Week in review Aug. 10-16: Through flat tires and sore backs, just keep swimming

I don't think I've ever had such a swim-heavy week before!

It's been one of those weeks. I was excited to put in one last solid week of training between my sister-in-law's wedding and my upcoming 70.3 (eeeeek!), but sadly the bike and run gods both smote (smited? smittened?) me down.

I had to cut short an early-week road ride, sadly the only chance I'd had all season to get on the road during the week, due to a flat. And of course I put off trying to fix it and my backup tube didn't fit on my rim, so I couldn't ride on the trainer. My lower back, in the area of my SI joint, is still bothering me a bit, so I haven't run since Thursday and plan to take today and tomorrow off, too. It hurts after I've been sitting a while, and more so after I stretched the crap out of my hips and hamstrings last night, but I am hopeful rest and gentle movements will help me feeling normal again soon.

Bike and run issues led to what I'm pretty sure is the only week I've ever swam more than I did anything else. By the numbers:

Swim: Four times, three in the pool and once in the lake, for a total of just more than 10,000 yards in 4 hours.

Bike: Twice, both on the road (!), for 56 miles (!!) in just longer than 3.5 hours.

Run: Twice (sigh), both on the road, for 12 miles in just less than 2 hours. My back was hurting to the point that it was affecting my gait and I knew it would be dumb to push it.

Other: One 45-minute self-guided yoga session of forward bends, twists, pigeons, triangles... anything that might open up my lower back!

Total: Nine sessions in about 10.25 hours. Eh, I was hoping for more, but there's only so much you can do with flats and back pain.

So, the countdown is on: Less than six days 'til race day. I have about 157 lists of things I need to buy, do, bring and otherwise take care of before we leave town. I'm stalking the 10-day forecast (right now it says hot and possibly stormy). I get butterflies when I realize that HOLY CRAP IT'S ONLY A FEW DAYS AWAY.

The hay is in the barn. Now the focus is on staying calm, sane and (relatively) healthy for the next week. And planning that post-race meal, of course!

A body check-in, tire problems and a forced rest day

Well, the good news is that half my aches and pains have cleared up since the weekend. My incredibly tight IT band, which had locked up my knee to where I couldn’t put weight on it, pretty much went away by the next day. I’m assuming that was just inflammation from a 62-mile ride followed by a 20-mile run the next day. Note to self: You’re getting old.

The bad news is that my SI joint is still bothering me. Monday was a scheduled rest day from running and I shuffled my schedule to take Tuesday off, too. It was still a little tender on Wednesday but I decided to do a few miles and see how it felt – and it wasn’t bad. It was a little more tender on Thursday but I still gave it a try – and this time it was bad. I made it about 5.5 before calling it quits, and to be honest I was probably dumb to try running at all. So, I am taking a few more days off to rest and stretch and maybe, maybe trying again Sunday.

Sneaking in some hip stretches at the office.

Speaking of shuffled schedules, remember how on Tuesday I moved everything around for a meeting that I had to cancel? And then how I tried to take advantage of the free time by going for a ride that then got cut short because of a flat tire? (That was fun.) Last night I finally had a few minutes to try to fix my flat.

I found a staple in the tire, pulled it out and removed the tube. I found where it had gone through right away and threw on a patch. It was still deflating; I found another hole and threw on another patch. It was still deflating. Well, I didn’t want to waste three patches on an old tube, so I pulled my extra tube out of my flat kit. Lo and behold, it has the WRONG VALVE! I have a pump that fills both Schrader and Presta valves, but the Schraders are too fat to fit through the valve hole in the rim.

Tube problems.

I guess the moral of the story is I should be glad this happened in my living room and not miles away from my car or out on the race course. And of course, I forgot to bring my tire to work today (so I could run to the bike shop on my lunch hour) so I’m hoping the picture I took of the sidewall information is enough to figure out what I need to get back on the road.

