Coming Back From Debilitating Knee Injury!

Training Variables: 

Coming back from debilitating knee injury! Inspired by Richard Bedard who wrote Saving My Knees and who also blogs weekly or more on the subject.

When looking for information on how to save my own knees. I blew out both my knees three months ago. I came across his blog and immediately could see he knew what was going on and built a program based on what I knew about cycling, running, and walking. I am not a PT physical therapist or a doctor. I am a certified teacher and as such have had training on teaching physical education, but I believe the majority of the information found here can be gleamed off of online exercise sites. Its specificity for knee-pain sufferers was inspired by Saving My Knees.
http://savingmyknees.blogspot.com

Only you know what you can do. Tenet: Less is more. Caution is better than grit!

This year with much analytical concentration and caution: fall '17

Paradigm Shift:
Not just patience, but you're dealing with soft-tissue time. (Richard's Pitch Experiment). Weeks -n- months although you'll know the next day you did something wrong. 
Remember, do not ramp up too fast or like old times. No accelerations, never out of the saddle, no hills, no kidding!

Good Knee Care Habits: After a bout of exercise 1 to 1.5 hour rest before next thing. (Cycle).
Below 60 degrees embrocation or knee warmers.

10 minute rest half way on long walks in order to not start hurting.(2k steps @ a mile) 4k steps per day maintenance

Beginning 70 steps several times a day walking the dog, going back to the car.

101 steps around X every 10 minutes (Richard started at the pool, I have started walking the dog.

10% increase every two weeks. As a runner this was the rule of thumb. In marathon running it moved to one week, but then on the fourth week you go back to where you were at the beginning of the month. Remember: less is more.

Minutes before 15 : now 5, 7, 13 - Primes

80 rpm @ first for 15 min. 1200 revs
Build time in the saddle up to thirty minutes 2400 revs. Once you can do two sets of thirty then you're adding thirty to what you can already do. 15/16/17/18/19/20/21/22/23/24/ 25/26/27/28/29+30+30+30+30+30

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4th year with cautious optimism:

Saturday ride - long, strenuous, hilly up to three hours 40 miles Fast and 20 miles easy

Sunday-60 minutes flat or trainer easy pedaling

Tue. -N- Thurs. 45 minutes on trainer or flats 10 easy warm up and 35 minutes faster, but still not intense 

Mon. Wed. Fri. Walk 2 miles each day

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Eventually - eventually:
After a year of cautious progress:

Less is more keep three steady and change one to improve

Duration - how long - 2hrs conversational pace

Frequency - #of rides per 10 daze

Volume - combo of dur. N freq.

Intensity . Ride 4 60-90 mins warm-up n cool-down . 6x6mins w/4mins recovery (recovery equals easy cheesy

Reco : 45 mins whistle ride (a whistle ride is one where you're going slow enough to whistle) not as easy as it sounds!


VvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvV
5-20 minutes in the pool adding minutes as you get better trained.

Sort-Of, Sort-of, Sort-Of!

This post if for today Friday the 18th and although I'm riding tomorrow, my wife says she can see that I'm physically tired in the way I'm moving so Sunday will be off and next week I'll be back on the trainer for 30 to 45 minutes a pop if it works. Next week I'm back at work and therefore my time with the kiddos will start taking most of my time. I'm not sure if I'll do trainer rides and then Saturday and Sunday outside rides. I know that next week there will be some time devoted to moving furniture and setting up my classroom! I'm hoping to keep my knees healthy, but time to post will be at a premium again. So I will move to once a week like our good friend Richard has done since the birth of his sweet children! Thanks again Richard for all the encouragement and being moved to share your experiences so that the rest of us can learn via your experimentation. Check out savingmyknees
.blogspot.com Your eyes will be opened!

Lunch Ride_tandemonium_brksC15_broke it_129/63'115 Today's ride was supposed to be an easy 15 minutes out and 15 minutes back, but no, part of the way on the trail I got hung up on some bailing wire! No fun! It went around my crank and actually there is still some there. I managed to take my tandem out today. I modified it for one person and I won't lie to you, it was difficult. But my wife called me back just in time right after I got most of the bailing wire off the spindle! So to work on the crank and remove the wire I flipped the bike! I don't like doing this because it makes a mess out of your seat and the handle bars. But I was not having much success the other way so I flipped it! Now about ten minutes after I finished messing with the wire I came up on another big freaking log! I reach down and grab my seat and the whole thing pops off in my hand. Remind me to tell you how I'm a tester for seats for Brooks Ltd. So, I'll have to send another tester seat back to the builder so they can work out what happened to it! So I piece the seat back together and try to make it home. I was successful! The seat is not in good shape, oh well, that's why they pay me the big bucks to test products! Ha! It's all pro-bono work for supplying me with seats! This is the fourth one! Three of them still being used!

