Sometimes what I need is a different workout

I've been lax in writing posts, but it's because I've been out training!  It feels amazing to be out on the roads and the track sweating and working hard again.  And with working on the bunkhouse when I can, cooking, eating, going to classes at the gym, life has been very full!

I've had a nice change in mentality the last few weeks that has really helped.  I was getting frustrated that I wasn't going as fast as I "should" be going.  Once I adjusted my thinking from what I should be doing for someone in shape, to thinking of myself as out of shape and getting back in shape then it was so much easier on me mentally.  Now each workout feels like it's building instead of being slower than what I want.  I had to realize that the Isle of Man race really took some out of me and the extra weeks off afterwards didn't help either.  Now I'm feeling good and enjoying pushing. 

One thing that helped too was to make my workouts more effort based.  It can be really frustrating for me if I'm doing a standard workout of say 1K repeats to not see a time down as far as I want.  So instead I do workouts based on effort.  Today I did a Norwegian fartlek.  I did one minute hard, one minute easy, two minutes hard, one minute easy, three minutes hard, one minute easy, all the way up five minutes and back down.  It's 25 minutes of hard and 8 minutes of easy for a 33 minute workout (I do not end on an easy, I end on the one minute hard).  This workout I can do anywhere; out on the roads, in a park, track, wherever.  I can pay attention to how far I go or not.  Today I did it in one of the parks in Owego that's constantly rolling, so I had the extra challenge of powering up some hills.  It was perfect for today since I know I wouldn't have seen times I would've wanted on a typical repeat workout.  Instead I finished my workout knowing I gave it all I had during my hards and had a very successful workout! 

I think I'll be as ready as I can be for my races in China.  I wish I was in a little better shape, but I've been doing the absolute best I can.   For a while I was getting really down on myself, especially seeing the entry list for the women and their 20K PBs.  I have the slowest 20K PB going into the race.  I was thinking I was going to make a fool of myself, that people would think I had no business being there.  But I realized a few things.  First, I was probably ranked slowest last year as well, and I never came in last.  Second, I'm strong, so where some women may struggle the last few days I will still be powering away.  Third I can use this opportunity to race some AMAZING women and try to hold on to them as long as possible to help me become a better walker.  I'm going to see old friends and make new ones.  I get to visit China for the third time in two years!  So I'm going to go, have fun, and try my absolute hardest.  I learned a lot from last year and will capitalize on that to do better this year. 

So with that I'm going to go spend some time in the garden and head out later for my second speed session of the day and then go to the gym!

The results are in....

First of all, how could you have a bad day when it starts off playing with kittens!!!!  No, I didn't take one home, four is enough, but man are they cute and can bring a smile to your face :)

I had some good news yesterday, and a good day in general.  The day started off tackling the HUGE pile of tomatoes in my kitchen to get them canned.  Blanching them and peeling them took me probably about 3 hours total.  Today they're getting canned and I think I'll have about 7 quarts, which is awesome.  Then I went to the gym.  This was my fifth class.  It was open gym day, so we get to work on whatever skills we need work on.  Since I don't know many of the Olympic lifts it means I have a lot to work on!  I was getting help doing cleans and they were going really well.  Then I did some pull up work and dip work.  I've been working on pull ups as strict pull ups, but if you've ever seen a cross fit competition you know that they don't do them strict, they get a bit of a swing in there that helps them go faster.  I asked if someone could teach me that.  We worked on it and it was going really well.   The lady that was helping me had me move from the bar over to the rings to work on it and we decided we'd do the knee ups.  I'd been doing those on the bar and I'm decent at them.  You hang there and then bring your knees up as high as you can so it ends up looking like you're sitting in a chair but hanging from your arms.  Some people are super strong and can bring their legs up straight all the way to their toes.  I looked at them and thought, wow, it'll take me months to be able to do that.  Some can do it with no swing, but you can also have the swing in there to get the toes up.  So we were working on the swing and the knees up on the rings and I thought, what the heck, I'll try to bring my toes all the way up, and I did!!!!  I freaked out so much I had to drop off the rings.  I love this gym because everyone was super excited for me and happy and getting high fives, it's such a rush.  Then I did two more sets of five!  People said they were very impressed and I was on cloud nine.  My hands hurt like heck with all the hanging and lifting of bars, but I assume they'll get used to it eventually.  So it was a really good workout day!

Then as I was at the post office mailing off my passport to get my visa for China my doctor called.  And...... IT'S NOT A STRESS FRACTURE!!!!  What I do have is a low-grade strain of the lower fibers of the anterior tibialis and extensor halluces longus just proximal to the myotendinous junctions, with a small amount of surrounding fluid.   I'm still trying to figure out exactly what all that is, but I do know it's no where near as serious as a stress fracture.   What a load off my mind.  I have some people to talk to about it, see what can be done/healing time for it, but I think I'll be good by China! 

As if the day couldn't get any better from there one of my athletes is coming to spend the weekend and work on technique and he had an AWESOME workout.  He really has good body awareness for a guy (he's competed in Irish dancing a lot, guess that's why) and is able to really think about and feel things that I suggest.  Where he was getting almost no hip rotation before he was able to really open up and looked fantastic and FAST!  I'm so lucky to be involved in his race walking career and help him.  The sky is absolutely the limit for him and his potential. 

Add to that a really solid hour of working hard and sweating on the elliptical at the end of the day and I'd say (minus peeling tomatoes for hours on end) the day couldn't have been much better.  Things are looking up!

 

MRI

Tonight at 8:15 I go in for an MRI to see if I have any stress fractures in my leg. I'm very lucky that my health care professional knows me and knows what I do and it didn't take much to convince her.  None of the usual, well, just let it rest for a while.  She knows I only come in when something is very serious.  It also helped that I had advice from my chiropractor suggesting I get an MRI too.  So they convinced our insurance it's necessary and even managed to find me a same day appointment!   I'm not sure how long it will take to get results, but I'm hoping tomorrow.

I haven't had luck race walking lately but I have been able to cross train a lot.  It seems it's just when I'm really using my shin muscle that it starts to hurt.   So elliptical is fine, cycling, rowing, and even the one time I ran on it a little didn't hurt.  Squats and such don't bother it either.  I've started going to a cross fit style gym and having a blast.  There are some seriously strong people there!  Strong and fit!  It's really motivating to see what I can do.  The coach there keeps saying he's impressed with how strong I am for someone who hasn't done these moves before, which is a nice little boost to my ego :)  And he says I'm a really fast learner.  Since I'm not doing much walking right now it's really nice to still be able to get out there and work really hard and sweat a lot! 

 

We're making progress on the bunkhouse.  It slowed down a little because there were just so many things around the house that we had been neglecting.  Tomorrow I will can up a BUNCH of tomatoes, so that'll be great in our pantry.  Next after that is apple sauce.  Apples are falling off the trees and our massive store of apple sauce from two years ago is officially gone.  So I need to get on that! 

We got a new shipment of baby chicks yesterday, they're super cute, as they are at that age.  The cats are happy with lots of mice to chase and bugs to eat.  The cows are super happy because I throw them apples to eat.  Dave has been having some great workouts and getting stronger and faster.  My other athletes are working hard and seeing improvements, which always makes me really happy. 

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get a report on the MRI, until then I'm going to stay as positive as I can and do all the strength work that sometimes gets undone because there just isn't enough time in the day.  Fingers crossed!!