photo by Steve Penland

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Well, That's a First!

As you may remember if you've wandered into the Long Track Life recently, I'm doing the same workouts this year that I did in 2007, which was the first full year that TieGuy was my coach.  Every year since then we've upped the volume of work, which was fine for the first few years.  This spring, though, due to a combination of circumstances (that is, the combination of me being fat, out of shape, and low on mental toughness), I was quite certain that I would be unable to complete the same workouts that I had scheduled for last year.  Note that I say "had scheduled," not "had completed,"--yeah, I couldn't do them last year either.  So clearly age or wimpiness or body fat are catching up with me, and I need to take it back a notch if I'm going to successfully complete workouts and not become mired in that dilemma common to those who coach themselves:  trying to figure out how much/whether/how to cut back when it's clear you can't do what you had planned.

So anyway, long story short (really, do I ever do that? Let's be realistic here) I've been working my way through the 2007 workouts since April.  And they've gone fairly well.  I've only missed one dryland--when my chiropractor convinced me to skip the last dryland before oval skating started, to help my back heal.  I've missed one oval workout--we've had a LOT of rainy days here.  I've been skimping on skipping the yoga, but at least I've been stretching and I do plan to start the yoga when school gets out and I have more time and energy.  But in general, I've been getting out there and doing the workouts as written and I'm not quitting early and I'm dealing with the workload fine, mentally and physically.

But I am slow.

Most evenings, when I get back from skating and settle onto the couch with a protein shake and the Twins baseball game, I grab my 2007 Data Binder and do a quick comparison of the day's workout, version 2007 and 2013 (yes, I'm a geek. So?)  And thus far the comparison has been a bit discouraging.  Endurance laps that were 44-48 seconds in 2007 are now 48-52 seconds; tempos that used to be 38's to 40's are now 45's and 46's.  Slow.

But last night was different.  Last night I had a fairly short interval workout.  I wasn't expecting it to go well; apparently my body decided that, if I was going to have a re-do of 2007, I should re-do all of 2007, and since I got a cold in mid-May of 2007 my immune system decided that I needed a cold in mid-May of 2013 as well.  So I was just hoping to get through the workout without bailing (or getting rained on.)

But the workout went surprisingly well.  I felt good, and my 400 meter lap times were reasonable at 42-44 seconds.  Not stellar, but reasonable.  So I was delighted to find, when I got home and checked the 2007 version of the workout, that I was faster in 2013 than I was in 2007. 

Trust me, that NEVER happens.

True, my notes on the 2007 version say "Bad.  400's 45-47.  Told to quit after 3 sets."  So clearly it was a bad workout if Coach TieGuy pulled the plug early--he's not known for his mercy.  But still.

I was faster this year than I was in 2007.


Friday, May 17, 2013

Long Time No Post

For me, at least.  What's it been, 13 days?  And my posting absence hasn't been for any good or dramatic reason, merely due to the convergence of the last month of school, the first month of three-a-week oval skating workouts, and a weekend visit to my parents.  Since--despite the almost two weeks since my last post--nothing really major has been happening at the Long Track Ranch, I'll give you a few nice, succinct bullet points.

  • Oval workouts.  My oval workouts--four of them so far--have gone fine.  Not terribly fast, but fine.  No feeling of thyroid issues, not too many PVC's, and I've managed to finish all of the workouts--even the one on Tuesday in the record 98 degree heat with the 35 mph wind.  Mel wanted to stop that one at three sets--in her defense, she'd already done a bike interval workout, dryland, and a trail skate that day--but the fat old lady (yup, me) talked her into doing all four sets.  I considered it a victory for mental toughness.  
  • I am old.  The oval workouts I'm doing are the same ones I did in 2007, and let me tell you, the difference between a 43-year-old body and a 49-year-old body is huge.  And I'm not just referring to the size of my ass.  Although the size of my ass (and everything else) might be contributing to the difference; I wonder how much harder a body has to work to propel 15 more pounds of dead weight down the track?
  • On a related note, I'm trying to clean up my eating (again).  Since I'm not a fan of vegetables and even most fruits, I'm trying a Nutribullet blender to make getting in the 5-9 servings easier.  So far fruit and vegetable consumption is up and poptart consumption is down.  I'll keep you posted.
  • Trail skates.  In looking back at last year's (abysmal) spring/summer workouts, I noticed that trail skates were notably absent.  In theory they're supposed to be "recovery workouts," but in reality they're pretty good endurance work and skipping them undoubtedly contributed to my lackluster 3K and 5K times last winter.  So this year I'm back on track with weekly trail skates, and I'm enjoying them.
  • My back is now behaving nicely again, thanks to my chiro and the massage therapist at his office.  Next week looks rainy, though (in fact, today's workout is being rained out even as I type), so I'll have to decide if I want to aggravate things again by substituting dryland workouts for any skates that get rained out.
  • The skate park punks are back in full obnoxious swing.  I currently have some really bad bearings in a couple wheels that produce a nice whirring noise when I skate; I know I should replace them but I can't help but think they might work like those deer whistles you put on your car, and will warn the Punks that I'm coming down the track.
  • I'll leave you with the obligatory "I visited my parents and have to post pictures of our cabin and/or my parents' dogs" pictures:
     Even in May, there's still a little snow along the driveway.


