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Chronicles of a fish: the days of surf and turf
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Thanks everyone....seriously, thank you VERY much for your kind words that really do help renew my strength. Today's news is more or less the same as last week's news - basically, due to my desire to be physically active, I am at risk to do serious damage to my spinal cord the way things are. If I want to avoid surgery for the time being, then the recommendation is to be more sedentary. It's either that, or assume the risk of my choice to be active. I don't see where I have a choice here. I could go for a 3rd opinion and a 4th opinion, but even I can see on the MRI the damage that has already been done to the spinal cord. So, it looks like surgery will take place on June 3rd (3 weeks from Friday!). I'm still bound and determined to plug away until I go under the knife....and I'm still bound and determined to maintain as much fitness as possible during my recovery time. I even have crazy thoughts of looking for another IM late in the year...perhaps somewhere warm and sunny as a reward/vacation destination, but I'll put those thoughts on the back burner for now and play this summer by ear. I'm not sure what this log is going to look like during my recovery, but maybe it will hold something of interest to those who follow me. Silver lining, and all that.
Tuesday, May 10th, 2016
I was supposed to do a swim and a gym workout today, but due to my travel, I only got the bike done today.
Bike
20 minute warmup
Cadence set:
5 X (1 min each at 50, 65, 75, 85, 95, 85, 75, 65, 50...2 min easy)
10 minute cool down
This went really quite well. I was directed to increase effort with each set, and it worked like a charm for me tonight. This honestly felt great throughout. Average power for the 5 sets as follows:
134w, 141w, 150w, 160w, 170w
Actual bike: 90 minutes on the Black Cat after a very long day0 -
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Well at least you know now and you can be dealing with it. Sometimes you just have to take & work with what life throws at you, even when it doesn't either suit you or fit in with your plans. I, for one, hope you keep us up to date with your progress through your recovery - just like every other part of your journey it's bound to be epic.
Thank you. And my plan is to log my progress throughout my recovery. I use this log as my diary...my sports diary....so I figure I'll document my cervical spine experience and my rise from bed pan to iron-hoochie via this virtual vehicle.
Why not, right?? I mean, who won't want to read about all the milkshakes I'll be living off of immediately after surgery due to the difficulty in swallowing I've been warned about?? And then there'll be that epic post whe I can actually sit on my trainer and spin. And we can't forget the first time I'll be able to trot slowly in the tub....or the first swim with my new snorkel. Yay!!! 
But yes, I'll continue to log here for sure. You folks are my rocks. Seriously.
Wednesday, May 11th, 2016
Run
This was supposed to have been a session that included 5 X 1 miles timed...but....due to my willingness to follow doctor's recommendations, I changed this up to a 90 minute tub trot. I set the wave current to 2:07, 2:02 and 1:57 for 30 minutes each. Tunes were fantastic, garage doors were up, and I was living large in my mini aquatic wonderland.
Actual run: 90 minutes in the tub0 -
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Kurt_Godel wrote: »
Alltogeddernow: "SHE'S ON THE TURBO, NEMO!!":D:D
Pretty much!!!! Oh I've been working my little patootie off - trying to bank fitness for my surgery - 2 weeks from tomorrow. :eek: Sooooo......I need to update this log. Turbo session now, then the updating will begin!!! 0 -
Hello log.....
Thursday, May 12th, 2016
Bike
20 min w/u
10x15 sec spin up to max cadence+power (so this should sting)+ 45 sec easy.
12x3 min verrrrrry strong in your bars at race cadence+ 1 min super easy. goal here is best avg power for 12. your legs should be begging for mercy at 2 mins in.
easy til 90 mins
This was done after work....and I've no complaints at all. In fact, in many ways I've never felt stronger on the bike. Yes, yes, yes I know I am just sitting on a trainer pushing my limits and I'm not out on the road proving myself...but I do honestly think I've never been stronger sitting on a bike before. Total shame though.
12 X 3 min:
86 rpm...184w
83 rpm...180w
83 rpm...177w
84 rpm...183w
84 rpm...185w
84 rpm...184w
83 rpm...181w
84 rpm...184w
83 rpm...182w
83 rpm...180w
83 rpm...181w
85 rpm...187w
Actual bike: 90 minutes on the Black Cat
Friday, May 13th, 2016
Swim/run combo
Swim...
