Yay, my butt hurts!

I know the title of this post sounds silly, but I felt yesterday's run today.  Hill repeats are a great way to work on ones running strength, especially the glutes.  So, that's why my butt hurt today.  But, it was a good hurt!  While I never had time to do any training today (more meetings with people with the new house, more driving for my daughter), all day long I felt yesterday's workout and it felt good.  Every day I realize more and more why my present approach to training is perfect.  I don't feel like I'm having to choose my training over my personal life.  I do what I can do.  Every so often, the thought of increasing training, doing the bike experience, racing, creeps into my mind.  But, I realize, do what I can, but keep the focus on being around for my wife and family.  They deserve it so much!  In fact, I probably could do this for the next 30 years and not give back what they've given to me.  That's why it felt good to have my butt hurt:).  Tomorrow is another busy day with lots of driving, but I do have some plans for the weekend.  The tri club I ride with is doing long tempo intervals on saturday, due to the 5K on sunday.  So, I plan to do both!  The idea of getting some good intensity in this weekend feels good.

I also got some new running shoes today, neutral shoes with some good padding, already feels like it's helping my heel, which continues to nag me.  Also, some self massage of the calf is helping.  Driving sucks, but I try to flex my foot as often as possible.

I'm also incredibly proud of my family.  My wife has been helping to orchestrate our move, provide moral support for both of our daughters, and for the last two days, taken care of our grandbunny.  My oldest daughter is putting in long days for a pretty intense graduate school class, and loving it.  My youngest daughter and son (in-law) is in Philadelphia working for our internet venture, which launches on saturday.  They've been essentially working around the clock.  Genetics, I guess:).

Oh, yes, our new hot tub is up and running.  Guess what I'm doing next?

Moving In

Wow!  Moving in is its own ironman!  Yesterday, I managed to sleep in til about 8am, but then had to meet with contractors, pool people, electrician's, an interior decorator, etc.  We then had to help get dinner for my daughter and son in law who have been working long hours in preparation for the launch of our new internet site.  I didn't get to bed until about 1am and got up at 5:30 am this morning.  Finally, waking up early!  Put on my running shoes and just ran around our neighborhood, really trying hard not to pay attention to time.  The effort was moderate, and I sprinkled in some fast strides towards the latter half of the run, before doing 4 trips up a 1 minute steep hill at all out effort.  It's kind of fun, the first fourth of the hill is moderately easy, the next fourth is moderately hard, the third fourth is very hard and the final fourth is extremely hard.  I walked down to the bottom each time.  Four times felt like enough today, I jogged to Starbucks and then home to read the newspaper.  Then, a 3 1/2 hour excursion driving my daughter and son-in-law to the airport.  Got home and took a two hour nap, this helped, but was still tired.  Did manage to jump in the pool for a short swim before talking to our real estate agent in Colorado.  Isn't retirement fun!  My left heel continues to nag me, last weeks massage helped, looking forward to another one on Sunday.  I think all the driving is putting the foot in a bad position and trying to cause me to have some plantar fasciitis.  I need to keep flexing the foot and keeping it stretched.  So, getting back to training in fits and starts, I am planning on doing a 5k on sunday.  That should be interesting!

Exhaustion, not so much!

Yesterday was a pretty tough day.  I felt completely exhausted, did jump in the pool twice for some exercise and relaxation.  Did some unpacking.  Tried to nap, a few times.  Honestly, I felt like an old man.  I was tired, I was aching.  I began to wonder if I'd ever do another triathlon, much less an ironman.  I went to bed at 8pm, woke up before 6am and was out the door driving to my CV Tri Club Sunday bike ride by 7:30am.  The group is great, lots of really nice people, pretty laid back.  I felt great!  We rode out to Point Magu, then back along Pacific Coast Highway with a 7 person pace line.  I was comfortable with about 1 foot between me and the person in front of me, I know, I can still improve, but not too bad.  I felt pretty darn strong today.  The final part of the ride was a 9 mile climb at about 4% grade, I essentially did it as a tempo workout.  Didn't quite keep up with the two people who went ahead, but pretty much held my own today.  Great day, riding in a group, climbing, riding in a paceline.  I am back!  All in all, this was about 3 hours and 15 minutes in the saddle today (I know, I'm not supposed to look at time, but I couldn't help looking at my clock when I got in my car).  I was thinking of a number of things to blog about as I rode, but decided to focus in on how exhausted I felt yesterday, and how good I felt today.  It's a reminder that I need to train!  It gets my adrenaline going and keeps me feeling good.  The best part was getting home and telling my wife, "let's drive to Malibu for lunch!"  Spent the afternoon with my wife, came back home and took my daughter and son-in-law out for frozen yogurt.  Still with energy...this is a good sign.  Yes, endorphins are good for you!  It was also a reminder how other stresses can tire you out, like unpacking all week, and driving a ton.

