Oh! My aching legs!

Since I can't run, I've decided to change my triathlon to a duathlon called an Aquabike. This eliminates walking the running part as I had originally planned and adds a bit of mileage to the swim and bike part. Works for me. I finally swam 20 laps last week and did another his week. I forgot my goggles so I couldn't do as aggressive a swim as I wanted, plus I was tired so I took it easy. I used the kick board for a couple laps to warm up, then breaststroke and backstroke the rest of it. I did manage one lap of right side stroke but since my left side is weaker I about drowned myself trying a left side stroke.  I quickly went back to breast stroke. Do what you know. Soon enough I will get together with my friend at a lake and try to see how long I can go in open water. Her husband is a swim coach so I hope he has some tips for me. I still feel like a flailing mess when I try the freestyle stroke. 

 

Before I set out on my not so ambitios swim I put 35 mins on the recumbent bike again. But after my trail bike ride yesterday there is a huge difference between 30 mins on a recumbent bike and 30 mins on a hybrid trail bike with changes in elevation and a huge honking bridge to cross. Guess I need to work on my intervals with hills and other incline on the bike. And I need to get my lazy butt up on a regular cycle and not rest easy in the recumbent. 

But yesterday's ride was 8.2 miles with only 3 crotch relieving breaks lasting less than a minute. It took 46 minutes to make that 8.2 mile trek on fairly flat, with some small inclines, and easy paved trails. I need to figure out how to ride without causing much trauma to my lady parts. The trouble seems to be a nerve thing. I try sitting on my "sit" bones but within minutes I get that painful numbing feeling inside my right leg. That's why I had to stop. It was only a half minute or so and then back on the trail I go. Today my legs feel like concrete logs attached to my hips that take way too much effort to manipulate one in front of the other. I am a nurse on a busy hospital floor and about 10 hrs into my 12 hr shift I was dragging myself from room to room. And I have a huge hematoma that has a very tender knot in the middle of it that I acquired from bumping the water bottle cage in the middle of the bike against my inner thigh.  I asked one of the docs about it and she said to wait a couple days and things should get better. It just needs to resolve on its own. In the meantime I keep bumping it into desks, beds, anything at that height. Tomorrow what is now the size of 2 quarters side by side will probably be bigger than a dollar bill. And hurt like hell. 

So the lesson to take from this is:

-I'm so out of shape

-I'm tired from trying to get into shape

-I have a lot of work to do.

Keep in truckin' folks. See ya out on the trail someday.

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