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Chronicles of a fish: the days of surf and turf
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Oh god...it hurts to laugh!!
If you lived in ireland youd still be waiting in a&e right now.
90 minutes from the time I left my house to the time I arrived back home. I guess small town living does have its benefits.....except for the fact that I knew just about everyone in the hospital (including the doctor who saw me), so there's nothing private!0 -
interested wrote: »That is really good news ... and the bike is definitely ok ?
The Black Cat had some tufts of grass stuck here and there on the side that I smashed into the ground with the weight of my body, but I plucked them away and she is fine. 0 -
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Hi Dory,
just catching up, hope the ribs are ok, as everyone has said up above, take it easy, you have the work done, you cant improve your fitness in the next week or so but you can definitely damage yourself more if you try and push it, you have the work done so wrap yourself in cottonwool and relax for the next few days:)
Ps.. thanks for the vibes:) Congrats on the fabulous IM!!! You did a fantastic job and I get the impression it was a good experience for you.
And thanks for your well-wishes. Been taking it very easy the last 24 hours, really behaving myself with zero training other than some really impressive stuffing-of-the-pie-hole with all sorts of chocolatey confections that have zero value other than tasting yummy. Displacement activity I suppose. I had been hoping for a 2 week taper, but it's sort of looking like I'm being forced into a 3 week taper. Boo hiss. !!!! 0 -
Congrats on the fabulous IM!!! You did a fantastic job and I get the impression it was a good experience for you.
And thanks for your well-wishes. Been taking it very easy the last 24 hours, really behaving myself with zero training other than some really impressive stuffing-of-the-pie-hole with all sorts of chocolatey confections that have zero value other than tasting yummy. Displacement activity I suppose. I had been hoping for a 2 week taper, but it's sort of looking like I'm being forced into a 3 week taper. Boo hiss. !!!!
Cheers, really enjoyed it, stuck to my hr plan and all went well, kind of thinking I should have pushed a little harder and broken 12hrs but I was waiting for the invisible wall to hit me and it never did
but a great experience overall and will definitely go again:)
The 3 week taper will do you no harm, enjoy easy street and build up the energy0 -
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Wednesday, September 3rd, 2014
Run
After taking a break from all training for approximately 28 hours :rolleyes:, I decided I was rested enough to try a gentle field tester-trot to further assess the rib damage and how it relates to running. I will come totally clean right now
and tell you that I wore my Garmin with the secret hope that I'd feel fit as a fiddle and well enough to get in that 18 mile easy run even though I was given strict orders not to dare try even if my life depended on it! (a slight paraphrase.... ) But everyone can relax, because within the first tenth of a mile or two it was dreadfully obvious to me that attempting 18 miles was a stupid-stupid idea. (reason prevails!!!) So, I settled for a very slow and gentle (think, gliding across a grassy meadow...) 4 miles. It wasn't bad, but I could feel the sore ribs, and the last thing I want to do right now is aggravate them any more than they already are.
Because I wore my Garmin, I can brag about just how slow and gentle I glided:
10:35, 10:23, 10:25, 10:22
Actual run: 4.06 miles in 42:23 for an average gliding pace of 10:26 min/mile
Swim
I hit the pool immediately after the tester-trot, and this little swim felt better than the one I did yesterday. Specifically, it was easier for me to breathe tonight than yesterday. So...that's progress! I kept things on the easy side (again!), but I did have a few bursts of power that felt really nice.
Actual swim: 2,000 evening bursty-breathy pool yards
Bruised ribs aside, I have to say I am feeling pretty healthy and injury free right now. I am pleasantly surprised my legs and body tolerated the 3 days of cycling, and I seem to not have any residual soreness or issues from those 200 miles....well, other than the sore ribs from my bonehead-clippy-move-while-totally-stopped thingy. Good god I'd be dangerous if I had any cycling sense about me! 0 -
So yesterday I emailed my very bike savvy and mechanically inclined brother who has a fleet of bikes that would make you weep (3 of which he built himself) (my dad was an airplane mechanic, so my brother gets it honestly) to tell him about my fall on the bike...and the sum total of his response to me just now is this:
"The only relevant question here is 'Is the bike okay?' Ribs heal, bruises fade, but dings in the carbon fiber don't fix themselves."
