My hip has finally improved enough for me to start running again, but I am very limited in how far I can run. On Sunday I ran 1km before the pain forced me to stop. On Monday I managed 2km and 3km on Tuesday. Each time I am forced to stop due to pain, but the distance is increasing if somewhat slower than I would like.
The wound on my hip has now scabbed over, so I am able to recommence swimming. Coincidentally my swimming mileage has matched my run distances with Sunday, Monday and Tuesday seeing swims of 1, 2 & 3kms. I felt very good on the Tuesday session swimming in the 2nd fastest lane at John Van Wisse's session.
Riding has not been affected by swimming and last week I managed 2 Windtrainer sessions, a 141km long ride on Saturday and an easy 40km on Sunday. This brought last week's training time to just under 10 hours - a lot less than the planned 20 hours, but still good considering it only contained 1x1km swim and 1x1km run.
Tuesday 28 February 2012
Wednesday 22 February 2012
Still Sidelined
I'm still cannot run (hip injury) or swim (open wounds), but I did do a 50min Windtrainer session last night. A windtrainer attaches to the bicycle rear wheel and transforms a standard bike into a stationery bicycle. It is pretty boring and you get extremely hot and sweat lots, but I suspect I'll be doing a lot more of these sessions in the near future.
Yesterday I visited the physio to get my hip/groin issue looked into. When I crashed on the bike (and fell on my hip) I suffered significant trauma to the hip socket. This has resulted in a lot inflammation, bruising and fluid in and around the joint. The pain I experience in the groin and hip flexor region is actually referred pain from the hip joint. Worst case scenario is that I have damaged the inside of the hip socket (I think it's called the Labram) - this would require a major operation to repair, otherwise it would deteriorate and I wouldn't be able to run at all within 5 years. But the physio does not believe this is the case as I have too much movement still available in my hip.
So now I'm on anti-inflammatories, I have daily exercises and stretches to do and I see the Physio again on Friday. Best case scenario I may be OK to re-commence running by Monday. But even with this best case, it will have been 3 weeks since I've run, so I'll have to start back doing much shorter distances. While the Physio thinks I can still do Ironman (assuming the injury responds to the anti-inflammatory) I will not be able to get in the long runs I planned. I will be lucky if I can get my long run back to 20km. So the chances of me being able to run the entire marathon is almost non-existent (extremely disappointing).
Yesterday I visited the physio to get my hip/groin issue looked into. When I crashed on the bike (and fell on my hip) I suffered significant trauma to the hip socket. This has resulted in a lot inflammation, bruising and fluid in and around the joint. The pain I experience in the groin and hip flexor region is actually referred pain from the hip joint. Worst case scenario is that I have damaged the inside of the hip socket (I think it's called the Labram) - this would require a major operation to repair, otherwise it would deteriorate and I wouldn't be able to run at all within 5 years. But the physio does not believe this is the case as I have too much movement still available in my hip.
So now I'm on anti-inflammatories, I have daily exercises and stretches to do and I see the Physio again on Friday. Best case scenario I may be OK to re-commence running by Monday. But even with this best case, it will have been 3 weeks since I've run, so I'll have to start back doing much shorter distances. While the Physio thinks I can still do Ironman (assuming the injury responds to the anti-inflammatory) I will not be able to get in the long runs I planned. I will be lucky if I can get my long run back to 20km. So the chances of me being able to run the entire marathon is almost non-existent (extremely disappointing).
Saturday 18 February 2012
Fingers Crossed
My injuries are improving but the wound on my hip is still looking pretty nasty and I still cannot run. Walking is fine, but I cannot even run across the road. However even this injury feels like it is slowly getting better and I hope it will only be a few more days until I can go for a short run.