1,000 buoy-band
200 swim
800 buoy-band
200 swim
600 buoy-band
200 swim
400 buoy-band
200 swim
200 buoy-band
Woo-wee....was it a chilly evening out there!!! Yikes!! But luckily my heater was working overtime and it felt fantastic in the water. Yay!! And I love this session. I love swimming long...and I love swimming with the buoy-band. Absolutely stellar swim, which had me mulling over postponing my surgery and doing Eagleman in June. But, I know that could be disasterously foolish.
Run...
I hopped in the tub for 60 minutes of easy trotting. The wave current was set to 2:07, 2:02 and 1:57 for 20 minutes each.
Actual swim/run combo: 4,000 yards of fantastic feeling swimming followed by 60 minutes of easy tub trotting
More updating to come tomorrow.......:)0 -
Hey DD, it's a while since I had the chance to catch up, and wow I truly hope you are ok (I know ya will be) but still after all before this is just a small bump in the road, you will be back stronger than before.
I have also left myself a note not to leave it as long next time and to keep up to date with your blog, as it moves fast 0 -
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Saturday, May 14th, 2016
Bike/run combo
Bike...
This was supposed to be 4 hours on the road, but due to the weather forecast of heavy showers beginning midday, plus the fact that my neck was killing me this morning (thus convincing me to go ahead with surgery and not be tempted to do Eagleman - boo hiss), I opted to do a trainer session instead. However, it was so gorgeous when I arrived home from work that I decided to drag the trainer outdoors to do this in the sunshine....that turned to rain and wind...and then back to sunshine. But I was well prepared for the rain as I had snagged 2 plastic garbage bags in advance - one to put my iPad/phone in, and the other to tailor to my body as a fancy rain coat if/when it started to downpour, which it did. Hubby looked out the door when I was grinding away in the wind and rain and just shook his head. He was off to the bike shop and shared with them the garbage-bag-and-rain-while-sitting-on-my-trainer story, and he said he couldn't tell if my boys were impressed with or worried about me. But you know, sometimes you just want to feel alive, and this made me feel alive.
Any way....because I love that 5 min/1 min session that totally kicks my arse every time I do it, this is what I did:
30 min warmup
10 X (5 min strong, 1 min easy)
10 min easy
5 X (5 min strong, 1 min easy)
10 min easy
5 X (5 min strong, 1 min easy)
15 min easy
I felt pretty damn good for this....and my data is as follows:
10 X 5 min...
78...162
78...163
79...169
79...168
79...169
79...167
79...168
79...168
79...168
79...169
5 X 5 min...
78...167
80...169
80...170
80...169
81...172
5 X 5 min...
81...172
80...171
81...171
81...172
82...180
RUn...
30 quick minutes in the tub trotting easy as she goes!
Actual bike/run combo: 3 hours on the Black Cat in the sun, wind and rain...followed by 30 minutes trotting in the tub0 -
Sunday, May 15th, 2016
Run
This was an easy 90 minutes in the tub (really not running on land at the moment due to my neck!!!) - wave paces were 2:07 for 30 minutes, 2:02 for 15 minutes, 1:57 for 15 minutes and 1:52 for 30 minutes. Tunes were cranking, garage doors were up, and life was good.
Actual run: 90 minutes in da fish tank!
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Swim
kick 10x40 with board easy @ 10 rest
200 swim
6x40 swim (20 sprint-20 easy)
buoy, band: 500 cruise
3x (100 swim (20 bk-20 fr)+60 easy kick with board)
I did this late in the evening as the sun was thinking about setting off to the west. This went fine, and it was fun to sprint 20 and then ease on back down the lane. No complaints. And my head was/is in a good place.
