Turkish Get Up: Make it work for you

Since moving to LA I’ve been spending more time with my kettlebells because it feels so natural to train with them outdoors, and if you know me, I’m all about taking my workouts outside. There are a number of exercises I turn to when I’m through rehabbing an injury and want to strengthen my whole body so that it functions better. In my current case it’s my right shoulder that’s been feeling weak and my left ankle, which still is not a stable as my left. This is why I love the Turkish Get Up. It’s a great tool to gauge where I am (or a client is) with a recovery and has a number of amazing benefits.

• It improves mobility throughout the whole body thus reducing general daily aches and pains
• It improves stability of the shoulders in particular, which is key to keeping that joint strong and healthy.
• It challenges coordination.
• It works the deep abdominal muscles therefore strengthening your core from the inside out.

Once you’ve perfected the get up with a light weight it’s so rewarding you’ll want to see if you can perform with more weight next time.

The Turkish get up in is entirety is not a beginner exercise, but just about anyone can start with steps one and two and progress from there. You will see Get Ups also being performed with dumbbells and barbells, even sand bags! I prefer the KB because with the weight of the KB in hand, straight up over the shoulder, you will notice that the weight bears straight down over the shoulder as opposed to being spread out over a larger area as with a dumbbell or barbell making it harder to control.  If you don’t have a KB I suggest starting with a dumbbell, you can even benefit from performing the exercise with no weight at all. You could  hold onto a can of refried beans that have been sitting in your cupboards for months. -:)

The Turkish get up is not easy to perform. It can take weeks to just get from the ground to standing with proper form. Don’t give up. I can guarantee you will feel great and the reward for sticking with it will pay off. Please let me know how you are progressing.

Watch my tutorial video then follow the step-by-step photo instructions.

[embed]https://youtu.be/wBKypIUh-Yg[/embed]

Here are the steps of the Get Up broken down. I’m stating the steps with the KB in the right hand since most people are right hand dominant. After completing the exercise on the right move over to the left. Continue switching sides. At the point where you think you could take on more weight, don’t. Instead progress during your next workout by completing all planned reps on one side then switch.

For surface area do not use a mat, rather choose grass or gym flooring. Wood can be slippery from moisture so do not recommend that either. I prefer to go barefoot so the muscles in my feet assist me, leaving that up to you, but consider going barefoot if you are having a hard time transitioning between steps.

Lie on back with KB next to your right shoulder. Lift KB over R shoulder with arm straight and plant R foot on ground

Engage your abs, plant L elbow on ground about 2 inches away from your L hip. Use your R foot to assist in bringing your torso upright rolling from L elbow onto L hand. Keep eyes on the KB making sure the arm is still straight and extended over the R shoulder.

Roll onto side of L foot as you drive your hips up (think glute bridge with one leg straight and one leg bent).

This is one of the harder steps, swinging the L leg behind you to prepare yourself for a lunge set up. Keep the R arms straight over the shoulder, forming a T between the two arms. Keep your hips high and swing your left leg behind you.

Use your L arm to push off the ground, shift your L foot a bit so that your hips are facing forward. You are essentially in a lunge position with your L knee on the ground and L toes tucked under you. Keep that R arm straight up over the shoulder. Make sure your hips are squared off before you lunge up.

Lunge up to standing with feet together. You made it!! Now it’s time to Get Down.

Step the L leg back into a lunge bringing the knee gently down to the ground. Make sure the knee is well behind the L hip.

Keep your eyes on the KB and plant your L hand on the ground forming a T again.

Keep maintaining that T, keep the hips up off the ground and swing the left leg underneath your body driving the heel into the ground using some of the side of your foot for support.

Lower your hips back down to the ground but keep your bodyweight a bit to the left with your L hand supporting you.

Use your abs to roll back down paying close attention to a straight arm and KB still over the shoulder.

Straighten legs and bring the KB back down to the ground.

If at anytime the arm bends or the hand starts to swing away from the shoulder, bring the weight back down to the shoulder and reset. Just to get the body positioning. I highly recommend performing quite a few Get Ups with no weight at all. Work on the maintaining the hand position and body position. When ready for weight, start with steps 1-3. Master each step before moving onto the next. Notice the different challenges you have depending on which side the weight is held. Progress by performing 5 complete Get Ups per side before adding weight. Take it slow, but once you have it down you can pick up the pace as a progression.

At what point in your workout should you perform the Get Up? I suggest either finishing with Get Ups if it was a light workout, or somewhere in the middle when you are thoroughly warmed up, but are not feeling terribly fatigued. Don’t go into your get ups if your shoulders are tired.

Send me an email carlaweier@compleatfitness.com with questions or a progress report.

My favorite 6 miler: Brooklyn waterfront pier to pier

Follow me along my favorite 6 mile route for running or biking. I’ll take you from Williamsburg through Greenpoint and LIC past restaurants and bars all the way to the historic Pepsi-cola sign.Starting out at Williamsburg N 5th street ferry,  head over to Kent ave and stick to the left side sidewalk and go north. As Kent becomes Franklin keep an eye out for shops, restaurants and bars to return to on another day. Every couple of months I’ll see something new! Stay on Franklin and look out for the bike signs to the Pulaski bridge making a right on Eagle. Eagle will dead-end onto the Pulaski overpass. It’s quite narrow, check over your shoulder for cyclists when you pass someone. This is your only hill, so put some work into it and enjoy the view over our lovely Newton creek watershed as well as the midtown tunnel traffic. As urban, smelly and congested as this part is, it’s worth the reward on the other side. The bridge descends on to Jackson Ave where you turn left (this is the 2 mile mark) and then a right onto 51st ave. 51st ave takes you directly to the waterfront park and the LIC ferry terminal. There are concessions there, water, and I believe bathrooms. From here just explore the multiple paths along the water. There are places to stop, recline on a lounger, sit in the grass and enjoy the Manhattan views. If you make it the old Pepsi sign you have gone 3 miles. Let me know if you find anything worth returning to and I’ll join you!

