Ironman Lake Placid : Official Thread (Page 111)

Just noticed the athlete guide is available.  Not sure when but it's up there now.

Got it, thanks!

Also just a post to get rid of this page since the pic is too big and screws up the formatting for people.

I ran into something yesterday that I've not yet experienced.  Your collective wisdom is welcome.  For now, I'm doing my best with RICE.

Friday, I did a 90 minute run after work.  It was about 90 degrees and I stretched afterward.  At the halfway point, I ate a gel and took in water.  Afterward, I drank a lot of fluids.

Saturday I did a nice brick.  5.5 hour bike followed by 1 hour run.  I didn't break speed records but was steady throughout.  I stuck to my nutrition plan and had about seven 20 ounce bottles on the ride/the start of the run.  It was about 92 degrees when I started and 88 when I finished.  I felt fine -- tired but fine.

Sunday morning I went out for my long run.  It was in the high 80s and the temperature was climbing.  I took three gels and planned my route so that about every 45 minutes I would come to a water fountain.  About a half an hour in to the run, my left shin started to get achy.  At 50 minutes, it was full on pain.  I was considering if I had a stress fracture and thinking about what kind of muscles are in the front part of my lower leg.  I stopped and stretched.  I sat down in the grass and stretched everything on both legs, got up and felt worse.  It was a dull powerful pain that starts about an inch above my anklebone and runs up alongside the outside of my shinbone about 6-8 inches.  (Just off center from the front of the leg.)  I walked a few minute, tried to run again and ended up walking toward home for more than an hour in pain with each step.  Ice, Advil and stretching and I'm still in pain today.  It hurts to pull toes up toward my knee and to point them...in between is okay.

Coda: I was rescued by a woman who called her boyfriend to pick me up -- triathletes the both of them.  He is doing IMLP and she lives in my neighborhood.  We share a LBS.  He drove me to the pool where my kids and wife were waiting for me to arrive post-run.

Sorry for the long post.  I obviously didn't finish my run, bailed on my ride last night and today is my day off -- I'm trying to keep my head together and not freak out about months of training, absurd financial costs etc. being put off because of this situation.

Question -- Can a cramp be so severe to actually pull a muscle?  Would dehydration affect just one part of the body in such a localized way?  What types of muscles are in the front of your leg near the shin?  What does a fracture feel like? 

I can at least answer that last question!  To me it really doesn't sound like one, fracture tends to be one exact spot, not along a stretch of the shin.  If you can pinpoint it with one finger, that's a bad sign.  Also, stretching aggravating it seems to imply tendon/muscle.  A quick and easy test is to try hopping on it, if it doesn't really hurt to land on it then most likely not a fracture. 

agree about getting rid of this page....

saw this sign prior to my descent this weekend...on my way back home, I of course had to take the pic...i figure if anyone can appreciate this, it would be you guys!!!  hope everyone's weekend training/racing went well!!!

(grade.JPG)

The site won't let me edit the post (there is a 30 minute time cap for editing)

Sorry the result was to skew the page.

best,

t

It is quite the beautiful pic though!!

Yes, I loved the oversized picture-quite beautiful!!

(until it's filled with athlete-piranha fish on July 22nd)

I would recommend getting to a PT right away.  That being said I had the same problem about 2 years ago 2 weeks before a marathon.  It was the exact same thing.  It came out of nowhere and went from a little pain to so severe I couldn't even walk back to the car and needed to bum a ride.  I thought the same thing, it must be a stress fracture.  However I went to PT and they told me it was tendonitis.  They had me stretch, then massaged it and game me some electronic stim followed by ice.  They gave me some good stretching exercises and I continued to ice it.  It was better in less than a week and I completed the marathon with no problems (well except for going out too fast...but that is another topic all together).  Every once in a while I get a twinge of pain in the same spot and it reminds me to stretch and that I probably need new shoes.  I also started running with compression socks and sleeves but do not know if that helps or not.  Good luck and hopefully you can get into PT and figure this out.

Also, thanks to everyone on this thread.  My wife and I are training for Lake Placid and it will be the first full IM for both of us.  I have been lurking on here and wanted to thank everyone for all of the helpful tips and advise. 

Hello all, back from Syracuse 70.3 this weekend.  It went pretty good,  I PR'd it by about 49 minutes, which got me under 6 hours (5:51:42), I didn't think it was going to go too well because I felt like my swim was worse than last year but I ended up shaving off a minute some how.  (I'll be focusing on swimming with the wetsuit for the next 4 weeks though to get ready),  I thought my nutrition was right on for the bike, and I think I paced the bike really well.  I need to some how work on my pace coming off the bike because when I start running it feels like I'm going really slow, but then I look down at my Garmin and I was doing 7 min/miles (  I tried slowing down but every time I looked down I was 7:XX).  Of course doing that for about 5 miles my body made me slow down by making my legs heaver then normal.  I had to walk some of the steeper hills, but I was able to push through the rest of it.   So I have a couple things to work on for LP but I feel pretty good going into these last 4 weeks.  Though ask me during taper and I'll probably be losing sleep about not being ready.  All in all it was a good weekend, glad it's a off day today.  I will be back at it tomorrow.