This morning I did the usual bike shop ride except that I took my road bike (tri-bike is still in race setup). The hip was a little stiff but did not hamper my riding. Towards the end of the ride my left knee (original injury) started to ache a little, but not as much as it usually does on this ride. Coming back from Port Melbourne the pace of the ride always picks up and today was no exception, in fact I think it has been getting a little faster every week. I was still in the lead pack as we approached Mordialloc (location of the big sprint), but my calf muscles were starting to ache so I decided to refrain from any sprinting this week. I suspect the calves have stiffened up due to my lack of training.
I rode 91km this morning. Conditions were perfect and I would have loved to have ridden longer, but the saddle sores were causing problems and I didn't want to do something that would stop me riding tomorrow. This afternoon I converted the tri-bike back into training setup (different wheels, brake pads and readjusted the brakes and rear derailluer). It also has a new seat to trial - part of a seat exchange program offered by Cyclespeed bike shop. Hopefully the saddle sores will behave themselves and I'll get in a long ride tomorrow of around 6 hours, but I suspect that is extremely wishful thinking, especially since rain is forecast later in the morning.
The next 3 weeks should ideally be huge training weeks before the 2 week taper leading up to the race. Not being able to run due to injury, not being able to swim due to open wounds and being limited on the bike due to saddle sores is definitely not a good start. So I'll just cross my fingers and hope that my body magically comes good.
This morning I did the usual bike shop ride except that I took my road bike (tri-bike is still in race setup). The hip was a little stiff but did not hamper my riding. Towards the end of the ride my left knee (original injury) started to ache a little, but not as much as it usually does on this ride. Coming back from Port Melbourne the pace of the ride always picks up and today was no exception, in fact I think it has been getting a little faster every week. I was still in the lead pack as we approached Mordialloc (location of the big sprint), but my calf muscles were starting to ache so I decided to refrain from any sprinting this week. I suspect the calves have stiffened up due to my lack of training.
I rode 91km this morning. Conditions were perfect and I would have loved to have ridden longer, but the saddle sores were causing problems and I didn't want to do something that would stop me riding tomorrow. This afternoon I converted the tri-bike back into training setup (different wheels, brake pads and readjusted the brakes and rear derailluer). It also has a new seat to trial - part of a seat exchange program offered by Cyclespeed bike shop. Hopefully the saddle sores will behave themselves and I'll get in a long ride tomorrow of around 6 hours, but I suspect that is extremely wishful thinking, especially since rain is forecast later in the morning.
The next 3 weeks should ideally be huge training weeks before the 2 week taper leading up to the race. Not being able to run due to injury, not being able to swim due to open wounds and being limited on the bike due to saddle sores is definitely not a good start. So I'll just cross my fingers and hope that my body magically comes good.
Wednesday 15 February 2012
Disaster
Due to various circumstances I did not get the lead-in week to the Geelong race that I would have liked. Thursday, Wednesday and Friday consisted of a massage, acupuncture and me coaching a training session, but no actual training whatsoever. I had not intended to taper much for Geelong, but I wouldn't do this little on a full taper. The plus side is that the complete rest should of helped my knee injury and the persistent saddle sores.
Even though I wasn't able to train, I did find time to setup the bikes ready for the race. Unlike the Duathlons I competed in earlier in the season, I decided to carry a spare tubular type for this event - you can see it taped under the seat. Tubular tyres are the tube and tyre all in one and unlike the standard clincher tyres, tubulars are glued onto the rim. I also have a Bento box attached to the top tube just behind the headstem and 2 water bottles - one of the frame and one between the aero bars. This is the setup I plan to use for Ironman Melbourne, so the Geelong race is being used as a full dress rehearsal.
Elaine's bike was given set of race wheels and also had a Bento box on the top tube. Changing wheels means readjusting the rear dérailleur so that the gears still work and changing to carbon wheels also means changing and realigning the brake pads. A carbon braking surface needs a different brake pad (usually cork) and the race wheels are usually a different width requiring a realignment. During all this work I also gave both bikes a mini service.
