Thursday, July 31, 2008

Alcis, the wonder cream....

This week has been busy for me in terms of training, I also had some awesome results at track which i'm pretty happy about and i've swum...a lot. Yesterday a fast girl jumped in my lane and I kept up and my deltoids paid for it last night...oh, ouch! This morning was a 90 minute swim..so, I did masters and I had the coach watch my stroke. Apparently, i'm old school, I swim like they did way back when......so, now i'm trying to "sweep the table" with my stroke?? I don't know, we'll see. I'd like to change the stroke to be more efficient, the new way makes sense to me....very much, but I just don't want to change too much before Boulder Peak next weekend. But, I totally appreciated someone watching me and giving me feedback and totally relieved to find out that Yes! There IS a way I can get faster in the swim if I make some changes. Awesome! My 90 minute swim came and went and this afternoon, FREE! Nothing, except laundry and a bit of cleaning.

I came home from work to find our trash can knocked over and tinfoil, food and other remains all over our kitchen floor. The joy of having a nosy cocker spaniel.

Tomorrow is another busy training day: Run 90 minutes in the morning with hill repeats, another 30 minute run in the afternoon with an easy 90 minute ride.

Saturday may just kill me.......details to follow....

I'm realizing I need to spend some time "recovering." I don't do ANYTHING to recover: no ice baths, no ibuprofen, barely stretch, no massages and no "stinky/smelly/ointment." It sounds awful, but I hate relying upon "remedies" to make me feel better, I figure if i'm in pain, I need to back off.

Bad method: so, now i'm stretching more effectively and i'm using some "Alcis" cream which is like Ben Gay or something similar, but last night my right arm was really aching after keeping up with the "Dara Torres" in my lane, so I tried this sample that I got at my race, and it was Alcis, and I was laughing putting it on, thinking whatever, this stuff never worked. Last year, I tried "Traumeel" after this health-nut guru massage therapist sugggested it. So, of course it's organic, which i'm totally into, that's fine, but......$20.00 for an entire tube and it did nothing for my knee pain, at ALL. I was just mad I spent $20.00 on this "amazing organic, all natural nothing." Organic or not, I just want something to work and last night I was pretty desperate since I had a 90 minute swim this morning.

I wasn't thinking good things about another cream, seriously.

But, I put it on, and i'm NOT kidding, a few minutes later the ache went away.....seriously! So.....Alcis is going to be my new best friend, plus it's cheaper than a massage. Dave suggested I look into massages, but the three that I had before Ironman left me with all kinds of kinks and just irritated. I'd rather do the kind of massage at a spa with tea =0.

I proceeded to put Alcis all over my legs with the tiny sample I had...gave Dave a good laugh, he was like "another product to add to the repertoire".....=0. That's right!

3 comments:

Post-doc, PhD said...

i hear a great way to recover is to eat fro-yo with girlfriends. :) see you sun!

beth said...

wow. just catching up on your blog (my computer crapped out this week so all my blog feeds are non existant right now)...i cannot believe how much training you've done since vineman- i feel like such a slacker! i need a coach to kick my ass...PLEASE call me anytime she has you signed up to do some midweek craziness and i'll hop along for the ride!

AND i am SOOOO jealous you are going to boulder...how fun!!!! good luck!

Anonymous said...

Sounds like some great stuff! Maybe ill try it when i'm back in full training mode. Keep up the good work in the pool, sounds like its paying off! I've been a total slacker in the pool...haven't gone in 2 weeks! Just haven' felt like it. Oh well, it will all come back when i recover! Good luck in Boulder!