the frustration continues

well this pic pretty much sums it up. In March I woke up one day and my leg didn't feel quite right, but having been very careful with my running I convinced myself that there was no way it could be a stress fracture- probably just the tendinitis acting up again right? A few days later the pain was unbearable so I decided to take some time off- I even went to the sports doc and got a bone scan- unfortunately it took about a month to get the results, but I decided after two weeks I would start running again. BAD IDEA. (will I ever learn?) When I eventually got the results they concluded that I "probably" had a stress fracture- couldn't be certain because of the two previous stress fractures in the same spot... :(  not knowing what to do I decided to call Waterloo Sports Med, where I had had a bone scan done last October under the suspicion of a stress fracture- there was no stress fracture that time, in fact, there was absolutely no increased bone activity on the bone scan. damn. That means that what is on the current bone scan really is a stress fracture. After some angry ranting and a few tears I accepted that running was not happening any time soon and will do what I can in the meantime- my season isn't looking too fantastic at the moment but will take each race as it comes. Some hard swim/bikes will probably do me some good anyways

Training without the gadgets

So I am going against the grain here with this post since these days it takes no effort at all to find someone touting the benefits of using some sort of gadget to make your training better. Power meters seem to be all the rage these days- I couldn't count the number of times I have heard someone say “I/you NEED a power meter!” Now, if anyone looks at my race wheels this year, they will see that I have a power meter- but it doesn't work. It simply came with the race wheels I got second-hand, the battery lasted about 5 rides, and when it died I a) didn't care very much and b) discovered that not many people (none that I found- although I didn't look very hard) carry the tool that would be required to take the cap off and put in a new battery. So I am leaving the power tap there just to make myself look super cool.

I also don’t train with a HR monitor (once in a blue moon I’ll wear it just to see what it is- but I never look at it until after I finish the workout). I will wear a GPS in the summer when I ride my bike on a new route, but again, that is just out of curiosity to see how far I have ridden, not really used for training purposes.

The first reason I feel that all these gadgets are unnecessary is $$$$$$$$$$$. In case that isn't clear- they are EXPENSIVE!! I have not bought a GPS, I won it at a race (I actually have 2- anyone want one? [POLAR RCX5- needs a new battery but otherwise works fine]) The un-used power tap on my wheel also really did just come with the race wheels- I got a good price for the wheels alone and the power tap was an added bonus. The HR monitor (that came with the GPS) would be a more justifiable purchase if someone really wanted to get one (as they are less expensive) but there are certainly flaws to training based on it.

I do all my training based on perceived effort. This is a “flawless” tool- it never runs out of battery and is always accurate. If I feel I am giving 100% then that is what 100% is for that day. I know that the actual output may vary from day to day, but so what? If I am tired one day I don’t need a power meter giving me raw data in my face to tell me that I feel like shit. I know I would just get super pissed off and would not enjoy the workout if I couldn't hit the numbers that I wanted to. By the same token, if I feel great, I know I feel great and I don’t need a power meter or HR monitor or any other gadget to tell me so. Although this post is mainly referring to cycling, the same principle applies to swimming and running. I train by effort- I know when I feel crappy and tired and when I feel great, I don’t need any gadget to tell me that. (I wear a simple watch- it’s all I need)

Another benefit of training based on perceived effort is that this helps me to stay happy and positive when I am training. I don’t like to be given unquestionable evidence that I am not performing at a 10/10 on a given day. I just get annoyed and don’t enjoy the workout. By training based on perceived effort I can acknowledge that yes, maybe I wasn't feeling particular fantastic or going particularly fast for a particular workout, but if I gave it the effort that was required then I can be satisfied with the training session and eager to come back the next day.

The next benefit is that this translates to race day. I am attuned to how my body is feeling and can gauge my effort during the race to pace myself appropriately. I don’t attend every race in a rested state, some races I simply train through- by being aware of how I am feeling I am able to pace appropriately for the day.

