for the week.

• Hit the bike/trainer when possible: maybe 2x/week all winter? I'm in a good spot with my biking; I'm not annoyed doing it. So I want to keep pushing that, but making sure I don't push myself into getting bored on it. I'll bike outside on my new bike while it's dry for maybe the next month, then put my old bike on the trainer and sweat all over that for the winter.

Speaking of biking, I did my "go-to" loop yesterday (the final ride shown in the calendar above). I went out KINDA hard on my new bike Eiffel, but wasn't time trial or tempo pace. I eased up once I got up Ramsey Hill, and then did a little extra on my way home. I realized once I'd climbed Ramsey that I had a 20.7 mph ave on a route were my PR ride on that route ridden ALL OUT had a 20.5 mph average! And this was a route with some rollers, and I haven't ridden hills since August 4th. This was all the new bike. I may have to go for an "all out" ride on this loop later this week to see if I can set a route PR.

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Final Garden Update of 2015

Well, I'm almost 2 weeks into my 2-3 weeks of rest. I used some rest time this past week to do some yard work and clean up our garden.

We just wrapped up a successful 2nd year of growing veggies in our tiny garden. (Here's a link to some photos from the first year.) Below are some photos from throughout the summer of 2015. Any of the photos that are a "scrapbook" of multiple images are files that I Instagrammed throughout the summer.

May 9th: shortly after planting.


In the north box: zucchinis, cucumbers, peppers, and basil peppered in.


In the south box: peppers, tomatoes, basil, lavender, and rosemary.


Before a mid-May frost.


A month later. We also had a cherry tomato plant on our patio, and we transplanted some rhubarb
from the neighbor's yard (the home that's for sale - it was going to be dug up during landscaping).


July 1st: the cucumbers reached the top of the trellis.


July 7th: Charlie and I both got stung before we found a burrowing wasp nest
next to our garden. LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THE QUEEN AT THE BOTTOM!


Harvesting a lot of cucumbers on July 12th (and then grilling tasty food).


Henry with 2 cukes a few days later...


… and 3 more cukes and 2 nice zucchinis.

Sometime in mid-July, we had a big storm come through and knock a lot of stuff down: all the peppers were tipped over, and the tomatoes fell too (including the one in the pot on the patio). It didn't seem to damage our yields, but it made everything ugly and harder to manage. (Like my body hair.) Next year, I'm going to cage our peppers, and do a better job with the tomato cages.

Early August. Note the big tomatoes tipped out of the planter box and into our neighbor's yard.
Also the pepper plant that looked so nice 2 photos above is now tipped over sideways.


A good harvest on Aug 13. (Along with an onion from my Mom's garden.)

Then, about a week ago, we did some final "green" veggie picking before a hard frost to close out the year. Here's Henry dancing around the garden last Thursday:

The cucumber vines were all dried up, and the tomato plants were more horizontal than vertical.


Final harvest: lots of tiny zucchinis, some final cukes, and a lot of green tomatoes.

Earlier this week, we pulled everything out:

Henry yanking on one of the tomato plants to pull it out.


Everything out except for the rosemary in the middle (which I want to pot and bring inside).
The zucchinis to the left were pulled out and set aside to dry up a bit.

Here's our final 2015 "harvest count" for our little 18" wide garden:

- "Early Girl" tomatoes: 33
- "Beefmaster" tomatoes: 22
- Cherry tomatoes: 97 (but my wife ate a LOT off the plant without keeping good count, so it's probably more like 120+)
- Cucumbers: 50
- Zucchinis: 16
- Yellow peppers: 9
- Red peppers: 1
- Orange peppers: 1 (Squirrels/bunnies got a lot of our red and orange peppers as they ripened.)
- Lots of basil
- Final end-of-season picking yielded 28 more tomatoes ("early girl" and "beefmaster"), 7 small zucchinis, and 4 red/orange peppers.

Oh, and I used up most of those final tiny zucchinis 2 nights ago by sautéing them with garlic salt, rosemary, and some parmesan cheese. We ate them on top of lasagna:

So I'll cage the peppers and tomatoes better next year, and MAYBE do more with containers on the patio, but otherwise we'll plan on doing something similar in 2016. Happy Fall!

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Rest Day #5 and 6: Candy Store, Scarecrow Festival, and Farming

Last Friday, the boys and I met my sister's family and my Mom at "Minnesota's Largest Candy Store." Here are 3 quick photos from that, but you can see a lot more in a post on my "root beer" blog:

This is only about 20% of their soda selection!


Candy EVERYWHERE, and puzzles lining the ceiling.

I got 2 cases of assorted sodas, with 1 case being mainly root beer. Click here for more photos.

Then we went a few more miles down the road to Emma Krumbees and their "Scarecrow Festival." It was the 3rd year we've done that. Here are some pics:

My niece jumping off the haystack!
And that's my Mom, little Charlie, Henry at the top, and my nephew on the right.


