Pains this weekend

“Mixed” feelings about this weekend. I had a great bike ride but at the same time it sucked. I had a horrible run but at the same time it was awesome.

Starting with the bike ride. Aerobic 2h20min on a trainer. I was keeping my HR at 150 the whole time and was just checking what my average power for that HR. I was doing rides like this one every weekend in fall/winter 2011 (when I was training for that Ironman in 2012 that I never did) to help me developed some aerobic capacity and stop being such a hummingbird. What I wanted to see was HR 150, power 170+. I was somehow improving because when I started I think my power for HR 150 was like 140watts. By the end of the year it was around 150 watts. So not that great. And yesterday I was constantly at 174W for almost 2hours! How great is that? No idea what led to this improvement. And it was not a fluke because I did a similar ride a couple weeks ago and I too was at 170+W but back then I thought it was a fluke. I guess that the improvement came from my rides in spring/summer. I did not ride much but when I did it was almost always aerobic long rides (you know, those with my German buddy when I was on that stupid Walmart bike sucking air trying to stay with him and he complaining about how slow we were going and bugging me about not having a husband.) And then when I started really training again and doing a lot of big gear and max 5’ intervals it all came together and voila, I push 170w at HR150. Sweet.

So that’s a good part. Bad part is that I had this excruciating pain in my upper inner thighs (I cannot describe the location of the pain any better), both of them and it is muscular pain. I never had it in 2011, the in January 2012 I had it maybe 2-3 times when I was pushing 1.5h in aero into the headwind. And now I occasionally have it during cool-down but never had it during intervals of any kind. And it is really not bad. But Saturday was bad. It started around 50min in and it was getting worse and worse. If I sit up for even a second it would immediately go away but after 2-3min in aero it came back. Then I decided to push through it. The pain was accumulating and accumulating to the point that it hurt really badly (I mean really badly, like biting my lips and wanted to scream badly) and then it released and I was fine. But when I shifted in the saddle or sit up for a second, within 10sec I get to aero again pain started to accumulate and accumulated for around 20sec, reached its peak and then I was fine again for as long as I did not shift my position. It was kind of like contractions (at least what I imagine them to be). And it was pretty bad. After I got off the bike it hurt a lot, so I stretched it a little bit and I went running. I felt it for like 50m and then it did not bother me at all on my run (easy 45min at 7:45ish pace in case you are wondering). Then today when I went swimming it was really sore and hurt when I did flip turns (when I bend the knees to my chest and then pushed of the wall. So basically the same position as when I was in aerobar). 

Does anyone know what the heck is it? I am doing an easy ride today again and I shall see how that goes.

Then I made yummy although undercooked chilli and ate 1.5 bowls of it until I remembered that raw beans can be poisonous to you. I consulted google whether it is true or not and then decided not to cook it for little bit longer. But the damage was done. I woke up on Sunday not feeling stellar and my stomach making funny noices, and I spent the morning trying to decide whether I should wait until I throw up or whether I should induce it myself. I did not throw up and started to feel better around noon so I went running. But 15min in I again got nauseous and contemplated sticking my fingers into my throat to finally get over it. But I did not do it and decided to let my stomach deal with it. So I cut my long run short and called it quits after around 55min. Now I know how those poor souls in Ironman must feel when they have GI issues. And they have to run a marathon. Blah. I am never doing Ironman because it must suck. 

So that’s a bad part. Good part is that a lifeguard at the pool told me about a lake just outside the town where one can go running on grass. It is not perfect because it is not a path per say (and I think that she is the only one that runs there) but it is not so rough that I will sprain my glass-like ankles either. I am so glad she told me about it and now I can do some of my runs there instead of on road!

So here you have it. Main lesson learnt: do not eat uncooked beans. And when you start feeling better do not eat trail mix because nuts seem to be hard to digest and it will not make you any good.