More of the same....

Ride, stretch, rinse, repeat.  Doing our best to get out there several times per week, and trying to mix up what we're doing.  Saturday was a long(er) ride.  74 miles total for me (Den was shorter because we started by driving to Boulder in the car, and I decided to ride home instead of drive).  We climbed up to a tiny little place called Raymond.  Besides a few houses, the only thing there was a tiny general store.  If it weren't for cyclists, I'm not sure it would even be in business.  The amount of cyclists there using this as a refueling stop was hilarious!

Unfortunately, this only captured just under half of the cyclists....but you get the idea.  The store was only about the size of my walk in closet!

Similar to our previous climbing rides, this one was basically all gradual climbing up.  The grade varied from about a 4% to an 8%.  Den put a new cassette (I think?  I'm a bike knowledge loser.....I could have that wrong) on my bike, which gave me an extra 'easy' gear that I've never had before.  I appreciated it-it made riding up so much easier! (He would argue that I didn't use it, but I think I did?! LOL).  Anyway, as always, the ride DOWN the hill was pretty great.  We didn't coast though, we hooked up with another random rider and pushed ourselves to the limit, pedaling our butts off the whole time.  It was FUN!

We rode again Monday, and Tuesday too.  In the last 4 days, we put in 129 miles.

They should come in handy this weekend when we tackle a century ride called E-Rock (Elephant Rock) down in Castle Rock, CO.  We're trying to round up a few other riders to ride together with us to 'share the load', but we may end up on our own.  This will probably be our longest training ride before Ride2Survive.  It'll give us 160 km's, which is short of the 200km training ride that the Ride2Survive team will do......but we figure since we're pretty much doing it on our own instead of in a pack, it's close.  It's nice that we get to use it as a training ride and have it be supported too.  Non supported long training rides are a total pain.....always thinking about where you can refuel or use the washroom, or having to carry all of your own supplies.

Two weeks from today we'll be on the road to Vancouver already.  We leave June 12th for the two day drive.  We bumped it up so that we can get a bit more time in Vancouver, and do at least one training ride with the team.  On Saturday, June 15th, the team has a police escorted ride that we hope to join them on.  The police close off the street to let us sail through the lights.  It's supposed to be pretty fun.  I've never done it and am looking forward to it!

As the the knee.....I'm doing OK.  Still going to Physiotherapy twice a week, and it's making a difference (that, and the icing, stretching, and brace I'm wearing). I'm hopeful that I'm going to be OK for ride day.  This Sunday's century ride will be the real test.

There's talk of a new bike coming my way too.  I sent Den a picture of a bike I liked, and in typical Den fashion, he's obsessed with researching and finding me a bike.  Kind of hilarious actually.  He gets something in his head and he has a single track mind!!!  Don't be surprised if I'm riding a new bike within days.........

Some pictures from our gorgeous ride up St. Vrain on Saturday.  We had a perfect hot day, and were surrounded by this all day long.  LOVED it!

Feeling so happy, things are looking up!

So the last 2 weeks have been really low key. (aka: done not much of anything training wise).  After a 12 day break, I went for a short 21 mile ride with a friend.  It was low key, not at all fast, not much climbing, and not very long.  A great way to test out the knee.  Unfortunately, even though I rode it with the brace on, my knee started hurting about 1/2 way through.

Friday I went to see my new Physiotherapist for the first time.  She was GREAT!  She asked me a ton of questions, did an assessment, and asked me all about my goals.  Or in this case: goal-singular.  For me, this is all about Ride2Survive, and getting through it.  I really don't care much about anything else at this point.

She did some pointed laser therapy on the spot that is causing me problems, and along with some other things-put an Iomed bandage on it (http://www.amazon.com/Iomed-Iontophoresis-Electrodes-Companion-80/dp/B000U64W2G) with steroids under the bandage.  She reassured me that I have tendonitis, not tendonosis.  One is acute.  One is chronic.  It takes a lot longer than a few months to develop the chronic tendonosis.  She told me that I can continue to train, and let the pain be my guide.  If it's excruciating, it's giving me a message to stop.  If I can tolerate it, I'm fine to continue........as long as I promise that after the ride I am to take a good long break from cycling and give it time to fully heal.  DEAL!

