Life in slow motion is beginning to speed up. It’s been a waiting game for 5 weeks, but one day this week I got up and couldn’t feel the repaired collarbone anymore. Wow, just like that. Amazing. On the flip side, the repaired muscles don’t work so well and spasm all the time. But hey, talk about improvement…in the last few days I’ve put on t-shirts, pullover sweaters, and scratched my left ear with my left hand. It is difficult to put into words the pleasure these simple tasks give…healthy folks take a lot for granted. My eyes are wide open now.
I’ve been able to get on the trainer a few times. At first it was on the road bike with the bars upside down with the drops facing me – I was nearly straight upright. That was hard on the butt, so I waited a few more days until I could get on the Dos in this setup. Note the riser bars facing the saddle, stem as high as it gets. Completely opposite from my usual setup, but hey it works.
I’m using a Tacx basic electonically braked trainer with the PT. Hard to tell where FT is, but I think it is about 80% of what it was 2 months ago. Ouch. But damn am I ever fresh. CTL is still about 60.
My surgeon is THE MAN. He fixed a lot of stuff and enabled a normal existence…I’d be out for many more months without him, and never the same again.
I am really stoked for the ’07 season. Still unsure of what I’ll target, but lots of ideas are floating in the cranium. The accident won’t likely affect any event other than OP. I’ll still likely do it, but with different goals.
There’s been a lot of downtime in the last 5 weeks. I’ve let my inquisitiveness take over for awhile and researched a few topics that caught my interest. Here’s a sampling…
Heart rate variability (HRV) is fascinating. I’m trying to learn how it may be linked to performance, or more accurately, fitness & stress/training load. Despite how powerful the PMC stuff is, there are times when at high CTL and TSB I feel great, other times not so great at the same values. PMC is a model; I’m looking for direct measurement. Of what I don’t know ;) But I’ve been aware of HRV for many years, and can sense that when high it’s to be a good day. Suunto has based their T6 HRM on HRV and EPOC and developed a training software similar in concept to the Performance Manager. Unfortunately, the watch doens’t give direct HRV measurement. At $300+, that’s a deal killer…not to mention the fact that HR is so variable as to make the whole concept useless for me anyway.
I’ve also taken a close look at diet. One of the keys IMO to developing is the understanding that nothing is static. This is a prime example. Here’s a big picture view of my diet over the last week:
Now compare to a period in early ’04. Talk about changes! I’ve been keenly aware of changing metabolic needs that past few years but wanted to quantify it. More on this in time…
Signing out.