Last 9 exercise days. Neck and knee pain.
[I posted questions about my knee pain on runners
and my knee/neck pain on trigeeks.]
Last night I set a personal record, swimming 46 laps (about 0.7 miles) in one practice session for the first time! Took 50 minutes. Also, I swam for 20 minutes nonstop, twice! That's the longest I've ever swum in my life without a rest. Assuming it takes me 21 strokes to cross the 25 m pool, I made almost 1000 strokes.
Listening to my coach, I tried more aggressively twisting my torso in a corkscrew with each stroke. It's more powerful and gives you the effect of having longer arms. My body was like a propeller the whole time, and I heard the water churn loudly underwater. I reached as far out as possible with each stroke, and I fully extended my hands to my thighs before moving to the next stroke.
(Officially, I swam 46 "lengths" and really 23 "laps." A swimming "lap" really means once across and back a 25 m length---or 2 "lengths." But it feels better to call a "length" a "lap"!)
I am always the last person to leave the pool at 7:15 pm, when the women's water polo team jumps in and starts practicing right next to me. Watching them swim is inspiring.
It's strange. After a run, I'm usually tired and drained. But I always feel energized and ready to party, after a swim.
My coach said that swimming is harder in a triathlon, because it's in the ocean. There are no lines on a pool floor to follow. I must keep lifting and turning my head to aim towards a buoy. Plus, he shortens his strokes---lower efficiency. I need to modify my stroke to catch waves. I must wear a wetsuit to fend off the ocean cold. And of course, I can't push off the wall after each lap, which means more work. I'm bad at swimming in a straight line without guidelines. At the Monterey resort, I kept curving without lane markers. This goes into differences between triathlon swimming and lap swimming.
Bottom line: I need MUCH more work to prepare for the Olympic triathlon, which starts with a 1.5 km swim (.93 miles) = sixty 25 m laps.
Here's my crazy 6 day a week exercise schedule:
Last Tues: Ran 5 miles nonstop on track, with interval training (50 minutes). Sprinted every 1/4 of a lap, for 20 laps. THEN swam 32 laps (1/2 mile) for an hour.
Last Weds: Rollerbladed 6.5 miles, slowly, with Latina friend.
Last Thurs: Started kickboxing class and learned basic kicking, punching, and lunges (1.3 hours). THEN swam 36 laps in an hour.
After the swim, I discovered that part of my left big toenail had fallen off! I had bruised my left big toe a couple of months ago, playing tennis. It was fully blackened. Now most of the top layer of the toenail, including the black clot, is gone. My toe is still covered with a thin nail layer, but it looks freaky.
Last Fri: Ran 4 miles at Rancho San Antonio, in the hills. Much harder than I expected, and had to stop several times. Took over an hour.
Last Sat: Ran 4 miles on track. Had to stop a couple of times, since my right knee pain continued. THEN helped my Latina friend move to her new apartment for 3 hours. Lots of heavy furniture.
Sunday: Exhausted. Slept much of day.
Monday: Ran 5 miles in the evening. Right knee pain continued. First ran 3 miles at Rancho San Antonio, until park closed. Then drove to track and ran 2 more miles. Stopped several times from knee pain.
Tuesday: Kickboxing, intense, for 1.3 hours. Not as tough as my own running/swimming workouts. My kickboxing partner is a pretty, thin girl who is a jazz and ballet dancer. We all help each other stretch out, and when she leans against the wall and I lift her legs, they go vertically up alongside her head! She punches like a girl, though. Hehe... I'm the third fastest runner in the class. THEN I swam the 46 laps mentioned above.
Today:
Exhausted, with heavy pain, tightness, and soreness in my trapezius (neck) starting Tuesday night. The intense kickboxing punches and swimming strokes may have strained my muscles. Spent a long time massaging my neck by lying on tennis and rubber balls. I also ordered the Body Back Buddy, an S-shaped piece of plastic that lets you massage your own back and neck. By the evening, my intense neck pain had vanished, subsiding to basic soreness. I will lower my swimming/punching intensity tomorrow.
I also found another self-massager called the Pressure Pointer, which lets you use your foot to step on the S-shaped device and thus knead your back. Here's their pain reference chart, a set of "trigger points" you must massage for pains and headaches.
Tonight, I ran 3 miles on the track after dinner, at low intensity. My right knee began to hurt again, so I didn't push it. The actual knee joint and bone don't hurt. It's the lateral (outside) part of my right knee.
I worry that I may have early symptoms of Iliotibial Band Syndrome (ITBS), a common runner's injury. Do I?
I will cut down my running distance and intensity until my lateral knee pain goes away. Plus I'm starting to do this stretch, and I need to do lateral leg raises to strengthen my hip abductors and gluteus medius:
More on Iliotibial Band Syndrome:
http://www.lwcoaching.com/library/runnersguideitbs.htm (includes good strengthening exercises)
http://web.archive.org/web/20050329091128/http://www.csuchico.edu/phed/atc/Projects/ITband/ITBFS.html
Saturday night, I also went to see the San Francisco Opera for the first time! Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser. Plus, I may be moving to Belmont. Will explain all this in tomorrow's post.
Tonight, after dinner and run, my weight: 133.4 lbs.
Body fat: 13%. I've never been able to go below 13%.
I'm exercising a total of 8.5 hours a week. I also eat 4-5 meals a day---smaller portions, more frequently, to keep my metabolism burning throughout the day.
and my knee/neck pain on trigeeks.]
