preface - the 2 weeks leading up to Hawaii

It started out a couple weekends ago (May 9th) I went for a 4 hour hour ride with a group and around 3 hours in my right knee started having sharp pain every time I put any weight on the peddle... or really when I bent my knee. Luckily we were probably only 20 min from my moms house so I told the group I was done for the day and I rode there and called Kyle to pick me up from my moms. I had no clue what the deal was and why it hurt so freaking much but I was pretty upset about it.
After we got home I iced it some and Kyle asked our friend Jake (a PT) if he would look at it. Luckily he said he would so we headed over. Jake checked it out and loosened my hip flexor which seemed to be the main culprit in combination with a very tight back. The simple version is the muscles seemed to be really tight and then pulled on my knee...
The next day I ran and I had no issues, but later in the week when I had to do hill repeats on the bike it flared up again.. Luckily I was now in full injury mending mode - PT, ART massage, deep tissue massage, tons and tons of stretching. All in all not a cool thing to be dealing with a couple weeks before a half ironman (that has hills on the bike course especially). I also started doing more mental training - managing my expectations/goals, my pain threshold, and that sort of thing.

The following weekend (May 16) the weather was perfect and I had my last big training weekend planned (with a few adjustments depending on how my hip issues played out but instead I would up getting the stomach flu. It started on Friday - nothing really sounded good to eat and my stomach was uneasy. Then Saturday morning i had a small breakfast and with in a couple of hours could not stand up with out getting sick. I spent the entire day curled in a ball trying not to trow up with no luck. It was the worst day ever esp since it was sunny and so nice outside. By the end of the day I was able to start drinking/keeping down some gatorade. Sunday I still felt kind of off and did not want to eat anything other than gatorade. out of sheer determination and stubbornness I went for an hour easy ride in the afternoon. I could tell I was on empty - I had no pep at all and just cruised along. But it felt really good to do something.
The fallowing week I still had a hard time eating much - every time I ate something my stomach got upset and bloated. I have been trying to eat yogurt and other super healthy food to try and get my stomach back on track.

so there you go that has been the 2 weeks leading up my trip to Hawaii for the Hawaii 70.3 race. I have a full week and change to get used to the heat and get my myself ready for the race both mentally and physically.

breaking through

The flu nocked me out completely for a week and then I spent another week still feeling the effects of it as I tried to get back to the real world. I did most of my work outs last week but with little to no pep or power but it did feel good to exercise.
I felt the best in the pool - my stroke is feeling pretty good and was able to find a good rhythm. Though I did do all my swims in the evening and slept through masters swim. My run and riding was the most effected. On Wednesday I ran close to 10 m/mi pace for :45 - it was just painful - I could not take deep breaths and my legs felt tired and sore. My ride on saturday felt similar - I tried to ride with Kyle but could not even hang on his wheel without coughing up a storm and my heart rate soaring. With in the first :30 I was officially dropped and just rode easy for the rest of the 2 hour ride. After feeling so beat up on Saturday i spent the rest of the day on the couch half asleep.
Lucky for me my run yesterday (Sunday) surprisingly felt much better. We went over to green lake to have coffee with his Mom and then he ran for 1:20 and I ran for :60. Of course the first mile my legs felt heavy and my foot ached a little bit but as I warmed up I continued to feel better. I did not cough as much as I did not the bike and just enjoyed running. The best part was I was able to keep my heart rate down and run 8:30 m/mi pace - which is back to my pre-flu average easy run pace. Needless to say I was a lot happier after running and finally feel like I won't have the flu forever.
With that my plan is to continue to try and get over it completely this week so that I can really get back into training for my goals this year.

on the mend

I hope. After doing Black diamond I have spent most of the week with a cold that just kept getting worse till yesterday. I did one super easy bike ride on my single speed on Tuesday and an easy swim on Wednesday but that is it. Obviously I needed a rest and I was eventually forced to take the week off. I have gone through an entire box of tea, 2 boxes of kleenex and learned that only the original NyQuil will really nock me out. I'm hoping to do something tomorrow but I'm trying to be good and listen to my body as best I can. I'm not very good at being sick as Kyle can attest to - I'm a horrible patient actually.
The only thing interesting is that Kyle got 2nd in his age group at Kirkland Sprint tri on Sunday (his birthday) and I got to be the shripa biatch this time. I have to say even though I was sick I did a good job and carried a back pack that was bigger than me around so that he had warm clothes as soon as he crossed the finish line.

Well that covers things for now- time to take some NyQuil and get some more rest to get rid of this stupid cold so I can do something other than sleep this weekend..

1st work out since..

Yeah I know the nike marathon race report is a week overdue but I have been sick ever since I got back in town. Monday was by far the worse of it and it just added to how sore I was. The rest of the week it was more manageable but I had to take cold medicine to get to sleep. So I bailed on all workouts in an effort to get better which mostly seemed to work. Today it is mostly just an annoying cough and low energy. I tried to go on a bike ride yesterday because it was so nice out but instead took a 3 hour nap in the middle of the day...
Today I made it out for a run with Col, Bryan and Piper. It was really hard because I had no energy - mostly I just tried to keep Bryan and Col with in sight. At least it was a really nice day - the weather was perfect for running, not to hot or cold, no wind. I did not cough to much during the run, just every so often, my heart rate was high but it always is sort of that high. My left hip started hurting around mile 3 and is still sore now but not much else as far as residual aches and pains from the marathon. In all we ran 4 miles and I finished in about 35 min - which was still a sub 9 min pace overall. But I was very happy to be done. Of course after not having to much trouble cough while running when I stopped all I did was cough - for a good 5-10 min.
Hopefully this coming week will go better and I will kick this dumb cold.

low energy

Monday night Col joined me for a strength work out after work. We did a slew of different stuff - essentially one exercise per muscle group. My upper body is really not very strong - especially compared to my lower body (due to all those years of skiing). So it was kind of funny Col was strong with the upper body stuff and I was stronger on the lower body - I would rather do lower body any day. Then we did a bunch of core work.
On Tuesday I woke up very tired and with a sore throat. I pushed off my 3 mile run and just went into work. Work is really crazy but I dragged all day and just felt horrible most of the day. Kyle told Col how bad I was actually feeling so I was then told not to do my 3 mile run... After work I went home and took a nap. My abs - esp my obliques were especially sore from Mondays strength stuff.
Wednesday day I was still dragging so I took a sick day and did some work from home while also taking naps all day long. It was wonderful. It was really nice out so I did go for an easy ride around Lake Sammamish with Col with the idea that fresh air and sweating a bit would help flush my cold out of my system (and it may be one of the last nice days before the rains start). It was so nice and I mostly felt good. It was really only going up the final hill I could tell I was not 100% and I just did not have my usual power so I spun and just took my time a bit while Col dropped me by a few bike lengths. Once I got home I took a hot shower and took a nap for 2 hours or so.
This morning I woke feeling better - though I also slept in till 7:45a and got in to work a bit late but it was not a huge deal. My sore throat is mostly gone so depending on how I feel the rest of today I may do the 3 mile run that I have not done the last 3 weeks..

just starting to be able to breath again

Yesterday I got sick - I hate getting sick. I could not breath and my head hurt so I took the day off from exercising. Today I feel much better I can sort of breath - still a bit congested but not as bad. Depending on how the rest of the day goes I might either do the 3 mile run that is planned or go for a swim and do the run this weekend.
In other news today is my last day as a contractor at MSN - I have reached my year max and now I have to either take 100 days off or go full time employee. Supposedly I will have an interview around the end of January for full time - but I'm not holding my breath at this point. On the positive side I get to spend more time training until the right job opportunity comes my way.