Hurricane Harvey Interruptus

So, I was slated to do a two-hour ride the weekend that Hurricane Harvey Hit and was not able to complete that plan until this past weekend! Boy was it a joy to finally get out there and do something longer than one hour and even longer than two hours. Again, I will be continuing with the two hour for quite a while. A friend asked when we would ride again and I shared with him that it would probably be at and around Thanksgiving!

Because I did not do the long ride in consecutive weeks, I can feel strength in my knees because of what I'm doing, but then I am also having to baby them a bit! On Saturday after my first two-hour ride, and I've done three now. I could feel that I almost stretched the envelope a little too much! So, in order to fight the fact that I am doing a lot I am keeping my knee warm. Amazing, the healing properties of warmth to the knees. Richard from savingmyknees.blogspot.com would totally agree! Thank you Richard!

Speaking of Richard, I am also finding some pushback from folks who believe in a different method of recovering from knee-injury (which really is a non-method if all it's going to do is re-injure your knee). I was recently applying my newfound knowledge and method of rehabilitating soft-tissue of the knee to an ankle injury and this person did not even want to hear about it. I have jumped on the band-wagon of knee rehabilitation stating that soft-tissue can be healed and I want others to know. Unfortunately, not everyone has ears to hear!

My initial plan to ride the trainer everyday has gone by the wayside! Since the last time I wrote, my classroom was relocated. I am no longer in the core of the building, but I am in a portable about as far away from any other place on the campus as possible. I timed how long it takes to walk from my steps outside my portable to the other side of the campus and it takes a full six-minutes at a leisurely walk. Even though I am able to fast-walk now, I choose not to so as to not aggravate anything in my knees. The professional development week was hard enough because I still had to physically move many items from my old classroom to my new location. The actual first week of school was wrought with trying to get accustomed to how much walking I had to do that I figured I didn't need to poke the bear. There were days last week where my circulation was impacted and the fatigue was immense and caused me to wipe out as soon as my wife and I arrived home.

This second week of school will actually be a sign of what is possible so after a couple of rest days, I'll see if a spin on the trainer is in order to keep my knees fresh. I completed three consecutive days of training and I can feel it in strength as well as tenderness. That tells me I am pushing the envelope appropriately, but also not too much!

Over the weekend, I was able to increase my RPM (revolutions per minute) or modify my RPMs with the middle gear of the triple that I have on two of my bikes. I will continue doing some of this with gears that overlap and push the envelope a little from there.

OCN; 60 Miles over the weekend
LBS: 281.6 (5 lbs less than last week!)
Nutrition: In the negative still!