With A New Season Comes Change

Well, I made it (almost) through the 2011 triathlon season without being sidelined with some catastrophic injury. Notice I said almost. So essentially I didn't meet all of my goals one being, get through the season without as much as a hangnail. FAIL.

  I had a little visit with my friends over at Coolidge Corner Imagining last week, just  one week after my last race of the season. It's like home-away-from-home there.  I can just about remember all the techs by name and front office staff. It's just a matter of time they will be including me in their fantasy football pool and maybe if I'm lucky, even the staff holiday party!

Now you all must be thinking, "Why doesn't this knuckle headed blond just stop when something is hurting before it gets so bad?"  All I can say is either i have a VERY high pain tolerance or I have a  VERY VERY high pain tolerance combined with a short circuit to TAKE YOUR HAND AWAY FROM THE FLAME issue because none of the previous injuries have ever felt serious yet each one has literally drained the color from my face from shock when told the diagnosis. One thing I can take from all of this is I'm seasoned now.  There is no face color draining, no hissy fits, I just let it roll.  My deepest sympathy  to all who in the past had to bare my wrath  with my fists pounding on them (if they were lucky enough to be there) or had to listen to me cry and moan, moan and cry on the other end of a phone for days/weeks on end.

 Three's a charm and I'm above that now.  A mature, seasoned injury specimen smart enough to ask to have the radiology report sent to her email so I don't have to wait days on end to hear from a physician when they get around to telling me. Take that as your tip-o-the day and yes, I'm still wait for the call for the info I already have.

   I'm on stress fracture # 3 in three years to be crystal clear.

It is apparent I'm made of match sticks and/or balsa wood disguised as bone. We will leave it at that for now.

Lets  focus on the positive shall we? I trained. I raced and each one, I gave it everything I had.  I have been the queen of consistent TRX suspension training 2 days a week since January.  I am fit. I am strong and my hips,back,core have never been stronger.

I did 4  triathlon races, 2 open water swim races and 5 road races.   My run times progressively got faster and I managed 2 first place finishes in my division and 2 second place for the 4 sprint triathlons all on 4 years of set-backs and very inconsistent training due to my match stick bones.

So my fall season (badly needed run focus) is now on the top shelf where I've had to place things too many times.

It is what it is and I shall persevere which brings me to cyclocross. You know... cowbells, mud, caution tape and beer?  I was not going to have anything to do with it this year sticking to my guns and focusing on running but it only took one race (photographing) and I was drooling. So.... if my paw holds up in a rigid shoe without much issue, I will perhaps jump into a few races in which I don't really race, I just hang on for

dear life in the back and pretend I know what I'm doing. 

My new goal? Finding someone who can teach me to remount my bike with out the dreaded double

hop syndrome I can't seem to get rid of.  I watch it over and over and over but my head and  butt can't seem to make it happen. 

LIKE THIS!

  Here is Mo Bruno Roy, my massage therapist/ mud loving Pro CX athlete showing exquisite technique.Kudos to one of my favorite photographers Lyne Lamoureux who takes BAD ASS cycling photos and caught this shot.

 I know!!!! Maybe.. just maybe..at my next massage appointment I forgo the massage and I get her to spend the hour with me on: Perfecting The Remount!!!!!

Ya think?    

This match stick girl can STILL dream and dream big. 

Thanks for stopping by.

A Wednesday Distance Day Swim Set

Since I continue to be a sh*tty blogger with scant updates, today I shall start off with a swim set we did at MIT morning masters today. Wednesdays are distance day so if you are looking for a nice longish set with a splash of tempo work in there, here ya go...

400 w/up on your own. For me, i am farting around for this. I take my time warming up working on DPS ( distance per stroke) a snappy flip turn which I am constantly working on and seeing how far I can make it out on my back dolphin kicking underwater before starting my back stroke.. Junk like that.

 Coach Bill wanders in during this and most of my lane mates are standing on deck chewing the fat.  Today I scanned the deck and realized today it appeared, I would be leading. Now I don't mind leading but today after a 50 mile combined bike commute into work and home yesterday, I was still looking for my caffeine buzz that never appeared and really, I just wanted to ride the back of the bus.   Damn you KT for not showing up today.

 Masters officially began after my fellow slacker lane mates got in. The warm up set looked like this:
8 x 75
Odds 50 kick 25 swim
Evens 50 Drill 25 swim
20 seconds rest inbtwn.

The next "warm up" set gets your heart rate up with a sprinkling of sprinting.  I am not a sprinter
so I let Dr. Bob who shows up to masters when there is an eclipse lead this one.  He is sprinty but has
not a lick of endurance so I let him lead only this but not without his wooby pull buoy he can't seem to do without.

2x 50 on 50
3x 50 on 45
4 x 50 on 40   we collectively complained and said no to this one and changed it to
4x50 on 50  so we could make the 5 50's on 40.  We are no dummies...
5x50 on 40


50 ez


Main Set:
 3 x 500


1. working on DSP and good form:
   500 on  1:30 base.   7:30


2. Pulling and a bit snappy
    500 on  7:10  (1:25ish base)


3. HARD  
    This is your meat and potatoes so don't screw this up. :-)
     500 on 6:40
     While leading this my head wanted to explode after the 200 working on maintaining a 1:20 pace but having 3 men behind me: a Citibank exec, a physician, and the head of  the aerospace dept at MIT,  I  was not going to screw this up.


50 ez




2x 400


400 on 1:30 base
400 Pull


After adding  this up, I got about 4100 yards and decided I was done and only one late mate remained with me. Can you say attrition?  :-) I got out but you should do at least a 100 ez cool down and also obviously do some adjusting to the paces based on your base pace. Just remember to make those 50's challenging and that last 500 is your key interval.

It's a good mix of a set and it goes by really quickly, caffeine buzz or not.....

Have a great day!