My recovery from a Trimalleolar ankle fracture

It's been a really long time since I've added any content to my blog and decided that with all I have learned in the last six months I wanted to get this information out to anyone who may be researching what recovery is like for an athlete who has suffered a trimalleolar fracture. My accident was on July 15th 2014. I was out for a run on a 90 degree plus day when a cyclist hit me full force from behind. When I landed I knew i was not going to National Chammpoinships (triathlon olympic distance championships were less than 4 weeks away) this year as planned. The cyclist called the ambulance while I tried to hold my composure as I looked at my left ankle which was dislocated and facing the wrong direction. If you live in NYC area, I highly recommend Bellevue for their trauma center. I was in Brooklyn. When the ambulance arrived I insisted on getting me out of Brooklyn, I wanted NYU but I got Bellevue. I won't go into the details of the rest of that day but x-rays showed three fractures in my left leg. two on the tibia and one on the fibula called a trimalleolar ankle fracture. I could see from the images how my ankle was clearly unstable and I would need surgery. They splinted and used a soft cast and sent me home.

Surgery was set for seven days later (7/23) at NYU. Swelling needed to go down before surgery could be performed. Prior to surgery I was told I would need 1 or 2 perminent metal plates and a screw. I could expect to be fully recovered in a year and would be able to run again, but not at 100% of my former capacity. I was told it would take about 6 months for the bones to completely heal which meant no running until February. I ended up with two plates and a screw. My main concern was that I was never going to be a good runner again, or perhaps that pain would remain and I wouldn't want to compete anymore. POST SURGERY- WEEKS 1-4 If you are suffering from this or a similar injury you must be patient. This is not my strong suit, and I was miserable sitting around during my favorite months of the year missing out on just about everything. I was able to perform my personal training work. I simply mmodified my client programs so that I could remain either kneeling or sitting throughout our sessions. I think between the injury and surgery I took off 5 days of work. Pain during the day wasn't too bad, it was nights that were usually pretty bad. Getting around on crutches was not an option. I needed to be more mobile than that so I rented a kneeling scooter for about 10 weeks.

Within a week of surgery was my grandmothers 100th birthday. My surgeon said I could fly but didnt recomment it. I'm so glad I rebooked my flight for two weeks later. I was in a cast post surgery for 2 weeks. That was by far the most uncomfortable time. Its very difficult to address swelling with icing when you are in a cast so elevation was key. The the stitches were then removed at two weeks and I was placed in a boot but could not bear any weight at all for aonther 6 weeks. The surgeon showed me my xrays and I almost cried. I had so much metal in my ankle. I had not imagined all the screws that would be needed to hold the two plates in place. The positive at this point is that the boot could come off at night and when I was resting, which made sleeping a little more bearable and icing more effective. I was also encouraged to move the ankle around. Drawing the alphabet with my toes when I was resting with my foot out of the boot. Also massaging the area, icing regluarly, and keeping the leg elevated as much as possible.

I continued to use training peaks to log all my workouts. I just wanted to have confimation that I was staying active and keeping a plan of some sort. Every day I had to play things by ear. Note, I did get approval from my surgeon to do the workouts i'm describing here. The more time I spent with clients, the more sore the ankle was and the more time I had to lay around with my foot elevated and read books.

Five days post surgery I started doing some workouts. It varied from just mat/core work to open chain leg movements like leg extensions and leg curls. Because my gym is in my building I was able to go in the middle of the day when I had the place to myself and just take my time. Lying chest press, lat pull downs, lots of upper body in seated or lying positions. Again the scooter was a great help. I focused on slow movements with lighter weights for about the first two weeks. My body was fatigued, I was not taking any pain killers during the day but understood my body's need to heal and listened carefully. The first month after surgery I was not myself at all. My body felt terrible, I was tired, took naps, was depressed, but kept to as much of my regular routine as possible.

WEEKS 5-12 It took about five weeks post surgery for the surgical area to heal (stitches were on the inside and outside of ankle) which meant I was approved to start swimming. I was really looking forward to taking that step and found swimming extremely beneficial to my recovery over the next 5 months. The bones were less sore so I was able to increase the weight on my leg extensions and hamstring curls. Right after surgery I took tape measurements of various parts of my body. My left thigh and calf had lost an inch of muscle in just two weeks. So with my leg feeling much better I focused on putting time almost daily in strengthening the legs. Hip abduction, lying glute bridges, superman (back extensions) along with any variety of leg extensions and curls I could think of (even just body weight).

About 6 weeks post surgery was my second follow up with the surgeon including a series of xrays. Now I could start physical therapy and start bearing some weight on my foot. I got all excited thinking I could go right to using a cane. No such luck. Really painful to walk and at first could put maybe 30% of my weight on the foot. So now I had to use crutches. I used the scooter around my home and in the gym environent with clients as it was much safer and I could move around more freely. But whenever possible I would walk with crutches, then just one crutch, and about three weeks later just a cane. I continued with my weight training, still all single joint work for the legs (squats and lunges were out of the questions) and got into the pool at least 3 times a week. Now I could get on a bike as well but had to be a stationary bike with the boot. Not very comfortable as the boot is neoprene and ick!

Prior to getting approval to start PT I did my research and figured out where I wanted to go. I couldnt walk far, couldn't use the subway so choose NYU Langone PT center. I was able to take the ferry, basically from my back door to 34the street, and scoot or walk up 2 blocks to NYU. Perfect. Plus the selling point here was they had an Alter G anti gravity treadmill that had my name on it. I was so happy to see that machine. Had read about them, but never seen one in a PT center. A tip I will share also is that in metropolitan areas good PT centers are quite buisy. I knew before getting my prescription for PT that I would have to wait two weeks for an opening at NYU. Before I saw the surgeon for my 6 week post op appointment I asked that he submit my script so that I was all set up in the system and could make my appontments! So week 7 I started PT. Just like with personal training it starts with assessments. I worked with a team of two who monitored me very closely with notes. The first couple of sessions they just massaged the area, worked on blood flow and mobility of the joint. Then we got into stretches, some strengthening while bearing some weithg, but mostly only slightly painful mobility work. All of this I was able to do at home with bands and was diligent with my daily PT.

11 weeks post surgery felt like a big leap for me. My ankle was genearlly no worse than a 4 for pain on a 1-10 scale (10 being what I experienced about 36 hours post surgery). I was able to ditch the boot and just use a cane for added support (mostly crowd control). Could go to concerts, and generally had less fear of falling. I started seeing an accupuncturist which was helping with blood flow and swelling and therefor pain. Physical therapy incoprorated body weight balance challenge exercises where I saw progress about every 5 days or so. All this lead to a better mood and feeling of wellbeing.

