Monday is not Fun Day

I am having quite a bad run of luck over the past four months as it relates to injuries.  I have spouted off about everything up to the heel injury I suffered back in early February, so everyone should be up to date.  Well, wouldn't you know that last Wednesday night I was playing indoor soccer (an 11:00PM game) and I made a very innocent tackle on a ball, slipped a bit and hit my left knee on the turn.  I knew that I was going to get a nice turf rash as a result, but I kept on playing and didn't think much of it.  As the game progressed, my knee got a bit more sore, but it didn't seem to be any big deal.  The game ended (we won 2 - 1, I played OK), my knee was a bit sore and I figured I would just ice it when I got home.  Well, I iced it at home, took some ibuprofen and went to sleep.

The next morning it was definitely still swollen, a bit more than the night before.  I was tight to bend it, but it didn't really hurt.  I was going to make a doctors appointment but thought as long as I continued to ice it, take ibuprofen and rest it, the swelling would go away.

Here I am on Monday morning and the knee is still swollen, the pain is minimal, but I know I can't run on it.  I have a doctors appointment at 3:30PM today and I just want to know what the heck I did to it.  Of course I have gone and self diagnosed it (knee effusion) and fear that I will probably have to get it drained and will then be out of commission for a short while.  I am hoping that isn't the case, but you never know. 

Aside from my bad run of minor injuries over the past four months, I am having a tough time getting back into the training groove.  The injuries are definitely making it any easier on me; it is very tough to get into a schedule when I have to amend it due to my unique and varying pain.  I have all but decided I will not be running the UNITE Half Marathon on April 18th (unless I have a great prognosis today and can get back to training ASAP).  It would be silly for me to run it, I would be lucky to run at 8:00/mile pace and would probably be miserable doing it. 

So frustrating!  I just want to be healthy and start training again.  Ugh, I still don't belong to a pool yet which is killing me as well.  Even P90X is tough right now because of the knew thing. 

Enough complaining, time to move one.  My next post will be more positive I hope.  Ciao!

The New Schedule

Postings are few and far between these days and today is going to be short one.  Let me get right to my training rather than BS about a bunch of irrelevant stuff.

If I were to grade myself on my current training schedule it would be a "B-".  If you went back to say September/October I would have given myself an "A"  I seem to be doing as much as I can given my new work schedule and lack of time that I have, but I know that I could be carving out some additional time to do more.  Here is what my week has looked like thus far:

• Monday - P90X-Chest/Back
• Tuesday - P90X-Plyometrics (no run since the Plyo filled that gap)
• Wednesday - Indoor soccer then P90X-Shoulders/Arms
• Thursday - Nothing - I took a couple bad hits during soccer on Wednesday and my leg, ribs and neck were are hurting.  I thought it best to rest
• Today - Planning to run 4 miles and then do P90X

I guess it doesn't look so bad from a high level, but I just don't feel like I am doing enough.  Here is what I think my weeks going forward are going to look like:

• Monday - AM-P90X (Chest/Back/Abs);  PM-Rest
• Tuesday - AM-P90X (Plyometrics); PM-Bike (on trainer)
• Wednesday - AM-P90X (Shoulders/Arms/Abs); PM-Indoor soccer
• Thursday - AM-P90X (Yoga); PM-Run
• Friday- AM-P90X (???/Abs); PM-Bike (on trainer)
• Saturday - AM-P90X; PM-Run or Bike
• Sunday - AM-Run (long run)

On a positive note, I have been eating really well this week.  I have been going with a lot of salad and grilled chicken at lunch, eating tons of eggs and staying away from bad snacks.  I think that I am seeing a slight difference but it could all be an illusion.  Regardless, if I stick with the plan above I should be on my way to building up my body for a strong triathlon season.  All I am missing is the pool work, but that will have to wait until my and my family joins a pool.

Work is calling.....peace out!

Yoga is HARD!