Actual swim: 1,640 late Sunday yards outside0 -
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Wednesday, May 18th, 2016
Today was spent in Richmond meeting with all sort of medical peeps, having all sorts of tests done in prep for the surgery in just 2 weeks. Gah. But I got thru it....and everyone was so nice. Of course they all noticed I was fairly fit (I had shorts on - legs are my strength!), so everyone wanted to know all about my sports background. Rock start status, which makes you feel good when you're getting ready to go thru something that is f*cking up some of your hopes and plans. But, their response(s) to me and what I do definitely reinforced and emboldened me even more to keep moving forward with my goals...for now. I knew I was supposed to be doing a trainer session today, and I noticed it was the standing big gear session that is crunchy and real...and I love crunchy and real, so I decided to get this done even after such a long day that included blood drawing and not much food and a very late start (for me) on the trainer.....
Bike
15 mins warm up
Cadence set -
3 x [easy gear, start cadence at 70 rpms, increase 5 rpms every 30 seconds until your reach 120 rpms (5 mins) + 1 min rest]
Standing big gear set -
3 x [5 mins standing biggest gear possible- surging the final 10 secs of each min + 2 mins easy]
Cadence set -
3 x [easy gear, start cadence at 70 rpms, increase 5 rpms every 30 seconds until your reach 120 rpms (5 mins) + 1 min rest]
Standing big gear set -
3 x [5 mins standing biggest gear possible- surging the final 10 secs of each min + 2 mins easy]
12 mins cool down
This was exactly what my head (and body) needed after the day I had. I grabbed some snacks (shot bloks and discs) and hopped on the trainer. Tunes were, yet again, Green Day to give me the focus I needed. I took the cadence sets pretty easy so I could bust the standing gear sets...and I think I did okay!! Data for the standing gear is as follows:
54 rpm...188w
55 rpm...193w
55 rpm...197w
53 rpm...183w
54 rpm...194w
56 rpm...204w.
Actual bike: 1 hour and 45 minutes on the Black Cat after a very long day!!!0 -
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Friday, May 20th, 2016
Swim/run combo
Swim...
1,000 buoy-band
200 easy
800 buoy-band
200 easy
600 buoy-band
200 easy
400 buoy-band
200 easy
200 buoy-band
200 easy
I love this swim set. I love swimming long, and I love swimming in that buoy-band style! This felt great, and done on a very chilly night!
Run...
Transitioned to the fish tank and got an hour of movin'and groovin' done with the garage doors up. Good grief it gets warm running in the tank! But I have no complaints. Wave paces were 2:07, 2:02 and 1:57 for 20 minutes each.
Actual swim/run combo: 4,000 yards splashing in the outdoor pool....and 60 minutes dashing in the indoor pool
Saturday, May 21st, 2016
Bike/run combo
Bike
Well, originally this was supposed to be 3 hours any way I wanted on the road, but due to the all-day-downpour that was happening, I opted to do a trainer session instead....and due to my imagination being lost at sea, I opted to settle for the comfort of my current favortite trainer session: the one that has the musical chorus of 5 minute strong, 1 minute easy. Here's what I did:
30 minutes easy
10 X (5 min strong, 1 min easy)
10 minutes easy
5 X (5 min strong, 1 min easy)
20 minutes easy
I felt good for this....and my numbers continue to climb on the bike. Of course at this point I am wondering if my Vector pedals are somehow making me look better than I am, but f*ck it - throw me a bone. Data as follows:
79 rpm...164w
81 rpm...176w
82 rpm...181w
82 rpm...181w
82 rpm...179w
82 rpm...177w
82 rpm...179w
82 rpm...180w
82 rpm...180w
82 rpm...181w
81 rpm...175w
82 rpm...179w
82 rpm...181w
83 rpm...185w
83 rpm...187w
Run...
30 minutes in the fish tank...with a wave pace of 2:02 and 1:57 for 15 minutes each.
Actual bike/run combo: 2.5 hours on the Black Cat followed by 30 minutes in the fish tank
Sunday, May 22nd, 2016
Run
This was 90 minutes in the tank with garage doors up!!! Wave paces were 2:07, 2:02 and 1:57 for 30 minutes each....and the tunes were Green Day, however with 20 minutes to go in the session, my wireless speaker died, causing me to gasp in horror and wonder how can I go on??? But I survived. Not the worst thing I've faced.
