Residual Fitness

Paulo has this new post about residual fitness pn his blog. It gives me hope... Let's hope I have tons of residual fitness!

It seems my leg is getting better and the recovery is faster now. I can see progress every day. I can't walk yet but I begin to be able to put weight on my injured leg. I hope to be able to get back on the trainer next week. Let's see what the Doc says tomorrow.

In the meantime I swim. 2000 yards on Monday, 3000 on Tuesday and 3500 yesterday. Still no kicking though.

Doing nothing

I went to the swimming pool yesterday and Wednesday. The most difficult part is to make it to the pool without falling: walking with crutches on wet floors is not recommended… I use a pull buoy and bands to keep my legs from moving but despite that my right leg bothers me slightly. I hence keep the sessions very short (1000m). Honestly the benefit is more mental than anything else; I need to do something to keep my sanity! We, triathletes, are used to fix or improve things by working. Work works. You’re slow on the bike, train harder. Bad swim technique, swim more and do drills… It is very difficult when something is wrong and the only thing you can do is… doing nothing.

Chocolate

It has been a week already since the race and my injury. But it seems like an eternity to me… Life is pretty boring when you can’t do anything besides sitting on your butt… Yes I am getting better at moving around with my crutches but my range of action is pretty limited. I am trying to treat my depression with chocolate and I think I went through our six month reserve of French chocolate in a week! I don’t see real progress as far as my fracture is concerned (I cannot put weight on my leg yet and it is very painful) but I guess it is time to be positive again (plus I don’t have chocolate anymore).

After discussing with Paulo I decided I’ll try to race anyway. I played with the idea of asking North America Sport (the company organizing the Ironman races in North America) to swap my Coeur d’Alene spot for a Lake Placid one. Ironman Lake Placid takes place on July 20th and it would have given me an additional month to prepare and be in a decent shape. But the timing conflicts with our family vacation plans so I’ll race Coeur d’Alene and must try to be there in the best shape possible. Obviously I am not in the Hawaii qualification "race" anymore and it is tough to re-motivate myself but I’ll try to have fun and enjoy the day.

I’ll try to get back in the pool before the end of the week, without kicking obviously (first time in my life I am going to miss kicking!). And, I’ll take it from there… Step by step.

When I am done with my crutches I can make a stool with them and an old wheel. How beautiful!

Game over...

The MRI confirmed the obvious, I have a proximal tibial stress fracture. The bottom line is that it has to heal like a regular fracture and it usually takes a minimum of 6 weeks:

- 2 weeks no weight on leg. Using crutches.
- 2 weeks partial weight bearing. Gradually increase weight on leg very slowly and let pain dictate whether to cut back or continue. Might start swimming progressively without kicking.
- 2 weeks progressing to full weight bearing. Might start very easy bike trainer session.
After 6 weeks very easy running if no pain, but more likely water running only for a while...

So, 6 weeks means essentially no training until mid-may, ie. a month before Ironman Coeur d'Alene. Of course it also means a huge loss of fitness. There is no way I can be ready for the race. The IM season is over for me. It is clearly a bummer, I invested a lot this year in training and my fitness was very good. It is tough to get over it right now...

Partial race report:

Oceanside started pretty well. I was in the transition area at 5.40am, saw Paulo, Kevin, Danny and Brian. Everything went fine and I was in the water at 6.57am with the 40-45 wave. The water was much warmer than anticipated and it was a relief. The swim went pretty well, few kicks in the head at the beginning but then I was able to find my rythm and felt good despite some pretty good waves in the mid section of the swim course. I was comfortable the whole time and was a little disapointed by my time (34 minutes) only one minute faster than last year. The bike was great and very controlled thanks to the SRM. It was the first time I raced with a power meter and it was a great tool for me as I usually tend to push to much on the bike. My plan was to stay around 245 Watts with some short periods at treshold (285 Watts) during climbs. The wind was much stronger than last year and everybody was slower. I finished the bike in 2h37 and felt very fresh. I compared my heart rate monitor files and my average HR was 10bps slower than last year. The run started pretty well with few miles at 6'40 pace. Then the pain started to flare up and it was difficult to push with my right leg. I was at the mile 7 marker in 47'30" but had to stop at mile 8. I could barely walk at that point.