WEEKS 13-20 Swelling and mobility are good enough now that I can wear my cycling shoes so I added work on my indoor trainer. Varied my workouts depending on how the ankle felt while on the bike. Some days I could handle lower RPM sets and other days I had to keep the resistance light and focus on leg turnover. Also a good time for single leg drills focusing more sets on my left/ injured leg. At this point, not including PT I was putting in about 7 hours of training between weights, bike and swimming. My therapist has been very happy with my progress and I know my diligent work is paying off. Whenever I had a bad night sleep, i knew I had to plan for less stress on the ankle that day. Basically that is how I judged my progress. The night pain wasn't terrible, but if I wasnt sleeping well it was because my ankle was bothering me.

Week 15 I met with my surgeon.  Initially I was told 6 months from surgery before I could start running.  That day I got the approval to start running.  This was based upon NYU having the Alter G anti gravity treadmill.  First attempt was 25 min at 70% of my body weight at 6.5 MPH.  Could feel the support I was getting from the air but also the enclosre around the hips helps stabilitze laterally.  I was sore going into the workout but not additionally sore finishing.  The second run was 48 hours later at 80% and felt a little better.  I recognize now that I need to do more hip (glude medius and minimus) on left side.  All daily activities I feel pretty balanced, but when running I feel the hip drop on the left and integrated more isolated strength work for hips.

Week 17 I went on vacation.  Scuba time!  Had been anticipating this vacation since August but didnt actually book it until October because I wasnt sure what I would be capable of.  Spent a little time on most swims the last 6 weeks working with fins to buildup ankle sterength with fins.  Also choose a destination known for easy diving, not much current, drift diving mostly, and short rides to the dive sites.  Turneffe Resort about a 90 min boat ride from Belize city was exactly what I needed.  Basically I rested all day except for the 2-3 tanks of diving.  Having built up the biking and adding the running I was ready for a recovery week.

Upon resuming physical therapy I was able to run at 90% of body weight then had to back down again.  There were a couple of trying weeks where I was not recovering very well from the running, was anxious to get on a regular treadmill but still not ready.

WEEKS 21-28

NYC Marathon 2011- Still the best marathon ever!

RACE WEEK I had a good week going into the marathon. Was really focused on the marathon itself and tapered quite well.  Monday I ran 6.6miles 9mm pace over the Williamsburg and Manhattan bridges.  Tuesday I did an easy spin for 30 min indoors.  Wednesday was 6 miles flat with some marathon pace intervals.  Thursday off.  Friday did 3 miles and a massage, which was a great call. Saturday ran 2.3 miles.  I was anxious and nervous until Friday and then settled into a good mindset on Saturday once I started packing up my gear.

Saturday was indoors all day feeling really good.  Went out for a 6pm dinner, pasta but not too much food.  Can’t remember what I had for desert but know I had something.  Was in bed by 10pm with wake up time of 4:45 plus an extra hour of sleep for daylight savings.  That would give me almost 8 hours.  I slept well the first 5 then tossed a lot the rest of the night.

RACE GOALS, EQPT, PLANS

The ultimate goal is to run 3:30 or better which requires an 8:00 pace. This was my goal in Rome and Paris and I really feel by race morning, that with these perfect conditions  I can do this.  The weather is sunny, high of 53 and no wind.  My body feels great, my equipment and clothing feel good, and I’ve been training for a 8mm pace and think its totally doable.  The secondary goal is to have fun.

I changed some settings on my Garmin so on the first page I have current pace, current HR, average pace, and current time.  The wrist band I am wearing will guide me with the current time so I don’t have to rely so much on the GPS working properly.  My HR goal is 176 average, although I expect that to go up the last 3 miles.  I’m not using the garmin mileage except to check on it occasionally.  I’m using the lap button at each mile marker to get a sense of my average pace per mile, although not totally accurate, think will be more accurate than using the garmin’s preset mile splits.

I have 8 scoops of my Infinit Nutrition amongst two flasks attached to my trim wallet.  That is about 800 calories.  I also have 2 gels for back up and can pick up gel at the 21 mile or thereabout if I need it.  I plan to stop every 2 miles for water, carry a flask in my hand at all times so can have a little nutrition at a time throughout.  Start taking nutrition at mile 3 and finish first flask by 13-mile mark.

I know the course pretty well.  No substantial hills until 12.5.  I’m taking the first half on average 10 seconds per mile faster then my planned 8mm so I’m looking for a 7:50 pace.  That means look for down hills and pick up pace there, not to run a consistent 7:50 for the first half.

GETTING THERE

Woke up with plenty of time to have coffee and gather up my things.  David drove me to the ferry which took at max 25 minutes.  Approaching ferry terminal getting nervous.  Working on drinking my 32 oz of water with want more energy electrolytes and not hungry at all.  Took the 6am ferry, should be eating around 6:30 for a 3 hour lead time but I’m in transit and feel I wont digest the food well so will wait until I get there.  The bus took longer than I remembered.

MARATHON VILLAGE

Once I got to marathon village I looked for the robin hood tent where I have an invite to hang out from a friend racing with them.  This was the only good part about the morning. The rest of the village is cold and damp (probably 45 degrees out and no wind) and the tent is heated.  Ate right away (probably 7:15 by not) but slowly and chewed all my food well.  My regular race formula, which was cherry yogurt soaked overnight in ¾ cup rolled oats, topped with frozen berries.  Still not hungry but totally hit the spot.  Spent about 15 minutes on the foam roller and surprised at how good everything feels.  Got all the gear together, placed on my 3:30 goal bracelet which I will use to pace myself as opposed to the mileage on my garmin which can go through spots of inaccuracy.  Used the flushing porta pottie before I left at 8:10 to find my green area to congregate.  Also had a banana around this time too.

Found the green area, this village is huge and confusing but signs are everywhere to help you out.  I’m alone, none of my friends are here.  They are all on the 7am ferry and start later than I do.  Put on my disposable pants along with a long sleeve shirt and disposable jacket too.  I love these.  Bought them at the expo, they are light-weight, warmer than a sweatshirt and waterproof which is ideal for sitting on the wet ground.  I also have gardening gloves ($2.99) to throw away en route.  Handed over my bag and heading to the coral but stop for the bathroom again.  Feeling rushed and hearing announcements that the first wave should be lining up.  I made it to this corral area which is new to me.  Now we are in another fenced off area just for the #17 starting group.  There are porta potties here too which I wasn’t expecting.  Its still 1:10 min before race start and I’m not liking this standing business.  I find a small patch of ground to sit on amongst everyone else.  People are not really talking to each other and I’m just wanting this thing to get started so I turn on some tunes.

