Now that's more like it.

Monday
Did: strength
Felt good and motivated today. Got in a solid lift, 4 rounds of everything, working back up to max. weights from where I was before. I think I'll be sore tomorrow.

Also, sometimes a shared gym is gross. 😖

Tuesday
Did: 6.2 mi treadmill ladder #10kTuesday - starting the streak again!
Got on the treadmill this morning for a ladder 10k Tuesday workout. Considered running outside, but it was grey and drizzly and I didn't have any kind of light-up gear, so was safer indoors at work. I was struggling by mile 2, but pushed through and the back half of the run went by pretty well. Did a 400/400/800/1200/800/400/400 with 400 rest in between each, plus 1 mile warm up and cooldown on each end. All of the speed intervals were between 6:30-7:00/mi pace, which is slow for speedwork but considering I've not done any in over a month, I guess I can't be too disappointed.

Wednesday
Did: 10.5 mi stationary bike intervals
Wanted to get up and ride the trainer at home this morning but sleep won that battle... it was the right choice. Didn't have time to pack up my bike for an actual ride this morning but I threw some bike shorts into my bag "just in case" and got down to the gym after a morning meeting ended early - hurray! I'm not a fan of the stationary bike but eh, better than nothing and worked up a good sweat.

Thursday
Did: 4.6 mi @ 8:12/mi avg
This was SUCH A GOOD RUN. I headed out in the afternoon, which is usually a terrible time, plus it had just started raining. I said "whatever" and went out anyway, and I was grinning the entire run.

Also, apparently it ended up being a progression run?? Nice.

Friday

Did: nada
Yeahhhhh it's a rest day. Actually feel like I earned it this week!

Saturday
Did: 10.1 mi @ 9:37/mi
Got out right at sunrise for some solo miles with the goal of making it to double-digits for the first time since injury. It was nice and cold but felt perfect for a run! Started out through Green Valley, took the Swamp Rabbit down to Furman, and looped through campus before heading home. Felt good and steady throughout the run and of course loved having this done before breakfast. YES I'M BACK!!

Sunday
Did: 20.7 mi road bike ride
Went out for a solo road ride in the afternoon, and quickly found that the legs were more tired than I'd anticipated. My goal was still to do ~20 miles, but I did the first half on more challenging hills then followed it with some Swamp Rabbit + Furman miles to finish up. A lovely crisp fall ride!

Week-ending thoughts:
I didn't even both with week-beginning thoughts this time since things never seem to go as planned. Finally a good week, though! Of course next week will be challenging again due to travel for work. I'll do my best!

Struggle bus. But still moving.

Well, last week (10/29-11/4) was a struggle for motivation.

Monday I lifted at the very end of the day (snooze) then went for a walk outside because it was so nice.

Skipped 10kTuesday because Reasons. (by Reasons I mean lame excuses that really shouldn't have mattered, but there you go)

Ran at lunch on Thursday (4.44 mi @ 8:56/mi) and felt good afterwards, but I can tell I'm losing some fitness and that makes me mad at myself.


Saturday, however, was EPIC and one of the best days in a long long time. I got to spend 5+ hours in the woods among leaves the color of fire, crystal blue sky above, and two wheels under me. Good friends, laughter, and 2,300+ ft of elevation gain in Pisgah.

Ahh, Pisgah.

 

 

 

 

  

Bike friendsssssss 💛

Post-ride recovery beers are the best.

We were on the bikes for 5 hours and covered almost 20 miles. I haven't ridden this long on a mountain bike in a long time, so I was especially happy that my 2nd ride in the past month since injury was this good! We didn't get home until almost 8pm after departing around 9am, so it made for a LONG day but man that's the best kind of exhaustion.

ETA: more pics from the Piney Mountain Bike Lounge page...

Stopped at the end of Squirrel Gap Trail

Almost to the top of the climb, but the best views!

Not sure where this was, but there were lots of rocks!!

Try again?

Week beginning thoughts: Okay, maybe this week I can get back to 'normal'??? Please??

Monday
Did: 12 Days of Xmas strength


Also it was very hot in the gym today. Yuck.

Tuesday
Did: 6.24 mi @ 8:47/mi
Ran with the early downtown group today and YAY I'm back on the #10kTuesday train. This was hard, especially because, hello, apparently it's winter now - was 40F at the start! Lungs, legs, and cardio are not used to this weather, plus not having run in almost a month has taken its toll. Still, SO happy to have done this run and I feel like myself again. :)

Happy in a disco vest (and long sleeves!)