The weather in Melbourne was not too bad over the weekend, but it poured almost non-stop until Sunday lunchtime in Geelong. We were only staying for 2 nights so I didn't take many changes of clothes and nearly everything I brought got completely soaked. Luckily the temperature was still relatively warm and most of the stuff was able to dry out before I needed to wear it again.
Due to my knee injury this was my first triathlon of the season and as always happens, I was a little rusty in my first race. Usually the starter gives a 30 second warning before the gun goes off, but not this time. I was casually chatting to a friend and wasn't even wearing my goggles when the gun sounded. Luckily I was able to get them on as I rushed into the water, but did lose some ground in the process. There were at least 400 people in my wave and in hindsight I should have placed myself much closer to the front (and had my goggles on). My swimming has improved quite a lot recently, but for the whole swim leg I was hemmed in by slower swimmers. I tried unsuccessfully to break through a couple of times, on one occasion receiving a nasty kick to the face (I still have bruises on my nose 3 days later). In the end I decided to simply stay in the pack and have a very easy, if somewhat slow swim. My swim time for the 2km was 36mins - I believe I could have swam at least 2 minutes quicker without tiring myself out.
Once on the bike I realised that my power meter was not working. I decided to use my Garmin FR310xt computer that can be transferred to my wrist for the run instead of the much larger Garmin Edge 800 I had been using in training. But for some reason my power meter was not configured on the FR310xt - things like this always happen in the first race of the season. Unfortunately the first section of the bike course is the most technical with several small hills and lots of tight corners, so trying to go through the menus on the watch without crashing took a bit of effort. Finally at about the 5km mark I had my power meter working and now I could try and ride to a specific power wattage.
I found myself in a rather large group of bikes. Drafting is not allowed in most triathlons (including this one), so in order not to get penalised by the draft busters (Marshalls who ride around the course as pillions on motorcycles), I decided to make my way through the pack. This resulted in a slightly higher wattage than I had planned, but it was not that much higher so I figured it wouldn't matter too much, especially seeing as the bike leg was only 80km.
My main goal for the race was to see how well I could run 20km off the bike. This would be my first long run off a bike for the season and would provide a lot of valuable information for the Ironman in regards to how good my pacing and nutrition was, as well as testing out my injured knee. If I struggled to run 20km off an 80km bike leg, how would I handle 42km after a 180km ride.
I successfully made my way through the first pack and was starting to pick off other riders ahead. My heart rate and power wattage were still about 10% higher than my planned Ironman pace, but way below what I would ride for an Olympic Distance race with a 40km bike leg (and 10km run).
Elaine's Olympic Distance race started about 90mins after mine. It had been raining all morning and this made me worry about punctures because the rain often lifts the glass back up to the surface. I didn't pack a spare tyre for Elaine, she just had a can of pitstop (air & foam which hopefully seals the puncture as well as re-inflating the tyre), but it generally only works about 50% of the time. Several riders had already pulled off to the side to fix punctures and I dreaded Elaine might suffer the same fate.
As I approached the far turn-around on the first lap (about the 25km mark) I could see another pack coming back. They were only about 500m ahead and I figured I could easily bridge that gap. Just before the turnaround the road widens from 2 lanes to 3. When you add the u-turn section in the middle of the road, this equated to a turning circle of about 7 lanes wide. I figured I could take this corner with a bit of speed which would put a bit of gap between me and the riders behind me - I didn't want to drag them up to the next pack as well.
I turned into the corner and was looking where I would exit on the other side when suddenly I was sliding along the ground. It was mid corner that my front wheel slid out and everything had been tracking beautifully till then, so I think it must have been an oil patch on the road that caused my crash. Medical staff immediately rushed over and helped me. There had already been a few crashes at the corner so the Medical staff were ready and waiting. It took them 5 minutes to patch me up, in which time another rider took a big slide in exactly the same spot. Once the medical staff were finished I gingerly hopped back on my bike (which was luckily not damaged) and continued riding for another 55km. My hip especially was very sore, but it loosened up a bit as the ride went on. There were no more packs left, so it was quite a lonely ride from then on and the wattage and heart rate dropped back to Ironman pace. My official bike split was 2h27m, but without the 5 min stop for bandaging it would have been 2h22 - and if I hadn't of crashed I'm confident I would have gone well under 2h20m.
