Doc says "you screwed up...again"

Friday, September 03, 2010

I’d written to my hip doc about having some pain from the hill workout I’d done yesterday, which I’d described to him and he wrote back that basically, I was a running idiot to try a rigorous hill workout when I hadn’t been running and was coming off of a stress fracture. Really? Me…making a bad training decision? Since I knew that couldn’t be the case, I wondered what I should do next about this crummy hip thing. I really had thought the uphill running would be the best way to try out the hip…but apparently the doc didn’t concur. Oh well…

With all else being ruled out, I boarded the bike and headed for the ‘Iron Lung’. I needed a longer ride and Pekin Road is the answer. The wind was blowing hard…actually a tail wind…but that meant the further I went, the harder the return ride would be. Still, I knew I needed a good one and had some time before dark so I decided on two hours. I was looking more closely for strange animals (Kim commented that she’s seen the camel, as well). I did not want to run over any more ground hogs. They’re dumb, but I’ve kind of had a soft spot in my heart for them since ‘Caddyshack’.

I rode out Pekin to Auburn Road. There’s large, open field at the top of a little rise on Pekin just before Auburn with a barn in the distance. The sky was blue and speckled with white clouds and I couldn’t resist the urge to get off the bike and sit in the grass for a while. I’m finding that taking the time to enjoy these little things, something I would have never considered in my younger days, makes training so much more interesting. After all, I’m doing the training to stay fit and stopping after an hour’s ride for a serenity break when I’m going to be riding another hour does nothing to diminish the training, but everything to make me want to do it again…and isn’t that the point? I’ve been preaching about ‘enjoying the journey’ to those that I’ve coached and I need to do more of that, too. I’ve found myself hurrying down trails in the Adirondacks…having to ‘get there’ as if what I’m passing through wasn’t worthy of my attention. And at my age…my body appreciates a little more of the ‘take your time…there’s no fire’ approach.

The head wind was fierce on the return trip, but the time spent enjoying the sky, fields, insects and quiet seemed to have had a positive effect and I was okay with it (normally I’d curse the wind at least once…just to let it know that I know it’s blowing in my face only to annoy me). I made it back in a little less than an hour…a negative split, but that’s mostly because there is more downhill on the return. I’m still glad I tried out the hip, but I now know that it’s cycling and kayaking until after the Adirondack trip.

Bike duration: Two hours.
Training Heart Rate: 120.
Calories burned during workout: 1,800.