Well, enough for today, still have some daylight left, might jump in the pool for a short swim!

The benefits of massage

For the past few years, I have been getting a weekly massage.  I struggle sometimes with the cost of doing this, but with my training schedule, I've believed that regular massages have helped keep me injury free.  In the past 3 week, post Ironman St. George period, I had one massage.  In addition, I've driven from Denver to California twice, then drove to Northern California and back in the course of two days.  Plus, we've been unpacking...need I say more.  I've been noticing my feet hurting every day.  Tonight, I finally got a massage her in California.  I think that every muscle in my body felt tight and a little sore.  Now, it feels better.  I clearly must get back in the routine of taking care of my body.  Also, I think the soreness was beginning to mess with my mind a little in terms of training.  I've been looking forward to getting back to my regular training regimen, but have to admit, the soreness was tugging back at me somewhat.  I was also concerned about finding a good massage therapist, but I think that I've lucked out.  Some members of the local tri club that I've joined recommended someone to me, and she's different than what I've been used to, but seems to be effective.  I've definitely been spoiled over the last few years, and finding the right person can be challenging.  When you train for an ironman, you are pushing your body, it needs to be treated well, and massage is part of that.

No training today, if you don't count getting up at 6am and unpacking until about 4pm.  I even washed some windows in our new house.  My wife is beginning to wonder where her husband disappeared to, or perhaps I've been taken over by space aliens.  It's funny how new surroundings and a new life can help you change an evolve.  Just like triathlon, it's really all about the journey!

Finding Trust in Today's World...at Starbucks!

I was going to blog today about moving...that's what I spent my day doing yesterday, and it may have been harder than Ironman St. George!  Unpacking 30 years of "stuff" is going to take a good part of the summer, if not longer.  However, my day started in an interesting fashion.  I woke up around 6am, that seems to be my "retirement" wake up time, stumbled to the counter in the kitchen of my daughter's house (where we're staying for the time being), grabbed my wallet, keys and I-phone and went for my walk to our new house about 1.25 miles away.  About one mile into the walk is my new favorite Starbucks.  On the way, being very careful, I read Moonracer's blog about Pinterest on my I-phone.  I recently read an article about reading while walking, but I only read on the sidewalk and keep an eye out for cracks, etc.  I learned that Pinterest is about pictures, and women really like it.  I may have a ways to go yet, but I'm going to try to learn it.  I got to Starbucks, got my L.A. Times, my Blueberry Oat Bar and ordered my Venti 2 pump Vanilla Soy Latte and went to get my Starbucks card out of my wallet, oops!  I had taken my son-in-laws wallet!  Alas, no money (we need to have a talk), and no credit cards (that's ok).  I realized that he probably needed his wallet today, so I decided to head back to the house.  The guy behind the counter said, "you can pay tomorrow, I've seen you here before".  Wow!  This is Starbucks, this is Los Angeles, this is 2012.  Granted, I've been coming here for the last few days, but trusting me for my $7, what has the world come to?  I know it's a little thing, and it is really good business, but it was nice.  Really got my day off to a good start.  I am a very trusting person, and sometimes we trusting people are taken advantage of.  In fact, I've contemplated the value of being a trusting person in an untrustworthy world and generally have decided that I'd personally rather go to sleep at night being trusting and recognizing that not everyone is to be trusted.  I need to be me in the end.

