Thursday, January 30, 2014

Damnit

Injuries have a funny way of sneaking up on you when you don't want them to.  I've been running "kinda" steady for the last week or so.  Nothing more than really about 40 minutes at a time.  I've been taking things fairly easy (for me) and have been careful not to do too much too soon.  I've even gone as far as to limit my running to 2 days on, 1 day off.

Everything was going along swimmingly until yesterday.  About 3/4's of a mile into what was only going to be about a 30 minute run, my calf seized up and forced me to hobble back home.  It's not the first time I've dealt with this same injury, and it's equally as frustrating as the first time it happened about a year and a half ago.  At that time I was SUPER irresponsible with my volume, and begged for the injury. This time though, even being decently careful, it snuck up and bit me in the ass.

Oh well, such is the life of an athlete I suppose.  The good news is that I did come back home and get a wicked workout on the rollers.  Nothing fuels a hard, "kick your own ass" indoor bike ride like being angry that you can't do something you wanted to.  For me, running is not the end goal.  It was a cool thing that I was enjoying in order to gain some different fitness and loose some lbs without having to change too much of my human trash can diet.  Now though, I'll really have to batten down the hatches a bit more when it comes to what I shove in my mouth (something I really should have been doing all along!) and get to work on pedaling the bike to nowhere inside the house until the snow and ice subsides.

Another positive note about this injury is that it took place a couple weeks out from our trip to the UK and Spain.  While it doesn't' bother me much when cycling, this will allow it ample time to recover so that it's 100% gone (hopefully) from my cycling when we touch down in Spain.  That's going to be a great opportunity to build something for the coming season, so I absolutely don't want anything to come in it's way.

That's it for now.  Off to conquer the day and hopefully find some kind of inspiration to get on the trainer a bit later.  Nothing says awesome like riding your bike inside...

Monday, January 27, 2014

Time to move the ball

Time to get the ball rolling.

Been a bit of a down time here in terms of writing on the blog I'm afraid, but for that we've got tons of fun stuff happening!  First and foremost is our move to Charlottesville, Va. coming up in March.  Both Anne and I have been offered jobs at Blue Ridge Cyclery and accepted.  We'll both be working in the shop as full time employees, and happy to know that we'll have full medical insurance too!  Finally we won't have to worry about getting patched up after crashing our bikes!!!  :)

Also going on, before we more down to Virginia is a trip over to the UK to see family, combined with a mini training camp/friend visit to Southern Spain.  It'll be great to get over to the UK to see family (of which Anne hasn't had a chance to see in nearly a year!) and it will of course be AWESOME to get out and ride bikes in the sunshine of SPAIN!!! Getting a chance to get into the sun and warm temps on two wheels will be a welcomed thing, especially after all the snow and cold temps that have been thrust upon us here in New York these last few weeks.  I think at this point our only concern is going to be how much it's gonna hurt "earning" fitness there…those mountains are plenty bigger than anything we've ridden in a while!

In the mean time things are just moving along.  We're putting our heads down to work and get as much done before our trip and our move, so being efficient (Anne's strength!) is of great importance.  Training has been a bit hard lately with the snow, but for me personally, I'm enjoying a bit of running time and a break from pedaling.  It's always a good idea to challenge yourself in different ways, and running usually helps me keep off any additional weight I gain as a result of being a human garbage dump.  My feeling is not only does it keep the body fresh, but the mind as well.  Heading out for a run in sub freezing temps is often a lot easier than strapping the bike to the indoor trainer and pedaling nowhere for hours on end.

So that's the haps for now.  We'll try and keep the blog updated as and when time allows.  We've got a lot of exciting things planned for the coming months, so surely there will be some interesting content here in the near future.  For now, stay fit and get ready to hold on-it's gonna be a hell of a ride!