Recovery Day
I woke up this morning with an achy hip. The bruise is sore, but my left hip joint is a bit creaky too. I wasn’t about to let it stop me yet, but I knew I’d have to revise the day’s training, particularly the run.
I set my bike up on the trainer and started on an easy recovery ride. While I was on the bike, I didn’t notice my hip at all. I rode pretty easily, maintaining a high cadence (around 95-100 rpm). The time passed pretty quickly, actually. I watched some SportsCenter and then some of the NBC Sunday morning talk political/news shows. After my ride, I had a gigantic breakfast. Mark (my father-in-law) made some delicious french toast and I had about three times the amount of breakfast a normal person should eat. I couldn’t stop. Obviously I need the calories, but I went a little overboard at breakfast. Well, I went a little overboard for dinner last night too! I just can’t stop eating. Thank goodness I’m burning the calories I am by training, otherwise, I’d be in BIG trouble.
After lazing around all afternoon, I went out for a run with Elizabeth. My hip was still aching, but I decided to see what I could comfortably do. I ran nearly to the beach with Elizabeth and then took off a bit faster. I turned around at the beach and when I caught back up to Elizabeth, I could see that she was in pain. Her knee was really hurting her. I walked for a few minutes with her and then we decided that I would run home and get the car to pick her up. I ran home at a pretty fast pace and skipped the strides. Instead of an hour, I ran for 38 minutes. After the big cycling week I’ve had, skipping 22 minutes of run time doesn’t bother me too much. Also, and I’m not sure which way this goes (either proud of myself for my dedication or terrified because of my inflexibility), this was the first time since I started training with John that I skipped or shortened a run workout. First time in about five months! Sitting here writing this, my hip feels fine, but I’m sure that when I stand up it will start ache. I’ll ice and take some Advil and hope for the best. I looked at this coming week’s schedule and I think I have a few days before I’m running again. Tomorrow’s another off day, and I’ll be sure to get in some extra good stretching and relaxation as well. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with Elizabeth’s knee – she’s starting physical therapy on Tuesday, hopefully that will help, but her marathon is sure coming up soon.
I roughly counted the number of miles I rode this week. I rode the 68+ miles outside yesterday and rode about 7:10 inside. I’d estimate that I did about 185 miles combined. Not the 200 that I was aiming for… but close enough!
Bike – February 18
Time: 1:34
Average heart rate: 104
Indoor ride
Run – February 18
Time: 38:31
Distance: 4 miles
Average heart rate: 132
Course: House to Wainscott Beach
Conditions: Clear, cold (29-31 degrees), moderate wind