Biking, biking, and more biking

Last Tuesday I went on my first tempo bike ride in months. The plan was to ride two miles to warm-up, then ride 10-12 miles at a 3:00/mile pace (fast for me!), then cool-down for a few miles. I popped a caffeine pill and a gel pack, filled up my water bottle, and hit the road. Here's how it went:

11 miles of intervals (about 33 minutes total), with a 7 mile cool-down.

The wind was awful (20 mph gusts) on the front end of the neighborhood loop, and that kept me above a 3:00/mile pace on several of the miles. I made up for it on the back end and averaged 2:59/mile over the course of the 11 miles, and still felt pretty good at the end. So good, in fact, that I did a longer cool-down than originally planned, rounding it out to an even 20 miles.

On Saturday I went out with a goal of biking 40 miles, with a short run afterwards. The weather was perfect: 70 degrees and sunny, with minimal wind. 40 miles seemed to easy, so I ended up doing 50. 3 hours of biking is exhausting. I got home and napped for an hour, and my quads were achy the rest of the night. But I can confidently say that my knee is at 100%.

Hills!

I'm noticing a significant difference using the caffeine during my hard workouts; my muscles get tired at times, but instead of staying tired the rest of the workout they bounce back pretty quick. I'll have to integrate it into my races.

Ironman Training: Week 23

First 9+ hour week since the beginning of February. Felt good all week, but the accumulated fatigue caught up to me by Sunday.

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4/15: 2000m of speed-work in the pool before work: 400m warm-up, 6x100, 10x60m, then 10x20 without breathing, then 2x100 cool-down. 10 miles on the bike after work, easy spinning.

4/16: 6.22 miles running. There were TONS of runners out today (the first day after the Boston bombing), and everyone had a good attitude. Suck it, terrorists. This was my first "long" run in a month, and my legs were a bit achy afterwards. I need to build up that running endurance again.

4/17: 2400m in the pool before work: 400m warmup, 1500 long (in 28:53), then 3x100 cool down. I pushed myself pretty hard on the 1500, and still finished over a minute slower than my 1500 last week when I was wearing a wetsuit. Boy does it make a difference.

Went to the park after work and banged out 20 miles on the bike. My heart rate stayed extremely low the whole time, a good sign. My knee was a bit wonky at the end though.

4/18: 16.39 miles biking. I did 4x mile intervals mixed in (with about 6 minutes of cool-down in between). Those speed mile times were 2:41, 2:33, 2:43, 2:41. It feels good to go fast. I also took a caffeine pill before this workout, and I think it made a big difference.

4/19: Rest day.

4/20: Long ride followed by a run. My original plan was to do about 25 miles biking, but I felt so good that I did 38 miles (and could have done more!). I made an adjustment to my left cleat before this ride, and I think it fixed my knee issue entirely: I had zero discomfort the entire ride. I took a caffeine pill at the beginning, and halfway through.

My phone died at the end of the bike, so I just ran in one direction for 16 minutes before turning around, and manually plotted it on the map afterwards. Ended up being 3.48 miles, at a pretty speedy pace too.

4/21: Another 6.22 miles running. I ignored my runkeeper pace and focused entirely on keeping my heart rate below 150. Nothing fancy, just putting some mileage back on my legs.

Weekly Totals:

Swim: 4200 meters (1 hour 50 minutes)

Bike: 84.27 miles (4 hours 46 minutes)

Run: 15.92 miles (2 hour 38 minutes)

Strength: 0 minutes

Total: 9 hours 14 minutes

Being able to bike after work has helped increase my total mileage: last week was the second-highest total miles I've done. Next week I have 100 miles planned, before tapering for the Monticello race on May 5. Hopefully the rain doesn't get in my way.

Ironman Training: Week 22

My health is back and I'm ready to rock. Feeling super motivated and energetic all week.

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4/08: An easy mile of swimming: 400m warm-up, then 6x200. Got my cortisone shot afterwards.

4/09: 10 miles biking. Knee still a bit tender because of the cortisone shot, but good overall.

4/10: 2500m swimming in my wetsuit: 400m warm-up, 1500 long (in 27:55), then 6x100 cool-down. My olympic distance time is looking good. Another 10 miles biking in the afternoon, with lots of wind.

4/11: Ran a 5K. First run in 3 weeks, and it was AWFUL. Hot, humid, and lots of pollen. I felt like I couldn't get a deep breath, and my legs were achy. Gotta shake the rust off.

4/12: It was a beautiful day so after work I took the bike up to Yorktown for 19 miles. I seem to enjoy biking on hills more than flat land. Knee had a tiny bit of pain around mile 14, but was fine.

4/13: Rest day

4/14: Brick! 16.69 mile bike ride, followed by a 5K run. My knee feels best while climbing, so I figured maybe it's not getting fully extended while I'm seated. I raised the seat 2-3mm, and I think it really helped. I only did 5 laps in the neighborhood instead of 6 because I really had to pee, but it was still a great ride. The run was also good, much better than earlier in the week.

Weekly Totals:

Swim: 4100 meters (1 hour 32 minutes)

Bike: 55.82 miles (3 hours 25 minutes)

Run: 6.23 miles (1 hour 2 minutes)

Strength: 0 minutes

Total: 5 hours 59 minutes

Monticelloman is 3 weeks away, and I definitely think I'll be ready. I'll be increasing my volume into the 10-12 hour range in the next two weeks before tapering. Being forced to take a month off really made me appreciate being healthy enough to train!

A Long Overdue Update

I haven't updated in three weeks, because of one big reason: I've been injured.

I've mentioned that my left knee has been bothering me while cycling, and on a March 20 ride it was really bothering me. I visited an orthopedic surgeon on March 25 and he quickly diagnosed me with a torn meniscus. Surgery was probably needed, pending the results of an MRI. I was told there would be 4-6 months of recovery time for a meniscus repair (where they stitch it back together), or 2-4 weeks of recovery for a meniscectomy (where they cut off the torn part). Being only 27 years old he highly recommended the repair, since we want to preserve as much of the meniscus as we can. I had to wait two weeks for the MRI results, in the mean time cutting out all running and limiting my riding to the exercise bike with no resistance.

For someone who has been training 7 months for Ironman Florida, this was pretty devastating to hear. I began replanning my next year of training: I would probably have to drop out of Ironman Florida, and instead I might be ready to do Ironman Texas in May 2014. This injury would also mean dropping out of 4-5 other races between now and then.

In the mean time I could still swim though, so I doubled-down on that part of my routine:

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Here's how my weekly swimming compares. Plenty of two-a-day swims (before and after work), and a monster of a workout on 3/28: 5000 meters total, with a main workout of 19x200m sets.

Injury period in the red box. Lots of time in the pool.

Well yesterday (April 8) I got my MRI results back: no torn meniscus! I have a swollen/pinched synovial plica, which doesn't require surgery. The doctor gave me a quick shot of cortisone and told me to resume my normal workload immediately, and that the plica will take care of itself through exercise. So, ironically, by stopping my biking/running I was slowing down my recovery.

The cortisone made my leg stiff all yesterday, but I woke up this morning and it feels like he injected me with rainbows: I'm ready to take on the world. The Monticelloman Olympic Tri is in 4 weeks, so with a little bit of luck I'll be ready for the triathlon season. I couldn't be happier!