My challenge is no longer pushing the pace, holding the watts, or making the send off. My challenge is figuring out what is keeping me from healing at a normal pace, so that I can fix it. I am not a scientist, but I play one at work. I'm going to take a scientific approach. I have a new hypothesis for each week and will test it throughout that week.
This week's hypothesis? The swim is to blame. I swear this is not a crackhead attempt to weasel my way out of the pool. With the help of some friends, I have been trying to work out exactly what changed when the IT band pain started. I have been so focused on the bike/run and working out those variables, that I hadn't considered the swim. Late last year I tripled my yardage. To get through it, I added kicking sets with fins. I had never, ever kicked. Not even in races. I am much too uncoordinated to move my arms and legs at the same time. It was that same month that my knee started to hurt for the first time. Perhaps this lovely pool is to blame. Or at least my bad form in this lovely pool.
The PT exercises that leave my knees burning for 24 hours hurt in the exact same place in my hips/glutes that kicking 100m leaves burning and cramping. I ran into my friend Mark, who runs like a gazelle, and he told me that if he swims more than 10k/week his hips get so messed up that he can no longer run, and the pain runs down the outside of his legs. Sounds familiar. In an effort to baby the right leg, I have kicked with my left leg for the past two months and let the gimpy one float. My left leg now hurts as much as my right. The evidence is stacking up against kicking.
I know people don't injure their legs swimming. But this week there will be a pull buoy sewn to my inner thighs. I will be hitting the stretch cords a little more and pushing off the wall a little less. Fortunately I have my trusty assistant home on summer vacation, in her Magnum glasses, to help me figure this out.
Hi Rachel, I love reading your blog, you're very entertaining!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I too have suffered through an all-too similar IT band issue (and still to this day am best friends with my foam roller and tennis ball). I did find that kicking with fins aggravated and also probably prolonged my healing (mine took around 6 months to heal).
I hope it gets better soon and good luck!
Laura
Ugh sister I am feeling your pain. You get to the point where if snorting crack would fix it ... then it'd be considered.
ReplyDeleteA trick I used while pulling, to keep the buoy in place.... find an inner tube, steal it, deflate it and cut a strip out of it. It will help keep the buoy in place, your back end will be lifted and you won't even try to move the hips.
Tape stolen inner tube back together with duct tape and return it to children you stole it from and speak another language.
:-) mary
Oh yeah the important part..... slide the bands around your legs. That's important!
ReplyDeleteMy... that is a nice pool. Of course, I spied the loooooouge chairs over to the left and they are longingly calling me....
ReplyDelete"swim swim all you want but I'll be waiting for you to stretch out and relax in me with an icey cold Diet coke and maybe some chips and salsa and your ipod." :-)
A girl can dream about a pool without a roof can't she?????
As for you: I repeat, you'll get this figured out. Chin up and enjoy your pull buoy!
Gotta say Rach, sounds good to me. You have some valid points and a well supported theory. Get that pool buoy in there and lets see what happens!
ReplyDeleteLOVE the Magnum reference. The pic of Sky is priceless. For one, she's adorable (and so is her expression) and two-I was addicted to that show when I was little. I've seen em' all.
Keep it up...I think you're getting warmer.
P.
Hey RR-
ReplyDeleteAs a college swimmer who suffered from awful ITB problems during my swimming career, I can confirm that swimming can indeed cause leg injuries.
Going from high school to college my yardage jumped to about 45-60k per week, plus drylands and lifting- I thinking being a breaststroker made my issues worse, but long kick sets and especially fins still aggrevate my legs, years later. I would suggest to remove the fins from the picture completely and see what happens.
Sarah
We're triathletes right? Why kick ever? hehe. Do you kick with or without a board? I do very minimal kicking in general, but I never use a board so I can work on streamlining.
ReplyDeleteI also find that swimming no more than 2K a week really reduces the chance of a swimming injury.
Good luck! and that picture is soo cute.
Be careful not to over do the pulling with a pull buoy (it does change your body position some and will change how you pull some) so you don't injure a shoulder (I've been there/done that).
ReplyDeleteSherlock Ross - I know you'll get to the bottom of this. Keep at it girl!
ReplyDeleteOkey Dokey - scientific methood at its best! You WILL get this figured out and then WATCH OUT WORLD, because RR is back! As for Magnum PI... who doesn't love the moustache??? ;) (doesn't he get food particles stuck in there??? yuck!)
