Trying to overcome the mental setback that comes from injury

Today marks exactly one month until my half marathon. Before this injury sidelined me, I was well on my way to a PR. It's still not out of the realm of possibility, but my confidence level has certainly been hit hard.

This week I've done a total of 12 minutes of running -- that's right, 12 MINUTES, not miles -- all of which have been virtually pain-free. This is exciting and I'm anxious to start logging miles again, but I'm not naive enough to simply start right where I left off, I'm taking things slow and really waiting until I see a doctor next week. This is the part that concerns me. I feel like I had finally gotten to the point in my running that I didn't find myself mid run thinking that I'd better slow down or else I won't be able to finish. I started having positive thoughts race through my head during each run... more "Run Faster" and "Let's Go" and "You Can Totally Do This," instead of "Just run to that tree and you can walk." This injury is a setback, and it's less about ability and more about mentality.

I'm really new to the sport of running and I've been plagued by a hip injury since the very beginning. I often wonder if maybe triathlon is not going to be the thing that keeps me healthy as I get older. I'm seeing a specialist next week, and, frankly, I don't get paid to do this... but I love it. Seriously, I LOVE everything about it. From the 4:30 a.m. wake up calls to the anxiety on race day. I love seeing how far I can push myself. I love proving to myself that my asthma isn't an excuse. I love showing my kids that grown ups can and should be active and healthy. I love that my own kids want to be triathletes. How can I walk away from that?

How young is too young for a trainer?

The newest member of the disabled list

I'm on the DL. Yup, that's right, I have literally run myself right on to the disabled list.

About 2 years ago, when I really started running, I injured my hip. I was diagnosed with some mysterious hip injury that I can't seem to remember or find out from anyone. Six weeks of physical therapy and a therapist who boldly stated, "Some people are meant to run, others aren't. You just aren't one of them," I was able to run with no pain and have been relatively pain free since. Although the therapists comment is one of the catalysts that put me on track for my leap into half iron distance triathlons.

Anyway, 've done it again. Two Saturdays ago, I was in Delaware visiting my sister and ran what started as a really great 10 miler with my husband. About 8 miles into the run, my hip started bothering me. Ever the go-getter, I stopped, stretched and kept pushing... in fact, I pushed so hard that we were practically sprinting the last two miles. In a lot of pain and holding back tears, I gritted my teeth and just ran. When we got back to the house, I popped some Motrin, rubbed some Biofreeze on my hip and stretched, hoping it would be fine in a day or two. I got a massage that week and basically didn't do anything that would aggravate my hip further

But the pain persisted. I waited a full week before trying to run again. Last Saturday I tried again. I made it 4 miles. That's it. I limped for the rest of the day. Today is Thursday, the fourth day of my recovery week, and I am still in a bit of pain. I'm able to walk without limping, but if I try to run or do anything that involves impact, I can feel the pain. Thanks to some great suggestions by my fellow Philadelphia Triathlon Club members, I made an appointment to see a specialist at the Rothman Institute, but I can't get in until April 5. Until then, I just have to wait it out and focus on swimming and biking.

It totally sucks, but I'm pretty sure I will get through this. I made it through before and I'll make it again. It's just a little glitch in my plans, but I'm thankful to have a really understand and helpful coach and great support group of friends.

Ask the coach: Triathlon training cycles

Last week I did not train at all. I had some very important personal issues that needed my complete attention so training was put on hold. Fortunately, it couldn't have come at a better time because last week was an "easy" week.

Joanna has me training on a four week cycle. We build for three weeks and recover on the fourth. I can't tell you how happy I am when I get my weekly training schedule on that fourth week and it says EASY week. By that point I'm spent.

Anyway, the last time I had a recovery week, someone asked me on dailymile what I was "recovering from." So, I asked Joanna to explain training cycles and recovery. Here is what she said:

Recovery weeks are there so your body can recover from the usual three weeks of intensity building workouts. Without the recovery, you can keep pushing and pushing, but your body will crap out on you after about six to eight weeks. OK, maybe not crap out but your body will slow down and you will be very tired. 

