Road to recovery

fat and slow

This is a log of my recovery from injury. I Dislocated my left knee cap and tore my retinaculum ligament, playing hurling 4 weeks ago. ultimate goal is to fully recover from this set back and here are my recovery goals.

1; rebuild leg strength first to 90% of my right leg, then ultimately to 100% doing one leg exercises( squats, leg &hamstring curls, calf raises &lunges)
2; run freely without pain, progress from a slow 3k to a 40 min 10k
3; work on speed agility and quickness, so I can return hurling
4; compete in howth olympic plus triathlon
5; improve range of motion in my knee so i can kick my ass again.
6; compete in interclub timetrials league races and return to my pre injury times and fitness levels before the end of the season

fat and slow

day 1 of training log,

Ran 3k with my friend this morning at a slow pace. leg held up ok.
Flexibility raised my heel to my ass for the first time since the injury.

10mile tt tomorrow. Preparation has been minimal apart from some longish hill climbs. Decided on a time I would like to complete it in (29mins or average pace of 33kmph ). I have a heart rate range or effort level of between (175 and 185), and I have race strategy;do first 3k at my average race pace 33kmph, then for the next 10k keep my heart rate in the above range, for the last 3k finish strong.

BUACHAILL

Good luck on your road to recovery. May it be a speedy one !!

fat and slow

time trial complete, 28mins average speed 34.4 kmph time 28mins heart rate average 183. Did well happy with the time and effort. Allthough i sprinted the last 300m. Should have ridden last 2k faster.

I left it way too late to get out there and just made the sign on so I was the second last rider to go on the night. It suited me because i was goosed and I had 50 mins to recover from my cycle out before the start. conditions were very windy and wet. Bod y is tired this morn.
Will post segments soon.

fat and slow

Progress report Fri cycle to gym & gym session. Sat slow recovery cycle to howth 25km. sun hurling training, mon gym session with swim & aqua jogging

Left leg strength is now 85% of my right leg strength. but still find it hard to turn quickly and go down stairs. championship hurling match is next fri, doubts about whether I can play or not. I'll try my best and give a sparing effort on the thurs club league race.

http://app.strava.com/rides/10872566 ; ten mile time trial.
http://app.strava.com/rides/10872576 ; cycle out to tt with tailwind all the way.
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=82031 Finally put new wheels on my bike. They look, feel and sound good, the colour matches my black and red trek.

fat and slow

sally gap club race; limit group worked really well together:), did some work up the front, got dropped by the group on the penultimate climb but struggled on, then the main group of sl/s/ss passed me out, couldn't cling on to that either. I felt like turning around and heading home at that stage. huge respect for the limit group especially the 5limit guys that stayed in front.

new temporary goals to work at for the next four weeks.
work at hill climbing, m50 to top of ticknock in 16mins. top 5limit placing for hillclimb, 25mile tt and sallygap round 2.

i'll try and do some of this up hills;
http://www.training4cyclists.com/how-to-increase-your-vo2-max-in-14-days-vo2-max-test/

fat and slow

0 extra cycling training. Fri hurling match, played terrible, my left leg is a long way off being recovered for impact sports, howth triathlon is out, or maybe just the run part of it. Struggled through 1 half of hurling then came off. Felt very sore on saturday so i booked myself in for more physio on tues, Tbh the physio says i'm about 6weeks off returning to hurling.

I'm taking it easier now and am light sea and pool swimming (sun mon, wed and hopefully today thurs) Club race tonight DMS, (not attacking or working tonight)

fat and slow

Where did all the limit riders go? or why were there two riders capable of holding off a semilimit group on their own in our limit group?

Race started fast, 12/15 in the group working for the first part of the lap, then then 8/12 riders worked for the next while (3 got dropped). At the first left hand turn about 8 riders were left then there was only 6 bythe next left hand turn heading back towards mullagh, At mullagh 5 were left, me (ucd) two from orwell and two from usher.. all the other limit riders sensibly quit at the end of the first lap. for the rest of the race each group member worked to our max capaticty; (orwell #1 trek 1.2 bike )did 35% of the work, usher #1 did a 20% and orwell2, usher2 and me did 15% each. I got dropped on the back stretch before taking the left hand turn that brings you back towards mullagh. was the 5th strongest limit rider. but completely blew up and struggled to get back to batterstown. Thank you brian sl from orwell, for the lifft home.