Rationale: A tandem weighs more and since I still had a tripple on this tandem, I'm going to try to do modified weight lifting with the tandem. I'll still be spinning like a bugger-boo, but hopefully I'll building strength and endurance.

OCN: 1:16.07 moving time for 6 miles at 4.8 MPH. I may not be doing a whole lot right with this build up, but one thing I am doing is going slow enough. Having the tripples have really helped me stay under. Although, the time I'm not being very good about.
Lbs.: 281.4 Tomorrow is a weigh-in day. My best results are normally Saturday and Tuesday. If you haven't figured out what day is best for you to weigh yourself you may want to wander down that little rabbit hole!
Nutrition: Thursday and Friday has gone well!

Saturday: Long Ride 1:49.09 minutes and 14 miles distance 7.7 MPH

I was being very strictly cautious today and was able to do 14 no hills, no accelerations, no out of the seat etc. The route I was on has this massive hill that I blew off by going cross country and it ended up getting a piece of glass imbeded in my tire! I did a partner ride today first time since early February! I told my friend if I go according to schedule perhaps we could ride again at Thanksgiving! Trying to get it in my brain that I need to take it easy! I just went up and down the stairs a couple of times I can feel that the glycogen in my legs is totally spent. I need to chillax!

OCN: 1:49.09 moving time 14 Mile Distance 7.7 MPH Still on a triple because it gives me a couple of gears to mess with. During the ride when I tried to increase the RPM or decrease the RPM I could feel a little bit of a nag in my right knee. We'll see what it says tomorrow!
LBS: 285 Boom! No comment!
Nutrition: Off day Wednesday, but on track the rest! With school starting up I normally do Intermittent Fasting I'm playing around with the idea of 16:8. I normally do 6:10 and I eat in a four hour period there at the end of the 10. Snack, meal two hours later, snack and I'm done for the night. On the 16:8 I would have to skip breakfast and I have never ever done that, so I really don't know!

Every Other Day, Sort-Of Again!

So, Tuesday, I was off and good thing because the moving of furniture in preparation for the move has intensified. In fact one night, It was after being a bit tired moving a huge sectional couch, I managed to tweak my knee so in order to finish the work I put on a neopreme knee sleeve (neopreme seems to add a heating element to he support it is also giving). Once out of the shower my knees were back to being parallel so crisis averted.

This is the post for Wednesday 8/16/17 Morning Ride_Under Water_brksC17w/CO_129/64'103 at Olmos Basin

 We had a very hard rain two or three weeks ago and this whole area of the basin was under water. If you look at the discoloration of the foliage in the two pictures here you can see that the water three to four feet high. We have had it before where this whole area was as high as the viaduct that is above it. That would submerge century oaks etc. Crazy!

 I was fortunate that someone had been out to the trails recently to complete some maintenance and they were pristine on the embankment to the basin. The area pictured above was still mushy so no riding on there. Plus when they're mushy, it's hard to tell where the trails lie. I thought that it would not be any big deal to these trails, but alas my training effect was mostly gone. I was in the easiest gear which normally is too easy to do these trails, but this time I needed it badly.

I ended up with 1 hour and 32 minutes a little less than last time, but then last time I had to do lots of walking. Not this time! I almost managed ten miles! The look on my face is one of fatigue as you can see:

Or I guess it could be stubborn optimism!

OCN: 1:32.20 for 9.6 miles at 6.3 MPH

LBS. 281.4 (numbers are fluctuating wildly)

Nutrition: Since I'm writing this after the fact I can tell you my eating regime Wednesday night was nothing to be proud of and I'm dealing with some guilt! I'll get over it!

Every Other Day, Sort-Of!

Post for Monday the 14th of August 11:36 AM Lunch Ride_ Out in the Sticks!_brksC17w/CO 100/60'117

On Monday, I got back out there after taking Sunday to totally veg out! Can you tell I'm not a great fan of the trainer downstairs?! I can see that in myself.

I went out on the trails for the first time to see how my body would react to the extra effort required to ride on the dirt. Some folks say that a 1.5 hour ride on the trail is like a 3 hour road ride. At the same time the trails that are closest to my house needed some love and care so kept getting off the bike to move huge logs (dumb because I could see me using the same musculature that got me in trouble with my knees in the first place). So rather than use grit, I decided to finesse this huge log, 'bout the size of a Smart Car! I just rocked it back and forth until I could nudge it out of the way of the trail single-track. I felt smart for finding a different way to git 'er done. Before I would have just picked it up and moved it :-). Darned the consequences!

