Road to Recovery

So I've been concentrating on new, different and important things this week since I am trying not to run or bike at all in order to start a safe recovery.

1) I've started prioritizing resistance training, and I actually like it. I've been doing some glute and hip exercises with resistance bands and lifting upper body on my own this week. Also, today I went to a Strictly Strength class at Lifetime in Schaumburg and it was great! Wow, I can't even remember when I last seriously lifted weights, so here's the first positive thing that's come of this injury. (As you can see I'm trying to find positives in a negative situation right now... can we say maturity? hahah I hope so cause that's what I'm trying to be.. mature :)

I've been spending at least an hour in the pool every day concentrating on two things, my breathing during freestyle, and then pool running.

2) Freestyle breathing - Since I've gone to masters in Elgin twice so far, they keep telling me I am breathing wrong and that is what's slowing me down because it throws off my body alignment and makes me zig zag down the lane. I heard I'm breathing too late and my head comes too far out of the water. So I've been trying to fix this, but it has proven to be one of the most difficult and frustrating things for me. So for the past month all I've been thinking about when I swim is breathe early and keep my head down, but I have felt SO OFF and just really funny when I swim. I knew I was doing it because my right lower back would always hurt a little because it pinches together when I twist my body too much to breathe. So I've been youtubing it up lately watching a million videos on breathing drills and freestyle swimming (the ones Dave Scott made are awesome btw). Today I spent a half hour doing breathing drills. I swam in the "kiddie lanes" as I like to call them at Lifetime, or the lanes they randomly put up in the kiddie pool with the slides. These lanes are super short and they don't have a line drawn on the bottom of the pool so you know if you're going straight or not. This is actually really helpful for me though because if I end up hitting a lane line I know I'm doing something wrong again! I left the pool feeling like I accomplished something today after I actually concentrated on fixing this breathing problem instead of just thinking about how much I wanted to run or bike instead... cuz I can't right now. So there, positive thing number TWO!

3) I don't really know much about pool running, especially like what depth the water should be when you pool run, but I've been doing it back and forth in the lanes at the pool and it mentally, and probably physically, makes me feel better about not actually running for real. I actually worked up a sweat today pool running for 15 minutes! I'm going to have to do more research on this though because I don't want to be doing it wrong and end up hurting myself... which would be so stupid!

4) Tonight I also went to Bikram Yoga, which is AWESOME! Let me just say that again... AWESOME! I know I should be stretching, and believe me I am doing that multiple times a day and am pretty much married to the foam roller both at the gym and at home, but nothing, I repeat nothing, feels better than Bikram Yoga. I haven't gone in about two years, but now I remember why I used to be an addict! Bikram is kind of like Catholic Church... the exact same sequence every time, but I leave feeling like a new person with a brand new body! It's a 90 minute yoga class in a studio heated to about 105 degrees. You will sweat more than you've ever sweat before, trust me, and your heart rate will be very high at times even though it is yoga. It's crazy awesomness and I plan on going at least twice a week for now because I know it will help me not only just for recovery, but mentally and physically for the future as well. I like to think of Bikram as endurance Yoga in the desert. You have to be mentally tough to do it, and you know me, I thrive off extremes.

Well that's all for now. Life is crazy right now with work and school and obsessing over this stupid knee issue. I bought a ticket to go to Arizona May 14-19 because I planned on doing an Olympic distance tri there to kick off the season. I'm bummed because I have no idea if I'll even be able to do it now, and the thought of not being able to do Ironman in November makes me just sick to my stomach. But I keep telling myself to think positive thoughts, that I will recover from this and become an even better, faster triathlete because of all this mess!

Bedtime!

XOXO
Cori