Julie Dunkle Ironman Coach: Post PRP

Alex and Hillary for 10K

To say post PRP hurts is putting it mildly....holy aching ass, literally in my case. For 7 days it was a 6-7 out of 10 on the pain scale, aching/hurting all the time. But in the last few days is has hurt less and less each day and today, day 11, is the first time in months, no pain when I stepped out of bed. Wow, what a feeling. So optimistic, I'm planning to ride 100 miles today. Totally kidding... following the Dr orders. 19 more days and I can get on my bike!!

Monday swim with T

The swim block has been great... the goal of 40,000 yards this week, I am at 37,900 today so surely I will hit 40K by Sunday. FYI that is 22.7 miles of swimming. 44,000 yards is 25 miles- that seems a bit much! I will definitely hit 40K and will see from there. It's been fun with friends. Monday I looked 8k with Taryn at the Rose Bowl Pool- super fun! No flip turns was tough, and that was post-Emmy's. Tue 5K LCM at Alga Norte with open turns. Wed was a chill day with 4K and testing flip turns. Thur was 10K with Hillary and Alex, with cameo from Tim and Monica and I fully returned to flip turns. Hammie was achy post-swim but totally fine Friday AM for another 6K at masters. I have been feeling great but most of the swimming has been super chill, hitting base -5 at Masters yesterday was a big ask of my arms and shoulders. I feel fatigued for sure but eager to keep going. Someone asked me if this was my biggest week swimming... for sure in the last 30 years, but looking back at college we swim 100,000 yards a week on a regular basis. So not even 1/2 of what I used to log week after week. Heck, we would do 10K in the morning and then another 5K in the afternoon. I recollect on a few, or a lot of Saturday workouts back in Club Swimming that was 15-18K in one session.

My plan is to keep it rolling Monday and Tue with a goal of 10K for those 2 days and then I am off to Seattle for a conference back on Sunday. I hope to get to the Y at least 2x but we shall see. It will be a nice break for my hair and skin. I am using coconut oil on my skin to help with the dried-out chlorine feeling and double Zealios conditioner on the hair.

I had planned out a solid upper body strength routine as well but once I hit 25K I decided to push that to next week. Keeping up with the core work though.

Its fun to say, "last Sunday when I was at the Emmy's... LOL

And started PT / Strength and wow was that humbling. I learned about b project from a solid cyclist, who happens to be one of the owners of Flo Cycling and the host of my favorite podcast Faster. The pod is so well done, great topics, lots of research and I look forward to the next episode. While it is about cycling, it covers so many topics for endurance athletes.

Back to b project, Chris mentioned that they were focused on teaching you how to move before you do strength. This really caught my attention as I know I need to help to move and help with my posture. So session 1 was really interesting. 1 hour on the table with a lot of manual manipulation, ouch! Sort of ART but not really, hips, feet, ankles. An overall assessment of what is firing and moving correctly and what is not. Then 1 hour of what I would call movements and wow, just wow. Simple, but not so simple for me. I'm not going to lie, it was so frustrating and hard. At one point this is me " Stop telling me what to do over and over as I am clearly not getting it. and you showing me is also not working. Can we try a different approach? " The 25 yo PT and I were NOT communicating well. After my 2nd ~~or 4th~~ similar outburst, someone over 35 came over and helped out. I am not age discriminatory but they were just not getting how to help this 52-year-old do what they found so easy and simple and clearly I did not. I was nearly in tears and wanted to pay and leave. Brad says we'd like you to come 2x a week for a month to lay the foundation and this is a perfect time as you are healing up, so when you are ready to add weight and power, you know how to move. I wanted to cry... So I paid for the package, using Kona $$$, and set up my next appointment, which I am already nervous for. This has me out of my comfort zone and a challenge in a new way.

I have some big ass goals for 2020, none of which include and Ironman, but I need to be "bulletproof" as coach Mike puts it. So that is my plan... FWIW I did send a note requesting a different therapist as " I am sure anyone that was there today 10:30-11:30 would have noted, we were not on the same page."