Another successful spin

The leg is getting better, though I'm taking no chances. I will run either tomorrow or the next day, either way it will be short, slow, and inside. I'm not about to go out on slick roads and start this process all over again. Uh-uh. I am confident I'll have my miles back up soon enough, and if a week's running is all it cost, especially at this time of year, no harm done.

I'm wishing Jimmy the best of luck as he faces knee surgery again, this time on the mirror-image of the first one. Galloway says knees are like headlights - when you replace one, you might as well go ahead and get the other one done. Smart man.

I waited until later in the day to spin. I know I was off. By waiting my leg got 24 hours to rest, which I felt was smart. There was also a chance of having company on the spin. Only Jimmy showed. I suppose Allen had his feelings hurt yesterday, doubley really, because I didn't mention his name in last night's ride title AND I rode farther.

So the goal tonight was at least 20. After getting there, I would reassess. There is a method to the madness: I've signed up for a Strava challenge, and it will require 40 miles a day (almost) average for eight days. I won't actually do it that way, of course... more like 60/40, but I'm getting the mind ready for the average. The body won't have any real trouble with it of course... it's the boredom of sitting on the saddle for so long that will be the killer. I will be off during the challenge, so I can even break it into two rides a day, morning and evening. That seems a bit more appealing.

ANYWAY... I wound up with 30 tonight. I'm quite happy with that, as now I have logged 80 miles in the last three days. My refurb 510 worked flawlessly, even after I added my heart rate monitor. Here's hoping the problem is solved!

Back to the lab tomorrow. I won't run at Jimmy's, so it'll be an early start for me. Jimmy and I plan to be riding by 5:15, though I'm sure I will go much longer. Jimmy has a workout appointment at 6:30, but don't let that stop you from joining in!

So far, so good

The new Garmin 510 (more accurately, the replacement refurbished Garmin 510) came in the mail today, and I was able to get it up and running for the ride in the afternoon. Syncing it up to the GSC 10 unit was no problem, and it worked flawlessly throughout the workout. There, that gets the drama out of the way first.

We were off school again today, so I went to the gym in the morning. I lifted, did core, then went to Bloomington with Leisa and Igor. It was a nice break from the last few days of being nailed to a chair elevating my leg. I figured walking around a bit would be a good test of my recovery.

We went to the Trojan Horse for lunch - I went for the fish tacos, Leisa a gyro, and Igor had the tilapia. It was a good meal, not too much, not too little. We did find out Igor is no fan of V8 drinks!

After that we went down to campus to visit the law building. Igor wants to be a lawyer, so this was a chance to visit an actual school. It's finals week, so we had to be quiet. We were able to walk the building, see the library and some classrooms, but that was about it. As we left, we drove around the perimeter of the campus and showed him as much as we could. It was really too cold to take a long walk, and my leg wouldn't have taken it anyway.

A short trip to the mall to spend a little birthday cash (in the form of Dick's credit) was next. Leisa and Igor did their thing, I sat in a chair and waited. I do like mall chairs! Whoever came up with the idea of putting living room furniture out in the general area - brilliant.

Once we got home, I pretty much got ready to go to the lab. I wanted to get at least 30 miles in, so I would have to start before everyone else. What I didn't know was Jimmy and Haley were also starting early, so I wound up being included in their workout - sorta. Hope they didn't mind! We were later joined by Roy and Allen.

In the end it was 30 miles completed. That was right on target, and probably going to be my staple distance, at least until I can run again. I walked to and from the lab, and the short walk is enough to tell me I'm a bit off of running just yet. Hopefully by Monday...

Spin again tomorrow, 30 miles!

Interesting couple of days

There I was, on a cold Thursday night, facing a likely snow day on Friday. The accumulation predictions were going up by the hour, and I was certain we would be out. Things were sizing up to be the perfect fitness weekend, even if everything had to be indoors.

I kicked it off by doing a treadmill run at the club. At 35 degrees and raining, it was the absolute worst running conditions outside, and frankly the very reason I bought a club membership to begin with. So I did the run inside.

It actually didn't go poorly. Though I had only the window in front of me, I was able to pass the time quickly, and dropped the mile speed mile after mile. It was actually a pretty good run. Then I stretched, and lifted my legs afterward. I thought it was a solid workout because I got so much done in such an economy of time.

Something went awry along the way. My left shin, low above my ankle, hurt horribly by the time I got home. It wasn't bone, of that I was fairly certain. It mattered little. The pain was sufficient to make even thinking of running or riding the next day impossible. I couldn't walk any distance without severe pain.

The next day wasn't much better. I kept the foot elevated, iced it, and took pain relievers. That alone should tell you something. I won't take aspirin for the most part. I have to be hurting pretty badly to get to that point. I could take the pain, but I wanted to get the swelling down ASAP. By this time I was sure it was soft tissue injury, but in the sheath on the inside of my shin. Yes, compartment syndrome, though I'd never had anything come on so suddenly. I'm guessing I had a spasm of some kind, pulled a muscle, and the swelling inside the sheath was causing the pain.

