Arizona Training Report III

I’m well past the halfway point of this training trip and I feel like I need to start mentally preparing for worse weather. My fingers are crossed that my hometown of Almaden, CA will shed sunlight so I can continue to take in some Vitamin D before heading back to Eugene.

As I mentioned in my last blog, Monday was a rest day. It also served as a day to get my bike in working order so using an allen wrench wouldn’t be required every hour. After getting the bike fixed, I did as little as possible.

Training resumed on Tuesday and to get back into things, I had a run and ride scheduled. I don’t have too much to say about my runs anymore since they all been the same thus far; 40 minutes in duration while keeping my heart rate under 140. Later on, I went out for my ride. There’s not too much to say about the two-hour rides either, since I can’t make it that far out of town in one hour, so I end up backtracking until I meet the time limit.

Wednesday morning I went for another run and I started to notice shooting pains in my medial ankle of the left leg. I had noticed them in the past few weeks, but I figured my stabilizer muscles were just sore since I started my running training just before Thanksgiving. The pains subside once I am completely warm, but it lingers nonetheless. To be honest, this worries me a little. I’ve spoken with my Doctor who is familiar with the level of activity I put in each week, and he think that it may be tendonitis/bursitis of the medial ankle. So on top of taking my shake and a nap after each workout, I now dedicate 15-30 minutes for icing. When I get home, I plan on having my gait analyzed to see if I can get a better idea of what the problem may be. Moving on, I also swam. I had a descending set and it felt great to get the arms going and feet really kicking. After the hard stuff was over, it was back to the long form-conscious sets.

As a result of going to bed early every night, I started waking up early everyday. On Thursday, I woke up at 5:30 and was ready to workout! Luckily the pool was open, so I headed over there. The lifeguard thought I was nuts to go for a swim at 6:15 when it was 35 degrees outside, but I told her that I’m a Triathlete, and she still thought I was nuts, oh well. Since it was still early by the time I got home, I fell asleep again and woke when my roommates did. Then it was time to ride. With a route planned and goal ride time of four hours, I was off. The first two hours were pretty uneventful and short; I was able to hold a fast pace and was well past the halfway point in terms of mileage. However, the second half of the ride was a little more somber. First I passed an accident scene where a cyclist was being taken away in an ambulance. Then about 10 miles down the road, I reached another accident scene where a SUV had flipped and rolled onto another car. A helicopter was landing as I rode to the blockade and at that point I figured I’d have to find an alternate way back. As I rode on, I knew this ride was going to easily surpass my anticipated goal time. I was about 15 miles from my apartment when I suffered my first bike related setback and this time it didn’t have to do with my crank, a flat tire. I had an extra tube and I fixed it. Within minutes the same tire went flat! Now I was 13.89 miles from home, out of tubes, and out of CO2 cartridges, so I started walking hoping someone would pull over. Someone finally did by the time I was 12.29 miles from home. The man who picked me up was even nice enough to take me to a bike shop where I bought a tube for $2 since all I had was $2. Thankfully, I got home without any more flats. One thing I began to realize about myself after training was that I became reserved. Spending all my extra time in the apartment here is depressing, so while my two friends were still out on their ride, I grabbed my car keys, a book, and headed out to a National Park. I parked off the main road facing the sun, sat on the hood, and read the last chapter of my book as the sunset. It was exactly what I needed.

There’s not too much to say about Friday’s training. I rode two hours in the morning and ran in the early afternoon. My ankle was acting up once again, so I iced it and rested as much as possible.

I can’t believe I’ve almost been here two weeks; this past week has flown by! Now all I have to get through is 10 more hours of riding and 3,000 more yards of swimming and then I’ll be home and with my family for the Holidays! I’ll also be training there as well, I mean, what else would I do? I’ll be sure to get one final post in before I wrap up my training here.