good and bad this week

so i've had a bit of an up and down week so far. saturday afternoon i rode 47 miles with my club coach. she was doing an 82 mile loop ( as she is training for her first full ironman ) and i joined her about half way through and did the 47. i didn't realize it at the time but i pumped it for the last 12 miles when i should of taken it easy as it came back to bite me in the ass later in the week.

that was all good, then on sunday i had my first attempt in a few months at running at my full body weight ( thanks to an anti gravity treadmill ) . my wife, daughter and i went to do some speed work with other club mates at a track nearby. the running went great, i took it really easy and didn't do any sprint work but we probably did about 3 miles. as i'm sure anybody that has overusage injuries knows, they can be really frustrating and i'm going to take it really easy as i ease back into it.

so the problems started monday morning, oh i should probably tell you as well that my quads started taking some strain during my run on sunday. so woke up monday morning and my calves were screaming at me. i had some pretty severe discomfort now in my calves and my quads weren't behaving themselves either. so i did what any sane person would do, i went for a massage. i get one of these quite regularly as i am prone to muscle fatigue. for some reason when i'm working out i don't know what my limit is.

that sounds familiar, oh thats right, i have the same problem when i'm drinking.

So i went for the massage on my legs monday afternoon and knew that my legs always feel better after i've pumped some blood through them so this morning when i woke up i spent an hour on the trainer at a really easy pace and did about 15 miles. i've been trying a new trick after my long workouts and that is to drink a chocolate milk. yes, chocolate milk. i know a guy that i ride with some times that has done like 5 ironman events and he swears by it as a post workout drink. it has all the good stuff in it that the expensive brand drinks have, so i'm giving it a try.

so my wife, just had a baby 10 weeks ago and went to the pool on monday ( as she is now signed up for her first triathlon ) and came home and told me what she did. 1500 yards in 35 minutes. wow, anybody who swims regularly and has recently had a baby, knows thats pretty incredible. her personal trainer who got me into triathlons and is a self professed poor swimmer just rolled his eyes as he wishes he could do that.

anyway, so i had to go one better and looked for an interesting pool workout and really wanted to come home and brag about something. yip, i might be half dead, abs are killing me and my stomach is a bit queazy, but i did it. 3300 yards in 62 minutes. if you take out my 10 minutes of breaks thats in 52 minutes and a 27 minute mile pace. woohoo. ( bring on my 70.3 )

now, ive set myself a big challenge for tomorrow, 3 hours on the trainer in the morning in an attempt to do about 50 miles or so. as weather is going to be pretty cold, hang on a sec, its going to be flipping cold, highs in the 20's, i've decided to hit the trainer this week for my long ride. i have never done more than an hour on the trainer so i will have to find some way to keep myself busy. i'm thinking podcasts are going to be the thing.

i will let you all know how that goes.

today is tuesday and my calves are still a bit tight, quads are feeling better so i will probably put off running till they feel better and assess them week by week to see how much i run.

after my big swim today, i'm expecting some sore shoulders tomorrow.