Disturbed275's Mentor Group - CLOSED! (Page 42)

Well, I'm happy to report I got some good news.  The second set of x-rays were all clear; I don't have a stress fracture.  On the downside though, I have a shin splints that are compromising my training to a degree.  What to do?

I'm 7 weeks out from my HM.  Up until a week or so ago, I was running four days a week...a hill run, an easy run, a tempo run, and a long run.  Last week I dropped the hill run and started to do some speed work in its place.  I'm scheduled to do 10 miles tomorrow at HMP + 30 seconds.  From there in the following weeks, the long run builds like this:  11, 12, 13, 10, 12, 8 with the pace increasing on those last three runs. 

I'm asking for the collective wisdom of the group...do I stop running all together for a week or two (while continuing with bike and swim workouts) to allow my shins time to heal, and if so, how should I adjust the long runs in the remaining weeks? 

OR

Do I continue to run the mileage that's scheduled but scale way back on the intensity and limit myself to very soft surfaces (treadmill?)

I'm really torn about what to do.  Even if I don't run for a week or two, I'm confident I can complete 13.1 miles without a problem...but how well I will do is open to debate.

What do you all think?

Wow! Our bodies are just so complicated! I echo Neal's sentiment-- Hopefully the pt can help work w/you first to heal, then to correct things and get all the right muscles engaging!

Yeah, it's a huge race! Last year I was in wave 49 out of 55 and had to wait 5 hrs to start (transition closed at 5:45am, first wave started at 6, my wave started around 10:30). So yeah, I'm not all that interested in participating since it's just a lot of waiting... But I would want to help out my club & support members who are racing.

Congrats on not having a stress fracture! That's great news! Unfortunately I don't really have any experience w/shin splints... If you doctor ok'd you to run, I would try following your plan but scaling back the intensity if you start feeling it coming back. If it continues, then yeah, I would take a week or two off of running until you can run pain free.

So gotta decision to make for next Saturday. I am signed up for a half aquabike bike - months ago it sounded like a good idea.  I haven't been able to get in the miles because of work and fear another dreaded 56 painful cramp-ready legs.

So I can stick with the half aquabike and tough it out (pretty flat) or I can swtich to the olympic knowing full well I will not likel be able to run most of it . . . hhhmmm

Thoughts?

Bike run brick friday and long open water swim today, start taper tomorrow, feeling ready

Carrie,
If you have only run a mile or two since June I would stick to the aquabike.  OR....do the oly but plan on ending it after the bike as a planned DNF?  It isn't fun to see that after your name but if it means not injuring or reinjuring yourself it beats a DNS!  Could you walk the run portion of the oly with some run intervals?

This is exactly what I would do.  Scale back the intensity for sure and maybe a little bit of the mileage the first week back to see how the shins react.  If they are still pretty sore, then I would think about taking a week off and then coming back slowly.  If the pain is manageable then continue with plan, albeit at the same lowered intensity.

Hmmmm....this is a toss up.  Even though you haven't biked much lately the good news is you can bump up the mileage for this one event, and while it might be a little painful at the time, you will get through it just fine.  With the Oly you will have to be content with the fact that you'll probably need to walk a fair amount of the run.  And 6.2 miles of walk/running seems a lot longer after a bike and swim.  I guess I'm leaning toward staying with the aquabike, but it's kind of like pick your poison at this point

Nutrition question. I have been using Infinit or Accelerade exclusively for fluid intake on long workouts because of the extreme heat we have been having (no water) No GI issues etc on these workouts. Do I actually need to take in water?? hate to change whats been working???

I use Infinit for my bike nutrition and do not take any plain water.  However, I plan on living off the course for the run at IMFL, so for my runs I switch to water with shot blocks for my nutrition.  If Infinit alone works for you then I wouldn't think you NEED water, but I do find that after several hours of Infinit, some plain cold water is a nice change. 

If it's working and you are properly hydrated then I really see no reason to change it.  I am an Infinit user as well and like Briana, I like to have water just to wash it down.  What I usually do is concentrate 2 or more servings into one bottle and then fill up my aero bottle with water.  Then I just take small sips of Infinit and a swallow or two of water.

This close to race day, stick with what you've been doing.