About half hour before start they move us along to the actual race start on the Verrizano bridge ramp.  I’m confused because before I was on the upper deck and now we are on the lower deck.  I didn’t realize there was a group that ran down here.  I find a place along the wall to hang out.  I take off the pants which are kind of restrictive and do a bunch of dynamic warm ups for upper and lower body for about 15 minutes.  I turn off my phone because my battery is draining and I’ll never make it through without tunes.

RACE MILE BY MILE

We started about 5 min late, which is going to cause some confusion with my friends on the route who are trying to follow me.  I know I started out too fast but everyone was too fast.  Many were passing me and I just held back a bit.  Because I’m on the lower portion of the bridge my Garmin is not picking up satellite and without the sun I cant see my HR either.  Just going with my gut and having fun.  Wish I were on the top level, much better view.

Throughout the whole race I was happy with the group of runners around me.  We were definitely assigned well, the pace was consistent, there were very few dodgers and very few people dropping back.  Nobody running in groups.  There were a few handicapped running with leaders, which was tricky at points.  This was the BEST paced group run I have ever experienced.  I noticed in my corral that a lot of people around me were international runners. Absolutely no rediculous costumes.

Miles 1-8 were fun and felt great.  Mostly flat if not downhill.  Average pace was about 7:40 so I was building up some extra minutes to use later.  My HR was high, in the mid 180’s, yikes, need to reel that one in.  But my breathing was not labored so I didn’t freak about it, took it as adrenaline.  Started my nutrition at mile 3 as planned with water.  This was probably the most crowded part of the route.  Had to pull over around mile 4 to tie my shoe.  Sun feels good and temp is great.  Got rid of the gloves around mile 5.

Mile 8-13 were still good although I was now 3 min over my goal and decided to taper back a bit and be mindful and get it into cruise control.  Now my average is more like 7:50 so I’m still adding to the bank and my HR is dropping from between lower 180’s to upper 170’s.  Temp still feels great and happy to see David along with other friends between 11 and 13.  Running through my neighborhood was a good spot, smelled something fresh baked and reminded me of the pizza I was going to be enjoying post race.  I’m doing well with my nutrition.  I’m stopping for water more than planned because I’m concerned I’m not getting enough in each cup.  Because the flask is in one hand I have only the other free to grab water.  Kind of wishing I had a third hand.

Pulasky bridge was a bit of a reality check.  I know there are plenty of other bridges ahead and I slowed quite a bit, everybody did.  So it’s not like I’m worried at this point because I’m not falling back, but I’m recapping all the hills ahead and know my average pace per mile is going to drop at every bridge/hill and there are at least 5 more.

Long Island City was not very memorable.  More turns than I remembered and my body felt real hot for a short while there but I knew the Queensboro bridge was coming up and we would be shaded and likely windy and cool.  I stuck to a pace that was consistent with the people around me.  In the shade with my sunglasses I cannot read my Garmin.  Picked up the pace more than others on the down side of the briged although it is quite steep so I didn’t over stride and was cautious.  Mile 15 was 9:02 ave pace (I never saw this till after the race) and 16 was 8:42.  I didn’t realize I slowed that much.  It was quite cold and a nasty cross wind, in my mind I felt I should go with the flow of traffic considering I could not read my Garmin.

First Avenue felt pretty good.  I should have been more focused on running a straight path.  Looking at my time I see I’m still ahead about 3 minutes.  Now I can’t see the seconds though so its easy to slip (the frame is not large enough to show seconds and I didn’t realize that).  First Ave were miles 17-19 and average pace there was about 7:48, so making up for time lost on the last two bridges.

Although the Willis bridge is short, it is pretty steep, and we got a bit bunched up there.  This is also the point in the race (20 mile mark) where I started to feel pain.  My HR is still really high at 181 bpm average for the race and pretty consistent average mile to mile.  I feel I’m getting enough nutrition, but maybe could have used more at this point.  I do know that my stomach felt good, I didn’t feel slushy from too much water, wasn’t thirsty, and wasn’t hungry, so maybe this is just what it feels like to run really hard even when your well fueled.  Regardless I didn’t like how it felt and the Bronx is barren, lots of turns, and not much to look forward too.

Aside from the 15-17 miles of Queensborough bridge I am still running all miles better than 8mm until now.  20 was 8:17, 21 was 8:08 and 22 and 23 I picked it up again.  Those were the 5^th avenue miles in Harlem where the sun was in my face, I wanted to see my friends and family but just had to push on and stay really focused.  Also there were two songs that came up on my play list during this time that were not motivating me but didn’t want to take the time to pull it out of my pouch and fuss with it.  Good call on that.  Had a falling out with a guy at a water station who came up from behind to pass me, then cut in front of me at a water table just to stop dead in his tracks where I almost fell on top of him.  ASSHOLE.  I’m starting to worry a bit about finishing in 3:30 now because central park is getting close and I have some hills to address.

I remember seeing the 22 mile marker and thinking I only had 3 miles to go.  Somehow I missed something and I lost my nerve a bit when I realized I had 4.2 miles left.  The 5^th ave portion along Central Park was terrible.  I could see all the runners in front of me but I couldn’t even focus on the crowd.  I just kept my chin up and trudged up that long hill.  Even though I ran this portion of the course about 5 weeks ago, I don’t recall this being such a long hill.  Today this hill felt worse than heartbreak hill in Boston,  Ran 8:32 for mile 24 which is the 5^th ave portion to around the entry point into CP.  Mile 25 is when my quads really hurt and I was concerned about pushing though the pain.  Felt like they had grown by 1/3 their size and were big water balloons ready to burst off the bone.  Not a good feeling.  I had seen an injured runner around the 22 mile mark and It always gives me a reality check when I see someone in that much pain.  So the CP portion I didn’t push too hard and mile 25 was 8:22 pace.  This is all what I’m expecting, but not looking at the total running time on my Garmin any longer.  My wrist band which would tell me whether I am on target is twisted in such a way that I cant see the 24-26 mile times and it doesn’t really matter at this point anyway.  I can’t run any faster,  We leave CP for a flat portion of 59^th street and I’m doing OK again.  I’m not feeling emotional as usual when finishing the last mile.  Its sunny, the crowd is a blur to me, I hate that some people are passing me now because its usually me who’s passing others and me finishing strong…not today.  I’m just holding on.  Miles 25-26.2 were run at 8:00.  I crossed the finish, pressed stop and was not surprised to see I missed my goal time.  It read 3:31:25.