Hehe new watch

Not my fastest but pretty good for not running in almost a month.

Wednesday
Did: 43 mins trainer ride
All-day meetings threatened lunchtime workout, so I decided to get it done early with a trainer ride in the basement. Happy to get it done, as always, even though my alarm this morning felt very very early and I did not want to get up. Felt good, did intervals as usual and got a good sweat going.

My early-morning ride coach.

Thursday
Did: 2.5 mi @ 8:49/mi
Today was a long ride on the struggle bus. Stayed out too late and had a biiiiit too much fun with coworkers at a work dinner Wednesday night. Waited til the end of the day to go out for a run and felt a bit better, but it was still kind of a rough aimless run. Still, it got me outside and breathing fresh air, which can only help.

Friday
Did: rest

Saturday
Did: 8.6 mi run @ 9:34/mi + 13.9 mi Freakbike ride
Started off with a run in the afternoon to test out some distance on the knee. Headed out through Green Valley via Foothills Road, up to the Swamp Rabbit into TR, then back through Green Valley. The run felt challenging but loved being out on a long run after so much time off - hooray! Not to mention the fall afternoon weather was beautiful.

Knee almost looks normal again!

Saturday night we had a Freakbike Halloween ride - started at Sunrift, stopped for a beverage at TR Tasting Room, then pedaled down the Swamp Rabbit trail in the dark to end at Compadre's for dinner.

 

 

Pirate, Dee Snider of Twisted Sister, our friend Indiana Jones, and Construction Worker

Sunday

Did: 15.3 mi mountain biking

Met the early Sunday crowd for dirt church (which we've called "The Congregation Ride") at Dupont. There were 4 of us in total - Waylon + two others I'd never met. I felt pretty good, though took things very cautiously, and of course wore my knee pads. It was COLD to start, but was a beautiful day for riding in the woods.

View from Airstrip Trail

Up on Airstrip

Beautiful Bridal Veil falls

Week ending thoughts: 

FINALLY a normal week... and I'm exhausted (too many social activities). This coming week should be good though, just have Halloween on Wednesday, but otherwise maybe a little bit calmer than last week (goodness I hope so). But happy to be back on track with exercise, and trying to think of what I might want to train for next year. Hmmm....

Let's do this. (or not)

Week Beginning thoughts:
Oh please let this week get me back on track. I've missed my routine!

Monday
Did: strength
Got a good hour of lifting in this morning. I tried out the wrist-based heartrate feature on my watch, and have decided it's not reliable. Most lifting sessions I'll burn ~230-250 cals, this only says I burned 150. Guess I'll wear the heartrate strap from now on. It's also irritating that I have to log the activity as a "run" then change it to an "other" later - my watch doesn't have an "other" option like my last one did. Oh well, small changes to what I'm used to.

Having not lifted in 3 weeks, I was happy to find I don't feel like I've lost that much progress. I dropped back on most weights (mostly on the legs to make sure my knee was ok). Didn't have any issues so hopefully will be back to full strength in a couple more weeks if I can actually lift on a regular basis!

Tuesday
Did: 2.5 mi treadmill, went home sick
Ugh. Struggled through 2 miles on the treadmill running, walked half a mile, then quit. Went home sick just before lunch.


The rest of the week consisted of sleeping on the couch the rest of Tuesday and all of Wednesday, driving 8 hours to the Outer Banks on Thursday, spending the weekend with family, and driving back 8 hours on Sunday. Finally felt better by Friday so at least was able to enjoy most of the weekend.

Another week off... but there's hope!

The knee is healing up pretty well, got stitches out Thursday, but due to some family sicknesses and such, it was another week with basically no exercise.

My Garmin calendar... So sad.

I did finally get out for a test stroller run on Saturday morning, which was beautiful (fall weather!) and successful. I took it slowly and did feel some ache in my knee but nothing that stopped me from wanting to continue. I also got to use my new Garmin since the old one got destroyed in the bike wreck.

New watch!

I now have way more data about my running than I know what to do with...

Uhhhh what?

So yeah.... 4.29 miles @ 10:00/mi avg. I felt good enough that I would have run on Sunday too, but I woke up with a sore throat Sunday morning (whyyyyyy) so opted to take it easy in hopes that it would go away ASAP.

After the run, I chased D all the way around the Furman lake on his bike!

And this cute memory popped up... he's always been my running buddy

The week with no exercise.