Since I was being cautious I made sure anytime I had to do something that would require me to get out of the seat or jump over anything I would dismount. Since much of the trail lay unused, over the past year many trees had fallen to block the single-track. There were times where I was just walking from one fix of the trail to another. I only managed 5.1 MPH and in a 1 hour and 40 minutes I only managed about 8.5 miles which is right in range for what I've been doing.

Rationale: When I first started riding I came from running and went into trail riding to strengthen the different musculature that is used on the bike. I'm am pulling out all the stops to get the ball rolling smoothly again. My transition to Mtn. Biking and then road riding was effortless more than ten years ago.

OCN: 1:39.59 for 8.5 miles
Lbs.: 281.4
Nutrition: Toeing the line

Blew Right Past the 30s

I wish I could say I was oh so cautious, but I was not. Remember: what works for one eager beaver will not necessarily work for another. i.e. don't do as I do, be cautious about what you try so the pain doesn't come back to bite you in the knee. Remember all the cautions at savingmyknees.blogspot .com! Richard we are in your debt for sharing your priceless knowledge.

I go out on Saturday to do my thirty minutes that I had achieved two days earlier, but went too far. I had marked two places, a thirty minute turn-around, and a one hour turn-around location a couple of years ago for when my wife and I were going to use the tandem bicycle in order to build time in the saddle. I realize now that it was a huge mistake, because these times were based on what I could do when I was well-trained and in a much bigger gear.

As you can see I'm not a sparrow, I'm a clydesdale (an actual designation at some cycling events). I have had a problem with my weight since my freshman year college 15 that was more like the frosh 30. One nice development is that as you know I spent three months not doing anything and now less than two weeks later my large size shirts are already fitting better. No they are not flapping in the breeze, but I am more comfortable. 

I was concerned with my classes starting up next week, I was going to need to wear something! I'm not going to be in the best shape I've been in, but not the worst shape I've been in either.

Rationalization: 30 minute is the amount of time cyclists normally bump up their mileage by in order to not get overtrained, but yet build time in the saddle.

Because I have been waiting the 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 24, and 48 hours after my exercise bout, it has been every other day that I exercise. I still have not become accustomed to the workload physically so I will continue at and around this workload for another week. It will be very tempting to go further, but I know I have to be conservative and cautious in order to not have a setback. I have adjusted my riders box to compensate for my knees.

OCN: 1:04 still at lowest gear and high spin at 90 rpm. Benefit of my Litespeed (Classic) Goat is that I have three lower gears than the one I have on the trainer (I made it into a tripple a few years ago when I bottomed out on my gears going up an 18% incline.
Lbs: 281.4 not happy with an increase, but hoping it's muscle weight. Muscle weight helps me burn more.
Nutrition: Still on the negative I can really tell on the glycogen consumption in the one hour.

4_8_24_48 Take Two

My bump up to thirty minutes on the trainer in the lowest gear with zero resistance almost did not happen due to some achiness. But, as my strength would have it I felt sleepy, so I slept for a couple of hours and then boom I was fine! Remember what Richard said about getting 8 hours rest!? Most definitely makes a difference! I had gotten 6.5 to 7 hours and with the two hour morning nap it primed the pumps or the cannons!

What; you've never heard of a morning nap?! Here's what you do, wake up and do whatever you have to do at the butt-crack of dawn: take the dogs out, feed the cats, eat breakfast, read the Bible, read the news, take your 💓 pills, etc. Then, go back to bed work on your languages, read facebook or this blog and you'll be back asleep in no time partly because you took your pill or you're crashing because of your cereal.

So, after my nap, I went down and did my thirty (two) minutes as easy as I could. I did some on the bike stretches and such and I still need to do some adjustments on the rider-box and then go from there. But no pain at 1,2,4,8,24, and again we'll see about 48. After my ride I proceeded to take the dogs out, do some chores and quickly got overheated and overextended enough to feel woozy and almost blow chunks! So, a trained cyclist or an in shape athlete can bump-up the mileage at 30 minutes a pop, but a couch potato for the last three months cannot or can, but then be ready to blow chunks. Since my body didn't like that much I will continue with 30 minutes for at least two weeks. Still having issues with these numbers. My pride has always been endurance and the long-ride. I look forward to those days. Thank you Richard for all your insight in savingmyknees.blogspot.
.com

OCN: 30(2) mins. lowest gear/no resistance
Trng. Video: South Africa
Lbs: 280.3

Four Eight Twenty-four Forty-eight

Yesterday I rode my trainer for fifteen, actually sixteen minutes. I can honestly say that I feel as accomplished as when I completed my first one hundred miler. The familiar warm ache was a welcome feeling. The knees had the feeling of having done some work, but no pain. I was very cautious in all my walking. I did some experimenting I'll revisit in a minute.

