I've been doing pretty well with my training program so far. Last season I set my plan up for about 400 hours of cycling for the year. This year's plan is set up around 300 or so hours. I'm not going to be racing, so I don't need the sort of duration that I did last year. Plus with my recovery in mind, I didn't want to get trapped into over doing things. When you've got daily workouts and durations scheduled for months at a time it's a little tempting to follow the plan too religiously; not taking days off where your body tells you it needs it. So, I'm trying to under promise and over deliver this time out. When I feel up to it I'll put in some extra hours on some of the long rides.
I've gotten my power up to about 180 Watts when riding aerobically. Much better than the 100 or 120 Watts I was at when I first got back on the road. I'm probably 75% of the way back to where I was. At this point I'd say my aerobic capacity is getting close to where it was last season, the shortfall to getting back to 220 Watts at 157 beats per minute is a lot more related to the strength in my left leg, rather than my heart.
In other developments, I'm going to be heading back to the neurologist next week to have another EMG (Electromyogram). If you've never had the chance to get yourself an EMG, consider yourself lucky. Basically what happens is that a guy connects some wires near your nerves and starts sending some current down your nerves to try to make your muscles move. It goes something like this: (I'm making up the amperage for the point of example) zap at 1 amp, nope foot didn't move; zap at 2 amps, nope; zap at 5 amps, still no; 10 amps, still no. As this escalation in pain quickly continues you're just wishing your damned foot would move. As the appendage doesn't the pain gets greater and greater. Then the next thing that happens is that they stick some sonic pins into your muscles and listen to hear whether the sound in your muscle changes when you flex them. When one of these pins goes into an area with a lot of nerves like the bottom of your foot, it's a giant party.
Based upon the output of the EMG, I may have another surgery to take a look at my perineal nerve and determine whether it is compressed, severed, etc.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Back on a Training Plan
I've been felling stronger and stronger on my bike these days.
Last Saturday I rode the SDBC "B" ride again. Unlike the first time I went out, where it took me 3 or 4 days to recover, I felt great the next day. So much so that I went out for a ride on Sunday as well.
To date I've been riding an hour or so on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and then doing whatever felt good on the weekends. Now that I'm able to ride 6 to 8 hours per week, while continuing to get stronger it's time to start organizing my training a little more.
Even though people like my mom have been pushing me to get back into racing, I'm not ready to get too intense with the training just yet. Last season I put together a training program that went through 3 four week base phases, a couple four week build phases, and then some alternating peak, race and build phases. By the time you get to the build phases you're doing some pretty intense high heart rate interval training. I'm no where near that sort of physical capability right now. I'm also not planning to go racing this year, so I'm going to focus on repeated base phases that incorporate some increased intensity as I feel ready for it. These will strengthen my aerobic capacity and put me in a good position to achieve my goal of doing a century ride towards the end of the year.
For those who are looking for an organized cycling training plan, the program I've found that works best for me is Joe Friel's Cyclist Training Bible. It's not the sort of program where the author tells you exactly what to do every day and you just following along like a lemming. Joe's book requires you to read and understand the concepts of the program and then combine them with your personal weaknesses, season goals and available training hours to create something that is specific to you as an individual.
Last Saturday I rode the SDBC "B" ride again. Unlike the first time I went out, where it took me 3 or 4 days to recover, I felt great the next day. So much so that I went out for a ride on Sunday as well.
To date I've been riding an hour or so on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and then doing whatever felt good on the weekends. Now that I'm able to ride 6 to 8 hours per week, while continuing to get stronger it's time to start organizing my training a little more.
Even though people like my mom have been pushing me to get back into racing, I'm not ready to get too intense with the training just yet. Last season I put together a training program that went through 3 four week base phases, a couple four week build phases, and then some alternating peak, race and build phases. By the time you get to the build phases you're doing some pretty intense high heart rate interval training. I'm no where near that sort of physical capability right now. I'm also not planning to go racing this year, so I'm going to focus on repeated base phases that incorporate some increased intensity as I feel ready for it. These will strengthen my aerobic capacity and put me in a good position to achieve my goal of doing a century ride towards the end of the year.
For those who are looking for an organized cycling training plan, the program I've found that works best for me is Joe Friel's Cyclist Training Bible. It's not the sort of program where the author tells you exactly what to do every day and you just following along like a lemming. Joe's book requires you to read and understand the concepts of the program and then combine them with your personal weaknesses, season goals and available training hours to create something that is specific to you as an individual.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Accident XRays
There are those (folks like my Mom) who believe that there are miraculous things to be known by having and viewing the xrays from my injury. So for those sorts of folks, I provide some images:
The first two are of my knee the morning of my crash:
This is my pelvis the day of the crash. It's tough to notice, but you can see how my left femoral head is overlapping the acetabulum (portion of the pelvis that contains your hip socket), which indicates the fracture/dislocation:
These next two are from the day after my knee surgery.
Here you can see my knee from above, including the traction pin that goes through my knee, the wires (figure 8) that are holding my patella together, and the wires that head off to the traction weight:
Here's the side view of my knee:
The next two are from my pelvis the day of surgery.
