On Monday I biked to work in a snow/rain storm in the name of active recovery. I knew that I wouldn’t have the energy to do anything more than that after work. On Tuesday, I took my pup for a much-needed walk in the morning and then for a nice, chilled out run/walk in the evening. I realized on this walk/run that this was what active recovery felt like! And I have to admit that on Wednesday morning, my DOMS (ie. delayed onset muscle soreness) felt much better. My massage later that day also helped! It probably also helped that I had a chiropractic adjustment on Tuesday afternoon as well. My chiro has prescribed an adjustment every 3-4 weeks when I’m training because of my back issues. I can’t help but wonder if strength training and yoga won’t cure my scholiosis. I wonder if there is a way to test it out, other than basing it solely on how I feel. I suppose I could look it up!

All of this brings me to today. This morning I went for a swim, which ended up being a recovery swim as well because my training buddy wanted to chat instead of letting me do my workout. I guess we had stuff to catch up on! Tonight, however, I’m going to get on the trainer for some good ol’ winter fun! We still have a lot of snow here and while I would love to get out onto the road, it’s just not happening right now. I am hoping to get out on the road next week for my long ride if it warms up enough.

The other topic of this blog post is about food. I have been kind of bad with food over the past few months. I have not had much motivation, not only for training, but also when it came to food. I am a lot better at eating more raw fruits and vegetables these days, but I have my moments. Last night I had a “moment.” Instead of cooking a healthy eggplant curry stirfry like I was intending, I ended up eating Multi-grain Cheerios and then soy ice cream! Oh, the guilt!  Repent, repent, repent! The biggest problem with not cooking at night isn’t so much what I ate that night, but that it leaves me lunchless the next day. So I am eating a lot of peanut butter and jam toast today. I have also eaten a pear and will make it through the day with an orange, banana, and more toast. Oh, what I would give for that eggplant curry! Alas, I will make it tonight before the bike trainer fun.

The other night I had the biggest salad I’ve ever eaten! It had a huge amount of tomatoes (my favorite food of all time), a lot of different greens, hemp seeds, and a tahini dressing. It takes a really long time to eat a big salad like that. I have to admit, though, that it has done a bit of a number on my digestive system. I think it’s getting sorted out now, though. I am going to try to have a salad like that every couple of days because I have a ridiculous amount of greens in my house right now. Between salads and green smoothies, I’ll be going through them in no time!

I’m looking forward to a weekend of training and planting my early seeds indoors for my summer garden!

Last night I started to fade very quickly around 8:00. I knew that today would not be easy. Oh, how I underestimated myself! It’s all great to write a race report RIGHT AFTER THE RACE, but the next day when the DOMS (ie. Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) starts to set in and I realize that maybe I didn’t have as much left in my legs after all, the whole experience has become a lot less rosy. I awoke without much problem, but as soon as I moved, I had shooting pains up from my upper back and neck into my head. “Boom boom boom,” was my heart beating into my temples. I felt like I was going to fall over. Then I went to the bathroom and discovered my sore calves and shin (oh, just the left one is sore). I tried to go back to sleep, but couldn’t due to the pain that was radiating throughout my body. Yes, maybe I’m over-exaggerating because I’m still in the hell of my own making and tomorrow it won’t be so bad. I can’t help but wonder why, oh why, do I choose to do this to myself? Maybe it’s for the love of sports, the love of the competition, or the love of the pain. Whatever it is, I know I will remember it in a few days. Right now, I can only kick myself and wonder how I am POSSIBLY going to run twice that distanced (plus some) in under two weeks from now. I can’t even think about it right now. If I do, I will likely unregister myself.

What I have been doing today is drinking a LOT of water. I believe that a lot of this is due to lack of hydration and salts from yesterday. I have been taking a lot of Vitamin C and eating salty foods. I have been icing the parts that hurt, especially my calf. It seems to have helped that, but my neck is still killer sore and occasionally radiates into my head. Even ibruprofen has had only a minimal effect on the pain.

This is nothing compared to the pain after Ironman, but it has reminded me of that pain. This scares the crap out of me. It reminds me that I must train harder. If I train harder, the pain will be less after Ironman. The small amounts of pain that I will have to go through in my workouts will help to reduce the pain after Ironman. Oh yes, I needed this kick in the ass. I needed it badly.

Also, I uploaded my Garmin. I have attached the image below. Apparently I ran most of the race in HR zone 4. No wonder I hurt!

I discovered yesterday that sitting in a car for two hours while driving for work does not help the delayed onset muscle soreness (ie. DOMS) from a run the day before. Yesterday, however, that was what I did. My legs have been sore since Tuesday – my hamstrings, groin, hip-flexors, butt, quads. The whole shebang. My engine and everything around it. The only time my legs weren’t sore was this morning when I did half an hour of easy running on the treadmill at my hotel. It really is amazing how getting the blood flowing can make sore legs feel so much less sore. I did some yoga after that to stretch things out and it felt so good. I’m hoping to get in another yoga/stretch session today.

I was planning to do my bike testing today, but I think I will put it off until tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully one more day of rest will be all that my legs need to feel 100% again.

Last night I watched the “How to do flip turns” video on the Beginner Triathlete website (thanks to my new triathlete friend Navarra). So I’ve decided to incorporate flip turns into my workout. I have done them before, but got out of the habit. I think I’m going to try the steps that are suggested in the video because I’m not sure I ever did them properly. I taught myself how to do them. I do think that they are beneficial to a swim workout because they make things easier and force you to hold your breath longer at the ends. They are just kind of difficult. I’m going to incorporate them slowly into my workouts and hopefully soon enough I will be doing them throughout the workout with ease. Project Flip-Turn will start tomorrow morning.

Last night I also did some reading of trifuel’s latest newsletter, which you can read about in my Vegan Triathlete Nutrition Blog. I gave away all my secrets of quick vegan meals.

Happy Valentine’s Day!