Destination MoP is FULL (of motivation!) (Page 28)

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Check off that I can swim with this injured foot.  Had a great swim this afternoon and only a little cramping on lap 27.  My goal was to keep a steady pace, not slow down, and finish strong, that goal was accomplished.  I wanted to see what 2000 yds felt like since I usually break my swim up in drills.  Today it was a 200 warm up and 2000 main set and 100 cool down and I feel really good. The foot feels great so I may get a short ride in later today...way too hot for a ride right now.

Can't wait to hear about everyones race this weekend...wishing you all well! 

Hello from the phantom group member!

The summer has been a bust for me. I'm happy to report that my mother in law has completed chemo and radiation, and is doing well (we weren't sure she'd pull through this). My Dad has mostly recovered from his fall, and fractured skull, but then got Lyme's disease, and it hit him hard.

My nephew moved into his own place 2 weeks ago, and my daughter went back to college. So now we're back to just the 2 little ones.

The bright spot from this summer is that we adopted a puppy! It wasn't in the plan, and he takes a ton of my time (that could be given to training), but I met him, and he stole my heart. So, he's here.

I've been battling PF since June, and have finally accepted that this is the year without a Tri for me. So, I've started going to classes at the Y. Focusing on core and strengthening, to give my foot a rest.

It looks like many of you had great seasons. Congrats!

-Heidi 

Hey Heidi, good to hear from you!  Sounds like things are stabilizing so that's good.

Stu, I meant to respond to your suggestions about my back issues but we also lost power during the hurricane.  We were out from Sunday to Wednesday (without a generator *cry*!).  What a humbling experience that was and really helped me be thankful for many of those little things we take for granted every day.  So anyway, I'm finally getting caught back up.

Yes I've been working with my homeopathic chiropractor to figure out what changed all of a sudden and fix it.  It's strange to go through 5 months or so of steady Tri training with no problems and then have this pain come about all of a sudden.  I can't think of anything ergonomically that's changed and I've actually been tapering my training, so it doesn't seem like an over-training injury.  I'm still kind of stumped.  As a result I've totally dropped off biking for the past few weeks though.  

I think your suggestions are all good though.  I need to add the core strengthening in now that it's the "off season" for me.  I'm going to have to stop swimming soon too so I'll replace that with more strength training anyway.  So I'll just focus on getting stronger over the winter months.   I did used to do yoga once a week so I may have to start that up again as well.  It's just really hard for me to get motivated to do yoga when I'm already hurting.  I have a hard time not hurting my back more.

As for next weekend as Christine said I'm volunteering for her HIM tri.  It's a really popular Tri in our area and I wanted to do the sprint distance but didn't sign up before it filled up.  So I thought this would be a cool way to see the event, still keep my excitement for Tris fed even though I'm done for the season, be there to cheer on Christine , and give back a little.  I've been thinking about volunteering for a little bit now and this will be my first time finally doing it.  I'm actually really excited!

Erin,

Way to keep a positive outlook on things when nothing has been easy this past month for you.  Let me know what you are doing for core this "off season".  I am going to concentrate on that too after my race on Sunday.  With the foot injury that will most likely be my last race of the season too.  But I want to start the next season strong.  Keep us updated and good luck with the back problems...Hoping you heal quickly!

Hi Everyone!

Back from my trek up to New England to drop my daughter off at school.  Nothing like 24 hours of Northeast corridor driving and packing and unpacking to really make one's body feel loose and limber ;-) Anyway, now that we've got her off to school, life should settle back into a rather mundane routine, which oddly, I'm rather looking forward to with great anticipation!

I think we've got a bunch of racers this weekend - Good luck to Christine (HIM!!), Andrea (1st full Tri, right?), Cynthia (hope the foot is feeling better - yuck), and to Erin (volunteering can be quite a race too!).  Anyone else?  Hope the weather is clearing enough in the Northeast to allow for a cool, cloudy morning and fast times.  Cynthia, I just hope your ankle is not worse for the wear when you're done.  Deciding how to play injuries is always daunting... what did the doc say?

Christine - wow about having your grandmother move in with you, never mind totally gutting two rooms of your house.  If the Triathlon Gods are watching, they should be very kind to you this weekend!

Erin - on the back, do you think it is related to the biking?  I had major issues that started on the bike and manifested itself on the run.  The core work helped along with some back exercises.  Also, I found that installing aero bars gave me another position on the bike which also seems to have helped alleviate the pain on the run.  We'll see if that holds for the OLY distance.  It seems to be better on the sprints, but it really shows up at the longer distances for me (presumably b/c I'm spending more time on the bike).

Good to see your smiling face Heidi!  A puppy... lol... at some level you must enjoy juggling ;-)

Well, spent 8.5 miles on the treadmill on Tuesday and am hoping that the weather is better going into this weekend, b/c trying to do 15 on a treadmill seems like a quick route to the insane asylum.  I don't mind running in light rain, but the downpours we've been having were too much (8 inches of rain over a couple of days).

Happy racing and training!

Stu

Nation's Tri this weekend (olympic).  Keeping eye on Potomac River, which is still rising from all the rain.  Swim portion of race is in jeopardy and race organizers are looking at their "Plan B".  Don't know what "Plan B" is.

Good luck everyone this weekend!

Swim cancelled for Nation's Tri.  

Race will be a 40K bike followed by 10K run.

I'm bummed since swimming was sort of a strength....

