Weekend of Workouts

I did get a successful run in yesterday and didn't hurt myself. The ankle was fine, not 100% yet but good enough. No pain in the ankle while running today.

I was at my parents house and they have a paved greenway trail that is partly shaded that I have run on before. It was 78 degrees at the start, yuck. I started a bit gingerly, not knowing exactly how my ankle would feel, but about 10 minutes in I was able to develop a rhythm. After 4 cycles I turned around. It’s mostly downhill on the way out so I had to deal with the uphill on the way back.

So overall, happy with the run yesterday. It was slow, but about what I expected.

Today I rode the bike and run course for my race next weekend. With only HR to gage things right now I was shooting for something in the low 150's.

I didn't do the bike portion at race pace but I did push it a bit. My goal for the race is 1:08 for the bike today I did it in about 1:11 so not too bad.

Once I finished the bike course I just continued riding on the run course which is a simple out and back on the same road, just opposite direction at a bit more relaxed pace. My knee seems to be doing well on the bike, the fit and sit bones are still an issue but getting better.

So a good ride today.

Ankle Recovery Week

So although the ankle turned a nice shade of purple, it has been doing pretty well this week. I have done my bike rides on the trainer because turning my foot to get out of the pedal was the most painful thing I could do and I don't need to risk that out on the road.

I did a couple of swims this week as well. The first swim I did modify it slightly to do open turns on the last set of 50's. By doing open turns I could more specifically control the pushoff from the wall to favor my good foot. Two days later I didn't make any modifications to the swim.

So tomorrow I will try running again and see how it goes. It's feeling pretty good actually so I am hopeful.

70.3?

So I got a text today from a friend of mine. He said he was injured and couldn't do the Superiorman 70.3 race and asked if I wanted his spot. They would not let him defer, but they would let him transfer it. This race is in my hometown so super convenient. But, I have not trained for this distance, I just sprained my ankle, and it is just 6 days after my A race.

I texted my coach thinking he would say no and provide me an out. Though he did say "woof, thats a big step" he also said that if my goal was just to finish then go for it!

So now fresh out of excuses I guess I am signing up to do my first half-iron distance triathlon!

Oh boy, the nerves have already started.

Klutz

So a longer run on the calendar today as we look ahead to my A race in two weeks. I got up extra early because I also wanted to get a round of golf in with my friends.

So I was doing well, feeling pretty strong this morning and was a couple of miles in when as I was transitioning from the sidewalk to the street, my left foot caught a lip in the curb, I rolled my ankle and fell into the road.

Of course this happens at the furthest point from home so I called my wife to come get me because I didn't think I could walk home on the ankle.

So now that I am home, I have road rash on my hand, elbow and right knee. My left wrist is sore and my right hip and knee are bruised too. My left ankle is pretty sore too.

So it looks like an ice the ankle and lay on the couch kind of weekend now.

So disappointed.

Hill Repeats

My coach threw a new one at me today with an hour of hill repeats, So I chose a short but steep hill about 10 minute drive from my house. It is on a route I routinely bike. It's a hill I have to switch into my small gear so I thought it would make a good hill for repeats.

I parked near the bottom of the hill at a restaurant on a lake, then did a quick 5 minute warm up ride away from the hill before hitting it.

I had forgotten that there is a short steep downhill on the back side so I took the downhill and let it just roll out, then turned around and rode back to my car. Repeat.

Perfect morning, no wind, not too hot. The hills were tough, I worked them pretty hard. I found it interesting that my breathing was way harder/faster than my HR seemed to show.

A coworker lives in this area and when I got to work today he asked if that was me on the hill this morning. My bright yellow "early morning riding" jersey gets peoples attention apparently.

Back in the Pool

It has been a month since I swam so I was curious how being back in the pool would feel. How much did I lose? Tuesday morning I did a swim workout that I have done before with 10x100 and 5x200 that I try to do at my long distance race pace. Those went pretty well, I managed to maintain pretty close to the pace I wanted. Then the set of 50 sprints at the end also went ok. I wasn’t blazing, but I was right around where I thought I would be.

Thursday I was back in the pool for a bit of a reverse of Tuesday’s workouts. A long set of 50 sprints then a few 100’s at the end. So I went into the 50’s shooting to try and keep it under a goal time for all of them. The first 50 went well, just under that goal time, but I felt that my tempo was too fast, certainly not something I could maintain. So I worked on slowing it down with long powerful strokes. The second 50 was then 3s under the goal time! Sweet, I kept it right around 3-4s under the goal time the entire time which really surprised me.

It also seems like the resting time between sprints seems to go faster as the set goes on? Weird time warp?

Bike Fit Ride

So taking 2 weeks off from biking didn’t really help my knee at all. I had an MRI done on the 4^th of July, and the doctor said I had a bit of arthritis but nothing structurally wrong with my knee. So I am back to a fit issue. I found another fitting in the Twin Cities who appears to specialize in this sort of thing, so I got an appointment with him yesterday.

We changed quite a bit about my fit including seat and cockpit changes, but the biggest change was to different pedals and moving my feet out wider. So now I have SPD Play pedals on my bike and no power measurement as I was using pedal based power meters.

My training plan called for a 30 mile bike ride today. It was a beautiful day, sunshine, zero wind and a bit warm. I did a ride up the shore today for a change of scenery. A "naked" ride today with no power and no cadence either. Just me, my HR and RPE.

So how's the new fit? Well my knee didn't hurt during this ride so thats good. However everything else about the fit I don't like. Today was the first time ever that my butt hurt on this bike. My arms and shoulders got tired and sore as well to the point I had to get out of aero after an hour or so.

So I will give this a few rides and see if it is just a position I need to get used to. The main thing was fixing my knee, which signs are positive there, the rest we can continue to work on.

Running Update

So it has been a while since I have updated on my running. My runs have been short, just 3 miles and so far the muscles seem to be holding up. The groin muscle that I injured in the spring appears to have healed, and the hamstrings are holding up as well. I assume we will try to ramp up the distance here ahead of my A race in 3 weeks.

Readjusting

Well we are back home now, and spending this week readjusting to the real world and trying to get back on the right time zone. I did go for a couple of bike rides just to try and get some exercise and it did help me feel better. Nothing too strenuous, just a nice easy ride.