(Late) Adult Onset Triathlete

Last week I was optimistic in that I was progressing. That might have been a bit too optimistic. I ended up with maybe 7.5 hours of very lackluster workouts this past week. A good chunk of that being the shoulder/arm PT.

The bad news: The bike training ride I did on Friday sent me backwards with the knee. I swear, it felt great for the first hour and 15 but then the knee said, “nope, we need to be done now.” So, in my infinite wisdom, I figured I should do the brick run anyways. Hello swollen knee.

(note to self: Future post about the indoor cycle training gear and setup)

The good news: The swimming is getting better. This morning I got up to 1500 yards before I decided to pull the plug. The shoulder pain is greatly reduced. Whatever’s wrong with my right tricep, however, is not amused. But still, I’m happy. That’s twice as far as I could go two weeks ago.

With help from Coach Jenn I’m also making peace with the pool runs. Mixing in some backward walking laps, dynamic stretching, and anything that’s not just trudging up and down a lane makes a huge difference. I was able to do 40 laps in the pool this morning after I bailed on the swim (over a half hour) so that’s progress too.

As you can see, I’m still working hard to find the positives. I don’t deal well with “wait for it to heal!”

To keep the new training program interesting, I have a week long vendor conference in Las Vegas this week (AWS re:Invent for those curious). Coach Jenn and I chatted a bit about it and worked out a plan with a lot of running this week. My days at this conference tend to be very long with not a lot of free time.

Monday I was able to get in my run and stretching (physical therapy for that gimpy wing) before heading to the airport so that one was easy.

Tuesday I got up early (timezones are very hard!) and got in a run on the strip before sun up. Which, I have to say, kinda sucked. I ran the wrong direction and ended up with a lot of construction and stairs and stuff. But I got it done and got the stretching done easily before breakfast.

Side note: My hotel room at Treasure Island doesn’t have a coffee maker. Who lives like that?!? Savages.

This morning I got a good night’s sleep and had a gap in my schedule before lunch so I planned to get my run in then. It was an odd rainy morning but I figured that wouldn’t last long.

I had a 9 AM session in the Venetian Theater. Now, I don’t know if you have ever been there, but the steps are weird. Very long but with very short rise between them.

About 10 minutes before the session ended the speaker was covering stuff I had heard plenty of times before so I figured I’d quietly duck out and go up one of the side stairways up to the lobby. Half way up I caught a step and totally fell up the stairs. Head first. Full on yard sale mode. Really bashed my knee. I swear I heard several hundred people gasp as I went down.

So much for quietly leaving.

Of course I jumped back up, brushed off efforts to help me and boogied out of there. Once I was in the lobby I realized I was hurt.

By the time I got back to my room this evening the knee was swollen like a large grapefruit. So tonight — the biggest “party night” of the conference — I’m chilling in my room watching bad TV and icing my knee.

But hey, I still got over 15000 steps in today. Lowest of the week, but still not too shabby for a bum knee.

I officially started training with Coach Jenn about 10 days ago. How is it going so far?

I’m tired all the time.

OK, not really. Just joking. Kind of… maybe kind of not…

Biggest challenge? Coming into this cold after taking a month or two off from any sort of training. The multiple hour-plus stationary bike rides were killing me at first but I think I’m about back in saddle condition again, thankfully. I’ll spare you the details.

As for the running, adapting to “gotta go slow to get fast” has been an interesting mental challenge. The slow(er) runs are fine, but I feel like such a gimp running at those paces! I feel a little sad when I look at my pacing on Strava. But you know what? I’m already seeing results with heart rate management so that’s a good sign.

Haven’t done any swimming yet. I have been trying to be more diligent about my shoulder PT but must confess I’ve still been half-assing it in spite of my really good intentions. I think I’ll go to the team swim tomorrow and see if the shoulder is good enough to get some laps in.