Here's a Wide angle of my pelvis showing where the steel plates and screws are located:
Here's my hardware up close:
Finally, these next two are my knee 10 days after surgery.
The first two are of my knee the morning of my crash:
This is my pelvis the day of the crash. It's tough to notice, but you can see how my left femoral head is overlapping the acetabulum (portion of the pelvis that contains your hip socket), which indicates the fracture/dislocation:
These next two are from the day after my knee surgery.
Here you can see my knee from above, including the traction pin that goes through my knee, the wires (figure 8) that are holding my patella together, and the wires that head off to the traction weight:
Here's the side view of my knee:
The next two are from my pelvis the day of surgery.
Here's a Wide angle of my pelvis showing where the steel plates and screws are located:
Here's my hardware up close:
Finally, these next two are my knee 10 days after surgery.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
One moment can change it all
This evening I saw the following story on one of the cycling websites that I frequent. It always amazes me how quickly life can take you from a momentous apex to the bottom of the barrel. In my case I was lucky enough to live to fight another day. Not so lucky in this case:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=features/2008/police_california_deaths08
http://rememberingmatt.blogspot.com/
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=features/2008/police_california_deaths08
http://rememberingmatt.blogspot.com/
Monday, March 10, 2008
Back to the "B ride"
A couple Saturday's ago I made it out to the SDBC Saturday ride for the first time in eight months. It was great to be back to see everyone from the bike club. I'm sure many of the regulars never thought they'd see me on a bike again.
A few days previous I began feeling like I was ready to try getting back into group riding. For those who've never ridden in a fast moving group, there are a few realities that make it a little intimidating:
1. You never really know what the skill or experience level is of some of the people that attend these rides. When you're speeding along at 25 or 35 mph in close quarters things can go very wrong very fast. Last year when I crashed at one of the Ontario criteriums I never really realized an accident was happening around me. All I knew was that I was suddenly on the ground and people were using me as a speed bump. So you've got to be fairly careful.
2. The toughest part of riding in a group is the unpredictability of speed. Riding in a rotating pace line is pretty easy, the speed is steady and the group moves as one. When you're riding in a free flowing peloton you are exposed to a constant accordion-like effect. Whenever the pack slows, for a corner, hill, etc. you can be sure that the acceleration that is going to follow will require you to stand on the gas pretty darn hard.
3. A group of riders can ride much faster than one person can on their own. Therefore, if you get dropped off the back of the group, your chances of catching back up are pretty remote.
Because I hadn't been on a group ride since my injury I was expecting that the surges of the group were going to be pretty tough for me to respond to. The fact that I can't really get out of the saddle and hammer on the pedals like I used to, means that I'm much more of a Steady Eddie sort of rider these days. Big surges don't come easy to me, at least right now.
The SDBC Saturday ride is in fact about 5 or 6 different rides:
- An all out, 45 mile, hammerfest "A" ride (no stops, no regrouping, 26 - 30 mph over flat ground), which I used to do prior to injuring myself.
- Nearly as fast "B" ride that includes a number of regrouping points. Same route as the "A", just goes closer to 24 mph
- A number of development rides that range from about 15 miles to 35. All at varying levels of granny-like speed.
I did the C+ development ride the first time I ever went out to the SDBC rides and I knew that I wasn't going to be happy to ride at 15 mph like they did back then, so I opted to do the B ride. My thinking was that at least if I got dropped I could catch back up at a regrouping point.
I managed to hang with the B ride for just about the entire ride. As we turned south on the 101 from La Costa (mile 35 or so) I found that I didn't have enough strength in my legs to hold on. This is where the ride starts getting cranked up as it approaches break time at the Java Depot.
No worries though. I got a ton out of this ride. This was the first time I've seen my heart rate go above 190 since I injured myself; I was able to pass a couple guys on stud-loop, one of the toughest parts of the ride; I was able to do my fair share of pulling during the pace lining the B ride does through Fairbanks Ranch; I rode up Torrey Pines for the first time since injuring myself; and I was able to hang with the group up most of the hills. It also took me two or three days to fully recover from the ride, so I'm not sure that I'll be heading back for a little while yet. We'll see.
A few days previous I began feeling like I was ready to try getting back into group riding. For those who've never ridden in a fast moving group, there are a few realities that make it a little intimidating:
1. You never really know what the skill or experience level is of some of the people that attend these rides. When you're speeding along at 25 or 35 mph in close quarters things can go very wrong very fast. Last year when I crashed at one of the Ontario criteriums I never really realized an accident was happening around me. All I knew was that I was suddenly on the ground and people were using me as a speed bump. So you've got to be fairly careful.
2. The toughest part of riding in a group is the unpredictability of speed. Riding in a rotating pace line is pretty easy, the speed is steady and the group moves as one. When you're riding in a free flowing peloton you are exposed to a constant accordion-like effect. Whenever the pack slows, for a corner, hill, etc. you can be sure that the acceleration that is going to follow will require you to stand on the gas pretty darn hard.