Charlie hobbling around in his snowsuit. It was 45 degrees and WINDY.


My Mom and Charlie.


Pumpkins.


My sis and the 4 kids on a short tractor ride.


A goofy one!


My sister's pic on the hayride. See?... I was there too!


Lunch.


Sliding.


A "train" ride. My nephew has Charlie on his lap in front of me,
Henry's waving, and my niece is at the very front.


Our gang on the pirate ship!


The boys were both PASSED OUT before we could get back on the highway when we left!

We headed to my parents house. The plan was for me to help with tillage. But that didn't happen. On Friday evening, Dad was getting close to done with a field. On Saturday morning, he finished it (he wants to do that himself to get the edges right) and then started on a different field. And by the time the final field was started, it was nearing time for us boys to pack up and go, so I got NO time behind the wheel of a tractor. Dang. Well I tried. But Henry got to ride for a bit with Grandpa:

Grandpa finishing a round.


Henry and Grandpa pulling away.




Charlie reminds me of his other Grandpa in this photo!


Swinging in Grandma's backyard.


Helping Grandma make applesauce the next morning.


Visiting Mike (Pharmie's younger brother) and Brianna's chickens!


Charlie wanted to catch one SO BAD.


Chasing chickens through the garden.


Another day, another nap in the car over the long ride back home.

On the injury/rest front: I wore my calf sleeves all day under my jeans to (1) keep me warm when it was chilly, and (2) to help my calves. My legs felt good all of Friday and Saturday! (They were a bit achy yesterday.)

And after a big day Friday of hauling Charlie around at the candy store, Scarecrow Festival, and at Grandpa and Grandma's house, my forearm/elbow pain really flared up. It's still pretty angry from Friday. I *think* it's on the mend overall, but Friday was just a bit of a set-back.

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Three(ish) Weeks of REST

It's been just over 2 weeks since the "Loony Challenge" that ended with the TC 10 Mile on Oct 4th. I did an easy spin on the bike 4 days later, followed by an easy-easy/moderate outdoor ride 2 days after that. The rest of that week, I did lots of stretching, foam rolling, core work, and some old "physical therapy" exercises for my legs. But nothing intense.

Then, 1 week post-race, I tried an easy run. I was just going to do 4 miles (after doing 20 over 2 days the weekend before as part of the Loony Challenge). Shortly after turning around (somewhere around mile 2.5), my left calf started to get a LITTLE tight again. Remember, BOTH calves started screaming at me near the end of the TC 10 Mile 7 days earlier (and finally started to feel normal after about 4-5 days rest). On this easy run, it wasn't bad. I just had hoped there'd be no issue at all.

That slight tightness / pain sealed my decision to take some time OFF. The next day after that run, I posted where I was at with my training and racing on Facebook, and asked what to do:

... [Should I] Completely lay off from running for 2-3 weeks more? Even longer? Keep rolling and stretching? Keep biking (which doesn't hurt it)? Should I run a BIT a few times a week to give it a little stress but stop before any pain? Or just TOTAL rest? Any thoughts are appreciated!! Thanks!!

Lots of people chimed in, including pro triathlete Heather L who turned me onto the sweet recovery tool that I mentioned in my last post. I was awaiting Coach Jen's 2 cents. (If you've been around for a while, you remember that she was the one who coached me for 8 weeks leading up to my 59:05 TC 10 Mile in 2010.) Here's what Jen said:

A few days later, I messaged her for a bit more advice. Basically, I didn't know if it was still considered good "rest" to do core work and some PT exercises for my legs (and some slow, eccentric, low-weight, high-rep work for my legs in the gym). I told her what I'd like to still be doing, and asked "CAN/SHOULD I STILL BE DOING THAT STUFF DURING THIS 'REST?'"

She said what I wanted to hear, and what I believed to be true: "Absolutely! Since you're injured, you need to rehab...strength, core, PT work is totally fine. You need it to heal all those ailments you have."

So, I've had an easy 2 weeks so far, but I'm only counting my rest as starting a week ago (after those 2 bike rides and that 1 run on last Sunday). So this is day 8 of rest. Six years ago, I tagged a series of posts with "14 Days of Nothing" where I did almost NOTHING for 2 weeks. (I looked back in my training log: over those 14 days, I did 6 days of about 10-20 minutes of core or light leg work, and some stretching a few days in there.) This year, I'll be doing 14-21 days of rest (AFTER having a pretty easy 7 days post-race), and I'll be keeping up on stretching, foam/PVC rolling, core work, and some light leg work, but there'll be NO swimming, NO running, and maybe an easy bike ride near the end of the rest. And hopefully this fella will fall off shortly:

Next time you're eating dinner at my house, remember
that my nasty feet were on my kitchen counters.

Alright, gotta go. I've got a busy schedule "resting."

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