Kicking off a rest week by doing NOTHING today. Well, unless you count work and agility class (with not one but TWO dogs! Stanley starts a special weave pole class tonight). But otherwise really NOTHING.
Overall my body feels pretty good – tired and yes sore in a number of places. Stiff neck – swimming or all the shivering I did for 2 days. Achy back, tired legs – the usual. But last night I discovered the bottoms of my feet HURT A LOT in a few spots. I wondered if it could have been the trail running.
And then this morning it hit me. I’ve gotten this after triathlons before. When I got out of the water after my warmup swim, I noted that the swim exit had many large sharp rocks in the water along the way out. When I ran out of the water after the swim leg, my feet were too numb to have felt any of them, but I must have hit a few good-sized rocks, if the state of my feet is any indication. OW!
So there I was in a staff meeting this morning, in my compression socks, with my shoes off and my feet sitting on an ice pack. Aaaaaaahhh, relief!
I need to use this rest week to recuperate and get my body ready for the last push to Boise.
I’ve asked Liz to add some open water swims to my schedule. If I head down to the Santa Cruz Wharf (where the Big Kahuna half-Iron swim is done), I can get more than my share of choppy cold water to work in. I’ve given more thought to yesterday’s swim and I believe I really let a focus on technique slide in getting caught up in the moment, so my goal will be to concentrate on taking my pool technique improvements and translating them into OW.
I also decided to try an experiment – I’m going to abstain from alcohol until Boise. At the moment, my consumption primarily consists of Sunday night margaritas after a hard training week but I suspect if I take away that option, I will give more careful thought to recovery eating and drinking. I usually skip booze on the week or two before a race anyway, so this is just extending that practice slightly. Liz teased me that I’m such a little police woman of myself :) It might do nothing at all but I won’t know if I don’t try!
That’s all for now!
7 comments:
ENJOY your rest week! They are the best! Keep us updated on your alcohol consumption - or lack thereof. I think you will be just fine!! I am not kidding - I need a challenge too - but alcohol doesn't count for me! GOOD LUCK!
GREAT job again!! Yeah - the bottoms of the feet... I've bruise mine many a time in the run from swim-to-bike... Hang in there! You're doing the right thing by icing and taking it easy!
Enjoy the rest week!!! I've got one of my own... aren't they FANTASTIC?!?!!?! YEaa-haaww!
Wow, I'm impressed about the no alcohol "thingy". That's great! I love a good glass of red wine too much. Then again, you've made me start thinking... hhhmmmm....
Numb feet coming out a swim are dangerous--one of my friends broke his toe coming out of the swim at IMCDA. He still managed to finish the race!
ENJOY the rest week! I'm jealous.
Enjoy the rest Molly.
You are a much stronger woman than I am on cutting back on the alcohol!!!
It's a miracle when I only drink once a week!! :)
I was wondering why you had your feet on an ice pack yesterday. Now it all makes sense!
Giving up the booze... I've thought about it, but I *heart* my beer... :( Good luck!
Ahhh... numb feet, adrenaline... things that mask hard objects. I'm right there with you. At my season opener I stepped on some sort of sea critter when exiting the swim and I still have a brown-colored barb (or something) in the middle of my left heel. I feel it every now and then. I should probably get to a podiatrist, but I'm terrified of losing training days. Ha!
Enjoy your rest week!!!
I'll take the alcohol out just because of the empty calories pre race. But isn't beer a recovery drink!?
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