This past week I did zero exercise. I didn't meet my step goal once. I missed my first #10kTuesday in 84 weeks.

I was in a lot of pain Sunday.
I hobbled around Monday - Thursday.
By Friday I could almost walk normally.
By Sunday I could almost go down stairs without hopping/going two feet per one step. And I got 10,000 steps.

Hoping to test out some running on Tuesday this week. Will treadmill it probably, just in case I have to stop early, but the goal will be 10k (obviously).

I get my stitches out Wednesday, hopefully.

Here's to healing!

It started out so well.

Week beginning thoughts:
Well, at least it's Monday and I've started the blog...

Monday
Did: strength

Pick it up, put it down.

Good lifting session sets the week off right.

Tuesday
Did: #10kTuesday at the track
Today was a ladder workout with the early crew at the track.

warmup
200/200 - 0:48
400/200 - 1:43
600/200 - 2:39
800/400 - 3:42
800/200 - 3:45
600/200 - 2:47
400/200 - 1:51
200 - 0:47 (sweet, faster than my first!)
cooldown

Whew. Done. Also, I don't like 600s. And I definitely don't like two 800s in a row, even with 400 recovery in between. Eugh.

Wednesday
Did: 40 mins trainer ride
Another early morning (Scott had to get up for an early flight anyway) on the trainer. I didn't feel like this was as good of a workout as my other routine, but it got the job done and hey, it's always better than nothing!
10 min WU
5/4/3/2/2 minutes "hard" effort with 1 min rest between each
10 min CD with 30s sprint every 2 mins

Thursday
Did: 4.14 mi @ 8:48/mi
Just a normal lunch run today. Been a while since I've done that! I thought it might be pretty nice outside but noooope it was HUMID. So gross. At least temperatures are coming down a wee bit... sure didn't feel like it was "only" 75 degrees though.

Friday
Did: rest day
I finally feel like I earned a rest day!

Saturday
Did: 10.14 mi @ 9:00/mi
Ran with D in the stroller, started at Furman and went north towards TR, then back. It was a nice run, good weather, pretty quiet and uneventful. The miles ticked by pretty quickly though I was definitely feeling tired quads by the time I finished. Felt good about this one!

Sunday
Did: ~17ish miles at Dupont... and injury
Well, this ride did NOT end well. Started out great (though it was rainy & foggy on the drive up), managed a dry if not a bit muddy ride and felt good.

Fog!

Was riding with Heather (one who did the Fire Mtn Enduro) and two of her guy friends. We did the "Best of Dupont" loop, which starts out on Reasonover, to Turkey Knob, around to Briery, Grassy, Sandy, Hooker Creek (forgot how fun this is!), downhill on Ridgeline, up Jim Branch & Isaac Heath, then cruised down Locust to some fun jumps.

This is where things went wrong.

I was feeling great, jumping and catching air, shouting some "woohoo!"s... and then I landed weird on the very last jump and... did something. My right side hit the ground hard, both forearms slid on the ground, I think I flipped over my bike or my bike flipped over me... somehow I came to rest with my right foot still clipped in. I sat for a minute, stunned, took stock of how everything felt (nothing broken, nothing felt too bad)... then I saw my right knee. Thought it was just a scrape, but realized quickly it was DEEP. BAD. OH NO.

Momentary freak out, then thankfully a nice man who's a doctor rode up and took a look at it ("yup... you'll need to get that stitched up...") then Heather happened to have some bandages in her pack, so I got all wrapped up. Thanked everyone and hopped on the bike (which was a little twisted in some places - crooked handlebars and seat) to make the ~5 mile trek back to the car. Ugh. I took it nice and slow, grimaced through some steep gravel hills, and made it back to the parking lot. I was so glad to be back.

The bandage made it all the way!

Packed up, drove home, then drove myself to urgent care where I got it numbed, cleaned, and stitched. 4 stitches was what it took to secure the flap/chunk of skin that had gotten torn up by the apparent rock I hit.

I'll spare everyone wound pictures (but I have them if anybody has some morbid curiosity), but this is what my Garmin looks like:

It did not survive.

I'm thankful for helmets. I'm thankful it wasn't any worse than what it was. It hurt like @#($*&@#$! after the adrenaline and Novocain wore off, mostly the sore/bruised knee in general, not the stitches themselves. I'm hobbling around but hoping after a day or so it'll be more tolerable. I'll stay loaded up on Ibuprofen until then.