The long ride.
This once a week cycling workout is to get time in the saddle as they say and keep it steady. The scenary on this ride had numerous collections of road kill. For a minute, I actually felt bad for the armadillo that was run over then I came to my senses and realized he or a sibling might be the culprit on tearing up my flower garden.
At the scene of the crime, a feathery 747 a.k.a. “the buzzard” dove in to pick up Mr.(or Mrs…could not tell as it was too squashed) armadillo and begin to enjoy an afternoon snack. The interesting thing is as this 3 foot tall or so bird was dining, you would think as I rolled closer, the bird would fly away to safety. Nope, not this one. The buzzard continued to eat and stare me down. The stare down was of great intensity that I personally give only a few times a year at best when I need to get a point across. Just ask my husband.
To add to this weeks adventure, I had my first deep tissue massage in quite a long time. I was lucky to find one of the best sport massage therapists in the area. She quickly found many misbehaving mucsles that could very well add to my misbehaving knee. It was pretty intense and I did my best to get through the session. At one point, I was thinking it would really be cool to have Spiderman talents so I could crawl under the table and hang on upside down with my fingers and toes in order to escape the pressure of having my muscles worked out. That would have been pointless as she would have simply laid on the ground underneath me and continued the torture…errr massage session upside down.
After making it through the hour, it turns out I felt better and yes, I will return. In fact, I am adding this to my list to the Journey. Around the middle of each month, if you hear a high pitched scream just disregard. It will be me going through another session. I was sore in some places but the release of the muscle sets made the workouts that much easier the rest of this week.
Tack on deep tissue massages by someone experienced in working with athletes to the The Journey. The results are worth it!
Talk to ya next week!
Janet
Friday, October 22, 2010
Saturday, October 16, 2010
The Journey to a Texas Ironman
Hi folks! Another week has floated right on by and still no running for three more weeks. Naturally, I have tried to obtain short distance approval from my coach. I received an instant reply from her which is the correct answer of no…le sigh.
A new twist was added in the form of longer cross training workouts. I popped in a DVD of P90x. Starting with the chest and back workout, I thought I was doing pretty good until I caught myself in the mirror with the T.V. screen in the background. Yeah…I was not quite matching the instructors and slightly behind the reps. I still pushed through the workout and managed to face plant only once during the “dive bomb” pushups section. A bit of ice was applied to the forehead that evening and now all is well.
The next DVD later in the week was P90x plyometrics. The instructor started the DVD advising you how tough this workout is going to be with the quote “this is the Mother of all workouts”. So as my stomach sank I began the warm up. Funny, this DVD was WAY easier than the arms and chest. The workout focused on fast twitch muscles consisting of leaps, jumps, squats and quick change movements. Given the years of competitive skating, then tennis along with basketball, it all came right back to me and finally, I had an advantage. YES!
There was one section of the workout where you place a stool in front of you and swing each leg over and back the stool switching off feet non-stop for a minute. I noticed they chose a lower stool whereas I had a high back taller style. After that section I was ready for the Vegas showgirl circuit as high leg swings were nailed with minimal effort. The result of this workout included a reminder of my success for the following 24 hours each time I attempted to walk, bend or reach for well…pretty much anything.
Cross training – necessary in this journey and look forward to more of them .
Have a great weekend and as always…..talk to ya next week!
Janet
A new twist was added in the form of longer cross training workouts. I popped in a DVD of P90x. Starting with the chest and back workout, I thought I was doing pretty good until I caught myself in the mirror with the T.V. screen in the background. Yeah…I was not quite matching the instructors and slightly behind the reps. I still pushed through the workout and managed to face plant only once during the “dive bomb” pushups section. A bit of ice was applied to the forehead that evening and now all is well.
The next DVD later in the week was P90x plyometrics. The instructor started the DVD advising you how tough this workout is going to be with the quote “this is the Mother of all workouts”. So as my stomach sank I began the warm up. Funny, this DVD was WAY easier than the arms and chest. The workout focused on fast twitch muscles consisting of leaps, jumps, squats and quick change movements. Given the years of competitive skating, then tennis along with basketball, it all came right back to me and finally, I had an advantage. YES!
There was one section of the workout where you place a stool in front of you and swing each leg over and back the stool switching off feet non-stop for a minute. I noticed they chose a lower stool whereas I had a high back taller style. After that section I was ready for the Vegas showgirl circuit as high leg swings were nailed with minimal effort. The result of this workout included a reminder of my success for the following 24 hours each time I attempted to walk, bend or reach for well…pretty much anything.
