Break time is officially over, and training for my first Ironman 70.3 of the 2019 season on March 17 in Campeche Mexico is underway.
Off-season was relatively short, but I was looking forward to getting back into the swing of training. Getting back in the groove, though, hasn't been so smooth.
Friends who are athletes often ask me how I've managed to avoid injury with all the training I do. Here's the thing: I haven't, really. I've simply made it a point to limit the impact of those inevitable niggles that come along with the hours of stress on my body.
Minding those niggles - and dealing with atrocious Austin allergies - has meant a slower return to training than I would like. But I know that being patient now will pay off in the long run.
My first hard workout after the break was a nine-mile run through some of the steepest neighborhoods in Austin. We ran six miles of hills, and then Coach Barny instructed us to run the final three miles as hard as we could. At the end of the run, I felt great and jumped in the car to go home and hop in a warm shower.
The crew after one of Coach Barny's "very cool" hill runs.
As soon as I got out the car at home, my lower back seized up. I could hardly move without pain. After a brief freak out, I downed some ibuprofen and formulated a plan to fix the situation while trying to stay on track with my training.
The first area of my body that starts complaining when I'm under physical stress is usually my back. Last season, a muscle spasm kept me out of the pool for nearly two weeks. The pain in my back after that hilly run reminded me of what I had felt before that spasm came on. Instead of waiting for things to worsen, I started taking steps to get ahead of it.
First, I made an appointment with my acupuncturist. Then, I booked a massage. Then, I spent nearly an hour using a foam roller and a lacrosse ball to massage my muscles, focusing especially on my hamstrings, gluteal area and lower back. This gave Adaline a chance to watch "Monsters, Inc." for the 635th time, while I inflicted pain on myself with massage tools. Since I was already on the floor, I took some time to do some lower back stretches: cat and cow, cobra pose, pigeon pose and seated twists.
Ada playing while I torture, er massage, myself.
Those at-home measures loosened up my tight muscles enough that the pain subsided. It was a good reminder that, especially since I'm no spring chicken, keeping up with regular self-massage and stretching is not optional.
A lot of people, including my husband, get squeamish at the thought of dozens of needles being inserted into your flesh for prolonged periods of times. For me, though, nothing works better or faster. The Chinese medicine doctor I see uses a combination of acupuncture, cupping and scraping to stimulate nerves, muscles and connective tissue. At the end of a one-hour session, my back often looks like I've been attacked by a lustful octopus, but I feel like a brand new woman.
Those big purple spots on my back are from cupping. The more inflamed an area is, the darker the spots.
I took one day completely off from training after the treatment to let my body rest.
A couple of days later, after an appropriately tough massage, I was feeling good again and back to training full-steam.
During off-season, I had gotten lax with some of the good recovery habits I developed last year. It's easy to forget that those little things are actually big things, and without them I can't work to my potential during training sessions.
Now, I'm redoubling my efforts to stay healthy and injury-free for 2019.
Get religious about strength training. Lifting weights isn't just about getting "swole." It's about making sure your muscles and joints are strong and stable enough to withstand the beating of long-distance running, biking and swimming, and even the toll of day-to-day tasks, like lifting a 30-pound toddler or hauling groceries in from the car. It doesn't require much, just two or three 20- to 30-minute sessions per week will do the trick.
Make massage a must-do. This doesn't require an expensive trip to a bougie spa. It starts with making a foam roller and a lacrosse ball your friends. Full disclosure: It's going to hurt, and you are going to cuss the first few times that cylinder of pain meets your quads. But stick with it, and those tight, sore muscles will love you for the punishment. Even if the last time you ran was that time back in college when you left a sorority party and thought a bear was chasing you through campus, regular foam rolling will loosen up the muscles in your legs and back that get fatigued from sitting at a desk all day. Your back will feel better, and you'll stand taller.
Listen to your body. There's a difference between the pain of gaining strength and the pain of damaging yourself. If your body hurts, it's telling you something is out of whack. Not listening will make your body mad, worsen the problem and prolong the recovery process. Taking a day or two off to rest a muscle on the verge of strain will get you back in the game faster than pushing through the pain and forcing weeks of downtime.
Go to bed. In a world where people seem to be in a contest to see who can be the busiest and sleep the least, it can be hard to shut down. But our bodies and our brains use the time when we're sleeping to restore depleted cells and muscles. Shorting yourself of sleep means robbing your mind and body of the opportunity to grow from the work you did today and prepare for tomorrow. Researchers far and wide agree that adults need seven to nine hours of sleep nightly (and "catching up on the weekend" isn't a real thing). Athletes need even more. So, put your phone away and snuggle up.
Getting high is good for training. Who knew?