I have finally learned the take home lesson from this season of suckage:  I don't HAVE to go for long events.  I can stay fit and healthy doing sprints and Oly's.  I can do the half marathons and century rides cause I enjoy the events and yes, I can train like crazy for them.  But.....I don't have to.  The choice is mine to train smart or be a crazy possessed nutcase.

For those of you doing IM's soon and in the hot weather . . .

Be safe and listen to your body.  A friend of mine that did IM Louisville Sunday was in intensive care Sunday night cuz her electrolytes got out of wack and she seized - hypothermia, I think.  Doesn't even remember the run.  And she has done IM's before.  Please be careful if it is hot.

That's a good realization to come to.  Might as well stick with what you enjoy.  Hopefully this keeps the training manageable and the body healthy!

Sorry to hear about your friend.  Hope she's doing better!

Hearing stories like this always make me question my nutrition/hydration plan and this being my first IM it will definitely be new experience for the body.  Thanks for the warning.  I'll try and stay safe!

hyponatremia would cause the seizure....scary stuff!  Making sure your nutrition has enough salt is critical in the heat!!

Carrie, that is scary about your friend and I hope she is ok.  The heat was brutal race day.

Even living and training in Texas, my body does not do well in extreme heat.  If I had signed up for IMKY this past weekend, I'm not sure I would have finished.  Unfortunately, we cannot predict race day conditions and need to be ready for everything.  Depending on where you live, it can be hard to prepare for all conditions.  

After reading through race reports it sounds like they ran out of water at at least 2 aid stations on the bike, which definitely didn't help the situation.  That's got me a little worried about living off the course in 2 weeks!

I didn't read or hear about that.  There is no excuse for that happening, in my opinion.  Definitely not good.   

I was talking to my Mom about this with my friend that was in the hospital, of course she thinks we are all nuts. 

As I told her, people who do IM's have trained so long and so hard, I don't know if there are alot (many not any) that would voluntarily take themselves out of the race. Clearly my friend Heather was out of her mind when she doesn't remember most of the run (actually she walked about 20 miles at about 2mph and she is a regular marathoner, so first warning sign), so she was not mentally capable of making good decisions (and clearly no one from the race noticed), but who knows if she was capable, if she would've.  Unfortunately alot of IMer's are in a FINISH mode, not knowing the consequences, or not caring . . .

Found out she did not go to the medical tent afterward.  Maybe that is a must in IM's just in case? 

I guess you have to hope they are prepared enough if there will be extreme heat cuz you don't want to carry extra bottles and make the bike that much harder.

I also wanted to mention that my friend also had rented a GPS belt for her race.  Don't know if anyone else was trying to track friends at IM Louisville, but you could not get on the site most of the day, but with Heather's belt I was able to track her all day long with no hiccups.  I had the course on the website and told you real-time where she was, what her real-time pace was and updated every 4 or so minutes.  My club had numerous people in that race and Heather was the only one people could track all day --- just a thought.  Don't have a clue on the costs, but I think would be awesome.

If anyone is interested I can get the info, would love to see how you guys are doing during the race . . .

I worked the finish line for several hours at IMWI last year and probably escorted maybe 20% of the finishers to the medical tent.  Sometimes it was obvious if they needed to go over there, in fact I had a couple of people ask to be taken there, other times in was a judgment call on my part, and by no means am I a trained professional

I am renting one of those for Moo so my family has an easier time finding me on the course.  I think the cost ended up being around 40 bucks (20 for rental fee, 20 for return shipping and handling).  After hearing about the ironman website problems I'm glad I got it.

Carrie, you are right in that there probably are not many (if any) folks who would voluntarily pull themselves after training so long and hard.  No one knows what they will do until they are in that situation.  It's very scary what happened to your friend and you are also right that she probably should have gone to the medical tent.  It's too bad no one noticed her condition and guided her there.

Like Neal, I have volunteered at the finish line.  They told us that a lot of people will ask to be taken to medical, but try to screen those that really need to be there vs those that don't.  And like Neal, I am no medical professional.  They did, however, have a few medical staff standing at the finish line, so when there was a question I tried to find one of them to see if the racer really needed to go or not.

The race should have been prepared with more water/gatorade, etc., but other than that, I'm not sure there is an easy solution.  I hope your friend is recovering and I hope she takes a well deserved break.

And thanks for the heads up on the tracker device.  I'll have to see if that's an option for FL.  I have family and friends going and that would really help them know where I was on the course.