Red Zone

I'm not sure how many of you use Training Peaks as your online training tracker.  The thing I'm really addicted to with it is the color-shading for each workout. It's simple, green for completed as scheduled, yellow for either slightly over or under on the scheduling, and red for an incomplete workout or something way beyond what was required.  Call me a creature of habit, call me old school, call me Pavlovian, but I NEED that green shading after each workout.  It makes each workout real, tangible. An all "green" week for me is a happy week.  A productive week.  A successful week. Those yellow (unless it's to symbolize more work) and red shades, they gnaw at me.  I view them the way my family viewed B's on school report cards amidst a string of A's, "What happened with the B?" Arrrgh!  Really???

So you can imagine how I feel now when I log into Training Peaks and have to ignore any running workout for the next two weeks and any cycling activity for the next week.  The latter is Coach Gerardo's order and the former is my ART specialist's suggestion.

There's gonna be a whole lot of bleeding read staring me in the face the next few weeks.  I hope I can handle it!  It's like bringing home a report card filled with D's and F's!!!

How will I live???

(Yes, I have a touch for the dramatic.)

Here's why though.  This morning marked my second ART appointment, and my therapist really worked deep into my hips and psoas region (connector between hip, IT band and what feels like my abdomen area).  He identified what he clearly thinks the problem is for now, extremely tight hips and weak glute muscles that are combining to severely limit my range of motion.  Ironman Arizona and the final training that led up to the race are likely causes.  Along with what I can only describe as an ill-informed, ill-thought out and overly aggressive recovery period.  A "recovery" period that isn't making me better, but probably exacerbating the problem(s).  Compounding them, or just POUNDING them.

I feel like I've wasted the past four-plus weeks since IMAZ with inconsistent workouts that have either been too long (first trail run), too strenuous (two-hour trail run in the rain?), or too unnecessary (yesterday's two-hour rainy bike ride).  What I haven't done enough of is yoga or basic strength training, and it shows.

Today though, after my ART session, I went back to Black Dog Yoga for a Deep Stretch class with Gerardo and a couple Fortius teammates.  Though it will be hard with the holiday schedule, I'm hoping to live in the yoga studio the next couple weeks, waiting patiently to get my groove back.  I'm going to have to trust that slower (or non-existent) will ultimately lead to faster and smoother.

Lately, I've been writing about committing to recovery but not really practicing it.  Today, I finally come to terms with it. Yes, I know I've been wishy-washy.  That's my brain and heart winning out over my body.  Now that I know clinically what my physical ailments are, I'm ready to accept the "red zone" and move back towards the green one.

Hopefully by the time I'm fully recovered, I'll add one more adjective to describing my "green" workouts: Gratifying.

181 days and counting.