Yesterday I went up to our friendly Local Bike Store to get introduced to my new bicycle – a Felt B2. I’ll post pics of it when I get the new toy home this coming weekend. The purpose of the trip was to get fitted on the bike and then leave it for Myles to finish customizing it to my fit, trimming cables and installing accessories. I get to pick up the new toy this weekend and I’ll definitely be giving a “first impressions” dissertation on it’s riding qualities.In the meantime, though, here’s a pic from Felt’s website:
Felt B2
That, of course, got me to thinking about triathlons. And how my training has progressed thus far this year. Strangely enough I haven’t really written a single thing about training in quite some time, and that includes keeping a training log. That’s not to say that I haven’t been training – I have, and Kerry has been ensuring that we’ve been following an extremely focused and active training schedule on the bike. Things seem to indicate that I’m in better shape on the bike than I was at this time last year.
Then I started to think about running.
That’s about where I stood up and said “Yikes! I’ve got a triathlon in 6 weeks and I’ve barely run in the last 4 months. I’m in a little spot of bother!”
So I’ve decided to panic just a little. I haven’t swum in, oh, 4 months (swimming in S.A. really didn’t count as even getting into the water). I’ve barely run – that’s due in part to overcoming a very recalcitrant left ITB, recovering from my now-almost-healed achilles tendon problem (also in the problem left leg), some fun and games with sinus problems, adverse reactions to antibiotics and in quite some significant part to just plain shitty weather over here in the sun-forsaken Northeast.
The slightly good news is, though, that I just went for a run with my almost-brand-spanking-new orthotics, and I didn’t die. In fact, it didn’t even feel all that completely godawful which is really rather encouraging. I actually managed to run 5k at a 7:40 pace with an average heart rate somewhere around 170 (I have a high max. heart rate of somewhere around 204). While not blisteringly fast, I’m slightly encouraged that with some careful ramping up of mileage (read: I’m not going to do the insane ramping up that I did last year. This time it’s going to be very carefully controlled – I believe I’ve learned my lesson) I’ll be able to run a reasonably respectable 5k time for the first triathlon of the season.
March 30th, 2009 | 
Andy – you are too funny
In my own running quest – I have decided to injure my “good” leg. So now I’m walking around with this terrible limp (I literally need a wheelchair) and a tear on my left side.
I’m still happy though
Now I just need to hire a personal 24 h on-staff massage therapist.
*sigh*. Oh the things I wish I could if it were not for a student budget!
Oh boy. Talk about a string of unfortunate events. How did you manage to injure your “good” leg? How is the tear on the left side progressing? Is it starting to heal?
Hmm, massage therapist – that reminds me, I need to book an appointment with one because my ITB is slowly but surely tightening up.
Ok so the tear is OK – not great – but the surgeon told me to come back again in 4 wks. It will never heal – which blows. So I either have surgery, get another injection or just try and manage. Surgery for right now, is on the back-burner – because knowing me, it will make me much worse off.
Now I have a question for you – what’s a 5km run at a 7:40 pace?
I’m very confused. Is that 7:40 per km? Or 7:40 per mile? I get so confused at this American distance talk. For instance, if you check ironman results ….the swim split is written in metres (pace per 100m), cycling is written in mph or km/hr – depending and running is pace per mile. I don’t get it. Why can’t we just be consistent and measure using the metric system? IT MAKES SENSE.
Oh wait – when it makes sense…don’t do it.
That really sucks about your tear. If they do surgery, would they essentially just stitch it back together again and hope that it heals?
It is 7:40 per mile, not per km. The particular loop is just a little longer than 5km, but I generally just consider it a 5k run. I have no idea why they do the timing that way – we’re really confused about pools because some are 25 yard pools and some are 25 meter pools. Not quite the same thing …
I still can’t understand why they didn’t get around to changing to the metric system here. From what I recall, a certain president decided it was a bad idea … (don’t quote me on this, I could be wrong). I mean, everything is a multiple of 10. Not stupid things like quarters, eighths, sixteenths, and so on. And don’t get me started on gallons (US vs. imperial), horsepower (shaft, brake, etc.) and other stupidities.
If they do surgery – it’s a scope. So they scope it out and clean up the junk just like in your knee. The problem is that scoping the hip is way more complicated than the knee, in addition to the fact that they don’t know why scoping does not relieve the pain.
7:40 per mile is good – I figured it was per mile but I thought it was funny that you mentioned your distance in km and then your pace in miles! HA!
I have been off running for 8 days and I miss it. Whatever is wrong with my right leg (yes, the good leg) is taking it’s time to heal. Quite frustrating. I am cycling and swimming still though – so I’m keeping relatively happy.
The metric system rocks.