So the next two days were spent sitting in a chair with my leg elevated - not training. The lost opportunity drove me crazy, but if I've learned anything, it's that you have to respect injury. This type of thing doesn't get better if you ignore it. It has to be treated.

So I am on Advil and ice, and no running for a week. I was able to spin today for 20 miles, and that went very well (so far). I will spin all week, every day, and if things progress well, I'll start light running again next week. It won't hurt me to take some down time on running anyway, and as long as I can do something, I won't go insane.

By the way, there were six of us tonight in the Energy Lab - Jimmy, Scott, Rand, Roy, John T., and me. It was a good time, the next best thing to riding outside. We ride again tomorrow night at 6 PM. 

More trouble means luck for Troy

I talked to Garmin today. The guy tried to flowchart me, but I've been down that path before. I could finish his sentences before he could, which expedited the process. Sure, it might have been rude, though I wasn't going out of my way to be that way. I was on prep, and due to their hours it was the best time to call. My time was short, I didn't have time to mess around.

The short of it is they are sending me a replacement unit. I will mail mine back in the next day or so, which will get my deposit back. I updated the firmware last night to the latest (2.70 to 2.80), and I wanted a test ride. There was no real hope it would fix the problem since this update was pretty cosmetic, but it was worth a shot. On top of that, I left the computer running for 2 hours on my desk at work and it never froze. There was every hope it might work.

How wrong I was. In a little over a mile it froze. I was running a stopwatch, so I would at least have a time on the ride. I knew the distance ahead of time because I knew the course so well. It wouldn't be optimal, but it was an acceptable back-up plan.

I stopped only once to fix the Garmin, and I figured if it died again, I would ignore it. Almost 7 miles later it died. So I was almost halfway through the ride with a dead computer and I came up with the stupidest plan I've had in a while - I'd see if I could get it going long enough for a try at the highway 37 segment.

This was dumb on oh so many levels. The obvious was the Garmin; what's more, I've ridden 5 days in a row, and run 5 days in a row. I'm tired, my legs are worn out, so there wasn't any real hope of getting it. I guess I just wanted a reason to ride hard.

It started off very well. The Garmin started up, and I was flying down the highway. About 2.9 miles in and 5:52 on the clock it stopped working. I was approximately in front of Appleacres, the hardest part of the stretch, rolling at 29.2 mph. I'll save you the trouble of working out the average... it was 29.65 mph and would have gone up as soon as I hit the light, where the course turns downhill. Guaranteed KOM. Except for the dead computer. The real kicker: I could have worn the 305 and gotten the data on back-up. I even thought of it on the way out the door, but didn't think I had the time to wait for the 305 to acquire satellites. Dang.

So I will be borrowing Jimmy's 500 for a few days until the refurb 510 comes in. He's too kind! He's also a savior - I hate warranties, and I hate the mail. One is a hassle, and the other is too slow. Put them together and you get a slow hassle.

The run later went well. Scott did drag us (Roy, Nathan, and me), which we all knew would happen. However, I didn't suffer, either in the hip (too much) or any other way. As tired as I am, it went pretty well.

The lift later was a bit tougher. I was smashed by this point. Think of it - for 5 days I've done 3 workouts a day (run, ride, lift). My caloric intake has not gone up to compensate. I'm always hungry, and I bonk rather easily. I want to ride that line a bit, because if I can get through Christmas with the weight under control, the battle is won. Much easier to start January already at or about target weight than to be 10-15 lbs. over.

The next few days will be interesting. We are going to get snow, I don't think there's any doubt about that now. It's only a matter of how much, and how much ice that will go along with it. And that, my friends, brings the outdoor riding to an end for the foreseeable future. If it gets really bad, it will also end outdoor running for me. I have no intention of injuring my hips. That's why I have a club membership, after all.

IF the swim meet gets canceled tomorrow night, and that looks like a very real possibility, I think I'll take the Cannondale over to the Energy Lab...

Grrr!

The day I bought the Garmin Edge 510, I should have had my head examined. The first time it locked up, I should have sent it back. Fortunately, it's not too late to correct both mistakes.

Today's ride was the last straw. Three separate times the device powered down and restarted, wiping out everything I'd just done. It was a good thing I was on a known course, so I could at least manually enter the distance and time, but this is not acceptable. If the device doesn't work, it has to be fixed/replaced.

I have factory reset it and updated to the latest firmware. I will ride it one more time to determine my next step. If it misbehaves at all, I will call Garmin even as I'm boxing it up. That sucker will go back lickety-split. I've been assured by both Miller and John T. that Garmin support is good. I guess we're about to find out.