Actual run: 90 minutes in the tank
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Swim
kick 10x40 with board easy @ 10 rest
200 swim
6x40 swim (20 sprint-20 easy)
buoy, band: 500 cruise
3x (100 swim (20 bk-20 fr)+60 easy kick with board)
This was done late in the evening, and it was good! I do love my long stuff, but doing some short, snappy stuff has its merits too!
Actual swim: 1,640 late evening yards
P.S. I ordered my snorkel today!!! Fingers crossed it's not so foreign for me to swim this way!!!0 -
Monday, May 23rd, 2016
Rest day!!
Tuesday, May 24th, 2016
Bike
20 minute warmup
30 X (1 min hardest gear (goal to slog at a cadence of 45-50), 1 min easy spin)
10 minute cool down
Finally. FINALLY!!! We are having some drop dead gorgeous weather around here. Whoop whoop!! So I set the trainer up on the deck (recurring theme....) and did this poolside. The instructions were to use my biggest gear so that I'd have to work to turn my legs over at a rate of 45-50 rpm, but I guess the way the bike is geared (11-28) I am able to turn them over at 54-55ish with some good effort. I didn't bother to hit lap each minute, but I kept an eye on my cadence and peeked at power every now and then....and my goal was to keep my cadence right around that previously stated 54-55 rpm, which seemed to result in a power of 200+ watts. Happy camper.
Actual bike: 90 minutes poolside on the Black Cat
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Swim
warm up 500 swim. 300 kick w/ board +fins. 4x40 swim (20 sprint-20 easy) @ :50.
3x
400 cruise @ 30 rest
8x40 , alternating 1 @ :40 / 1 @ :45 (these should be short rest and that's the point. use the 400s for recovery)
easy 200
I did this late in the evening....and what a fantastic evening it was! Sometimes I have to pinch myself, I feel so lucky. I do not have fins, so I did this sans fins....and all went well with this. I prefer going long, but the short stuff can be fun too.
Actual swim: 3,160 late evening yards
Wednesday, May 25th, 2016
Today was supposed to be an easy early-in-the-day spin on the trainer followed by a run in the tub later in the day, but a friend of mine lost his dog and I opted to help my friend-in-need over my lunch hour instead of doing the spin. Priorities. So....what that meant was I did the run immediately upon my return home from work, then did the easy spin outdoors as the sun was setting and dusk was falling all around me. Of course doing the bike/run in reverse order (run/bike) (and back to back!) totally negated the purpose of the original intent, but I was hell bent on getting both things done today in large part due to the fact that I had consumed way too many calories today!!
Run
This was 90 minutes in the fish tank - garage doors up, and tunes blasting! I set the wave to 1:57, 1:52, 1:48 for 30 minutes each. Whoop!
Actual run: 90 minutes in da fish tank
Bike
Heated up a bit of dinner (just a small portion of a macaroni dish I had made) and took it with me to eat while spinning on the bike - talk about time efficiency!! And I just sat on my Cat and decompressed in the beauty that is my world by my pool. Fantastic evening tonight. And I even saw my first firefly.
Actual bike: 60 minutes of late evening spinning on the Cat0 -
Thursday, May 26th, 2016
Bike
20 min w/u
10x15 sec spin up to max cadence+power (so this should sting)+ 45 sec easy.
12x3 min verrrrrry strong in your bars at race cadence+ 1 min super easy. goal here is best avg power for 12. your legs should be begging for mercy at 2 mins in.
easy til 90 mins
I did this after work on yet another gorgeous evening. !!!!! I'm leaving my trainer out on the pool deck for now....wondering if there is any sort of "bag" or "case" I can easily fit around it to protect it from the elements. I may come up with something as I am loveloveloving doing these sessions outside.
This went well, and I worked my @ss off to the point that I thought I was going to toss my cookies on one of the intervals. I kept telling myself that the screaming my legs were doing was "just a feeling", and that feelings were nothing more than things in my head...and I can manage things in my head. Happy with the resulting power.
