There’s no way around it… being injured sucks… but it’s all what you make of it.  For the past (almost) 3 months my injury has kept me from doing a lot.  I watched some highly competitive races I was signed up for pass, my friends are out doing epic things like R2R2R and TransZion, and I’ve done my best to stay positive.  I’m actually pretty proud of myself for the way I’ve handled it all.  It’s the first time I’ve ever had a serious injury that has kept me from running (or any sport) for more than a few days.  Sure there were a few days when frustration set in but that’s because I thought I should have been healing more quickly if it was just a stress reaction.  Luckily I had Maggie there to keep in good spirits and Ruby to occupy all the free time i used to have!

Deciding go back for another MRI was well worth the copay and peace of mind.  If I would have originally known it was actually a stress fracture I wouldn’t have been riding as much as I did the first 2 months and would not have signed up for the Belgian Waffle Ride.  While I’m stoked I did all that riding and BWR (something I won’t soon forget) it definitely delayed my healing femur.  Since BWR I have scaled back the riding and intensity.  No more group rides, shorter more mellow weekend rides, and even more focus on fun.

Beers & Baseball

This past Monday marked 3 more weeks since I got my second MRI confirming I had a healed stress fracture and after a meeting with my doctor he suggested more time off… so that’s what I did… 3 more weeks.  It was actually easier to do knowing I actually had a stress fracture and after not running for 2+ months what’s a couple more weeks?  So more easy riding, having fun with Maggie & friends, and trying to keep up with quickly growing Ruby (she’s gained over 10+ lbs in the last 3 weeks…. and she can drink from a water fountain.

I can honestly say that at end of all this, when I am back racing, this will be for the best.  For one it will make me a better athlete and put more thought into my training going forward.   It also reinforces that racing & training isn’t everything to me.  Even without running or racing I have been happier than I have in a long time.  Everything going on my life right now is super positive.  This doesn’t mean I still don’t want to smash myself on the trails or race but sometimes it’s good to take a step and realize how good life is when you take that all away.  So this was a good life lesson for me.

with all that being said… I am back running absolutely pain free (fingers crossed).  Gone is that “tightness” or dull ache… Just post running sore legs!  It’s crazy how sore I was from my first 30 min run.  I don’t think I was that sore after some of the epic runs Maggie and I did this winter.  I know I have to come back slowly and I’m being super cautious.  I’m not sure when racing will happen again but I am not worried.  It’s baseball season,  summer is around the corner, the water is warming up, i have a new surfboard, Sculpin is on draft practically every where in north county, and soon I’ll be back to chasing Maggie on the trails…

I walked/jogged again last Monday and then was pretty sore the next day and decided to pull the plug.  I was pretty sure I wasn’t dealing with soft tissue and I need more rest and another visit to the doc.  I was able to get another MRI last Tuesday.  I was really hoping they would find something and that I wasn’t just dealing with some voodoo soft tissue problem.  I got the results last friday and they found a healed/healing stress fracture in the shaft of my femur.  There was definitely and area in the bone with some new bone or whatever in there.  I was really relieved and it felt good to just have a concrete diagnosis even if that means it’s going to be a while until I can run again.  The good news is it’s pretty much healed.  I just need to give it time to harden up before I can very conservatively start jogging again.  So I’ll be spending more time on two wheels… no complaints…

So that’s it as far as running goes.  More time on the bike, in the gym, and having fun.  Luckily Maggie and I have our hands full with Ruby.  Having a husky puppy is rad and it may be the only living creature I have found that has more energy than me.  She wears us out and loves to run.  I am looking forward to logging some fun miles with her once she’s old enough.

awesomeness.

it’s that time of year.  the level of play of the padres is made up by the quality of beer served at Petco.

That’s it for BWR but there’s a lot more going that I’ll have to get to later… but i did do my first run in 6 weeks and it was 100% pain free and then there’s this…..

Ruby.

anybody who has spent a significant amount of time around me knows, at times,  I’m not necessarily the most patient person.  As i wrote about in my previous post I was hoping that my femur would be healed in and I’d be back running in 3 weeks.  That obviously wasn’t the case.  On Thursday it will be 5 weeks with out running single step and 6 weeks with just one 8 mile jog/hobble/limp.    This injury has definitely tested my patience but for the most part I am pretty happy with myself and how I have handled the past month and a half.

