Monday Musings: Trying to get back on track

Hi ho!

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!  I spent it cheering and celebrating birthdays with family.  It was a big triathlon weekend here in Toronto.  The 5th annual Toronto Triathlon Festival was held on Sunday.  I had two athletes racing and I knew a TON of other people racing as well so I hopped on my bike and went down to do some cheering.  They had pretty much perfect conditions other than the really strong east wind.   It was overcast and not too humid.  I did feel a bit of a cool breeze and some rain while I was watching the swim but that didn't last long.

I'm not gonna lie, I was having some FOMO sitting there watching.  Funny because when G did it back in 2012, I remember looking at the channel and saying there was no way in hell I would ever swim in that water.   Yesterday it didn't look so bad.  Clearly I've come a long way, ha ha.  That being said, it was still fun cheering people on.  The Toronto Triathlon Club had a HUGE contingent of people out to try to reclaim the club championship, which they did handily.  YEAH TTC!

And I'm happy to say that both my athletes CRUSHED IT yesterday.  Both gals were grinning from ear to ear every time I saw them.  I know Courtney will post a race report sat some point (no pressure Courtney, ha ha) so make sure you check that out.  And Charlotte is now officially addicted.  YES!  One more person that has been brought into the fold, he he he.  It was also great to see some of my TTC hill crew out there kicking butt!

Happy finisher!  

Proud coach with a very happy athlete! 

These last few weeks have been a flurry of activity and a bit of inconsistency.  Looking through my training log last week I realized that I hadn't done a long ride since July 2nd.  Annnnddd...guess what didn't happen yet again this weekend.  FML.  We were out late on Friday night and then sat around Saturday  morning waiting to see what the weather would do.  When we eventually got out, it started to rain.  UGH.  I only rode for an hour and 10 minutes but I made sure it was a good ride.  I opted to do my long run almost right after that.  An hour and 15 minutes on my feet.  This week had been going SO well.  That being said, it was still a pretty good week.  Let's see how it unfolded, shall we!

Monday:  2700m swim.

Tuesday:  Double bike day!  35.8 km with Morning Glory in the a.m. and then 28km with TTC crew in the p.m. in High Park.  I'm definitely getting my fill of hills on the bike!

Wednesday:  3100m swim, 5km run, followed by a very quick 15 minute upper body / physio routine

Thursday:  30km with Morning Glory, followed by 7km with my friend David.  My legs were toast.

Friday:  2200m swim

Saturday:  33.7km ride followed by a 13.5km run

Sunday:  30.5km ride around High Park and down to the Toronto Triathlon Festival.

Totals:

Swim:  8000m
Bike:  159km
Run:  25.6km

Guys, this is the FIRST time in WEEKS that I've actually hit all my weekly targets.  WOOHOO!

Total time:  11h 4 minutes

My glut / hamstring soreness is still persisting.  My chiro suspects I also have a bit of bursitis in my glut.  I am a bit of a mess.  But it's not at the point where it's preventing me from being active.  I found that running slower on my long run felt ok vs. when I run fast.  Obviously I had wanted to add some speed work in but that may not be an option for me.  But we'll see how things progress with the exercises.  Hopefully my hamstring routine helps calm things down.  In the meantime I've taped it and that seems to be helping.  I had a V02 max test this morning at U of T and it seemed to keep the pain at bay so that may be something I do on regular basis.  I'll be writing a post on my V02 max findings later on this week!

Oh and things to note - rehydrating with Pina coladas and wine is a bad idea.   After cheering at the TTF, I raced home, showered, stuffed my face and then we went out to my Uncles place for the annual Welch family BBQ.  When your cousin is a chef at North 44, you know it's gonna be good.   It ended up becoming an impromptu birthday celebration as several family members are celebrating "significant" birthdays this year.  So that automatically means silly head gear.

This is my dad - he turned 70 in June, ha ha.

This picture KILLS me.  The placement of the birds was totally by accident, ha ha.

Whatever training I did on Sunday was negated by the food and drink I had on Sunday.  But, it was totally worth it.  The food was amazing and the company was even better.  My face hurt from laughing so much.  Such an awesome way to end my weekend.


Congrats to everyone who raced this weekend!  What do you think about the fancy celebratory head wear and glasses??  

~ Coach PK 

Monday Musings: Dr. Google & The Notorious Niggle + some NEWS!

Oh hi!

It's been a couple of weeks since I've done a Monday Musings but I'm back!  It hasn't been a totally action packed week but there have been a few things that have happened over the last couple of weeks that I haven't actually written about.  I've been horrible at updating my Facebook page with anything as of late, probably because I'm spending more time on Instagram stories.  I have to get better at cross posting on my social media channels.  Anyway.....

