Payback

After such a fabulous mid-week run, I was of course selected by the karma deities to have a difficult weekend.

I knew I was in trouble when I got out of bed Saturday morning. My quads hurt, my hips and lower back were tight… even my shoulders hurt. It was not going to be a fun morning. But I grabbed my towel, water bottle and a magazine and headed downstairs to do my hour on the elliptical trainer. I couldn't get my cadence over 186 without feeling like I was in a sprint and usually I can zip along in the high 190s. Oh well. We do what we can, right? I did 30 minutes, took a little walk break, tried another 30 minutes and was bored silly after 15. So I took another walk break, did my last 15 and was done with that portion of my modified marathon program.

I went back upstairs, played with the bunny for a few minutes (she's fascinated by my running shoes), grabbed my fuel belt and was off to the trails! Surely, I thought, running would prove to be a little easier than elliptical, if only from a psychological standpoint.

Surely not.

Every concrete-legged step felt like it was it was going to be my last. Nothing hurt, but I felt like I had woken up on the wrong planet-- one with a much bigger gravitational pull than my friendly Earth. But there was nothing to be done but clump along, slow and clumsy around the loop, hills and all. My original plan had been to do only one loop, then go up to Memorial Park and back, but I changed my mind and simply did the loop again in the opposite direction. Then I tacked on an extra mile so I could hit my mileage goal and went home.

Yuck. For such a beautiful fall day, that sure was a miserable run.

But I thought surely a nice icing session followed by a hot shower, massage and stretching session followed up with all my favorite menthol creams and gels plus a few supplements and a good night's sleep would fix me up for Sunday, right?

Surely not.

The next day I was hobbling around like someone had put tacks in my slippers. But hey, a little spin session always helps loosen things up, right?

So I set up the bike on the trainer, not without some difficulty because Dan had used it with his bike earlier in the week and now the settings were off. But I got that fixed and then thought I'd set up my DVD player and use my new Spinerval video. Well, somehow I neglected to make the mental connection that a TV manufactured in the early '90s just isn't equipped to work with a DVD player. Duh. Have I really had that little TV for so long? Where does the time go?

And since by now I was of no mind to move operations to the living room, I stayed low-tech and popped in a tape instead. I did a lot of slow steady spinning-- all my legs were willing to give me-- and tried to tell myself that it was good for me. And it probably was because even though I decided to call it a day after 90 minutes, I feel much better today. And I've ordered an adaptor for the DVD player, too. So it wasn't a loss by any stretch.

My favorite guy was working the massage booth at Central Market when I went to get some lunch after my spin session and he cleared up a lot of the problems in my neck and back, which helped me sleep a little better last night. He was even able to do some work on my hips in spite of the limitations of a standard chair massage.

I had a nice walk with Dan in the evening and finished off the weekend with a little writing and a half hour session of stretching and using the foam roller.

So here it is Monday and I feel pretty good. Not one hundred percent, but good enough to go out and see if I can ruin all this progress with a run later. We triathletes are a crazy bunch!

Recent Workouts
Saturday: 1 hour elliptical, 11 mile run
Sunday: 90 minute spin, 3 mile walk