Brotherly love.:) 0 -
Reciprocating some hawt bodies to ponder... Just Keep Smiling:)
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Thursday, September 4th, 2014
Bike
A hot date with the Black Cat for a little lunchtime fun. This was my first ride on her since my unfortunate entanglement with a clip, a handlebar, and an Almond Snickers. It was an okay ride...felt a bit sluggish, to be honest....but it was fine. Of course with the big event getting closer and closer I am starting to feel like I haven't been working hard enough. I mean, just look at my power. I cycle easy...I swim easy....I run easy. I'm just living training on easy street. Ugh. Taper neurosis begins. At least I've got 17 hours on the day to finish the event.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/582666283
Actual bike: 18.87 miles in 1:07:52 for an average speed of 16.7 mph and an elevation gain of 1,189 feet
Run
This short little post-work field jaunt was somewhere between a gentle glide and a perky prance on the pace-o-meter. I mainly wanted to guage how my ribs are coming along with this run, and they are coming along. They're still quite sore, but they're better than last night. I'll take it!!!
Actual run: 4.2 prancy-gliding field miles
Swim
A quick transformation from field-runner to pool-swimmer, and tonight I decided to don the wetsuit just in case the IM is wetsuit legal. The most time consuming part of this session was putting on the wet suit. Good god, you should have seen me trying to shimmy into this rubber contraption still hot and sweaty from the run. Not. A. Good. Mix. And yes, I managed to put even more gouges into the suit in spite of trying to be very careful, and in spite of trying to pull it up from the interior. Sheesh!!! And once I got the wetsuit on, the only thing the ribs didn't appreciate more than the extra pressure the suit applied to their tender bones was trying to take the wetsuit off. !!! I may need to give the ribs more time to heal before I try wearing the wetsuit again.
Actual swim: 2,000 yards0 -
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In my continuing quest to motivate you, I share this gem, which I think jb shared with me two years ago, I think in an effort to scare the bejesus out of me:
Enjoy 0 -
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Friday, September 5th, 2014
Swim
Sneaky lunchtime swim to break up a very crazy Friday at work. Ugh. Ughughugh!!!! The swim was oh-kay. Didn't wear a wetsuit this time - good god I would have roasted in the 90 degree temp with insane humidity if I had. Feeling a little sluggish today. Could be my diet, which has slipped a little....or could be my sleep, which has also slipped a little. I'll get these sorted. And of course it could be my ribs, which are feeling a smidge bit better today.
Actual swim: 2,000 midday yards
Run plan: 4 x (3miles steady, 90 second recovery)
Got out of work way friggin late tonight, so I knew that half of this session would be done in the dark....therefore, I chose to do this in the center of the field because that's the safest surface - I figure all I need to do now after my bozo move on the bike Monday is to trip and fall and break something while running. (hello Oryx!!)
The short and sweet of this session is: it was hot, it was humid, I never really found the joy, my ribs weren't too bad, I sort-of-kind-of wanted to stop once or twice and that scared me into wondering if I'll want to stop during the IM and (if so) what will I do, it started getting dark on my 3rd set of 3 miles, it got really dark on my 4th set of 3 miles, considered stopping early because of the darkness but was afraid I was only using the darkness as an excuse to not finish the entire session (see "sort-of-kind-of" above), and I was very glad when my Garmin beeped for the final time indicating I had indeed completed the whole damn thing. Yay!