There’s no doubt riding my bike has helped but I also was quickly able to put this in perspective.  I have spent a lot of time doing other things, having fun, and can’t believe it’s already been 6 weeks.  The good news I haven’t had ANY pain in the past 7-10 days.  No pain getting out of bed, no pain in the gym, and no pain when I have run up and down my stairs.  I even messed around on the StairMaster and Elliptical in the gym last week to see if it would aggravate my quad/femur… it didn’t…  but I am going to continue to continue to practice patience though.  I don’t plan on running yet… not this week.

On Sunday I will be doing the Spy Belgian Waffle ride so plenty on my plate.  I want to minimize the suffering Sunday will bring so I don’t want to start jogging this week.  After no running for 1.5 months I am pretty sure it will cause some soreness.  So for now my plan is to get through this week, BWR, and the give it a go next week.  My plan is to also comeback very conservatively. Sunday is going to be rough.  130 miles on the bike is no joke.  I’ve ridden that far a handful of times but not for a while.  I got in another solid week in last week (257 miles & over 20k of climbing) and thankfully I’ll be suffering alongside some good friends come sunday.

Last Saturday I rolled  up to Oceanside with Scott after some solid miles out east to check out some of the California 70.3.  My main reason for heading up there was to watch two athlete’s I coach race, see a bunch of friends, and watch my homegirl Heather Jackson rip the legs off the women’s field.

hard work paying off! high five’n HJ on the home stretch.  photo: katie araujo

I don’t talk much about my coaching on my blog and it’s not really on purpose.  I still coach and handful of people and do it for the fun of it.  I thought last year I wanted to start a full on coaching business (Champion Factory Coaching, which Pete is still running and killing it with some big time MX guys) but I don’t have the time, energy, or desire to run it as a business.  It takes time to do the marketing and doing all the little things to make it run.  Between my real job, my own training, and the desire to spend more time not thinking about endurance sports I chose to keep it low key.  I just like the coaching side of it and I’m having a lot of of fun coaching the people I am now.

Brian rallying on the run with another monster I coach, Chris… aka #Eurostar

Both of the athlete’s I coach (Brian & Christine) had really good days out there so I was pretty stoked.  I like witnessing hard work paying off.  It motivates me to see them do the work and then be rewarded on race day.  A perfect example of this is Heather Jackson.  I started riding with her a couple of years ago and the progress she’s made since then is pretty mind blowing.  I know first hand how hard she works (i still have mental scars from our battles up to ramona & cole grade last year) and how bad she wants it.  So to see her off to a stellar start to 2013 is rad.  Witnessing all of this while I’m down and out is just fuel for the fire.  I can’t wait to get back to my own training and racing.  The summer should be pretty fun!

Christine mowing people down.

reward for my hard work!

Nothing to exciting going on right now on the training front.  More of the same.  Some solid riding, time in the gym, and no running.  My leg is still progressing.  The pain is decreasing and the area where the “pain” is continues to get much smaller and specific.  I can only hope that means the inflamed area on the bone is getting smaller.

I would be lying if I said that I have been 100% positive about this whole situation.  I got a little frustrated this past week.  In my head I really thought that after 3 weeks of no running I would be able to slowly start back jogging this weekend.  That’s definitely not going to be the case.  While the pain is significantly less I still don’t feel like I’m ready to even attempt to run.  So after Thursday it will be a month with out running a single step.  I can still feel the pain a bit getting out of bed and for sure when I balance on one leg while putting pants.  Sometimes it just gets frustrating because I am harnessing so much motivation to get out and run… but there is so much other good stuff going on right now that it doesn’t affect my “real” life.

So I’m definitely looking at a few more weeks of zeros when it comes to running.  Not awesome but things could always be a lot worse.  I am having a lot of fun riding with my friends and its rad to feel myself getting stronger on the bike with each week.  There’s no way I’ll back off the riding as much as I did before.  I know the riding will help me be a better runner and hopefully stay away from any more injuries.  With all the time away of running I have had plenty of time to think about my plan of attack when I come back.

