Training Update

9/11 - Did Leg weights (Squats, bulgarians, deadlifts after leg curl and extension warm ups as well as core).  Then I took to the bike and pounded through 16.48miles in 52 minutes.  Legs felt fine throughout, and glad to see my fitness is maintaining if not improving (my speeds and wattage is increasing with decreasing perceived effort)

9/12 - Long bike ride - 28 miles in just under an hour and a half.  My speed was 0.5mph faster on average than the previous day.  Legs felt smoked afterwords, probably a build up from the leg work out yesterday - esp. glutes/hams

9/13 - Back workout (pull-ups, rows, plus biceps and core) followed by a 1 hour 20.50mile ride on the stationary bike.  A full 1 mph faster on average than on 9/12.

9/14, 9/15 - Took 2 rest days, legs were feeling a bit tired after a week of 105.35 miles, albeit on the bike. I continued to do my leg exercises (stretches, stair lifts) with minimal discomfort.  Was feeling good enough to run by 9/15 but thought better of it.  I am planning on 1 more week of strict bike, and look to do a short run on the weekend followed by a mix of run/bike the following week assuming my achilles twinge is gone.  From there I will slowly ramp up the running.

9/16 - Started with Chest, Shoulders and Triceps, followed by a 16.2 mile ride in 48:33 (20.05mph).  Felt good.  By the end of the day my abs were stiff as I had added a bit of weight to my leg lifts and decline curls.

9/17 - Long ride this morning of 30.64 miles in 1:33:02 (19.76mph) which was faster than my previous long rides with little change on perceived effort.  A sign I am getting stronger.

Last night I also finished Relentless Forward Progress (which I will review at some point this week).

I also breezed through Brendan Brazier's Thrive, which I picked up from the library (I was disappointed after much build up, will also review),

and next up are What I talk about when I talk about Running, also from the Library,

and Killian Jornet's book (very excited to read this).

I have also been watching a ton of Sage Canaday's videos and reading his blog, which you can find here. (sagecanaday.com)

Mentally Tough - Cod Liver Oil Workouts

Today, I rode the stationary for 1 hour 25 minutes, resulting in a 26ish mile ride.  During these rides, I have mainly been listening to podcasts, my favorites being Rich Roll and Talk Ultra.  Regardless,  I still find these rides difficult mentally and particularly boring.  I would much rather put in a 2 hour run, with nothing but the sounds of traffic and nature to get me through it.  As I have shared, I expect to be on that stupid bike for another 2-3 weeks at least and so I have taken the view point that these are part of the process of mentally toughening myself up for the 7-8 hours that I will be running during the 50-miler I am planning on debuting in Spring 2014.

I used to have a track/cross country coach back in the day that summarized these as "Cod Liver Oil workouts".  He gave me this expression one fine November afternoon back in the day.  Ok, so it was far from fine.  It was one of those days where there was a cold drizzle, in between bouts of rain, that soaked your clothes (this was before moisture wicking, though gortex was available, but was expensive) on a typically southern Ontario November day of somewhere between 5 and 10 degrees Celsius.  It was the kind of cold that you could feel constantly, that was almost numbing, and for a few hours afterwords, you had difficulty getting warm.  No amount of warm drinks, sweats and blankets would help on the drive home.

On this particular workout, he had us doing hill repeats.  As if the cold wasn't enough, we were included to run up a 10-20% hill about 600-800m in length.  Over and Over.  The only plus was this was on a sidewalk rather than grass, so our feet remained soaked, not drenched/water logged.  About a third of the way through, upon reaching the top, the coach shouted something about a "Cod Liver Oil Workout".  On the next repeat I asked him what this meant.  He explained that when he was a little boy, everyday in the fall and winter, his mother made him take his cod liver oil, that it tasted disgusting.  His point was that even though it tasted bad, it was meant to make you stronger, just like the hill repeats in the cold rain.

This is the view point that I am taking with these stupid stationary bike rides while I am injured.  Suck it up, because looking back, everything will seem glorious when compared to these darn workouts.

Lesson Learned

Well, the run yesterday was evidently a poor idea, even though it felt fine for much of it, if not great.  Today the feeling is back, not pain per say, but some soreness.  Back to rest and no running, probably at least 2 if not 4 weeks now, with my stretching and strengthening exercises.  Bummer.

Today's workout was a push upper body (chest, shoulders, triceps) along with some core work.  That was followed by a 40 minute stationary bike ride pushing me through a little over 12.5 miles.  All in all felt fine.  Stretched, strengthening exercises and ice afterwords.

Diet and nutrition is on track, with my continued gradually leaning up to get me ready for next spring. Energy levels remain high.  I will get into this a bit more as we go, but I moved to a 100% plant-based diet about 2 months ago, with the 4-6 months before that being probably 80-90% plant based.  Haven't looked back.  I am not a fan of the Vegan label, but people ask, and certainly I am on that trajectory.

Happy Trails.

Easy 5 miler

Beautiful day today,  start of fall is evident but 20ish degrees and sunny and the trail was calling.   I think my running shoes were whispering to me.   So I gave in.   I took an easy 5 miles with an average 8:40pace which is slower than my typical sub 7:50 pace,  depending on the run type.   I headed down the trail across the road which takes me down through so me switchbacks to the lake.   I did an out an back which had me huffing up the switchbacks on the return.   I then took the last mile through some soft single track.   Great to get out,  could feel my leg at times, but not really pain or aching. Icing my leg now,  but felt great to be out on the trail.

Tendonitis Improving

Returned from physio today, following a full treatment including acupuncture.  Physio was impressed with my rapid healing, gave me some additional strengthening exercises.  I am optimistic that I will be able to run in 7-10 days, as long as I continue on the same trajectory.  Early morning today was a pull workout (back, traps, biceps) with some core work, then an 18 mile stationary bike ride that took ~55mins.  Felt a small amount of fatigue in my quads at the beginning of the ride, but things went better after that.  Legs were likely recovering from the 28.40 mile ride yesterday that took 90 mins, plus the leg weights day from Wednesday.  Nevertheless, I feel like I am maintaining my fitness, but itching to get off the bike and onto a run.

Picked up a couple of books from Amazon, namely Relentless Forward Progress, as well as Kilian Jornet's book, Run or Die.

I will do a review once I have finished them both, but excited to get into them.  Also, I was looking at Stridebox - figured it could help keep me motivated through the pending cold months.

That's it for today.  Happy trails.