Last night I set a personal record, swimming 46 laps (about 0.7 miles) in one practice session for the first time! Took 50 minutes. Also, I swam for 20 minutes nonstop, twice! That's the longest I've ever swum in my life without a rest. Assuming it takes me 21 strokes to cross the 25 m pool, I made almost 1000 strokes.
Listening to my coach, I tried more aggressively twisting my torso in a corkscrew with each stroke. It's more powerful and gives you the effect of having longer arms. My body was like a propeller the whole time, and I heard the water churn loudly underwater. I reached as far out as possible with each stroke, and I fully extended my hands to my thighs before moving to the next stroke.
(Officially, I swam 46 "lengths" and really 23 "laps." A swimming "lap" really means once across and back a 25 m length---or 2 "lengths." But it feels better to call a "length" a "lap"!)
I am always the last person to leave the pool at 7:15 pm, when the women's water polo team jumps in and starts practicing right next to me. Watching them swim is inspiring.
It's strange. After a run, I'm usually tired and drained. But I always feel energized and ready to party, after a swim.
My coach said that swimming is harder in a triathlon, because it's in the ocean. There are no lines on a pool floor to follow. I must keep lifting and turning my head to aim towards a buoy. Plus, he shortens his strokes---lower efficiency. I need to modify my stroke to catch waves. I must wear a wetsuit to fend off the ocean cold. And of course, I can't push off the wall after each lap, which means more work. I'm bad at swimming in a straight line without guidelines. At the Monterey resort, I kept curving without lane markers. This goes into differences between triathlon swimming and lap swimming.
Bottom line: I need MUCH more work to prepare for the Olympic triathlon, which starts with a 1.5 km swim (.93 miles) = sixty 25 m laps.
Here's my crazy 6 day a week exercise schedule:
Last Tues: Ran 5 miles nonstop on track, with interval training (50 minutes). Sprinted every 1/4 of a lap, for 20 laps. THEN swam 32 laps (1/2 mile) for an hour.
Last Weds: Rollerbladed 6.5 miles, slowly, with Latina friend.
Last Thurs: Started kickboxing class and learned basic kicking, punching, and lunges (1.3 hours). THEN swam 36 laps in an hour.
After the swim, I discovered that part of my left big toenail had fallen off! I had bruised my left big toe a couple of months ago, playing tennis. It was fully blackened. Now most of the top layer of the toenail, including the black clot, is gone. My toe is still covered with a thin nail layer, but it looks freaky.
Last Fri: Ran 4 miles at Rancho San Antonio, in the hills. Much harder than I expected, and had to stop several times. Took over an hour.
Last Sat: Ran 4 miles on track. Had to stop a couple of times, since my right knee pain continued. THEN helped my Latina friend move to her new apartment for 3 hours. Lots of heavy furniture.
Sunday: Exhausted. Slept much of day.
Monday: Ran 5 miles in the evening. Right knee pain continued. First ran 3 miles at Rancho San Antonio, until park closed. Then drove to track and ran 2 more miles. Stopped several times from knee pain.
Tuesday: Kickboxing, intense, for 1.3 hours. Not as tough as my own running/swimming workouts. My kickboxing partner is a pretty, thin girl who is a jazz and ballet dancer. We all help each other stretch out, and when she leans against the wall and I lift her legs, they go vertically up alongside her head! She punches like a girl, though. Hehe... I'm the third fastest runner in the class. THEN I swam the 46 laps mentioned above.
Today:
Exhausted, with heavy pain, tightness, and soreness in my trapezius (neck) starting Tuesday night. The intense kickboxing punches and swimming strokes may have strained my muscles. Spent a long time massaging my neck by lying on tennis and rubber balls. I also ordered the Body Back Buddy, an S-shaped piece of plastic that lets you massage your own back and neck. By the evening, my intense neck pain had vanished, subsiding to basic soreness. I will lower my swimming/punching intensity tomorrow.
I also found another self-massager called the Pressure Pointer, which lets you use your foot to step on the S-shaped device and thus knead your back. Here's their pain reference chart, a set of "trigger points" you must massage for pains and headaches.
Tonight, I ran 3 miles on the track after dinner, at low intensity. My right knee began to hurt again, so I didn't push it. The actual knee joint and bone don't hurt. It's the lateral (outside) part of my right knee.
I worry that I may have early symptoms of Iliotibial Band Syndrome (ITBS), a common runner's injury. Do I?
I will cut down my running distance and intensity until my lateral knee pain goes away. Plus I'm starting to do this stretch, and I need to do lateral leg raises to strengthen my hip abductors and gluteus medius:
More on Iliotibial Band Syndrome:
http://www.lwcoaching.com/library/runnersguideitbs.htm (includes good strengthening exercises)
http://web.archive.org/web/20050329091128/http://www.csuchico.edu/phed/atc/Projects/ITband/ITBFS.html
Saturday night, I also went to see the San Francisco Opera for the first time! Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser. Plus, I may be moving to Belmont. Will explain all this in tomorrow's post.
Tonight, after dinner and run, my weight: 133.4 lbs.
Body fat: 13%. I've never been able to go below 13%.
I'm exercising a total of 8.5 hours a week. I also eat 4-5 meals a day---smaller portions, more frequently, to keep my metabolism burning throughout the day.