Cross training – necessary in this journey and look forward to more of them .
Have a great weekend and as always…..talk to ya next week!
Janet
Thursday, October 7, 2010
The Journey to a Texas Ironman
Hi Everyone!
This Saturday, October 9th, triathletes from around the globe will be competing in the Ford IronMan World Championships. It’s the triathete's superbowl with ingredients of the world series sprinkled with a taste of Wimbledon topped off with a healthy serving of World Cup dashed with NBA finals. I cannot wait to catch the live coverage online. Most importantly, I will be following my coach who will compete in the championship. What an amazing thing to be at the “big one” out in Kona, Hawaii.
So how did IronMan begin? Basically, a group of local athletes talked about an endurance triathlon by combining swim, bike and run. John Collins suggested to combine the three events but with a catch to complete all three disciplines in one day. Later that evening, Collins announced that whoever finishes first will be called the IronMan. From that day forward, IronMan has grown to mulitiple distances with races worldwide. Of course, the World Championships are right where the race began in beautiful Kona.
Reading data from IronMan.com, I found some interesting factoids about this year’s race. Check this out:
*By gender, the break down of competitors are Women with 27.5% and Men with 72.4% participation.
*The highest percentage for an age group is Men 40-44, the least percentage is men age 80 and above.
*The country with the most participants is the U.S. with Germany in second place. There were many countries listed as .1% participation but hey, at least there is representation!
*There are over 5,000 volunteers with many working beyond the 17 hour race cutoff.
*Since you have 17 hours to complete the race, if you are on the course running in the dark, you must wear reflective tape and run in single file. Kona does not have many lighted highways.
*Kona is proud of their graffiti free highway. Competitor friends and family may not mark the highways with anything but colored chalk.
*As with all WTC triathlon events, public nudity is thankfully a big no-no.
As I continued to read more and more about the race, I tripped across one link on the website and I was immediately intrigued. Did you know there is also a lottery for those who are unable to qualify? That sure put a smile on my face. A total of 1800 spots will be granted for the 2011 race. Now think about that. How cool would that to be selected to be a part of the biggest IronMan in the world? Okay, I will fess up, the site is bookmarked with thoughts of attempting for 2012 since I sort of have a race in 2011 already booked. I figured I would spring this on my coach when she gets back from her race. More on that conversation in future blogs. ;)
Have a great weekend everyone, train safe and be sure to take time for yourself.
Talk to ya next week!
Janet
This Saturday, October 9th, triathletes from around the globe will be competing in the Ford IronMan World Championships. It’s the triathete's superbowl with ingredients of the world series sprinkled with a taste of Wimbledon topped off with a healthy serving of World Cup dashed with NBA finals. I cannot wait to catch the live coverage online. Most importantly, I will be following my coach who will compete in the championship. What an amazing thing to be at the “big one” out in Kona, Hawaii.
So how did IronMan begin? Basically, a group of local athletes talked about an endurance triathlon by combining swim, bike and run. John Collins suggested to combine the three events but with a catch to complete all three disciplines in one day. Later that evening, Collins announced that whoever finishes first will be called the IronMan. From that day forward, IronMan has grown to mulitiple distances with races worldwide. Of course, the World Championships are right where the race began in beautiful Kona.
Reading data from IronMan.com, I found some interesting factoids about this year’s race. Check this out:
*By gender, the break down of competitors are Women with 27.5% and Men with 72.4% participation.
*The highest percentage for an age group is Men 40-44, the least percentage is men age 80 and above.
*The country with the most participants is the U.S. with Germany in second place. There were many countries listed as .1% participation but hey, at least there is representation!
*There are over 5,000 volunteers with many working beyond the 17 hour race cutoff.
*Since you have 17 hours to complete the race, if you are on the course running in the dark, you must wear reflective tape and run in single file. Kona does not have many lighted highways.
*Kona is proud of their graffiti free highway. Competitor friends and family may not mark the highways with anything but colored chalk.
*As with all WTC triathlon events, public nudity is thankfully a big no-no.
As I continued to read more and more about the race, I tripped across one link on the website and I was immediately intrigued. Did you know there is also a lottery for those who are unable to qualify? That sure put a smile on my face. A total of 1800 spots will be granted for the 2011 race. Now think about that. How cool would that to be selected to be a part of the biggest IronMan in the world? Okay, I will fess up, the site is bookmarked with thoughts of attempting for 2012 since I sort of have a race in 2011 already booked. I figured I would spring this on my coach when she gets back from her race. More on that conversation in future blogs. ;)
Have a great weekend everyone, train safe and be sure to take time for yourself.
