Above are the bike results from last night. After laying in bed at 8 pm after putting the kids to sleep I almost said screw the bike ride and went to sleep. I was tired. I had a long day of teaching and a very frustrating basketball game to coach. I came home late and was ready to throw in the towel. About 8:30 I forced myself to get up and ride. I am glad I did because I knew it needed to be done.
I started off somewhat easy to gradually loosen my knee in to the bike. It was feeling much better from the start which I was happy about. I kept my gears in a higher gear for the first 8 miles. I was on the middle gear up front and the middle gear on the bike. I had to keep my cadence above 90 as that was my goal for the ride. I also read that 90+ alleviates extra pressure on the knee. I was feeling pretty good riding as you can see my cadence stayed up.
At 8 miles I switched down a gear on the back to see how it would handle more pressure. At first I had to switch back, but I I was able to continue shifting gears until I felt confident enough to ride on the big gear up front. The problem that I had was keeping cadence above 90. I had a tough little push of 20 minutes on the big gear working my muscles. The workout called for 20 minutes strength endurance during the ride and I definitely got it in. I am so out of bike shape it is not funny. I had to really push hard to maintain.
In the end I was able to complete 20 miles which I was very happy with. A big improvement from last week without going overboard. No pain in the knee which was great. My knee was sore this morning, but it was sore all around and not where I was having major issues. Yahoo!!!!! I just need to keep working gradually and get back in shape. And pray for no more injuries.
Speaking of this morning I had to really fight the urge to sleep in. I need a rest day and I think I might take one either Friday or Saturday. I need to keep this training going before my parents arrive this weekend. I am on track, but it was tough getting up this morning. Ava was up last night and I did not get to bed until after 10 pm.
I jumped in the pool. The pool was hot this morning which did not help matters. Chad was back in the pool doing some crazy monster workload of riding 20 miles, swimming 1400 yards, and then lifting. He is one mentally tough dude. I jumped in the lane with him. I had a tough workout to get in this morning.
I needed to know my race pace, but I was not sure what that was so I based my times on prior swim workouts.
Warm Up
200 yards mix it up – 100 free, 50 kick, 50 pull
4 x 50 scull, free – I did not have room to scull so I just did pulls for these sets working on rolling and form
4 x 75 build – I started at 1:10, 1:05, 1:00, :55 I was gassed by the last one
Main Set
4 x 200 @ Race Pace +15 – Like I said I did not know what my race pace should be so I aimed for 3:05. I was able to hit that mark all four times despite being tough. I just swam @ 4:00 so I had a little less than a minute rest which is a big rest, but allowed me to push on the 200’s. I don’t think I can swim this pace in a race, but it felt good to test my endurance at this pace for four sets.
4 x 100 @ Race Pace +15 – Like the 200’s I swam at a faster rate than a “race pace” at 1:20. That was my target time for these 100’s. By this point I had an entire lane to myself. I pushed hard on these and actually swam them right on time swimming 1:20 – 1:22. This only gave me a short break in the rest before going again. I swear I was sweating by the end between the swim and heat of the pool.
Cool Down
I finished up with 3 x 200 where I swam 100 with pull and 100 kick. It felt good to bring closure to this workout by working on form and really stretching. I was tired by the end.
2500 yards in 55 minutes and it was another great, but tough workout for me.
TRX tonight as I have not done any core or body work yet this week. Tomorrow back at it with the run.
Coming up in a day or two when I have some time I will be posting a post about appreciating what we have and not trying to get worked up over trivial stuff…….and yes I need to listen to my own words on this as I have not been in the mood to deal with trivial stuff lately. This weather needs to break to warm and sunshine to get everyone back on track to good vibes.
Happy Wednesday
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