Running Days!

How good are the running days! :) My last days in Boulder were kind of busy.
Starting with a hike on the Mount Edwards, in five friends we left from Boulder to conquer the mountain at 13.895 fts. We had to start in the early morning, so the day before, we camped on a base 30 minutes away from the beginning.
The camping was super cool. Pio, a Polish guy, save us with a camp fire. Then we added a guitar, a harmonica and the creativity of Sara to compose the song Alaskaaa, from where she comes from.
On the next day we walked around 7 hours to get to the peak and despite we were only walking, it was enough to make the lungs to work faster, as there is not much Oxygen after 10.000 fts height, but very rewarded with the stunning views!

A week later I traveled with another friends to Steamboat, where I raced an olympic distance triathlon at 6.700 fts height. The race was a lot of fun, on a beautiful venue. I leaded the race the whole time, although the Estonian Kristov arrived only 91 seconds behind. I felt amazing while racing, can't remember when was the last time I felt this good. Hips like brand new, instead I felt my knee a bit sore.

Getting back from Steamboat, on the next day I was already at Denver's airport heading to my home-town in Brazil, I stayed for 3 days in Curitiba, before another trip, this time to Brasília where I raced the Ironman 70.3. 

The main goal on this last Sunday was to finish the race with no pain, as I have just recovered from a big injury and I didn't know what to expect. In the last 6 months my volume of running workouts were nothing more than 25k per week, which usually are around a 100k. 

(At least on the pic I am the first, from left to right!! :p)

I swam, rode and started to run feeling great, but when I was already on the second mile I had to stop with strong cramps on my quads. I thought I would not be able to finish, but with a bit of walking, slowly I got back to the race, There were only 5 guys ahead of me, and as I was hoping to hold that position as only 6 athletes would be at the podium.

I was alternating going fast and holding the pace back on an attempt to control my cramps (not craps, as I told once to my good friend Magali lol). But at the end I could not take it easy with those cramps and I had to finish all out, as my friend Guto Antunes was approaching very fast. Another dificulty was the narrow path on the last kilometers, filled with age-groupers being lapped, so I had to scream asking for excuse! I was happy feeling that competition fright where you give all you have trying to go as fast as you can, and nothing else matters!!

Happy with the result, overcome injury and very excited to go back to workouts. Next week I will be continuing the running weeks, heading to Rio de Janeiro to race a Sprint Triathlon at Recreio Beach.

Looking forward to be in Rio!!

Be Like Water my Friend!

Not easy to write about races when it do not go the way you have planned.
I hate giving excuses, but on the lack of results, I have no other option... Anyways, my optimism doesn't make me sad when talking about my defeats.

I would have updated my blog earlier, but I had some events going on, plus a fun trip with some friends to a 7 hour hike at the Rocky Mountains, which I will be posting soon!

A few days ago I loved to watch a documentary show about Bruce Lee, I didn't know he was also a philosopher and developed big thoughts about the chase to be a virtuous fighter. His conclusion was that should be no pattern to reach the perfect punch, and each self needs to find his own way to get the best that he could possibly be.
"Be like water my friend!". Lee describes that you must free your ambitious mind and like water, be formless, shapeless and find a graciously way to pass through any obstacle you may find on your path.

On my way to contour the injury I still have for almost 10 months, I have been researching and looking to improve on all the ways I could imagine. I reduced running volume and started working hard against my hip soreness, sometimes doing 8h/week of pure stretching, yoga and a bunch of exercises to stabilize the core muscles with PT, TRX and other functional activities.

Here in Boulder, I had a great evolution working with one of Siri's Team partners, Integrative Healing Acupuncture. Todd Plymale-Mallory did an excellent job with acupuncture and deep tissue massage.

While I was feeling healed I had the chance to start running earlier with the help of Altitude Physical Therapy, so I could run on a last generation anti-gravitational treadmill, which defies gravity by applying a lifting force to the body that reduces weight on the lower extremities, so its possible to train with the natural gait and rhythm.

And the crucial point was my last race, where I could finally figure out this issues and had a turning point on my healing process...

Ironman Boulder 70.3 

With all the treatment and care around my hips, I was getting excited and thought I could finish that half Ironman. I was also rested and with my tapering up to date!

After a good swim, I hopped on the bike and just after a few miles my glutes were already in pain, I thought about quitting and like I struggled last month on Boulder Peak Triathlon, I was several times in between quitting and going as hard as I could.

Getting close to mile 25, I was getting used to that pain and could make a reasonable effort, pushing the rhythm with two other athletes. Ended up doing 2:16:04 for the bike leg, which is not a bad time for 56 miles. So then I started to run, and my ass was just like a rock, I started to walk while massaging it and this was the time my coach passed me by on her scooter motorbike and told me to quit. I was ok with that, because I didn't want to irritate any injury again, so I got a ride back to the transition area, and that was it, no more racing on that Sunday.

The good news, is that with all the treatments and pushing that pain to the extreme, it was really easy to detect which muscle was hurting (gluteos medium) and I could also determine that the injury wasn't coming from the run, but actually from the bike.

I spent some time researching about bio-mechanics and bike fit. And discovered that glutes are a very important part of the core, and helps to stabilize the hips, offering a more efficient pedal stroke and running stride.
Overloading it on the bike I could only hurt the muscle, but once my feet were touching the ground and generating impact, that imbalance could cause bigger damages on tendons, ligaments and fascias.

Researching for the most likely way to overload the gluteous medium, I discovered that the seat positions is a really important thing to look at, and the most further back it is, the more glutes will be required.
So maybe, if you girl wanna build your booty, you may want to keep your seat further back! :o) But you will also lose a lot of quads power... Not worth if your plan is to go fast!
So right after studying it, I moved my saddle forward on an attempt to use more quads and find a good equilibrium.

I am feeling a lot better on these next days, and today I just finished a run with my teammate Super Bird!! It was 10 miles with just a bit of pain at the very end! Probably the longest run I have had in the last 6 months!

Advancing like water flow and being supported with an amazing team, I am making my path towards to the next challenges!!