Trail Running - Tashka

The Tuscaloosa area has some beautiful lakes! There was a flyer up at Wagner's for a trail race to be held at Lake Lurleen, so I decided to do my once a year trail run and sign up!

The Tashka Trail 50K & 25K was on January 16th. The official name was the Nicholas Wilson Memorial - this was the 7th year for the race. Initially the race started as a way to give back to the community, preserving the memory of Nicholas Wilson, a little boy who passed away in 2008. As the years have passed the race has raised over $35,000 for different children's needs. This years beneficiary is the Tuscaloosa Children's Theater, and Kid One Transport.

A couple weeks before, Bill and I drove up to the lake to see where it was located. Definitely a plus for race morning - to know where you are going. It was really foggy the morning of the race, but there was hardly anyone on the road so I got to the race much faster than I though I would. Parked the car facing the lake and sat and watched the sun come up.

The 50K, and 25K started at 7:00 am. It was pretty chilly out, people kept telling me that "last year it was much colder." Have you ever noticed that when we are at a loss for words talking to a stranger that the weather becomes a typical topic of conversation? Honestly I don't really care that it was colder or hotter in previous years. It has nothing to do with the race today. It is what it is.

Race tip: Check the weather, plan to dress accordingly.

I raced the 4 mile - it was an out and back to on the Lakeside Trail. I worried a bit about the return trip and congestion on the trail, but it was a needless worry. Failed to look at the application where it says they cap the 4 miler at 30 people. The race director announced that he had blown off the first mile of the trail of all the leaves, and pine needles, so that all the roots and rocks were exposed. Nice!

Oh, this is interesting, just before the race I saw one of the guys who works at Wagner's. He said one thing to me that really helped for this race. Just a small comment that I shouldn't have any problem at this race. Meaning he knew the women's competition that were there. Funny how one small thing like that can completely change your confidence level, as well as race plan. I was planning on running hard, but being new to the area, I have no idea of who is who. So it made me run even harder, hoping that maybe I could win this thing.

The race started, two men went off in front and I was behind them. For a little while I worried that it was going to be like The Trail Run that I did last year in Shreveport. I had some trouble there getting around a couple men in front of me. But the two at Tashka quickly sped up and I didn't see them again. I heard a woman talking behind me as we first started, and resisted the temptation to look back and see where she was until we made a sweeping turn and I could just look sideways to see who was behind. At that point there was no one that in sight. I raced hard to the turnaround - funny how in trail running, you feel like you are pushing so hard and going so fast, only to look at your Garmin and see 9:30 pace. Haha!

At about 2 miles my left calf started hurting, and then it moved up to my glute, so once I got a about a half mile from the finish, I backed off and ran easy. An interesting observation in the days after the race was just how sore my calves were. In thinking about it (yes, I analyze everything), it does make sense. The majority of time I was up on my toes, either climbing between rocks, and roots, or descending between them. You have to kind of pick your way around them, and most of the time there isn't room for a full foot plant. I can see where regular trail running would be so good for all those little muscles in your lower leg. It would add a lot of lateral strength - the foot is constantly adjusting for the imperfect ground. It was a great workout. I should really do more trail running. Maybe I can get Bill interested so he can go with me!

Back to the race - I didn't pass anyone, and didn't get passed by anyone. Finished 3rd Overall, and was the first woman. When I crossed the finish line the RD handed me my award and that was it. The 4 miler awarded only first male, and first female. So there were no results to tabulate. Got my award, walked back to the car, took a few photos, and a selfie and then drove home. Had to be at work at 11:00. A post race nap would have been nice, but not today.

Next up on my schedule is the Masters Swim Meet in Auburn on February 13th! I've been swimming a lot. This week 6 days. I'm pretty tired, hopefully when I back off the yardage a few days before the meet I'll snap back. But my birthday is just before the meet, and I want to do a Birthday Swim! I finally decided what I'm going to do, just haven't picked the exact day for it. Don't want to do it too close to the meet.

Birthday Swim 5500 yards = 55 x 100

10 x 100 @1:40 warm up
9 x 100  @ 1:40 pull
8 x 100  @ 1:45 25 stroke / 75 free IM order
7 x 100  @ 1:40 25 back / 75 free
6 x 100  @ 1:45 negative split
5 x 100  @ 1:40 25 breast / 75 free
4 x 100  @ 1:45 descend 1-4
3 x 100  @ 1:40 25 fly / 75 free
2 x 100  swim down
1 x 100 kick

And since I'll be swimming for the Crimson Tide Masters in the meet at Auburn, I got this! What do you think?

The Dreaded Plantar Fasciitis

Plantar fasciitis - that ugly monster that rares it's head and makes your foot miserable. I can't tell you the number of people who come into Sportspectrum (running specialty store) where I work complaining about their foot pain.