I went through four, eight, twenty-four and now am waiting for forty-eight. I have mostly kept my legs parallel to the floor. Like I said, my muscles had the warm ache of having done some work. I look forward to doing some more work.

The experimentation I did has to do with me remembering that I got new cycling cleats as well as new dress shoes. I was wondering if the new shoes were affecting the foot-fall and therefore affecting my knees. I have learned that everything in our bodies is connected. One example is that when I was overcompensating with my knees, my back has been affected.

I hope I continue improvement and get to work-out again tomorrow!

OCN: 15(+1) mins.
No Video
Lbs: 280.3

Avoiding the Primes

So today, I was supposed to start a very slow and arduous process, but since I felt pretty good and excited about the future, I said, "what the hell, I'll go for it!" "Future's so bright I gotta wear shades!" Huey Lewis.

I was going to start nice and slow with 3,5,7,9,11,13, and 15 minutes. But 15 minutes being the increment cyclists use to build time in the saddle, I felt a strong pull. Old habits die hard!

I have spent a month going really slow and doing absolutely nothing so I dared to step it up. Mind you, my wife and I already have two failed attempts at restarting our walking regime both times over-doing it and paying the price.

Yup, I did it! I rode my time trial bike on the trainer downstairs. My Caloi Strada Pro is set up on the Cyclops Trainer downstairs. It will be perfect for this because the front derailleur is busted and it works on tension and there is no way I can get it on to the 52 tooth big ring! I set the Cyclops Trainer at no resistance and left it on the easiest freaking gear! (BTW Richard, if you're reading this I even tried freewheeling {spinning backwards for a little} yup truly easy). I am not very good with pacing; when trying 80 rpm I kept ending up at 60 rpm so I bumped it to 90. When reading savingmyknees
.blogspot.com that the lowest gear would be too easy, I was not convinced. Well, after three months of doing diddley-squat, using the easiest gear feels like something. Very appropriate for the lack of movement I had been relegated to. Also, since I'm writing this over two hours after my forray into this 15 minute craziness, I'm good. No gain! No pain! Or should I say, "Slow gain! No pain!" Let's hope that tomorrow or in two days it's still the same.

Rationale: For over a month now, I have taken 90 steps stopped rested, stretched my back or worked a little on biceps and triceps 3Xs a day and sometimes more. Then, took my 90 steps back stopping at 60, 70, and 80. Now you may think that's kind of weird! Not if you're out walking your headstrong chihuahua, 🥜 Peanut! I speak to her in Portuguese, Spanish, and English, but it doesn't matter she still does whatever the hell she wants.

Stats or the OCN: back in the day of listservs, running.rec there was a group called the Dead Runners Society. The listgods said you could write about anything related to running as long as you posted an ORN: an obligatory running note. Since this is a cycling blog I will post an OCN: 15 minutes plus 1 minute because I can (Scott Cutshall who lost 320 pounds riding a bike would do one extra time around the block and eventually an extra mile just to prove to himself that he could). Poundage is at 280.3 At my heaviest I went up to 289 pounds a mere two years ago. My wife and I had success making little changes for big improvements. And walking, notice not cycling! I had averaged 4,000 miles per year for many years, but it was not ideal to lose weight.
On nutrition I'm in the negative, I am eating less than what I have expended.

Catastrophic Injuries Seem to Be the Rule

So in 2015 I was playing soccer with the kiddos and felt a sensation (not a good one) in my left knee, my non-kicking leg. I'm not calling it pain because it wasn't pain, but that day however small things changed with my knee. My doc looked at it, osteoarthritis he said, you know you're getting older you can't do the things you used to do. My catastrophic fall where both my elbows cracked happened after that during the summer. Why was I cycling still if I had injured my knee?! Well, honestly with that I am fortunate! The knee lesion did not affect the cycling. In the meantime, I had even done close to a one hundred miler without ill-effects. (92 miles, nevermind the fact that I was lost. But I've been found, gloreh halluyer). Everytime I attempted to run (falcon run 2016), play soccer (Feb. 2017, play basquetball (Oct. 2016), or any other high-impact activity even though I had my braces on to control the movement I paid the price. I continued to cycle although only on flats and only spinning and even doing super-spinning (120 rpm). I could not get the nagging injury to go away and leave me the heck alone.