Firstly, this happened:

Yup.  I passed my personal training practical.  I am now a certified Personal Trainer.  I can officially PUMP YOU UP.  It's something I've wanted to have in my arsenal for a while, it just took me FOREVER to get my shit together and organize my program and paper work.  Oh and practice everything.  I was SO nervous doing this but once I got going, I was ok.  I always seem to doubt how much I actually know.

Secondly, this finally happened:

The card is actually white, this photo doesn't do it justice but that's what happens with an iPhone pic, ha ha.

YEAHHHHH.....I finally got my business cards!  Woot woot!  I wanted to wait until I had officially passed my Personal training practical until I got these done and I'm thrilled with them!  Now when I have people ask for me a card I actually have something to give them!  Next up, getting a few more toys for the basement pain cave so I can start training people there.  I'm also going to be offering some mobile training as well where I come to you so stay tuned for pricing on that!

So that's my latest bit of news.

As for training, well, things have been a bit sporadic this week.  I had what I'm calling a "sinus attack."  It wasn't a full blown infection but it was definitely inflammation that knocked me sideways on Thursday.  I spent most of my day sleeping the pressure in my head was so bad.  I was better on Friday but still not 100%.   I went to bed early and got up early on Saturday to ride, only to still not feel awesome.  So I skipped the ride and went to the walk in clinic.  By the time I left the clinic, I felt totally fine.  The doc told me it was a viral infection vs a bacterial infection so he didn't think I needed antibiotics.  Instead I got a prescription for a nasal steroid which I haven't gotten filled yet.  What I do need to do is get to my family doctor and get a referral to an ear nose and throat specialist because this happens to me at least once a month and when it happens, I can't function.

Saturday wasn't a total wash out as I managed to do a double brick consisting of a 30 minute ride, 10 minute run, 30 minute ride, 10 minute run, followed by 15 minutes of core and upper body work.  I had a good sweat going, which was nice.  By the afternoon, my glut / upper hamstring was throbbing and my low back was also feeling nervy and tight.  This upper hamstring issue has been lingering for a long time now.  It's been really bad since Tremblant.  I went through my training log to see what seems to trigger it and it happens pretty much every time I run fast and when I ride my TT bike.  Which would explain why it was so bad on Saturday.  I rode by TT bike on the trainer and then ran pretty hard off the bike. I've been getting ART and acupuncture on my glut / hamstring and my ART guy said he thinks I may have a bit of tendinitis in my hamstring.  So of course I spent a large part of Saturday afternoon googling hamstring tendinitis.  FML.  I have pretty much every single symptom but they are usually gone by the next day, which leads me to believe that with some eccentric loading, avoiding my TT bike for a bit and either not running, OR keeping my runs very slow and very short OR possibly pool running, I may be able to manage it without losing too much fitness.   Ironically I didn't hurt at all after last Sundays insane run up a mountain so that kinda gives me hope that it's not that bad.  I do think it's a combo of my hamstring and glut that's the problem.  I have 8 weeks left before Lake Placid so I'd really like to keep myself together so I can get to that start line.  If it means taking a bit of time off my feet now, then I'll do that.  My low back was bugging me a bit on Saturday night so I opted to skip every workout I had scheduled yesterday (a bike and a long run).  Better safe than sorry.

So.  Where does that put me workout wise for the week?  Let's take a look shall we?

Monday:  OFF - I spent it in a car

Tuesday:  Slept in - my legs were still pretty sore from last Sunday.  Tuesday night I led the TTC group around High Park.  13km ridden as I spent a fair bit of time waiting for two folks that got lost.

Wednesday:  2150m swim

Thursday:  MGCC Edenbridge - 26km, which was actually more like 31km because I forgot to restart my watch after we stopped at Eglinton.  This ride was AWESOME.  It felt good.  It was hard but it didn't kill me.  I set PR's all over the route and I climbed Edenbridge in the BIG RING ALL 5 TIMES.  That has never happened! When I got home I ran 6km right off the bike.

Friday:  2100m swim

Saturday:  Double brick:  30 minute ride, 10 minute run, 30 minute ride, 10 minute run.

Sunday:  OFF - mobility work, stretching and hamstring work.  Firmly planted myself on the couch watching Le Tour and then again in the evening for the season premiere of Game of Thrones (who else watched - that opening scene was THE BEST!).

Swimming:  4250m
Cycling:  65.3km
Running:  10.5km

Total time:  4h 50 minutes

Here's hoping to a better week this week!

I had serious FOMO watching all the race pics / ride pics in my IG feed this weekend.

Who raced this weekend??  How did you do?  It was a perfect weekend for it!!