So this morning's plan was to head out with a group that we met last year, but found really quite fast.  Den contacted them, and then said they'd love to have us.  They were only going out for a couple of hours this morning, and originally both of us were going to go.  Parker (son) however, had different plans for us.  He was up through the night in our room with a high fever.  I have no idea where it came from-he went to bed healthy!  So there was no way I was going to leave him alone (Madison had plans this morning).  Den said that since he's gotten in several good training rides over the last 2 weeks, and I hadn't really done any, that he would volunteer to stay home with Parker.  I was happy because I was really curious what would happen with my knee.

The group of guys I met up with were great.  They said they often break out into two different groups/different speeds.  We started out and were going about 20 miles per hour for the first 1/2 hour.  Sounds fairly fast until you realize that tucked into a group it really isn't that fast at all.  I *may* have goaded them on by asking them if they were taking it easy for "the girl".  About 15-20 minutes later, the ride pace suddenly picked up! LOL.  So anyway, the good news is that we did about 32 miles, we at times rode pretty fast, and my knee was pretty darn good the whole time.  A few deep pangs at one point that had me concerned, but they went away (??).  I'm thrilled with whatever that physio girl did to me!  Can't wait to see how it continues to improve, as I'm scheduled to go see her twice a week for the next two weeks.

Hoping this trend of feeling pretty good continues!  I just have to take it easy and not push it too hard, either in distance or in climbing.

Rest, rest, and more rest

Today is day 8 of no activity.  :-(

Yesterday I went to see the specialists at Boulder Center for Sports Medicine.  They were very thorough, and even though I'm far from a Pro cyclist, they took my case seriously to try to help me get back to riding.

After the initial consult, and feeling around, she told me I have quadriceps tendonitis.  She followed it up with an ultrasound of the area to show me what's going on in there.  She took the time to show me a healthy tendon, and then the inflamed tendon of mine.  Very interesting!

So the good news is that I don't have any tears or anything serious (which I suspected because at that point, the week of no riding had significantly improved my pain level!).

Icing twice a day.  A brace to alleviate the pressure on the tendon running over my knee.  Instructions to do foam rolling for 10 minutes a day to stretch out my quads/hams/upper legs (they're tight and pulling on the tendon, causing the pain).  Physical therapy twice a week for the next while.  And orders to take it easy on the bike.  No more Flagstaff type climbs.  She said Left Hand Canyon is fine (the ride up to Jamestown).  Easy gears as much as possible, avoid the hard gears.

She seemed confident that this can be overcome and not get worse.  I'm thrilled with that!

In the meantime, Den's been training away.......did Flagstaff again, this time leaving from our house.  He also rode with a neighbour/friend out to Carter Lake to get in some more miles (80 miles).  He's going to leave me in the dust!

I'm afraid I won't be ready.  Den keeps telling me I'm ready to ride this thing tomorrow, but I honestly don't feel that way at all.  :-/

Training is hard on the body!

Got a new helmet as one of my Mother's day gifts.  It's so LIGHT!  Specialized Prevail helmet.  Den tells me the world champion wears the same one.  LOL!

Den's view on the way down the Flagstaff Climb

Knee pain

Over the last few weeks, my knees have been bothering me on the rides.  Some people said it was too much riding, too soon.  Some people suggested my seat was too low. Some said it was my cleat position.  Some said it was that I pushed too hard of a gear and needed to do light, fast spinning instead.

I wasn't too worried about it because there were a lot of potential contributing factors and I was trying to work through them all.

Sadly, despite trying to pay attention to ALL of those things (cleats and seat fixed, took time off from riding, and really focused on lighter gears), after Sunday's ride, my right knee is in extreme pain.  It's different than anything I've felt before, it actually concerns me that I've done some damage to it.  I'm icing it, taking ibuprofen and resting it, but it feels just as bad as when I got off the bike on Sunday.  I'm thinking I'll need to get a scan of some sort, or an expert to take a look at it.  The chances of it correcting itself seem really low, and I run the risk of permanently damaging something if I continue to ride (may have already done damage....who knows?).