    I love the way Keira is subtly photobombing the small dogs.

Saturday, May 4, 2013

A Slight Glitch

In my dryland, that is.  No, it's not the weather--although yesterday,  May 2, it snowed most of the day here.      Fortunately or unfortunately, dryland is impervious to weather conditions.  And it's not lack of workout partners, although most of my Tuesday-Thursday dryland folks have fled the city, state or even the country in search of nice weather and relaxing vacations.  I've done dryland on my own before and I can do it solo again if necessary.  It's not even "getting close to the end of the school year" stress and general lack of enthusiasm for anything that seems like work--which dryland definitely is.

No, my dryland is suffering from "I'm old and stuff keeps malfunctioning."

This past Monday, I had completed three full weeks of dryland workouts and was getting ready to launch into the last Tuesday/Thursday efforts before the oval opens next Monday.  However, there was a slight--or not-so-slight--problem: my back, which had been bothering me ever since the first day of dryland, was now hurting to the point that I couldn't even bend over to put on my socks in the morning.  I've had low back problems before, in 2000, but this had initially felt different; higher than my previous SI joint pain, and more muscle than joint.  Now, though, I felt the return of the old SI pain as well as the muscle stuff, and so I thought was time to do something about it (besides whine, that is.  I was already doing that).

I see a very good chiropractor about twice a month to keep my neck and back functioning properly, and I happened to have an appointment with him last Monday.  I had seen him once since starting dryland, but at that time had just assumed that my back pain was delayed onset muscle soreness from starting dryland.  On Monday, though, I had him look into it, and he informed me (after poking a couple surprisingly painful spots) that my SI joint was inflamed and a muscle on the left side of my back was extremely unhappy.  He did some adjustments, prescribed deep tissue massage and said I could use my TENS unit and an NSAID if necessary, and demonstrated some stretches for the muscle.

Oh, and he said to stop the dryland.

Part of me, of course, says "damn."  I really want to do the 2007 workouts as they were written, and early May of 2007 included quite a bit of dryland.  On the other hand, I hate dryland, and I hate it more when it causes pain that lasts 24/7.  And there were only two dryland-only workouts left before the oval opens next Monday and we switch to mostly skating.  I was able to skate one day this week (on the trails) before the rain/snow started, so I did make up for missing Tuesday's dryland; I didn't manage to do anything to replace Thursday's, though, so I'm currently a workout down.  Not a huge deal, but I don't want to start down the slippery "skip the workout" slope that I found myself careening down last year.  If the weather cooperates I should be able to get in a trail skate this weekend and then three oval workouts next week, and then I'll be back on track.

I'm amazed, though, at the difference that 6 years of aging brings.  When I did these workouts in 2007 I was 43.  Now I'm 49 and, despite having worked up to significantly more challenging workouts by the 2011-12 season, I am discovering that my body is now coming up with some strenuous objections to even the 2007-level workouts.  I'm also discovering that I really need to get better at stretching, which has never been very popular with me.  Apparently it takes a lot more to sustain an athletic hobby at 49 than it did at 43.

So bring on the TENS unit and the ibuprofen, the massage and the yoga--it's time for the old lady to skate!