So yesterday's road ride led to a minor amount of pain-in-the-back or as it should more properly be called "pain-in-the-ass"
No big surprise here, but what seems to be going on is that I am re-aggravating the pulled gluteus medias injury from a few months ago. Sooo..... as one of my favorite sports training books likes to point out, "More reps at lower effort often leads to better results than fewer reps at higher effort." So less standing up and pedaling on the uphills. More shifting down into an easier gear. Less sprinting and pushing myself into oxygen debt. More cruising along at higher cadence.
We'll see how this all works out in the sphere of running because so far I haven't noticed any correlation between running and back/gluteus pain.
Today I might go running if the weather doesn't just dump in the late afternoon.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Monday, August 11, 2008
Monday: road sprint
My back felt considerably better on Monday. I spent most of the day working on my internet job (I run a Wireless ISP) and luckily enough when I decided to knock off for the day we were in between rain showers. So Dad and I hopped on bikes and rode to Concord center. Dad opted to return home from there (he rode a long ride yesterday) and I continued on to Carlisle center. Pace was fairly brisk especially the return from Carlisle center to my Dad's house when I was pushing a bit harder.
Mileage: 16 miles
Time: 52 minutes
avg speed: 18.46 mph
terrain: mostly flat
weather: 65 degrees, overcast
for those who enjoy gore, here is a link to the Sprocket Injury gallery
Mileage: 16 miles
Time: 52 minutes
avg speed: 18.46 mph
terrain: mostly flat
weather: 65 degrees, overcast
for those who enjoy gore, here is a link to the Sprocket Injury gallery
Sunday: pain
The leg injury from Saturday did not bother me one bit on Sunday, but my back was more or less completely seized up. I took the day off (not like I had much of a choice).
It's truly amazing what kind of hateful garbage the mind will dredge up towards the end of a long day of being in pain. I watched Gladiator before bed and for whatever reason I was more in tune with the insane emperor Commodus than the protagonist Maximus. Ice, pain killers and anti-inflammatory drugs are probably a good idea. Early and often.
It's truly amazing what kind of hateful garbage the mind will dredge up towards the end of a long day of being in pain. I watched Gladiator before bed and for whatever reason I was more in tune with the insane emperor Commodus than the protagonist Maximus. Ice, pain killers and anti-inflammatory drugs are probably a good idea. Early and often.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
and on Saturday, bloody sprockets
I went down to Holliston, MA today to do a little mt biking in a trail system that is affectionately called "Vietnam." Lots of great single track with granite slabs, boulders, baby heads, stream crossings, sand, mud, etc etc etc.
We rode for about three hours. Pace was easygoing. My guide, a fellow whom I know as Splat, had his 11 year old along so that meant lots of rest stops while the young'un caught up to us old farts.
The highlight of the ride was when I rode up a sloping granite slab and stalled at the transition to the flat top. I put down a foot and then slid backwards and sideways down the slab puncturing my calf twice with the big ring on the front sprocket. I could see some of the white subdermal tissue and knew I'd done a really nice job sticking the sprocket into my leg. Being as we are mt bikers we did nothing for the injury and kept riding for another hour and a half.
I got home and cleaned up. It is a nice little injury. It won't win any awards, but it does sting nicely and will probably leave a divot in my leg where I cut away the triangle of skin that was hanging loose.
We rode for about three hours. Pace was easygoing. My guide, a fellow whom I know as Splat, had his 11 year old along so that meant lots of rest stops while the young'un caught up to us old farts.
The highlight of the ride was when I rode up a sloping granite slab and stalled at the transition to the flat top. I put down a foot and then slid backwards and sideways down the slab puncturing my calf twice with the big ring on the front sprocket. I could see some of the white subdermal tissue and knew I'd done a really nice job sticking the sprocket into my leg. Being as we are mt bikers we did nothing for the injury and kept riding for another hour and a half.
I got home and cleaned up. It is a nice little injury. It won't win any awards, but it does sting nicely and will probably leave a divot in my leg where I cut away the triangle of skin that was hanging loose.