A conversation I recently had with a swim coach also highlights some other reasons I don’t see the necessity of using gadgets while racing. When I race, I am racing the other people- that’s what a race is supposed to be about. I don’t need to go to a race thinking “I'm going to cycle at exactly this power so that I can run the best.” Where is the fun in that? There is no risk or thrill in going to a race knowing that you won’t blow up because you’re cycling at a pre-determined effort. One race that sticks out in my mind is Multisport’s Binbrook triathlon last year. Racing Leanna Lee (http://leannastriathlonjourney.blogspot.ca/) on the bike I gave it everything- I was cycling at a much higher effort than I have ever done in a race- and I suffered dearly on the run. But it was a great learning experience (and I still won the race :P). After that race I knew that if I wanted to run well, I couldn't go that hard on the bike. It also actually felt like a race. Had I been racing with a power meter I would have held back on the bike, done my own thing, and played catch-up on the run- in other words, not really raced. Racing is fun, so I want to actually do that.

Another reason to not use these gadgets is that I don’t want it to be “about the bike.” Unfortunately I feel that this is the direction that triathlon is heading at the moment. Someone with more money to spend and therefore a better bike with more bells and whistles could place better in a race, without being a better athlete. Had I not had a TT bike last year and instead been using my road bike I wouldn't have won the races I did. For example, at Worlds, even with a TT bike it was still one of the least expensive/ upgraded (ie. Fancy race wheels) bikes in the field. With a road bike I could not have competed. In other words, I could have been a better athlete than others, but not won because someone else had more cash to spend. And on that note, I don’t want to win a race but have a nagging feeling that I wouldn't have if someone right behind me had been racing with “poorer” equipment than myself. I want the best athlete to win, not the richest or the one with the better equipment. (but hey, that’s the way it is going to be in many situations, so what can I do).

But back to my original point- there are many benefits to training with perceived effort, and it is possible to be good without forking out the cash for power meters, GPS’s, and heart rate monitors. If you are an athlete just getting into the sport (or been competing for years) there is no need to be intimidated by others who have these gadgets. Train using your own personal and mental motivation and not the numbers in front of you (other than a watch to tell you the time). It does wonders for your athletic capacity, and can help in other areas of life. Developing your own motivation to push yourself in a workout when it hurts isn’t always easy, but the pay-off is huge. Try it.

Becoming a Swimmer (or at least someone who can swim)

So I have been thinking about my progression through swimming, as it was 2 years ago that I did my first flip turn. I reported in my training log that I “almost died cuz I had to hold my breath so long.” Can’t say a whole lot has changed in that regard :P but it does make me think about my progression towards joining the varsity swim team- which I absolutely love.

Originally I started swimming because I had a stress fracture and swimming was just about the only thing I could do that wasn’t painful. This was beginning of December 2011. Every day I went to the pool and swam continuously for 60-75 minutes. There was no plan, no workout, just lap, after lap, after lap. I decided that flip turns would probably be quicker than open turns, so gradually began my progression towards doing them. The first time I did them, I think I managed about 7 flip turns in 75 minutes of swimming. It wasn’t fun, but it was something to work on, so I kept at it. I continued with my endless lap swimming until about April of 2012, by which time it was getting pretty boring. I thought maybe I’ mix it up a bit. So I found a workout that I did twice a week (the other days continued to be my lap swimming). The workout was anything but exciting. It was warm-up (which I did as freestyle) then 5X500- 1 and 3 were free, 2 and 4 were pull, and the last one was 2x250, with the 2^nd and 4^th 50’s as fast. So not really much different to just swimming laps. That summer I was back in school (after being on a co-op term) and was swimming from 8-9am at the university pool. My initial intention was to continue what I was doing, however there was a large group who were there every morning, taking up both the fast lanes and doing a workout, making me swimming laps rather difficult. They asked if I wanted to join them. I did not- why on earth would I want to do a workout??? But a couple more days of getting in each other’s way and I decided, why not, I’ll give it a try and decide from there. Turns out it wasn’t too bad and I stayed with them throughout the summer, and remarkably, improved my swimming :P I guess it was by this point that I was starting to enjoy swimming, not to mention that I this is when I started doing triathlons and absolutely loved them, which gave my swim training a purpose. So I had progressed from “I am only doing this because I can’t run” to “I actually kinda like swimming.” Some of the people I was swimming with in the morning asked if I would ever consider joining varsity, to which I scoffed “of course not, I’m a runner, and there is no way I’d be fast enough.” Little did I know….

