On the road again . . .

^^^^^^^^^

Yup. What he said.

Frustration level is climbing with the medical community. I called the Doctor's office again today and the imaging center STILL had not gotten the MRI report to the Doctor's office! I did find out from the nurse that the Dr. had already written up a referral for me to an Ortho doc, so there MUST be something there! Heck, just the fact that within 24 hours of the x-ray I had a pre-approved (insurance-wise) MRI tells me the x-ray saw something requiring further investigation. But the nurse said she'd have to get the MRI results for the Dr. and THEN have the doc call me.

OK, on the fitness front. Yesterday was another swim/run day, except I decided to switch out the run for the elliptical so I could put more minutes of work in as I felt a little niggle on the right ITB. AM was the 1000 yd swim and then in the afternoon it was to the gym for a HR workout on the elliptical. Did 60 minutes while monitoring HR, starting out with higher resistance to get the HR up (took about 10 minutes to hit the 143 target) then adjusted the resistance downward over time keeping the HR between 135 and the 143. When I was in peak aerobic condition, at the 60 minute mark I'd have adjusted down to a resistance of 6 (whatever that means) but this time I had to drop it to 5 at the 50 minute point. Felt really good though; it has been a while since I was able to wring (literally!) the sweat out of my shirt after a workout. The ITB is still niggly today, so a rest day is called for - Pilates only.

Finally heard from my Dr. I have two sprained ligaments and one torn one in the left wrist. Now it is to an ortho hand surgeon to get his read on the severity of the injuries and determine treatment options. I said to the doc, "Well, I guess the good news is that there are no fractures." To which he replied, "Not really, fractures heal relatively quickly." No smiley face here.

Sorry to hear about the final diagnosis - yup, a break might have been better, but it will heal in due time.

Definitely no smiley face here, but Michele is right: either way, you will heal in time.

"Time heals all wounds" Hmmmm, maybe the title of a new blog. Since Eugene last year, seems like it has been one injury after another - some running related, some stupid, some mysterious. At this point, I'm just glad to have a diagnosis so that we can get on with the treatment aspect. Altready thinking ahead to the worst , IF surgery is indicated FOLLOWED by casting to hold things in place for some period, what casting options are available these days? I've never had one, but understand that they can be pretty itchy/stinky if you sweat in them a lot, and I plan to sweat. Any thoughts?

Yesterday was back on the elliptical then up to visit the granddaughter (which took up the rest of the day, I'm happy to say!). Followed the same protocol on the elliptical, 1 hour, HR not to exceed 143, increased resistance at the beginning (after a few minute warm up) to get the HR up or it takes a long, long time. Felt really good and never got below 6 on the resistance setting this time. Added in some incline at periods during the workout to vary the step. At least on the elliptical I am less likely to fall on my hands and further injure the wrist . . .

Sorry to hear about the sprain. Glad to see you are still going at it though but be careful. You need to get healed up before ramping up into another training cycle.

OK, had my Dr visit today and nothing but good news:

The cortical buckle - he took more x-rays and determined that while there is buckling there is no underlying fracture

The ligament sprains - bad but not seriously bad. He used a lot of in-depth medical jargon explaining it all, but the gist was it'll be OK and likely take two more months to completely heal.

The ligament tear - I'm not quite so clear on how this isn't worse, but as tears go this one is a meh.

Doctor's orders: no restrictions except for pushups or weight lifting with a bar that will force the wrist into a fully bent open position. Running is OK but he suggests I wear my wrist brace with steel reinforcement top and bottom just in case I'm not over my klutzy phase yet. The general guideline is to listen to the wrist; if whatever I am doing causes pain, don't do that.

One word - Woohoo!!!

Yesterday was a swim day (and yes, the Doc specifically said swimming was OK ). Distance was 1250 yards with HR in the 120's. Today was back on the elliptical for another hour long session that mirrored the last one. Good results and working on pacing the workouts to slowly build endurance and aerobic base while avoiding injury. At some point I'll have to pick a race to train for, but I'm not there yet.

Woot!

Very good news, Tom! And good for you for specifically asking about swimming this time.

I'd say you have plenty of time to build up, and plenty of races in the future. So there's no need to rush it. Build slow and easy, and see if you can reach a high level of fitness without hurting yourself or burning out.

Mark B wrote:Woot!

Very good news, Tom! And good for you for specifically asking about swimming this time.

I'd say you have plenty of time to build up, and plenty of races in the future. So there's no need to rush it. Build slow and easy, and see if you can reach a high level of fitness without hurting yourself or burning out.