As I rode towards transition I was not confident how my run would go, but figured it was worth a try. Unfortunately as soon as I dismounted I discovered that I must have wrenched a lot of muscles in my upper leg around the groin and hip flexor and running was absolutely impossible. So I simply walked back to the finish line, handed in my timing chip and then proceeded to the Medical tent to get my wounds redressed.
I lost skin on my wrist, elbow, knee and hip and had gravel rash on my shoulder and back. By far the worst injury was to my hip which was not only missing a lot of skin but also swollen up like a softball.
At least this gave me time to watch Elaine finish her race. This was her first Olympic Distance since 2008 and while she was a fair way off her PB, she still managed a good time and after a little deliberation was happy with efforts.
It is Wednesday night, most of my wounds have started to heal, except my hip which still looks very nasty. The swelling has gone down considerably, but has been replaced with a lot of bruising spanning the size of about a volleyball. At the moment I still cannot run, but I'm hoping this situation will start to improve by the weekend.
On the bright side, my knee is actually feeling pretty good - I crashed on the other side of my body.
Even though I wasn't able to train, I did find time to setup the bikes ready for the race. Unlike the Duathlons I competed in earlier in the season, I decided to carry a spare tubular type for this event - you can see it taped under the seat. Tubular tyres are the tube and tyre all in one and unlike the standard clincher tyres, tubulars are glued onto the rim. I also have a Bento box attached to the top tube just behind the headstem and 2 water bottles - one of the frame and one between the aero bars. This is the setup I plan to use for Ironman Melbourne, so the Geelong race is being used as a full dress rehearsal.
Elaine's bike was given set of race wheels and also had a Bento box on the top tube. Changing wheels means readjusting the rear dérailleur so that the gears still work and changing to carbon wheels also means changing and realigning the brake pads. A carbon braking surface needs a different brake pad (usually cork) and the race wheels are usually a different width requiring a realignment. During all this work I also gave both bikes a mini service.
The weather in Melbourne was not too bad over the weekend, but it poured almost non-stop until Sunday lunchtime in Geelong. We were only staying for 2 nights so I didn't take many changes of clothes and nearly everything I brought got completely soaked. Luckily the temperature was still relatively warm and most of the stuff was able to dry out before I needed to wear it again.
Due to my knee injury this was my first triathlon of the season and as always happens, I was a little rusty in my first race. Usually the starter gives a 30 second warning before the gun goes off, but not this time. I was casually chatting to a friend and wasn't even wearing my goggles when the gun sounded. Luckily I was able to get them on as I rushed into the water, but did lose some ground in the process. There were at least 400 people in my wave and in hindsight I should have placed myself much closer to the front (and had my goggles on). My swimming has improved quite a lot recently, but for the whole swim leg I was hemmed in by slower swimmers. I tried unsuccessfully to break through a couple of times, on one occasion receiving a nasty kick to the face (I still have bruises on my nose 3 days later). In the end I decided to simply stay in the pack and have a very easy, if somewhat slow swim. My swim time for the 2km was 36mins - I believe I could have swam at least 2 minutes quicker without tiring myself out.
Once on the bike I realised that my power meter was not working. I decided to use my Garmin FR310xt computer that can be transferred to my wrist for the run instead of the much larger Garmin Edge 800 I had been using in training. But for some reason my power meter was not configured on the FR310xt - things like this always happen in the first race of the season. Unfortunately the first section of the bike course is the most technical with several small hills and lots of tight corners, so trying to go through the menus on the watch without crashing took a bit of effort. Finally at about the 5km mark I had my power meter working and now I could try and ride to a specific power wattage.
