Now What?! Oh yea, training....

It's definitely been awhile since I've updated a post. Been super busy, so I have an excuse. I just finished my 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training, and am now a registered yoga teacher. I will teach my first class next Wednesday at the local bouldering gym. I plan to host some free classes at the clinic for patients and offer one-on-one classes as soon as I find a space. I am also enrolled in the advanced Teacher Training extensions program which starts tomorrow, but it is only 8 weeks long and once a week. I am also talking with a local bike shop about co-sponsoring a cycling team. So far it is an all male team, but I'm trying to change that. The practice is getting busy, I have recently joined a few more insurance panels and have been receiving quite a few MD referals.
Now that I am done with the intense yoga program, I can bring my focus back to training for cycling this year. Training resumes today. If it would just stop being so damn cold and not appealing to ride!

Back in the saddle

Well, I'm back. Thank god for that because I was going NUTS! I think I was driving everyone else nuts too! Forced myself to take it easy, did my rehab exercises, treated myself at the clinic and I think I licked the knee issue. Basically what happened is I sat on my butt for too long, trudged around in boots with no arch support and then went to the bouldering gym and kept jumping down the problems instead of down climbing them. I am a huge pronator, so the knees were already angry from spending so much time in shoes with no support and the jumping gave me an acute case of jumpers knee, in BOTH knees. I treated them with massage, muscle stim, ultra sound and kinesio tape. Oh, and LOTS of hot baths in epson salt. Went for a ride Thursday, the IT band was a bit tight so I felt a little pain on the outside of my knee, but the problem area (pes anserine bursa) felt good on both knees. Yea! Did some inverted bicycles when I got home to pump out any inflamation and put stim on both knees when I got to the clinic. Kinesio tape to allow the tissue to drain from any residual inflamation. And now, they are BACK! I also ordered some orthotics. Two reasons, one to stop the pronation when I walk, and two becasue studies have shown that people who cycle and pronate actually put out more power per stroke if they have orthotics in their bike shoes. So, going on a group ride today and I am pretty confident that I can FINALLY start my training for the year.

NOOOOOOO!!!!!

Dangit dangit dangit! My damn knees are hurting again. I thought maybe, just maybe that I would get off easy with this one. Nope.. After my ride on Tuesday they were a little achey, and then yesterday they were definetely worse. So, I guess the now I will just have to suck it up and rest until they are totally 100% so I don't have to deal with this issue all season long. Sucks tho because I see everyone else out there training and I'm just sitting on the couch playing the stupid xbox wishing I could be out riding. Sooo frustrating! I've been treating myself in the clinic every other day and that is helping, I will start doing some re-hab strengthening exercises next week and hopefully (HOPEFULLY) I will be back on the bike in two weeks. Some serious cabin fever here....

First training ride!

Did the first "base" training ride of the year today. I forgot how boring it is keeping your heart rate low. I had a head wind right off the get-go and had to peddle sloooooowly...painfully sloooooooow. I really had to stay focused to keep the pace in my base training range, especially after training at such high intensity for cross. Felt pretty good tho. Did about and hour and a half on the bike and will be doing some hot yoga tonight. The knee didn't trouble me too much. I noticed if I really focus on my peddle stroke and don't get sloppy I feel less pain under the knee cap. The yoga tonight will really help the knee too. Last year I ended up building up some scar tissue and just got "tight" all over. My goal this year is to do Yoga at least 2x per week to really keep limber. I was off the bike for a couple months really focusing on getting my range of motion back in my hips and shoulders.

Training starts today: Updates to follow.

Going out for my first training ride in, oh I'd say at least 1 and a half months. Probably the longest "rest" I've ever taken between seasons. I sure needed it though. With cross this year, it was a long season for me. The typical downhill season is June through September. I raced from early March to November this year. I came to the point where I didn't even want to ride my bike. I had to "ground" myself from the bike until I actually wanted to ride it again. Well, today is crappy and dark and I could have slept in, but instead I am tuning up the training bike and going for a ride.

Not just top 5, but top 3!!

Well I was striving for top 5 this weekend, and I made it! I ended up 3rd! It was a great race, and a very lucky race! Portland finally showed us what it's famous for...lots of rain and mud. The course was at Barton park in Estacada Oregon. It's a nice little picnic area on the Clackamas river. Most of the course wound it's way through a gravel pit above the park, and then wound into the paved parking area. I wasn't sure how I would do in this race. There was quite a bit of all out sprinting and not too much technical stuff. Plus it was my first muddy cross race. We had a nice clearing in the rain for our start. Had a pretty good warm up, and we didn't have to wait at the start line for too long. I had a decent start, not amazing, but definetly not as bad as usual. I'm finally learning some of the tactics. I hung out in about 7th for the first lap, then passed a couple people on one of the open paved sprint sections. For the next 3 laps I battled back and forth from 4th to 7th. The last lap was the lucky part of the race. There was one run up that was actually rideable if you got a good run at it and no one was in your way. I was hanging out in 3rd or 4th and was accelerating up to the little hill to ride up it, right as I got to the bottom, two other girls were off their bikes getting ready to run up it and just converged on my line. Bummer, I jump off my bike totally expecting the other A women (who were smart and took it wide) to pass me on the outside while I ran up behind the two beginner women. Well, by some dumb luck, the girls moved over enough to let me through the inside line and I ended up on top in front of the other girls in my class. I held my spot to the next area where the clusters usually happened. It was rideable, but only if you had a clean line. One of the girls I was battling with, came up on my outside and I had a beginner girl in front of me on the inside. So, jump off my bike to run around, fully expecting to get passed. Once again, the "waters parted" and I ran right through and was still in front of the pack. It was the last lap, with only an open sprint and one more barrier to the finish. I gave it what I had, hoping the other girls were suffering like I was. Came up to the last barrier (it was HUGE by the way)

jumped over it, got back on my bike neck and neck with 4th place. We were both struggling to get back in our peddles with the finish line only 25 feet away.

By pure luck I got into my peddles just before she did and secured my 3rd place finish. Tons of fun! Although I'm still picking dirt out of my eyes. Next weekend, PIR.

Can you tell I'm a downhiller??

Top 10!!

Broke into the top ten this weekend. Almost broke into the top 5, but alas, I got 6th on sunday. So close....no cigar. The race on Sunday was super fun. Felt waaaay better than I did on Saturday. Full nights' sleep, lots of good food and plenty of water. My teammate Carrie, and I dressed up as cats for the race.

I wasn't sure how dressed up people got, so I kept mine right in the middle. People got waaaay dressed up! Lots of male cheerleaders, TRON, a couple Sarah Palins, a teenage mutant ninja turtle, the cast of Team America, and a whole bunch more I can't mention.
They used pretty much the same course on Sunday as they did on Saturday, they just flipped it around. There were two semi decent climbs in the course on Sunday. I always thought climbing was my weakness, but I felt strong and was able to pass people on the climbs. Now, jumping off my bike and getting my 30" inseam legs to jump over 24" barriers, THAT is my weakness. I pretty much suck at that. I spent all this week practicing mounts and dismounts. I'm getting better, but I could still be waaay faster. The barriers is where I got passed. Then I would have to power it to catch up. Tomorrow is the Barton park race. I hear it's pretty much gravel and sand, not too much mud, which is good because it started raining here. My goal for the next 3 cross crusade races it to break into the top 5. I'm pretty sure I can stay in the top 10, but the top 5 is gonna be hard.