Friday, February 16, 2007
I had my doubts as to whether I'd be riding this weekend. I've been having a ton of pain and tightness at the base of my left calf. I've been icing it, and taking "injury level" of Aleve. "Injury level" is the level that my doctor put me on (5 pills to be exact) to get my ankle to quiet down when it flared up in November/December. And on Thursday, no pain! It is still swollen a bit, so I'm going to continue the Aleve and ice...oh yea, and I'm going ride ride ride!

I took a vacation day today so that I could get an extra ride in this week. My (weak) riding plan was 75 miles...but I made sure that I could stop at 50 miles if my body complained (which I did stop at 50 miles). I wanted to make sure that I didn't have to suffer through 75 miles with bike fit issues or my calf complaining. My bike fit is still off a bit, but not enough to beat up my body. I had a good ride. Averaged 12.2 mph which isn't bad especially since at mile 35 I slowed down a bit and decided to quit pushing because my left ankle was screaming and my left knee wasn't happy. The easier pace seemed to help and I unclipped my left shoe and coasted a bit while moving my left foot around. That seemed to do the trick (of course I was very careful with my pedaling after that).

Things that made a difference today. 1) My doctor prescribed an inhaler for "exercise induced Asthma." Wow what a difference it made in my riding today and after the ride it decreased Asthma symptoms significantly. 2) I'm having fun on the bike. I'll take off at a fast clip for a while and then I'll go back to my normal pace. So there were a couple of times today (on Lake Washington Blvd (coming out of Seward Park) that I was clipping along at about 20mph. 3) I'm starting to feel my power coming back which makes riding all the more fun.

I'm looking forward to a mountain bike ride tomorrow. I think I'll ride Beaver Lake since I can ride from home. I'm also going to schedule a fit for the Seven...I've done all I can...and with my recovering leg injury...I just can't take chances.

Miles 0-30 ave speed was 13 mph, Ave. Cadence was 79 rpm. Overall ave. speed was 12.2 mph and ave. cadence was 75rpm.

Thursday, February 15, 2007
Went for a walk with a friend. Felt good to just get outside. Walked for about an hour.