Finishing season 2011 without the final event.... Vacation

I was looking forward so much to do the final event of the season: Ironman Arizona. My mind was set on Ironman race even though it was a last competition of the very long season, started in San Juan with Ironman 70.3 in March. The training was going very well and I had a few more long days ahead of me before I start tapering when my body said: "Sorry, it's a little too much" and it gave up and hit me at my weak spot, the feet, to be more correct: the achilles. So I stopped running just a few weeks before the race, thinking that I can rest my feet for a little bit and still be able to show up at the race in a good shape. But that didn't happened and I had to call it the end of the season 2011. It took me a few days to set my mind to the rest mood. I still went out and did the "Horrible 70m" (the bike ride in Clermont) same weekend as Ironman Arizona. It wasn't easy to start the vacation just like that: after so many days of training without any complete brake and without the proper finish, but the time was right...

It was time to get out of Clermont (a very sport oriented town) and have a great vacation even though I didn't feel like I deserved it. And the best way to have a vacation (that I know now for sure) is to go for the cruise. And that what we did with my boyfriend, who definitely deserved to have some good rest. It was a 7 days cruise with Norwegian Cruise Line to Western Caribbean: Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Mexico. It was the best vacation I've had in many years. So much to tell..., I just add the small photo album with pictures, which I took during the first two days of the cruise before my camera got wet and broke :( https://picasaweb.google.com/Aniluzok/NCLCruiseToWesternCaribbean

And we had much more fun as a volleyball, rock climbing, ping pong, bowling, different entertaining show every night, dancing and a great food.

But all vacations come to the end sooner or later and it time to get back to reality and stop looking through the pictures over and over again :)))

The season 2011 coming to the end.

The last couple months passed very fast. I've managed to complete 4 big races in seven weeks, have been racing almost every second weekend. The first one was Ironman 70.3 Timberman which was a good race for me even with my first ever 4min. penalty :((( and with my "good luck" charm in the front wheel. Finished 4th with a good bike splits and a dissent run.
The REV3 full distance triathlon race was the next one, three weeks later. It wasn't my best long triathlon event, I really broke down after mile 15th- 16th. Still didn't gave up and finished in top 6. Two weeks down the road I was already going to Augusta, to do one of my favorite Ironman 70.3 races (why?... swim with a current, love it :) ) Another 4th place and sprinting at the finish line second year in row. Another two weeks after Augusta we are heading the road almost the same direction again, a little more north-east this time. It was a final race of Revolution3 series in Anderson, SC. I was already pretty tired (no surprise there). But I wanted to do that race and I wanted just to go out there and enjoy the day. The goal for the day was to stay in my comfortable race zone, don't brake down through the whole race and try to progress towards the finish. And I accomplished that. I don't think I was able to do all that travel and racing without my boyfriend, he is my best support. We became so officiant with packing and traveling. I finally stopped to freak out before my trips and actually started to enjoy it. So, the race in Anderson was the final triathlon of the series, as I mentioned before. I qualified for the series points overall and finished in top 3. REV3 team have done a great job through the year and it's very nice to see that they are growing, they are going to add 3 more races to the REV3 Triathlon series next year.

I have one more race before I can enjoy a little vacation. And it's going to be Ironman Arizona, which I've done 2 times in past, but I never did it in November. Looking forward to have 5-6 weeks of just training and staying on one place. And then, Arizona, I coming :)))

The training camp in high altitude. Posture alignment therapy.

Almost every year I have a post with similar name "... high altitude training..." and most of the times I mention the same place, Los Alamos, a small town in high mountains in New Mexico, one of my favorite towns in North America. Beautiful nature, nice friendly people and very sports oriented town. I really enjoy to train here: hundreds of trails, different variety of roads for biking and 50 miters indoor swimming pool, a dream town of a triathlete, who doesn't like crowd and ready for the hard training, because Los Alamos is at an elevation of 7.200 ft and there is no easy course for the bike ride except maybe a spin on a bike trainer. I am training here for the first Ironman this season, Ironman St. George, which is coming up in less then 3 weeks.