I've come to the same conclusion on the slow and easy, just not sure if I can pull it off. Not having a goal race is a good start as I know that would give me a specific schedule that I would push to follow even if not feeling 100%. I think incorporating the cross training will also be beneficial as it will use the muscles in different ways and use different muscles, hopefully helping to avoid any repetitive motion-based injuries. Just have to figure out how I can get back on the bike now; I always have the option of a stationary bike at the gym but find that 100x worse than running on the TM.

Fun times today. Started out with my 1250 yd swim, and the swims are getting easier which makes me believe the base building is bearing some fruit. This afternoon couldn't help myself and got my bike out and sat on it with my wrist brace on to see how that would work. Much to my surprise it worked amazingly well. The brace has steel bars top and bottom that are absolutely rigid and have a slight bend right at the heel of the hand and comes up about 1/3 of the palm. This allows me to rest on the top of the bars, on the horns or even in the drop. So I decided to kit up and give it a test drive. Went on a 10 mile quick ride to try it out and while it was not as easy or comfortable as riding with no wrist issue, it is possible if you accept that you won't be able to necessarily push as hard as you used to (not a bad thing).

The "fun" thing about the ride today was the wind. I knew it was breezy; I didn't know how breezy. My ride took me down the top of the levee to the SF Bay. The wind was blustery when I started out and kind of mixed in direction. The nearer I got to the bay, the stronger it became and it was squarely in my face. I kept dropping the gears and it was all I could do to stay above 10 mph . . . but then I turned around. Started shifting up and kept doing so until I had no more gears to go to. Speed was climbing and I kept waiting to stop feeling the wind at my back. This didn't happen until I exceeded 30 mph on the dead flat path and got up to a top speed of 33 mph. That was quite a rush! I got home in time to tune in the local news and saw that the wind was 31 mph with gusts to 51 mph! Wow. Just in time for Obama's plane to land at SFO! The weather weirdness continued on the report when they said that it may SNOW up in Tahoe on Friday!! Whoda thunk?

So, there's the answer to my question about riding. Looks like I can get back on the bike for modest effort rides. Here's hoping the cross training pays off.

33 mph! I used to race cars off the line at stoplights, but I don't think I've ever got a bicycle up to that speed. Glad you didn't have a squirrel jump in front of you and your steering-impared hands!

Actually the number 33 brings to mind a good strategy: LP (Let's see if our younger readers catch the reference, though it's off by 1/3 rpm ...)

Mark B wrote:33 mph! I used to race cars off the line at stoplights, but I don't think I've ever got a bicycle up to that speed. Glad you didn't have a squirrel jump in front of you and your steering-impared hands!

Actually the number 33 brings to mind a good strategy: LP (Let's see if our younger readers catch the reference, though it's off by 1/3 rpm ...)

Steering not a problem, nor surprisingly braking. As for a hapless squirrel, at 30+ mph whether he gets hit or not is completely up to him: . Yup, that emoticon expresses that situation quite well.

Today was a walk the dogs and spend an hour on the elliptical kinda day. Weather is beautiful and squirrels did abound. The dogs noses were going a mile a minute and those pesky critters would tease them by peering around the tree trunk then darting around to the other side - a lot of fun to watch. The elliptical workout was great, 60 minutes @<143 bpm. Kept the resistance up at 8 until 57:30 when I had to push it down a notch. I don't think I've improved that much that fast, I think it was that particular elliptical I was on. I'll use another one next time and see how that works out. Now it is off to lunch with ex-coworkers then late this PM, a session with my Pilates trainer.

Life's been busy the past few days, so time to catch up.

Friday - 1500 yard swim, 1 hour on the elliptical

Saturday - 10 miles cycling @ HR, 4.6 mile run @ HR. I must be doing something right as the splits for the run were as follows, and do not differ greatly from the splits I was seeing for a run only:

Split	Avg Pace	Avg HR	Cadence
1	9:05	140	88
2	9:21	142	89
3	9:26	141	89
4	9:25	142	90
5	9:15	143	89
Summary	9:19	141	89

Still frustrated by my inability to hit and maintain cadence target of 90. How can 1 more step per minute be so difficult?

Sunday - Active rest day. Well for me anyway, for my dogs, it was just an active day. A 1.3 mile walk in the morning and a 2.4 mile walk in the late afternoon. I could feel the bike/run combo from the day before, but it was one of those feelings of solidly working out the legs, no aches or pains. Sweet - it's been a while since I felt that.