(Orwell #1 trek bike) deserves a promotion straight to semi scratch for that effort and usher #1 deserves his promotion as well. I'd take my chances against the other 2again. Phillosophy of the limit group at the mo is work together, fastest remain, destroy weaklings and group way before the end of race. At least in the sl group, a group generally remains by the end of race.

fat and slow

club race, and some training in howth; http://app.strava.com/rides/12273375
http://app.strava.com/rides/12273388

Lumen

fat and slow wrote: »

Where did all the limit riders go? or why were there two riders capable of holding off a semilimit group on their own in our limit group?

Race started fast, 12/15 in the group working for the first part of the lap, then then 8/12 riders worked for the next while (3 got dropped). At the first left hand turn about 8 riders were left then there was only 6 bythe next left hand turn heading back towards mullagh, At mullagh 5 were left, me (ucd) two from orwell and two from usher.. all the other limit riders sensibly quit at the end of the first lap. for the rest of the race each group member worked to our max capaticty; (orwell #1 trek 1.2 bike )did 35% of the work, usher #1 did a 20% and orwell2, usher2 and me did 15% each. I got dropped on the back stretch before taking the left hand turn that brings you back towards mullagh. was the 5th strongest limit rider. but completely blew up and struggled to get back to batterstown. Thank you brian sl from orwell, for the lifft home.

(Orwell #1 trek bike) deserves a promotion straight to semi scratch for that effort and usher #1 deserves his promotion as well. I'd take my chances against the other 2again. Phillosophy of the limit group at the mo is work together, fastest remain, destroy weaklings and group way before the end of race. At least in the sl group, a group generally remains by the end of race.

Just found your log.

Interesting to read this from the perspective of a semi-limiter in the same league. In that race limit were given five minutes and then actually gained another 30 seconds or so during that 70km or whatever it was.

Week after week we fail to catch you guys in limit, and most of the race we spend moaning to each other about people that are too slow/fast/won't work/work too much in the group. We're hopeless!

Meanwhile you're all killing yourselves (and each other) to stay away. Fair play!

Promoting people out of limit to slow it down is one "solution", but equally a bunch of people could be demoted out of semi-limit to speed it up.

Anyway, if you're at risk of blowing up you can always drop off and jump on to semi-limit if you fancy the sprint for the minor placings.

fat and slow

We're only recently working well as a group. Sally gap was the first time we did consistent up and overs, I helped to start it off. Last time at batterstown we did up and overs and eventually we did single file rotations front to back. Untill then when the up and overs broke down we were doing single file but the back rider would ride to the front then take over at the front. I had get the group to change our rotation method in the race. It's just the difference in strenght between riders is greater in the limit group and it's causing some splits. I'll stick it out in Limit till i'm promoted.

fat and slow

I felt the hill climb went terrible, missed my start time, pushed too hard early on trying to make up for my late start. Got passed by best limit rider early on, never reached anywhere near my goal time of 17mins. finished 5/12 limit riders.

Club league race last night was fun. I was in the limit group, we were caught by sl after 1st lap. Stayed with this bunch till the end. Missed the break of ss riders that went straight through.
Training has been going ok, cycling consistently 3 times per week, normaly sat, tues thurs. My knee has improved and it didn't feel sore after the last two club races. I have more physio next mon and then i should be able to get back to running soon.

fat and slow

another progress update. got the all clear from my physio to start jogging 20mins every second day. I still have to do lots of circuits. He reckons 1000, 1 leg squats, squatting 1 stair step down would help. Thats approx 5 sets of 10, twice a day for 10 days.