As is typical at all marathons we all feel like complete shit.  The only sounds are the voices of the volunteers asking us to move along and congratulating us.  I think this is the first time in recent memory where I looked around at a crowd of people and nobody is looking at, or talking on a cell phone.  We are all toast.  Quickly getting cold.  I cried a bit, not sure why.  I’m not un-happy, I am in pain, I am glad its over.  Woman next to me is sniffling too.  Mostly guys, who are not crying.  I turn my tunes off.  And the texts are coming in from my family and friends.  That made break into a smile and really felt accomplished with what I had done.  This course was much harder than I had remembered.

REACTION TO FINISH

I really don’t know how I lost a whole 1:25 when I was so far ahead of myself for 3/4 of the race and I didn’t fall apart once.  No stopping.  No digestive problems.  Even now analyzing the averages per mile I don’t understand how I ran 18 miles sub 8mm and the other 8 were not terrible 8:04; 9:02; 8:42; 8:17; 8:08; 8:32; 8:22; and 8.  My garmin said I ran 26.51 miles at an average of 7:58.5mm.  SO THERE..Once I saw that I actually ran further than my planned 26.2 I made a concession, gave myself a break and acknowledged that although I did not meet my goal of 3:30 I did run at the required sub 8 mm pace that I had been training for.   it makes sense with all the turns and the weaving along the wide avenues that I would run further then 26.2 but didn't put that into my plan.  Also amazed that I ran at an average HR of 181 BPM and my goal was 176 BPM.  My last marathon was Paris where I ran an average 176 and I really have not trained any of my workouts leading up to the marathon in the 180 range.  All my MP tempo work was 171-176.

I was happy about my starting coral #17 because it was a great group of runners.  We all belonged there and were courteous.  Because of that the pacing went well and I’ve never experienced that in a marathon.  I finished all my nutrition.  My first 400 calories were finished at the 13 mile and the other 400 calories I was working on until the 23 mile mark.  I liked carrying the flask in my hand because it helped me to take small amounts more frequently so I didn’t always need water.  I think I could have used more nutrition though.  Next marathon I  need a belt that allows for bigger flasks.  My fluid consumption was perfect.  I noticed when I got home that my urine was a good color.  I was cautious to drink early and frequently.  Probably stopped at 2/3 of the tables which line the route every mile.  Also thinking maybe I should carry some of my own so not as reliant on race water.  Vary hard to tell how much you are ingesting.  I would have preferred to take 2 cups at a time but was holding on to my flask with one hand. Also don’t like thinking about the action of making that stop for water, much better to be able to just cruise right by and not stress over the slippery areas, which cup to grab, and which runner is likely to cut you off.  I didn’t want to get too wet, especially in the early phases of the race so I probably slowed a lot more than I would  if I had two cups at a time.

I felt very comfortable in my race clothes.  New shorts, tank, hair band, new sunglasses and absolutely loved my new yourbud headphones, which were comfortable and never slipped out of place.  I think my garman was set up well in terms of capturing the most important information on the first page but wish I had seconds for my race time once I passed the hour mark.

I’m very happy that my body felt so good throughout except the last 6 miles of general fatigue.  IT band fine, hamstring insertion/origin good, ankles and feet good, no joint pain at all.  I felt very “balanced”.  Definitely will get a massage before my next marathon.

Sleep could have been better.  5 hours plus 3 restless is not so good.  Also wonder if some of my fatigue had to do with iron loss from my cycle.  Should I have been more thoughtful about iron intake the week before?

Food pre race and days going in were good.  I didn’t follow a carb load diet but did consume less protein and more carbohydrates the 3 days prior.  My appetite during my taper week was manageable and I didn’t restrict calories but was careful to not over eat.  My weight overall should have been less.  I weighed about 5 pounds more than my “comfortable” weight and that was annoying, but I trained with that weight on my frame so I don’t think my performance would have been any different had I lost weight in the last month.

MEETING UP

Picking up my gear at the UPS truck was a breeze.  Had I finished 15 minutes later it would have been a madhouse.  I brought my black, flat Merrill shoes and clean socks to slip into and it felt good for my feet to get out of my sneakers.  Oh, my shoes felt a bit loose at the start of the race.  I wore my most thin socks and was a little worried that my heel was slipping in the beginning.  Also thought my feet would swell shortly and it would all work out.  Well it all worked out.  I didn’t have to walk far to get my gear, maybe 15 minutes (78^th street between CPW and Columbus) and I was meeting David at 77^th and Columbus so that all worked very well.   We walked very gingerly to the subway.  I had to walk down the stairs sideways one step at a time.  My quads are shot.  I was offered a seat on the train and questioned taking it.  Felt good to sit but the rest of the day I could not get out of a seated position without using my hands to assist me.

Of course when I got home and all I wanted was a bath my mom had to call and chat.  So I took time out to do that and then soaked with the bubble mat for about 15 min.  Tub is much better than the pins and needles feeling of water with a shower.  Took a hour nap, cleaned up, and had some friends over to celebrate with Pizza.  I ate 4 slices without an ounce of guilt.

That’s it.  Marathon # 6, 2^nd NYC marathon and my 6^th personal best race.  Every race I’ve gotten faster, every race I’ve learned more to take to the next one.  Writing these recaps is definitely a required component to achieving my goals.  Next marathon will be Barcelona, Spain.  March 25^th 2012.  So I have about 3 weeks off including a aptly timed scuba diving vacation to the Turks and Caicos then back into training.  Should be interesting.

First Threshold Interval Session this Year!

Today I'm running 1 mile threshold intervals.  Have done some tempo work thrown in here and there but now that I am planning a 15k for April and thinking of running a 1/2 marathon in May I want to do more of this work.  I  really have not done any focused running at anaerobic threshold and the best way to start training in that lactate threshold zone is to do some intervals at 6-12 minutes so I am focusing on a mile at under 8 minutes and repeating 3 times over a 6.5 mile run.
Yesterday i did speed intervals on the treadmill so really this should be an easy day but I want to push myself a bit this week because next week is going to be less volume overall.  
I awoke, (2 morning clients cancelled), had 2oz of Cleanse fo life, got dressed, had 2 isadelights and went out to about 30 degrees and light snow flurries.  I headed to the track for my warm up to check out the conditions there for future reference.  It is completely snow covered and will probably remain that way all winter.  Bummer!!  Rescued a pit bull that got away from its owner somehow and was wandering around in traffic.  They guy was a runner.  After about 2 mile warm up needed the bathroom so stopped back home.  
Now ready for my workout.  Feel good, really good.  Roads are fairly clear, some snow and ice in areas but not enough to prevent a fast pace, just have to take it a little slow in places.  I'm on Kent heading toward the navy yeads for my first 1 minute interval and did 7:47 at 177 av hr/185 max followed by 2 minute jog.  It felt good, moderately hard and feel I can complete 2 more at same pace.  2nd 1 mile was a little against the wind and had some turns to deal with but held a 7:41 pace and HR 183 av/187 max, turned around and took a 4 minute jog recovery.  Getting hot now and feeling my legs getting heavy.  3rd 1 minute interal didn't feel as good form wise but ran 7:53 at HR 182 average and 187 max.  
Comparing this to the workoug yesterday which was 5 minute harder intervals on the treadmill I have to say this felt better, easier and was the same pace or faster although my average HR was a little higher.  As i mentioned in yesterdays report I felt the wamer inside conditions were holding me back a bit.  I feel really good about the pace for my first attempt at threshold intervals although eventually I would like to be doing my threshold work at a 7:30 or better pace.  Also I should be able to work up to 185bpm and sustain that for longer.  I also counted strides for both the treadmill adn the outdoor work today and was running consistently at 95-100 steps per minute.  Finished the workout with about 3/4 mile easy jog and stretching.