Fast forward to May of 2017, our new (to us) SUV had a leak that finally had to be taken care of and caused it to die. Deader than a doornail! My wife and I discussed how we were too old for this and we should call a tow truck. Alas, with hindsight I now know better, but I couldn't see spending a bunch of money for something I could do myself. My buddy Joe and I towed it to the dealership a couple of miles away. Once there and off the chains, we still had to put it in a parking spot because the bay was chained up. Fact: Parking lots have slight inclines to alleviate runoff. Fact: An SUV weighs much more than a sedan or pick-up truck. I attempted to push that SUV into the spot all by myself at first. My strong gams from cycling helped, but my weak knee was not happy. This time both knees were affected or strained! I tried taking it easy all the while still going to work. I tried carrying a staff to support myself. The pain was intense. I tried to stay off of them. I tried taking the ramp down and I had to stop mid ramp. Stairs were better, because with the staff and the banister I was able to help myself. But with the staff my employer forced me to get a prescribed staff (one month with the staff). That month was over at the beginning of July. I decided to give it an extra month just to be safe before I started back to exercise. That month was over at the beginning of August. My wife and I had tried to restart our walking regime, but the first time it was still painful and the second time we over-did it. Meanwhile in South Texas temperatures have been way too high. Ambient temp was at 120° F. This is not the desert! These are the coastal plains. So here it is Aug and I didn't have plan!

How do I fix my knee?! I landed on a site that pushed quad strengthening that even brought up the fact that quad strengthening agravates your knees, but did not answer the quandry. Next I tried to learn what I could about the knee from WebMD etc. I presented with pain in the Medial Meniscus and the Medial Cruciate Ligament in the right knee. In my left knee the one that clicks there was pain at the back at the joint capsule. Standard disclaimer here: I am not a medical doctor or physical therapist and I don't play one on the internet. Pa dum tss! Thangiaverymuch, tip your waitress! Doctor prescribed a series of anti-inflamatories that started its work immediately plus the staff. I was good to go! I had four or five days till I closed out the year with my middle schoolers and then I could just rest until it was time to move to another house this summer. Still no plan, my wife and I tried a second time to start our exercise regime, but we over-did it. I was going ahead blindly anyway.

The third site I came across was savingmyknees at blogger and a book by the same title Saving My Knees by Richard Bedard ( http://www.amazon.com  ). Richard chronicles how he saved his knees by healing the soft-tissue damage done to his knees by going too far. Richard was inspired by Doug Kelsey of Sports Center in none other than Austintacious a world away for him, but a mere 45 minutes for me. Richard, thanks be to God, has an analytical mind and a penchant for detail. Richard poured over studies and experimented by trial and error and an experiment of one, wrote a book about it, and still blogs about it to this day! His skill at writing and explaining and supporting those of us wandering around mostly clueless and speaking to doctors that were mostly clueless has proved his point: one can, with careful tracking, careful experimentation regrow soft tissue not with a pill (i.e. glucosamine with chondroitin) although for some it may work (placebo effect), but with successive small movements with non-impact activities like walking, cycling, etc. to push the envelope of motion to allow a joint to recover, grow, and become stronger than before for all intents and purposes. He has the medical studies to support his assertions. He is a man ahead of his time. Now, if medical personnel would just read up and find out the good word!

Dealing with Inactivity

So, this Spring Break, I'm working out how to be inactive! I came to the realization that's it's been thirty plus years that I have been working out: running, climbing, cycling, swimming, and lately walking.

Unbelievably, now that I'm older the walking is ever more productive than all the cycling I do so regularly. Recently, with two catastrophic injuries in two years the mileage on the bike is less than half of what it has been in the past. The breaking of my two elbows this past Summer, caused me to question whether cycling is for ever or just another one of many activities I have done throughout the years.

My wife and I have adopted the slower method of losing poundage with small changes that make a big difference on weight-loss. Both of us have lost about thirty-five pounds and have kept it off.

At school I use the fasting method. A bunch of people at school are getting good results with it. I don't like to eat at school anyway so it works for me.

I can feel the consequences of not staying active in my hips and in my knees. My back has never been real happy so that is still there also. My elbows, the one that did not give as much trouble is the one that troubles me more now and it even clicks! Boo! Well, got to go!

Letting Go!

No! Not like the silly song! But like letting go; and letting God! Gaylezinha made a good point I don't have to work on motivation, I'm on the bike every chance I get! I do what I can! No the yard looks like hell and the carpet isn't vacd, but hey my lesson plans c'est fini. I do what I can at work, yeah gradespeed isn't set up yet and I've got no grades for my kiddos, but my room is close to being ready
for Tuesday! I'm not invincible - soccer absolutely drained me. My kids are the best! Can't wait till tomorrow! Sleep!