Talk to ya next week!
Janet
Saturday, October 2, 2010
The Journey to a Texas Ironman
This week has been dubbed the week of easy. The fall race is done, Sherpa duty was a success and now the focus changes to next May. It is hard to believe race day is a little over eight months away. This process is similar to birthing a baby. The cool part is this baby is going to be an IronMan. ;)
The weekly workouts were labeled as level easy. Here is the sick part, I felt like I was letting go or lolly gagging. The truth is, recovery weeks are key and are a very important part of training. The hard part is getting the brain to accept that easy is good and it’s okay.
But easy does work. For example, the easy workouts took me from feeling like the blob entering the pool, to swimming a good consistent workout to leaving the pool roaring like Godzilla just not so tired. I think even Celeste appreciated some time off however being the great tri bike she is, I know she also was challenged with easy..or so her owner thinks.
A highlight of this week was meeting up with my coach for coffee. I only hope if you are training for an endurance event that you experience a coach like mine. The thing is, she is quite the opposite of easy. She is tough, matter of fact yet reassuring. The end result of our conversation has me in the right frame of mind. Race day is not going to be easy by no means for me however finishing will happen and it’s having the right person keeping you focused that will make all the difference.
Still no running, in fact, I am not to run for another five weeks or so. Honestly, this is one break I don’t mind so much. In order to get through this, the body has to recover and yes my left knee, I am talking all about you thus we focus on easy.
That’s pretty much the week wrap up. Nothing to out of the ordinary and that is okay. So join me and take it easy for a bit. You may just find this is exactly what you need.
Talk to ya next week,
Janet
The weekly workouts were labeled as level easy. Here is the sick part, I felt like I was letting go or lolly gagging. The truth is, recovery weeks are key and are a very important part of training. The hard part is getting the brain to accept that easy is good and it’s okay.
But easy does work. For example, the easy workouts took me from feeling like the blob entering the pool, to swimming a good consistent workout to leaving the pool roaring like Godzilla just not so tired. I think even Celeste appreciated some time off however being the great tri bike she is, I know she also was challenged with easy..or so her owner thinks.
A highlight of this week was meeting up with my coach for coffee. I only hope if you are training for an endurance event that you experience a coach like mine. The thing is, she is quite the opposite of easy. She is tough, matter of fact yet reassuring. The end result of our conversation has me in the right frame of mind. Race day is not going to be easy by no means for me however finishing will happen and it’s having the right person keeping you focused that will make all the difference.
Still no running, in fact, I am not to run for another five weeks or so. Honestly, this is one break I don’t mind so much. In order to get through this, the body has to recover and yes my left knee, I am talking all about you thus we focus on easy.
That’s pretty much the week wrap up. Nothing to out of the ordinary and that is okay. So join me and take it easy for a bit. You may just find this is exactly what you need.
Talk to ya next week,
Janet
Friday, October 1, 2010
Minimally Invasive Bunion Surgery: Good or Bad
I would assume by now that you have seen commercials for minimally invasive surgery (MIS) for everything from spine pain to bunions. And you have probably wondered if this is a good option if surgery is needed. The ads sure make it seem like it is the best option to fix whatever may be ailing you.
Well, obviously I can’t talk about spine pain and MIS, but I can talk about foot surgery. The term “minimally invasive surgery” is used when there is a very small incision made to allow passage of small instruments into the area of concern. Ankle arthroscopy, or ankle scope as it is commonly referred to, is an excellent example of MIS. Two small, less than 3mm, incisions are made across the front of the ankle. From here, the entire joint can be visualized and most of the conditions addressed.
Now, does MIS work for bunion surgery? In my opinion, no. Bunions are formed from a mechanical imbalance and if that imbalance is not addressed, then the bunion returns. The decision for bunion surgery occurs with multiple things in mind: age, health status and activity level of the patient, size of the deformity and expectations of outcome. I would prefer to perform the most appropriate procedure on a patient, so they have the best outcome possible. Meaning…I don’t do MIS on bunions because the patient wants a tiny scar, just to watch that bunion return within 1-2 years. There are no guarantees regarding bunion surgery, but with MIS you should be aware of the more common complications including recurrence of the bunion, fracture of the 1st and/or 2nd metatarsal both requiring more surgery.
Most bunion surgery leaves a very small scar which I reduce with certain techiques post op. My goal is keeping patients active. If you have a bunion and would like to know what your treatment options are, I am happy to review those with you.
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