Here are the average paces for each of the 3 mile sets...oh, my real target was actually 8ish min/mile, but I did what I did....however I should have stuck closer to 8ish min/mile because this session did take a bit of effort...but maybe this session was supposed to take a bit of effort. Any way...paces per Garmin:
7:46, 7:39, 7:57, 7:40
Actual run: 12.4 miles in 1:37:32 for an average pace of 7:52 min/mile0 -
Saturday 6th, 2014
Bike
Today was dreadfully hot...ungodly hot...horribly hot...crazy, insanely, freakishly hot. In other words, it was miserable out. Thank goodness this was only a 40 mile ride, otherwise it would have been more yucky than it already was. And my lower back was complaining...as were my shoulders, neck and derierre. ?? Not sure why all that started so soon into the ride, usually I've been pretty ok physically up until the 50 mile mark.
The ride itself was ok. My speed is low, but I'm fine with it considering I had a few "issues" along the way in the form of being chased by 3 dogs (stopped once to stare down the black lab who was snarling at me), and the slightly confused Bambi from last week who once again I scared out of its skin so I stopped (twice) and eventually turned around (once) to give the fawn space.
But on a fashion note, I finally succumbed to peer pressure by our very own darling-slip-of-a-lad catweazle and purchased a new helmet. It's not one of those pointy ones (I feel I have to earn that kind!), but it is very aero and weighs nothing! In fact, when it arrived in the mail this week, I honestly thought the box must be empty! I love it! But I sort of wish I had gotten a different color. Oh well. I don't have to look at it. My competitors do.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/584378493
Actual ride: 40.1 miles in 2:21:39 for an average speed of 17 mph and an elevation gain of 1,818 feet
Run
I knew I'd have some extra time today to maybe do a little something off script, so I decided I'd like to run a bit after the bike. After a very l-o-n-g T2 :rolleyes:, I headed out into the field with the hope of getting in a few slow miles to see how the legs and body would react. Well, let's just say that I went slow, but I honestly couldn't have gone any faster. Ugh. I hope this isn't how I'm going to perform in 2 weeks. 26.2 miles is quite a haul to be battling a body that isn't feeling the love.
Long story short, I called it quits after a measly 2 miles. I certainly had thought I'd go much further than that, but between the soul destroying heat and humidity, and the understanding that I can't afford to do anything stupid at this point in the process, stopping was the smart thing to do.
Actual run: 2.05 miles in 20:14 for an average pace of 9:52 min/mile0 -
But on a fashion note, I finally succumbed to peer pressure by our very own darling-slip-of-a-lad catweazle and purchased a new helmet. It's not one of those pointy ones (I feel I have to earn that kind!), but it is very aero and weighs nothing! In fact, when it arrived in the mail this week, I honestly thought the box must be empty! I love it! But I sort of wish I had gotten a different color. Oh well. I don't have to look at it. My competitors do.
High time, you may be as well off without the pointy hat anyways unless you can hold the neck position, I would say to the spectators (my fans) my Kronos helmet looks like the pyramid of Giza coming over the horizon as my eyes are buried into the gutter most of the ride
Are you not supposed to make no eye contact with an aggressive dog - what a great taper........you are even taking on rabid dogs
Keep an eye out for the rte online player - I see young Imelda may now has a chat show on rte on Sundays.0 -
High time, you may be as well off without the pointy hat anyways unless you can hold the neck position, I would say to the spectators (my fans) my Kronos helmet looks like the pyramid of Giza coming over the horizon as my eyes are buried into the gutter most of the ride
Are you not supposed to make no eye contact with an aggressive dog - what a great taper........you are even taking on rabid dogs
Keep an eye out for the rte online player - I see young Imelda may now has a chat show on rte on Sundays.
Yes, yes, yes....pointy helmet and neck position - I read a passage about that when browsing through some aero helmet options and ideas, and that gave me yet one more valid reason to add to the 1) fashion horror and 2)"embarrassing-moment-when-you-get-passed-by-a-non-pointy-helmet-cyclist" reasons not to go the pointy route!
