Friday, May 16, 2008

Tuesday Thursday Saturday Monday

Tuesday Thursday Saturday Monday. Lather, rinse, repeat.

This morning I got off my lazy butt and suited up for 40° weather, rolled the road bike out of my apartment and hit the road. I've got roughly 5 weeks to train for the Creampuff before I should start tapering. One of my assumptions about why I sucked so badly at Mesa Verde is that my fitness got a little flat.

I rode a fairly major endurance event every two weeks between mid-February and mid-April. Then I had a month with only a silly little XC race and a smattering of easy recreational rides.

So this morning before work at 10, I hit the bricks for a couple hours.

Damage assessment: The only real problem that I took away from my crash was the ribcage thing. It actually started feeling better during this week, which made me think it was just maybe some stress muscle from the shock of the crash. Yesterday, the last thing I did at work before the shop closed was to help a customer load two bikes in the back of a pickup truck. I closed his tailgate then saw that the latch on the right side hadn't caught, so I pushed it with my right hand. Aiyee! Pain shot up into my armpit. Riding home, and when ever I made certain movements during the evening, I felt a 'cl-clunk' feeling somewhere between right nipple and right lat. Once I got on the bike today, that clunking started happening several times a minute. Once when I got out of the saddle to climb a short rise, it was actually audible. Not really painful, just weird feeling. I don't think it could be ends of a broken rib grinding together, because that would put me on the ground with pain.

But I'm just going to have to deal with that. Eventually it will either stop or I'll have to do something about it. But for now I'm going to stick to the road. I don't think taking bumps on the mtb will feel very good for a while.

My work schedule for the summer starts next week, and it will change very little until the season winds down. Tuesday through Friday, 10am to 6pm. As I spun out of town I started thinking about what my schedule for rides should be. Tuesday and Thursdays before work, 2-3 hours, maybe sometimes getting up early for a longer one. Wednesdays and Fridays I better start doing some regular upper body floor exercise and maybe light weight work to get my arm and shoulders back in line. Saturdays, big ride. 5-10 hours. Lots of climbing. Mondays, big-ish rides, easy pace. Tuesdays will be intensity days.

Tuesday Thursday Saturday Monday.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

For a roadie... that's a nice ride!

Vito said...

I love the ride. Have a red Specialized myself. Very nice bike for the money.