Well you know the rest.

DNF

Not the race I was hoping for. My first DNF (did not finish) ever and a pair of crutches to finish the weekend… I’ll post a longer report but suffice to say that after 8 miles of running the pain was just too strong and I just had to stop. The problem was that I could barely walk then and it took me more than hour to get back to the transition area only two miles away.

I can’t put any weight at all on my leg. The pain is very sharp, knee ligaments seem involved now. It does not look good at all. I had too get a pair of crutches to be able to move, and to go, as promised, to Legoland with the kids…

Brain freeze

Brian and I went for an ocean swim this morning at 7.30. The sun was out but the water was very cold. We both had "brain freeze", you know this pain you get when you eat icecream too fast... Well same thing but without the pleasure of having icecream. After 5 minutes everything was okay though.

For those willing to follow the race on line tomorrow there will some live coverage at www.ironmanlive.com
My bib number is 393.

Old but ready to race...

The bike not me! I did a test run today and did not feel any pain. I did not want to push my luck and stopped after 5 minutes. Tomorrow I'll do an ocean swim early in the morning followed by a 30 minute ride and then we will all drive down to Oceanside.

Race preparation

Half Ironman California is approaching fast. The bike is ready. I did a 45 minute ride this morning with the race wheels. Everything is fine. Thanks to the taper my legs feel great on the bike. I don’t know about the run, as... I don’t run. I decided to save my legs until Saturday. I’ll see if my injury is healed during the race. I saw a PT and an ART specialist. It seems to help but the area is still very sensible.

I bought a Giro aero helmet. Free speed they say… Now I’ll definitely look like a dork but every second counts!

I am curious about my swim Saturday. I feel very good in the pool and spent much more time swimming than the previous years. Volume is decreasing in the pool also, on Monday I did a 4700m session, 3500 on Tuesday and 2500 today with some fast intervals.

X-Ray...

I went to an orthopedic clinic on Friday but don't know much more about my injury. It does not seem to be a stress fracture as my X-rays came out clean. The doctor wants to check with an MRI to be totally sure. It seems that sometimes stress fractures are not visible on X-rays. In the meantime I can't run. I also got a prescription to see a Physical Therapist. Let's see what will be his version of my injury story... The race is is less than 7 days... Not good at all.

To improve my morale here are somes highlights of the Las Cruces Camp:

1/ The Sofa, also called the "PS Triathlon International Training Center recovery machine". Only one rule, implemented forcefully by Paulo: "no seating on the sofa if not showered". Below, the recovery machine being used by Jonnyo and Sergio.

2/ Hydratation: because of the altitude and the desert dry air I was constantly dehydrated. I needed a bottle by me even to watch TV! On my last day, we went for a two hour ride and Khai realized Sergio had no bottle: "He Sergio, you forgot your bottles!", "I don't need bottles, it is just a two hour ride...". Sergio is a camel.

3/ Nutrition: as Jonnyo said "we are athletes, we can eat a lot", and we did, Italian, Mexican... The skinny rapper in the middle is Paulo, in between Sergio and Danny.
4/ The Purse: Lyndsey now knows that showing up at the pool for the morning workout with a "red-crocodile" purse is a good way to get a new nickname, Miss Purse (here with, from righ to left, Khai, Jonnyo and me).

5/ Zone 3: riding Zone 3 with Sergio and Jonnyo with a tailwind, flying at 50kph, definitely a highlight for me. The way back was less glorious...

Water, water...

Paulo and Jodi before the torture session in the NMSU long course pool

Not being a swimmer (at all) the numbers are very impressive for me, I swam approximately 22km in 5 days in Las Cruces. On top of that Paulo prepared a 4700m session for today (in LA for me) so it is about 27km now! I really suffered from the altitude during the camp, especially in the pool where I had the impression to be out of breath all the time, being surrounded by fast swimmers did not help.