All of this is leading to a forced rest day today. I can’t ride on the trainer with a flat tire. (And I literally JUST gave my dad back his old wind trainer, on which I had set up my old steel Huffy.) And I can’t run with a problematic SI joint. So I’m trying to make the best of it: I slept in until a lazy 5:45 a.m. this morning, and we have dinner plans with my parents tonight. I’ll try to get in some stretching in the meantime, and hopefully can get a new tube and do my regular long ride tomorrow.

Nine days 'til race day. Let's hope my tires and joints hold up.

The ride that wasn't meant to be

Sigh.

I mentioned earlier that I had a truckload of evening meetings this week. After shuffling my training schedule around to accommodate both those and my sore knee, it turned out that every person but one had something come up and couldn't make yesterday's meeting. Sigh.

But! Trying to stay positive, I said to myself, "Even though you want to take the day off running, you can still go ride your bike! Riding outside is way more fun that riding on the trainer!" So I gathered my bike stuff, loaded up the car, and headed out... to find that it was starting to rain. Sigh.

But! I checked the radar and it looked like just a squall passing through. "I'll sit in the car and wait it out!" I thought. Finally, it cleared and it looked like it was going to be a beautiful night -- and as an added bonus, the rain had scared most everyone away from the park, so it was calm and quiet riding.

Until mile 9.9. I rounded a corner and noticed a weird sound. "Is that the smooth concrete making that noise?" I thought. Then my back wheel started feeling strange. I pulled over. My back tire was completely flat.

Are you kidding me?

NOOOOOOOO!

I wasn't far from my car so I just walked it back. Several people called out to ask if I needed anything -- thanks, nice people! By the time I got there, it was past dinner time, so I decided to cut my losses and head home before I got struck by lightning or eaten by a velociraptor or something.

I felt a small gratification after I tried to pump my tire up at home to assess the damage, and it deflated immediately -- I wouldn't have been able to use a CO2 cartridge and it was the right decision to hoof it back. Still: Now I have something else to worry about before my 70.3 in 11 freakin' days.

Maybe this means I got my flat tire out of the way and won't have to worry about it. Either way, I'll get a chance to practice changing a tire.

Week in review August 3-9: Wedding over workouts

Hey, I did something other than swim/bike/run!

My sister-in-law's wedding took priority last week -- and as a bridesmaid I was involved with it ALL WEEK -- so I was limited on the amount of training I did Wednesday through Friday. By Saturday, my life was starting to get back to normal.

I did a long ride Saturday and a long run Sunday and afterward went out for coffee with my husband. After sitting for an hour or so, I started to get up and my knee locked up. My IT band was incredibly tight and I couldn't put any weight on it! I have been babying it and stretching since yesterday, and I'm planning on shuffling my schedule so I take a day off running tomorrow. Fingers crossed that my knee is just a little inflamed from all the activity, because I don't want to think about the other option.

Swim: Just once in the pool for 3500 yards in about 1 hour, 23 minutes. I didn't get to bed until after midnight both Wednesday and Friday so there were no Thursday or Saturday morning swims.

Bike: Once on the trainer and my longest road ride ever, 62 miles, for a total of about 4.5 hours. My trainer ride was a comedy of errors (forgot to put my bike on the trainer, knocked over my water glass, etc.) but my road ride felt amazing and strong.

Run: Three times -- a short and speedy, quick brick, and LONG long run of 20 miles -- for 28 miles total in about 4.5 hours. Any time the humidity is in the 80-90 percent range and I manage an average starting with 9, I'm counting that as a success. All three runs felt good. Again, I was busy with wedding stuff Wednesday through Friday, so no afternoon or evening runs for me.

Funny story about my Tuesday evening run: There was a guy ahead of me and he was bound and determined not to get "chicked" (passed by a woman). He kept looking over his shoulder and speeding up when I got too close. I was feeling good so I decided to have some fun with him and descend my pace. I got the last mile down to an 8:08 pace and he finally gave up and had to slow to walk. I ran as smoothly as possible by him, pretending that it ain't no thang. Guys, seriously, it's 2015 -- can we please get past the whole "beat by a girl" thing?