I'm super bummed.  I'm proud of the training I've done.  Sunday I did some really fast training with a group, followed by a solo jaunt over to the Boulder foothills again, and then climbed the Flagstaff hill up to the Amphitheater, and rode all the way back home.  All in all, I did just over 76 miles that day (122kms).  The climb up to the Amphitheater was brutal.  Not really any breaks, and a fairly steep pitch.  It had our heart rates screaming the entire time.  A little bit more about it here: http://303cycling.com/flagstaff-hill-climb-boulder-colorado

View after the climb

Success.....and a red face!!!

This week's plan is to rest the knee....and ice the knee......and try to figure out what is going on with the knee.  I can't even do alternative exercise at the moment-it's that messed up. :-(

A couple of set backs....

After our B&B weekend, Den fell quite ill.  I was thinking it was initially just a bad hangover, but it was actually a rather nasty stomach bug that had him tied to the washroom for 5 days.  Five days of NOTHING to eat, and barely anything to drink (couldn't keep anything in).  It was actually pretty horrible, and left him severely dehydrated and weak.  I think he lost 6 lbs.  By Friday he was able to keep a few crackers down, and was feeling like he was turning the corner.  He had missed a lot of riding that week, and really wanted to get back out there for his weekend rides.

I myself was having some trouble in the motivation department too.  I didn't ride Monday through Wednesday.  I have no excuse.  Thursday I went and ground out hills in my big ring for an hour, but that's all I did through the week.

Saturday we were scheduled to ride our bikes to the Boulder foothills and climb a local hill called NCAR.  It's called that because the hill leads to the National Center for Atmospheric Research.  It's about a 2 mile climb that varies from a 6-8 percent grade.  Den drove his car over to the foothills because he was still not feeling very strong/energetic after not eating for so many days.  I rode my bike over (about 18 miles from our house).  We rode up and down NCAR 3 times, and then I happily accepted a ride back to the house.  I justified it by saying that we need to spend some time with our kids!!!!  Those two have been ripped off in the family time department lately.

Sunday we hooked up with 2 of our neighbors and did a 60 mile ride.  Den rode strong until about the 50 mile mark, and then his legs started cramping up.  We figure it's a symptom of dehydration still.  Pretty great that he was able to do as much as he did though, and he did ride the entire 60 miles-we just slowed down to finish out.  I felt great and strong the entire ride.

Can I admit that I'm sick of my bike?  I like when we're out riding, but I hate that we *have* to do it so much.  I hate how much time it's taking from our kids.  I hate that it's our only focus lately.  So I handed off my cycling shoes to get repaired and I'm taking a few days off.  I won't be riding probably until the end of the week.  Den went out on his own last night and did a few hill repeats by our house.  He's lost his training partner.........which is probably just fine anyway, since it's supposed to SNOW again tomorrow.  What the heck is with this place?  Tomorrow is MAY!  This past weekend we were riding in over 70 degree weather and being careful not to burn.  Crazy.

I introduced myself to the Insanity DVDs yesterday.  The first DVD was definitely insane.  I might have set a new sweat record......and if you know me at all, that's saying a lot.  Who knows what today will bring?  My muscles are really sore from yesterday, so it'll be *interesting* to say the least......

Happy training to everyone else out there!

Approaching the NCAR climb.  Absolutely stunning scenery.

The NCAR building is up on the left of the picture, the road winds up and left.

No idea why, but I was hurting SO bad on the first climb.  Luckily the next 2 climbs weren't bad.  Weird when that happens.......?

The flatirons were such an amazing sight on the way down.......gorgeous views!

The NCAR hill gives great views over the city (and shows how darn flat it is when you look anywhere other than west!)

Compliments of Sunday's ride.  Never seen that happen before!

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday........nothing.

Monday was a great day to take off after 3 great training days on the bike.
Tuesday?  Hmmmm.  Two rest days in a row is probably OK, right?
Wednesday?

