Garmin Forerunner 101

I am now the proud owner of a Garmin. I know, it is not the fanciest of the bunch, but it does what I need it to do. It allows me to run without mapping out a route every time and it gives me pace as I run, what else do you need. Have used in twice already and it was a great purchase. Got it barely used for $40 from a guy in our local BRTri group. Someone gave him a 301 so he no longer needed this one.

Starting to get nervous about the Half IM. Only 2.5 weeks to go for my first "long" triathlon. I know, it's not a full, but 6 hours of racing is long in my book. Doing one more long ride this weekend and then going to start tapering next week. Only problem that I have at the moment is a slight injury.

A couple of weeks ago I ran in the hills of Syracuse, NY and got a strange pain in my heel a few days later. I just blew it off as fatigue. Well, it has gotten worse. It started hurting worse after mountain biking last week and now it pretty much hurts 24/7. Especially in the morning and after I run. It has the classic symptoms of Plantar Fasciitis, but I hope not. It started hurting after running in hills, it hurts worst in the morning and it in my heel. Based on everything I have read, that progression fits the bill. I am praying that I just bruised it and all will be better with some icing. Did 7 miles today with 3 - 1 mile repeats at 7:00 pace. It is bearable during the run, but painful as soon as I get home and get back on my feet from the car. It's too close to the race to stay off of it for a couple of weeks, so I am just going to have to tough it out until after the race. If I had any readers, I could ask your advice...

Injuries Suck

Especially when you don't know why!!

My mother in law was in town for mothers day this weekend, so I was able to do my ride on Saturday morning. Hit the road early at around 6:40. Since I am racing this Saturday, I decided to go short and hard and then do a short faster run. Went 25 miles at 19.8 mph (fastest training loop ever, not very impressive I know) which is encouraging since I normally race about 0.5-1 mph faster than my training. Some mental block I have where I can't train as fast as I race. At Galveston, I rode 28 miles almost 1 mph faster than I had ever done a 25 mile training ride. Anyway, got back to the house and put on the running shoes immediately for a real brick. Headed out feeling good at about 8:30 pace. Got about 1 mile in and the rumblin' started. Pace got considerably slower from there. Got to the turn around at 1.25 and had to stop or I would have had an accident. Walked it off and then started again. Did the start/stop thing about 3 times before I finally made it to a port-o-potty at the corner about a 0.5 mile from the house where they are doing some construction. Felt much better after making a deposit, but the pace was already shot. Finished up the 2.5 miles with a 9:03 pace. Not what I am looking for next weekend. Hoping to run in the 8:15 range, we'll see.

Took a nap with the kids Saturday afternoon and woke up with a sharp pain in my right leg. This has happened the last three weekends after my "long" ride. My buddies tell me it is my IT band or hip flexor, but neither of them really fit the symptoms. Hurts the worst when I try to roll out of bed. For whatever reason, that motion puts the most torque on it and causes the most pain. It actually hurts on the right side of my right leg from the hip all the way down to my knee. I thought the hip flexor was more on top of your quad and that IT band injuries were normally isolated to just around the knee. I could be wrong on one of these since there was this one other time where I got something wrong, but I doubt it...Skipped my long run Sunday in hopes of it getting better, but it has been slow.

Swam today at lunch since I didn't feel like getting out the bed with the sore leg. Mornings are worse for me since my arthritis already has me sore in the mornings. Although, it has gotten way better since I have dropped 30 pounds. Lunch swim went great. I love swimming in the sun. Stayed short, 1400 yds, since I only had 30 minutes. Tomorrow is run and spin class. Hopefully the leg will feel better.