Dr. Kathy's Training Blog

ALRIGHT, I’m trying not to fret about our big race next weekend. If you race, you know what I mean… worrying about stupid things like “I just can’t get sick before next weekend” and “I hope I make the swim cut-off time!”. My workout for Thursday was a FABULOUS run with my dear friend Scott Scudamore. We were at the Wakefield trails doing a 40 minute run with 3 sets of 3 minutes hard. It is so motivating to run with a pal, and so much more enjoyable sometimes to share the beautiful outdoors this way with a friend. I think I kicked his butt more than he kicked mine but we both had a super workout. The entire purpose was to “REV THE ENGINES, BURN OUT THE EXISTING CARBON, AND PREP THE OVEN” for race day WITHOUT depleting our systems much at all. I felt fresh and light afterwards, I think Scott did too. (He is racing XTERRA Worlds as well next week! Go Scott Go!)

Yesterday I was scheduled for my most favorite thing to do on a cold and rainy day. Ooohhh I just love to jump into the cold water at the swimming pool when my skin is already frost bitten. Feels so refreshing. Anyways, enough complaining Coutinho. Pierre and I did DRILLS for 25 minutes followed by a few hard 50’s. Honestly, it was fabulous learning and I even warmed up to turn a shade of light blue. Coach Melissa told me to focus on my body-balance in the water, so my feet aren’t down at a 45 degree angle below my head making me have to pull them like big huge weights through the water. The drills are working, so remember this, if you want to swim like a swimmer and not like a rock, get a swim coach, it works!

Have a super weekend and get your exercise in despite this rainy day. Burke Lake is a great place to walk/run even when it is wet out, there is much tree cover to protect you from the wind too. SEE YOU!

13 days until lift off…. Maui XTERRA World Championships!!! There are 22 women in my age group who I will be competing against, and truly I feel like I will be lucky to place 21st at this point. Time to start the taper while not getting sick. Today was a great swim with Pierre, 25 minutes of drills and then the fun part: 4 sets of 50 meters descending (going harder), then 2 sets of 200, 150 hard and 50 easy. Because I am racing Pierre, I actually pulled out a 1 min 25 sec. 100 on both sets, and my last 50 was REALLY SLOW, so this is not something I could endure. I was breathing so hard in my hard sets that I was making a whistling noise in my chest, totally hilarious! This workout I fit into my lunch break nicely, and I even had time for a tea and honey at Starbucks with my hubby before going back to treating my patients.

Regular application of exercise is what will give you results…A fitter body, a FASTER body, a healthier mind, a more energetic experience of your day, a more POSITIVE outlook on life, a better appreciation for food, a great night’s sleep, and so on and so on!!!!! Please make a fitness goal and fit exercise into your daily routine. You will LOVE the results!

Saturday has dawned and my work out for today was my cherished MOUNTAIN BIKE RIDE!!! BUT, first pancakes with my family, then to my office to treat some wonderful patients for a few hours, then at last to my beloved trails of Wakefield for an hour steady spin. No hard stretches today, I just focussed on maintaining an even effort even in the twisty rooty parts or short climbs. Then…. my oldest daughter’s first bike race, an out and back with other kids 6 and under on 2 wheels. (Valerie is 4!) Valerie on her tiny bike with a cadence of about 250 peddle strokes per minute because the crank arm is about 3 inches long, came not last but 2nd to last. I told her that is GREAT, because her competition will have no expectations of her next year when she has a bike that actually fits her growing frame! She’ll crush it! Cool I told you before, a bike fit makes all the difference in the world, no matter how small you are!

I refer to Melissa Dalio for a professional bike fit, you can email her directly with questions about your bike and how it might be causing problems due to poor fit, to mdcoaching@verizon.net. And if you don’t have a bike, GO TO THE BIKE LANE! www.thebikelane.com.

I got to mountain bike ride today with my husband on the great trails of Wakefield. This is MY kind of training, fun, out in the woods and sunshine, peaceful and a super awesome workout. My workout today was an hour and a half steady ride with a 15 minute hard section making every 3 minute a super hard effort. Great training to ride hard on twisty trails, and I just love riding down other mountain bikers on the trails, pretending that they are the next girl at Maui that I have to run down! My advise is for you to go out and get yourself a Trek Fuel at the Bike Lane or at the very least get your bike fit to your body. Since I got a bike that actually fits my frame, my bike performance has tripled. Afterward, my 4 year old daughter rode with my husband 2 miles on her training wheel-less bike in training for her first bike race tomorrow at Wakefield at the Children’s Health Festival/Monster Mash MTB Race. She is a little rock star that one!

