Base training week 6 + Egg Nog Jog

Well that was a weird week. Started great, big disaster in the middle, ended on a high note. A bit of an athletic roller coaster ride!

Monday: 60 minute trainer, TRX
Tuesday: morning swim, evening run with the tri club (Xmas light fun!)
Wednesday: 75 minute trainer (brick run after if possible) rest
Thursday: morning swim, easy run, TRX rest
Friday: rest (NAILED IT!)
Saturday: 2:15 trainer, 20 minute 'am I still injured' test ride; 2500m swim
Sunday: Egg Nog Jog, 40 minute easy spin

So. The week started so well! Solid trainer ride (cancelled the TRX afterwards because the strength sprints in the TR workout left my legs completely dead), decent swim Tuesday morning, and a fun run with the tri club Tuesday night. 

This is the bike equivalent of a running shoe selfie, right? I dunno. Really need better lighting in the basement so I look less like a zombie in trainer pics.

The traditional 'proof I went swimming' pic.

Nice turnout for the club run! Pic via Natalie.

And then there was Wednesday. What's most annoying about spraining my ankle while walking to work is I don't even have a good story about it! Seriously. Walking down the sidewalk, boom. Over to the side when I stepped wrong on a pebble. WTF. And it wasn't one of those 'oops, kinda hurts, I'll walk it off' things. I felt something pop (pretty sure that's not right...) and the initial pain was so bad I almost threw up. I had to lean against a streetlight for about 5 minutes before I could hobble the rest of the way to my office.

So yeah, my Wednesday was good. How was yours?

Good thing I left this ice pack in the work freezer from the last time I had an injury! Sigh.

Once the initial shock and pain wore off it wasn't so bad. Iced it, kept off it and elevated it as much as possible through the day. Obviously the Wednesday workouts were out.

Of course it was a great day for running. OF COURSE.

Just spending my evening elevating and icing. At least I got to use the new Christmas mugs for my pity party tea.

(what is with me and December foot injuries? A couple years ago I sprained* my foot, the year after that I accidentally kicked a wall and broke my toe** on Christmas Eve. Last year I took two weeks off due to hip stuff and thought I'd finally broken the foot curse!)

*diagnosed as a sprain but I've always wondered if it was really a stress fracture
**not sure if I broke it or just really badly bruised it. Either way, it took about 6 weeks to get better.

Here again. Working at home to make it easier to stay off the foot.

Thursday I was tempted to go swimming, but I knew there was a good chance I'd forget about the foot at some point and push off the wall hard and make things worse. So I stuck to more rest. Admittedly it was pretty easy to be zen about things because by Thursday morning it was clear this was a minor sprain and would probably heal fast.

Friday it felt even better, but I played it safe and stuck with rest, with enough walking in the day to keep it loose. Saturday morning I hopped on the trainer, and it was...ok. I only did 20 minutes and things felt a little iffy, so I was sensible and stopped at that point. I did go to the pool and have a fantastic swim, though!

A long way from being a fish, but for me this is pretty awesome.

I had a little bit of pent up energy, I think.

Egg Nog Jog

Pre-race with my husband

So Sunday morning I taped up my ankle just for a little added stability, and I was good to go for the 10.8k Egg Nog Jog. Met up with some of my tri/run besties pre race, once the rain stopped.

Irina is injured and couldn't run the race (dislike!), but was giving me a run for my money in the outfit department. Photo via Paul.

The plan was always to run this easy, and I took the first half of the race carefully just to be on the safe side (plus the roads were wet, and I did NOT want to risk a slip). I ran the race with Kim and it was really fun! Well, after you get past the giant hill halfway through. The downhill parts were definitely more fun.

Pre-race with my partner in crime. Gotta do these before the race. Post race everything is all sweaty and gross. #protip

We finished in 1:02:52, and I was 12th for my age group. Can't complain!

Almost there, Kim!

It was a really well organized race, and I was very happy with how I felt during and after the run. Plus, I got a lot of compliments on my outfit, which is really the most important thing.

Another fantastic pic by Paul (can he take pics at all the races?!?). Clearly having way too much fun (I swear, I didn't have any Egg Nog! Spiked or otherwise!)

So it was a very fun morning! Going to a race with no intention of flat out racing it is much less stressful, I have to say. Although I missed the adrenaline rush of trying to hit a goal. Still, it was a great way to end off what's been a really good year for me. A little friends and fun, what more could you ask for?

I could ask for more of this amazing soup they had at the race. I think I'd do the race again just for the soup.

That was going to be it for the week until Coach Zin ordered bullied suggested nicely that I should do an easy trainer ride Sunday night. I was feeling pretty sluggish and didn't really want to, but I sucked it up and did the ride... and felt like a million bucks after. I wonder if he ever gets tired of being right all the time.

So, the ankle feels good, and I think I'm all set to get into my new Trainerroad plan this week. Now is when shit starts to get real fun. Half iron base high volume, let's do this thing!

The plan:

Monday: rest
Tuesday: Morning swim, evening FTP test
Wednesday: EZ run, TRX
Thursday: Morning swim, evening trainer
Friday: EZ run, swim?
Saturday: Long run, 60 min trainer, swim?
Sunday: Long ride, brick run

Oh yeah, things only get more interesting from here!