Some recent good cycling performaces.
http://app.strava.com/rides/13539765 club league race on thurs http://app.strava.com/rides/13294752 hill climb at ticknock all time pr on fri.
beat my old time from last season by 40 secs. That's one thing off my goal list. It also shows how I uderperfomed at the club league two weeks ago or was not prepared for it.

Time trial on thurs 40km I hope it's not wet again.

fat and slow

1 hr 6 min 1 sec official time for 25mile tt. http://app.strava.com/rides/15484513 this earned me a promotion up to semi limit, thrilled with this result, it's a faster average pace then my 10mile tt by 2.6kmph.
Thank you wiggle for sending me tt bars on the day of the tt. They worked great but I nearly pulled up after 33km on the hill section, i got a really tight left hamstring, so i rolled for a while, then unclipped my left leg, and cycled with my right leg. Then I began cycling with two legs after a while again. With 5k to go I was cycling fine again, so there was only really two kilometers where I suffered and thought about stopping. I never pushed my seat forward for the bike set up. I wasn't use to the bars but overall they helped a lot.

I was away on holls last wk and this week i've a hurling match on thursday so i'm missing out on club racing for two weeks. Feeling good overall and I may actually be able to contribrute something in the match this time round

Gallant_JJ

Hey, just found your blog. Very interesting reading, dislocated my right knee cap and tore my retinaculum ligament, playing football. Keep up the good work. Was it 4weeks before you started doing any recovery work? Only did mine a week ago, but my Physio reccomended I get back on the bike if it feels ok. It feels ok but I'm kinda nervous so soon after.

fat and slow

Ya it was about four weeks. my physio progression went like this. 3weeks rest,

physio with first physiotherapist. He recommeded advanced excercises. so I tried these, squats, 1 leg lunges and leg presses and leg curls whilst doing swimming and cycyling.
so i tried these for three weeks but they were too advanced and I didn't progress enough so I switched physio.

He got me to do week 1; muscle contractions( lying on back, leg straight, contract the vmo muscle, bring the knee as close to the floor as possible, then raise the leg 2inches keeping it straight hold then lower), 1 leg side step ups & down off low step, foot parallel to edge, slowly lower and raise good leg to floor, pushing through the heel of bad leg. slow controlled leg curls with elastic bands.

next week, as above added leg presses high reps 14 with low weight and controlled movements, push out quickly, slowly contract back, hold at squatted position for two seconds position then repeat.

Also added a balance excercise, balance on one foot for a min and lunges.

week three added squatting on a declined ramp, feet lower than ankles.

week four, same as above suggested jogging 20mins every second day. added hopping on one foot as well. work loads were higher and weights heavier, and the step downs were off a higher step,

week five, is this week, nearly have the all clear. I Got through my hurling match last thursday ok, so I'm effectively back. But I need to do some more work. I'll probably go back to the physio once more.
pm me if you wan't any advice on excercises

fat and slow

physio is officially over. diagnosis; 'you're not perfect, the clicking and grating your feeling is because your knee is not tracking straight, but by maintaining and improving your quad and vmo muscle you should be fine'

nothing left to train for tho, I'm banned from interclub, I forgot to marshall two weeks ago because I had a hurling match on.

slightly miffed, as i just got promoted to sl and got a new bike, and I wont get to race till next year.

The ban motivated me to do lots of training last wkend, fri; dundrum kilmashogue lane, sally gap, roundwood enniskerry, dundrum

Sat cheated and drove to laragh, laragh- wicklow gap,- baltinglas, slieve man, shay elliot. Great cycle, and great hills did them all for the first time. distance 85kmph average moving pace 22kmph, vertical ascent 1400m

http://app.strava.com/rides/18603323 http://app.strava.com/rides/18603324 http://app.strava.com/rides/18603314

fat and slow

I got a new bike as well; http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=79665183 the new bike feels good and is very light.

