Training Log Archive: silkychrome

woke up and the knee was unhappy about all of yesterday's activity. not bad, but def more stiff than previous mornings so i had to dial the training back today.

felt like things loosened up a bit during the run, but with the heat just decided to take it easy all day.

scratched the bike plan and swam instead. good times in the water.

super sticky ride in. knee tight again like yesterday morning. must be an am thing.

C • take it easy 2

back home. cruzin.

EZ. knee starting to feel solid.

to pool, to GWC, home. on the SS! knee doing better.

fun EZ swim. yay!

another EZ jog. most of the pain in the joint is below the patella, i believe that would be called the tibial plateau? but we know it's not broken so hopefully something i can control w ice and smart training.

oh! oh! and then i rode to work!! still lots of tightness around the scars that make the top of the pedal stroke very uncomfortable. but that's all it is...discomfort. not pain. i can deal with that.

ooooooeeeeeeeee!!! felt the best i have since the injury. started putting a little power into the pedals, even, and felt great. i can stand, too. now, about all of that fitness i lost...

EZ. feeling better.

went to go buy some hokas. except the only store that stocks them in STL does not have stinson evos in women's sizes. what? le sigh. got in a short jog at Queeny anyway.

C • Online 2

schwimmy schwimmy. felt better than yesterday. stopped when i felt one of my scabs start flapping. sorry if that's gross.

tried to ride into work today. first 50m, knee had a new pain above the patella. turned straight around and drove in instead. i think it might be just the bandage applied too tightly but being cautious here.

to/from pool. knee a little better than this morning. i think i was right about the pain, it's not really in the joint, just really tight skin across/above the scar. any suggestions for making this go away?

C • Try Mederma 2

swim! lots of pulling w a baby buoy.

FIRST RUN!!!!! super slow and some pain still. perhaps got a little worse towards the end, not quite sure. but.....RUNNING!!

stitches out today.

to/from Zoll's house!!!! all in granny gear, super EZ, even up southwest. some dude on a cross street said "Hi Emily" but i have no clue who it was..

gonna stick to the Thunder Chicken for the next few weeks since that has the most open geometry of all of my bikes.

Event: The Thunder Rolls 12hr/24hr
 

Thunder Rolls recap, spectator version

did not race due to knee injury and the availability of superstar SARA DALLMAN. spent the day spectating w Carrie. here is what I remember from the race:

TREK 1 (incl COASTEER 1 and ROPES 1): start at midnight. 8-point rogaine trek that included ropes (ascent and rappel). madhouse start but Alpine Shop reported later that they went directly to the ropes and got going right away. David's nav was excellent and Alpine came out of the woods in 2nd and passed Midwest Mountaineering on the 3k road run to the paddle put-in.

PADDLE 1: Carrie and I drove to the paddle put-in and napped. we missed Alpine coming thru TA in 1st place at about 2:20am. we woke up about 2:30am with Bushwhacker and Midwest Mountaineering in TA as 2nd and 3rd place, followed shortly by Rev3, MRA (Michigan Racing Addicts all-male), maybe 2 other teams, and then finally GJ/WEDALI. the paddle (8-10mi) was more of a portage due to tons of beaver dams and deadfall in the water, lots of in/out and dragging the boat.

BIKE/TREK 1: then we drove to the take-out to await Alpine's arrival. they came in just before dawn still in 1st, maybe 4:40am. everyone was soaking wet, cold, and hungry. as they were in TA, Rev3 and Bushwhacker showed up. Alpine got out of there with maybe a 5-10 minute lead. Bushwhacker rode out, and returned having forgotten map for next section, which was a 15-point choose-your-mode rogaine (inaccurately described by RD Gerry as "bike-o"). BW had a stellar route and gained about 60 minutes on Alpine. incredible!

TREK 1: 6k-ish loop trek in Palisades Park. Alpine did not lose or make up time on BW. day was sunny and warm, mid-80s.

BIKE 1: short bike leg on gravel, I think 5 miles?

