Ironman Mont Tremblant

Thursday, June 30, 2011

First Run

This morning's swim workout was a little better than Tuesday's unstructured mess.  Masters swimming ended for the summer break this week but I missed the newsflash and showed up anyways on Tuesday.  Serge gave me a lane to swim on my own but offered no workout so I just goofed around and did a pathetic 1,500 meters as I got bored.  Masters swam at 5:30 am but regular lane swimming starts at 6:00 am in the summertime.  Not quite as good but will have to do.  I don't think many people realized as the pool wasn't that busy and there were only three swimmers for two fast lanes.  Bonus!  I printed off some of the workouts I downloaded from Slowtwitch last year and knocked off around 2,200 meters.  Not bad as the different drills helps breaks up the boredom of pounding out lap after lap.

I went to the sports doctor on Tuesday to get an update on my stress fracture and unfortunately it is still a little tender.  He advise no running for another 1-2 weeks but I can pool run or run on an elliptical trainer.  Both wonderful choices.  They rank right up there with watching glaciers melt or paint dry.  He still believes I'll be able to race Calgary 70.3 on July 31st with only two weeks of running outside given the base I've built up (coach said he was on crack).  Later on Tuesday, I went to my podiatrist to get new orthotics for my dress shoes.  He informed me that the ones I am wearing, he made in 2004.  Seriously???  I believe these might have contributed to my stress fracture although the ones in my running shoes were made last year.  As a former marathon runner and a podiatrist, I asked him if it would be possible to race on July 31st given my stress fracture and my target date of running outside of July 15th and he concurred with the sports doctor that given my base I "should" be able to run and I |might| do better than I think.

My friend lives in a  condo and in the past I've used his very small pool to water run.  The condo also has a small gym with an elliptical trainer so I left work a little early but not early enough.  My errands for preparation for the long weekend took me way longer than I anticipated so I didn't get to his condo and started running until 3:30 pm.  I've never run on an elliptical but heard its basically a waste of time.  The plan was to go for an hour run and see how I felt.  I started running and within five minutes had a good sweat going.  The sports doc was correct in saying that there would be minimal impact on my legs and I managed to keep running without going crazy.  I had my ipod and was watching the Prince William and Kate do the tour in Ottawa on the overhead TV.  One might have thought that everything else in the world has grounded to a halt given the coverage of them.

The run itself was tougher than I thought it would have been but the numbers on the trainer seemed a little dubious.  Towards the end, my cardio was fine but my legs were getting tired and I wondered how long I could actually run on this contraption but it did the job.  It is a lot harder than pool running and if I can run a couple of times doing the week, it would help significantly when I get back to running outside.   I must admit the elliptical trainer was a lot tougher than I had expected and am bagged from it.  Of course, I haven't run since mid May so going out and running a full 60 minutes probably isn't the brightest thing but than I've never been acccused of being too bright.

Obviously, I'm still clinging to the fact that I "might" be able to race Calgary 70.3 despite the overwhelming (non medical) advice not to race which I greatly appreciate your input.  Don't worry, I do have a backup plan if I get hurt and can't race Muskoka 70.3 on September 11th.

I have planned two interesting bike rides this long weekend.  That is, if I don't get smoked during the heavy holiday traffic.  I'll tell you about it if I survive

Happy Canada Day (July 1st) and Happy Fourth of July for our American friends.  Drink lots of beer or something.  I know I will.

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