I was back on co-op in the fall, but kept up doing workouts in the morning and was very dedicated to actually becoming a better swimmer. I had talked to a couple of people at the triathlon club at Waterloo and they suggested that I ask the swim coach if I could train with the team a couple times a week when I was back in school. By this point in time I was fully committed to becoming a triathlete and was looking for any way to get the best training possible.  I contacted the coach and it was arranged that come January, I could train with the team twice a week until their season was over, at which point I could come more often.  As Facebook kindly reminded me at the end of 2013, my first varsity swim workout on January 10^th was apparently a highlight of the year for me- probably fairly accurate. I loved it. It is so much nicer begin able to swim with other people and gives me much more motivation to actually try really hard. Over the semester I got better and better- I went from 1:12 for 100 yards in January to 1:07 by April. Pretty remarkable. I was asked many times throughout the semester whether I would join the swim team in September. Initially I just laughed and said “there is no way I will be fast enough to join.” Everyone assured me I would be, but I had serious doubts. However, as my swimming improved the idea of actually being on the team became more enticing, and more realistic. By this time I was completely enjoying the swimming and loved the people on the team.

The summer certainly did not help my swimming. I was on my own and initially the motivation was high to train hard, but then I started working and could only swim for an hour at a time, in a shitty pool, and the motivation waned. Needless to say, I got slower, and truth be told, my swimming in London was abysmal.

However, I still wanted to join the swim team in September, so when I got back from London I started training with them. This was agony. I was frustratingly slow and unfit (in terms of swimming). The swim coach (Jeff Slater) is fantastic though and I kept working hard, and eventually things started to come together.  Now I can hit 1:05 for 100 yards, which is still slower than anyone else on the team, but long-distance is more my thing- 100 yards and I’m still warming up :P

So there you have it- two years ago I couldn’t do a flip turn, and now I’m swimming with the varsity swim team. So I believe anyone can learn to swim- and the same principles apply for any other sport. Stay dedicated, do the work, set your goals high, and you can achieve whatever you want. 

Road bike + snow = broken elbow

So last Monday I decided that I wanted to get home quickly, so even though it had started snowing I chose to ride my bike home from school. Even before I got on my bike I was thinking “This is a bad idea.” But I didn’t listen to the little voice of reason in my head and thought “What’s the worst that can happen?- Probably fall off my bike and scrape my knee, no lasting damage. Plus its f*cking cold out and it will save me time.” Well I was riding along and I guess I hit a patch of black ice, and my bike went one way I went the other, and naturally, put my hands out to stop me. A bad idea, since I ended up breaking the radial head on my left arm (which is at the elbow). At first I didn't think it was broken, “Just a bad sprain” I told myself. After not sleeping all night because I was in so much pain though, I caught the earliest bus in the morning and got to the ER at Grand River at 6:35am Tuesday morning. One look at my arm and the nurse said “you’ve got a broken elbow.” So I filled out the necessary paper work, got some x-rays, and by 8:00am was leaving the hospital with my arm in a sling and a confirmation that the elbow was indeed broken. =(

