Thursday, June 12, 2014

Splish Splash I Was Making a Dash

Posted by CheapRunnerMike

Man my body is starting to get achy on me…think it might be about time for a rest day.  The training has been going well lately and I've been getting in lots of swimming and running…and not enough biking.

I have found that I can fit swimming into my schedule fairly easy, getting in a swim during lunch or in the evening with Michelle, and I've never really had a problem getting runs in either.  It's just that big time commitment when it comes to the bike.  I guess I can get out and do an hour ride, but just to do that it is closer to an hour and a half when you figure in all the prep time.  I guess I just can't jump on the bike and ride, I need to make sure everything is in order.  I really look forward to my long rides up to the cottage as they get me prepared for the 56 mile bike portion of the Half-Iron, but I need to get a better at scheduling other rides too.

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I have also recently signed up to race in the Guelph Lakes Triathlon next weekend and I will be doing the Olympic distance…1500m swim, 40K bike and 10K run.  This was the first triathlon I ever did, doing the Try-a-Tri event back in 2012.  It was also my first race (including running) ever, so I do have good memories of it.  I'm looking forward to seeing how my training has paid off, especially the swimming.  This distance will be a great test!

Speaking of open-water swimming, we had our second Splash n Dash of the year last night out at Lake Whittaker.  The swim course was a bit different this weeks as one of the anchors for the buoys went missing, so instead of two laps of 750m for a 1500m swim, we ended up doing three laps of a 650m course for a 1950m swim (about Half-Iron distance).  After last week I knew I had to get better with my sighting as I felt like I was swimming all over the place and rarely going where I needed to be.  I also decided to wear my Nike GPS running watch to see if it would track me in the water.  Here's what it looks like when you wear your running watch in a lake…

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The conversion for 1.46 miles is 2300m…so not sure how accurate that is.  It would mean I was swimming at a pace of 1:13/100m, which is almost twice as fast as I am in the pool.  Either way, it was a longer swim this week and I was two and a half minutes faster this week…yay!  Love to see improvements Smile

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After my three loops I hit transition and set out for the 5K run…my "official" swim time was 31:07, which included my transition.  We did two 2.5K loops and I managed to pass quite a few people, but my feet were pretty sore.  I still managed a good finishing kick with my last kilometre at 4:03.  My 5K time was 21:29, a little slower than last week but with a longer swim I'll take it…total time this week was 52:36, almost two and a half minutes faster than last week.  Again, love seeing improvement!

I mentioned my feet were sore, and sadly it was my own bloody fault.  I had picked up a pair of quick tie elastic laces for my shoes thinking they would be a great way to lace up quickly during transition.  I also used to run quite a bit without socks and thought I might try doing that again.  Turns out my feet didn't think it was a good idea…they've become wimps soft the last couple years.  I did one sockless run at lunch and paid for it…warning, gross foot pic below!

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That's one monster blister.  I employed my Mum's home remedy of running a thread through it to pull out the puss and it has healed pretty good, but racing a 5K on it the next day was always going to be painful.

The weather here has been hot and muggy, but it hasn't kept me from running…I get back from my runs at lunch and look like I got caught in the rain!  I jump into the shower right away and I'm still sweating when I get out…it's brutal!  Despite the conditions I have been able to find some decent speed, so I'm happy about that.

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Training

Thursday Swim 2100m
Friday Bike 71K
Saturday Run 10K
Sunday Run 13K
Monday Run 10K, Swim 2000m
Tuesday Run 10K, Swim 1700m (Masters)
Wednesday Run 5K, Swim 1950m (Splash n Dash)

Looking forward to some good biking this weekend as I try to get more riding on my schedule, let's hope the weather cooperates!

Any home remedies you use to treat running "injuries"?

Are you able to run without socks, or do you have wimpy feet like me?

10 comments:

  1. haha you do not want to see my feet right now. I would not want to hurt your eyes like that. They are truly nasty. Need a pedicure. haha


    Nice going on the tri training! You are seriously a triathlon machine right now!

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  2. Amy @ fitnessmeetsfrosting.comJune 12, 2014 at 2:40 PM

    OMG you're a training beast!! Way to go with all those workouts Mike! Lol your swim pic looks like you were trying to draw a circle with your non-writing hand. Yikes about the blister! I too have wimpy feet ;) Have you tried blister Band-aids? The Band-aid brand makes good blister bandages that you can put on un-opened blisters. I use them and they seem to heal my blisters faster.

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  3. It is a truly humiliating moment when you decide to post a foot selfie...but we're all runners here, so there's no shame :)

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  4. I don't know if I have wimpy feet or just choose to baby them:)
    Great job on all the training - the number one reason that I don't bike is because it takes so long!!!

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  5. Blister Band-Aids? Never heard of them...will keep my eyes open next time I'm at Wal-Mart.
    I think my GPS dropped every time it went under water...hence the left-handed circles. But seriously, my swim could just as easily have been that wild...I think I ended up sideways at some points and accidentally started swimming to the wrong buoy on one lap. Such a tool...

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  6. Seriously, men have it so easy!! There is no way I could go for a run or swim for that matter during my lunch break!! It takes way to long to do make up and dry hair for that! Haaaaa

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  7. Nothing wrong with babying the old tootsies!

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  8. Ya it takes me a good 10 seconds to do my hair, and don't get me started on when my mascara starts to run!

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  9. I absolutely cannot run without socks, always ends badly. I struggled with the same thing last year with tri training, biking is such a huge time commitment I wasn't able to do as much as I wanted. Nice work on the splash and dash, your swimming is really coming along awesome!

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  10. I may need to give up on the no socks plan.

    So true about biking...I really enjoy it, but such a time commitment. A one hour ride just doesn't seem worth it.

    I'm loving the swimming! It's been a great way to recover too, really saves the legs. The Splash n Dash is awesome too because it gets you comfortable in an open-water group environment, training you just can't get anywhere else. Comfort in that madness is a huge advantage.

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