My biggest goal this year was to stay injury free. Since the middle of year 2009 I wasn't 100% free of injuries and most of the time there is something's going on in my feet: planter fasciitis, achilles tendonitis, heel bursitis, stress fracture. I do, massage the calf muscles and stretch , I do ice the feet after training, I stay hydrated, but I still have some issues in that area. When I got to Los Alamos my friend told me about a method, called The Egoscue Method and that there is a girl in town who can help, using the same method, to get better with my injuries. At the beginning it sounded like some kind of magic, but listening to my friend it actually was making seance. I wont describe the whole method, there is enough information online, here is what I am doing, Aligned Play, with coach Jessica. I just want to share my experience. First of all we found out that my body is all twisted, one hip is higher and same with shoulders. It's not surprise that right and left sides of the body are not symmetrical. But sometimes when you are training hard through so many years this can cause injury related problems. And when you can find the right exercises to make the body more even it can also help to relies those problems. And that what we were doing. I got the list of 10 drills, which I need to do every morning (takes about 30 min). After a few days I could tell that my body motions have changed: I noticed on the bike ride, that my paddle stroke is more straight; I stay tall through my runs and I can maintain to run long runs without pain in my feet. This is life long commitment to the 30-40 min of exercises every day, but if it helps to stay injury free I'll stick to it :-)

Early season races.

The changes in my schedule didn't happened. And the first race of 2011 season was meant to be Ironman 70.3 San Juan. I was into two weeks of running (jogging) and my goal for that race was to finish the race..... Let just say it was a bad day: I finished the race, but I suffered from the start to the last steps of the race, which leaded me straight to the Medical tent, where I got two IV(s) and an oxygen mask. Not the best race to start a new season.

The second event in my competition plan was Ironman 70.3 Oceanside, California. It's always a very competitive race and this year wasn't an exception. I felt much better this time although I finished out of top 10 (11th place), but I didn't drop to far from the girls in front of me and I mostly lost my time on the swim. "Andy Potts and Mirinda Carfrae each earned their third Rohto Ironman 70.3 California titles, winning tight races over Rasmus Henning and Heather Jackson, respectively."

Originally from: http://ironman.com/events/ironman70.3/california70.3/brad-culp-recaps-todays-exciting-race-in-oceanside#ixzz1KIgyrDis

Ironman 70.3 California race results

2011, winter training.

It's already the end of April and I haven't updated my blog for several months, no excuse here. I'll just try to catch up on news like I usually do :-)

The time off and recovery past very well in my home town, Lvov. Lot's of fun, lot's of Holidays (in Ukraine it's kind of Holidays season from the end of December till the end of January) and a little bit of exercising: I took a few dance and a few fitness classes just to do something different and maintain not to lose my shape :-), which didn't really happened. The off season didn't last forever and at the beginning of January I already left Ukraine for much warmer and outdoor training more welcome place, Clermont, Florida. Trying to get in shape faster and lose those "few" pounds of winter weight I pushed myself very hard, probably too hard, because in 6 weeks into my training I got an injury (a stress fracture in left calcaneus). Here I want to say thank you very much to Meadowlands Hospital in New Jersey, which provide me with MRI for my left foot and doctors, who found a couple injuries there and also thanks for the correct and fast diagnosis. And huge thanks to Ronnie Barnes, Vice President of Medical Services of New York Giants who found a minute in his busy schedule and made a recovery plan for my foot. How I got to meet him??? Timex is one of the biggest sponsors for New York Giants and at the end of February we had Team Timex every year camp at Giants facility:

Great 4 days at the camp, everyone, the new members and the old crew were Happy to meet and Celebrate 10th Anniversary of The Team Timex.

Coming back to Clermont from New Jersey I knew that it was time to slow down a little bit with my training. I still was able to ride the bike and swim and aquajog (thanks Team Timex for the present,

Apple Ipod shuffle. Aquajogging can be fun). It's took 4 weeks of no running till the bone healed. I've tried to run after 3 weeks, it's never happened. Believe me, I am experienced person in this area: 4 broken toys, one broken leg and a few fractures. 4 weeks is minimum. It also meant that I might change my race schedule....