To keep myself motivated and after being conned by a couple of friends I signed up for the Spy Belgian Waffle Ride on April 7th.  It should be a “fun”.  130 miles, 12,00o ft of climbing, dirt road sections, and plenty of suffering.  I am not going overboard preparing for this.  I am trying to ride everyday but not out charging in any super long rides.  4 hours on the bike is where the fun level ends for me.  Occasionally going a bit longer is cool but that really hasn’t happened.

I still don’t know when the running will start up again… hoping for the week of 4/8 at this point.  Until then… more riding, working on my golf game, and drinking good beers with good people (which goes down regardless of whether or not I’m running).

So it’s now been over 2 weeks on zero running (almost 3, and actually only one run in the last 24 days, but who’s counting).  I’m definitely itching to run but not going as crazy as I thought I would be.  I am a good place with everything and the fact that I can still ride my bike a lot definitely helps.  I am for sure staying fit and would argue that this is probably good for my body.  I charged from August right up until the time when I got injured the weekend of the Bandit 50k.  I really didn’t take a significant off season.  I just kept rolling from The North Face 50 miler into the Avalon 50 miler.  So even though I’m still out there logging the miles on my bike my body is getting a much needed break from the pounding. I am sure I’ll loose some of my running specific fitness by the time I come back but I am definitely keeping the body moving.  The transition back should be pretty quick and more with a more balanced attack.

I have taken voluntary breaks from running in the past and once up to 6 months.  Both times it was to focus on bike racing and both times I was able to return to running and within a month was back to full speed.  My longest break was from the fall/winter of 2009 to the spring of 2010.  I remember starting back up in April after not running for 6 months and at the end of May I won the Xterra Mission Gorge 15k. All that to say than I am not worried about being outta shape or race ready when I come back.  The only real bummers are the wasted dollars on entry fees and not being able to get my legs ripped off by maggie on a weekly basis.

I’m continue to approach my recovery aggressively.  I am the doing the needful.  I have been doing plenty of stretching, rolling, and mobility work each day.  I have also been strapping myself to the Compex daily.  I can definitely tell a difference after using it.  It seems anything that cause more blood to flow is helping (compex, riding, massage, acupuncture, etc).  I know that will also aid in a quick recovery.  The best thing about the Compex is that I can use it while watching Duck Dynasty & Person of Interest.  The folks at Compex are offering a 20% discount through the end of the month (March 31).  Just use the discount code below:

COMP20 (expires 3/31)

Last week I also had my first ever acupuncture appointment.  After hearing great things from quite a few athletes about the work Greg Bourque does I made an appointment.  It was interesting.  He put a bunch of needles pretty deep in my quad and on the inside of my knee and then hooked me to the estim unit.  I laid there for a half an hour with current running deep in my muscles.  It was interesting and I got off the table and had no pain in my leg.  Ever since that appointment the pain has been even less noticeable in my leg and is still progressing everyday.  I had another appointment yesterday.  It seems to be helping.  I’m stoked to keep doing everything I can to heal up while learning more about my body and makes it work.

week of 3/11-17:

Monday: AM: 1:28, 25.8 miles, 1.381ft. Carlsbad hood loop.  so dark! LUNCH: 30 min strength –  core/upperbody

Tuesday: AM: 1:46, 26.25 miles, 3,041 ft. Solid climbing ride. out up and over SE/TwinOaks and then up Double Peak. LUNCH 25 min core, light lowerbody, and day1/week1 of “hunderdpushups” – 51 push ups.

Wednesday: AM: 1:45, 30.5 miles, 1,634 ft.  Mellow cruise around inland encinitas/carlsbad and home on the coast. LUNCH: 25 min gnar core sesh, stretching

Thursday: AM: 1:55, 28.5 miles, 3,504 ft same ride as tuesday but hit Double Peak both times up. LUNCH: 30min strength –  core/upperbody, day2/week1 of “hunderdpushups” – 53 push ups.

Friday: AM: 1:51, 31 miles, 2,346 ft.  Had no plan and just linked up a new route.  another super foggy morning.

Saturday: 4:14, 70 miles, 5,595 ft. SE, Twin Oak, Gophers, SLR, Circle R, 395, Twin Oaks.  Solid ride with RV, Scott, Christine, Lisa.  Good legs a bit rough starting out after big night out.  RV definitely made me work on the climbs.

