Major Improvements! The past two days have brought a couple of small personal victories.
As you may know, I have been suffering from sciatica (aka:pain in the butt) for the better part of 6-8 months. Running of any sort being the big aggravator. Of course, I only found out what was causing the pain about 2 months ago when I finally decided to go to the chiropractor to get the situation resolved. What can I say...I'm slow and stubborn. Anyway, since then I have not been allowed to run up until this past week. While the pain is not completely gone, it has significantly improved and I was given permission to "test the waters". I ran 3 times in the past 10 days (2 times on the treadmill and once outside- with my orthodics in my running shoes). The good news is that I could get in 3-4miles each time without any more pain than I have usually been feeling. Thank goodness! So, at tonight's appointment, the doctor has reduced my visits to once a week and I am allowed to continue running 3-4 times per week. Wahoo!! (Don't worry Esther, I am still on for our Saturday morning aqua jogs until your butt is better!) I'm hoping to be able to up the distances as my condition continues to improve.
Deciding to push my endurance envelope a bit yesterday, I tried my own "indoor brick" for the first time. After a 90min bike ride on the trainer (spinerval aerobic endurance builder dvd), I got on the treadmill to do a 5k run (8:30 pace). I would love to tell you how many miles I biked or what my cadence was, but my bike computer is still MIA....grrr. I can tell you I was in my mid-high heart rate zone for the entire ride minus the warm up and cool down. Regardless, I felt quite strong at the end of the run and much more confident about my abilities and endurance. We'll see how that translates to the outside world soon! The ironic thing is that my hip/butt seemed to hurt significantly less running post biking. Strange, right? maybe because the muscles were already warm and flexible from the bike? Not sure on that one, but I'll take it.
My second personal break through happened tonight at masters swim class, believe it or not! I think I may have learned how to rotate when I swim! It all started to happen during the "finger tip" drill. Something clicked in my brain and my stroke began to feel different....smoother. It isn't very pretty by any stretch...still very amateur. But by the end of class during the cool down, Elana (our coach) was yelling, "Yes! You are rotating!" Again, a ton of improvement to go, but for now... I'll take it! We also got to dive of the blocks again at the end of class and did 2x 25m sprints. I love it! What a fun reward!
All of this leaves me very hopeful. Wow....I might actually be able to do this!
"It always seems impossible until it is done" - Nelson Mandela
3 comments:
"I think I may have learned how to rotate when I swim!"
My margin of victory narrows by the day. Maybe we should go race Lavaman! By the time Bassman gets here, she will have already passed me...
I was going to write, "I can hear the footsteps" but I'm not sure what you hear when someone is catching up to you during the swim.
You hear splashing but only if they swim violently..., or you feel their wake?
Great job Genine!
If Matt feels my wake, I guess that means he is drafting off of me. Ha! that will be a day for the record books!
Don't worry...I am confident that the swim is still yours to win, Matt. At least for this season.
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