TREK 2: "advanced" trek, I think 5k? RD Gerry warned teams of the bad mapping (USGS 1:24) in this area. when Carrie and I arrived at TA, BW was already in the woods. Alpine arrived and got going. then BW arrived back at TA to relocate. bad map indeed!! Rev3 in 3rd, MRA in 4th, then Midwest Mountaineering and GJ/WEDALI together in 5th/6th. BW came back to TA, relieved to escape this trek with lead intact. they left, and Alpine came storming back having made up 30 minutes. Now they were only 26 minutes behind BW with a 30-mile gravel ride to the finish!

BIKE 2: 30-35 miles of hilly gravel. both BW and Alpine reported being out of water. straightforward route choice and nav. towards the end, BW caught sight of Alpine about 5 minutes behind them and started emptying their tanks. Alpine never saw them BW ahead, likely because 12hr teams were on the course too so they didn't distinguish BW from those racers. Carrie and I were waiting at the finish and had projected the winners to arrive at 4pm. at 4 bells, no one. 4:15, no one. 4:30, no one. we couldn't stand it so we hopped on bikes and rode out to the main road to take watch. BW came into view shortly after and we were so happy for them. then 4 minutes later Alpine rolls through, unawares they were so close to 1st place!

some drama after the race finished: Alpine did not read the rules properly and forgot to all-punch CP5 (the cave) on their wristbands. they punched the passport but not wristbands. penalty = 2 hours. also, they did not punch CP37 because they did not find the flag. David attacked from below and arrived at the hanging tape in the mapped location. they assumed the flag had been stolen or mis-hung so they photographed the tape from a few angles and proceeded with their race. after the race, we learned that Gerry's course setters never found the hanging tape and instead hung the flag on a different rock outcrop. other teams who attacked from above found the flag first, but not the hanging tape, and punched without issue. Gerry and Jeff had a talk about this after the race and it is unclear if Alpine will officially be charged a missed CP, or just a time penalty. either way, terrific effort by the boys and an exceptional showing by Sara who arrived at Race HQ at 11pm for a midnight start. she never missed a beat and raced strong the whole time. also kudos to our friends at Bushwhacker who were in stellar form today. wow!!! this victory has been a long time coming for them. also an impressive 3rd place effort from Rev3 with a 2 female/1 male team. GJ/WEDALI had a rough day out there, finishing 4th coed, but finished strong and with their team spirit completely intact.

personally, i was gutted to see the looks of exhaustion on my friends' and teammates' faces at the finish line. there is nothing like adventure racing and I was so sad to miss that experience. I *maybe* could have nursed the knee through the race but certainly not at the speeds required to be competitive in this field. so I was relieved to be able to spend the day icing and resting and cheering. knee held up well and I might be able to start light training this week.

C • MRA 7

my co-worker is letting me borrow a cryo-cuff. i love it. it is helping me turn the corner.

felt the best i have since thursday tonight. walked to dinner with almost no pain. 2 glasses of wine on the walk home helped too!

to avoid the dreaded motivational note on AP.

things i can do:
pushups.
high/low planks.
side planks/side plank raises.
prone leg lifts.
prone windshield washer things.
sit-ups/crunches w legs slightly bent.

any other ideas?

C • Motivation 3

cx bike on the trainer. 5 revolutions. skin is just sooooo tender.

also saw my regular doc today. MRI request denied, still too much swelling.

hung out at Conquer Castlewood race today. tried to ride a bike. Carrie said I had enough ROM to make it through a whole pedal stroke but i mentally couldn't handle it. so lots of one-legged pedaling.

got up to go to work and had to call in. owwwwwww. stayed home.

pre-race long run at CW w Jeff. 3 loops of tonights race course. good 1st loop, felt horrible 2nd loop, went to the bathroom, felt better 3rd loop.

then, the race! planned to go hard and then tack on a couple cool-down miles for a nice long run total. sunny was there so the race was really for 2nd place chick. was in the mix up the 1st climb (Lone Wolf), then decided i wasn't hurting enough for a 4mi race so pushed and established 2nd. running really well up the 2nd climb (Ranger Station) into Roller Coaster and then started being caught by a few guys, including my orienteering "rival" Jeff (not Sona). we hit the start of the finish downhill and i really wanted to take advantage of that. except i hit my foot on a root or rock or something and went down quite hard. boom. race over. smashed up my L knee pretty hard and took a lot of time to get legs to stop cramping and HR/breathing under control. Jeff (not Sona) and Laura stopped their races to help me. so awesome. eventually made it downhill where Jeff (Sona) and Karen used their medical skillz to clean me up and send me to the hospital. 4 stitches.

http://silkychrome.blogspot.com/2013/08/4-stitches...

