Fwd: Week 11 of Training

On Thursday I was able to get an appointment with the Pedal Right Fit Studio in Vickery Village. I got in with one of their top fitting specialist Eric and he spent about 3.5 hours with me changing my seat height, shorten my stem, moving my cleat, and videoing my pedal stroke until we got it to a area where we are happy with. Believe it or not on my new kestrel where I had the seat height was about 7 MM too low! that's 3 full CM. Now we have it all positioned that it matches my Fuji to the millimeter in all areas except we have my seat height about 3.5mm higher to get more leg extension. I've never been one to be picky with my bike; but with all of these measurement and the technology the Retul has with fitting I was really happy and impressed! If you haven't been fit yet I highly recommend it even if you are a CAT 5 racer or on the PRO level. A fitting like this and the service I got is well worth the money spent. I even have take home records of my fit so down the road when I purchase a new bike I'm able to compare and adjust as needed and Pedal Right has the records on file so I could just go there to get set up and have the same confidence knowing that I'm properly sized up on the new bike

So this week has been a tough week for me. I went and got an MRI done on Thursday to check out my knee since it has been bothering me a lot. The MRI results came and and apparently I somehow have torn the ACL and PCL in my left knee. The doctor said it could be from something as simple as running into a desk or hitting my knee on anything that caused it and its not from cycling. I look at it two ways... its stressing me out that  have to spend 2-4 weeks off the bike but on the other side I will be able to ride again and still do the ride. Its not "TENDINITIS" of some sort which tends to stay around longer but yes I will still have to baby the knee. I did a nice 60 mile ride on Monday and that's when I decided that I needed to get it check out. I'm hoping I can get back to riding on the 2 week side and not the 4 week. I may be out of shape going to this ride across America but I WILL complete it. I will be sure to keep everyone up to date with the issue. Well its back to the icing 3-4 times a day for the next couple weeks.. WISH ME LUCK!

Week 10 of Training

Another week in the books ladies and gentlemen. This week was great because it actually got above freezing and I was able to ride outside with only 2 layers on instead of 4. The only down side is more knee issues. I think from what I can remember is I smashed my knee on something and it feels like I have a bruise on the knee cap.. But when I don't ride a day it goes away and the next day I ride it slowly creeps back.. I'm HOPING its only a bruise and nothing more. Next week I am super excited because I'm going to get fit at Pedal Right in Vickery Village. After I get fit I will be able to start riding the Kestrel and putting the miles on that puppy and then my knee problems will go away.. right....

 

Monday- 1.5 hours on the rollers. 10 min at 150, 170, 190, 210, 190, 170, 150 then ILTS.

 

Tuesday- 1.5 hours on the rollers. pretty much the same thing as Monday

 

Wednesday- OFF

 

Thursday- 3 hours with Reality Bikes teammate Eric. We ended up riding out of the house and going up some new roads that we haven't been on yet and discovered that there is a lot of untouched areas that we hope to venture towards during our team training camp.

 

Friday- 1 hour on the Road. This is when the knee really started bothering me so I cut the ride short.

 

Saturday- OFF

 

Sunday- 1 Hour on the rollers at my parents house. Real easy keeping an eye on my knee making sure it isn't anything major.

 

Now is a time that I really cant risk doing any damage to my knee.. What ever injuries I do have I need to make sure they are gone and I'm good to go. I really cant afford to take a week or two weeks off in the next couple months of training. Its time I ramp my miles up since I'm able to ride outside and keep the intensity down. I do plan on racing the Greenville Classic which starts February 22nd and is 3 weekends after and hope to place well maybe win a race and Cat up to a 3 before I leave. I did get a Garmin and I will start uploading rides on here that I do throughout the week. Its crazy how much information that you get off of the cycling computer and I'm enjoying it so far!

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for New Ride

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for New Ride

Week 9 of Training

(yes thats the snow and ice I was riding on)

Well another week down and another week closer to my ride. So on Sunday I was on the rollers just thinking to myself about my training and where I'm at with it. I was thinking that man my ride is in April and I've been riding 5 days a week now for 9 weeks this is going to be a long journey and April feels like forever away.... NOT.. when push comes to shove and you count the months you would think 4 months. January, February, March, then April.. right?!?! Well at least that's what I've been telling people.. But take this into consideration count the weeks... you should get 12 weeks plus a few days... 12 weeks!!!! I'm almost halfway through my training and haven't done a century ride yet.. Been fighting knee issues and of course cold and rainy weather. No time to panic though its not crunch time yet however next week I better get in a little more then just 1.5 hour roller rides I need to be riding outside 2 plus hours a day! Soon I will start 5 day straight training days with 1 day off a week. I'm going to have to get used to RIDING back to BACK days.

 

Monday- 1.5 hours on the rollers. 60 min at 165 watts. ILT's

 

Tuesday- OFF

 

Wednesday- 1.5 hours on the rollers. 60 min at 180 watts. ILT's

 

Thursday- 1.5 Hours on the rollers. 20 min 160, 20 min 180, 20 min 60, 10 min 200. ILTS

 

Friday- OFF ( SNOW DAY)

 

Saturday- 2.5 hours outside in the snow and ice. It ended up being a beautiful day out and really nice ride. The knee or should I say knee's held up really well. It was a lot of fun slippin and sliding on the ice. I couldn't get over how much was still on the ground and the salt trucks haven't made it to some of the back roads I was on.

 

Sunday- 1.5 hours on the rollers. 10 min at 150, 10 min at 170 X 3, then 5 min at 150, 5 min at 170 X 2.

 

Week 8 of Training

So things have been looking good for me with my training and being on the bike. I have yet to ride outside in weeks but you know what the weather has yet to be "nice." The way I've been looking at it is that I ride fine on the trainer and not so well on the road so I'll continue the trainer for a couple more weeks. This week being New Years I went up to Athens and hung out with the "Murray" clan and Stephen, Reggie, and Neely. We had a great time for New Years and for the WBL ride.. well you guessed it I didn't do it. For one I wasn't in the best shape to go out in the 40 degree weather and two.. my knee.... or at least that is my excuse and I'm sticking to it! So I ended up doing a training week of this:

 

Monday- 1.5 hours on the rollers. Steady pace between 150 and 200 watts.. for once no ILT's

 

Tuesday- 1 Hour on the rollers. Eddie came over and we did a easy ride. I kept it at 150 watts for 40 min then 10 min of ILT's.

 

Wednesday- OFF

 

Thursday- NEW YEARS EVE!! 1 Hour on the rollers. Again very easy and I got my new wireless power tap so it was interesting to see how it worked compared to the wired one... and Its pretty close to the same the only thing I see that is off is "virtual cadence" when I do ILT's it goes crazy!?!?!!

 

Friday- NEW YEARS DAY!!... AKA OFF DAY :)- Ed, Art, Reggie, Stephen, and Eric went out and did the WBL.. MAJOR PROPS TO THEM!

 

Saturday- 1 hour on the rollers. It took a while to get motivated today but after 30 min I started counting down till I was done.

 

Sunday- 1 Hour on the rollers. This was a great work out! I did 20 min on at 150 watts, 20 Min at 175 watts, and 10 min of ILT's.

 

So I really haven't been riding the new bike.. Actually I haven't ridden it since the first WBL ride. I'm going to stay off till I get fit and get all the correct measurements. I really cant risk any more injuries and what I'm doing now seems to be working. This week was a good week of riding and turned out to be a good rest week before I ramp it up next week... Next week is January so that means at least 1.5 hours on the rollers.... ohh boy only 4 months till I leave!