diary of a long run

I normally try to do my long run (75-90 min) on Friday or Saturday but I've never really been happy with it.  I do medium (hourish) runs on Monday and Wednesday and it always felt like a long week by the time that Friday came along so I've been toying with the idea of moving the long run around.  Sunday doesn't really work as Monday is a medium run.  I think it is more of a mental thing as my legs feel pretty much the same all the time, but I still wanted to try moving things around.  Saturday morning I'm trying to catch up on leftover Friday night work and long runs in the hot tropical sun just don't go over as well as they used to.  I can do a short run midday but prefer to shift the longer ones to early evening when the heat is not bad (or take advantage of a rainstorm and go then).

After yesterday's aborted bike ride, I figured I'd try this morning, do a short run Monday and move the medium runs to Wed and Fri and see how that went.  After this morning I'm LOVING the idea of a Sunday long run.  Who knew it was so much cooler in the early morning?  Ellen opened and obtained 7 pesos worth of coco water for me yesterday (I pay her to provide me with coco water) and it really is the best hydration I've found.  I had a bottle of Gatorade mixed from yesterday's ride (which got shortened due to too many issues) that I didn't use/need so I got that out for the 2nd loop for today's run.  Everyone was sleeping when I left, the sun had about an hour in the sky (mas o menos) and I had no vertigo.  Yet.  The first lap was lovely and incredibly cool.  It looks like one nest has either hatched or animals got into it as a flock of birds was fighting over leftovers and there were shells all over the beach.  I seem to remember it as being one of the first turtle nests on that beach so I'm hoping it was a hatching.  I was shocked to see all the "foresty" areas of jungle where the bush grows over the path were in total shade!  What a concept! 

The second loop was a bit warmer but I was really doing quite well until about 65 minutes in, which tells me that I need more long runs under my belt.  I can handle anything up to a hour with ease and feel good the entire time but after about 65 minutes it gets harder so before I bump up the runs to 5 hours per week I'm going to hang at 4.5 hours for the next week or 2 and see if that makes a difference.  By the time I hit my stretching spot the tourists were starting to trickle in and the day was heating up.  I was really glad I'd gotten my run in.  After last night's ride I have decided that I'm going to abandon the aero attempt as I really just need to get more hours in the saddle.  I'm going back to the Bontrager and if/when an Adamo shows up at our doorstep I'll think about going aero but for now I'm missing out on too much training trying to find a comfortable position in aero.  Last picture is from my stretching spot and I'm actually stretching in the picture - my favorite for ass muscles.  Love that stretching spot. 

swim motivation

After perusing Rob's most excellent blog, I was inspired to get my ass in the water.  He has a real eye for photography and I'm also now hoping this little camera hastens it's eminent demise so I can get a waterproof one, but for now I'm just going to use baggies.  So, with budding excitement of swimming a new area, I convinced Pike to accompany me to Jantan as Google maps showed I could get an easy 1300m just width-wise of the bay.  What I didn't figure into the equation was the need for depth.  It never occurred to me that the majority of what I could see of the south of the bay was pure reef and very, very, very shallow.  After about 300m with no hope for an end in sight I abandoned as I could not even make a stroke without scraping my fingers over coral and I didn't want to wait to see if sea urchins would be added to the mix.  I also had a little boy over (sibling of Ellen's friend) on the beach and getting quite bored.  So I'm now thinking I'll do some widths of our bay instead of out and back to the reef, but even if that doesn't work I'm more appreciable of our deeper waters.  I'm also thinking I need to get more to the middle of Jantan as I know it is deep enough at the middle.   Course there again I'm left with an out-and-back to the far reef swim.  Life is tough. 

The first picture is where I THOUGHT I could start from, what we call "Kilo beach" but that was way too shallow.  The 2nd picture is our 2nd attempt, which I think was also too shallow.  The far green is where I eventually went in, but it ended up still being Way Too Shallow to actually swim.
 
The last picture is where I finally got out and you can see the point in all the pictures - that was my end goal.   I think I need to borrow a kayak (or maybe even spring for one) to be able to investigate before I commit body to water OR grow the balls needed to get further out along the far reef where it has to be deeper (as evidenced by blue water) but I think that might go against the agreement I have with the sharks - they stay on their side of the reef and I stay on mine.  I need to ramp up the swimming this week so I'll probably stick to our bay.  I'm pretty pleased I managed to get 3 swims (albeit 1 aborted) this last week after suffering such apathy previously.  Course now that it is down to less than 2 months from the HIM I have that motivation to get back on track also.  The tourists continue to fill the pool at all hours of the day and night so the sea is really the only place I have to train.  Cudda or not, I need to get out there or I'm going to be suffering in September.  Thanks to Robs blog I am also considering a jaunt to Bacalar next weekend to swim Cenote Azul again and dip my toes into the laguna itself.  That would be spectacular, but again, need a kayak to accompany me.  Hope our neighbor likes to share. 

progress

I'm "dialing" in my bike fit, as they say.  Still soreness and pain in the crotch but no more open sores.  I much prefer the aero position so I just need my crotch to put up with it.  So bike is back on the schedule.  AND, yesterday I finally got back in the water

now I need to keep that up today and Friday and the week after and the week after that until I get trend going.  It was so much easier when the tourists weren't commandeering the pool but it is good for me to get out in the sea (even though I still REALLY HATE that barracuda).

nos to the left of me, nos to the right...

here I am, stuck in the middle...

