Dr. Kathy's Training Blog » xterra

Last Running Intervals

Dr. Kathy — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 20:20:33 +0000

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!

Mountainbiking!

Dr. Kathy — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 01:47:51 +0000

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.

On The Trails!

Dr. Kathy — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 03:04:05 +0000

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!

Track Workout

Dr. Kathy — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:53:58 +0000

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.)

So back to my track work out…. My psoas hip flexor was pinching pretty badly at first but I focused on relaxing my hips and allowing my pelvis to rotate with each stride not allowing myself to stiffen up, also focusing on landing my foot strike below my hips and more or less on my forefoot so as not to add impact with a heel strike. The pain went a way, woo hoo! My splits were all under 4:50 for the 1200 (roughly 6:30/mile pace), the fastest was a 4:30, right at 6:00 min/mile pace. If only I could maintain that after riding up and then down a volcano!

Stretching afterwards has made a huge difference in how my hip, and other highly demanded muscles, recover from such a workout. Please remember to stretch AFTER your workouts, so very important to prevent tightness from turning into tendonitis.