Training Log Archive: fletch

Event: Boundless AR - KillaBrook
 

Event: Yetar Spring
 

Took a bit of umming and ahh-ing to actually get out of bed this morning, but glad that I did. Pretty gentle morning ride from home --> coast, up to Mullaloo, across to the freeway and back down to home. Gorgeous day for it. If I was a bit fitter or stupider, I might have gone much further.

Had one roadie come past on Craigie Drive. He was going way faster than me on the flat and I nearly let him get away before deciding that it wouldn't kill me to try for a bit, so I tucked in. Hit a tiny little incline and roadieman started to struggle almost instantly. Up out of his seat and puffing away. When he thought he'd done enough to get rid of me he had a look over his shoulder to see that I was still just sitting there behind him. Can only assume that he'd been out since 3am judging by the ridiculous amount of clothing he was wearing (shoe covers included). Good thing he turned off at the top of the hill, or I might have ruined my relaxed morning by actually having to work hard for a bit.

Must do these earlier. Sleepy.Zzzzzzzz

Ooh yeah. Get excited.

C • Get excited when you have b... 6

Didn't really need another thing to add to the list of "things I don't get around to until I should already be in bed" but this is fast becoming a regular in that category.

Same again.

And again

Rather pedestrian commute in to work. Didn't want to overdo it for the first one of the year. About 5 minutes longer from the new house, but still pretty slow, and I suspect that was with a slight (if it was strong I'm in big trouble) headwind...

No aches or pains yet, but I bet it doesn't take too long.

C • Safe 6

I swear the wind picked up in the 15 minutes before I left work.
Backside sore, but it didn't last. Quads sore. That lasted.

Took it pretty comfortably again, but fell in a pretty big hole in the last half hour. No riding training, and only 3 muesli bars to eat since breakfast (2.5 more than tRicky, I know) combined to leave me feeling pretty spent. Nearly fell off my bike when I got up out of the saddle to push up the last little incline and my legs almost buckled.

Got my first little reminder of the joys of cycling only 2km from work, when a cra load of wankers deliberately cut across Marmion Ave right in front of me. Had to brake hard not to run straight into the side of them. Lucky for them I wasn't on my mountain bike. I dodn't think I would have bothered to brake. Could do with a new mountain bike.

Going to be sore tomorrow, but happily although my calves felt stiff a couple of times whilst riding, no complaining from my achilles, so there's more riding ahead.

A random question for the few Canadian people that have stalked my log...

What are the eligibility criteria for the Canadian JWOC team? I briefly considered looking into it back in 1997, as I was born in Canada (but never applied for citizenship) and thought the team may have been than the Australian one... but then I was injured in the leadup to the Oz JWOC trilas, got smashed and decided that if I was getting smashed by Aussies there was no point in being there anyway.

Just curious. That's enough work time wasted... better get back to doing something useful.

C • Canucks 4

Same as last night, but last 2 sets were in shoes, as I was getting ready for work in the recoveries between sets.

Have decided that logging this crap is annoying and will lead my to bulk-time wasting, but that is a lesser evil than not logging it, not doing it, and not recovering.

Achilles were a little sore(er than normal) when I got out of bed this morning. Will have to monitor this and make sure I'm not making that shift from discomfort--> pain. I guess last night was the first rehab of any kind for several weeks.

So. I've seen the sports doctor. No magic bullets :( He seemed to think that any benefit from cortisone injections / blood injections etc was more than likely from the needle rather than whatever is in it, and seeing as my achilles have improved somewhat on their own, in the short term needling the achilles to "re-injure" in order to promote healing and realignment of collagen fibres is not worth the slight risk of tendon rupture at this point. Will be re-visited if my achilles worsen.

So.. what do I do?

Not what everything I've read has been suggesting. Apparently all that is out of date now. No apparent benefit to regimen of lowering with one foot, raising with 2, as studies have now found that the concentric contractions don't affect the benefits of the eccentric phase. Also no point in going past a neutral position, can cause too much re-injury and doesn't add to the benefit of doing raising and lowering on a flat floor. Important change seems to be to do the calf stuff as slowly and as controlled as possible.

So, rather than 3 sets of x reps on a step, I've been given 3 x 5 minutes on a flat floor using both feet for up and down as a starting point. To be adjusted (Up or down) as necessary.

Exercising that places some (but not too much load) on achilles necessary to promote healing twice per day, so either rehab exercises as above, or cycling. (which obviously doesn't involve the sudden achilles loading of foot-plant in running) Think I may be on the bike a lot. Will have to see how my knee copes. Bike fit may be coming sooner rather than later.

Need to be more strict on myself avoiding sprinting, jumping activities (no more beating the kids at basketball or demonstrating high jump and hurdles), as well as hills and interval work (no return to running in the Toomsless group any time soon and State Champs is a definite no-no :( ) which is going to make work awfully dull. These activities will more than likely re-injure past the capacity of the body to repair.

Main issue is not an inflammation response, but anti-inflammatories OK if they help maintain the rehab. Activity generally to be guided by the principle of discomfort is OK, pain is bad. Apparently this is meant to be an easy distinction to make and most people underestimate how much they can do. I'm not so sure about myself. I'll hazard a guess that the annoying discomfort that I had when my achilles started to play up that went away after a couple of minutes is OK and the "I can't even jog up a hill unless I've slowly shuffled around for at least 10 minutes becuase it hurts too much" that I was at by the end of the Easter carnival is probably taking it a bit too far.

Have decided in the interests of not pushing too hard too soon to stop all running (well, as much as possible) and to bite the bullet and get back on the bike and the ski. Need to keep some fitness up / get some back.

Will not commit to any racing in the short term, but am already thinking about possibilities for the second half of next year.

C • References? 17

First set of new rehab. 3 x 5 minutes 2 footed calf raises on flat floor, done as slowly as possible. Cycling is looking more and more enticing.

Hooray - visit to the doctor tomorrow. Hopefully won't feel like I'm getting nowhere with the achilles after that...

C • Are you fat yet? 13