If you ever pick up a turtle by it's shell, it will continue to move his legs until he finds his (or I should say her) resting spot or until her legs will not go any longer. Ironman training is not always about continuous motion as sometimes you have to take rest stops along the way. Though I am eager to build distance, my coach is focusing on building strength, working on technique to be more efficient and conserve energy, and helping address the problems I have been having with my calves. I have been held back, told to slow down (which is about impossible for a turtle to do without coming to a complete hault), to stretch, stretch, stretch and drink, drink, drink. There must be a method to this madness called professional coaching/training as I have made it through the week feeling pretty good at the end despite a few bumps in the road.
The first bump occurred during drills at the track workout, when my calf went into a spasm and I ended up doing a lot of stretching and fast walking drills and missed out on the fun painful speed work and heavy breathing the remainder of the group got to experience. My coach took some time to assess my strength and flexibility and gave me some exercises to work on and instructed me to work on my hydration and try a pair of compression socks. As soon as I found a pair and put them on, I already felt my muscles sink into a more elongated position providing instant relief and I have been wearing them around and was able to do a 40 min slow wun (run with a walking flair). The weekend was filled with more swim drills and a 2 hour bike ride on the IRONMAN course. It was windy going out and fun, fast and smooth coming back! I even had a companion for the entire 2 hours (a rare thing to see a turtle with). I always feel good after the swim workouts, but I am eager to get back to adding some long slow distance back into my schedule. In due time, the miles will build.....patience.....there are still 42 weeks to go.
The bestest part so far is the friends that I make at each workout, not to mention on Facebook and on this blog. I have found a few others training for their first IM in AZ. My life is already fuller, so I can't imagine what it will be like in November.
Ride On!
I didn't realize turtles could be so funny. And turtles that wun and wear compression socks...priceless :-) BTW...I've become a BIG fan of compression socks. I used them during my last half marathon and after long training rides and runs and they always seem to help eliminate that post workout stiffness. I can definitely see that turtle rockin' some pink compression socks :-)
ReplyDeleteNot really a pink girl, but if I could find some in green, I would totally rock those!
ReplyDelete