Dual Speed Work Session

Although I don't have a thoroughly planned triathlon program in place I felt it was time to start writing about what I am doing for training.  From October through December I wasn't training.  yes I was running, some swimming, very little cycling and plenty of weight training but no specific purpose.  It was nice to have some unstructured workouts for awhile but now I'm ready to take action so I have a great tri season this year.  My plan is to focus on Olympic distance races, 4-6 throughout the season, and throw in some road races, 10k to half marathon distance.

Yesterday, Sunday, was my long run for the week and really today should be an easy day but was feeling up for this, and I had the time bloked off in the AM so I went for it.  I woke up, had 4oz of Cleanse for Life and filled my water bottle up with Want More Energy and went to the gm in my building.  My upperbody workout is focusing on upperbody stabilization work and I did a circuit of 7 exercises and repeated 3 times.  Hamstrings feel a little tight today, but otherwise everything is good.

Immediately following I set up my indoor trainer in my office.  I've been riding on my terrace but today it feels like below 0 here on the waterfront.  Heat is off in the office and temp is at 54 so that is manageable.  My bike workouts have consisted of alternating weeks of speed and force for 1 day of the week and another day as either recovery endurance or muscular endurance.  Today it is Speed, and i'm using workout SS4 from my book.  Easy warm up spinning 95 plus rpm followed by 6x3 min at 95rpm in aero position and 3 min rest in climbing position in z1-2 at least 95rpm.  I have a pretty good play list going here and my cadence really does coincide with the music.  Hardest part of the workout was keeping the cadence up and I was supposed to work in HR Z3 but for most part was at top of Z2.  I was holding myself back a little but also know i'm running out of glycogen stores which is why i have not eaten.  Goal here is also to burn some fat!  Total workout time was 51 minutes and I did not do a proper cool down because i'm going into a run after this.

I really don't like treadmill workouts but at least intervals keep me more engaged than steady state or tempo workouts.  About 20 min after the bike ride i was on the treadmill in my gym.  I had hoped to get to the track, but it really is bitter out.  I have more water with want more energy and I had a honey stinger gell (about 120 calories) 10 min before the run.  Warmed up 10 minutes really easy jog and then prepared for this new interval workout.  Goal is 4x5 min at 20-30 sec slower than 5k pace.  I'm not going to worry so much about what pace i choose, but to choose a pace and stick to it.  I'm finding these treadmills are not calliberated properly anyway so will basically go by RPE and HR.  I was at 7:52 pcace for all 4 intervals and the 4th one was really hard.  For the rest interval I slowed to walk until HR got down to about 123 then jog for total of about 3 minutes before repeating again.  Feel the recovery period was sufficient.  Because it is so warm in here (at least to me it is) I feel my RPE was higher than it would have been with same workout outdoors.  My HR for the intervals ranged from Av of 174 to max of 195.  I feel if i was doing this on a track I could have worked faster.  Either way, next time I want to jog for the rest interval and try this outside.

The fact is I did really well on very little fuel over 3.5 hours.  This was my first brick (even though there was 20 minutes between) and my legs felt really fresh on the treadmill.  Will do this again, and will also try to do the run in the AM and bike in the PM and see how that goes.

First Tri of the Season- Pat Griskus Olympic Tri

It’s my first tri of the year and although its not an A priority race I did this same race last year so I have some major expectations. I want to improve my swim by 5 minutes, maintain my transition times from last year, bike about 1 mph faster, and maintain my run pace from last year.  I would love to get close to a 2:38 finish, which would put me fairly close to last years 3 rd place for my age group.  Last year I placed 6 out of 12 in my age group and 128 out of 256.

I'll talk about the race experience first and then pre race set up and nutrition.

SWIM

The water temperature is about 70 degrees and I think for the first time I feel comfortable and ready for the swim. I tried a new technique using plastic shopping bags to get my wetsuit on and with this technique my shoulders feel much more free.  I could spare about 5 pounds and it would fit better overall.  This is only my 3rd race in this suit and last year I was a little lighter.  Today I weigh 120 for the record.  I had about 3 minutes for a warm up swim before announcements. Triton teammates Audra and Loren found me and was nice to have someone to talk to before starting the race, definitely helped to settle nerves because I'm not all in my head.  I lined up for the shore entry to the left and one row back.  I'm getting more comfortable taking a more aggressive start position but don't want to be in the middle of the pack.

The route is one circle of a fairly clear lake. There are 5 buoys that and not uniformly placed and must swim clockwise around them. The best way to sight will be to breathe on the right, which is a little less comfortable for me than my left.  My main concern is drifting to the right so will be sure to sight often.  There are 4 waves and all the women are in my wave, which is third.  I like this, as while on the rest of the course it’s easier to assess my position within the women category.

The swim start was not too aggressive or chaotic.  I was very controlled and held close to the pack up to the first buoy.  It is quite bright as the sun is coming up and after the second buoy have a hard time seeing the next one.  At this point I'm still in a fairly close group and can see a line of swimmers to follow.  By the fourth buoy the fourth wave has caught up with me.  Not worried about this but try to position myself to follow them and draft.  This didn't work. They were way too fast and I'm getting frustrated with the sighting as my blue cps women are now rather dispersed and the sun is in my eyes.  I know from the fourth to the exit I did terribly in swimming a straight line.  After downloading my Garmin I see from the GPS that I did fairly fell, better than I thought.  I wanted to finish the swim in 34 minutes and my clock on Garmin said 35:17.  Running to transition I am happy it is over and totally fine with my time since it is almost 5 minutes faster than last year.