Every Hill You Take Every Breath You Take I'll Be Watchin' You!

If I forgot to tell you about the sciatic nerve issue I got from being stuffed like a sardine in an airplane for almost eight hours. The crew were absolute champs! But all the technology every seat has is placed under the seat in dront of you! Beautiful so my big ass feet have no place to go! Well, that pain persisted for a week. I almost wanted to go commando to enjoy the freedom, but no dice!

Today was my first forray in to the hills and it was a success! I spun and spun until I summited every one of my hills. I think I called on granny only once!

I PRd on Geneseo hill and that felt good! Somehow I knew that one was going really well! Since I did that I went on the other side of Broadway and did Torcido too!

It was 77 when I started today again that was good and maybe it's a sign that the intense heat of August is almost over! Nah!

After coming back from Europe I checked on my Summer mileage and it was only 275 ugh! That's nothing! No 2k on the bike this Summer. The heat was such a big part of that this Summer. Even in Europe, the heat has all swelling up like stuffed piggies! The possibility that I will have to train straight through this Fall is real!

Heat and.More Heat

Not to be underestimated! The heat can kill ya! My wife always says, "up north people have to know how to survive in a blizzard, down here you have to know how to survive the heat." So Wednesday when I woke up with a headache I knew I had done something Tuesday. So no ride. Thursday I awoke with a stopped up ear so the headache yesterday could have been a sinus issue. Stay safe out there my friends!

He Concurrs!

Saturday: Hooked up with Woody out by Playland and talked him in to going to Woodlawn Lake on his way home. Good convo about training solo makes you stronger. You wanna ride with your friends put in the miles drop the weight but put.in the miles. Felt good to meet up with someone. Family first he agrees! Good I'm not the only one! Ha! He was already at 75 at that point daium! Anyway I got my hour and a half and headed home!

Starting an Exercise Program: Recommendations from Dr. Mirkin www.drmirkin.com

If you want to lose weight or just maintain your healthful weight as you age, start an exercise program or increase your current program. Recent data show that interval training takes far less time than continuous exercise, and can be even more effective in strengthening your heart. You can do interval training by cycling, walking, jogging, skating, swimming, using an elliptical machine or any other form of continuous exercise.

1) Pre-Conditioning: Every day, go out and exercise slowly and continuously until your legs or arms feel heavy or hurt and then stop. Do this every day until you can work up to 30 minutes of continuous exercise. This usually takes three to six weeks.
2) Intervals: Every day, start your workout by going slowly for five to ten minutes. Then pick up the pace for ten seconds and then slow down. When your legs feel that they have recovered, pick up the pace again for ten seconds. Alternate these pick-ups and slow down intervals until your legs start to feel heavy or hurt and then stop for the day. Do this every day and progress by extending the time of your intervals. You do not have to do intervals longer than 30 to 60 seconds. It is irrelevant how long you rest between intervals. If your legs feel heavy or hurt during your warm-up, take the day off.

Caution: Since exercise can harm people with already damaged hearts, you may want to check with your doctor first.

If you like what you see from Dr. Gabe Mirkin, please subscribe to his eZine at drmirkin.com

The following comments are not from Dr. Mirkin.

Play close attention to the last sentence from Dr. Mirkin's recommendations and the Caution. 

First a word about overtraining with regards to interval work. Interval work done day after day without proper rest and recovery can cause serious overtraining in an athlete. So like the Doc said, "If your legs feel heavy or hurt during your warm-up, take the day off." Many athletes go out and start training slowly for ten to fifteen minutes and see where they are or how they really feel. Are they going to be able to put in the training (hard enough effort to make a difference) or did they work too hard the day before? The wise-athlete lives to train another day. The un-wise athlete battles on and gets an injury that knocks them out for almost a month or longer. It is not worth it!

One cannot go into interval work with less than a full effort. One must be prepared to go all-out. Going all-out can be very dangerous so the caution Dr. Mirkin speaks of is real and getting your doctor's approval can save your life. Years ago when heart-rate monitors first came out, I used one while training. After noticing something out of the ordinary with my numbers, I went to my doctor and she diagnosed me with eschemia. I see my heart-doctor twice a year to make sure there are no complications.    

Care and Prevention of Heat Related Issues

Beware when you exercise in the heat!