It's Wednesday night at 7:30pm and there is no motion towards the bikes.  It'll need to be a trainer workout.  I'm not thrilled with the prospect.  Please give me the motivation to get off this chair and out of this rut.  I can't let 3 days turn into 4.............we do not have the luxury of this many days off the bike in a week. :-(

Asbury B & B (bikes and booze) was a success

Despite the crazy snow dump we had a few days before everyone was due to arrive, the riding camp was successful.  We were soooo lucky that we had great riding days Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  We had no plans to ride on Monday, which is a good thing since it started snowing again and continued all through the day.  Today it's Tuesday and it is STILL snowing.  Winter wonderland all over again.  April 23rd.  Pathetic!!

Day one of the camp we rode a 65 mile (105 km) loop from our house to a little town called Lyons.  It was a fairly flat ride.  Everyone did great, but there were a few grumbles towards the end about being ready to be done riding.  We had a wicked head wind and cross wind for most of the ride back.  The start of the ride was a tad cool, but while we were underway we were totally fine.  The sun was out and was doing a good job of keeping us warm.

Day one-ride to Lyons.  On Route 66!

Day two we rode from the house to a "famous" place called the Morgul Bismark loop. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgul-Bismark

Races are held there, and it was featured in a movie called "American Flyers".  It has some steep climbs, including 'The Wall', which is a gradual one mile climb that ends in a 12% grade.  In addition, we did some speed work on Cherryvale Road in Boulder (which might possibly be my favorite road to ride on here).  It has some great rollers and we were working as a team to get some good speed going.  VERY fun.  Everyone loved today's ride.  It was only 35 miles (56 km), but very fun.  Some gorgeous views of the mountains from there too.

Celebrating their first trip up "The Wall"

Day three we left the house (well, Siobhan, Graham and I did.....Chris and Den drove) to head to the foothills in Boulder.  It was a beautiful morning, and the ride into town was not difficult at all.  21 miles of bike lanes, beautiful views and easy riding.  Nice start!  When we arrived at the coffee shop meeting point, we joined up with the guys, and also Den's cycling coach Ann Samplonius.  She rode with us this day and took us up to Ward.  The climb to Ward is a 16 mile climb.....with the first 15 miles being not too bad (maybe 4-5% grade?) and the last mile is 11%.
http://303cycling.com/The-Climb-to-Ward-Boulder-bike-rides

It was actually pretty brutal.  There was a LOT of self talk going on there, and a lot of grinding it out on the pedals!  We all made it though, which felt pretty great.  Ward is so high up (9,450 ft elevation) that the snow up there was still deep and prevalent!  Didn't take long for the sweat we worked up to get COLD!  After fueling up, emptying out and filling up water bottles, we started our descent.  This was either the highlight of the day or the worst part of the day, depending on who you are (Siobhan hates descending.....and well, if you hate descending, this isn't your favourite position to be in......it's a LONG way down!).  Some of us took off and reached speeds of 50 miles per hour (80 km) going down.  Yeeeee hawwww!

Unfortunately, we stopped at the bottom to regroup, and I noticed I was in my big ring from the descent still.  Not great for the new climbing challenge ahead of us (up the back side of Lee Hill Drive).  I made a quick (slow) turn around to change into my small ring, and slid out on the loose gravel.  Darn it!  Took out my left elbow pretty bad, and minor cuts and bruises on both hands, and down my hip and left leg.  We still had work to do though, so I rolled my ripped shirt and pinched off the blood, and we carried on.  I'm thankful that I was going at that slow speed when I spilled.  A wipe out at 50 miles per hour would be a nightmare!

Yeouchy

At the end of that, we dropped off the rented bikes in Boulder, and went back to our place to celebrate a successful few days.  We *might* have played as hard that night as we rode the last few days.  Was a fun night, and capped off a great cycling weekend!

The gang, starting our climb

My view for a segment (taken by the GoPro....)

Looking good Team R2S!

Trying to give grade perspective.....

Does this climb ever end? No.  All up, no flat.

Almost there.  Hurting now!!! (or is that Hurling?)

How cold us it at elevation 9,450 ft?  Cold!!! Someone's not impressed!

 

Refueling (unaware that the GoPro was set to take a picture every 4 seconds.  We have no idea we're being recorded)

Cleaning out the ice from my cleats.  Cold up there!

Anne giving Siobhan a pep talk before descent.

Off Graham and Siobhan go.....one of the last pictures before the Go Pro exploded off my bike!