"Plantar fasciitis (also known as plantar fasciopathy or jogger's heel) is a common painful disorder affecting the heel and underside of the foot. It is a disorder of the insertion site of ligament on the bone and is characterized by scarring, inflammation, or structural breakdown of the foot's plantar fascia. It is often caused by overuse injury of the plantar fascia, increases in exercise, weight, or age." - Wikipeida 

The thing that amazes me is just how long most of them have been suffering with PF and it's pain. "I've had this for 2 years, it's chronic". Some of them tell me that they have a custom orthotic from their podiatrist. Beyond that there are only a very few who are doing any thing else to recover from this injury. I don't know how they do it... living with that kind of pain for so long.

"If your first few steps out of bed in the morning cause severe pain in the heel of your foot, you may have plantar fasciitis (fashee-EYE-tiss), an overuse injury that affects the sole of the foot. A diagnosis of plantar fasciitis means you have inflamed the tough, fibrous band of tissue (fascia) connecting your heel bone to the base of your toes."

"You're more likely to develop the condition if you're female, overweight or have a job that requires a lot of walking or standing on hard surfaces. You're also at risk if you walk or run for exercise, especially if you have tight calf muscles that limit how far you can flex your ankles. People with very flat feet or very high arches also are more prone to plantar fasciitis." - American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society

I've had bouts of plantar fasciitis over the years. The quicker you do something about it the sooner you can get through it. The Internet is filled with great information and videos on self treatment of PF, "New Techniques for Treating Plantar Fasciitis" is just one of many good ones that I have found. It frustrates me that most of them have not taken the time to find out anything about what they can personally do to treat the pain, and most of them can't even pronounce it properly. I sit with them and explain that in order to recover from this they have to be pro-active. Wearing a "custom orthotic" is rarely going to fix the problem. Pretty much without fail after giving them a list of things to do and "not do" I get the wide eyed response of "I had no idea.......". Now, how many go home and actually put anything I've told them into action is another thing altogether. Sometimes it's easier to just complain about something than rather do something about it.

So just what do I tell them to do? Well here is a list:

1. NEVER walk barefoot. You must keep support of the fascia all the time. This even means when you get out of bed in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom you must put on some kind of supportive shoe or sandal. (This always gets me the look of are you kidding me?). 
2. Stretch your calf muscle before taking one step out of bed. Put a hand towel by the side of your bed and stretch your gastrocnemius and soleus muscles prior to standing up. The gastrocnemius is stretched by pulling your toes back with the towel wrapped around the forefoot with your knee straight. The soleus is stretched with the knee slightly bent. Here is a great blog post that I found: "A Little Soleus Stretch Goes a Long Way!" by Allyson Sunderman, DPT.
3. Body work on your lower leg. This may be by using a foam roller, or actually putting your hands on you leg and doing some deep tissue massage. Concentrate on the soleus muscle more than the gastrocnemius. The soleus is exposed below the gastroc, use cross fiber work on it to spread out the muscle and allow for increased blood flow into the muscle. You can also get to the belly of the soleus, you'll have to brace your fingers together, and work in between the heads of the gastrocnemius. In this picture I have weight on my foot (I had to prop up the camera), you will want to work on your leg with it non-weight bearing. Dig around and you will find a very tender spot, the trigger point, work on this in a cross fiber direction for 6-8 strokes in about a 1 inch size, then leave it alone and go back several times during the day and repeat. You will find that each time you go back and work on it there will be less tenderness. 
   
4. Body work on your foot. Don't forget to do some work on the bottom of your foot itself. A simple way to do this is with a little hard rubber ball on the floor under your desk. Some people recommend a golf ball, but you want something with a little flex in it. 
5. Taping. This is what I personally do immediately when I feel any hints of PF. I use Rock Tape H2O, I've tried several other brands but this one stays adhered much better and lasts longer. Taping you arch will hold the fascia up and allow it to heal and not get re-stretched with every step. Here is a Rock Tape video with instructions on taping for Plantar Fasciitis.
6. Arch sleeves. There are products on the market that are compression arch sleeves, I know that Feetures makes one. I've used these before and had moderate success, you can't wear them in the shower, and I've found that it really doesn't do as good a job as the taping.

Catching this early and doing some self treatment will help you tremendously in your recovery of PF and not allow it to become a chronic problem. Waiting until you've been hobbling around for weeks "hoping" that with just a little rest and time off of training will make it go away is not going to work.

I hope this sheds some light on this common problem with runners and non-runners. Good luck and keep training! See you at the races!!

http://running.competitor.com/2014/06/photos/new-techniques-treating-plantar-fasciitis_96398

Front Body – Back Body – Balanced Body

The idea for this blog post has been rattling around in my head for years. I think about it while I'm running and riding but for some reason it's never made it's way onto "paper".

