Tuesday- 3 hours of pain

Monday I took the day off. Tuesday was three hours of hard workouts.
I began with a 15 minute warm-up. Then 5X1 minute zone 4 hill repeats on the mountain bike. I cruised home and did 40 minutes of strength, endurance, stability and core work. Then jumped on the trainer for 40 minutes of pedal cadence drills, alternating between 50 cadence and 110 cadence for 5 minutes at a time. lastly I did the 8 minute power yoga routine. Today is Thursday and I am still sore from this workout. Wednesday I did one hour of easy spinning on the golf cart paths. Today I will do 30 minutes of power yoga followed by another 1.5 hours of cadence and HR drills on the indoor trainer. It is raining buckets here today.

Race- Crash- Cramp- 11th- Learn

Had my first race of the season yesterday. I learned a lot from the race and now I know my weaknesses. Leg strength. A 2.5 hour long 30 mile race is a long way. I felt awesome for the first 1.5 hours. I was in 5th place and racing fast. My breath and HR were under perfect control. Just a short way into the 3rd lap, my front tire washed out at high speed and went down hard. At the same time I crashed my left calf muscle cramped hard. After I unlocked my calf I got back on my bike and worked hard to catch back up to my group. I then began to notice every muscle in both legs wanted to cramp. The 4th and 5th lap were very difficult with legs wanting to cramp. I was 20% slower on those two laps. My HR and breathing were perfect but my legs had nothing left in the tank. I now know what I need to work on. Muscular endurance. I need my legs to make it to then end of the race strong. Had I been able to hold my pace then I could have had the top 5 finish that I was looking for. I have just over a month and one more race to accomplish my goal. My hard workouts are going to be harder and my rest days will be more frequent.

Yesterday rest day Today is Neuromuscular day

Yesterday was a predetermined rest day and it came in handy because I was exhausted from the ride and not sleeping well. My heart was still pounding hard from the ride I had done that day. Last night I did not sleep well again. But my body is rested enough to hit it again with today's solid workout. This morning I will do 30 minutes on the trainer with 3 spin ups and 4x2 minutes one legged drills. Off the bike I will be doing 30 minutes of strength building exercise followed 15 minutes of core and then 8 minutes of power yoga.

This afternoon it will be another hour on the road bike doing some high cadence and 8x10 sec sprint drills with only 20 sec rest in between.

2.5 hours of Cold Wet mountain bike riding

Today I did exactly as the title says. We rode nonstop at a fast pace. Tons of steep climbing at Camp Thunder. It was raining pretty hard for most of the ride. My race is in one week.

Hill Repeats, Core and Power Yoga

Today I did some seated power accelerations, 5x3 minute hill repeats alternating seated and standing and then came home and did 15 minute of core.

I ran out of time this evening to do a ride so I did a 30 minute power yoga video. Tomorrow if the weather works out then I am going to do a 30 mile easy paved ride with the kid in tow.

Sunday if the weather looks bad then it is time for 3 hard hours at Camp Thunder.

Hit it hard today

Today, I did a solid workout in the morning involving Hindu squats, jump rope, power skip and some good ab work. Followed by a zone 3 ride with some standing drills and a few 10 sec sprint bursts. I felt my hamstring during one of the z3 tempo intervals. I stopped and did some stretching. I am feeling super fast right now again. I am 149 lbs with tons of power.

This afternoon I did a 40 minute mountain bike ride to keep on top of my skills. I focused on continual pedalling.

A couple Easy days

Yesterday I did a golf cart path ride with my son in tow followed by 25 minutes of yoga and today I did another 45 minutes on the trails with my son attached to my mountain bike. Tomorrow it is back to some hard work!

Couple of hours of Thunder

Friday, I did a 30 minute spin in the morning followed by 25 minutes of core work. In the afternoon I did a 40 minute mountain bike ride on the trails behind my house. Saturday, I did the super hard 45 minute yoga interval. It consists of 6 Super hard 100 cadence 3 minute intervals with 1 minute rest between. By the time you hit the 6th one you are barely able to breathe or even keep your head up.

Sunday- 2 hours of mountain biking at camp thunder to get accustomed to my bike and do some climbing.

cautiously optimistic

This morning I did an hour on the trainer with some one legged drills and 2 five minute fartlek intervals. I got off the trainer a few times to stretch and make sure everything is going ok. I think my hamstrings are a little sore from the Physical therapy.

This afternoon I am going to do about 1:30 minute mountain bike ride including a 4,3,2, and 1 minute z4 interval. With a nice and easy warm-up. This will be my first time on a bike (other than my trainer) in just over a week.

So far so good

I did a 30 minute spin and some Physical therapy to build strength in the Hamstring this morning. Around noon I got another 30 minute massage on the hamstring and I feel ready for this afternoon's workout. Getting the hamstring nice and warm before I start a workout, I think, will be the key to getting it well enough to race hard this spring and summer. This afternoon I am going to do about 1 hour on the trainer doing pedalling drills and another 25 minutes of upper and lower body functional strength building exercises.

