~I'm seeing decent improvement now in my hamstring and sit bone area. Yay! Honestly after reading so much on different forums, etc I was preparing myself to be out of commission for the long haul, but turns out if you're super diligent about the strength and mobility exercises, hamstrings will forgive you for abusing them earlier. The jump band and other exercises/stretches I detailed on my previous blog post continue to be the ones I go to (daily!) and they are working. I am more motivated to do them now too b/c of how obviously different I feel after I do. I think I actually have some ability to extend through my hips now and it makes me feel like gumby. Lol.
~Becoming A Supple Leopard is now my favorite resource when it comes to all things physical movement. I have been reading it every day- it's a really long 400 page hard cover textbook style book and I feel like I should be earning some sort of college credit for learning all this stuff but honestly I was never as interested in any of my college courses as I am in this book! The level of detail he goes into to make sure he is clear (and there are lots of pictures!) is incredible. And he keeps it interesting enough because his writing style just sounds like he's talking. I laugh out loud sometimes, which never happens when reading an actual textbook... but when he writes stuff like "Having a glass of wine can make mobilizing a little more tolerable, but getting drunk and passing out on a lacrosse ball is never a good idea" it's hard to not laugh!
~The author of that book is a big CrossFit guy and a big chunk of the book goes into high detail about how to perform just about any strength movement you could think of (and some you've never imagined!) with perfect form. He also goes into common errors and how to correct them. All of a sudden this stuff is pretty interesting to me so I hit up my first Intro to CrossFit class a few days ago. I went in with an open mind... I've heard lots of different stuff- good and bad- about CrossFit and wasn't sure what to expect. The intro sessions are pretty basic where they're teaching you about the language they use and philosophy of the sessions as well as how to perform the movements. Mostly we just did a ton of different types of squats. I was a little sore the next day but not bad at all- just enough to let me know I'd worked some but I wasn't crippled or anything. I told the coach that I am a triathlete and I was planning to use CF as a compliment to triathlon training so I didn't want to work so hard I'd be debilitated for days. She totally understood and was respectful of that. So, I'll go back for more intro sessions this week! If I'm honest, after Honu I can see myself really getting into Crossfit. We'll see.
~So that's my plan for Honu. I figure I've got 3 weeks of 'training' (race week won't count for 'training') but it's not like I can just ramp back up to normal run training, and even if I could, three weeks wouldn't get me to the run fitness I want for that race. So. My plan is just to get as functionally strong and mobile as I can and then just cross my fingers on race day. Maybe if I'm strong enough I can gut it out? It's my only hope so I'm going with it.
~In good news my biking isn't as weak as I thought it might be after weeks of simply doing very haphazard random rides as I felt. I needed a break from having a set training plan for a while because I didn't want to feel the pressure of 'having' to ride or run (b/c if it's on the TP calendar I would have done it regardless of what my body was saying- not so bright I know but it's like how I'm wired or something)... I wanted the freedom to just do what my body and mind allowed each day without feeling any pressure. Turns out, I suck at making myself ride my bike if I don't have a coach monitoring it! In good news though, I got my power meter up and functioning again and rode yesterday and was capable of hitting decent power... not quite as good as before Cabo but it wasn't awful so that gave me a little confidence. If I'm honest, I wonder if I'll ever get back to riding as strong as I was riding before Cabo? Mostly b/c I'm not sure I'm willing to ride that kind weekly mileage again. That was really a lot. But maybe I can get close on half the volume?? Lol. Wishful thinking. We'll see though. Saturday would have been good but I ran over something that my tire didn't like and the giant hole in the sidewall wasn't something I could repair on the go. So I sat by the ocean and checked race results on my phone while waiting for my husband to come pick me up. Bummed to miss out on the end of that ride, but chillin' here on a Saturday morning didn't suck.
1 comment:
I haven't done any CrossFit, but I know quite a few people who have done it at all different gyms. My impression is that the culture of the gym that really makes a big difference. I love to compete, but at some of the gyms every single day is a hard core competition and I don't think I would be into that. Also, I have definitely met some of my friends' CF friends who wanted to have the "runners/endurance athletes aren't 'fit' because they aren't doing the same workouts we are doing" argument, and I found that annoying. Live and let live, right? But I know some of the gyms are great and coordinate with a triathlete's schedule just fine. Enjoy.
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