Matthew

Trainer Rides, Persistence, and Sore knees

I am a persistent, stubborn guy. Ask my wife. So after last weeks' five and a half hour trainer ride, I figured a six hour version would suck just as much, but be doable. Six hours on an indoor trainer tests even my stubbornness. It hurt. It hurt my buddy who did it with me (http://therecoveryride.blogspot.com/). Worst of all, it hurt my knee. Through my entire season I have been very lucky and avoided injury. So when my knee started hurting about hour 3 during the trainer ride, I didn't really think about it too much. At hour four, it really hurt, so I switched my cleat position a little bit and continued. Hour five it hurt badly enough that I couldn't sit upright for more than 30 seconds; I had to be on the aero bars. The 35 minute run off the end of the bike was the most miserable I've been in a long time. My knee hurt. I finished the run anyway. Like I said, I'm stubborn. I figured it was just my IT band tightening up and causing the pain in my knee. So I stretched it after the run, iced it for the next 24 hours, and started on some ibuprofen. After all, I had a three hour run coming up on Sunday and I wasn't interested in missing it.

I woke up Sunday and the leg felt ok. By the afternoon it was feeling pretty good, actually. So I stretched it out for 15 minutes or so and started my run. I've got a really, really pretty route for my long runs that leaves the front door of my house and heads west up to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains through Bear Creek Park and then Red Rocks Amphitheater. It gains about 2100ft over the 20 miles, depending on how exactly I run it. I ran about 2 miles to the first hill and my knee started hurting. The only saving grace was that the pain changed location based on whether I was ascending or descending. So when I was running uphill, I couldn't wait for the downhill, and when I was running downhill, I couldn't wait for the next uphill. The flats were pure misery. I contemplated just quitting. More than once. I thought about it a lot. It would be easy to just stop running, start walking, call my wife, and wait for her to come get me. I figured I'd do that when I got to the top of Red Rocks Amphitheater. I mean, I couldn't actually quit before I got to the top. So then I got to the top, turned around and started down. I figured I'd call her at the bottom of the descent…. My knee was hurting in a different place, and it would be a fast downhill. Seemed silly to waste all that speed sitting in a car. So I ran down the major hill into the town of Morrison. I couldn't very well quit in front of all the tourists in Morrison. So I slogged on, gritting my teeth. Then I was back in the park. It's downhill through the park, with one flat section, and one uphill on the way home. I looked at my knee, gritted my teeth and thought to myself there was no way in hell I was letting a little knee pain ruin this perfectly good run. It was, after all, 75 degrees and an absolutely beautiful day outside. I wasn't interested in spending it feeling sorry for myself as I walked home or waited on a ride. As I got to the last hill, I figured the run was in the bag. Yeah right. My knee started to hurt bad enough I felt nauseous. I've enough medical experience that I know that's not really a good thing. I figured I'd finish the run. I mean, it's not like it was that far at that point. I couldn't have had more than a couple miles to go. So I took off down the hill. Ran hard the rest of the way home. Came in right around three hours. We live on the third floor, and I was standing at the bottom of the stairs. My whole lower leg hurt. Foot was a little numb, and I thought about calling my wife to help me up the stairs… and then I put my hand on the railing and started up. I'm stubborn, remember? Oh, and my knee still hurts, but it's healing.

Good times and cold rides

    Went for a long Friday ride a few weeks ago with my buddies. Colorado is beautiful in the fall, except that it gets really, really, cold (like the past two weeks). So that outside ride was the last one up that road for the winter. Locally known as 'Oh My God' road, it's a fairly steep gravel road that ascends from 7200ft to 9000ft in 5 miles. It's awesome. A really great climb. After we hit that pass, we hit Golden Gate Canyon as well. It was a great five hour ride with over 11,000ft of climbing. The best part was the view! I'd forgotten what fall was like in the Colorado High Country. The leaves on the Aspen were gold and orange in the middle of an evergreen sea. It was great. The company was rather nice as well. It's rare I get to ride with my friends these days. Time, life and my training schedule has cramped our collective style lately, but I'm sure we'll knock out some trainer rides this winter. Maybe we'll venture outside. My friend Jeff and I tried last Friday, but it was 23 degrees at 7 when we had to start, so we endured five and half hours on trainers. I have an ironman coming up, so I was obligated to do it. Jeff wasn't, but he kept me company anyway. I think I'd be a drooling idiot without him. The conversation and mutual suffering kept me sane somehow. We went through two and half movies. Layercake, by the way is a really good British gangster film starring Daniel Craig, who is excellent. I'd advise watching it without fans blowing though. British slang is somewhat hard for me to understand as it is, and I had a hell of a time on the trainer. Anyway, averaged 197 watts on the trainer, and 184 outside. My power continues to go up, which is awesome. I also feel really strong right now, which is great. Hopefully the trend continues. 6 weeks till Ironman Arizona!