I found myself in a rather large group of bikes. Drafting is not allowed in most triathlons (including this one), so in order not to get penalised by the draft busters (Marshalls who ride around the course as pillions on motorcycles), I decided to make my way through the pack. This resulted in a slightly higher wattage than I had planned, but it was not that much higher so I figured it wouldn't matter too much, especially seeing as the bike leg was only 80km.
My main goal for the race was to see how well I could run 20km off the bike. This would be my first long run off a bike for the season and would provide a lot of valuable information for the Ironman in regards to how good my pacing and nutrition was, as well as testing out my injured knee. If I struggled to run 20km off an 80km bike leg, how would I handle 42km after a 180km ride.
I successfully made my way through the first pack and was starting to pick off other riders ahead. My heart rate and power wattage were still about 10% higher than my planned Ironman pace, but way below what I would ride for an Olympic Distance race with a 40km bike leg (and 10km run).
Elaine's Olympic Distance race started about 90mins after mine. It had been raining all morning and this made me worry about punctures because the rain often lifts the glass back up to the surface. I didn't pack a spare tyre for Elaine, she just had a can of pitstop (air & foam which hopefully seals the puncture as well as re-inflating the tyre), but it generally only works about 50% of the time. Several riders had already pulled off to the side to fix punctures and I dreaded Elaine might suffer the same fate.
As I approached the far turn-around on the first lap (about the 25km mark) I could see another pack coming back. They were only about 500m ahead and I figured I could easily bridge that gap. Just before the turnaround the road widens from 2 lanes to 3. When you add the u-turn section in the middle of the road, this equated to a turning circle of about 7 lanes wide. I figured I could take this corner with a bit of speed which would put a bit of gap between me and the riders behind me - I didn't want to drag them up to the next pack as well.
I turned into the corner and was looking where I would exit on the other side when suddenly I was sliding along the ground. It was mid corner that my front wheel slid out and everything had been tracking beautifully till then, so I think it must have been an oil patch on the road that caused my crash. Medical staff immediately rushed over and helped me. There had already been a few crashes at the corner so the Medical staff were ready and waiting. It took them 5 minutes to patch me up, in which time another rider took a big slide in exactly the same spot. Once the medical staff were finished I gingerly hopped back on my bike (which was luckily not damaged) and continued riding for another 55km. My hip especially was very sore, but it loosened up a bit as the ride went on. There were no more packs left, so it was quite a lonely ride from then on and the wattage and heart rate dropped back to Ironman pace. My official bike split was 2h27m, but without the 5 min stop for bandaging it would have been 2h22 - and if I hadn't of crashed I'm confident I would have gone well under 2h20m.
As I rode towards transition I was not confident how my run would go, but figured it was worth a try. Unfortunately as soon as I dismounted I discovered that I must have wrenched a lot of muscles in my upper leg around the groin and hip flexor and running was absolutely impossible. So I simply walked back to the finish line, handed in my timing chip and then proceeded to the Medical tent to get my wounds redressed.
I lost skin on my wrist, elbow, knee and hip and had gravel rash on my shoulder and back. By far the worst injury was to my hip which was not only missing a lot of skin but also swollen up like a softball.
At least this gave me time to watch Elaine finish her race. This was her first Olympic Distance since 2008 and while she was a fair way off her PB, she still managed a good time and after a little deliberation was happy with efforts.
It is Wednesday night, most of my wounds have started to heal, except my hip which still looks very nasty. The swelling has gone down considerably, but has been replaced with a lot of bruising spanning the size of about a volleyball. At the moment I still cannot run, but I'm hoping this situation will start to improve by the weekend.
On the bright side, my knee is actually feeling pretty good - I crashed on the other side of my body.
Friday 10 February 2012
Geelong Long Course
The Geelong race is this Sunday - I am doing the Long Course race (2km Swim / 80km Bike / 20km Run) and Elaine is doing her first Olympic Distance race (1.5km Swim / 40km Bike / 10km Run) since the Age Group World Championships in 2008.
