It’s been a pretty good week here in triathlon training land: 3 strength sessions with core work, 2 swims, three runs, and a bike. In an ideal week I would have one or two more bike sessions with a short run off one of the bikes. However, I’m being most cautious with my bike work right now. My main goal at the moment is conditioning myself for a half marathon in April. My plan is to keep the biking light until closer to the end of that race cycle. My bike last weekend went OK, but my knee felt slightly tweaked afterwards. Since the bike irritates the knee more than any of the other sports, I’m going to lay low and keep working on my PT exercises to get the leg stronger.
Last night I graduated from PT. Both my knee and shoulder are strong enough to work on them by myself. I’m doing a lot of single leg work to get my knee in shape, and that is one hell of a workout. It’s basically body weight squats and multidirectional lunges to get everything moving the way it should. It’s way tougher than it sounds, and my quad aches at the end of the exercise. The other really fun one is putting an elastic band around my ankles, bending down in a half squat and shuffling across the room two or three times. I’ve worked my way up to the least elastic band, and my glutes are absolutely spent after a few trips.
Overall, I’m feeling pretty positive right now. This is the most work I’ve been able to do since the tri season ended last October. With the bike being my favorite sport, it’s tough not to spend more time training right now. Especially since I added my fly Zipp wheelset a few weeks ago. Looking on the bright side, it’s still cold enough where rides aren’t exactly fun yet. I’m just going to keep plugging away, and aim to get better every week.
