6 week update

It's been a few weeks since I've updated my progress. For the most part, things are going well. As a matter of fact I am in NYC right now celebrating my birthday and I am thinking about going for a run, except it's freezing and I don't have pants. I'm up to 85% comfortably on the AlterG treadmill in PT. I actually ran at 100% for a couple minutes the other day just to see. The knee felt pretty good but oddly, I feel like I am heavier than 100% when I run on the AlterG at 100%. Maybe its the device and where it sits on me that I am holding up the device. I have to run with it pretty low on my hips as it kills my internal organs pushing against my stomach. So when I try to run to my mailbox or something like that, I actually feel lighter than running on the AlterG. So I'm running at about 7mph on the treadmill. Not really concerned about the speed. I can run comfortable at 8.5 if I want to but I noticed that I was pounding down harder on the treadmill and speed is not important right now, getting the weight back is. I am turning out to be a very lucky MFX patient I think. Given the odd location and the small size of the lesion, I am recovering about 100x's faster than most that have had this surgery. My injury was 1.2cm and it's on the back (posterior) of my outside (lateral) femoral condyle. So it doesn't really make contact during weight bearing exercises. The only time I make contact is when I try to squat. Still doesn't hurt then though because there is no gravitational pressure on the injury.

From a bike standpoint, things are coming back. I'm still a bit down from where I was but my power profile is moving back up. I'm into the Cat4 range now for 20 minute power and getting close to Cat3 for 5 minute power. I should get back to Cat2 for 5 minute power and mid to upper Cat3 for 20 minute and 60 minute power.

The other point, is that these are numbers off the trainer. On the road I'm about 10-15% higher on the road than I am on the trainer. It's not a cooling issue for me. I think I'm paranoid about breaking my bike so I don't move around as much on the trainer as I do on the road. I stand up and crank going up hills and push harder when I'm on the road and I don't do as much on the trainer. The weather should be breaking soon so I should be able to get out to Indian Springs and do a real FTP test. Indian Springs has an 8 mile paved loop that is basically flat and it's the perfect place for an FTP test. Last year I was at 4.38w/kg FTP, this year should be higher. I am putting a much larger focus in cycling with all the mountain bike racing I am doing this year. I am following a plan from Curt Wilhelm for 100 mile mtb racing. The plan goes up to about 15 hours a week in just cycling. I am going to integrate swimming and running into the plan too but I will be mostly bike focused. I'm not planning on even breaking double digits on the run for a while and I swim in the mornings before work so it won't impact the bike training. At this point I'm signed up for 2 100 mile mtb races. They are 3 weeks apart so the timing should work well.

I'm extremely happy about the fact that I will be racing Xterra for sure now and that I will racing in May. My wife and I are planning a road trip to the nationals in Ogden, UT. We're going to drive and take our 2 Siberian Huskies. So I've updated my race schedule to reflect some of the changes of for the season. My first race is going to be a gravel road race on March 24th. I'm looking forward to this race. It's sponsored by my favorite beer company Founders so I am looking forward to the post race festivities. Luckily for me I live in the country so I have access to a lot of gravel roads to train on. I really like riding the gravel roads. You can still ride fast and who doesn't like getting dirty!

Swimming is the sore point for me. Not that I am not swimming ok, but I'm just not motivated to do it. I'm swimming maybe twice a week if I'm lucky. My pace and endurance is fine though so I'm not sure if I'm going to put much more focus on it. The longest swim I will do is in September and it's only a 1500. The other Xterra races I'm doing are only 800m swims. I did a 1000y warm up the other day and it took 14:05 so 800 is probably around 11 minutes so that should be fine for the short Xterra races. I may race an Olympic on an off weekend but I'm not really worried about 1500m swim. If I was doing IM, then I'd have to put more focus on the swim. Big difference between 800 and 3800m.

Well off to the city to enjoy the last day here in NYC. Talk to you later.