• Watch the temperature. Know your limits! I, for instance do not train in temperatures higher than 90 at the start of the ride. I know to avoid that because I have had issues in that temperature range in the past. I also use time of day which we will talk about more a little later, but for me starting a ride at 11:00 am just doesn't make any sense. Why risk the higher temperatures?!
• Get acclimated. Your body requires time to adjust. If you are starting a program at the same time that you are also trying to get acclimatized that will also take longer. Plan on twenty-three days to get your body used to something. If you had already been training through April and May getting going won't be such an issue, but getting going in June will take you a little longer.
• Know your fitness level. I use this to my advantage in later stages of training because then I can go and strain with people that are at a higher level of ability and training and gain from the effort required to workout with them. When working out at a higher level your body requires more of you, your muscles require better circulation, your body needs better cooling. So employ the best strategies and use the best equipment to facilitate the higher output.
• Drink plenty of fluids. Hydrate before the event. No you can't store up nuts for the winter like a squirrel, but you can be less dehydrated. If you were exuberant in the festivities the night before an event chances are you will be less hydrated. If you're not peeing clear before the event you'll be in trouble during the event.
  
• Dress appropriately. Nowadays, with high-tech fabrics and UV rated fabrics there's no excuse for wearing cotton and end up looking like a puddle at the end or during the event. Use sports specific clothing. You're better off if you wear what the athletes in your sport wear. Lighter colored fabrics do a lot to reflect the heat. UV rated fabrics although they seem hotter at first when the sun is blazing do their job very effectively. Dousing oneself with water also works to create a cooling effect.
• Avoid midday sun. Also avoid the hottest part of the day. Midday sometimes is not the hottest. You have to be aware of when the hottest is in your area. Don't be fooled by a cloudy day, that midday sun going through a soaked cloud is magnified and will do even more damage to you and your skin and your inner-core temperature. 
• Wear sunscreen. Some of the real potent sunscreens have a bit of menthol in it and actually produce a cooling effect when you wear it in the blazing sun. The only concern I have not yet solved is they tend to stain our fancy modern fabrics.
• Have a backup plan. Make sure somebody knows where you are. With social media - leaving an app open with a route is really no big deal. They also have to know where to find you and how to get there. Also have a back-up on your back-up! I have a buddy with which I have made a deal, he can call me anytime for a rescue and I can call him anytime for a rescue :-) Sometimes, that's all you have!
• Understand your medical risks. If you're taking medication that will dehydrate you, you need to beware. Talk to your doctor, inform him or her that you are an athlete and somethings will wreck havoc on your system when you are out training. Make sure when you get a new prescription for something serious that you test out your training. Recently, I was prescribed something that caused me to dehydrate. I could not do even thirty minutes of my regular routine. My doc asked me to try it for two weeks. I did for two weeks, and two weeks only. My doc is a runner, so he knew exactly what I was going through. He shrugged it off, "No big deal, let's try something else!" Love it!
• When is it an emergency?! If you get clammy, and tingly you are playing with fire and it is time to stop to rehydrate. The fire here is heat-stress. If you are cramping, with a stomach-ache, a head-ache, blurred vision or tunnel vision, then stop immediately! This is full-blown heat-exhaustion and you will be in deep kimchee if you continue. Get out of the heat, hydrate if possible, and rest while whomever you called can come to get you hopefully bringing something to drink, clothes and recovery foods etc. If you were silly enough to continue which is in-advisable, then you are within minutes of suffering heat-stroke! Heat stroke can kill you! Heat-stroke can stop your heart. If you are in heat-stroke conditions then you need to go to emergency! I've seen someone in heat-stroke, and they were taken away on a stretcher. He survived, but was out of work for a week. He was heat stress prone from then on. Just like Northerners make preparations for blizzards, Southerners make preparations for the heat!

Trying Something Different - Estoy Tratando de Hacer Algo Diferente

Aquí Estamos De Un Modo Diferente-Español

Pos como tengo amigos en varios países, yo quería compartir mis experiencias en sus idiomas. De vez de cuando voy usar Portugues o Español para escribir mi blog.  Hoy día estoy sentiendo mal  con problemas relacionados al calor y las altas temperaturas. 

Espero que realicen que cuando tenemos problemas con el calor esto causa problemas en el futuro también. La tendencia de tener problemas con calor va continuar. Acuerda también la regla de que para acostumbrarse con algo necesitas veintitres días para realizarlo. Entonces como yo estoy empezando un programa de ejercicio si ya estuviera acostumbrado a este tiempo no sería tan mal ahora. Pero porque yo tuve tantos problemas con la gripe y problemas relacionados no podría entrenar a lo normal. 