The new bike is a standard crankset 53-39, so i decided to get a new cassette for it, a 10speed 12 -27 and chain from crc 47% off at the minute. It should help a little on the steep climbs. I had a choice of 11-28 or 12-27 didn't get the 11-28 because I don't have the power to utilise the 11 gear, and the gears of 12-27 are closer http://sheldonbrown.com/k10.shtml

Having a 2kg, lighter bike (7.8 versus 9.8kg) is a big incentive to use the bike more often and to lose 2kg bodyweight as well. Doubling the total weight decrease.

last weekend's training was done on the old bike which is a triple, but i consciously didn't use the granny ring at all, except for kilmashogue, to be fair i rarely did use it anyway so i should progress fine to the new bike.

fullspeedahead 123GO

Hey Fat and Slow, did I meet you in Lanzarote during my intense summer training? I think I met you on the 152 km trail at the peak of the volcano, we were chatting about your recovery process, if that was you. Keep up the good work man, Good luck with the slick bike, Im doing some HIT training on kilmashogue lane next week if you want to join in send me a pm. (FSA)

fat and slow

final club league race
was still banned for this race, so i decided to ride at the back of the sl group instead of the limit group. I didn't want to influence the race while banned.

got around the first lap fine when scratch caught us hung in for a while eventually got dropped but hung in longer than most. i'm really happy with the new bike http://app.strava.com/rides/19653916

nothing left to do now but plan a limit victory in the hamper race and share the spoils with my fellow limiters then take over the world. secret plan; hamper race distance = 42km ish headstart over scratch = 9mins approx, speed of scratch group = 44kmph, time for scratch group = 57mins, thus total time for us to finish the race and win = 57 + 9 mins = 66mins. speed needed to win > 38kmph

fat and slow

total number of races fulfilled by the leauge; 20. Of those 20 i raced 10 [singed on for 8] marshalled 1 missed 9, 1 marathon training, 3 due to injury, 2 due to holidays, 1 because of hurling match, 2 because of ban.

placed four times out of ten starts; 5th at brittas, 5th 10m tt 5th hill climb, 1st 25mile tt. had 1 more opportunity to place at batterstown but faded away. of my 7 regular races i finished in the lead bunch 3times, missed out at sally gap, brittas once and batterstown twice. brittas and batterstown i felt i missed out marginally, but sally gap i missed out by a long way.

the leg injury was a blessing and curse for my cycling season. good because cycling became my number 1 sport and i concentrated on it.

Goal for next year to get my 10mile tt, 25mile tt and hc times down below the winning times of this years sl group. however i would like to contest more race finishes and be in the front group every time

fat and slow

club hill climb is coming up next thurs at stocking lane, and i'm trying desperately not to be the slowest from our club.

attempt 1 trying to find stocking lane hillclimb, took the wrong turn on the way up, went across to cruagh road via venus road, then decided to carry on up this road. got passed by a climber on this climb, stuck with him till the pine forest road then i passed him out. he was only out on a tempo training ride and was pacing himself very well. http://app.strava.com/rides/20398615

attempt 2, stocking lane time 18:26 need to get down to 17:26 to beat one of the club times from last year. with extra adrenaline and race conditions i could go slightly faster. http://app.strava.com/rides/20398659

fat and slow

missed the club hillclimb due to work commitments. slightly unregimented training going on here at the moment-off season, train when i feel fit and fresh and when i feel like it.

This is the last post on this log, cos i basically got over my leg injury from a cycling perspective, getting slightly more mobile from a hurling soccer perspective.

fat and slow

The reason i'm reposting is because I volunteered to do another sports science research test. They measured my max right leg strength in a leg extension for 3 sec test, this was 107kg, my left leg was 75kg. This means my right leg is over 140% stronger than my left leg
, I am an injurycase waiting to happen and need to do go back do rehab/prehab on my left leg. I'm friendly with the researcher i'll have an oppurtunity to retest every so often, so i can check progress.

Cycling; first time i went out this year was the first race of the club league. It's going ok so far came 5th in tt and came came 4th in our only dms in sl. The other times i stayed with the main bunch when it came together and was active enough in the last handicap race when it came together. Once I embarrassingly got dropped from our sl group in a handicap race on a flat road but i'm putting that down to sickness. Since the league started I am cycling more,