Friday, August 8, 2008
and on Friday, he rested
mostly because on Friday morning he accidentally caused an outage @ work and so he wasted the nice part of the day herding cats or electrons or ether.
now it's 5:45pm in Boston and there is a band of thunderstorms coming in. so today I don't work out.
tomorrow i get to ride in Vietnam (well Holliston, MA). A nice set of singletrack mt bike trails out near Interstate 495. Technical and fun!
here comes the thunder! boom boom boom!
now it's 5:45pm in Boston and there is a band of thunderstorms coming in. so today I don't work out.
tomorrow i get to ride in Vietnam (well Holliston, MA). A nice set of singletrack mt bike trails out near Interstate 495. Technical and fun!
here comes the thunder! boom boom boom!
Thursday, August 7, 2008
swimmer swim swimmy
novelty abounds. i went swimming. it has been ages and ages since i've been in the water and it was pretty obvious.
where: YMCA pool Waltham, MA
distance: 500 yards maybe more, maybe less
time: when I paid attention to the clock I was doing 100 yards in abt 1:30
felt like: a rather out of shape, soggy noodle
quit because: my right calf cramped up
A rather lackluster workout, but I think it was the first swim workout that I've done in about three weeks. As I vaguely recall the last time I went swimming and was wearing my "workout" hat it was the week after July 4th. Or maybe the weekend after the July 4th holiday weekend. So that is right about 4 weeks.
Mostly worked on my form. Didn't really concentrate on speed. Had a lot of trouble pacing myself so that I wasn't constantly going into oxygen debt. Never put together more than 100 yards without a 20-40 second rest. For whatever reason pools seem to encourage the "stop and hang on the wall" behavior. Swimming in the ocean doesn't encourage this. Some of my friends suggest that this is because the ocean has no walls. These friends are clearly insane. It's because the walls in the ocean are all either A: underwater or B: also called cliffs and are constantly being pulverized with waves. In neither case can you drape an arm on the wall and relax. Also the ocean is full of sharks and we all know that predators seek out the old and the infirm to eat (probably because predators are just as lazy as I am) so if you swim steadily and healthily with a youthful air about you, well then you won't be eaten by predators of the seas.
philosophy riddle of the day:
Does the existence of the YMCA provide proof for the existence of God? please put your answers in the comments section.
where: YMCA pool Waltham, MA
distance: 500 yards maybe more, maybe less
time: when I paid attention to the clock I was doing 100 yards in abt 1:30
felt like: a rather out of shape, soggy noodle
quit because: my right calf cramped up
A rather lackluster workout, but I think it was the first swim workout that I've done in about three weeks. As I vaguely recall the last time I went swimming and was wearing my "workout" hat it was the week after July 4th. Or maybe the weekend after the July 4th holiday weekend. So that is right about 4 weeks.
Mostly worked on my form. Didn't really concentrate on speed. Had a lot of trouble pacing myself so that I wasn't constantly going into oxygen debt. Never put together more than 100 yards without a 20-40 second rest. For whatever reason pools seem to encourage the "stop and hang on the wall" behavior. Swimming in the ocean doesn't encourage this. Some of my friends suggest that this is because the ocean has no walls. These friends are clearly insane. It's because the walls in the ocean are all either A: underwater or B: also called cliffs and are constantly being pulverized with waves. In neither case can you drape an arm on the wall and relax. Also the ocean is full of sharks and we all know that predators seek out the old and the infirm to eat (probably because predators are just as lazy as I am) so if you swim steadily and healthily with a youthful air about you, well then you won't be eaten by predators of the seas.
philosophy riddle of the day:
Does the existence of the YMCA provide proof for the existence of God? please put your answers in the comments section.
another run, decent pace even.
I tried to post this last night but blogger was having an outage.
The weather was grey, rainy and chilly but I finally decided that running seemed the least sucky of the outdoor training options. This was the 2nd run since foot injury. The foot seems completely fine.
distance: 9.4 miles
route: 300 Virginia Rd to 1200 Lowell Rd in Concord, MA and back again.
time: 76 minutes
pace: 8:05/mile
effort level: moderate. was mostly concentrating on having good form
I was quite happy with the faster pace as compared to last week. I didn't feel like I was putting more effort into the running but ended up going considerably faster. tres cool!