Maybe not 100% pain free but close

I am still getting some some painful muscle spasms and I am being super careful during any workouts. I woke up this morning and did a 30 min high cadence spin. This afternoon, I did another 30 minutes on the trainer and then did 20 minutes of Yoga. Tomorrow I have booked a 30 minute massage for my hamstring. I am slowly but surely getting back to normal. "The Drip" diet plan is working well. I am around 8% body fat and weighing in at 152. Tomorrow it is time for some One legged drills.

Hamsting is now Pain free

I read on a great internet site for hamstring injuries and athletes that once you have no pain in your hamstring that you can return to 75% of your max sprint. I am continuing to be very cautious. I currently have no pain but I am going to continue my compression, Epson salt, heat and stretching today. Tomorrow I am going to do a 30 minute easy spin. I feel good that I was able to avoid a much worse injury by allowing myself to heal.

80% better today

I would give my hamstring 8 out of 10. I did a 45 minute easy spin this morning followed by some stretching a Baking soda bath and then back into compression tights. This afternoon I did an hour spin followed by 25 minute recovery yoga some icy hot and back into compression. I did build a snowman for my 5 year old today and hope that I didn't hurt my hamstring pushing the large snow balls into place. My training program is giving me tomorrow off I might try and fit in another 30 minute massage. Tuesday morning, I will do a 30 minute easy spin and then another 20 minute easy spin before doing some yoga. I am hoping to be 95% by Wednesday so that I can do some one legged drills on the bike. I will need to be at 100% by Thursday for that workout.

Hiking, Gutter cleaning and some exercise

I have heard that walking could be good for my injury so I took my son for about a 1.5 mile hike in the woods behind my home. After I got back I did some gutter cleaning. I was feeling pretty good so I decided to do some upper body, and core work and see how my indoor trainer would fee. I jumped on the indoor trainer for about 10 minutes at an easy pace. Then I did 15 minutes of easy high reps dumbell work, jumped back on the trainer for another 10 minutes, 15 minutes of core-work and 15 minutes of stretching. Went downstairs and did 15 minutes of massage with a foam roller. Now it is time to jump in the shower and get back into compression. Hopefully, those things and lots of water will be the answer to being ready to ride again tomorrow.

Compression tights-All day and all night

My hamstring is starting to feel better today. It is not 100% so I am not going to risk doing a lower body work out yet. I will do some upper body work and some core work today. More heat, compression and massage for the hamstring. If I am lucky then tomorrow I will be ready for a slow 1 hour ride.

45 minutes of massage and no relief

I had a great massage therapist who worked on my hamstring and IT band on my left side for 45 minutes today. Unfortanately, my hamstring is not feeling any better. This injury almost feels surreal at this point. I am hoping for a fast recovery and doing everything that I can think of to make it better. Rest, Ice, Compression, elevation, heat, massage, espon salt bath, advil, myofacial massage, using the stick for massage. It seems to just stay in the same painful state. Walking and riding my bike do not hurt but I am afraid they might make it worse. I hope that I will not be training free for too much longer. I guess I could continue to do upper body work and some core workouts. Even core stuff seems to use the hamstrings.

Injuries are buzz killers

I have a few injuries right now. 1. Hamstring Pull on left side 2. Right wrist issues from crash 3. Eyes are red and irritated probably from contacts. I guess this is part of gettng older. You get injured and it takes a long time to heal. Yesterday, I took the day off. I am going to do some core-work today and myofacial massage in addition to icing my hammy and take advil. I am hoping to get in for a massage tomorrow so that I can resume my workouts on Saturday.

My fingers are crossed that my hamstring will be healed quickly.

Pulled Left Hamstring

I think I must have pulled it on Saturday because that is when I first started feeling some tightness in my legs. Yesterday it was tight but not too painful. Today I woke up and it is definitely pulled. I am hoping a few days off the bike will help. I am going to take today off and tomorrow I will do some core-work and stretching. I am hoping that it will heal quickly. My first race is only 3 weeks away and I am looking for a strong showing.

Sleep was the answer

I have been feeling sluggish over the past week and thought maybe I have been overtraining. The good news is that I was feeling sluggish due to lack of sleep. Last night I slept for 10 hours and I feel awesome. Today I was able to hit my workouts hard!

AM workout
10 Minute warm up
40 minutes of functional stength workouts
30 minute mountain bike ride


PM workout
40 minute mountain bike ride
8 minute power yoga (5 times)
10 minute Core workout

Relax, Recover and stretch

Today I am going to work on some stretching and some taking it easy after 7 hours of riding this weekend. Tomorrow I hit it hard again.

AM.. 10 min warm-up
45 minute of strength building
20 min cool down 110 cadence z2

PM. 10 min warm-up
8 minute power yoga x5
3x30 spin ups
3x30 super spins
core work