Monday, June 12, 2006

Dead Legs

Well, it seems that there are a few factors affecting my running.

The biggest is probably the fact I gave blood on Friday. That had a major impact right away, and I still feel slightly less than par. All normal, all good to keep in the back of my mind (and maybe next time, I'll do it after race season ends).

Next is recovering from last week's tri... Although, I suspect I'm pretty much done with that now.

Next is the bike ride I went on yesterday - Through beautiful MA farm country with many GREAT hills (Bring 'em on!). Can I just say I LOVE where I live? I'm finding my climbing ability (all seated, thankyouverymuch) much improved, and the fear has largely dissipated from "Oh my god, that's huge!" to "Eh, that's just a little bump... Get me to a bike!"

Finally... Ugh. Confession time. I think I lost some running fitness after the marathon. A whole month off followed by only running 3 days a week... And then getting slightly injured at the tri. Yup, it all adds up. But, the greatest thing about being in the *beginning* of tri season is that I can build it back.

So, enough with the excuses. I finally got back to it (after a week off) today. Felt pretty great to do a "double" for a change, and just knowing that it would get better in a week or so (if not in a couple of days) was enough to keep me happy. HR was elevated (duh), feet felt okay (except for right inside heel... not sure what was up with that, but I'm chalking it up to expected aches and pains.).

And, I'm starting to get that feeling (and those looks) that I'm moving out of my apartment some days... Especially Mondays and Wednesdays (swim and run days). guh. I have my computer, my swim bag, my running stuff, my lunch bag (which is quite large now, with all of the fruit and veggies that I pack), and my purse. If there's mail to be delivered, I shake my head and leave it for a Tuesday or Thursday (bike days). Or a Friday! Rest, glorious rest. Honestly I hate rest days normally, but it's nice to have a break from moving out!

But I love every bit of it! :)

7 comments:

Jennifer P said...

Hey, don't be so hard on yourself. You're missing a pint of blood afterall. Don't forget that you did all of that long slow training so even though it might seem like you've lost fitness, I bet you didn't.

Unknown said...

HAH! sounds like me on wednesdays...i bike to work on thurs and need my running stuff to get to the fit and fun program, so i take my workout stuff for wednesday, my clothes for thursday and my running stuff for thursday. sometimes i feel like a fitness hobo. i love it. =)

and folks reading this, know that trizillia is awesome. just plain awesome. thanks again, 'zilla, for your tips on the swim. i would have been SUNK without them.

keep up the hill work! you'll be flying up them in no time!

SRR said...

How can you hate rest days, silly?

Cliff said...

There are such things as rest days? :) I didn't we can do taht..interesting :D..

I do love hills now. Some of those big huge ones. The more I ride them, the more I realize it ain't so bad. My legs slowly getting the hang of them. (all seated of course).

As for blood donating, it does affect your endurance ability. So take care of yourself.

Danielle said...

Blood donation definitely affects you, but what I learned when I gave in March is if you push the workouts through, you recover from the loss sooner. Seriously, the workouts might feel sluggish and be not nearly as good as normal, but fight through it and a week or so later you'll feel fine, unlike last time I tried it and ended up probably 2 or 3 before I really felt even just OK.

Kewl Nitrox said...

Kudos for giving blood - good on you!

Hope you get into the grove soon, I am in a training runt myself too - enjoying time with my boys a lil too much after the biz trips.

The Fool said...

Hey Trimonster! Nice to see you are still kickin. Keep at it the running legs will come back to you. You have a while before Chi-town looms.

I took your advice bought the bike, DHB is coming up SAT for a 50 mile ride! Wish you were here to go too!

I created a blog just so I could post on yours......Not much on mine at the moment. I still check on you every so often.