Your performance will suffer as your body will not be able to push as hard as you need for any length of time. During workouts your heart rate will either rise really fast and get to its max number when at 75% effort quicker, or you won’t be able to get that heart rate to move up at all. 

You are usually at your best performance-wise after a few days or weeks of rest or easy workouts, which is why we taper for our races. As fatigue goes up, performance usually goes down. But there is that little window where the performance remains high while fatigue starts to fall - that is when you want to race or do your monthly testing to see if you are improving. Then once that fatigue falls, you still have a week, sometimes less depending on the sport, to start that training all over again and build for three weeks until the next rest/recovery cycle.

I usually say you can choose to take an easy week now, sleep in and recover, or you can wait until you have no choice but to sleep in and recover which usually is when you are sick, injured or are so tired that even easy workouts seem difficult.

So next time you see a post on dailymile where someone is recovering, it might not be from an injury but that they are taking a break from the intense workouts so they body can heal and be ready for the testing, racing or another training cycle ahead.

New bike is ready to ride... and so am I

I have been a horrible blogger so far this year. I have lots of great ideas for posts, but there are only so many hours in a day and I can't seem to find the time to write. Between training, work and my family, I have about zero seconds of free time each day. Even as I sit here and write, I have a million other things I really should be doing, but I need to write a bit now.

We are exactly 4 months until my race. 4 MONTHS! When I started training in December, June 10 seemed a million years away. In the last two weeks, Coach Joanna has upped the intensity of my workouts. I believe we are still in the base building stage of our training, so my weekly mileage is still relatively low, but with higher intensity workouts, my body is tired like it's much higher. Add the fact that every single person in my house is sick and I can actually feel my body fighting to stay healthy, I'm whooped.

Here's a little update. A few months ago, I mentioned that my husband was building me a new bike. As of this past Sunday, it's ready to ride and it's gorgeous. I absolutely love it and I cannot wait to ride it.

Unfortunately, it's sitting in the basement mocking me each and every day that I sit on my old bike attached to the trainer. I'm waiting to take the new bike outside to ride it for the first time. So help me out and do a little praying for some warmer, weather in the very near future so I can get riding! 

Racing for a cup of coffee: Using caffeine to improve athletic performance

Today I am sitting at my desk enjoying a fresh cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee. A treat I have enjoyed countless days before today. Today is different. This marks my first cup of coffee since my detox.

I've had this coffee now for about 2 hours as of the writing of this post and as you can see, I'm a little less than a quarter of my way through this delicious brew. Here's the thing, I'm pretty sure I will not be able to finish it.

Before weening myself off coffee, I could easily drink this cup - in a lot less time than it's taken me to get through this small amount. In fact, I'd say I had a full blown coffee addiction. Sure, there were people out there who drank more than me, but I was pretty comfortable with a cup of coffee.

But now... now! Wow, I'm sitting here at my desk and my mind is racing... my heart is pounding... my hands are a little shaky... and, oh my goodness, I hope no one calls me because I'm talking so fast. Or at least I feel like I'm talking fast.The worst part of all of this is that even though I feel like I'm going a mile a minute, I'm tired. It feels almost like my body is exhausted from the effort of racing, which in turn makes me pick up the cup and take another very small sip.

I've read some articles online about the benefits of caffeine while training. So, I am curious about your coffee/caffeine experience. How do you use caffeine to improve your training ... or do you avoid it? 

After 2 week detox plan, I have new view on food

Two weeks ago I started a detox plan with Joanna. I started the plan hoping to give you updates on what I was eating and how I was feeling, but life completely got in the way. Two weeks ago, we also got a new computer system at work so anything other than figuring out the new system and paginating newspaper pages did not get done... but I did stick to the plan as best as I could.

The red/green pepper we found. Cool, right?

The first couple of days on the plan were really tough. I am not a vegetarian at all. I love to eat, but the plan called for all veggies all the time. I was drained. I had very little energy and about midway through my workouts each day my energy level would drop to zero. Around day 5 on the plan my body started to adjust, or maybe it was more like my eating habits started to adjust, and I had loads of energy. Joanna told each of her detoxers this would happen, but to be honest, I didn't believe her. I'm a skeptic, but it happened. I was sleeping better, I was waking up in the morning full of energy, albeit hungry, but not groggy.