Speaking of being me, I decided to run back to my daughter's house.  Fortunately, I had actually worn running shorts this morning!  So, I got 2 miles of unplanned running in this morning, it felt good.  My feet hurt from months of ironman training, the race, and standing around all day yesterday with the movers.  But, running doesn't hurt, go figure.  Then, back to Starbuck's, where my 2 pump vanilla soy latte became a regular vanilla soy latter (needed the extra sugar with the 2 miles of running) and on to our new house to eat my blueberry oat bar, drink my coffee and read the L.A. Times (I still like a real newspaper in the morning).  There is some peace in the quiet of the morning in our new surroundings.  That's one of the reasons we bought the house, the yard is like an oasis.  Of course, the house is full of boxes today, the painters are here and I'm presently blogging in order to avoid unpacking:).  Well, enough of that.  Time to go to "work".

It's good to have my running legs back

Woke up this morning in San Jose, giving a lecture at noon, so had some time.  The Stevens Creek Trail is right near my hotel, the Hotel Zico, and I just ran on it until it finished and then ran some more along the peninsula on the San Francisco Bay Trail.  I tried hard not to think about time or distance, but years of running and being obsessive didn't allow me to completely free those thoughts from my mind.  The goal today was to just run and enjoy, did the "out" part pretty much in zone 2, very comfortable, breathing up to every 4th step, enjoying the scenery and just enjoying being out there.  My right quad was actually still a little sore from the bruising that I certainly caused running into the metal railing two days ago.  Fortunately, running didn't make it worse.  After what seemed like a reasonable amount of time and a reasonable location (somewhere between 5-6 miles/40-50minutes), I stopped, stretched for a few minutes (this is for my wife, who says that I don't stretch enough!) and turned around.  On the way back I did fartlek's (speed play for the non-runner reading this), pushing myself to breathing every 3rd step (Zone 3-4) for anywhere from 2-5 minutes, and alternating with just comfortable running  When I was within about 10-15 minutes of my hotel, I walked for a couple of minutes just to let my legs unwind.  Then, ran to the Hotel.  Seems that I ran about 80-90minutes.  Sorry, I'm not supposed to pay attention, but I'm weaning myself from that:).  My legs held up just fine.  Looking forward to my lecture.  I'm trying to teach doctors what it takes to be successful in billing for and caring for Medicare patients.  Turnout is typically poor, as doctors are stubborn creatures of habit who don't like listening to anyone (I can say this, because I'm one of them!).  While it goes against my nature, I'm starting to share that I'm 53 years old (triathlon years of course, as my birthday isn't until next month), and I'm retired.  Wouldn't these doctors like to learn how?  Or, would they rather continue complaining that Medicare sucks?

I am 17 days out from Ironman St. George, I felt good running today.  I think I'm recovered pretty well.  Tomorrow the movers come, though I'm sure I'll find a way to jump in the pool.  There's a 5K in Westlake Village in 1 1/2 weeks, supporting local senior services.  Can't miss that opportunity, and after todays run, I feel like a 5K would be just what the doctor ordered!  Now, I just need to avoid metal railings!

Getting Better, In Spite of Myself!

So, yesterday, I should have realized that I was getting back to normal.  Not paying attention to where I was going, I slammed my right thigh into a metal railing.  It's still a little sore today, but no serious damage.  I'm typically a klutz and I do things like this, although usually close to a race.  My left hamstring was tight last night, though that might have been due to the fact that I didn't realize that my seat post had dropped about a 1/2 an inch on my bike.  Adding to that was 6 hours in the car today, driving to Northern California where I'll do the hardest workout that I know, stand for 2 hours giving a lecture tonight.  I got to the hotel in time, however, to do an easy shakeout run.  Wow!  From the very first step I realized that I was doing much better.  My legs felt light and the run felt easy.  In fact, there was never a thought of "jogging", it was more of nice easy strides.  This was never hard from a breathing perspective and I never felt like stopping.  I ran for about half and hour (had to get back to the hotel to get ready), and it all felt good.
I continue to find the recovery from this ironman to be interesting.  I've gotten good at listening to my body over the years, and my body has been talking to me.  Up until now, it's been warning me to be careful.  Today, however, I think that it may be getting ready to let me go just a little harder.  That's exciting.  Fortunately, tomorrow's lecture isn't until noon, so I will have time in the morning to run completely unfettered.  Then, it's another 6 hours in the car:(.  Wednesday, the mover's come, but I know I'll sneak a little time into the swimming pool!