Oooo....I'm impressed you know not to make threatening eye contact with crazy dogs! But when in taper, you really just don't give a damn. It's more like, BRING IT!!! :eek:;)
And I am assuming young Imelda is Imelda May!! ?? 0 -
Sunday, September 7th, 2014
Bike
I swear my obituary is going to read "Death by Deer"! Motorists are not my threat while on my bike, wildlife and Snickers Bars are!! Good god, I had one very large adult deer come bolting out from the woods at one point - I don't know who was more fearful for their life, me or the deer. And then at another point I had a small herd blocking the road, staring me down as if they dared me to take one more revolution of the pedal closer to them. The whole scene reminded me of an old western movie....all they needed were holsters and spurs! (and maybe a can of beans and a camp fire) But when I apparently crossed that imaginary line, their nerve gave out and they frantically scattered right and left, nearly startling me off my bike!
Any way....decent ride....and I was 5 bottles strong! Whoop whoop. The wind was as rough as I think I've had to deal with while on the Black Cat....but I kept telling myself that this was good practice for IM Maryland as wind will most certainly be an issue there. I paid attention to my body during this ride - trying to keep it in a happy place, and trying to envision the effort I'll be expending in less than :eek: 2 weeks.
I did a quick comparison of the last four 80 mile rides via Garmin to see if I'm making any progress - and I know it's a little of apples and oranges due to certain variables, but the last 4 rides averaged 17.5 mph (today), 17.4 mph, 17.7 mph, and 17.6 mph...in that order - so things look a little static. Funny thing I noticed however, today's ride burned the most calories!!!
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/585349521
Actual bike: 80.11 miles in 4:35:05 for an average speed of 17.5 mph and an elevation gain of 3,166 feet
Swim
A lovely little recovery swim in the early evening as the sun was retiring for the day. <sigh>
Actual swim: 2,000 early evening yards0 -
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Tuesday, September 9th, 2014
Bike
This was an o'dark hundred session on the trainer because I knew I would not be able to get this done over lunch. First time on the trainer since I committed to IM training, and I wasn't really looking forward to it. But, how can a 4:30am date with a sleek Black Cat be all bad, right? (Well, unless you are a sleepy house cat whose normal morning routine is being rudely disrupted, that is.)
Nothing too remarkable about this session...there was a little apple juice, a little internet surfing, a little Norris and Butler comedy show, and 50 minutes of spinning and grinning done as: 10 minutes easy, 3 x (5 mins at race pace (was a wild guess!), 5 mins easy), 10 minutes cool down. I followed this with some light yoga and stretching. Not a bad way to start the day, but I won't be making a habit of this!
Actual bike: Maybe 12 miles (??) in 50 minutes
Swim
This was the first time I have done a flip turn since I hurt my ribs, and all I've got to say is....OMFG! :eek: Ouch, ouch, ouch. Do you have any idea how much you rely on the muscles around your ribs to flip you during your turn? Well trust me, it's a lot! Oh god. I briefly thought I'd have to do open turns for this session, but either I got used to the pain, or the pain decreased as the session went on. If nothing else, I am thankful the IM swim will not have any flip turns in it...however, I am fearful of getting kicked.
Session as follows:
1,000 yards easy
12 x 200 yards pull on 3 minutes, done as 1-4 descending, no breaks!
400 yards easy
My pace goal was to try and keep the 200s between 2:30 and 2:40, but honestly I didn't get anywhere near 2:30 on any of them. Instead, I mainly hovered around 2:40ish...and even crept closer to 2:45 on some of them. Why? Not sure. It could be the ribs. It could be I didn't push it hard enough since I breathed every three strokes and never went into my every two stroke zone (in part due to the ribs and how it feels when I breathe fast and hard). Or it could be this is just where I am. ?? Am I worried or disappointed? Not really. I know how these twelve 200s felt, and they felt controlled...and I was comfortable...and I envisioned having to swim 9 more of these 200s...and I was okay with having to swim 9 more of these 200s. I've had a bit of a mental block with swimming for a month or so now, and even though I didn't really hit my target times tonight, I felt good in the water and am okay with where I am. All good.
