Lady Morella in hill country

[ladymorella]

I have been working on training for a century. Will it happen? Who knows. Covid cases are higher than when they postponed it. I'll continue as if it will happen. 

 

Cycling twice a week

PT at least twice a week preferably 3-4

Eat more protein 

 

I have started working on hill work some. Last Saturday I found a great place to ride not too far from my house and it is quite pretty. The only issue is for short workouts I need to figure out a way to warm up. I might just do an out an back on the road adjacent, but it feels silly. But the incline is more than anything on the century and I think is a good training hill. I stopped 3-4 times on my completion. Not great, but it had been many years since I drove it in my car so I wasn't sure how to pace it on a bike. I'm eager to try it again soon. 

 

Side Quest: I have been doing a Bike vs Car side quest. The current score is Bike 1: car 2 I might as well continue it. This side quest goes by calendar month and for once is almost entirely inside one challenge. Miles on the bike are compared to miles in my car. 

[ladymorella]

Was there a gap week? I don't recall. I got a new distance record 40 miles on the 2nd. It was on flat ground and I tried to do it at such a chil heart rate that it took forever. Ok not really, but after a couple hours I realized I needed to go home so I could eat and maybe get something else done that day. I was happy though that I felt perfect after it. 

 

Cycling: 0/2

PT: 1/3

Protein: I made a roast some day recently Sat? Sun? and have been eating left overs. 

 

Side Quest: Do you remember when this was close? When it was within 5 miles one way then 5 miles the next? I rode my bike to the store to try to keep things competitive? Not much of a thing anymore. I wandered around in my car. Hmm is that bird store open to buy food? Does that other shop still have the broccolli pack I like? Hmm, I'll drive over and see. 

 

 

[theophilus]

On 1/11/2021 at 9:49 PM, ladymorella said:

Side Quest: I have been doing a Bike vs Car side quest. The current score is Bike 1: car 2 I might as well continue it. This side quest goes by calendar month and for once is almost entirely inside one challenge. Miles on the bike are compared to miles in my car. 

 

I really, really like this side quest! What a cool idea.

[bgvanbur]

I also love the side quest.  At first I was like how can you track the car miles until I remember odometers exist   But do you use an app or just a spreadsheet and chart?

[ladymorella]

On 1/13/2021 at 9:57 AM, bgvanbur said:

I also love the side quest.  At first I was like how can you track the car miles until I remember odometers exist   But do you use an app or just a spreadsheet and chart?

Haha. The quest has been a fun one. It helped motivate me to get more miles in for the beginning  months when I needed to up my miles on the bike. At the beginning of the month I set my car trip counter to  0 and my cycling computer as well. However I do track on a spreadsheet in case I ride my mountain bike instead. And I have found the daily mileage information interesting. The car is more tedious to track daily mileage so last month and this month the mileage per say is more of a guess, but the total remains accurate.

[ladymorella]

Cycling: 1/2 I got one ride in 15.43

PT: 2/3

Protein: 2/3

 

Side Quest:

 

The end of the week was going well. Had a lot of energy. Got a ride in Thursday. Friday I hit the bike shop to get a saddle and ended up getting an adjustment instead. Turned out to be the best thing since there is only a 30 return. Also got some new shoes. The ones I had were not a good fit. I ran out to go for a ride and promptly messed up my knee.

 

I suppose hindsight is 20/20, but I guess should have checked out the shoes a bit more cautiously to note any changes or maybe it didn't matter at all. A slow cyclist was coming so I went to let him go, but he was so slow. I was just slowing down, then realized I had to put a foot down because he was going so slow, but leaned the other way than I unclipped. I unclipped that side in time, but slid out and my one leg was going out while all the rest o f my weight was going down. My knee dislocated or something and went back properly, but it is very messed up. Why was he going so slow? Did I mention he was slow? Why?!?!? Was he slowing down?

 

I tried to call the doctor to see if I needed to go to urgent care, but they just made a teledoc appointment. I was trying to call before they closed so I wasn't really thinking. I didn't remember until too late today that we have an orthopedic urgent care in town that I probably should have gone to. So I guess now I have to wait until Monday to figure out what I need to be done.

 

I am very disappointed. A knee injury has always been one of my biggest injury fears.  Also it means the century is done. I don't know what the recovery time will be, but soft tissue always takes a bit of time. My knee still feels pretty weird and am not even sure what all the damage is. I didn't tell anyone I was doing this thing outside of here. I told a couple I was thinking of it, but didn't want to get my hopes up. I finally thought it was possible enough to tell some people in the last week. And boom it is gone.  I really feel cursed sometimes.

