Solid recovery

Over the last week, I've made some solid recovery gains.  ART is working, along with some stretching and ice, of course, but I am back on track.  You get a rude awakening, however, after 5 weeks essentially 'off'.  The 'edge' you once (thought) you had, is....gone, some endurance and strength...gone.  But there is a bright side:  you get to pay for the last 'x' weeks of sedentarism by lacing your shoes, riding your bars and slicing through the water.  Personally, I'd rather be paying than sitting, so I'll take it.

My chiropractor gave me a 2 hour bike limit.  My coach, eyeing Nov 5 (8 weeks away) as IMFL, is trying not to spew his coffee everywhere.  He basically said I need to be riding 140 - 160km, otherwise it is going to be a really really long day.  On Saturday, I thought I'd compromise and rode a combo of flats and hills for 4 hours - 110km.  Purposely not fast and I'll say the flats were a LOAD easier than the hills.  The overall ride had 3,100 feet climbing and I found myself needing to stretch at the top of all the big hills.  No problem...I took the time and felt it really helped.  Oh, got some new bike bling .... more about that later.

Sunday's long run - 21.5km - started off great and then kind of fizzled.  I just ran out of steam.  It was one of those runs where you have to remind yourself to run faster and not fall off the pace.  The last 2 km were pretty tough, though the whole run was on a railroad turned into multi use pathway.  Nice and flat but unfortunately very little views.

At the turnaround (1 hr mark), I took advantage of the cleanest port a john I've ever seen.  I figured it was just done in prep for the work week coming up, given it was by the airport construction work.  It beat any T zone or run course porta john I've ever seen (which is not many)!

All I could think about over the weekend was that I was missing IM Muskoka 70.3.  I was a DNS - first time and I hate that.  It would have been a great opportunity to meet John, Doru, Peter and race this beautiful fall race in fantastic weather.  In hindsight, I could have done the distance, but I don't think I would have been proud of my time and I certainly didn't want to risk recovery.

I had to post this pic of my girls and one of our hounds - Brucie.  He raced as Doe's Bruciebaby and ran some 115 races at two of America's top tracks.  But that is irrelevant....our boy proves that 1) kids do just fine with greyhounds and 2) that hounds really are laid back and chill with their families.  I know some protect their space, and understandably so, but they aren't ALL like that!

And for the bike bling:  My brother was selling his ZIPP 303's, so I snatched them up!  What a difference from my stock alu wheels.  My race wheels are a HED Stinger 9.0 and 6.0 and this set complements the HEDs perfectly.  I know my bars are high...ya ya ... hopefully as my hip strengthens, I'll be able to flip the stem back and drop some spacers. We'll see!

Thanks for reading!!