Lots of updates

There were so many things happened since the last post. I just didn't have the time to update my blog. After the last recovery week, we had a 100 mile ride and 17 mile run. It was a dilemma for me as far as where to ride that weekend. Cartersville suddenly became a dog heaven ride. It seems like a lot of people were tired of cyclists and started letting their dogs out more. Peachtree City was too far and I wasn't familiar with the routes at all. Silksheets.. hmmm really again? I started getting tired of the routes and hills. At the last minutes, I decided to go to Silksheets. Stephanie was riding 60 miles, she was then in tapering mode. I would ride the rest of the 40 miles by myself.  The first 50 were fine. The next 10 were harder. I didn't feel as fresh as before. The last 40 miles were haaarrddd. I started to get annoyed with my legs. They were heavy even though I used small gears and tried to keep my cadence up. Finally, I got back to the parking lot. I was one of the last 3 cars left. It was around 2PM. Hot and humid. I put my running shoes on and started running. The first 15 minutes were good, and suddenly I bonked. I could tell the difference between bonking and just tired. I didn't have any gels with me, only water. I ran back to the parking lot. It sucked. I was by myself. I drank my recovery drink in the shade. Salty sweat dripped on my face. I was pooped. This was what IM training all about. Mentally I was depleted. At the same time, I was scared. What if this happened on the race day? I drove home, ate, hydrated, stretched, rolled and slept. Tomorrow was a brand new day. I had to run 15 miles. It was okay. actually much better than I expected. The first 100 yards my calves were tight but they loosen up quick.

The following weekend was the last long ride, the mac daddy of the season, the longest miles I covered before the race day. 110 miles plus 30 minutes T-run. This time around I was back with my usual suspects, Eric, Sarah and Susan. Patti also joined us. She was training for IM Louisville. We decided to go to Jackson County Brevet ride. We did the organized century ride in June. The routes were easy to follow. It was very well marked.

J is the marking. Turn to the direction where J is pointing.

If you were wondering, why it was J, it was for Jesus. The organizer was a Christian. He lead the prayer before we started the century ride. Very cool.

Around Mile 30

Ellen sagged this ride. Around mile 30, Sarah, Susan and Patti decided to take a SAG stop. Eric and I continued riding. Before we got to this stop, we were chased by a packed of dogs. They were tiny dogs only one that looked seriously wanted to chase you. We were yelling at them and Sarah squirted Gatorade at him. They didn't come close. Eric and I rode around 20 miles or so after splitting with the group. We were chased by another dog again. I was screaming to scare him away. He stopped chasing. After that, there were a couple other times, I was chased and I didn't even see the dogs. I could hear their bark and nails scratching the pavement. It was a hot and humid day. The high was 95F. With the humidity, it felt like 100+. So, I bet it took the dogs a lot of energy to run, therefore the chase was short lived.

First stop of the day

Around mile 40, Eric and I stopped for bottle exchange. Susan, Sarah and Patti were right behind us. Since we had to add 10 miles, when we got to mile 63, we would turn around and ride back to mile 58 and followed the route again.

Patti and me after the third SAG stop

We had another SAG stop around mile 73. I felt pretty good even though it was getting really hot. We made another quick stop around mile 90. The last 15 miles or so, we were back in town. that meant riding with traffic. I got stopped by traffic light 3 times. I couldn't catch up with Patti who was ahead. It felt great to be done with the ride, now it was time to run. I couldn't skip this since I messed up last week. I sucked another gel and started running. I ran along the tree lines were, so I could run in the shade. It was a 2 and 1/2 minute loop. Boring but shaded. I was so glad that the longest ride was over.

Sadly the following day, my long run didn't go well. I had 14 mile run. Around mile 5.5, I stepped on a small rock and twisted my left ankle. It hurt so bad. I walked a bit and was able to run back to the parking lot. I had to end my run after 10 miles. I had to ice it right away. I cried a bit out of frustration and , I think, mental exhaustion too.  It was going so well and now this happened.

I iced my foot 7 times that day and kept icing it as often as I could. I swam with buoys, so I didn't need to kick. I pushed off with my right foot only. I skipped Tuesday and Thursday bike and run sessions. I tried not to get frustrated. It's not Ironman training without running into a snag. I read about ankle sprains. I bought a balance board to rehab my ankle. Considering this was not the first time, I twisted my ankle this season. I had to take this seriously and fix the problem. I found out that the cause was not weak ankle muscles but it
lacked of proprioception, which was the ability of your body to provide feedback from the ankle to the brain. After an ankle sprain, the proprioception of the joint can be damaged, leading to problems controlling ankle movements. The balance board can help 're-train' the ankle joint. The board was a simple round board with a small half shaped ball in the middle. The idea was when you stepped on it, you had to train your brain to balance your body. The first exercise was two feet, moved back and forth, side to side and circled. the second exercise was to simply balance on one foot. Lastly, do the second exercise with closed eyes. It sounded simple but not really. I could tell my balance improved a lot after 3-4 days doing it.

Balance Board

The following weekend I rode 4 hours on Saturday and 3 hours on the trainer on Sunday while watching the Olympics women's marathon. I was thankful that I could still ride. The swelling was gone. I just didn't feel to run yet. I would wait until Thursday to run.