Last week was messy. Some ups, a few downs. Lots of patience-trying time, some patient time.
Twisted my ankle running on Monday (#OOPS). Just stupid, really.
Tuesday was an all-out 5 minute bike test. Looking at my pacing lately, I was worried that I might start out too hard and get just be spent 3 minutes into it, so I just tried to cruise along at a steady state. I think this worked out pretty well, and I was up 13W over my last test.
Wednesday was shot as my ankle was quite sore. The two times I’ve gotten “significantly” hurt (which is really wrong of me to say as I’ve never been significantly hurt) it’s been because I’ve adjusted my gait to compensate for a minor injury (sprained foot in a half marathon due to a blister on the opposite foot, tweaked knee due to a blister on my toe). So I’m treading (ha) carefully with this one. I was supposed to bike as well on Wednesday but a coworker was leaving so I decided to get drinks with a bunch of friends/coworkers.
Thursday was surgery/biketest #2 day. Surgery was pretty painless (thanks to novocaine), but left my looking like a pirate and feeling a bit drunk for the rest of the week (though not for reasons you think). See, because the surgery was on my eyelid, I was told I should wear contacts until this week. Well, my glasses are in a state of disrepair and not for public consumption, so I was going around town with one eye at 20/20 and the other at 20/?! Made for some fun interactions and always being surprised from the left.
This photo is rated arr.
Bike test #2 was the more… testing of the two. 20 minutes of all out. I was using the middle of the Get Psyched playlist for this one (the early songs are for waking up). Again, this is all about pacing. I started out at a level I thought I could sustain, but after 5 minutes I knew it would have to be lower. Ended up with 257W. A modest improvement over last time, but still not as good as I want to be.
Friday came around and I was pretty psyched. I’d been waiting for the final piece of my Normatec boots to arrive, and so decided I would work from home until they did, then go into work, swim, and run in the RACE 5K Summer Series race. Number of these things that happened? 2. 2 out of 5. Apparently, FedEx either doesn’t believe that I live where I live, or thinks that it’s just too hard to deliver things to me. No matter. Ran over to the 5K, forgot to poop, and lined up. It’s a small race, so I know that I can get away starting with the leaders. The horn sounded and we took off at what felt like a rather relaxed pace. Heard Ally cheer for me (though it was hard to take my focus off the ground with only one good eye), and was tempted to stop at the portapotties as we ran past them. I didn’t. Around mile 1 I was passed for second place, but I the pace still felt comfortable (even if my stomach did not). Alain would ride by, tell me I was running smart, and then continue up the course. I even pulled back a little as I couldn’t see fourth place behind me and I knew I couldn’t catch second place. In the end, I had a 25 second PR, my first sub-6:00/pace 5K and almost broke the 18:00 barrier (#7seconds). Makes me wonder about what I could have done without the #pOOPS and if I had kicked it til the end.
Photo courtesy of Ally Reilly