Sunday:  2:18, 39 miles, 1,844 ft. Mega sleep then mellow sprinters loop+ with Brad.

Zero Miles  running 

15:15, 252 miles, 19,245  ft cycling

Another solid week on the bike and I’m actually liking all the early mornings.  Get up & get it done.  Bike fitness is definitely improving but it’s kind of a time suck.  I’m looking forward to the balance of riding and running once my legs is all healed up.

Old Goats is this weekend and I’m bummed to be missing it but I am looking forward to seeing how it plays out.  All the fast dudes will be throwing down.  Chris Price wrote a post with his predictions for the race.

Sunday Fun.  Brad & Maggie both showing how it’s done.

Last week was pretty solid on the bike.  This injury could be a blessing in disguise moving forward.  I am really missing running and am not stoked about having to drop out of Old Goats… and potentially the rest of my spring/early summer races but it feels so good to be back on the bike.  Back in the fall when I decided to give ultra distance running a semi-serious go I had a lot thoughts and talks with Slater on how I would approach my training.  The plan I had for my training included quite a bit of riding in it and even some bike racing.  I kind of saw the bike as my secret weapon where as I would still be able to log some big training days, back up big running days, and not beat my body up…. of course getting out riding with my friends is just something I love to do.

I completely lost sight of all that though… for a few reasons.  The biggest reason is that I just fell in running all over again.  I liked pushing myself with more running than I had ever done, being out on trails I had never seen, and the simplicity of being a “runner” made my life easy.  My training time was pretty much cut in half.  Cycling just takes a lot more time.  I kind of got soft too… Typically I ride all winter long.  Charging out the door at dawn before work and layering up.  This winter was a bit colder than the past few and with no bike races on my calendar I found it a lot easier and warmer to just run.  It was just simple….  get up at 5am and go on cold ride before work or sleep for an extra hour and go for a run on my local trails.  It wasn’t a hard choice.

So I can say this with a lot certainty… when I get back to running and training for running races I will for sure keep the bike in the mix.  I know 3-4 hour rides on the weekend will be fun and benefit my running.  The weekday group rides and hill repeats need to stay in there as well.  Most importantly it will keep me healthy.   All I really want to be able to do all summer is run on the trails, ride with my friends, and surf my brains out…. oh yeah…. and learn how to play golf.

week of 3/4-10:

Monday: PM 1:11, 19 miles, 656ft. Mellow afternoon spin with Kurt.

Tuesday: AM 1:52, 31 miles, 1,070 ft. Morning miles with Kurt & Vince.  RSF loop LUNCH :20 quick upper body & core

Wednesday: Rest Day. Long day.  MRI at 7am late meeting in Ontario that started at 6pm.  Smashed.

Thursday: AM 1:55, 30 miles, 2,247 ft Torrey Pines Hill Repeats.  2 in, 2 out  LUNCH :30 upper body & core

Friday: LUNCH :30 stretching, foam roller, core.   keeping the legs moving.

Saturday: 4:14, 65.5 miles, 5,719ft. Old Castle loop.  Started with Kurt, Brian, and Shelby.  Finished solo.  good day on the bike.  coming along.

Sunday:  4:26, 73.2 miles, 5,322 ft.  Wolford loop with Christine & Jenny.  another good day on the bike.  Felt better as the ride progressed. PM: Golf.  Driving range with maggie.  progress.  new driver from Brian.

Zero Miles  running

13:38, 219 miles, 15,014 ft cycling

slight improvement. baby steps.

daylight savings is here.  dark morning rides.  breaking out the lights. summer is near.

I read a good post a couple of weeks ago (actually the week before I broke myself off) by Anton Krupicka about Injuries.  I though about it when I thought I may have a stress fracture and it made me ready to accept my fate.

If you must get injured, just break a bone. Okay, so this is being kinda silly, but honestly, when I broke my leg in 2011 it was one of the easier injuries to heal, mentally and physically. Within only a couple hours of breaking it I was seriously fine with it. I couldn’t even stand up, let alone run, so it was easy to let go. There was no wiggle room for interpretation. Just two and a half months sitting on my ass letting the bone knit, and then a few weeks of rehab to regain strength and range of motion. I’ll take such definitive healing any day over the drawn-out nightmare of questioning and second-guessing and wondering that characterizes most soft-tissue ailments.