Swim was a bust.  It figures that in a colonia with signs in English and Spanish (and after having been in almost all the states of Mexico and better traveled than most Mexicans in this country, I have NEVER seen that anywhere else) that they'd have RULES.  So no swimming in the canales while the kids sail.  The water is more clear over here anyway, but I know Puerto has triathletes so I might just search some out for swims but I have a feeling they do things On Time and On Schedule and dayum, but that is Not me.  Pretty much all training has gone to hell except running.  I'm gearing up to 5 hours a week next week and will hold there until the HIM in September.  So ONE thing is going well.  Bless me father, for I have sinned, it has been a week since my last swim.  WTH is my problem that I can't get in the water?  (well other than baracuddas and rough water and a pool that is now filling with tourists earlier and earlier and only 12 m (maybe?) long)  I am going to make a POINTED effort today.  I get compliant because I did 1:14 for last year's HIM on 6 weeks of training but a friend did 1:00 at a recent IM and dayum, but I'd like to swim that fast again.

I'm absolutely DISGUSTED with my weight gain.  I haven't been riding to normal amounts due to issues with saddle sores and my fing saddle in aero.  I had completely given up and decided not to chase the aerobars and just sit up but Jamie talked me into trying again and I'm back to being unable to sit on the damn thing again.  I got so discouraged last night (ride) that I tried very hard to turn around but he rallied, swapped saddles with me, I changed my lower back position and I got a glimmer of hope.  Then I swapped my saddle back (his seat tube) and spent the rest of the ride riding out of my saddle as I couldn't even sit on the damn thing.  but there is that glimmer now...  Picture is from the kids' sailing lessons, coming back from a dip in the open sea (a bit further away from the cove) and headed back to the dock.

swim motivation

I think I figured out motivation for swim.  I put the kids in sailing class and the beach/cove/area they work in is adjacent to what looks like a sweet swim area.  Course I have to trespass to get there, but anything worth doing has some risk involved.  I'm actually jonsing to swim there and I am usually trying to figure out how to avoid the swim.  Course, there could be nasty baracuddas there too but I am hoping the ship traffic (marina so lots of boats) would keep them away.  Well, I can hope.  Hope to get back to a normal training week this week after a week and a half of very abbreviated effort.  And hey, Desitin is now my friend.

I think I made a stupid mistake in trusting MexPost.  I got some nice cycling shoes (for a steal) off Ebay along with a trisuit and had our mail service ship it all down.  That was a month ago.  People have been reporting success with MexPost so I thought I'd chance it.  I guess that was stupid and I should have known better.  So now I need a mule and to figure out WTH the IRS had sent me (as all mail is now missing also).  I was really looking forward to using shoes that aren't too narrow and a trisuit and am kicking myself for trusting the mail.  I really should have known better.

La Bia

I had seen this watch somehow but figured they never got the backing and it didn't make it.  But apparently they have another week.  I have to say I'm not into technology to run and still don't have a GPS.  But I do kinda like this watch and love the "I've fallen and I can't get up" clapper aspect of the watch.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/956860865/bia-the-first-gps-sports-watch-for-womenby-women
They only need some $250K (dollars, not pesos, OUCH) to go, but it sure would be nice to see this come to market...

belly or crotch. it's a tossup.

So a month or so (or even more) ago, Jamie put my aerobars on my bike and while initially I never imagined I'd be coordinated enough to use them, I actually raced in them and had begun to try to access waterbottles while in aero and steer around obstacles and was really very much pretty comfortable after 2 hours in aero.  So then he decided my seat needed to be replaced as it had one broken rail and the cover torn in multiple places.  And that was then beginning of the end.  I had ridden about a week with the aerobars and the old saddle and was comfortable enough but the new saddle brought on issues I'm still dealing with even after going back to the old saddle.  Yeast (maybe?), open sores, friction rubs, pressure sores; I really have no idea what all I'm dealing with but it is beginning to feel overwhelming.  We tried making changes to saddle height, fore/aft, tilt and I found the Most Uncomfortable Position but never really dialed in anything "comfortable."

I've also been battling both a stomach thing and my yearly vertigo nonsense, though by today, it seems to have waned once again.  I have not been able to figure out WTH causes it, but it comes yearly and stays for weeks to months.   I got off easily this year.  So I'm going into a 2nd week of hardly any training.  Driving me insane and that is reflected in a 3kg weight gain which makes me just a little bit MORE insane.  Also when I've been sick for a while I start to doubt my illness (especially when it is vague) and wonder if I'm just being lazy or burned out or have lost all motivation.  It is a seriously sucking drain of positive thought.

But I've been trying to run and got up to 3 hours last week and have hopes that this week I'll get back into the swing of things.  But after such a long time of little to nothing, the motivation is sorely lacking.  And we still haven't fixed the bike/seat issues.  But at least I'm running.  And I need to get back into the water again too.  Hmmm...  11:00 a.m.  Good a time as any to do something.