Speaking of groggy, let's talk about detoxing from caffeine. Holy crap, what a headache. Let me tell you, it was not easy at all. Not one bit. I work at a newspaper, there is coffee brewing all the time. The smell of coffee is the first thing that I smell when I walk into work every single day. It took a huge amount of willpower to not drink it. I stopped cold turkey. Dear Lord, the headache. I drank Green Yerbe Mate tea, which has caffeine, but it's not coffee. Anyway, it worked as a crutch and as I sit here today, I am coffee free. I will tell you that I did have a cup last Thursday. It was decaf and I only drank half of it and I felt like crap after I was finished. I was shaking like I just finished a pot of coffee. I also made myself a cup before work Sunday night and I had about two sips of it and threw it out.

Some other benefits I've noticed is that I lost three pounds during the last two weeks. I was not starving at all either. I ate a ton of food all the time. My coworkers can attest to this. I probably ate pounds and pounds more food than I ever ate before. My typical day consisted of lemon water and juice that I made from a recipe of fruits and veggies Joanna gave to me, a sweet potato with almond butter (sounds gross, but it is soooo good), some raw veggies with humus or not depending on my mood, a huge salad with homemade dressing, an apple, another veggie meal and dinner.

Clearly I cheated more than once on this plan. I ate a doughnut yesterday, which was delicious and I just couldn't not eat it. I also had a night that I was craving a cheeseburger so badly I was dreaming about it and so I ate one for dinner. During the second week of the plan, I was given the ok to add some animal protein to my diet, so after my workout I'd have either an egg or I once added some ground turkey to some chilli I made. I wasn't starving at all.

Oh, and I can't forget to mention my workouts. After I got through the initial feeling weak phase, I was having one fantastic workout after another. I recovered faster and I never found myself dragging at midday after a long morning workout. 

Over the next weeks, I'll be reintroducing foods into my diet to see how my body reacts to each of them. Overall, I am so glad I did this with Joanna. I can say I learned a lot about my body and how I eat with her help. 

In the next few days, I will hopefully be meeting with Joanna to do a follow up BIA test and, reluctantly, I will discuss my weight and body fat to muscle ratio in an upcoming post. And I have a new video coming that Joanna and I made on cycling. I have a lot in the works and now that the initial new computer system issues are (hopefully) gone, I'll be able to update this blog a little more frequently again. Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Rebooting nutrition plan with two week detox

Beginning Monday, I will be joining Joanna in a 2 week detox plan. I'm not entirely sure what will be involved, but I will be chronicling the process and giving you as much detail as I can as I learn about it. I believe I will be following a modified plan that will be tailored specifically for my needs as an athlete.

What I'm hoping to get out of this is some energy that doesn't come from coffee. I've been dragging a bit recently and I am 100 percent certain it's thanks to the downward spiral of my food choices. For example, at 5 p.m. yesterday, I set out to a late meeting for work and stopped at Starbucks and ordered a large soy latte.

Did I really need the biggest size?

Yup. Getting up at the crack of dawn to work out is not conducive to late meetings.

While at the meeting, I had not one, but three Hershey special dark miniatures. Did I need three? Clearly not, but they were so good.

I got home from the meeting at 8:30 and despite all the sugar and caffeine I just consumed, I managed to fall fast asleep at 9:30. When the alarm went off at 5 a.m., I had no choice but to fall back to sleep. There was no conscious decision to be made. My body needed the sleep. I had slept that night, but it seemed my body was too busy processing the sugars and caffeine to rest.

Today I am so tired that I have no idea how I've made it this far without a nap. I have a bike and swim workout on my schedule today that I will not be doing. I will not benefit from a workout if I'm too exhausted to really do it. Tomorrow is another day.

Basically, I think, the next 2 weeks will be spent rebooting my digestive system.

Here's to a new start... I'm so excited to start.