So I was ready to deal with the hand I dealt myself.  Here’s the results of the MRI:

IMPRESSION:No stress fracture. No stress-related bone edema. No bursitis, tendon tear or tendonitis. Long thin area of stress-related periosteal edema or vascularity along the surface of the medial femoral cortex distal mid shaft. No underlying stress fracture or bone edema.No joint effusion, cartilage loss or subchondral abnormality.No tear of the anterolateral to posterolateral labrum. Extremely shallow partial separation of the far inferomedial aspect of the anterior labrum from the acetabular rim which has a symmetric appearance to the right side.

So no stress fracture.  Instead I have a stress reaction.  I guess I caught just in time and before it broke and luckily when i really started to hurt I just stopped running.  The treatment is still the same a stress fracture so I won’t be running any time soon and I sill have no race plans.  It just means that hopefully my recovery time will be a bit less and I’ll be able to back running at the end of the month or early next month.

I’m super stoked I didn’t have a stress fracture but this is a total wake up call for me.  I really feel like I got a way with something.  I wasn’t smart in my training.  I know what hemmed me up and I’ll try to not let it happen again.  I just need to actually plan my training a little better and make sure I don’t completely nuke myself.  Some times, more often than not, my motivation gets the best of me and I could use a little reigning in.  So I am hoping for a quick recovery (it’s already been a week of no running) and in the mean time I’ll be doing all the rehab/prehab stuff to make sure this doesn’t happen again….. and I’ll be on the bike quite a bit.  There is NO chance you will find me in a pool aqua jogging.

“If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you got a problem. Everything else is inconvenience” ~Robert Fulghum

so that happened.  i have been writing about how i’ve been search of my breaking and i think i found it.  not really the one i was looking for, but a breaking point nonetheless.  I posted last week about having some quad pain after running the Baz 21k and the Bandit 50k a couple of weeks ago and then how I was sore again in the same spot after a rad 25 miles on the back bone trail the following weekend.  At the beginning of last week I thought it was still just some soft tissue stuff and the body work I was getting done kind of confirmed that.  I was really tight on my left side through my psoas, hips, quads, etc.  I took 4 days off or running and got out on the bike a few days.  After I rode my leg really loosened up and would feel good the rest of the day.  I was really diligent with taking care of it too… as I would any soft tissue damage.  Plenty of R.I.C.E and it seemed to working.   I woke up thursday morning was pretty much pain free.  So being the overly eager person I am I decided to go for jog.

it wasn’t good.  the pain was in and out in the m throughout the run in the middle of my quad and was sore the rest of the day.  So in over 2 weeks it hadn’t gotten any better with quite a bit of rest and soft tissue work.  I started to do some research… gotta love the internet.  A lot of the symptoms and pain I was/am having is right inline with a femoral stress fracture.  sweet.  I am anything but a hypochondriac so I called my doc and was able to get an appointment for Friday.  Thankfully I don’t go to a regular family doctor.  I go to a group of awesome “sports” doctors at San Diego Sports Medicine.  They work with athletes of all kinds.  From world champion triathletes to members of the Padres & Chargers.  I’ve also enlisted the help of my homeboy Bryan at Rehab United.  So I’m in good hands.

I met with Dr. D and he put my through some tests and wrenched on my leg a bit trying to find out what was up.  I didn’t have any pain with any of the tests he had me do or with whatever pressure and movement he did to my leg.  Then he had me run down the hallway barefoot and the pain was there immediately and then my leg was throbbing a bit while I sat and waited to get X-rays done.  Of course the X-rays didn’t show anything… i knew they wouldn’t.  So the doc ordered an MRI and I’m hoping to get that done this week.

I’m convinced it’s a stress fracture so I’m treating it like one… even though I’ve never had one before.  So that means NO running and trying to avoid anything weight bearing.  I have been able to ride and that causes Zero pain, and like i said before, actually makes it feel better for the rest of the day.

