2008/9

I haven’t written here in nearly a month, largely because I’ve been feeling down about training, which is what even a mild injury can do.  I haven’t run since early December, December 6th, to be exact, in an effort to make that hamstring problem go away.  It’s still here, although it seems to be getting better.  I’ve been seeing the same Active Release Therapy guy who fixed my foot, and the treatments plus exercises are helping me make some progress.  I took nearly three weeks entirely off, for some mental and physical rejuvination, although sometimes it seems like taking time off only makes the aches and pains worse.  But now I’m back to cycling and swimming, and I’m hoping to add in running some time in January.  Hopefully earlier in the month than later, but we’ll see.  I’ll go ahead and sign up for some sprint triathlons in late spring, and we’ll see how it goes.

I’m not entirely sure what caused the injury this time around; it certainly wasn’t running too much, since I built up incredibly slowly and only got as far as running 33 minutes three times a week.  I think it’s a combination of a number of things, one being the running and cycling time combined.  I was never doing too many hours, never more than nine a week, including swimming too, but I think my body just might not have been used to all the sports at once.  Another factor, I’m guessing, is my lack of core strength.  I had been doing basically nothing for core and upper body strength — I hate doing exercises and never worked hard to find the time for them — and I’m wondering if the lack of strength and stability in the core/hip area made me vulnerable to injury.  The only other thing I can think of is my tight muscles may have been a factor.  I tried to stretch, but it probably wasn’t enough.

This past year was frustrating because of my running injuries, but cycling and swimming have gone much better.  I reached my highest ever mileage number on the bike: 4,339.  Last year I did something over 4,200.  This year I hit my highest mileage ever while adding in some running and swimming in the summer and fall.  Mileage aside, I had fun racing — I had no particularly good results, but I don’t care much about that; I just enjoy being out there and being able to hold my own with the men at the Tuesday night races.  I’ve had fun working on my swimming too.  I started out pretty awful, I’m sure, and now I’m less awful, and I’m taking a class starting next week that will make me less awful yet.  Yay!

For next year … I’m not sure.  With my running difficulties, it’s hard to say what I’ll do.  If injury allows, I’d like to compete in a few sprint triathlons.  Doing an Olympic one would be great, maybe later in the summer, but that will depend on the running, of course.  I’ll ride in some bike races, but I’m not sure when I’ll start that and how many I’ll do.  Mostly, I guess, I just want to be able to work out a lot, compete in a few races, and have fun.

My current swimming teacher said this evening that the improvement I’ve made since the summer is “incredible.”  Woo-hoo!  I’m still no great swimmer (by any means), but it’s nice to be improving.

Tonight’s swim was 1800: 500 meters warm-up, 800 meters of various drills, and then a 50, 100, 150, and 200, working hard on the last 50 in each set.