Running Aimlessly Around the Countryside

So this past weekend was the Indiana Age Group State Swimming Championships. Both Anna and Will qualified in two individual events and Will was swimming two relays as well. The good news is that the kids are achieving their goals. The bad news is that the events are spaced out enough on the schedule that we got to sit through many, many hours of swimming to see the six events (it's key to understand that USA Swimming meets last not for hours, but for days). After Will seemed to be focused more on triathlon than swimming, we (I) took the opportunity to remind them that the goal isn't just to get there, but go out, swim their hardest, rock their swims, and try to move up from their seed. That, and banning triathlon training for a few days seem to bring their focus on track. On Friday, Anna kicked things off with the 200 fly. There were some ghosts in her closet from the SC championships when she failed to swim the cut time, and boy did she exercise those demons! She took the ...

I waited the time specified by the doctor then hit the roads again, but only at about 3 easy miles per run. My first 2 outings were uneventful, but left me with a knot in my gastroc, but nothing that couldn't be worked through. What followed was an hour at the physical therapist doing analysis and Graston therapy.The analysis was very helpful identifying some weakness in my calves and the fact that I support my core with my hip flexors. The Graston therapy, where the PT uses these blunt edged metal tools to scrape and dig into the muscle to clear knots, adhesions and scar tissue was a joy be experienced. The good news is that the knot in my calf was gone, but I was left with bruises that lasted for a about 4 days! As I returned to running, I expereienced some discomfort from the calf, but that appeared to be from the bruising. On the second run out I was back to the same soreness as before, so I'm going to back off the running again and just stick with ice massage, exercises,...

Will, you just won the ironkids Carmel triathlon, what are you going to do next? Go to the ironkids national championships in Arizona! This was a bit of a free weekend at our house, so do we enjoy it? Heck no! We add more activities. Only Saturday AM swim practice this weekend, so Will wanted to do the ironkids triathlon that was being held in nearby Carmel. The entire race had approximately 200 kids, not sure how many were in the 10 year old boys. Will knew the distances and was nervous before the start, but we hadn't told him that the top 5 finishers would qualify for the ironkids national event being held in Tuscon, AZ in October. The race went well. The did single swimmer wave starts and he swam well, passing other swimmers after only 5 meters. It was hard to tell how many he had passed, but was highly placed coming out of the swim. The bike was a 2 loop course, which he tells me he spent passing a few athletes. During the run he had a dogfight with one other boy for the en...

I spent another looooong weekend doing my best imitation of a slug while attending a swim meet. This was another one of those prelims/finals meets where Anna had morning prelims/evening finals and Will was swimming in the afternoons. I hate having to dip into the vacation funds for a hotel when we are only an hour from home, but when you don't get out until 9-10pm and have to be back at 7:30am, the extra hour of sleep really helps. It also gives Anna someplace to hang in the afternoon so she can get some rest. Both kids had a full set of swims for Fri/Sat/Sun. Anna had didn't have any breakthroughs, just some solid swims. She did get her long course (50m pool) cut in the 1500m, and although she swam a very consistent paced race, she had to pull out some heroics in the last 100m to be sure she got under the cut (20:29.29).  Next up for Anna is the Open Water State meet on Tues, July 14. The 13-14 age group swim 1.5 miles and that will be her first time over 1 mile. It seems th...

Well it finally happened. After 3 or 4 years of looking, getting close, only to have financial priorities change at the last minute, I'm finally the proud owner of a road bike!  After shopping various stores in the area, competitive prices that included a professional fitting brought me to  NeboRidge Bicycles and a 2009 Cannondale Synapse 5 compact. The stars were kind of aligned this time. No appliances needed repair or replacement,  I've been dealing with this running injury and Will got a used Trek 1000 road bike and has been riding like a fiend. It took me a couple of visits to the shop to get finalize everything and bring the bike home. First I just talked about my riding and looked at the inventory options in my price range. The next trip was for test riding a half dozen different models to get frame geometry, sizing, and component group figured out. The exact bike had not been built, so there was a short delay before being followed by a visit to do a longer shak...

Today I had my visit to the sports doctor. The good news is we couldn't find anything on the x-rays that would lead to an indication of a stress reaction or fracture, so it could very well be a soft tissue issue (say that 10 times fast). The prognosis: hold off running for another week, try to get in a couple of PT sessions, then work back in VERY slowly. After the doc visit we had to stop by the running store to exchange my shoes because of a frayed lace eyelet. You know that you know the staff too well when you are discussing lack of running and they excuse you for not running because of injury, but look straight at your wife and say, "you have no excuse". We all shared a laugh, because like most things, they're funny because they're true. Went to the local bike shop to do a final, longer test ride before laying down the money, but there was a mix up in building the wrong model, so that will have to wait until next week. Artist for Song in Title: Alanis M...