All in all… I’m not too bummed.  Yeah… it definitely sucks  a bit and I was really looking forward to throwing down with the boys at The Old Goats 50 miler in a couple of weeks but it’s not the end of the world.  Racing is just a very small part of why I am running and what makes me happy.  I just want let my leg heal so I can be back running the trails and surfing every day when the weather gets even more awesome than it’s been lately.  I have a lot of other good going on right now so I am in no way feeling sorry myself.  just another lesson learned.  this is first injury i’ve ever really had since starting to race in 2006.  I have had a couple small niggles, some broken ribs from bike crashes, and some shin splints, but nothing that has ever forced me to take any significant down time or miss races…. and I have put my body through a lot!  So i’ll rest, heal, and comeback stronger and smarter.

Nerd Graph (thanks maggie) of my running build up.  August-Feb.

I’m still a bit puzzled that this happened though (if it is indeed a stress fracture)… I didn’t get crazy with my running straight away.  I have years of massive training 15-30 hour weeks) under my belt and when I decided to be a “runner” last summer I ramped up pretty conservatively.  I know I “did” a lot but I also recovered well and slowly pushed the limits.  the breaking point was obviously logging my frist 100 mile week and then backing it up with a week of 91 & 2 races.  In retrospect… not the smartest idea and thing I’ve ever done.  There are also  a few areas I could have been better.  All through the fall I was riding quite a bit, going to yoga and up through october I was dong crossfit 3 days a week.  After North Face I cut back on all of those things.  I recovered from the race and then began to build my volume heading into the 2013.  In hindsight i coulda and shoulda kept riding my bike more and going to yoga.  That stuff was keeping me healthy.

many miles. thoughts? observations? am i a complete moron?

So the next time I’ll make sure I do the right things and make sure to have a broader view when it comes to my mileage.  Like I’ve said before… I really didn’t follow a plan  and miles just happened.  Even the 100 mile wasn’t planned.  I just woke up on a Sunday morning and had 87 miles on the week so I ran 13 for the hell of it.  So at this point I am pretty much taking all the races up to and through the San Diego 100 off my list.  I don’t want to feel like am I am rushing to get back into training and just let it happen.  Hopefully I’ll recover a quickly as possible and get back to racing some time this summer.  Until then I think I’m going to learn how to play golf and continue doing all the other things that make me happy.

I know… i got some work to do.  The lifelong baseball player in me wants to come out when I swing.

Last weekend was pretty rad.  I would say one of the best I’ve had in a while but all my weekends lately have been pretty awesome.

killer photo from the Bandit 50k taken by Donovan Jenkins

I woke up last Monday after racing twice over the weekend with a pretty sore left quad.  I mean most of my body was a bit wrecked after another big week and 71k of racing over two days, but my left leg was a little more sore than it should have been or than I would have expected.  I knew something wasn’t right.  So I put my recovery skills into action.  A bit of foam rolling, strapping myself to the compex, icing, and making an emergency appointment with Shari… and all that was done by 9am on Monday.

I took it easy for most of the week the week (no running, 1 ez spin, 2 days completely off)  and was feeling much better by Thursday morning.  I had a good jog and was ready to get back it by the weekend.  Friday morning Maggie and charged the hills at La Costa and I was feeling good and shaking out the races from the weekend before.  After that it was on to LA to see Go Radio play at the roxy.

There are bunch of trails up in the LA near my sisters and most of which I have never run.  I’ve heard a lot of good things about the backbone trail and the Santa Monica Mountains and I wanted to do some exploring.  I took a look at the course map for the upcoming Coyote Backbone Trail Ultra (a 68 mile point to point race on   3/30 which I would surely be charging if Old Goats wasn’t the weekend before) and got a rough idea of what I wanted.  So we headed out to Will Rodgers State Park to get on it and in typical fashion I didn’t take a map or enough water!

25 miles & about 5k of climbing later Maggie and I got back to my truck both equally smashed.  It was a big run, it was hot, we got lost, we both cracked, we ran out of water, didn’t eat enough, and paid the price… and it was awesome.  It may have been too big of a run the weekend after racing hard but I am so stoked we charged it.  One the biggest reasons I decided to focus on running was days like that.

The training doesn’t feel like training.  I wasn’t out on the trails, in the middle of nowhere, contemplating how this run would benefit when it’s time to race.  There are so many awesome trails relatively close to where I live and I want to see them.  I have wanted to see them for years actually but never really had the time.  I was typically too caught up with my training and racing to stray from the “plan”.  That really doesn’t happen anymore.

