Happy 232nd Birthday to the US Marine Corps!
After a week of riding, it appears my knee is back to around 95% capable now. It's still a bit sore if I try to work it too hard, and climbing stairs can be a little painful. Fortunately, I'm addicted to about the only sport other than swimming that lets me keep training without real impact to the joint.
I backed off the training week a little and got some easy riding in this week to recover the knee and that seemed to work well. I still rounded out at just over 16 hrs of riding and 550 kilometers:
- Tuesday I was very sore, and I only got about 1 hr 30 min of spinning done, a real low IF of .67.
- Wednesday I stuck to the flats on the coastline, did a little bit of SST and then kept endurance/tempo on the return trip. IF .785 and ended the ride early at 1hr 50 min. The knee was feeling better, but I couldn't stand on the pedals.
- Thursday by the time I got on the bike, the knee was loads better and it felt good to get a workout in. I did 1 solid hour of SST (around IF .89), and followed it with another hour of low Zone 2 riding (IF .77)
- Friday I thought I'd try to get the API/VO2max workout in that I missed earlier in the week. I dropped over to a new hill that I hadn't done intervals on before. It's a good steady 7-8% climb, but it only lasts around 3 1/2 minutes. I only got 4 intervals done @ 1:1 recovery before my legs said it was over. I finished off with just over 2 hrs of Zone1 riding with a bit of climbing for fun.
- Saturday: Today was a great ride in fantastic weather. Temps were a chilly 10C on the way out of the house, but the sun warmed it up nicely and by the time I was done I'd stripped the arm warmers (woulda stripped the leg warmers but was running out of pockets). Great 4 hours in the saddle with only a hint of stiffness in the knee as a reminder to SPIN! DON'T MASH!
Tomorrow is a complete day off, and I figure by Monday I should have no remnants of the knee pains. It's probably also better to have a day off tomorrow after we attend the US Marine Corps Ball tonight. Riding hard after a night at the ball is a recipe for a very long, torturous ride.
I'm also working on putting on a bit of weight. The weight had settled into the 74kg range, and it just started to feel "tapped out." I'm going to try to creep the weight back to around 76kg and slowly bring it back down to 75 again. We'll see how that goes.
Semper Fi and Safe Riding,
VW
After a week of riding, it appears my knee is back to around 95% capable now. It's still a bit sore if I try to work it too hard, and climbing stairs can be a little painful. Fortunately, I'm addicted to about the only sport other than swimming that lets me keep training without real impact to the joint.
I backed off the training week a little and got some easy riding in this week to recover the knee and that seemed to work well. I still rounded out at just over 16 hrs of riding and 550 kilometers:
- Tuesday I was very sore, and I only got about 1 hr 30 min of spinning done, a real low IF of .67.
- Wednesday I stuck to the flats on the coastline, did a little bit of SST and then kept endurance/tempo on the return trip. IF .785 and ended the ride early at 1hr 50 min. The knee was feeling better, but I couldn't stand on the pedals.
- Thursday by the time I got on the bike, the knee was loads better and it felt good to get a workout in. I did 1 solid hour of SST (around IF .89), and followed it with another hour of low Zone 2 riding (IF .77)
- Friday I thought I'd try to get the API/VO2max workout in that I missed earlier in the week. I dropped over to a new hill that I hadn't done intervals on before. It's a good steady 7-8% climb, but it only lasts around 3 1/2 minutes. I only got 4 intervals done @ 1:1 recovery before my legs said it was over. I finished off with just over 2 hrs of Zone1 riding with a bit of climbing for fun.
- Saturday: Today was a great ride in fantastic weather. Temps were a chilly 10C on the way out of the house, but the sun warmed it up nicely and by the time I was done I'd stripped the arm warmers (woulda stripped the leg warmers but was running out of pockets). Great 4 hours in the saddle with only a hint of stiffness in the knee as a reminder to SPIN! DON'T MASH!
Tomorrow is a complete day off, and I figure by Monday I should have no remnants of the knee pains. It's probably also better to have a day off tomorrow after we attend the US Marine Corps Ball tonight. Riding hard after a night at the ball is a recipe for a very long, torturous ride.
I'm also working on putting on a bit of weight. The weight had settled into the 74kg range, and it just started to feel "tapped out." I'm going to try to creep the weight back to around 76kg and slowly bring it back down to 75 again. We'll see how that goes.
Semper Fi and Safe Riding,
VW