I felt pretty tight afterwards. did some stretching. mostly tight in the hamstrings (no surprise there). during the run I had very little IT band bitching out of the right knee. I could obviously use more time doing leg stretches. :)
In other news I arranged to get access to a local semi-private pond for swimming. Will hopefully have decent weather tomorrow morning so that I can get in some long overdue swim training. I tried connecting with the local Masters swim program at Hanscom AFB, but the organizer guy doesn't check his email or didn't bother to get back to me. Either getting connected to the masters swim organization or the YMCA would be a good idea for having access to a decent pool regardless of my location in the USA. Need to figure out what each option will cost.
The weather was grey, rainy and chilly but I finally decided that running seemed the least sucky of the outdoor training options. This was the 2nd run since foot injury. The foot seems completely fine.
distance: 9.4 miles
route: 300 Virginia Rd to 1200 Lowell Rd in Concord, MA and back again.
time: 76 minutes
pace: 8:05/mile
effort level: moderate. was mostly concentrating on having good form
I was quite happy with the faster pace as compared to last week. I didn't feel like I was putting more effort into the running but ended up going considerably faster. tres cool!
I felt pretty tight afterwards. did some stretching. mostly tight in the hamstrings (no surprise there). during the run I had very little IT band bitching out of the right knee. I could obviously use more time doing leg stretches. :)
In other news I arranged to get access to a local semi-private pond for swimming. Will hopefully have decent weather tomorrow morning so that I can get in some long overdue swim training. I tried connecting with the local Masters swim program at Hanscom AFB, but the organizer guy doesn't check his email or didn't bother to get back to me. Either getting connected to the masters swim organization or the YMCA would be a good idea for having access to a decent pool regardless of my location in the USA. Need to figure out what each option will cost.
Monday, August 4, 2008
two days off
Saturday really took the gas outta my tank. Plus my back has been way too bitchy since two weeks ago when I started moving around Ohia trees back on the farm in Hawaii. So two days of rest.
Tomorrow I will either hop on the bike for a road ride or go do a swim workout. Probably the latter as it will likely be easier on my back.
Tomorrow I will either hop on the bike for a road ride or go do a swim workout. Probably the latter as it will likely be easier on my back.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
rain in Vermont
Rode two days this weekend in Vermont. Both in the Northeast Kingdom region and both in East Burke, VT.
Friday:
daytime and night time rides @ Kingdom Trails cross country. Probably didn't do more than 12 miles total. Got plenty muddy and only slight jacking of the back injury due to having insufficient lighting and slippery roots in the dark.
Saturday:
ride #1: 2200ft climbing on the Toll Road to the top of East Burke mt. 49 minutes. 4.9 miles. tiny gear the entire way. pain. pain. pain. glorious pain.
ride #2: several hundred feet of climbing. maybe even one hundred. then a flat. and partial demolition of my rental bike's rear brake whilst trying to reassemble rear end
ride #3: post burrito lunch and bike shop repair of brake. abt 13 miles. abt 1200 ft climbing. pain. pain and more pain. plus exhaustion. good fun. followed by a lovely dinner at the Pub Outback. and ice cream. and beer. and sleep.
Friday:
daytime and night time rides @ Kingdom Trails cross country. Probably didn't do more than 12 miles total. Got plenty muddy and only slight jacking of the back injury due to having insufficient lighting and slippery roots in the dark.
Saturday:
ride #1: 2200ft climbing on the Toll Road to the top of East Burke mt. 49 minutes. 4.9 miles. tiny gear the entire way. pain. pain. pain. glorious pain.
ride #2: several hundred feet of climbing. maybe even one hundred. then a flat. and partial demolition of my rental bike's rear brake whilst trying to reassemble rear end
ride #3: post burrito lunch and bike shop repair of brake. abt 13 miles. abt 1200 ft climbing. pain. pain and more pain. plus exhaustion. good fun. followed by a lovely dinner at the Pub Outback. and ice cream. and beer. and sleep.
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