Today - 8 am 1700 yard swim workout (1x600, 1x300, 2x200 3x100, 2x50), 10 am hour long Pilates class. Then this afternoon a short and easy 15-minute bike ride. The ride wasn't a workout of any sort, I just got some aerobars installed on my handlebars so that I can rest my weight on my forearm, not my wrist, as my wrist heals. I wanted to get a feel for the aerobars to see that they are installed correctly and not slipping. They work great, but it will take a little getting used to. I have them on my hybrid bike, but those are not quite as narrow so inherently a bit more stable.

Oh yeah, I signed up for my first triathalon today

Good job on the workouts... and smart to use the aerobars to reduce the strain on your wrist.

Have you considered buying one of those digital metronomes? As a recovering musician, I can't imagine being able to constantly hit the same beat for an extended period without a little assistance.

Tri? Sigh.

Mark, I did buy a metronome, but it rapidly drove me nuts. I was able to hit the 90 cadence in past training without too much effort, thus the frustration. But I hear you, and think I might just dust off that ticking torture device and see if I can find a way to make it work for me to get past this speedbump.

On the tri, no sigh. It is a sprint tri which has the swim and run distances well below my training efforts at this point and the bike portion is only 11 miles which is a walk in the park. May as well put my cross training to good use!

Sounds like a good week, Tom! You know, if you run out of yard work down there, you're welcome to come up and visit.

I wouldn't stress about your speed on your low HR runs - it looks like you're doing great - and the mystery of the brick performance boost might simply be that your body was fully warmed up by the time you started running. Did you tank up on fuel while you were on the bike? If so, that might have helped a bit, too. Regardless, it sure bodes well for your career as a triathlete!

Today was a swim only day. Was planning to do a swim/bike, but the left hip is a little past niggly so giving it an extra day of rest and massage. I know, not like me, but maybe old dogs can be taught new tricks after all. So the swim was still a 1700 yd effort, but the first leg of it was a 1000 yard effort, so a bit more in terms of endurance each week.

Mark, i didn't fuel at all during Saturday's workout as I anticipated it to be less than an hour and a half overall. Did make sure I was hydrated, but that was about it. I'm not complaining about the result, just find it curious.

OK, I'll admit to being quiet of late; there's been a lot going in in the family - good and bad. On the good side, my eldest daughter who had a baby last July is back in running and today ran a 5 mile race at a sub-10:00 pace - which is great for where she is in training right now! On the bad side, my youngest had to have some heart surgery this week, which turned into good news as it was a great success and she will be better than ever. During this time I've kept up with the training and that all culminated today in my first Triathlon, a sprint that I completed in 1:06:03. I'll post a report with more detail. Suffice it to say that a Tri presents a whole different set of challenges, but beating your expectations in one feels every bit as good as doing so in a half or a full.

Tom H wrote:OK, I'll admit to being quiet of late; there's been a lot going in in the family - good and bad. On the good side, my eldest daughter who had a baby last July is back in running and today ran a 5 mile race at a sub-10:00 pace - which is great for where she is in training right now! On the bad side, my youngest had to have some heart surgery this week, which turned into good news as it was a great success and she will be better than ever. During this time I've kept up with the training and that all culminated today in my first Triathlon, a sprint that I completed in 1:06:03. I'll post a report with more detail. Suffice it to say that a Tri presents a whole different set of challenges, but beating your expectations in one feels every bit as good as doing so in a half or a full.

Wow, that's a lot going on, Tom. Good news all around (though scary) about your daughters.

Congrats on the tri finish! Quite impressive.

Took Sun and Mon as recovery days. Felt good with no residual aches or pains so on Tuesday got back into the swing of things. Decided I'd shift days to start with a swim day just to give the legs one more day of rest, so here's what the week looked like:

Tues: 1M swim

Weds: 5M run, LHR, 9:36 avg pace but started out at 8:57 and ended mile 5 at a 10:04. Guess legs still recovering

Thurs: 1M swim, 14M ride @ 18 mph avg, 1 hour Pilates. Felt great after all was said and done. What's going on?

Fri: 5.3M run, LHR, same course as Weds. 9:02 avg pace and felt very easy. Lap data as follows:

Lap Data
Lap	Time	Distance	Pace/Speed	AHR	MHR
1	08m 52s	1.00 miles	08m 52s /mile	169	206
2	08m 48s	1.00 miles	08m 48s /mile	141	144
3	09m 05s	1.00 miles	09m 05s /mile	141	146
4	09m 11s	1.00 miles	09m 11s /mile	142	148
5	09m 15s	1.00 miles	09m 15s /mile	143	146
6	03m 02s	0.33 miles	09m 16s /mile	143	145

That was MUCH better than I had expected, so I'm a happy camper

So today will be fun as I get to spend it with my granddaughter. So, off I go!

Looking good, Tom! Keep it up!

And have fun being grandpa.