Transition 1 didn't go so well.  My ankle chip was coming loose and I had to adjust that.  I sat down to take off wetsuit and struggled a lot with getting my feet through.  I think I'm going to experiment with sitting at waters edge for these easy exits and take advantage of a wet environment.  Also going to try standing but holding on to something like the fence that always encloses a transition area.  The only equipment new today is wearing gloves and that took a bit longer than I expected because of wet hands.  Felt good getting on the bike, but it took 2:42 whereas last year I did it in 1:52. Bummed about this.

BIKE

From last year I recall being tired of hills, just wanting a little room to cruise on a flat section for awhile. What I didn't remember was spending so much time out of the saddle.  Because of road conditions they shortened the route this year by about 2 miles so unadjusted my time goal. I wanted to ride about 18 mph, as opposed to last years 17.18 average.  My Garmin is capable of giving me all the info I need except cadence.  I managed to loose my cadence sensor in the process of a tune up and my replacement is in the mail.  Since last year I upgraded my transition bars to aero bars, new wheels and tires, and a hands free water source.  With those tools alone I felt it reasonable to improve at least a little.  I was wrong.

I played some of the descents a bit slower than last year.  Some roads were so bumpy my teeth were clattering and the last thing I want is an accident or blow out.  When I wasn't cruising down a hill, most with tight turns, I was climbing.  When climbing I spent at least 20 percent out of the saddle, not something I've been doing in training and frankly have not had the opportunity to ride any hills this steep this year.  The adjustment from the bike tech made this morning saved my life.  I talk about that later.

Passing was no problem on this course.  Riders were very safe and there was little traffic on the nutty portions of the course.  Sitting here later in the day my hands hurt.  Toward the end I started having trouble shifting with my left hand.  Not a relaxing ride, lots of tension in my body.  Don't know how much of that is due to stress of climbing or the descents.  Thinking if I want to place anytime soon in need a flat or rolling course.  This is not my specialty.  Per my Garmin, this 22.79 mile bike was finished in 1:22 at a lousy 16.6 mph.  But surprisingly I improved greatly in my placement during the bike, so not sure how to take that news.

Transition 2 went smoothly at 1:35.  Usually I go sock less and pay the price.  Today I put socks on and didn't loose any time for it.  Actually did T2 faster than last year even though position at racks was worse.

RUN

I have resigned myself at this point to just have a good run.  No chance of catching up now.   Last year I came in first for my age group in the run in 45:17. I don't anticipate doing much better.  It’s a two loop course. The first mile is fast, I averaged 7:00 then it gets harder.  There was a long low-grade hill that turns quite steep.  Many walked that hill and I felt good to se that even though my pace was terribly I was passing people.   I don't particularly like two loop courses; I  do better with the unexpected.  Did second loop harder.  Finished in 45:13 at a 7:41 pace, which was 4 seconds faster than last year.  Noticed reviewing Garmin data that the run course was short of 10 k by about .3 miles.  As usual, although I felt I worked the hills strong on the bike I still had pretty strength left for my run leg.

PRE RACE

Friday afternoon I drove up to Connecticut for the Saturday race.  Driving on my own with Kramer and David will take the train after work.  I settled in and chatted with Doug and Kathy for awhile (my in-laws) then took a short ride on my bike.  Last week I had gotten a full tune up and asked for a new chain which required replacing the cogs as well.  Fine, not in my budget but needs to be done.  Had one trials ride in Prospect Park and ride went well in some ways and poorly in others. In some gears it didn’t hold, would slip out of gear.  Not and ideal situation going into a race, so took bike back to shop and hoped he figured out the problem.  Now in Connecticut I'm riding much more challenging terrain and gearing is really off.  Worse than before I made any of these changes with the chain and such.  Any steep hills results in gears slipping and even derailed at one point.  I'm bummed and a bit freaked.  Need to get to race early for quick tune up by local bike shop.

Ate dinner around 7 pm.  Had a favorite I sometimes pick up at fairway.   Baked salmon stuffed with crab.  I had this with a side dish of pasta salad and broccoli raab.  For dessert had a bowl of chocolate ice cream.  I was in bed by 9:50 with alarm set for 4:20

I usually don't sleep well race nights but tonight was pretty sound.  Love sleeping in the country with the windows open.  Got a solid 6 ½ hours of sleep, which is fairly typical for me on race nights.

Woke up with little to do. My race equipment and clothes for the AM were ready before bed.  My bike was set up with bento box and all my race goals written in masking tape on aero bars.  Woke up and hit the pot of coffee for David and I. Set up my breakfast.  Half cup rolled oats soaked overnight in yogurt with an added scoop of Isagenix isalean shake.  Also packed post race meal and snack.  I never like what they offer post race and like to have my own food on hand.  In this case I packed Pad Thai, an apple and some snacks for David.  We headed out by 5:00 with dog in tow and drank coffee and ate in the car for the one-hour drive.

After getting through race registration and body marking headed straight to bike shop tent.  They were great.  Felt confident leaving that I would make it through the bike leg without too much frustration.  I'm getting much faster with set up and had David helped with my wetsuit.  Didn't drink much water this morning but drank a lot yesterday and feel well hydrated.  Had about 1 hour upon arrival to get myself organized and it was just enough time.  I was a bit rushed but not stressed.

During race I felt well nourished, no digestion problems.  Always feel the need to pee after the swim but it slowly subsides.  During bike had a gel about 10 minutes in and then 40 minutes later.  Feel this year need to do more for liquid calories.  This race was fine but felt during run didn't want gels but that was all I had been training with so had one around mile 2.

Final age group results 40-44

2:48:47

Finished 5 out of 16

Swim 36:33. 11/16

T1 2:42

Bike 1:23. 4/16

T2 1:35

Run 45:12. 3/16

No surprises here.  Did a bit better on bike than expected.  MUST improve swim but its not all about pool time.  My open water lake skills where I have to sight are terrible.  In a river I am much better and don't know what in can do about this as there is basically no opportunity to swim in lakes.

When comparing my results to the top three I actually did really well.  Their swims were all at least 4 minutes faster.  They all had T 1 times less than 2 minutes.  On the bike I feel I actually rode pretty strong.  Looking at the top three I was only off by between 1 and 4 minutes.  The first place did her T2 in 26 seconds.  Did she run in her bike shoes?  As for the run I finished only 1:40 behind the front runner.

