Train-n-Tri: Twinge, Tape and Race!

I picked up my race number for tomorrow's Tinman.

I raced (well, in my case, evented) this reverse sprint triathlon last year. I am a tri-nerd and I do keep track of my times for "events", so I pulled out my notebook and took a peek at what I did last year.....

This event is not sanctioned - it is a "fun"raiser for the San Bernardino Rotary. I support the Rotary because years ago another chapter sent me to India for a month on a work exchange program. I was a reporter then and while I was in India I was inside only one newspaper. The rest of the time I was shuttled from one "event" to another. And the events then did not involved swimming, biking and running. The events I attended in India involved weddings, parties, visiting families, touring factories, riding elephants, watching tigers and learning to eat with my hands while drinking awesome Indian beer.

I did write a newspaper story about my experience when I got back, so some reporting was involved.

But since tomorrow's event is not "sanctioned" by the USAT, they don't have to keep track of times for the run, T1, bike, T2 and the swim. It is just ONE BIG FAT TIME!

Last year - 1:13:04.8

Before some people gasp about my time for this 5k run, 9 mile bike, 100 yard swim in a pool, I want to let you know that last year running was NOT my strong suit and riding bikes up hills with 7 to 11 percent grades was NOT my strong suit and swimming was NOT my strong suit.

And to be honest, getting through transition quickly was NOT my strong suit.

What was my strong suit?

Loving Triathlon!!!

During the past year I have worked on all this....and I have hope (I mean I have a year's worth of training behind me) that at tomorrow's TINMAN I can better my time.

I do have hope (saying a prayer) that I can better my time without causing further injury to my right knee.

I am pretty sure that I can bike and swim faster than I did last year. Darn sure I can make it through transitions tomorrow cleaner and faster.

Running?

We will see.

If you had asked me 2 weeks ago, I would have said, YES....faster and stronger.

But that was before.

Before I tried to carry a stack of clean towels into a yelling clean, but naked, teenage boy in the bathroom who forgot to look if there were any clean towels BEFORE he took a shower.

Long story short - I carried towels, walked into brick fireplace, fell down, threw towels, cried and swore. Then naked teenage boy had to run out, grab a towel, then wait on me the rest of the night.

This is not me, but you get the idea. I had to miss my scheduled bike ride and sit in front of the TV (torture for me) with ice on my knee for 4 hours while my boy brought me aspirin and beer and called and ordered pizza.

I thought my knee was getting better.

I have had a couple of runs since then - a 2.5 mile walk/run and my knee was okay, just a little stiff and sore; a 6.36 run, my knee was okay, but I did ice it afterward; and a 4.91 mile walk/run yesterday. It was a walk/run because every once in a while my knee would get a weird shooting, tingling pain on the outside.

I have also been bike riding since my laundry accident. Six rides to be exact and my knee did not hurt until Tuesday when I rode the Tinman course with my triathlon club for a pre-course ride. The bike ride has a nice little hill called "Devil's Canyon." According to my Garmin, the hill goes a little something like this for the grade - 4, 5, 4, 5, 6, 5, 6, 5, 7, 6, 7, 6, 8, 7, 6, 9, 8,10, 11....and that's when I stopped looking at my Garmin and calling out the grade to a friend and started focusing on my pedaling....pull with hamstrings, don't push with KNEE!!!!

I walked away without a limp, but I had a twinge.

Then I mountain biked the other day and I still could feel a twinge. It's hard to describe a twinge unless you have had a twinge. But it was definitely a twinge.

Okay, this guy knows what a twinge is.

At the Triathlon Connection meeting the other night I raised my hand high when the local chiropractor was looking for a guinea pig to get a KNEE taped, but someone else got picked. Drat!

I looked at my knee today and it has green bruises on it.

It might be a little hard to tell, but I have bruising on the top right of my knee and on the side of my knee. But the good news is that my cut is scabbed up and healing. It must be the coconut oil I take everyday.

No worries about my knee, though, because I have tape and directions.