ReplyDeleteSky is on the case :)
ReplyDeleteI can hear you now..."Coach...this is RR. Yeah, about this whole swimming thing...it sucks...i'm out...I got some insider info from the leporard print carseat."
I definitely wouldn't recommend using fins with a lower body injury. However, you should try some band-only swimming (most people hate this but it is a good tool). Use a band around your ankles (old bicycle tube works well, should be tight enough so that you can't cheat!) which eliminates the kick from your stroke and really forces you to work on the 'catch' phase of your stroke (some people might call it the "sink or swim" drill). Good luck!
ReplyDeleteAs counterintuitive as it sounds, I do find it difficult to run and swim lots during the same periods of time. Swim & bike lots w/ very little running, fine. Bike and run lots w/ minimal swimming, fine usually. Lots of swimming and running, a greater likelihood of problems. A quality (long or faster) run right before a swim workout, utter hell. A big swim before a hard run, likelihood my core is tired and form isn't so great which can lead to "weak link" injuries. Maybe you aren't being such a crackhead after all. Maybe it's the kicking sets that have to go.
ReplyDeleteBesides, I've found that once you develop your swim speed up to a certain level, it takes way less to maintain it. Of course, I have a "swimmer" background, so YMMV.
I first started having leg problems last year after sets of kicking with fins. I think you're onto something!
ReplyDeleteaahhhh I'm a Dolphin and I can't help you humans out but you are too funny to watch in the water!!
ReplyDeleteFlipper-
Too much fin work makes me feel it in my IT band (especially the cranky left one) and in my achilles. I try to never do to much of it. As other people have mentioned, probably not a good idea to do too much pull buoy either though. You proably don't want to do too much of anything. Moderation!
ReplyDeleteI am not a swimming expert, but I think you just want to learn to kick enough for balance and rotation. Our coach only has us work kicking so that if we need to acclerate to pass someone or stay with a pack, etc., we have trained it and can do so with out getting tired.
Get better!! You will, don't stress, just relax ;-) Go buy some Juicy jeans or another Dooney bag and you will feel much better!!
ReplyDeleteLove ya,
E
If you try to restrict your leg movements, you may mess up your shoulders. Best to learn to coordinate arms and legs well, as each is important at different times in the swim. Use the legs more when accelerating to protect your shoulders, and let the legs rest more when you build up momentum. Maintain fluidity, and take long and relaxed strokes, applying force only at the right moments. Learn from the frogs. They don't tie themselves up. Only use aids (paddles or fins) when you know it is right for you (and relatively late in workouts when you are well stretched out). Don't run after a long, tiring swim session and vice versa.
ReplyDeleteBS Novice swimmer
I say bag swimming altogether and eat peanut m&ms. That way you'll have no leg pain since you'll be so wigged out on chocolate!
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, sounds like good solid detective work, made all the better to work with such a cute partner.
Rachel:
ReplyDeleteThis TOTALLY makes sense. I can't kick with fins or zoomers on without making my left-side hip flexors (and the muscles on the inside of my thigh) really tight. And, when I went in last week to get my left-side ITB worked on, my physical therapist reminded me to stretch the inside of my legs out since if they are tight, then the ITB gets pulled on, too.
I hope your theory is right!
-Danielle
I think that is a really good point too. I have tendonitis in my hip flexor areas and flip turns can bother it, so swimming can really affect your legs I think. Good luck with the no kicking thing. I am like you... I just want to know WHAT the problem is and then the fixing it isn't so bad!
ReplyDeleteAnd Sky is TOO cute!! She's a beautiful little girl!
i am totally convinced...this has GOT to be it. stop kicking. i cannot deal with fins- major achilles crap...
ReplyDeletethis must be getting so frustrating, but it sounds like you've got it figured out.
between wonder woman and magnum, this will all get sorted out!
I wonder if this works the other way. I've been having some shoulder issues so maybe I'll tie my arms together while I run and see if that helps.
ReplyDeleteShe is too DARN CUTE :) I hope the mystery is solved :)
ReplyDeleteToo cute is right?! You can't do wrong with that helper of yours! Maybe you should sit down and discuss this over M&M's?! You can never go wrong that way right?
ReplyDelete