 

I probably should have tested the shoes out a little more, but I was going to do that at the turn. I use that path all the time at least 1 or 2 a week since Oct. I have had to stop for someone twice counting that time. I have had to slow maybe once? I have used clippless pedals for so long I have hundreds of miles on them in the last 6 months. If I had arrived at that junction 10 seconds one way or the other it wouldn't have been a thing. If I had gone left instead of the sharper right it wouldn't have been an issue. If I had left from my house instead of driving to the multipath it wouldn't have been an issue. Maybe the new cleats contributed, but looking at the damage on the cleat, I really don't think the new shoes contributed. I won't know for sure unless I can use the shoes again.

 

Some times it seems I can't ever have what I want. I knew it was going to be difficult to make sure I could beat the cut off time for the century. But I had stopped doubting that it could be done. Now I can't even walk unassisted.

[Xena]

I'm so sorry to hear about your knee. The century might be out, but do what you can to have a fast and full recovery. Icing etc.

 

You've got a lot of us cheering for Team Bike...we need that knee at 100%.

[ladymorella]

2 hours ago, Xena said:

I'm so sorry to hear about your knee. The century might be out, but do what you can to have a fast and full recovery. Icing etc.

 

You've got a lot of us cheering for Team Bike...we need that knee at 100%.

Thanks. I have been trying to focus on good recovery. It is hard to just wait for the weekend to be done so I can go to appointments. I have been wrapping, icing, Arnica just in case it helps, and working the range of motion I have.

 

As of lunch today it feels a lot better. I started wrapping it another way for better support so I think that is part of it. Also swelling has gone down a bit and it seems a bit better. I can actually walk around a little without assistance. I still keep something nearby as some steps are still weird and I don't want to fall and make things worse.

 

I went for a short walk in my back yard with trekking poles. It was nice to get out. The weather is great. So I guess right now my goal is to be able to walk the 1 1/4 loop that I do sometimes. My dog would appreciate it.

 

Occasionally I think maybe it isn't so bad and things will be fine, but then I move a certain way and  think hmm no. I guess I will find out soon.

 

For my side quest I suppose the good news is that I am sort of stuck at home so unless I borrow a car the stats I posted is the final score for the month. Haha. This is the down side to driving a manual transmission.

[ladymorella]

So I passed one week after the injury. I had the ligament tests and they think they are fine. However I think I tensed up when the one test I was actually worried about. Xrays show everything is fine. I'm not really sure what the next step is. I moved funny again a few days ago and it felt  really bad. I still only have little range of motion on that leg. I still have issues with swelling.

 

I tried to row with only my upper body yesterday and man does that tire quickly. I was going to go for 30 minutes, but I decided on 15 minutes instead. I am hoping I can slowly build instead of potentially overdoing it. I'm not sore at all today. I probably could have gone further.

 

[darna]

23 hours ago, ladymorella said:

So I passed one week after the injury. I had the ligament tests and they think they are fine. However I think I tensed up when the one test I was actually worried about. Xrays show everything is fine. I'm not really sure what the next step is. I moved funny again a few days ago and it felt  really bad. I still only have little range of motion on that leg. I still have issues with swelling.

 

 

'Just lurking about as I found your Bike vs Car side quest very interesting. I used to hike a lot and hurt my right knee before one of our biggest hike for the summer - the Devil's Path hike (rated one of the toughest hikes in the US Northeast - 23-25 miles, 9,000 ft elev, 17+hrs, technical terrain). Hobbling and barely able to flex my knee and in pain, I went to this sports/rehab clinic on Wed. They had xrays, scans, etc and they said no broken bone, just some pulled ligaments and inflammation. They injected cortisone on the knee. 'Told me I should be fine hiking that Sat. It was true. I was absolutely fine, good as new, zero pain. I did put on some KT tape on both knees, brought some pain meds (not needed), and used my hiking poles. This is not a medical advise, but it is an option if you have your heart set on the Century Race. I run ultras so I understand how disappointing injuries can be after religiously training for it. I think cortisone shots are fairly safe as long as you don't have more than 1 in a year. My officemate casually mentioned that her mom has them every year for her knees. I was shocked but not surprised. I've had a shot in my sole for my planter fasciitis, my right shoulder for frozen shoulder, all in separate years though. Totally helped and didn't have any side effects.

[ladymorella]

So for the car vs bike for January: 

Bike still won! There is a silver lining to needing both legs in the car. Bike was frozen at a certain mileage at day 15, but other than someone driving my car back that day so was the car mileage. 

 

@darna Thanks for the the option. I had decided to let it heal and I can try again some other year. Turns out to be an ACL tear anyway. That hike sounds like it is pretty cool. I do enjooy hiking as well.