Bikes Make Life Better

There are little things in life that often make me happy and ensure that there truly is good in the world. Sometimes I have to search to see them, but they are always there if I look for them.

Bike flowers.

Illustrations courtesy of Brian Gossett.

Hope your day is made better by a bicycle or a short run, time with friends or a few minutes to take care of YOU today.

Turtles Can Run Fast....Eventually

I spent the better part of December & January pounding myself into the ground running - mostly as a great form of stress relief. While it did wonders for relieving stress, it did nothing for creating flexible and healthy hamstrings. Therefore, come late January I was reduced to a lot of swimming and rehab. (If I swim a 55 at my first Ironman this season maybe I will look back on all of this as a great sequence of events.)

I have since healed my legs, and ramped up running again. I feel SLOW. Turtle pace slow. It has made my riding feel SLOW as well. If turtles rode bikes, they might beat me. It has made me grumpy on multiple occasions. But I have decided to follow the plan, stick with it, and embrace my turtle speed, trusting that fitness will return.

One of several flats on Sunday's turtle-pace ride. 

(Note - the guys rode fine, Charisa rode at Turtle pace).

Very far from Alaska (thankfully!)

Desert

I spent the weekend out near Palm Springs training and laughing with a friend. It was a good weekend.

Despite the fact that much of the year it is hell-fire hot, there are a lot of crops grown in the desert.

Date palms.

Vineyard that appears dead, but I actually think it is not.

Behind the crates are red-leaf, then green-leaf lettuce. Beyond the leafy greens is the Salton Sea.

Nothing but this without . . .

Water!!

It's actually kind of odd. Riding my bike along was mostly desert scenes - just brown, dead stuff. But then I'd roll along sections of just really lush green grass. Pretty.

I love how many of the older roads in the desert are lined with tall rows of palm trees. It was a great weekend of training with some new scenery and no arm warmers!

Foundation

I've reached the point in base-building, foundation-laying, shoulder-season, whatever you want to call it, where I'm over it. I want to race. Except I know I'm not quite ready yet. Which is good, because my first race is not for a month.

There is only one time during the year when I get to lay down a solid base, work on my weaknesses (a LOT) and prepare the foundation for a solid season. I know this is an important time. The only problem is, I really really really love to race. It motivates me. It makes it easier to get up at o'dark-thirty to get into the outdoor pool when it is hovering in the 30s outside. I like seeing progress. I even like seeing those areas where I think I failed. It fires me up. And makes me want to work harder.

I can understand why many people do not like to "exercise". Unless you are on a mega weight-loss plan, there is no benchmark to charting progress. Sure, I suppose you can take a watch and clock your times, but I find much more satisfaction in toeing a line. Getting nervous butterflies in my stomach before the gun goes off. Leaving it all out on the course.

So for now, I must head off to the pool again (sigh...). I will continue counting down the days until I can toe the line. And come mid-season, be happy that the foundation has been built.

Palomar & Pops

It's been two years since I climbed Palomar. I'm not quite sure how I made it so long without ending up on top of the mountain with my bicycle, but somehow I did. The mountain is never easy to climb, but I always love it.

Heading toward the base of the climb.

My Pops is training for St. George IM. I convinced him to climb with me today - two weeks in a row for him. The fact that I can drag my Dad up Palomar with me on any given day makes me happy.

One of the things I love about the climb is how much the scenery & weather changes over the course of 5,000 ft. elevation gain.

Looking down on the valley.

Headed into the fog-cloud.

Beautiful.

Several years ago the mountain burned. Some dead trees remain and provide a stark contrast through the fog.

At the top.

It wasn't my fastest time up the mountain, but it's also February. And seriously - any time I can reach a summit with hot drinks and a warm room to sit in while looking out at the misty fog roll by, it's a good day.

Make It Count

It's sometimes hard to fit training around work, life, etc. I have a tendency to want to check everything off my to-do list before noon. It's extremely satisfying on the rare occasion I can actually accomplish this. I've learned I can't do this with training though. Stacking all my workouts together might get them done sooner, but the quality goes downhill quickly.

Workouts are laid out at different times in order to allow me to recover, refuel (!) (trust me, the queen of bonking should get this one by now....), and actually rest a bit between workouts.

The other thing I have noticed is that when I do the workouts at the correct time, I tend to rush through them less (because I threw my intention of getting everything done before noon out the window), which also means I focus on the task at hand more. Rushing tends to mean I forget about the goal a bit. The goal of a workout is to get the most quality I can out of a session, not finish it as quickly as possible.

Thanks Justin Mezzell for the great illustration.

Not rushing can apply to just about anything in life - bike commuting, grocery shopping, shuttling kids to and from soccer. I know I need to practice it a lot, but when I actually am able to slow myself down and breathe, tasks become so much more enjoyable.

Analyze This

Over the past couple years I have been very dedicated to staying on top of keeping my body healthy. I eat well, sleep plenty, get my legs worked on after I destroy them, etc. But one area I have not touched on is actual form - as in running form or riding form.

With a tight left hamstring that I have historically always kept under control with ART and massage, I decided it was time to try to get to the root of the problem. Muscles often get tight from overuse. But they also get tight from muscle imbalances or weaknesses. My goal was to try to figure out the root of my hamstring issue.

I made an appointment with Positive Energy Physical Therapy to have my bike and run gait analyzed. I was video taped both on the bike and the run from multiple angles. From the above image we can most definitely conclude that my legs look like tree stumps when blown up on a large screen.

But we also found that my right knee drops in slightly on both the bike and run. An area where I am losing power on the bike.

And after a few basic strength exercises we discovered my left calf and ankle are incredibly weak. And this weakness is compensated for by my inner hamstring muscle. My body automatically recruits this muscle when the others fail to do their job. Only problem is that this muscle wasn't meant to take on massive loads. 

I was sent home with a rubber band and two basic sets of exercises that should help strengthen my ankle and calf, and hopefully will also result in a happier hamstring in the long term.

If you are in the LA area (Redondo to be specific) and want to be a more efficient runner, cyclist, etc. or maybe have a nagging pain you would like to get rid of - I'd highly recommend checking out Positive Energy PT. They were affordable and it was probably one of the best 90 minutes I've spent in a while that should lead to long-term healthy running and riding.