Also funny: I spent almost exactly as much time on the bike as I did in my running shoes this week -- both were 4 hours, 24 minutes and change.

Other: My knee was in a bit of pain by Sunday evening so I spent a half hour stretching, mostly hips and hamstrings, and felt a lot better afterward.

Overall: 7 sessions in about 10.75 hours. Let's call it a step back week.

I have a truckload of evening meetings this week but even if I take tomorrow off to rest my knee, I should still be able to get most of my runs in. I still have to clean the drywall dust out of the condo (in fact my goal before I go to bed is to mop out my closet and move some shelves back in there!) but I am hopeful that the bulk of the craziness is over for the summer.

Less than two weeks 'til my 70.3! I am ready and I am ready for my life to get back to normal... or at least as normal as it can be when I still have a marathon two months away.

Let's do a quick review of July for posterity

Hours trained in July.

My life has been crazy lately and it's already the 9th of August, but let's do a quick review of July anyway. I ended up logging the most miles I've ever swam or run in a month, ever, so I have to put that in writing somewhere.

Monthly swim totals since last year.

Swim: 15 swims, 10 in the pool and 5 times in the lake (counting an open-water mile and aquathlon in the same day as two separate swims), for a smidgen less than 40,000 yards (about 22.75 miles) in about 15.25 hours. This was easily the most I've ever swum in a month, and I surpassed the 100-mile mark for the year this month, which makes it all the more frustrating that I'm not really improving. I'm going to stick out this training cycle and probably change it up for next season.

Monthly bike road miles.

Bike miles week by week.

Bike: 13 bike sessions, 9 on the trainer in my living room and 4 times (once per weekend) on the road, for 215.5 road miles and about 22.5 hours all together. I'm about where I was last year on this, although I'm spending less total time on the trainer when I do get on it. However, I am incrementally faster on the road. It's frustrating to improve only 0.1 mph at a time, but it is improvement. I just have to keep working.

July marked the most miles I've ever run in a month, ever.

Run: Another rock star month. I'm not especially fast, but I love running and I get out there whenever I can. In July that was 24 times, all on the road, for 187 miles in about 29.5 hours. When I saw I was coming up to my previous monthly record of 185 I knew I had to beat it, and why beat it by 1 mile when you can beat it by 2?

Of course, much of the increased mileage comes from marathon build, as I had a 16.25-miler and an 18-miler in there. But I have also been good about running most days of the week -- three weeks in July and July/August I ran six times. That all adds up. The good news is that I have two more months of marathon build to beat 187. Plus, that puts me ahead of the average of 125 per month I need to make my ultimate goal of 1,500 in '15.

Other: I didn't do a thing this month except swim, bike and run. Oh well. After triathlon season I am making it a goal to get back into pre-hab and yoga, at least.

I'm already a third of the way through August but it's going to be more of the same to wrap up training for my big race in two weeks (EEEK!). After that I can take a break from swimming and running if I want to, although last year I felt I had one more tri in me. Right now I need to focus on finishing this season strong so I can execute on race day.

Hopefully, training will be back to normal soon

Well, my sister-in-law got married and it was wonderful and fun and emotional and we followed up the ceremony by partying all night. I won't bore you with the details since this is a triathlon blog and not a weddings-of-people-you-don't-know blog, but I will say that although I didn't train at all from Wednesday morning through Friday, I burned plenty of calories dancing my ass off to "Love Shack."

Sadly, I ate them all back and then some with their delicious Cuban catering. Honestly, I only stopped eating because it was getting hard to breathe in my fitted dress. Next time I get to pick my own bridesmaid dress, I'm getting a muumuu.