Yes.  They always have for the races I've been in (and can't imagine otherwise).  Body marking - woohoo!

Bummer indeed.  Not surprising though, especially after all the press regarding the danger of swims in triathlons (fodder for another day).  Regardless - best of luck this weekend, Melanie!  Rock 'em!

btw, my brother-in-law is doing a full iron distance race this weekend at Rev3 at Cedar Point, OH.  It will be his first ever.  Very excited for him!

Have a great day everyone - there's this bright yellow in the sky today... perhaps it is that thing called "the sun" that I've heard rumours about :-)

Stu

I have a not so fancy countdown on my desktop, it says 1 day 21 hours until the Pumpkinman. 

I was reading a blog yesterday and came across a great quote (thanks Lauren), "There is going to come a day when I will not be able to do this. Today is not that day." Let's hope that sticks with me Sunday.

To all the MoP'ers, happy training, happy racing, & mostly happy tri-ing!

My tri course has seen some flooding from both Irene and then Lee.  From what I understand part of the bike course is flooded again from our mid-week rain (Lee).  I bet the lake is brown, yuck, from the industrial site uphill from it.  The river is close enough to it that it could have reached it.  The run might be interesting as well as it is made up of various trails.

I'm getting nervous already.  Tomorrow I have to get through coaching my son's soccer team and then packet pickup... So much to figure out and plan.

Like!

I head to get my packet in just a few minutes.  Get it out of the way so I'll only deal with bike racking tomorrow.

The run route might be changed due to rain.  I'll take my rented wetsuit back tonight.

Was quite an exciting bike commute home last night in torrential downpour in Northern Virginia.  Sorta scary actually.  The radar didn't show such a downpour when I started home with no rain.

Want this rain to stop! 

Best of Luck Melanie!

Good luck Melanie, Cynthia and Christine!

-Andrea

Well I've finally accepted the inevitable and I'm withdrawing from the Liverpool Marathon.  I'm quite disappointed but I just haven't got the training in.  I've been having all sorts of problems at work, and then last week my husband was told that his job is under threat, so in addition to the various injuries etc I've just had a really hard time finding any motivation.  I'm going to do the half marathon next weekend and then have a break from serious training for at least a few weeks.  Hopefully then I'll be able to get into proper winter training for next year.

Good luck to everyone who's racing this weekend.  Sounds like we've got a busy weekend.  I look forward to reading all the race reports.  Sorry to hear about the various weather-related problems.  I hope everyone enjoys themselves anyway.

Well first off:  Good luck to everyone on their races this weekend!!  I can feel the excitement!   Can't wait to hear how you all do.

Cynthia: I will definitely let you know what I decide to do for my core workouts, I'm not quite sure yet.  I've got P90X and my plan was to start doing some of the workouts like 2 or 3 days a week.  I was initially planning on just doing the weight lifting workouts but maybe I'll add in Core Synergistics and Yoga.  Once my back pain has cooled off a little maybe I'll add in the Ab Ripper workout and some Pilates.  I've said it before but I definitely recommend P90X!  Even if you don't do the program it's an awesome library of workout DVDs to have to supplement your training schedule.  And I just found out last week they're coming out with a P90X2, it looks brutal!

Stu: I'm not sure if the biking has done this to my back or not but I'm certainly not motivated to get on the bike when my back is hurting.   There were definitely days when I'd get done with biking and start my run and my back would definitely hurt and be stiff but it wasn't every time and it would usually loosen up fairly quickly.  It's really only gotten bad since I've tapered off my training, so it might be unrelated.  It actually hurts the most when I'm sitting and feels pretty good when I'm up and moving around.  Maybe it's my body rebelling against being sedentary, lol!  I don't know if I'll be able to figure out what's triggered it but I think at this point the key is strengthening it and getting it better.

Not to scare anyone racing this weekend but now that you mention it Stu, I forgot to tell everyone, in that last tri that I did last month someone did die during the swim.  It was a 59 year old man who had a heart attack.  His swim wave was after mine so I just noticed the ambulances racing toward the park while I was on the bike.  I didn't know what happened until I got done.  Apparently he was in really great shape and did yoga daily.  I don't know how healthy he was cardiovascularly though.  I guess the only thing we can take away from that (besides being heart healthy which we should do anyway) is really prepare for our swims and do our best to be relaxed and not get overly stressed/anxious?

Good luck Melanie, Cynthia and Christine! Be safe and have fun.

-Heidi

First Sprint Tri complete!  I had a good time.  The swim went well other than getting sandwiched a bit.  The bike was OK, but seriously I think 200 women passed me.  Also, my bike computer thingy on the fork bounced around early on, so I stopped and fixed it.  Not 1/2 mile further it did it again and I decided to leave it and pray it didn't take out any spokes.  It worked out OK.  The run was a trail run.  I loved the woods and the rolling hills were OK.  I did develop a side/front stitch that came and went and hurt with each downhill footfall.  I did walk a bit, but I'm OK with that.

I'll report back later with times and more details (if I think of any).

~Andrea

Great job Andrea and Melanie!  Woohoo!

So, here it is 3:55 and my BIL is finished with the bike, but only a few miles into the run at this point.  I'm trying to imagine what it must feel like to have finished swimming 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles and to be faced with a marathon.  Now I'm trying to imagine having the time to train for this... lol!

Enjoy the recovery, ladies, you've earned it!!!

Stu