Product Trial

Prior to IMKY, I received an email to join this pain management focus group. This was during IM week which turned out to be this group giving our feedback on several pain reliever products. Everything from if we would use it to the labeling. Since then, I have received another email asking if I wanted to actually try out these products. Of course, why not. I received the products in the mail yesterday. 5 items: roll on, topical cream, muscle spray, joint spray, and 2 heat pads. I have to basically try out one product everyday for the next week. I used the roll on last night after my run. I thought that would be the best for the "pain" I had. My hamstrings were achy and figured I could really rub this is with the roll on. I opened the cap and started rolling. It sucked, nothing was rolling on. Very little at first then nothing. So I kind of shook the bottle. The roll ball got stuck then finally it loosened up and it worked, but quit shortly after again. I rolled it on my quads, hamstrings and knees. Nothing. Is this working. I sat there for about 2 min and finally I could feel it working. Mostly it was just burning my skin. I waited about an hour and I couldn't feel it doing anything so I jumped in the shower to rinse it off. Holy $h!t. It was burning. I used soap trying to wash it off, but nothing. I got out, dried off and it was better, but for the next hour it was burning so bad. OK, bad start here. When the burning sensation stopped, it actually felt good. Probably going to try out the joint spray. Not really sure how a topical spray can work on joints, but its free to try.

Equalizer Run

Ok, I figured since I am already insane, why not do something else insane to wrap up the year? I signed up for the Equalizer run in Des Moines. I have not heard of this before, but a fellow triathlete directed me at it. It is a running race and you do ~2 mile laps for either 6 or 24 hours. At the end, they count up your laps and convert to miles. Next they take your actual miles and multiply it by an "equalizer" number to get the overall winner. This is to eliminate gender and age advantage/disadvantage. I think it is a load of crap, lol. Anyway. I am entered into the 6 hour category. The 24 hour race does NOT appeal to me even in the slightest. Also, how often can you decide to run a 30+ mile race 6 weeks out? Um...very little to never. I would never train just for this race and you have to be insane to do that. Ok, it is just like training for a marathon, but still. I really like the "format" of this race because it is exactly how I have been training, for time and not distance. I don't have to run fast, I just have to try to keep running as long as I can and minimize walking. Sound familiar? Exactly my Ironman marathon strategy. On the entry form, it asks how many miles do you expect to finish. I put down 30 figuring: 6 hours/a 12 min/mile pace = 30 miles. The only results I could find were from 2006. Not sure if they just aren't out there or if they have not done this race since 2006. The winner ran a little over 35 miles in '06 and 36 in '05. It should be exciting. I guess I have to go out and buy more gels. Yippee.

Body, are you listening to me?

The last 2 weeks have been really weird. After the Ironman, I felt great and ready to start working out again. I took the rest of the week off and managed to not do anything triathlon related for all but one 45 min bike ride. I cleaned and cleaned. My house was disgusting. You never realize how gross it is until you actually clean it. Tuesday the 8th I decided I would start getting back into it. I ran for 30 min Tuesday after a long time spent at the grocery store. Geez. Wednesday, I went to the pool thinking I was going to get to swim. Nope, it still wasn't open so I lifted for 45 min and went home and biked for 45 min. Thursday I ran for 40 min. I was exhausted on Friday. My legs were achy and I just didn't have any energy. Saturday I also took off because I drank a little to much for the Iowa/Iowa State game and slept the rest of the day. Sunday I managed to do some stuff around the yard and mow. I played 2 softball games that night. I had to do a lot of sprinting that night because I had a good hitter behind me. Monday came and I could feel my legs were not use to that. Stupid me, thinking my body was ready for a little more intensity, went to a spin class. Wrong idea. I got about 5 min into it and my legs were not having it. I did the class about about 25% since that was all my legs could handle. Oh and I did this after I had lifted for 30 min. Good work Kel. After spin class I went home and walked my dog. That felt good to do. Loosened my legs up. Tuesday I went for a 5 mile run which normally takes me 40-45 min took me 50 min plus my 5 min cool down walk. Augh. I was not breathing hard at all, my body just did not want to go. So that brings me to tonight. I am planning on trying to go swimming. If I feel good I will do some laps since I have not been in the pool since IMKY. When I feel tired I will jump into the hot tub :) There is a yoga class at 630 that I am planning on hanging around for so I will probably lift a little bit before then. Tomorrow night, not doing anything. Its really weird how I feel ready to go and feel like I could pick up with my normal routine, until I actually start doing something then my body just shuts down and refuses to work. Guess they were right that it takes 6 weeks to fully recover from an Ironman. Hopefully by then I will have a little bit more of an idea of how I want to go into my training for the off season. My idea of my goal for next year would be to get my half ironman time to 5 hours and to qualify for nationals. This is going to take a lot of hard work, but I think it is a reasonable goal that will really push myself to see what I can do. My goal race I guess would be the Pigman half which is a qualifier for the Long Course nationals in September. I have a list of what I feel I need to work on the most over the winter and have read several good articles about off season training that I think I am going to use the winter months for speed work and then in the spring start building the endurance to go along with my already found speed :)