The ride itself today was frustrating not only because of the Garmin, but because I got caught by a train on Woodville Road. That never happens, and today, when I'm behind schedule, it happened. Here's the bad thing about that... that crossing is 11 miles into a 20-miler. If I turn back, that's 22 miles, an extra 6 minutes. If I wait, it's the extra whatever it takes the train to clear the tracks. With no end in sight, I took the only option I could be sure of - I doubled back. I was home right on the 5 o'clock hour, just enough time to get ready for the run, but not without some stress.

The run was fine - at least the 305 is reliable. It might take FOREVER to find satellites, but once hooked up, it works. Well, except for the race in Indy. No biggie. I would have been tied for 5th on Strava for the course, but no biggie. Who am I kidding, that was a biggie. Dangit.

It has been hectic the last two days, and it would have been easy to push the ride off until later. Glad I didn't. The forecast for the end of the week looks disastrous. The numbers keep getting revised, but we're looking at inches of snow plus ice. And... just like that, outdoor riding will be over.

Tomorrow I will try to ride and run again. And lift! Don't forget the lift! If that all gets accomplished, I will have 20 miles run, 80+ ridden, and I will be well-positioned for anything that happens. That's the plan.

Here's hoping the forecast is wrong...

It's like a Christmas miracle!

It looked hopeless. There are only so many minutes of daylight in the after school hours in southern Indiana this time of year, and the SIEC meeting scheduled for after school ate into that precious commodity. In a perfect world I would have rushed home after school, jumped on the bike and ridden south to Mitchell. That would have left me plenty of time to get back for the run, and maybe even enough to add a couple of miles of running.

If that wasn't bad enough, the skies had turned slate-grey, and frankly the prospect of being outside was completely unappetizing in spite of the warm temperature. The already dim afternoon light was made all the dimmer, and for the solar-powered athlete, it was depressing. My head knew it had to go out if at all possible, but the rest of me was looking for the out.

So it was with some surprise I rushed home after the meeting, and in the short trip forced my mind to shift over to ride mode. I'd already settled on the idea of lifting, running, then spinning later; I'm not the kind of athlete that can instantly shift my plans and keep the enthusiasm going, so changing was not easy. One thought carried me through - if I could get the ride done first, the biggest hurdle of the day would be crossed. The run would have company, and the lift could be done in the shortest time and in the dark. It made sense, and for once I let my head rule the situation.

I almost headed to Mitchell in spite of everything. The thing that probably stopped that was my computer shut down within the first mile. Getting it restarted took time I didn't have, and there was no reliable way to be sure I'd make it back in time for the run if I left town. By staying in town I could get 15-18 miles, run, and maybe do a short spin later. It was a compromise, but I could stomach it.

The course was the Jimmy Industrial workout with a twist; once on Hillcrest I would do 3 hard laps. This gave me two intervals per circuit, one on the hill, one on the circle. It also moved the ride along and kept the pace up, and as luck would have it enabled me to get the whole 20 miles in.The best part was I didn't hate the whole thing. It's a workout I could do again in a pinch.

The timing was nearly perfect. I was able to get to the run in plenty of time, though my Garmin 305 took its sweet time finding satellite reception. Once done, we were off. Five of us did the run - John T., Rand, Roy, Bartlett, and myself. Scott had son duties, Jimmy a bad knee, and Miller still recovers from his race I suspect.

The run complete, all that was left was the lift. I ate supper with the family, did the dishes, and off to the gym. It was a little crowded by this time, but I was able to adjust my workout so it wasn't interrupted much, and it soon enough was complete. All told I had a bit over 2 hours activity today, right on target.

Tomorrow I hope to follow a similar total, though it might be arranged differently. If I could get that done, my week would be largely made. Good thing too; the back half of the week looks colder AND busier.

December 1st - Seriously?

We had a good regular group this morning for our Sunday run - John T., Scott, Galloway, Chris, and myself. We actually pretty much stayed together the whole way, and ran just a smidge over 8-minute pace. Regular course, regular players, nothing new to see here, move along.

What was noteworthy today was the weather. It was in the mid-50's, sunny, and very mild compared to recent weather. It was enough to draw out 7 riders to the Mitchell Church of Christ for a 2:30 ride. Ruminate on that... December 1st, 7 guys show up for an outdoor ride. Think back... when's the last time anyone remembers THAT on ANY day in December?

It looked early on like the group would quickly break in half. John T. and Scott took off, Troy caught, James was midway between groups, and Allen, Dan, and I were in the back. At the end of the Super 2 the front waited for the back, and from that point on we stayed together.

We did a slight modification of the regular Huck's Run, giving us right at 21 or so miles. My Garmin gave me some headaches and I was forced to make up a mile I lost to trouble. Why? Sure as I didn't, Allen would be crowing about how he rode more. He promised he wouldn't, but you know what a liar he is.

Gotta say, I'm happy about the distance this week, really training in general. I got all my miles and  much, much more. It won't be easy to replicate that on working weeks, but so what? Gotta be opportunistic, and this week, I was.

The next three days offer great riding opportunities. Beyond that, forget it.