Early Signs

This past Saturday I went up to ride with the big dogs on the Swami's A ride. I got spit out the back on dump hill, but still got some quality work in. One encouraging sign was that even with the lack of much effective or pain free riding I managed to maintain 319 watts for 20 minutes. That's my high LT from last season... hopefully a omen of good things to come. Now, if I could only maintain 400 watts for 20 minutes... and drop 30 pounds...

Bee's Knees

I've been having major issues with my knees. Years of team sports in high school and club sports in college left me with a torn ACL in my right knee, a torn MCL in my left, and a fair amount of my meniscus missing in both.

I had been training pretty hard for a two day stage race up in Bishop, lots of climbing, but two days before I was to leave my left knee popped out of joint... not as bad as in the past, and not as bad as last winter... but still enough to keep me from going.

I took that as a sign to keep off the bike for a while, so I spent the next three weeks staying away.

When I got back on, the knee pain returned. Slowly at first, but by this Monday I was really wondering if I might have to give cycling up. Today I went for a slow, easy ride up the coast and on the way back everything "clicked" into place. Earlier, the weekend before the Bishop race, our rep from WTB had sent us some new saddles to try out. I had been having a love / hate relationship with my current Fizik saddle (I had decided that even though it was one of the most uncomfortable saddles I had ever used - there was no way I was going to be defeated by a saddle) and was willing to try out something else. I bolted it on, keeping it at the same angle as my previous perch, and went for a ride. And there was the mistake. I have always set my saddles up slightly nose high and so set this one up the same way.

So on the ride back, I dropped the nose a few degrees and the pain disappeared! Who would have thunk? I guess rotating my hips forward also changed the way the pedaling forces go through my knees. I'll know for certain over the next few weeks.

Week One: Training Program 10.18 - 10.25

Monday: 2 hr Gym Workout

Tuesday: 2.5 hr w/ Spin Ups & ILTs

Wednesday: 5 hr Climbing @ low zone 1-2

Thursday: 2 hr Gym Workout; 1 hour on trainer

Friday: 2.25 hr low intensity zone 1-2

Saturday: 2.5 hr w/ Spin Ups & ILTs

Sunday: 1 hr x-train

Total: 17.5 hrs