Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Requied Off The Bike Time

Well, looks like I'm going to have to take some time off the bike this week. Sucks cause I have a new cross bike just itchin' to be ridden and it's beautiful weather this week! I have a sprianed mcl in my right knee. WTF??? I haven't done anything to cause that except ride the new bike on Monday....

I rode about 90mi over the weekend and some of it was a bit hard for the first half of each ride...but, nothing that would cause the pain I was having Monday evening and all day yesterday....I put the spd pedals on the cross bike so that I could use the mtb shoes that are just laying around in the trunk of my car. I think, using this setup, it is a little different from my road setup and it caused me to put too much stress on the knee - I did notice while I rode at Umstead Monday, that my knee was hurting or feeling a bit uncomfortable during the ride. I kept looking at my foot position and I think it was twisted a bit and not straight on, like the road setup.

So...after the ride on Monday, I came home and iced the knee that evening. Felt a little better. But....Tuesday was a whole different story...I had pain when walking, going up/down stairs, and if I planted my foot and twisted a certain way, shooting pain. Uh oh. This is not good. I didn't think it was related to the bursitis/tendonitis that I've had, but I wanted to see someone about it. I called up the great PT and he worked me in yesterday afternoon. The pain is right in the joint line, medial side...He Dx'd as a sprian of mcl based on some poking/prodding, twisty stuff he did to my leg.

Will have to stay off the bike the rest of this week and hopefully I can ride some next week. I'll see the PT again once more Thursday...not really much he can do for a sprain though. Gonna cause me to miss Tour de Leaves over in Tryon now. :( Hopefully, I'll be recovered sufficiently by the end of the month (10/25) to be able to ride both days (Tour de Nantahala and Franklin).

Anyways...that's all now...Rest.Recover.Get.Stronger.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Cozumel & Racin'

Cozumel, Mexico. November 29, 2009. IronMan. 2.4mi/112mi/26.2mi. Guess who signed up for this event??? Yours truely. Not sure what I was thinking - maybe I just wasn't thinking, but I signed up for this event 2 wks ago. Never done a tri before in my life. Guess I'm going to be getting familiar with doing tri's over the next year. Biggest thing is getting the swim under my belt. There is a time limit cutoff for the swim of 2:20hr so I need to make sure I can get most of that distance completed under that time.

I plan on starting a Couch to 5k program as soon as I'm recovered from this bronchitis and to run at least one 5k before the end of the year. I'll also be signing up for at least one sprint, olympic, and half IM prior to the full IM. Will need to get a tri done where I have to do the open water swim as well...guess I should look for one out towards the coast when the weather gets a bit warmer. I'm also contemplating hiring a coach sometime in the late spring/early summer that can help me properly train for the IM.....

Racin'
Well, seems like the new friends I have are pretty sure that I can do some road races in the upcoming year. So, I am signing up for the Inside-Out Sports Cycling Team. I went this afternoon and tried the kit on - as they have to place the order Friday. There are 4 or 5 women on the team as of right now. We will be doing some road races and TT's at LMS next year. I'm really looking forward to doing this!

I guess I might have to re-think the rides I wanted to do next year now. I probably won't be able to do all of rides I did this past year since I'm going to be training for the IM and also participating in some races.

Oh well....I think this is a good thing - I really need some change, something exciting in my life now. I've lived here in NC for 43 years and I'm just not very excited about living here anymore. I'm thinking that once my kiddo graduates from high school, gets into college or the military, I may move. Not sure where tho. A new state, new friends, fresh faces & fresh starts. Maybe towards the NE part of the country as I have quite a few friends up in that area, especially my best friend in NH and the NY guy too. :) Dunno...that decision is about 8-10 months away, so there's plenty of time to decide on the new state of living.....

Stuff Since TdT

Trying to catch up a bit...

After TdT, I ended the following Monday with a sore throat and general feeling bad that evening. Woke up the next morning with the sore throat and decided to not go to work that day...ended up staying out of work all week. Did a lot of sleeping too...2 naps a day of 2-2.5hrs plus 6.5-7hr of sleep at night...started feeling better towards the end of the week and I was really glad because I had a trip to NY planned to meet a friend.

Flew up to NY Friday 9/26 and spent the weekend with my friend. A bit of sight-seeing and just general relaxing over the weekend. I had a great time, made a new friend and I'm looking forward to returning soon or having the friend come visit me soon.

Upon returning from this visit, I rode Cleo (the fuji bike) on Monday out at the Industrial Park in Garner. It's a 6mi loop with rolling terrain. I just rode, no specific goals in mind except to just ride and loosen the legs up since I hadn't ridden since 9/23. Tuesday I decided to get busy and do some intervals...getting back into the training mode. I only did 3x10min with 8min rest in between. The power was really good for these considering I haven't been riding a tremendous amount since August.

#1: 190/186/99/14.9 (np/ap/rpm/speed)
#2: 188/185/98/16.3
#3: 195/193/97/16.0


Took Wednesday off, don't remember why - maybe it was raining....I went back to the Industrial Park on Thursday and just felt bad. Couldn't breath too well - chest tightness/a bit of congestion/coughing...still cranked out 21mi at a 17mph pace. Friday's are usually half day's for me, so I planned on riding Tina (the red bike) to work. I went in a bit late to avoid the traffic and waiting until it was more daylight. Had a smoking pace! 15mi in 45-46min!! Still feeling a bit blah and didn't feel too well on the ride home...that breathing thing going on...

Saturday - I had plans to ride with JonA (one of hte guys I met while in the mtns for TdT) and a few other people. Met these guys at Strickland Rd YMCA and we rode about 22-23mi out Bruce Garner Rd (blistering pace too for me in that area - 18.7mph). The others with the group, elected to ride on for a little longer while Jon and I turned around and headed back. Good ride - 46mi/18.2mph. That's really good for that area. After lunch with Jon, I went over to Inside-Out Sports to demo some Cervelo bikes. I rode an R3 and an RS. Thought the RS rode the better of those 2, but I felt my bike rode the best. Guess that's a good thing!

Not much happening Sunday...took the kiddo to a hockey game, cleaned hte house up a bit.

Now....I'm home sick again. :( Bronchitis. Looks like I'll be out today (Wednesday) through at least Thursday. Might go in on Friday. I'm taking 2000mg/day of Amoxicillin and something for cough suppressant.

More to come in another post...