Now two years ago I probably would have lost my shit and been super pissed off, because, as one can probably imagine, it is very hard/ impossible to do any training with a broken elbow. I can’t run or swim, and I can only ride the stationary bikes at the gym because they are upright (and having done a 2 hour workout yesterday can tell you that they make your ass REALLY sore). But I haven’t lost my shit, instead I am taking this setback in stride and doing what I can. I am upset that I can’t swim, since that was coming along so nicely (PB in the 800m last week- 9:59.9- under 10 minutes!!!!). But there is nothing I can do about it so will be back in the water as soon as I can. I am taking this as my time off from running, which I probably wouldn’t ever have done if it hadn’t been forced. And I am working on different skills on the bike that I wouldn’t necessarily have focused on. And of course, so much water running- my favourite thing ever (I say very, very sarcastically).  I realize there is no point in being pissed off as there is nothing I can do about it. A mark of a maturing athlete I hope. =)

The lesson to be learned here is that you should never ride a road bike in snow. =)

Race recap of World's

World's Race Review

London was a fun city to be in for a week, although I can¹t say I¹m a
fan of the weather (too much rain). My brother and I were out
sight-seeing during the week leading up to the race and I ended up
with a cold on Friday night (sore throat, stuffed up nose, and feeling
pretty lethargic). Saturday wasn¹t much better so I was pretty upset,
having worked hard all year and looking at having a sub-par race due
to a bad cold. However, race adrenaline kicked in Sunday morning and I
was able to feel somewhat energized, although my nose was still pretty
clogged up. Having stood in bare feet for about an hour prior to the
race start it was almost a relief to be able to put my feet in the
water as it felt warmer than the ground I had been standing on. I
don¹t think I would have minded having the full length swim, however
it is what it is. I didn¹t have a great swim, swallowed water multiple
times and got hit and kicked far more than I am used to, however I
kept a calm head and didn¹t let that ruin my race. I exited the water
somewhere around 10th place, which is what I was expecting, and
managed to pass about five of those people in the long run-up to
transition. Heading out onto the bike I pushed hard right off the bat
and was quickly able to position myself in 2nd place, somewhere around
the 3km mark. There was one Aussie ahead of me but didn¹t seem to be
gaining or losing ground on me so I kept up the steady but relatively
hard pace. Around the 7km mark a Kiwi caught up to me and I worked
hard to stay with her for the first lap. However, I was getting pretty
fatigued trying to maintain her pace and I made a judgement call that
given her body type (slightly stockier), probably wasn¹t going to be a
fast runner. I let her go on the second lap although kept a strong
pace myself. I knew this decision could come back to bite me in the
ass later but given my experience at a race earlier in the year where
I gave it everything on the bike and had nothing left for the run, I
knew that I needed to save a little bit for the run. Approaching T2 I
caught the Aussie who was still ahead of me, but was caught by a few
people in transition as my hands were so cold that they didn¹t want to
function for me. In the end I had to start running with my shoelaces
not tightened as I couldn¹t get my fingers to co-operate for me. I
passed the couple of people who had caught me in transition in the
first hundred meters or so, leaving only the Kiwi ahead of me. After
about 2.5km I had warmed up enough to be able to tighten my shoelaces,
and my feet no longer felt like blocks of ice. Nothing was going to
stop me from going for gold so I kept running as hard as I could and
caught the Kiwi at about 4.5km. I didn¹t let up the pace though as I
had no idea who was behind me, so I just kept running as hard as I
could. I could feel my IT band getting very tight on the second and
third laps but tried to ignore it. The Canadians were awesome as there
seemed to be someone cheering for me around the entire run course.
Coming down the finishing chute was better than I had ever imagined as
it feels pretty awesome when someone announces you as the World
Champion. :P Upon crossing the finish line I felt like my cold
hit me in full force with a pounding head and feeling very weak. But I
was ecstatic about the finish (and that I had over 2 minutes on 2nd
place) so was able to celebrate with the other Canadians who were
finishing their races. I also was happy to see Keith having a great
race (since he hadn¹t run for three weeks and didn¹t know if he would
be able to in the race).  All in all it was a spectacular experience
and I look forward to Edmonton next September.