Nice pic of the lake,  though it took me 45 minutes to read all the posts on this page because of all the scrolling   maybe this one will be the one to bump to the next page.

DOH!! it didn't bump

First, get to a doc immediately, this is what I learned a couple times this year with my knee injuries, don't delay.  I've had shin splits earlier this year, which sound somewhat like this, it took a couple weeks of no running to heal, but I was able to bike and swim, yours sounds as bad or a little worse.  RICE is good, ice it several times a day.  I would get PT advice on stretching it and when and how much, you don't want to make it any worse and there is plenty of time to get flexibility back.

Lastly and most importantly, the hay is in the barn.  You should not worry about training at all at this point.  I got injured about this time in my last IM training cycle last year leading up to CDA and I had a great race and barely did any workouts for 4 weeks prior to my race (I checked my logs and did 14 total hours of light training over last 4 weeks before IMCDA).  And I beat my race time goal by 1.5 hours and did it comfortably and even easily I would say.  So your fitness is already in the bank, you need to focus on getting to the starting line healthy.  (easy for me to say, right, i can't seem to figure that out!).

Good luck.

I don't know about you guys but I'm getting some seriously sexy legs.  My wife likes to comment on them haha

And that's hard being 6'6"! lol

I shaved my for the first time ever and now my Fiance makes me wear jeans or pants out in public as she thinks they look wierd...this could be a deal breaker(jk nothing could be a deal breaker) I like it though!

Update: I was able to get to a therapist late yesterday.  He told me to stick with the RICE as much as all possible and twice a day to put a hot, moist towel around my leg and then to do a series of four stretches.

His theory is that there are a pair of tendons that I strained and as long as I can keep them long, they will come back in a few days with rest.  I'm going to check in with him on progress/status tomorrow after work.  In the meantime, I'm icing at my desk and avoiding use as much as possible.  Thanks to all of you for the notes -- You tell me what I need to hear...and it means the world.  It is ridiculous how far and fast my brain can go thinking about dire outcomes.

TheCuse - 2012-06-25 7:48 AM Im waiting for boo tri and j money to report on syracuse 70.3, probably have to wait till they get to work and have some free time on their hands

haha... I didn't do Cuse. I had my bachelor party Saturday night... and I realized that I cannot drink like I used to.  missed a 6 hour ride sunday... luckily I did my 2.5 hour run Saturday morning before golf and debauchery

Hi all,

just went back from Mt Tremblant 70.3. That was an incredible race and performed very well for my triathlon experience (only my second year).

I was targeting 6:30 and finished in 5:49, so pretty stoked with this results. Training paid off big time as I shave 1 hour from my first 70.3

The bad news is I injured myself exiting the swim. I hit a rock with my middle toe and I think I broke it (all swollen and blue-ish/purple, and it hurts...) but managed to finish strong on the bike and the run

Now, time to rest, recover and heal properly for Lake Placid in less than 4 weeks.

It's great to begin to feel that I've done the work and it starts to pay off...

How was everybody's weekend ?

Hi All,

I am debating weather or not to taper for 4 or 2 weeks? HELP! Advise please.  My training plan says to give a 2 week taper but, I'm not sure if that is long enough.  I want to get one more long run/ and bike ride in.

This past weekend I did IM Syracuse 70.3 and I did well in my eyes, my time: 5:54:50. I took almost a full hour off my first half ironman time  so, I am happy.  The swim was strong 35:54, biked was rough 3:07:27, solid half marathon 2:04:24.  T1 was rather slow, and T2 was pretty good.

Thanks,

Jenn

great job on the race. I really don't have an opinon on what taper you should do. IMO the first thing is to recover. swim, spin and some easy running... that run course was a bear. That being said you probably should get that long bike/run in next weekend then taper from there.

Just my two cents.... wow and it really was just 2 cents this time...

Jenn

Congratulations on a fine 1/2IM time!

Regarding your taper--I'd stick with your plan, as long as it accounted for the race. You also have to account for how your body is feeling and tolerating the training. These little aches can be nothing...or something. If you feel you need more, then modify it and take more rest. There is little to gain in fitness at this point-maintain and recover for race day with supercompensation.

I'd personally favor one more long bike, too, but go with your schedule.

Good luck and see you at LP!

Wow-that's some improvement! Great job.

I am happy with my progress and pleased that I finally did a 100 mile bike ride...now if I get one 20 mile run in...heck-I'll take a 16 miler at this point...