Our bodies, while very complex, can be described for the purpose of this article as two planes. Imagine taking a guillotine and slicing your body in half, dividing it into two parts - The Front Body and The Back Body.

I spent 16 years as a Sports Massage Therapist and a Medical Massage Practitioner when I lived in Texas. I studied a lot of postural analysis, something that I still do to this day. It's pretty much impossible for me to ride or run with others and not analyze their movements, figure out what they're doing right, and what they're doing wrong. I have a hard time biting my tongue when I see someone that I think I can help.

I want you to think about little old men, the ones that you see walking slightly bent forward at the waist with their pants hitched way up in front. Why do you think they stand like this? It's because their "Front Body" muscles are short and strong. What does that mean? Think about most people's daily lives - they sleep typically curled on their sides in somewhat of a fetal position, they get up and sit at the kitchen table and have breakfast, they drive to work sitting down, they get to work and sit at a desk all day, they come home and sit some more for dinner, and maybe later watch some tv. Their bodies stay in a seated position most of the day. The hip flexors - the illiopsoas and the illiacus are the two muscles largely responsible for keeping people in an upright seated position, the rectus femorus (a quad muscle) and the tensor facia latae are also involved. When you keep these muscles in contraction they become strong - and shortened. Daily activity for most of us works these muscles constantly.

The body is made up of opposing muscle groups. Antagonist muscles. Think about the upper arm, your biceps and triceps. When one is in contraction it is impossible for the antagonist muscle to fire. When one is firing the other is stretched. When you get a cramp in your calf what do you do? I see people trying to "walk it out", the best thing to do is fire or contract the opposing muscle group - the anterior tibialis. The calf is made up of the gastrocnemius and the soleus, they are both responsible for plantar flexion of the foot; the gastrocnemius is also responsible for flexion of the leg at the knee. The anterior tibialis muscle on the front of your lower leg is responsible for dorsi flexion of your foot (bringing your toes toward your knee). The best thing to do when you get a calf cramp? Fire your anterior tibialis, either by just pulling your toes toward your knee or better yet have someone add slight resistance against the top of your foot. The calf can't fire/contract if it's antagonist is being used, and this will help your cramp dissipate. Same thing applies with your hamstring/quad - cramping in the hamstring? Leg extension from a bent leg position, with gentle resistance if possible.

So back to the little old man - what do you think happens to the opposing muscle group, the one that is not short and strong? The opposing muscle group becomes overstretched and weak. So how do we remedy this situation? Strengthen the Back Body and stretch the Front Body.

I practiced massage therapy for 16 years, I started all of my clients face up. Most therapists start their clients face down and work on the back first. The logical thing is to open up the front body, the pectorals and shoulders before turning them over and working on their backs. Why would you work on an overstretched muscle before loosening up the tight ones so their shoulders could move backwards naturally? It doesn't. The same thing applies to the neck, loosen up the scalenes, the sternocleidoimastoid (muscles on the front of your neck) and their attachments at the clavicle before moving on to the back of the neck.

I had a lot of clients who worked at a desk, and were on a computer all day long. They were hunched over at the shoulders and neck looking at the screen. I advised these people to get the screen up at eye level, so they would be sitting up straight, at the front of their chairs with the screen at eye level (think stack of books if necessary). I had so many come back and let me know how much this helped their neck pain. Pain resulting from forward neck position, which overstretched the back of their neck and the attachments at the occipital ridge on the back of their head.

What does this all have to do with a post for triathletes? We swim, we run, we ride, all mostly utilizing so much of our front bodies. See the runner with the rounded shoulders? I want to tell him to stand up straight and pull his shoulders back, open up the chest cavity - but maybe he can't because he's so tight from hunkering over the handlebars in the areo position (All actions using more front body). Same with swimming, mostly front body - what stroke do you think we swimmers use in between sets to loosen up and recover - Backstroke. Makes sense doesn't it? Utilize the back body and allow the front body to stretch and recover.

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So here is what I suggest you try. Spend some time lying backwards on a Swiss ball - lay your head back, lay your arms open wide to the sides, open up the hip flexors. I used to tell my massage clients this: when you wake up in the morning roll onto your stomach and press up on your elbows gently, lift you face slowly toward the ceiling, if you are flexible enough move up to upward facing dog position, do it slowly because most likely you've been in a curled up position for 6-8 hours. Open up your front body.

Now think about strengthening your back body. Squeeze your shoulder blades together, do slight hyper-extensions when lying in a prone (face down) position. If you are a gym rat you know the machines and exercises to work the back body. (Reverse Fly, Bent-over row, Hyper-extension, etc.) Get to work and BALANCE your Front and Back Body. Stretch the front and strengthen the back. It will improve your posture and you will feel better, trust me.


