Time for a recap: Running

Last in the series of late recaps, my running comes as a natural suite to the weekly swimming and biking adventures that make this triathlon bouquet quite a wet and smelly mess.

Stretching my calves on the stairs and drying my boob sweat...

Currently training for the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, my running regime has been a combination of brick runs, hill repeats ad nauseatum , speed intervals which push my maximum HR off the charts and long slow runs in zone 2-3 which I've been spicing up by getting lost on trails like these:

My longest run of this marathon season has been 2h today, in which I ran a little over 18km. I usually do all my runs with hubbs and since he's new to distance running, it's cool to be with him when he reaches those "longest ever runs" milestones that I hope will motivate him to join me for a marathon soon.

I am always a bit apprehensive of marathon training since it spoiled the party several times by bringing me pains in places that I never thought I'd get to complain about, such as the arches of my feet, the back of my knees or my Achilles tendons. But this time around, armed with a ton of info on barefoot running thanks to the revolutionary book "Born to run" and thousands of articles on this topic, I am convinced that mechanically, I'd be better off using the balls of my feet more efficiently. If you still haven't read Christopher Mc Dougall's book, you can listen to him or watch the "The Perfect Runner" short film by David Suzuki (only available for viewing online in Canada, but you can read the scientific information part, it's pretty much a summary).

...Followed by icing the legs

I am not particularly interested in wearing Vibrams or going completely barefoot, but rather teaching myself a forefoot/midfoot strike instead of a heel strike. And this is exactly what I've been doing since I started training for this marathon. I took a new pair of Adidas Glide 2 shoes out from the box and started doing all my long runs using a forefoot strike. At first I kept wondering what I looked like, going from hippo to ballerina - and spending 1h on the balls of my feet definitely felt like a workout. The long runs kept getting longer but I stuck with it, nursing my calves with ice baths and compression socks - and for the first time in a month, this week I put on my older sneakers to go out for my speed workout and I just could not make my brain do anything else but forefoot strike. Then I did the 2h long run today and this new way of running felt entirely natural. It took one full month, but I think I managed to alter my running form for the better and with zero pain as a bonus (I am not talking about muscle soreness, but injury - so far, so good, touch on wood).

Not sure how my training schedule is going to shape up over the next few weeks, but I know that my longest run will be 3h30. Hopefully feet are going to get even stronger by then. I am getting pretty excited to see that I can hit sub-5 intervals with a new and alien form of running. If it keeps doing its magic, I may even see further improvement in my overall speed and who knows, a marathon PB? Coach said to trust myself - now, that's going to be a challenge.

Funny thing is, I am getting blisters in new places, such as under and between my toes. With every long run, I have been trying different pairs of socks in the hope of finding the magic ones that leave my feet smiling. I don't know whether I should shout "Eureka!" just yet, but running with a pair of Injinji toe socks today didn't bring any tears or fears.

Toe socks rock!

Happy feet!

However, I am having a serious problem above the waist where chaffing is taking new shapes and sizes. It's not easy to know what to do since I lost a few bra cup sizes in the process of shedding 50lb, but all my sports bras, being stretchy and all, still seem to fit. With "seem" being the emphasis here because in the "feel" department, it looks like this (front and back). Dark spot in the middle of the top pic is one of my gallbladder surgery scars, but the pretty butterfly underneath is entirely courtesy of my Polar sports bra. The front chaffing scar is about 4 inches large at the top, 2 inches tall. The ones in the back, I have no freaking clue where they are coming from, I suspect they were produced by the seams because the bra does not close at the back. Nice and symmetrical, I am a work of art. Oh le sigh.

Lesson learned, this is the second bra that I am retiring from the long runs, the previous one being the Moving Comfort "Juno" that imprinted the darker spot on the bottom right since the Paris Marathon.  I cannot win, I think I may start a bare-chest running movement (with duct tape for support). Who's with me for running naked? Or have you found no-chaffing magic clothes? Either way, do tell because... Ouchie ouch!

Until then, enjoy the ironic photo of the day - who says that I don't know how to sport a butterfly?

Putting my fish on: success!

You remember how I said a few weeks ago that I was terrified of open water swimming? It surely still stands true when I imagine myself at a triathlon start and getting thrown inside the "washing machine", but this week has been certainly memorable because I got my first taste of lake swimming and got pretty drunk on it. Lemme explain.

On Monday, I talked my youngest son into going to an open water swimming clinic for kids as a local coach member of my tri club is trying to put together a triathlon club for kids. The swim was at Kelso Lake, about 30min drive from our house and we were told that 4-5 other kids all between 10-13 yr old were going to attend. The day was a bit on the chilly side with temperatures in the low 20s Celsius, but it was beautiful outside and a shame not to go for fear of a cold swim. Although I had not planned on swimming, I threw my wetsuit in the trunk, just in case, and off we went.

