I was really looking forward to today’s run. It was an absolutely amazing day to run. The sun was out in full force, sky was clear and the air was cold and brisk. I’m driving over one of our many bridges thinking that I am so lucky to live/train in such a beautiful city. As I arrive everyone is jumping up and down from what they think is the cold, what I think was they were all energetic and eager to start the run. Coach Jane had a few announcements to make which was followed up with a speech from her father. I always enjoy hearing survivors speak, it reminds we of why I join the team and take upon the stresses that I do, to help others it is all worth it. We then split up to our teams, Oly’s and Halfers and had our pre run talk of where and how long we were going to run for. 75 mins along the Spring Water corridor around the Sellwood Bridge, the waterfront and up and over the Hawthorn Bridge…..and then we’re off. It was an LSD (long slow distance) run….the whole point is to go uber slow, keep up a conversation and work those slow twitch muscles. It was during the first half of the run I was able to talk to my coach about my training. Pretty sure he might read this so I’ll keep it nice : ) , j/k…..I have nothing bad to say. Pretty much for the last 3-4 weeks I’ve been a bit torn about my training. One coach will tell me one thing, another will say something different and then my testing results say something completely different. I realized that they all say pretty much the same thing (all but one and he’s not a triathlete) but yet some pull me from my test results saying I am pushing to hard. I’ve been watching my fatigue levels closely for the last few weeks and since I have had my testing done and been training on the TNT schedule with my Vo2 HR zones I have felt good. Even though they have all seen my Vo2 results I think they tend to forget my HR runs high. I can run an easy 155-170, this is my level 2. I can talk; laugh and probably voice record a novel at that HR (I think a lot when I run LSD, probably one of the reasons I’m not such a fan, but that’s another story in it’s own). I highly respect all 3 coaches that I’ve talked with and I think it’s best that I go with my TNT tri coach. This is the race I’m peaking for and I feel he has the highest amount of expertise and there is some kind of trust factor there. So I’m going to follow the TNT schedule, follow my Vo2 HR zone levels and most importantly listen to Coach Seth and listen to my BODY. Back to my run. We come upon the ½ way point, I take my Power Gel (didn’t have time to eat much pre run) everyone grabs some water and we take off again. On the way back I ran with Alana and Ilana (hope I spelled your names right girls : ) ) About 50 mins into the run we come across some uneven concrete and I, one who is usually not paying much attention tripped and landed on my knees and face. I think the knees hit first, then face and palms. How I managed to hit so hand on so many points is really beyond me. I jump right up brush myself off and start running again. The girls are like WTF? Are you Ok? Well in all honesty the fall hurt like a %$%#$@#$. My lip hurt the worst it felt like it was the size of a fat tire. Everything else hurt but they were just cuts and scraps, I had no bone or muscle damage so I didn’t see why I should stop. I asked them if I looked ok and they said I wasn’t that bad. Lol, you girls are sweet, it’s a good thing to hide the truth until after the training run. I used my water bottle to try to clean my eye off. I landed on my left side high up on the cheekbone under the eye. Got a little road rash and dirt and gravel was in my face. We continued on running…..as we come upon the Hawthorne bridge I see coach Joe. He’s like what happened to you? I look at the girl and was like “I thought it wasn’t that bad?” He saw me from a distance….so I knew I looked as jacked up as I felt. The salty sweat was starting to burn my eye. We finish the run at the Vera Katz statue where some of the Oly and Halfers were waiting. This is when I realized that I resembled someone who might be related to Frankenstein. I don’t know how but I torn the back side of my Adidas run jacket. I rolled up my pants and both knees were scrapped and bloody. Then I got a mirror to see my eye. Oh goodlord….I’m a mess. My team was all super supportive checking to see if I was ok and helping me clean up with anti-septic, thanks Tim. I got some pics and will post them up as soon as they’re sent to me. I then met up with Michele and her mentee for breakfast. The restaurant was kind enough to bring me an ice pack for my eye which was now starting to swell along with Neosporin and bandages for my knees. I was going to be a good girl and get oatmeal, but they only had that Mon-Fri. So I figured to sooth my pain with a giant Dutch Baby Pancake with pear sauce….it was sooooo good. Post breakfast I was going to go to the gym with Michele, not to workout but to show her how to do some strength training. This was really not possible now….I had only 5-6 hrs of sleep the night before and my eye was a bout to swell shut so I went home. I think the worst part was when I got home I had to pick the gravel and dirt out of my eye with tweezers and the anti-septic burned like a mother$@$#^.
I just woke up from my well-needed nap and I am thankfully my eye didn’t swell shut upon sleeping, although it is now shades of black and blue. That’s hot, ok maybe not…..that diminishes my chances of hooking up this weekend, oh well. I figure this is just the first of many falls. I wish I wasn’t so clumsy. My goal for my first half iron was 6hrs, I fell 4 times during that ½ and came in at 6hrs 6 mins….maybe my goal for this year shouldn’t be to work on my training so hard, maybe I should focus on trying to contain my clumsiness…… I need prayer….
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