85...190
85...193
85...194
85...193
85...194
85...194
85...194
85...193
85...195
84...191
85...194
86...199
Actual bike: 90 gorgeous minutes on the Black Cat by the pool0 -
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Saturday, May 28th, 2016
Bike/run combo
Bike...
1 hour w/u with 10 mins single-leg drills
2x
12 mins @ 110w
10 mins @130w
8 mins @150w
6 mins @170w
4 mins @ 190w
2 mins @ 210 w
14 mins easy
8x 15 secs spin up to max rpms + 45 secs easy
14 mins easy
Okay....how many idiots out there in boards.ie land would do a 3 hour trainer session outside, on a brick deck, by a pool, under a full sun on a hot day???. Think....charbroiled. Ugh! I won't elaborate, but it was SOOOOO damn hot out there, and there wasn't even the faintest trace of wind (I was begging for the wind to blow!)...and to my complete shock and horror, when I peeked at my Garmin data post-session, the average temperature (AVERAGE TEMPERATURE!!!) recorded was 115.8 degrees. :eek: Holy crap! :eek: I had plenty of water/sports drink in all sorts of bottles and jugs, and I had a kitchen towel drenched in water draped and tied on my head to help keep me cool. And, of course, I had the pool to hop into...which I did during the easy segments, and also on the second 6 minute segment because I was dying a slow, hot death and inching near combustible core temps. :eek: Any way....I didn't hit the high notes today, but the effort was there (trust me, it was there!!!), and the next time I have a session like this I'll be smarter and not do it in such extreme conditions. Oh, and my cadence...was shockingly low. !!!! But that is what generally happens when I'm struggling, I mash. Oh well. Data as follows...
12 min - 84 rpm...110w
10 min - 82 rpm...131w
8 min - 78 rpm...152w
6 min - 72 rpm...170w
4 min - 68 rpm...175w
2 min - 64 rpm...177w
12 min - 75 rpm...111w
10 min - 74 rpm...133w
8 min - 69 rpm...153w
6 min - 66 rpm...164w * hopped in pool!!!
4 min - 64 rpm...180w
2 min - 59 rpm...182w
I hopped off the Black Cat and dove straight into the pool when my 3 hours were up....then I trudged into the garage and got my run done in the apparel I was wearing on the bike - tri shorts and a speedo swim suit top. I saw no point in changing!
Run...
This was 40 minutes in the fish tank...and it actually went pretty well. Yay!! Wave paces were 2:02 and 1:57 for 20 minutes each, and I have to say I felt pretty damn good, especially considering how much torture I had just put myself thru on the bike in the blazing sun. Happy days!!!
Actual bike/run combo: 3 hours melting on the Cat, followed by 40 minutes coming back to life in the tank0 -
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You're nothing short of crazy C that is unreal, I'd have melted into a puddle. You're determination to not quit is something else.
How're you feeling about Friday?
Thanks S! And I'm feeling fine about Friday. Of course I've nearly convinced myself that my neck feels good enough that I don't need the surgery....but, I also know in my heart that I do need the surgery if I want to "safely" train/race in the future. So....I love the surgeon and the hospital I have chosen, and I have confidence that I will be better than ever post-surgery. Fingers crossed I am stronger for it and can kick some serious booty in a few weeks months. The first 2 weeks after surgery will be the roughest for me, but I'll make due....and I'll get caught up on boards (both reading and updating!) since I'll be off from work for a few days. 0 -
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Sunday, May 29th, 2016
Today was supposed to be either a double "run" day OR a "run" and swim day, my choice, but due to a planned trip to Alexandria to celebrate my nephew's graduation from college (summa cum laude in aerospace engineering at my alma mater, Virginia Tech - proud aunt!!), I only got one run in...and that was at o'dark hundred in the morning!!
Run
Up before the sun was even thinking about making an appearance, I was donning my Speedo and had Green Day blasting with the garage doors up. Whoop!! Good thing we don't have neighbors close by! I did this at a wave pace of 2:07, 2:02 and 1:57 for 30 minutes each. It felt great to get this done so early and have the entire day to celebrate with my family at a wonderful cookout. Yay!
Acutual run: 90 minutes in the fish tank in the wee hours of the morning0
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