I had planned to put in a solid week's training only resting on Friday and Saturday as a mini taper for the race. But my body and mind have just not been up to it this week. On Monday night I did a good swimming squad session and I ran 10km on Tuesday and Wednesday, but other than that there has been only been 2 short bay swims. It has been one of my quietest weeks for a while.
.....
When I started writing this blog entry yesterday, I had planned out a lot of stuff that I wanted to write and photos to post. But I encountered so many interruptions that I have completely forgotten what I was about to say. Kind of sums up my week and it doesn't look like it is going to get any better.
I had planned to put in a solid week's training only resting on Friday and Saturday as a mini taper for the race. But my body and mind have just not been up to it this week. On Monday night I did a good swimming squad session and I ran 10km on Tuesday and Wednesday, but other than that there has been only been 2 short bay swims. It has been one of my quietest weeks for a while.
.....
When I started writing this blog entry yesterday, I had planned out a lot of stuff that I wanted to write and photos to post. But I encountered so many interruptions that I have completely forgotten what I was about to say. Kind of sums up my week and it doesn't look like it is going to get any better.
Monday 6 February 2012
7 Weeks to Go
After a slow start to the week due to the quad strain, I ended up completing my biggest ever training week - 10.3km Swimming, 323km Riding and 40.9km Running - a total of 19h49m of training (405 Slowtwitch points). Yesterday afternoon, despite rain, thunder, lightning and even hail, I did my first ever 2 hour run (21.4km).
My knee still aches (especially on the bike rides), but it is no longer stopping me from training. Generally I am now feeling a lot more confident that I will manage to get in a reasonable amount of training, as evidenced by last week's effort of nearly 20 hours.
Today is a rest day and will only contain one swim tonight. I'll pick up the training load on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday before backing off leading into the race at Geelong this Sunday.
My knee still aches (especially on the bike rides), but it is no longer stopping me from training. Generally I am now feeling a lot more confident that I will manage to get in a reasonable amount of training, as evidenced by last week's effort of nearly 20 hours.
Today is a rest day and will only contain one swim tonight. I'll pick up the training load on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday before backing off leading into the race at Geelong this Sunday.
Thursday 2 February 2012
Quad Strain and Long Ride
After my long 18km run on Sunday, I pulled up with a sore quad. This put a slight dent in my plans to have a huge training load this week. I tried stretching, foam roller and self massaging, but I couldn't find anything that seemed to improve the quad.
Due to the long drive back from Bright, Monday was always planned as an easy day, but I had a long 120km ride planned for Tuesday morning with Kevin from Gravity Zero. After the Monday night swim squad (where I posted a new 100m FS PB - 1m25s) I decided to go for an easy jog along the beach in the hope this might loosen up my quad. However after continuous pain for 400m it was obvious the run was not going to help. So the Tuesday morning ride was now off the cards.
I tried unsuccessfully to book a Physio appointment on Tuesday, but luckily I was able to score a massage appointment with Burkey. He worked pretty hard on my quad and improved it a lot. Burkey's thought was that I over stretched the muscle during the downhill sections of my long run. I've been avoiding any hills due to my knee, so my muscles probably lack conditioning in this respect and therefore more susceptible to this type of injury.
Feeling better, I decided to do my long ride on Wednesday morning, and instead of 120km, I decided to make it 180km. A loop between Frankston and Port Melbourne is 90km, so I decided doing 2 loops would be the best plan. There were no big hills (good for my injured knee) and I could use my house as an aid station between loops to replace water bottles, nutrition and apply sunscreen and chamois cream.
I didn't feel any discomfort from my quad, Burkey had done a great job with the massage, but my knee was really starting to ache. At about the 40km mark I decided to stop and raise the seat another 3mm. This modification seemed to work, as the pain in my knee did subside a little - hopefully this may be the magic bullet that finally helps me get over the knee injury. It was a stiff headwind all the way to Seaford and I pulled back into home at the 75km mark - I hadn't done the loop up to Frankston yet. There was no pain in my quad, my knee wasn't too bad, but everything felt very average, except my bum which felt outright awful.