Todo esto empieza con las temperaturas porque ya a las once de la mañana las temperaturas ya están allá de los noventa grados. Mi esposa y yo cuando salimos infortunadamente, en un coche/troca que no tiene aire condicionado. Ya hemos tenído varios días en que nosotros sufrimos con calentura. Queremos estar listos para toda la caminada que vamos tener que hacer en julio. Las distancias chicas que estamos haciendo ahorita podemos acrescentar más para tener el entrenamiento suficiente cuando es necessario. 

Yo esperaba ya tener más millas hechas para estar más preparado por las millas que quiero hacer en la bici, pero con los problemas de calor es bien difícil hacer algo. El entrenador estacionario fue una bendición pero no he tenido suficiente oportunidad sin problemas de calentura para usarlo bien.

Estoy veyendo las opciones que voy tener cuando tengo tiempo y salud apropiada para hacer el trabajo en el entrenador estacionario. Me alegra mucho que mi amigo em empresto el cyclops. 

Back On the (Stationary) Horse

So today I did my first trainer ride. 0 miles 0 mph, but an hour plus of riding! I was still able to post it to Strava. Learn something new "ever day!" Felt great to get an hour in even though it was inside! Luckily for me, spinervals made cycling videos common-place. I found a bunch of stuff on YouTube! I ended up using Cycle Scenery and was riding Virtually in the Virgin Islands. Oh so cool! I did a warm-up in town. Then a trip through traffic to get out of town then a couple of other workouts one out in the flat-country and another out in the hills of the VI :-)

So many possibilities are open now, two a days, long trainers when my family is sleepin' - an exciting turn of events. Thank you God! Stay tuned for more stationary bike rides! Although, tomorrow I really want to ride outside with my Brasil jersey! Viva Spurs - Viva Brasil

Long Time No Blog - New Routine

So here it is high-time I get going with my training! The excuse for little to show for the time is an upper respiratory thing that turned in to a chest thing - rain the last few weekends before the end of the school year didn't help although there's a new advent coming up on that front. 

Strava (strava.com) tells me I have less than a thousand miles to show for the year. With two rides per week - I can't do much more. So it is time to build. Planning on building on the MTB mountain bike rather than doing a bunch of junk flat miles on the TT rig or the Goat. If I can add any commuter type miles I'm game on the Muddy Fox, thinking of putting the baskets on so I can take it to the store also for more base miles since I'm about 700 miles shy to start serious training with intervals and such. It did kill me to dns (did not show) on rides like the wildflower - but I couldn't see showing up shelling out sans training. It was the right thing to do. 

So just now we arrived home, it is the beginning of June and it is time to be out in nature like I love to be, but I can't because of the temps (temperatures). In order to be safe from the heat in the Summer I have limited myself to no rides after eleven or after it's reached 90° degrees. So here I am blogging instead :-)

So why is the heat on my mind, no not because I want my Spurs to kick their butts tonight in Miami, but because yesterday we had a packed and stressful day with issues with Pop (father-in-law) and issues with my check-out at school. Did I expect to have heat issues? Nope! But I did! I do have to remember once you have issues with heat you will have issues again. I couldn't pin down exactly what happened, but there was a lot of sweating going-on! 

So the new advent with the rain, is that Mike from church has a trainer sitting in a closet, and he's perfectly willing to let me get some use out of it. I look forward to getting some indoor miles done when rain does not allow or I'm prudent and satying out of the heat. A ride folloeing one of those beautiful scapes on computer would be cool to do.

Look forward to writing some more this Summer!

Getting Back on the Horse

"Look: I’m not one of those people who names my bikes, or believes they have souls. I know a bicycle isn’t going to miss me. I don’t cotton to totems. What memories I cherish tend toward experience rather than possession. I know we’re not talking here about life or death or war or crime or love or family or truth or faith or any such thing fundamental to who and what we as a species are. I know all we’re talking about is bicycles."

by Bill Strickland, Editor-at-large Bicycling Magazine quote from FB post.

Actually it is apparent that I do name my bikes, Litespeed: Goat because of the tripple on it, the Black Caloi Strada Pro: Black Knight, MTB: MuddyFox but then it is named the MuddyFox Limited Edition. But I love what this quote says after about souls. I agree bikes don't have souls, but they do have personality characteristics :-) Litespeed nimble and quick, the Caloi built for the long run, and the MuddyFox indistructible. The experience is more important than the posession. Experience attained on a certain machine to a certain level perhaps not to be attained again in the near future. No it's not life and death or war or crime or love or family or truth or faith or these important priorities in our lives, but to me it is about what we can attain in order to maintain health and living