C • Did you ever get yogurt? 7

EZ but w 10min MAF in the middle which went well.

EZ to Maria's house to try on a Team Noah jersey! good chat there, so stoked to be on this team.

and then i ate 1/2 watermelon for dinner

EZ into work.

EZ home. was going to run too but old college roommate was in town so we went out to dinner. sometimes friends need to come before training. first time eating oysters! oy!

EZ cruise around town, w a stop to pick up new BB at Alpine. not sure if i'll have time to install before T-Rolls but at least i have all the parts now.

C • Leave it at home 8

w Jeff, David, TJ, and Tim. we met at Rockwoods, piled into the Sona van, drove to the south trailhead, and ran Green Rock back to our cars. stopped in GF for a little out-n-back to get water. super great day. conversational pace and in the last 2 miles my legs came alive and i was able to lift the pace easily. good stuff.

then some EZ spinning around westco w Jeff and David. we had planned to ride bikes back to the Sona van but decided instead to just ride a loop. forgot how awesome the road biking is out there. you could literally show up without a plan, and just make a random choice at each intersection and have a great route.

w David, Jeff, Carrie, Struckmans, and The Claw. scoping out CC Lake singletrack for a possible event. couldn't ride AT ALL in the first half, put myself at the back of the conga line, and then warmed up enough mentally to do a little shredding. strange how my tech skill on a mtb is SO inconsistent.

w Jeff/David around CC Lake. David led out at a reasonable pace. then Jeff got in front and they dropped me several times. and had fun doing it. boys are getting faaaaaast. :)

then out to St. Charles to visit Strove in the hospital.

w Cat, all over DeMun, good chat!

DB took more out of me than i thought. i've been dragging all week so just came home and slept.

clinic w Drew Edsall at VP and wu/cd

last Dirt Crits

i like riding my bike.

EZ home with a few added miles.

super heavy and tired but got it done.

EZ around block. heavy at the start and better by the end!

to/from Busch Stadium. co-worker had tickets and i got guilted into attending. well, i was forced to eat my disdain when they were CARDINALS CLUB. second row, behind home plate, you might have seen me scarfing down free chicken wings on ESPN. 'birds lost :(

Double Berryman!!!!!!!! w Team Noah!!!!!! just using generally accepted distance/climb numbers and guessing at our total moving time. both laps were around 3h riding time but we did have some extended stops to repair strove's "unflattable" knard (29x3) and general keeping the group together. despite my previous intel from last summer's DB, i fell behind in nutrition, only to be saved by seeing Luke and Chris at Brazil Creek and they emptied their coolers for us. so. nice. really happy with how i rode today, and the people i rode with. this is the crew preparing for FG100 and i'm already so stoked about it.

new trail exploring w TJ and Tim of the SLUGs. we drove down to Buford Mtn Conservation Area which they found published in some article somewhere about "the toughest trails in MO". after running it all backwards and forwards, I'm inclined (haha....) to agree. lots of extended climb (for MO), and much of the trail surface itself is very rocky, like loose babyhead rocks which require 100% attention and lots of foot/ankle strength. started in the rain but things cleared up as we went along. we took our time with photo stops at the nice overlook (Bald Knob) on the second pass through. good times w new trails and new people!

into work. oh yeah!

i should note that all of todays activities are being completed on ZERO sleep. like none. my own fault, i'll just call it AR training.

to Fenton Riverchase to meet Sally, Matt and the kiddos for some fun in the pool.

some coaching w Sally but she is looking awesome for her tri tomorrow. then played w the kids and even managed a few strokes of fly!

home. sort of raining the whole time. after crushing Marshall on the SS for the second time, my legs came alive and felt good finally. that is great timing for this weekend's adventures. 36+ hrs w no sleep and feel pretty normal. weird.

EZ

dirt crits. i am so ready for these to be over! 1 more week left. i can tolerate about 6 week worth. anyway, got schooled again but a much better ride confidence-wise today. getting back there :)