But as Sergio's swimsuit says, HTFU...

Back from HTFU Camp

I am back home after 4.5 days in Las Cruces for the HTFU training camp with Paulo's posse. It was a lot of fun and hard work. The bad news is that I injured myself before the camp (right lower leg) and cannot run. I am going to see a Physical Therapist tomorrow. I hope it is nothing too serious and I'll be able to race in Oceanside as expected...

I'll post more later about the Camp but for me it was 22 hours of training packed in 4 days and a half! If you want to know how it is to ride behind Jonnyo (2nd at Ironman Canada 07) and Sergio (2nd at Ironman Florida 07) check this video (a bit long)...

Las Cruces

The bike is packed. Plane tickets are ready. I fly tomorrow to Las Cruces (New Mexico) to spend 4 days with the HTFU crew for a short training camp. Some pros, some age-groupers and of course coach Paulo should make things interesting!

Need motivation?

If you need motivation to get out on your bike that should do the trick! Simon Whitfield behind the camera...

Winter?

Great week and great week-end. I rode 2h25 this morning with few steep climbs. It was foggy at 6am but ended up a perfect morning. After our usual Sunday morning walk to the farmer market to buy our vegetables and fruits for the week, we all went to the beach (Point Dume beach). We had lunch there and the boys played in the waves for a while. I went for a 20 minute open water swim to get used to the wetsuit again and test the water before the race in Oceanside. It is cold! My hands and feet went numb for a while but after few minutes everything was fine and I had a good swim.

It was a good week as far as training goes: more than 20 hours in total, 15000 meters of swimming, 9+ hours of biking and 6+ hours of running.

Yerba Buena

Beautiful 5 hour ride today, the weather was great with temperatures up to 75d. I even got sunburned! I climbed Yerba Buena (picture above), my favorite climb in the Santa Monica mountains. I finished very strong and then ran 30 minutes.

Swim Start

Swim Waves are up for Half Ironman California! This race is slightly different than many Ironman races because the swimmers start by age group waves and not all together. The main reason for that is the narrow channel in which we swim for the first 500 meters.

I'll have the pleasure to start at 6.57am, that's pretty early to jump into 55 deg. waters (less than 15 Celcius)!!!

Running

A lot of it! Monday the plan called for 50 minutes in Z2 followed by 8 strides, tuesday 1h20 including the dreaded 5 x 8 minutes in z4 and today 1 h 45 in Z2. My legs are stiff!

Solid week.

Last week was solid with 18h45 of training despite a day trip to Phoenix:

Running : 5 hours
Cycling: 8 hours 45 minutes
Swimming: 5 hours

Sunday, my 5 hour ride (160km) was done in almost perfect conditions, slightly cold at the start (48 degrees) but warm after a while (70). A strong wind started to blow after few hours, of course it was a headwind and it made up for a very hard last hour. The transition run felt good.

And now I just have to start again for a new week…

27 days...

It had been a while since I could find the time to swim four times in a week for a total of 15000 meters. I did it this week and it is obvious that under that I maintain my (low) level but don't really improve. But on thursday on my fourth session of the week I had a great 3800 meter swim with 8 x 200m in Z4 at a speed I was very happy with! Few weeks at this volume and intensity (Z4 in the water in painful for me) and I should see some pretty good results.

This morning I went for a 2 hour ride with 60 minutes tempo (z3). I felt very strong and Watts were often in z4 for a low RPE. Tomorrow 5 hour ride (with 4 x 20 minutes tempo) followed by the usual 30 minutes transition run.

And by the way today is March 1st which means that my first race of the year is approaching fast: Half Ironman California on March 29th in 27 days and few hours!!!

Training Update

Training is going well. Last week was a 17 hour week despite one day skiing and another one in Santa Rosa for the Tour of California. This week should be a 19 hour one. My running is improving and I had a great session on tuesday with 5 x 8 minutes in z4 (sub 6.30 pace). This morning though is was tough getting into z4 on the trainer, low watts for high pain...

Ang again new pics of the Tour of California, taken from the Credit Agricole car by my client.