That’s a picture of my leg the day I had the hard cast removed back in late January.

Not much to post today except for a an update that the 28 day period ending yesterday (3rd “month” of 2010), was the biggest 3rd “month” I’ve done on the bike since the purchase of my powermeter TSS/kJ wise.  So that was really exciting to see.  I was very surprised by that fact also.

Otherwise – pretty uneventful, last week I racked up 14 hours, 45 minutes of training.  3 swims, 9.25 hours on the bike (including a 3 hour ride on Sunday), and 2.5 hours of serious walking/aqua jogging.

This week I am going to aim for 16+ hours, and more aqua jogging and less walking.  As long as things progress well I’m going to give running a try on 3/30.

The update on my foot from this last Dr. appointment is that the fracture is still not fully healed, but the Dr. believes it to be stable enough to start a progression to full activity.

That means walking in tennis shoes, riding normally, and a 2 week or so progression towards running.  The next appointment is April 7 – let’s hope that healing continues even with the added stress.

Initially, I was a bit disappointed with the appointment.  Having the fracture not fully healed was a big bummer, but honestly it could be worse and progress is still being made.

A more pleasant surprise is the threshold test I did last night.  The test was 2×20′ (2′) – and I used the Normalized power of all 42 minutes as my threshold.  The result was 255 – a number I’m pretty happy with especially consider how conservatively I approached the first 20 minutes.  I averaged 247 and 268.  Given that I had guesstimated my FTP when I started riding again at around 240, that’s a decent improvement, although 100% arbitrary.

Will be doing a test again in a few weeks and/or see how Saint Anthonys goes.

I’m thinking that I will do one quality ride each week, on a 6 week rotation

•  
  •  2×20 (2′)
  • Spinervals Timetrialpalooza – 20′ (5′), 15′ (5′), 10′ (5′), 5′  starting at FTP and building each interval
  • Spinervals Totally Time Trial – 4×15′ (2′) FTP
  • Spinervals Time Trial Special – a stupid hard ladder
  • 2×20 (4′)
  • Spinervals Threshold Test and Sufferfest – 1×20 with a couple hard burn off efforts before.

Swimming is also progressing nicely.  Am doing most repeats on a 1:35 base (SCM).  I’m starting to come in fast enough that I may be able to move up to 1:30 base next week.  Right now I haven’t done anything over a 300, but next week I will probably do some 400′s – and will probably add a swim on Monday buiding towards LONG repeats.

Alls good.

Well it’s the middle of March and I’m just getting around to putting the final touches on the season plan.  I’ve really delayed doing this because I wanted to focus more on healing my foot – rather than freaking out because it’s not healing fast enough and I’m missing all sorts of training.

The good news is, my next Dr. appointment is in 5 days – and I’m pretty confident I will get the green light to move forward with normal activity.

The bad news is – I haven’t run since November 7th and  I haven’t walked normally since December 14th – in fact I have only been “walking” for about 3.5 weeks; I don’t exactly expect to be able to run on Day 1 (whenever that is).  In fact I’m a bit frightened of running at this point – I have a mental block or two to get over and rebuild my faith and confidence in my foot.  Additional bad news is – I didn’t live up to my expectations of recovery, nutritional habits, etc during this period – so I’m starting from a bit behind where I had hoped.

As for goals this year pretty simple really:

One, no unplanned zero’s – I think that’s pretty self explanatory and straight forward.

Two, run the entire marathon at Ironman Wisconsin.

Three, stay true to the plan.

Four, resist goal inflation.

I was fortunate enough to be invited back as a member Team Gear-Grinder, so I will be racing for them again this year.  I really enjoyed my experienece on the team last year, and look forward to this year again.

Finally, I’ve also finalized my race schedule for this year – there may be a few additions depending on team races that Gear-Grinder participates in, but beyond those I’ll be doing Saint Anthony’s, Triple-T Ohio, Ironman Racine 70.3 (I decided against Door County simple because of the travel and hotel costs; plus Mary preferred it), Pigman, and Ironman Wisconsin.

Depending on luck, I may be doing the Cheq 40 – and if I get impulsive/stupid, I may sign up for an October Marathon.

That’s about it, this year is definately going to be about the journey – and I’m looking forward to it like none other.