The temperature had increased since my early morning start, so I removed my vest & arm warmers, had a toilet stop, applied sunscreen and replaced my Optimiser bottle. Strangely I hadn't touched the sports drink or any of the other nutrition - I think the noise of the traffic early on and then the deafening noise of the headwind caused me to miss a lot of the timer alerts on my bike computer. The stop had been longer than expected, especially after I had to chase the neighbour's cat back out of the house so I could lock up, but the plus side was that I felt quite refreshed when I hopped back on the bike. Of course it helps with you start riding with tail wind again. I had intended to continue onto Franskton, but through force of habit had turned right heading back to Port Melbourne. This meant I would finish this lap with only 150km on the clock and would need to do an extra 30km loop at the end.
Strangely enough the second lap felt better than the first, although the wind had picked up and the ride back to Seaford was particularly difficult. It would have been so easy to end the ride after 150km, but after another quick stop at home I headed out for the last 30km. The ride itself wasn't very fast, only averaging just over 27kph, but I am very satisified and extremely happy to now have a 180km ride under my belt.
Due to the long drive back from Bright, Monday was always planned as an easy day, but I had a long 120km ride planned for Tuesday morning with Kevin from Gravity Zero. After the Monday night swim squad (where I posted a new 100m FS PB - 1m25s) I decided to go for an easy jog along the beach in the hope this might loosen up my quad. However after continuous pain for 400m it was obvious the run was not going to help. So the Tuesday morning ride was now off the cards.
I tried unsuccessfully to book a Physio appointment on Tuesday, but luckily I was able to score a massage appointment with Burkey. He worked pretty hard on my quad and improved it a lot. Burkey's thought was that I over stretched the muscle during the downhill sections of my long run. I've been avoiding any hills due to my knee, so my muscles probably lack conditioning in this respect and therefore more susceptible to this type of injury.
Feeling better, I decided to do my long ride on Wednesday morning, and instead of 120km, I decided to make it 180km. A loop between Frankston and Port Melbourne is 90km, so I decided doing 2 loops would be the best plan. There were no big hills (good for my injured knee) and I could use my house as an aid station between loops to replace water bottles, nutrition and apply sunscreen and chamois cream.
I didn't feel any discomfort from my quad, Burkey had done a great job with the massage, but my knee was really starting to ache. At about the 40km mark I decided to stop and raise the seat another 3mm. This modification seemed to work, as the pain in my knee did subside a little - hopefully this may be the magic bullet that finally helps me get over the knee injury. It was a stiff headwind all the way to Seaford and I pulled back into home at the 75km mark - I hadn't done the loop up to Frankston yet. There was no pain in my quad, my knee wasn't too bad, but everything felt very average, except my bum which felt outright awful.
The temperature had increased since my early morning start, so I removed my vest & arm warmers, had a toilet stop, applied sunscreen and replaced my Optimiser bottle. Strangely I hadn't touched the sports drink or any of the other nutrition - I think the noise of the traffic early on and then the deafening noise of the headwind caused me to miss a lot of the timer alerts on my bike computer. The stop had been longer than expected, especially after I had to chase the neighbour's cat back out of the house so I could lock up, but the plus side was that I felt quite refreshed when I hopped back on the bike. Of course it helps with you start riding with tail wind again. I had intended to continue onto Franskton, but through force of habit had turned right heading back to Port Melbourne. This meant I would finish this lap with only 150km on the clock and would need to do an extra 30km loop at the end.
Strangely enough the second lap felt better than the first, although the wind had picked up and the ride back to Seaford was particularly difficult. It would have been so easy to end the ride after 150km, but after another quick stop at home I headed out for the last 30km. The ride itself wasn't very fast, only averaging just over 27kph, but I am very satisified and extremely happy to now have a 180km ride under my belt.
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