Workouts Coming Back From My Injury

I FINALLY feel like I'm starting to get back into a bit of a rhythm. My heel is far from 100%, but it's been letting me build up some endurance. After a lack-luster March, the first 10 days of April looked like this:

Lets go sport-by-sport.

SWIM:

Yes, only 2 swims over those 10 days. That's not great. I had a (slow) tempo solo-swim on the 6th, and then a good butt-kicking swim with Julia on the 8th. I did 3,100 with Julia, and around 1,100 of that was pulling! Here's Julia and I post-swim:

BIKE:

I'm REALLY happy with my biking over the last 10 days! The first 10 day of April contained my first 3 outdoor rides!

- The first ride was my favorite 15.5 mile loop that I posted about last Monday.
- The second ride was a LONG ride (for me, for this time of year) of 34 miles on Friday.
- The third ride was that same 15.5 mile loop, only I did some intervals.

On Friday, I wanted to go long. So I just wandered around St. Paul and nearby suburbs. I crossed the Mississippi on I35. The flooding was CRAZY. Here's the yacht club under water from the bridge:

Close-up

Riding one-handed while going uphill across a high bridge with a strong side-wind while taking a photo? Yeah, maybe I won't do that again...

Then I hit the Big River Trail. Here's more flooding - I USUALLY like to ride down that road that goes under the RR bridge:

Before continuing down the trail


Ice and snow on the trail under the 494 bridge - I had to dismount to cross


Still snow along Big River Trail, but I was in shorts

So I made it all the way to Pilot Knob and 494 before turning around and heading back. I crossed through downtown St. Paul, and worked my way over to the start of the Gateway Trail (just to make sure the trail had survived the winter). I rode only to mile 1, and then turned around:

BONK TIME!!! I turned into a slight (oh so slight) wind, and I realized I was done. I was slightly overdoing it for this time of year. I was running out of water (I started with nearly 70 oz - yes SEVENTY OUNCES - and apparently that only lasts me about 30 miles), I had already ate the 2 gels I had brought, and I was going to bonk with 7 miles left. Oops.

It was a good ass-kicking. I needed that. I ended up logging 34.22 miles that looked like this:

Notice the little A, B, C, D, and E on that map? Those correspond with these averages:

- A: Downhill for a few miles, then up over the bridge, then down along the river: 18.7 mph average

- B: Long, gentle uphill, crossed icy lump (seen in the photo), and uphill to my turn-around at Pilot Knob Rd (far southern point): 18.0 mph average

- C: Down gentle downhill, up steep hill, across bridge, and down Shepard Trail to Downtown St. Paul: 18.3 mph average

- D: Realizing I'm bonking at the northern most part of the ride, after a lot of street riding: 17.8 mph average

- E: More street riding after serious bonk, up the hill by the Cathedral: 17.3 mph average

- Down Summit Ave to home: 17.2 mph average for the 34.22 mile ride. Ouch. Ego blow. But a necessary one.

Kermit (my cat) licked the salt off my arm once I got home:

Arm hair styled by Kermit

I didn't know the best way to handle that major bonk. So I had a recovery drink with 5 grams of protein, and then I had a big protein shake with 58 grams of protein. That was a lot of protein. But I think it did the trick.

Then yesterday, I did some short intervals on a 15.5 mile ride. When I started out, my legs felt GREAT, so I think all the protein 2 days before had helped! I warmed up for a few minutes, and then did 5 x 3:00 intervals with 3:00 of easy-to-moderate spinning between. I tried to keep track of what I did:

- 0.97 miles (into the wind).
- 1.08 miles (ending on better roads).
- 1.13 miles (lots of technical turns going under 35 at high speeds).
- 1.20 miles (starting at the bottom of the hill just before Randolf, ending just past Smith Bridge with a long, slow downhill).
- 0.63 miles (starting by Smith, ending about 0:40 past the top of Ramsey Hill).

That means I averaged 24 mph during my "farthest" interval, and I averaged under 13 mph during my "shortest" interval (over half that interval was going up a steep hill in my granny gear).

I REALLY liked this workout! I snapped a photo once I got into the house when I was all sweaty:

Just after I took this photo, some sweat dripped into both of my eyes. Suck-tastic. But it was GREAT to be sweaty in short sleeves and bike shorts!!!

So 65 miles on the bike in just over a week is nice for me (and for this time of the year). I need to keep that up for a few weeks!

RUN:

Yes, all these runs were pretty short. But I'm trying to build my heel back up so I'm ready to go for multi-sport season. I'm using the exercises and tips (that I wrote about in my last post) from my new PT.

Tuesday was a 5 miler, and that was my longest run since my half marathon at the end of January. It was a "test," and my heel held up! (It was a pretty easy pace.)

And Saturday (between my long ride on Friday and my interval ride on Sunday), I "tested" my heel with a little speed. I warmed up for 1.5 miles, and then I did the next 3 miles in 19:00!! (6:30, 6:24, and 6:04.) I did NOT go "all out," but I just tried to keep it strong and hold good form.

And then my cats got cozy with my stanky shoes post-run:

So, bottom line, these numbers aren't that impressive, but I'm just happy to be doing this much coming off my injury:

(Oh, and notice Friday was my first 2-a-day in 5 months!!)

I'm FAR from 100%, but with smart decisions, I know I can work my way back up. Step-by-step. Here's to an injury-free spring and summer!!

OK, now back to my PT exercises from my last post..... ;)