3. A group of riders can ride much faster than one person can on their own. Therefore, if you get dropped off the back of the group, your chances of catching back up are pretty remote.
Because I hadn't been on a group ride since my injury I was expecting that the surges of the group were going to be pretty tough for me to respond to. The fact that I can't really get out of the saddle and hammer on the pedals like I used to, means that I'm much more of a Steady Eddie sort of rider these days. Big surges don't come easy to me, at least right now.
The SDBC Saturday ride is in fact about 5 or 6 different rides:
- An all out, 45 mile, hammerfest "A" ride (no stops, no regrouping, 26 - 30 mph over flat ground), which I used to do prior to injuring myself.
- Nearly as fast "B" ride that includes a number of regrouping points. Same route as the "A", just goes closer to 24 mph
- A number of development rides that range from about 15 miles to 35. All at varying levels of granny-like speed.
I did the C+ development ride the first time I ever went out to the SDBC rides and I knew that I wasn't going to be happy to ride at 15 mph like they did back then, so I opted to do the B ride. My thinking was that at least if I got dropped I could catch back up at a regrouping point.
I managed to hang with the B ride for just about the entire ride. As we turned south on the 101 from La Costa (mile 35 or so) I found that I didn't have enough strength in my legs to hold on. This is where the ride starts getting cranked up as it approaches break time at the Java Depot.
No worries though. I got a ton out of this ride. This was the first time I've seen my heart rate go above 190 since I injured myself; I was able to pass a couple guys on stud-loop, one of the toughest parts of the ride; I was able to do my fair share of pulling during the pace lining the B ride does through Fairbanks Ranch; I rode up Torrey Pines for the first time since injuring myself; and I was able to hang with the group up most of the hills. It also took me two or three days to fully recover from the ride, so I'm not sure that I'll be heading back for a little while yet. We'll see.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Starting to put more miles and time on the bike
Things are starting to come together pretty well on the cycling front. I'm finally getting to the point where my whole body is sore after rides. i.e. my left leg is getting strong enough so that it isn't so much of a limiting factor any more.
I've started riding on my rollers, rather than the stationary bike on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Last week I took my rollers and bike in to work with me and rode in the exercise room in the building I work in. Riding on the rollers has been helping a lot. It makes my left leg have to work a lot more consistently. I still have a small dead spot in the upstroke of my left leg (due to my limited ability to lift my left foot), but things are getting better and better.
I also got back into lifting some weights one day a week. Doing so has helped relieve some of the muscle fatigue in my left lower back.
This past week I found that 45 to 50 minutes of time on the rollers was resulting in no pain in my hip joint, so I started increasing the intensity and duration of my weekend road rides.
Saturday 2/16 I went out for 75 or so minutes of rolling hills. It felt great to be putting some more power down on the pedals, although, it's also a little frustrating to see how far I still have to go to get back to where I was.
Today, 2/18 I rode for 100 minutes on the 101. It's a pretty flat ride, but still provides the challenge of trying to keep my heart rate down around 155. Today I found I was riding at about 140 watts while my HR was around 157. Prior to injuring myself I would have been closer to 190 or 200 watts at 155 beats per minute, so there's still a long way to go here. Today's ride had the added feature of blowing out my front tube while descending a hill at around 35 miles per hour. Luckily I was able to get the bike stopped pretty quick and avoid going for a spill.
Based upon how well I felt this weekend, I'm starting to believe that I'll be able to work up to a high enough weekly mileage to be able to ride a century sometime this fall. Maybe in a month or two I'll be able to get closer to riding 3 hour endurance rides. Stay tuned.
I've started riding on my rollers, rather than the stationary bike on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Last week I took my rollers and bike in to work with me and rode in the exercise room in the building I work in. Riding on the rollers has been helping a lot. It makes my left leg have to work a lot more consistently. I still have a small dead spot in the upstroke of my left leg (due to my limited ability to lift my left foot), but things are getting better and better.
I also got back into lifting some weights one day a week. Doing so has helped relieve some of the muscle fatigue in my left lower back.
This past week I found that 45 to 50 minutes of time on the rollers was resulting in no pain in my hip joint, so I started increasing the intensity and duration of my weekend road rides.
Saturday 2/16 I went out for 75 or so minutes of rolling hills. It felt great to be putting some more power down on the pedals, although, it's also a little frustrating to see how far I still have to go to get back to where I was.
Today, 2/18 I rode for 100 minutes on the 101. It's a pretty flat ride, but still provides the challenge of trying to keep my heart rate down around 155. Today I found I was riding at about 140 watts while my HR was around 157. Prior to injuring myself I would have been closer to 190 or 200 watts at 155 beats per minute, so there's still a long way to go here. Today's ride had the added feature of blowing out my front tube while descending a hill at around 35 miles per hour. Luckily I was able to get the bike stopped pretty quick and avoid going for a spill.
Based upon how well I felt this weekend, I'm starting to believe that I'll be able to work up to a high enough weekly mileage to be able to ride a century sometime this fall. Maybe in a month or two I'll be able to get closer to riding 3 hour endurance rides. Stay tuned.
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