Oh... one more thing - ever been driving for a long time and your back starts to hurt, we usually think we need to stretch our back, right? Try this - do some isometric contractions of you low and upper back. You'll feel some immediate relief.

Strong and Short - Overstretched and Weak.

I'm borrowing this expression from a friend, I like it: "Do The Work!" Take care of your body!

See you at the races!!

Post Race Depression

Note:  This is a post from my ICEdot blog.

I’ve experienced the dreaded Post Race Depression after an Ironman but never before after a shorter race – in this case a Half Ironman.   After Ironman Canada back in 1992 I remember lying around feeling extremely unmotivated.   A friend of mine called me and asked if I was feeling the Post Race Depression.  It was one of those AH HA moments!!  Now it made sense! Since Austin 70.3 I’ve been tired and sleepy and generally cranky.  Compound this with the Time Change last weekend and what do you get?  An extremely lethargic, lazy, and pathetic girl!

In a previous ICEdot blog I posted my training schedule – I had the same type of calendar pages written out for Canada.  I crossed off each day’s workouts after their completion and it gave me a great sense of accomplishment.   In my other Ironman and Half Ironman races I had training schedules but wasn’t as dedicated about following them and they weren’t in the same format on calendar pages.  Plus those races didn’t go as well for me as Canada and Austin and I think that has something to do with it.

Usually the  recommended way of overcoming these blues is to sign up for another race, even if it’s just a 5K or 10K.   But I’m still having some major problems with the Plantar Faciitis in my right foot, and my right knee is still really hurting so I haven’t even thought about running yet.  That usually helps me too – and it’s fall so the weather is ideal for running ….sigh….and I’m out of Kinesio Tape (need to order more.)  How many more excuses do you think I can find? One of my friends said what helps her is to do something good or nice for someone else.  Went to watch my friend Becky race at Ironman Florida, that was nice!!  Nope… depression still lingering. I need to snap out of it!!

Going for a bike ride with a friend of mine this morning and have a long ride planned on Saturday with the couple who I did all my long training rides with for Austin.  Maybe that will help!  I hope so.   I have a friend who used to describe this type of attitude as “poosley”.  I think it’s a perfect word for what I’m feeling.  Its like when your friends are going out for dinner but you just want to stay home in your pajamas because you feel “poosley.”

Signed,

Poosley in Mississippi

Austin 70.3 Almost Here!!

Just over a week until my Half Ironman in Austin, TX!!  I am nervous but I think I'm ready. Fighting some little plaguing injuries.  My plantar fasciitis isn't any better and now my right knee has jumped onto the injury band wagon.  It's really warm and there is some swelling.  I've been taping it with the Rock Tape.  A brand of Kinesio Tape that was recommended to my by one of my ICEdot teammates.

Rock Tape makes an H2O version for triathletes and swimmers and this stuff is great!!!  I would recommend it to anyone using Kinesio Taping techniques.

I raced last weekend at the Mighty Magnolia Triathlon here in my hometown of Hattiesburg, MS.  It was two weeks out from the 70.3 so I wasn't expecting anything amazing as far as speed.  All the long distance training for the Half had me pretty tired.  So I didn't have high expectations.  But I had a GREAT race!!!  I never pushed the pace to the point where I was breathing hard at any time during the race.  Averaged 20.5 miles per hour on the bike (an improvement from last year) and ran 7:27 average pace for the run.  My run splits were 7:41, 7:35, 7:26!!  My Garmin clocked the run course at 2.95 miles, a little short of the advertised 3 mile run - so my watch had me at a 7:34 mile pace.  I'm happy with that too!  I placed 4th Overall Female and won the Masters Women's Division.

This is a great little race, only a few problems encountered.  The run course has two little out and back dog leg sections and when looking at some of the run times there were some athletes who didn't complete the entire course.  There should have been a volunteer at each little section directing the runners.   Hopefully next year the race director will have someone there.

See the two "Heartbeats"?

I was really happy to receive our second batch of Aquaphor Samples a few days before the race!!  I had run out before the Alabama Coastal race and didn't get to pass out any samples at all there.  Had the usual "I love this stuff" reception when I handed out over 50 samples to the triathletes after the race!!

All my friends did really well at the race!  It was a great day and hopefully we'll all have the same in Austin!!

Judy and I warmed up by swimming across the
fog covered lake! 

Nice easy swim - 5th Female swim time.

Finishing controlled.

Deanna - 3rd Masters Female
Lesley - 1st Age Group
Ginger - 1st Masters Female
Judy - 1st Age Group

And I just couldn't resist holding this adorable 8 week old
Golden Retriever puppy that I saw at the race!!