When we arrived there, I noticed a lot more adults than kids carrying backpacks and didn't quite know what was going on until we arrived on the beach and they all started stripping and putting on their wetsuits. My son got ready to swim with the other kids and jumped in the lake whereas me, I was standing there puzzled, not sure what to do. I realized that the male coach, Dave, was about to give a private lesson to all the adult folks, while Lorene, the female coach, was going to teach the kids. So I asked for permission to put on my wetsuit too. I was in a hurry to join them since they were already in the water going over the basics and the dolphin dives... and pulled too hard on my wetsuit and put a nick in it. Oh well. Shit happens, it wasn't all the way through to the fabric and it was only one inch long. I tried not to freak about it and went in the lake to join the lesson.

Kelso Lake

It was supposed to be my rest day, but the coach had a plan for this clinic so to hell with my rest day. From then on, we did a lot of back and forths (one length was about 120m) across the lake learning the following:
- 2 lengths sighting
- 2 lengths turning around buoys
- 2 lengths drafting off another person's feet
- 4 lengths with water exit after the first loop, run on the beach and back in the water for the second loop
- 2 lengths with water exit and quick removal of wetsuit

Total 1500m of most valuable experience in a group where I got the right amount of kicking and pulling and being swum over and drinking water and untangling algae from my arms. It was a pretty awesome day and I am extremely glad that I had the intuition of bringing my wetsuit with me, even though I messed it up a bit. It's the life of the neoprene, what can you do. I did, however, learn a great tip for putting it on, which made all the difference on Thursday for the second open water swim of the week, but I'm getting there, hold on.

Before we move on, I guess it's worth mentioning my "wardrobe malfunction" when I removed my wetsuit at the end of the clinic. See, my regular swimsuit exploded the last time I went to the pool, growing 4 sizes bigger by the time I came out of the water. The fabric disintegrated even further when I removed it in the dressing room and I had to throw it directly in the garbage as there was no way to salvage it. When I went to the lake on Monday, I had with me an older swimsuit from the times I was 8 sizes bigger. It was ok while under the wetsuit, but when I peeled the wetsuit off, the swimsuit top (it was one of those tanktops with a separate bottom from a Plus size shop) went down as well as the fabric on the straps gave up under the wetsuit's suction force. Nice!! The guys were having a good chuckle while I was being assisted with the "situation". Anyhow, long story short, after Monday, I had no more swimsuits left, so I had to go shopping.

I had two missions before my Thursday official open water swim: to find neoprene glue and a new swimsuit. The first mission got delayed as I had a lot of work in the office and it just seemed impossible to find any in a physical store around me. Eventually I found someone who suggested to try a scuba shop and BINGO, found one last container of Trident neoprene cement (with more warning labels than rat poison). I was now just hours from the swim, so I drove there at lunch and back to the office and took care of the boo-boo on the spot, hoping that 4h of drying time would be enough.

I also went to a swim shop and found an "aqua suit" (as opposed to a regular swim suit, go figure). It's made by Speedo and it looks just like the one on this skinny woman on the right (that is not me, I don't think her thighs touch like mine).

So... where was I? Missions, right. Two out of two complete!! Thursday night could not come fast enough, so I drove straight to Professor's Lake, our neighbourhood "beach" with all amenities and lots of fun for the entire family.

Again, I felt lost for a few minutes, but decided to go in and ask for the open water swim group. They quickly directed me to the marina where many of the group members had already stored their stuff and were already swimming. Once more, put on my wetsuit, while being very careful not to make another boo-boo, pulling from the inside as I was taught by the tri coach. It worked like a charm and after a quick talk with the swim organizer who showed me the buoys and the direction of the swim, off I went.  A loop was 750m, he said most of the people were doing 2 loops. Put my head down and tried to relax, a bit overwhelmed by the experience - that lake looked bigger than ever! - but finished the first loop in 18 minutes and I was no longer scared at all. I could hardly contain my excitement for being there, having the whole lake for myself  in one of the most beautiful evenings of this summer.

My coach Dave (are all coaches named Dave? not to be confused with the coach from the beginning of this post) had given me 1h of swim practice for that night, so I managed to fit in 3 loops for a total of 2.35km in just 56 minutes, the fastest and farthest I had ever swum. The whole experience was so surreal, I didn't want to leave the place, so I took this picture right as I was leaving.

Professor's Lake at sunset with lonely buoy and lifeguard

Here is the Runkeeper workout, with GPS map and all, thanks to my new Garmin 910 XT watch, w00t w00t!

Needless to say, I came back home ready to eat my young. I settled on a bit of cow instead and one hour later, I went out for a 50min run as well. I never felt so lethargic as during that run, it was still extremely hot and I wished I'd gone aquajogging instead. My arms were also cranky for the rest of the week, reminding me that I had asked them to do over 1500 strokes each to drag me all across Professor's Lake. Last but not least, I also got my first chaffing ordeal because of my Xterra Vortex 4 wetsuit. Not sure how I could fix it, it's at the base of my neck, due to the overlapping pieces of neoprene making up the zipper protecting flap. I will try some PAM next time, maybe that will do it.

Neck chaffing, 2 days after

Any other ideas to stay away from chaffing on that particular spot? Thanks, Internets.