Anyway, life started to have a semblance of normal today. After a lazy morning sleeping in and going out to breakfast while it rained, the weather cleared and I finally hit the road for my last LONG long ride before the race -- a 62-miler. After my last 60-miler my dad gave me a good ribbing for not doing 62 and making it a metric century, so I was determined to do it today.

100K!

It actually went really, really well. I was feeling good, it wasn't beastly hot, and I was happy to be out on wheels again. Because of the late start, I didn't get in my full ride before the road opened back up to traffic. But I tried to make the best of it, and rode out past my usual route for a change of scenery. My speed dropped a full 1.5 mph for the last 17 miles because I had to accommodate intersections and navigating the shoulder, but it honestly was really nice to shake it up. This is also a personal distance record!

Some friendly cyclist guy rode with me for a few miles, and we chatted about riding and racing. I felt badly that I had to pull off and make a pit stop. Sorry guy, it wasn't anything you said -- I really had to go! I train alone 99% of the time so it was nice to have human interaction.

The longer route made me realize that I really only ride laps and not any point-to-point rides. Maybe that will be something I do more of for next season to shake it up. And although it wasn't hot, it was pretty muggy. My arms looked like this before too long:

Gross!

I followed that up with a 2-mile run that felt pretty darn good, too.

The condo is STILL a disaster and we have some meetings and other personal stuff still happening, but with the wedding over, hopefully there is a light at the end of the crazy-busy tunnel. And in homage to my dad mentioned above, I have to make the dad joke: "And I hope it's not a train!"

Week in review July 27-August 2: It's already Tuesday but my life is AAAAAAAAHHHH!!! right now

Lots of running! Decent swimming! Needs more biking.

I'm behind in, like, everything in my life right now, so why not review last week a few days late? I'm making myself take an actual lunch break today and get caught up on some personal stuff, and obviously this is most important. Ha!

Warning that this week is going to be crazy. My sister-in-law gets married in a few days and the week is jam-packed with wedding activities. And I have to get a 20-mile run and a 62-mile bike in there somewhere, too. Eeeek!

But let's look at last week before I freak out (again) about this coming week:

Swim: Twice in the pool and once in the lake for about 8,150 yards in about 3 hours, 12 minutes. Not going to sugar-coat this: My pool swims have sucked lately. I feel I'm getting slower and slower. I'm not sure how much progress I can make by changing it up 2.5 weeks from my big race, so I'm going to stick with my current plan for now and maybe try something new next cycle.

Bike: Twice on the trainer and one 50-miler on the road, for a total of about 5.25 hours in the saddle. My bike is improving in painfully slow 0.1 mph increments, so that's something, even though I haven't done a Monday evening recovery trainer ride in weeks. Like my swimming skills, I'm not sure how much good changing it up would do at this point, so I'll stick with what's kind of working for now. Oh, if only I had more time to ride, said every person, ever.

Run: I continue to not suck quite so badly at running. Last week I ran six times (every day but Monday), all on the road, for 47.5 miles in just less than 7.5 hours. My long run (a step back 12 this week) was a little slower than I'd like, but I had some decently-paced shorter runs in there, including a 6-mile brick after my 50-mile ride that felt surprisingly good. Plus, 47.5 miles is my biggest running volume week so far this cycle. I'm really hoping I have a solid base for some good races.

Other: Nothing. I should stop putting this in my updates because it reminds me every week that I haven't stretched, lifted or pre-habbed a thing.

Total: 12 sessions in just less than 16 hours -- a solid training week.

This coming week is all about the wedding extravaganza, fitting in what training I can, and, oh yeah, did I mention that my condo is STILL covered in drywall dust two weeks later? I literally have dust collecting dust. We have made progress, though -- we finally got rid of our crappy, falling-apart furniture, and I spent an hour folding a mountain of clean laundry, but we still have to get rid of a few things, mop up all the dust, and put the rooms back together. Finding new furniture and painting the odd leftover wall is WAY down the priority list.

Sorry if this sounds more manic than usual. Hopefully I'll be able to review July before the end of August -- no promises!