Oh how I used to think yoga was something that only stay-at-home moms did after they got their kids on the bus and headed over to the gym to "work out".  I imagined them joining up with their friends at the local YMCA, having their morning coffee and then sauntering into the yoga studio to do some stretching and meditating, maybe throwing in some breathing exercises as well for good measure.  Of course they would finished it all up by walking gracefully from the studio feeling refreshed and proceed to head off to sit in the steam room before showering up and getting home before the kids got off the school bus.

Well, last night was my first foray into the world of yoga, courtesy of Tony Horton and P90X.  I should start out by saying that before I did the yoga work out, I put in a solid 45 minutes on my trainer.  I wasn't about to go out and run in the torrential down pour.  So, after my ride, I threw in disc #5 of P90X and got down with yoga, assuming that it would be a nice recovery from my ride.  I was wrong.

Yeah the first five minutes or so were very mellow and I was considering just packing it in because there was no challenge.  Slowly the moves started to increase in difficulty and quickly I began to feel the strain that it was putting on my muscles.  Truth be told, I only made it through about a half hour of poses before I called a night.  I couldn't do anymore, I was dripping with sweat, my arms were shaking (thre remnants of Tuesday's Chest & Back work out and the yoga), and my legs were screaming (Wednesday soccer + 45 min ride + yoga = PAIN). The poses all sounded nice, but there were a bitch: Plank, upward facing dog, downward dog, Warrior (then Warrior II and Reverse Warrior), triangle, chair, all caused me to strain every muscle in my body.  I was wrong, everything I though about yoga was wrong. 

I sit here typing knowing that I have a long way to go before I get into superiour shape.  Last night was very humbling and I like that this whole P90X thing is difficult.  I can see why so many people get discourage by how difficult it is and pack it in.  Honestly, by just looking at the website, seeing the infomercials, and watching Tony Horton do the exercises, you would have to assume that it can't be all that hard.  Well, let me tell you that I have done a total of one and a third DVDs and it is a killer.  I am going to stick it out and finish this damn program.  I am also going to do my best to stick to my half marathon training schedule as well.  I am in for a long three months, but in the end it should all be worth it.

So in sumation:

• Yoga is very HARD
• P90X is very HARD
• If I finish the program, I will be in amazing shape

Peace out!

Finding My Place

I have been absolutely horrible at updating this darn blog lately.  With my new job and everything else that last think I am thinking about is documenting what is going on with my life and training.  Also, I started this blog to track my progress to IM Arizona and now that it is over I am trying to reposition it a bit....to what, I have no idea. 

I have been less than stellar with my training for the past two months or so.  I have done my best to get out and run four days a week, but cycling on the trainer has pretty much stopped since about two weeks ago and swimming is not going to be happening for a while since I don't currently belong to a pool.  I have gone from dedicating about 15 months of my life to training for a an Ironman race to now trying to figure out what is next.  I know that I have a half marathon in the middle of April that I am woefully underprepared for and the Broad Street Run the beginning of May, but other than that I don't have anything concrete.  This is definitely a weird feeling and I am having a tough time grasping the non-structured life I am now leading.

I guess what I need to do is lay out a plan for the next nine months, a list of definite races that I will be doing (what I had posted a month ago was more of a wish list).  Then I need to lay out a training program that will get me to the finish line of that last race in October.  I find it rather comical how my not having a training schedule is driving me nuts.

As for P90X, I techincally started that on Tuesday night, but now I realized that I need to probably reset how I am going to do it on a day-to-day basis.  Since I have soccer on Wednesday nights (which I am totally kicking ass in) I shouldn't be doing plyometrics that day.  I am going to have Monday's be the day I start the week, instead of Tuesday's like I planned.  No worries.

That is it for now.  I have to get out and do a solid speed workout tonight since I am totally slacking on the running lately.  I have four days of pounding the pavement ahead of me, or at least three with a spin session the bike (Friday)....and P90X every night.  I am determined to get down to a good weight for the race season and be stronger as well.

Cheers!