Splits went something like this:
2:40, 2:40, 2:38, 2:37
2:40, 2:43, 2:40, 2:38
2:42, 2:40, 2:45 (technical difficulties!), 2:38
Actual swim: 3,800 yards0 -
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interested wrote: »"and even though I didn't really hit my target times tonight, I felt good in the water and am okay with where I am."
:eek: what have you done with the real Dory ? :pac:
With only 9 or 10 days to go, I don't really have a choice. It is what it is at this point.Just over a week to go!
Just over 3 days to go for you!Kurt Godel wrote: »17,800yards swam since your ribs mishap- nothing wrong with your swimming anyhow! I sympathise with doing flip turns with sore ribs- ouch! Ditto sore(r) ribs when breathing harder. Look at the pain as an in-built speed threshold indicator. Everyone will want one:)
Ha! I've done that much swimming since my ribs? Leave it to you to count for me. 0 -
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Thursday, September 11th, 2014
Bike
Another lunchtime trainer session..to keep the legs ticking over, and to keep me off the roads. (translation: to keep me from falling off my bike or from some other sort of catastrophe!) Done as: 10 minutes warm up, 4 x (3 minutes race pace (??), 3 minute easy), 10 minutes cool down. I strapped on the HR monitor just to have a look at HR during the race pace intervals, and the bpm for each set (stated as avg HR/max HR) were as follows: 93/118, 121/128, 125/131, 132/135. And, while we're doing a bit of analysis, the power meter spit out these numbers (stated as avg power/max power): 63/161, 130/179, 137/182, 142/198....all of which are higher than when I'm actually on the road. ???
Actual bike: on trainer, 10 miles (??) in 40 minutes
Swim
Three sessions, three days in row!!?? Wow....
This was just a fun one. I wanted to wear the wetsuit just in case the IM swim is wetsuit legal (probably will NOT be though), but some structure to this evening's session was provided to me in the form of a suggested workout, the guts of which was 50 x 40s on 40 seconds...but I learned quite quickly that you'll roast in an 85 degree pool swimming swiftly while in a wetsuit. :eek: So I had to modify this session a little.
800 yards easy
10 x 40 yards on 40 seconds
200 yards easy
10 x 40 yards on 40 seconds
200 yards easy
10 x 40 yards on 40 seconds
200 yards easy
200 yards TT
400 yards easy
Talk about getting high in the water! I tried to keep effort on the 40 yards @ 80%, except every 5th 40 was at a harder effort. The 80% effort all came in on 25-27 seconds....and the harder effort all came in on 23-24 seconds. My thought looking at these numbers and knowing how the 40s felt, I'm going to guess the 80% efforts may have been more like 85% effort, but it's just a guess.
The 200 TT was interesting. I've never been that high in the water for an entire 200 before....and I've never kicked so much in a wetsuit before. I have to say, don't knock it until you've tried it!! I took the first 100 nice and controlled but was working it and breathing every three...but as soon as I turned the halfway point I upped it - upped the kick, upped the body position, upped the breathing to every two, and upped the strength of the stroke. I hit the wall on 2:15. Not bad.
I learned two things tonight: 1) you can do a flip turn in a wetsuit (who knew??), and 2) it appears that you can shave approximately 10% off your swim time in a wetsuit. Interesting. I'm sure that percentage of savings will vary based on the wearer's ability...and I imagine it will vary based on the type of wetsuit you are wearing (I have an Xterra sleeveless number)...and I think it's safe to say there are other variables that will alter the savings too...but for this wetsuit wearing gal, it looks like my magic number in my comfy 20 yard pool is 10% on this night.
Actual swim: 3,200 very high yards!0 -
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In my continuing quest to motivate you, I share this gem, which I think jb shared with me two years ago, I think in an effort to scare the bejesus out of me:
Enjoy
Ah memories, you will do great DD0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikssfUhAlgg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkJN13bIW0Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnqpYKx8Fvk
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