This was a regional champ race so I qualified for national championships by finishing in top 33%.  Happy with that standing but have no interest in going to Alabama.

What I would do differently is work more steep hills during training on the bike for this race, even if that means using my trainer.  I worked a bit on bike to run transitions and it paid off, but feel I should be able to work at a higher HR for the run and that tells me my tank was running a bit low so need to work on nutrition at race intensity.   Need to get to the pool a minimum of 2 days weekly and the 3^rd day should be an open water swim.  Also while doing the open water swim work on transition out of wetsuit.  My T times could improve.  I have a good, fluid system but it’s not good enough.

Comparison of 2010 to 2009

Finish 5/16  vs.   6/12

Swim 11/16 at 39.13min/mile vs. 9/12

T1 this year a bit worse

Bike 3/16 vs.  8/11 at 16.59mph and Av HR of 165 as planned.

T2 was on par

Run 3/16 vs. 1/11 at 7:41mm and Av HR of 181.  One would think I could do better than this.  I ran Paris Marathon 2 months ago at 8:07 pace and ave hr of 178bpm.

PARIS MARATHON WEEK 2 OF TAPER

Not a terribly exciting week.  As far as tapers go my energy is feeling pretty good.  Dropping from 44 miles to 34 miles this week and started a low carb diet on Friday to initiate carb loading prior to race day.  My new shoes feel great, the weather got better toward the weekend, and I'm getting anxious about leaving my work and business behind but at the same time more exited than ever to go to Paris.  Think this will be a beautiful, flat, fantastic race. MONDAY- today is my moderate distance run and I've cut down to 10 miles at 9:20 pace. It's pretty rank out. About 50 degrees and raining so feels cold and there's nothing you can do about it. Glad one of the new pairs of shoes are black. Hate taking nice new white shoes out in the rain. Going to Prospect Park and decided to take whatever pace felt right for today. Although it's supposed to feel easy, I took it a little harder mostly becaue I just want it to be over with. Stopped at hardware store also to see if they had the brackets we need for the finishing touches on the kitchen and they did not. Other than that I stopped for a gel at 5miles and a bathroom stop and turned around and high tailed it home. Ran average 8:57 pace at ave HR of 156. Still feel my left IT band a bit and will be sure to use foam roller later today when I do my weight training session.

Before my last client I wanted to get in a good back workout but couldn't because my contractor wanted to stop by to discuss some work. Went to basement for a 30 min workout but then was interrupetd on phone with a client. So not much of a workout. Did 4 exercises total, worked either heavy or moderate with little rest.  Supersets of strength and stability. Should have just done yoga and stretching instead. Dreaming about a massage.

TUESDAY- Normally I swim, but this weeks workout is focusing on strokes other than freestyle and decided mid day to skip it. Doing a partial cleanse, it's horrible weather and just want to hunker down and get a lot of work done. After clients at John Street I did all upper body workout of supersets strength followed by stability. Back, then chest, shoulder, biceps and triceps. Moderate intensity to heavy depending on how my shoulder was feeling about the exercise. Bummed that my shoulder is still testy. Tomorrow I just have an easy run and plan to do another partial cleanse, AM until about 5pm before I go to Staten Island to run with TNT. Will see how that goes.

WED- instead of running in the AM I''m holding off till the evening. Had a productive work day then drove to Staten Isalnd and ran 5 plus miles, goal pace 9mm. Going to follow with a workout with TNT so don't want this to feel hard, yet it did for some reason. It is a combination of the fact that I didn't run yesterday, that I'm not used to running late in the day, plus I was fasting until 5:00 at which point I had an isalean shake before driving to SI.  After my 5 mile run I did an easy warm up with the team. They had 25 minutes of hill repeats. I didn' run too many hills with them but did run about 2 miles total. Good group tonight.

THURSDAY- I finished with clients then went to our accountant about taxes. Had time in-between to have a naturally sweetened muffin and banana. Today is my last day to eat a normal amount of carbs. Tomorow go low carbs with goal being 50g per day. yikes. Feeling good going into my run.  Nice day, sunny, about 55 degrees. Ran around battery park up west side. Want to do race pace work but feel instead of specifying distance I will do it more like a fartlek workout. Over 6 miles I did 7 intervals at a RP (ranged between 7:35 and 8:05) with half mile being the goal distance.  I jogged inbetween intervals until feeling recovered enough to do another interval. Was fun to have a free form workout like this . Was planning to do shoulder work but ran out of time. Will add shoulder to Friday workout. Did do abs today though.

FRIDAY- Had an early morning weight training session. In my gym I did back, shoulder, bicep and tricep work. warmed up with elyptical for my shoulder then did supersets of strength and stability. Back, shoulder, back, bicep, shoulder, tricep. Finished with abs. One hour total. Did 3 set all rep range from 10-20. Everything felt good, and change in rep range was actually challenging.  Today is my fist day of reduced carbs.  So far so good.  Lots of protein and almost equal amount of fat.  Carbs throughout this 7 day period consists of leafy greens and green vegetables only.  Not tomato, root vegetables, grains, bread, etc.

SATURDAY- got a late start for my last long run. Had a client in the AM and then went out for my run. By time I left it was around 11am and warming up outside. About 55 out and warmed up throughout the run. Went over the bridge to the west side. Just going with the flow and enjoying my last decent run. Paris is one week from today. Ended up running my plan which was 10 miles at 9:20 pace. HR monitor went crazy again so numbers are off but think my av HR was 156 BPM. Yesterday was first low carb day and because of that my HR did go up after 6 miles. Did not use any gels or energy drinks and althouth my energy was ok was interesting that my Hr went up.

SUNDAY- easy day on my indoor trainer. It's nice enough out to ride outside so took the trainer to the back courtyard. Did a new Endurance program from my book. Warm up 15 minutes including easy pedal at 90rmp, alternating 30 seconds standing and 30 sec sitting for 5 min, and alternating single leg work for 1 min each leg x3. Set 1 was 6x2min at 70rpm in zone 1-2 with 1 min rest high rpm. Rest 3 min then 3x3 min 70 rpm or slightly slower in zone 2 again 1 min rest. This was supposed to be 6 sets not 3, but was feeling like too much work for my legs so I cut the session short. Tomorrow is some running at race pace and I need to be taking it all easy. This all felt good. Looking forward to a massage later today.

Totals:  7:40 min of training (way down from last month and i'm totally ok with that), 34 miles running, 1:45 in weights over 3 days and 50 minutes on my bike.  All is well yet still feeling some pain in left IT band.