There was a good discussion on GZ’s blog last week regarding making the right choices for short & long term goals (racing and life).  I feel I have spent (too) many years sacrificing short term fun in lieu of long terms goals.  More often than not and whether the goal was achieved or not, I was left unfulfilled   It’s like all the sacrifices really weren’t worth it to me.  I don’t want to do that any more.  I want to pursue the short term fun while chasing the long term goals.  This very well could mean I don’t reach those goals or ever race to/meet my full potential… and I’m more than OK with that.  I fall asleep every night these days knowing that I am doing exactly what I want to be doing and having more fun training than I have in a very long time.

The bottom line is I am not a professional athlete, never will be, never wanted to be, but I still want to race.  I like racing for the sake of racing not necessarily just trying to win.  I like the head to head, shoulder to shoulder competition, and getting pushed to another level by the guys and girls around me.  A good example of this was at the Bandit 50k.  Up the initial steep climb Chris Price took the lead.  I was not feeling awesome but I just put my head down and tried to hold on.  My legs were screaming and my heart was in my throat but I didn’t back down.  I didn’t win the race, not even close, but looking back those first 6 miles of “racing” and suffering that ensued for the next 25 miles is what it’s about for me.  I won’t lie though…. just because winning is not my #1 reason for being out there doesn’t mean I don’t want to win on race day.  I do hope that some day, and hopefully in the near future, I can get out there and mix it up with some of the top guys and come out on top…  and if it doesn’t that’s fine by me too.

So that was a bunch of rambling…

I had a pretty mellow week of training last week with the exception of Saturday.  Unfortunately when I woke up Sunday my quad was sore again.  Not a surprise at all.  It probably wasn’t (actually I know if definitely wasn’t) a smart idea to charge 25 hard, hilly miles on Saturday when my quad was just starting to come around…. but the run was rad… so no regrets.  That means I am back to taking it easy again this week.  It’s definitely not optimal with The Old Goats 50 Miler coming up in 3.5 short weeks but at least riding my bike doesn’t aggravate it.  It actually makes feels better.  The symptoms are a bit odd.  It’s pretty tight and sore when I wake up in the morning and once I ride or start moving around it really loosens up.  After riding I don’t even notice it any more.  Any ideas?  It seems like it’s my sartorius muscle may be be causing the issue.

So it will be more riding, more self care, and more deep tissue work from Shari this week.  Hopefully I’ll be ready to go by the weekend and can get in couple of good weeks before old goats.

week of 2/18-24:

Monday: Rest Day.  Massage with Shari

Tuesday: AM 1:16, 19 miles, 673 ft. mellow Spin down to Del Mar.

Wednesday: Rest Day. I was gonna jog in the evening but this happened.  Went out for beers instead since I couldn’t get home.

http://www.10news.com/news/gunman-suspected-of-wounding-deputies-in-encinitas-shooting-found-dead-standoff-declared-over-022113

Thursday: AM 1:06, 8.9 miles, 820 ft hood trails before work.  I was feeling good.  Rested. PM Massage with Shari

Friday: AM 1:40, 12.4 miles, 1796 ft La Costa with Maggie.  Good on the climbs.  Quad was good.

Saturday: 3:39, 25.1 miles, 4,308 ft. Killer run in the Santa Monica Mtns with Maggie.  We both exploded.  Fun day.

Sunday:  2:10, 35.8 miles, 1962 ft.  Mellow sunny spin on the coast.  Quad was sore when I woke up.  Felt good on the bike.

6:25, 46.4 miles, 6.996 ft running

3:20, 55 miles, 2,635 ft cycling

*update for this week.  It’s Wednesday and I still haven’t run since the 25 miler on Saturday.  I have been riding, stretching, foam rolling, compexing, and just relaxing.  I got another massage (torture session) with Shari last night and I think she broke up the rest of the junk.  It wasn’t fun!  It’s feeling WAY better now but I don’t want to push it.  I may jog tomorrow morning but if I wake up sore I won’t.   I’m fine if I don’t end up running at all this week if that means I am good to go next week.

an awesome beer courtesy of John