Update on the running and life

So I started running again back at the end of February. Everything was going great until I hit about 20 minutes. Then my leg started to hurt. I just chalked it up to shin splints since that would be expected at this point in the game. So I kept running, but by the time I was to be at 50 minutes my leg was hurting unbearably, keeping me awake at night and making it very difficult to concentrate on school work. After a teary e-mail to my coach it was determined I should stop running, as at this point in the game a stupid decision could take me out for triathlon season. It felt exactly like a stress fracture so I assumed the MRI results were wrong. So I started to look for answers. I got blood work done (soooo many vials, they must have checked EVERYTHING), a bone density scan, and a bone scan. I also had a gait analysis done by Sean Delanghe at Price Health Center in Waterloo. It revealed that I actually don’t have shitty form so my running technique is not likely to be the cause of my problems. The blood tests came back with good news- I’m as normal and healthy as can be. Bone density scan, which I was really worried about, came back also with normal results. So last thing to check was the bone scan. Also normal. So what is going on???? The sports doctor now suspects it may be chronic exertional compartment syndrome. I have an appointment to check this out on Saturday, where they will take $200 that I really don’t have and stick some needles into my muscles. Although on the one hand this can be fixed through surgery, it would require many weeks off from training (about 6). So although I want answers, now is not a good time to be told I need surgery. I will have to wait and see, but at the moment I am allowed to run for short amounts of time and ice right afterwards.

On the job front, I am lacking. No job for the summer at the moment. L I’m pretty stressed about this at the moment but I must have faith that something will come along. If you’re reading this and you have a job for me, I am willing to work anywhere in Southern/Central Ontario, for minimum wage, doing whatever needs to be done. Fingers are crossed. 

Reading Week in Arizona!!

So for reading week I went to Arizona with the C3 team to spend the week training in warm weather. While the weather wasn’t quite what I would define as ‘warm’ it was pleasant most days and the training was phenomenal. It is unfortunate that I was unable to do much running, however I am quickly becoming a professional power-walker so was able to take in the sights that way. The swimming was done in one of two outdoor pools throughout the week, both of which were beautiful. One was 50yards across with about 15-20 lanes and 25 yards long (which was different for most people there, but since UW is old we have a yards pool so that’s what I was used to). The other pool was at a luxury gym place on a golf course- free towel use, free soap, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, sunscreen, razors, and of course tampons. 

We were in Oro Valley, which is about 20 miles north of Tucson, and the bike lanes were fabulous. On most roads the bike lanes are wide enough to ride two abreast and the roads are well paved, not to mention that pretty much every road has bike lanes. Canada should take note. We did some particularly memorable rides including the infamous Mt. Lemmon climb as well as the ride out to Gate’s Pass.  Mt. Lemmon was pretty chilly and my toes had gone completely numb by the time I got to the top (which is just over 8000ft elevation). It was definitely worth it for the overly-large cookies at the top (and of course the sense of accomplishment for riding up a mountain for 3 hours). Coming down was exhilarating!! WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! I averaged close to 50km/hr on the way down. Gates Pass was scenic, although I could have done without the extreme bumpiness! We did this ride on my last day in Arizona so I got a good sun burn and it was a great way to end a fantastic week. I should also mention that on the Wednesday we got snow!!! One local said they hadn’t had snow in seven years, although another said it had only been two. Regardless, snow is a rare occurrence so even the locals were taking pictures. Of course we went swimming outside while it was snowing, which was a lot of fun and definitely not something many people can say they’ve done! Another thing we did that I really enjoyed was hiking up to the Romero Pools. This required hiking up a mountain to find these pools of water which of course were basically melted snow at the time so were absolutely freezing. I was too chicken to go in, although I got my feet wet. Some of the more brave men in the group went right in and submerged themselves. Seeing their reactions I have no regrets about staying dry. Back in Canada it took several days to recover from the week of heavy training although I am happy to say that I am back into full swing again now. I am even training full-time with the varsity swim team! And I ran for 25 minutes today!!