The Sunday Ritual, Stupidity and Another DNS

My first few steps were tentative but I quickly found my rhythm.  Of course every little twinge I felt ate away at that black hole of doubt.  I eventually realized that my head was getting the better of me.  I soldiered on.  The goal was 19km.  It was a beautiful sunny day and I was running along a lovely undulating road in cottage country.  It doesn't get any better than that.  I had been feeling so good leading up to this day.   Perhaps that's why I thought 19km was doable.  About 8km in I thought maybe I should turn around and call it a day.  16km was still respectable especially after taking 2.5 weeks off.  My stubborn side chimed in and talked me in to that extra 1.5km out.  "You need to get your mileage in"  it urged.  "You're way behind."  Panic took over and I pushed on.  At the turnaround, I stopped to check out the state of my feet.  I could feel the burning on my right foot.  I took my shoe off to see a bulge on the ball of my foot.  Ugh.  I shoved my foot back in and laced my shoe up tighter.  I crossed the 2 lane highway and started to make my way back, cursing myself for being an idiot.  I had to stop a couple of times to stretch.  I couldn't plant my right foot properly due to the gigantic blister that had formed.  My stride was altered.  I started to walk, silently cursing my stupidity.  Somewhere around 14km I started to feel a bit better.  I knew I had to face the dreaded Emes Hill on the way back.  It doesn't look like much but it's a grinder.  I figured if I had to walk, I had to walk.  Peter's words echoed through my head "Try to take it easy on the hills.  If you can avoid them, avoid them for now."   So much for that. 

Emes Hill.  Jammy Bugger.

I started up the hill and actually felt alright.  It kicks up towards the top so I slowed down as I got closer to the top.  I was huffing and puffing.  But I made it to the top.   I was only about 3km away from the landing.  My legs were just starting to feel tired which was a surprise.  I figured I'd feel tired way earlier.  I had one more small hill to climb before I reached the landing.  Mentally I was done.  My feet were burning and I was not looking forward to taking my shoes off.  As the landing came in to view I realized that I hadn't quite done 19km.  I *should* have stopped but no, I had to run out past the landing until my Garmin clicked over to 19km.  Really?? What good did that do me?? None I'm sure except to silence the paranoid beast in the back of my head.
On a positive note, my legs felt totally fine after that escapade.  I was walking normally, no pain, no issues.  I figured the next day would be a different story.  My feet, on the other hand were a mess.  I had two huge blood blisters on my right foot and another blister forming on the big toe of my left foot.  It took me two attempts to drain the blisters.  I had to drain them again the next morning.  Disgusting.  I couldn't even face putting my running shoes on again so I spent the next day in flip flops.  My legs felt stiff and my calf felt tight, but there was no pain.  I was hopeful that I could race on Sunday.  I used the Stick on my calf, iced it and took a Robaxacet on Friday night in the hopes that would help loosen things up.
I awoke on Saturday to incredibly sore legs and a very tight calf.  Oh no, no no no.  All I could hope was that my legs loosened up over the course of the day.  They didn't.  So at 5:00 pm last night I pulled the pin on racing today.  Another DNS (did not start).  It was probably just as well.  I woke up this morning with very sore quads, a tender achilles and a sore hamstring.  I was tempted to sit on my butt this morning and mope but I thought it would be better if I went out and got moving.  So I laced up the new shoes, put on my new Oiselle Roga shorts (which I love btw) and went for a shuffle.  It was awful.  I tried not to cry in frustration as I ran.  My legs felt like tree trunks.  I kept moving at a very easy pace.  I turned around just past the 3km mark.  I stopped at almost 4.5km and started to walk home.  I was feeling too many "weird" things in my legs.  And they were just plain tired.  About 1km from home, I started to run again.  Everything was tight.  I started to get down on myself.  I fought back more tears as I shuffled along.  I started to worry that I'd done more harm than good and that I'd set myself back even further.  I got back home and spent a good 20 minutes stretching.  I lightly foam rolled my legs and thought about my next steps.   Realistically, the fact that I got out and managed to run almost 5.5km in 30 minutes with no calf pain per se, is a positive.  The pain I felt was because I overdid it on Thursday.  It was everywhere else BUT my calf.  Which is a good thing.  So I think a good massage will help flush out the rest of the soreness in my legs and hopefully get the circulation going again.  To aid in getting the blood flowing to my aching legs I'm wearing my Compressport For Quads and my calf sleeve on my bum calf.  The single calf sleeve is very gangsta looking but I don't care.  It feels great.  Fingers crossed I wake to fresher legs tomorrow.  Just in time to return to work.

I didn't have anything planned for today cooking wise because I figured we'd be racing and wouldn't be back home until mid afternoon.  I took a look through the freezer and the pantry and I think I've got more than enough odds and ends that I can successfully put together some decent lunches.  I'll have to pick up a few things but I don't think I'll have to do a full on grocery shop.  I'm taking some inspiration from the lovely Katie over a Wish and Whimsy and making these yummy looking Tuna Cabbage Boats.  I like the fact that I can put whatever strikes my fancy in these.  They are high in protein and I can fill them up with as much veggies as I please.  Perfect clean eating food.  I made some delicious salsa verde last week that I put on some grilled chicken.  Flavourful and oh so simple.  I still have some left over so I'll be using that on the grilled chicken I'm going to cook up tonight.  As for dinner this week, we'll that remains to be seen.  We still have a ton of peppers, zucchini and mushrooms as well as some green beans and a small harvest of yellow beans from the garden.  Some grilled salmon or flank steak would be perfect pairings for these veggies.  This will probably mean a stop at the butchers after work but that's easy enough.  I want to keep this weeks menu simple.   I got up early this morning and tackled my breakfast for the week.  I've gone back to my usual breakfast fritatta.  I added a chick pea crust to this to make it a bit more substantial.  This one has mushrooms, onions, yellow pepper, zucchini and goat cheese.  Had I been thinking I would have added some thyme to it.  Delicious.

Fritatta Love

The grand plan for the week:  KISS = Keep it simple, stupid.  Eat clean, train smart, listen to my body and hopefully I'll be back on track.  I've got one more opportunity to race next weekend so if I'm smart this week, I should be able to toe the line at the Toronto Island Triathlon next weekend.   Fingers crossed.