Last hard track workout before Maui!

Thursday was TRACK day!  Pierre and I went OUTSIDE to play on the track, while a high school foot ball team of smelly teenagers practiced their sport!  Track consisted of a mile warm up, then 4x 1200 meters “all out” with a 400 easy run in between.  My left hip flexor started to hurt again from an injury I took crashing at Rocky Gap XTERRA in June when a bunch of boys wouldn’t let me pass on the mountain bike.   (quick story, I yelled out “on your left” to a string of 6 guys, no one shifted even slightly to allow me to thread my way by in those tight twisty trails.  So I had to pass one at a time going AROUND pretty densely packed trees.   As I was passing the last guy, he shifted INTO my pass and I caught my left handlebar on a tree, resulting somehow in me being whipped completely around the tree, over the trail in front of this guy at a 90 degree angle, and several feet on the other side of him.  My left hip was whipped backwards and my bike landed 5 feet further.  This crash made the boys stop with concern and they asked if I was ok…I said um, let me see, um, I am not sure, urrrr, ouch, and by the time I carted my bike back to the trail IN FRONT of the boys I decided I was fine and left them in my dust! But my hip flexor was torn and I couldn’t train for a week after that one.)

Hi there, what another BEAUTIFUL day to be outside, but despite the sunshine and falling leaves, Pierre made me swim again. I swam in the lane next to my old swim coach, Alan Melvin (he rocks!), so I was very self-conscious of my faulty stroke! Coach Melissa’s last words to me as I ran out of my office in my lunch break was “keep the back of your head down when breathing” (you know, the occiput!). As I was swimming, I had to go under water and watch Alan smoothly glide through the water with such fluid motion. Will I ever get there? After doing a bunch of drills, Pierre and I hammered out 6 hard 50’s, and on the last one we were clearly racing each other. My stroke fell completely apart and I was snorting water up my nose because I was laughing so hard but I STILL WON! Made it back to work 5 minutes before my first afternoon patient so I could get some food in my tummy, and off I went treating awesome patients again all afternoon. I made it to pick up my darling Madison just in time at 5:30, home to make dinner, showered 2 little girls, read books, counted to 10 (yes, my youngest will be the brain!), and cuddled until 8:45, and now I am typing to you at 10:18pm. I’ll be asleep in 20 minutes! SLEEP WELL, that’s when you heal and your body prepares for it’s NEXT WORK OUT!!!!!

I just returned home from a 3 day brain drain of an AWESOMELY educating seminar; lower extremity Active Release Technique recertification, in New Jersey! Thursday I missed my workout entirely, due in part to being pooped out from travel and jumping immediately into the learning circle of my peers, and mainly due to a migraine that hit shortly thereafter. Friday, however, I skipped 1 hour of the seminar just before lunch and got a one hour run with 4 sets of 5 minutes hard. During the run, (I had no idea where in NJ I was flying into, I didn’t care, I just had to get there!) I discovered that the seminar was being held right across the river from NYC and I was running directly towards the Statue of Liberty, it was an AWESOME sight! After the seminar I swam in a very small pool for 20 minutes just focussing on technique, the water being slightly over 50 degrees I am sure. I was very brave to get in that glacier fed pool. Saturday I ran with this really fit looking lady whom I met at the seminar the day before. I then discovered she had gone to the Olympics for the 3000 and 1500 meter distance in 1988 and 1992 at the BEGINNING of the run. We were planning on doing an “EASY” pace…….What an inspiration this lady was for me, fit, awesome attitude, a mom, a motivated individual who wanted to learn more to help patients as a massage therapist, and a 2x Olympic athlete, just amazing! Well, I returned home happily last night. This morning after playing non-stop with my beautiful girls and sharing a Starbucks moment with my hubby and children (yes, they are learning early!), Pierre and I went on a bike-date and rode the wonderful trails of Fountain Head. I did 2 sets of 15 minutes hard over the period of a 1 and a half hour steady ride, it was just GLORIOUS out!

My tip of the day I learned from the Founder of Active Release Technique, Dr. Michael Leahy, a brilliant 60 year old success who just did Coeur D’Alene Ironman and is doing Hawaii Ironman in a few weeks. “If you just don’t feel like exercising, then that is when you need it most, and afterwards you will feel SO MUCH BETTER!!!”

OK, Coach Melissa thought I should see for myself how awful my form is.  So here is video proof!  I’ve got less than a month before Xterra World’s in Maui… think I can get my swim together before then??

Dr. K Swim