ILTs Baby and They Burn



Too Tan To Be My Legs

It's happening.  Each week and almost each day I feel the leg getting stronger.  Less and less pain, little to no meds, sleeping soundly at night...it's all starting to come together.  But, I'm still a ways away from fully recovered.  I can't fully kneel on the ground, there is a tender spot on the outside, and the strength in that leg is only at 60%.  Many more miles to go before I am complete (Sleep).

I jumped on the trainer this week with a goal of adding in ILTs (Individual Leg Training) which I think is a key ingredient to building strong legs.  I've mentioned in past posting that this is a training tool I learned early on in my focused cycling training from Dr Arnie Baker.  He always put it in the context of lifting weights on the bike. 

Some may not know what this is so let me explain how this works. I would recommend trying it first on a stationary before testing it on the road.  You can get a bit off balance if you're not paying attention on the road.

Find a gear that seems pretty easy to medium when you have both legs pedaling.  You shouldn't be breathing hard.  Un-clip one of your feet and place it either on the back of the trainer where I find it easy to rest the toe of my shoe or on a short stool.  Continue to pedal with the other leg.

It may seem easy at first but usually about 30 seconds into this you'll start to feel a burn and maybe have a clunk in your stroke at the top of the rotation as you pull up.  That's OK because you are learning that you need to work on the pulling action of your pedaling.  If this is still too easy then shift to another gear.

I started with 1 minute and then shift to the other leg for a minute and then back for a total of 5 intervals.  Next week I'll add 2 minutes to each leg for 4 intervals.  The following week I'll add 3 minutes for 3 intervals.

I'll also mix in easier gear and faster rotation along with harder gearing and slower rotation as I progress.  Faster works on smoothing out your pedal stroke and the firing of hip flex er.  The slower method builds greater strength.  Can't you just feel that burn?

I also added in standing for 3 minutes, 2, 1 and 30 seconds.  Lastly I've put in 1 minute intervals X 3.  The beginning and end of the session is filled with warm up and down by spinning slowly and increasing the RPM every minute or 30 seconds.

While traveling this week I had called ahead to the hotel I was staying at in LA to see if they had a stationary bike and I was told yes.  When I got there and went to the fitness center it was true they had one but it wasn't working and hadn't, according to the receptionists, for over 6 months.  So I used the elliptical instead which wasn't too bad on the knee.  It's such a smooth motion and close to pedaling.  I added resistance and speed to an hour long session and walked away with the thought I might do that more often especially in a pinch.  I did have to ice that evening. 

Good week on the road and training.  I'll mark this one up as progress and a step forward in the right direction.

It's Not Always Mileage In Life

This week the knee feels absolutely fantastic. After the ride last week...outside...I had a new energy to take it to the next level.  I could see miles of long roads ahead with green fields and blue oceans.  I had a vision that was not to happen this weekend. 

Like often is life and we all have a lot of responsibilities.  I have many commitments that I have sign up for and one of them that is actually key to my recovery is the LLS TNT Tahoe program.  (By the way, you can make a donation at the link to the right or even better yet, come on out and join our program).  This past Saturday was the StageCoach Century a 100 miler east about 1 1/2 hours from San Diego.  It's a great ride because it's an out and back with no stop signs and light traffic.  You can turn around at any point and this time of year it was perfect.  Cool, little overcast all day and no wind.  Our Tahoe program has committed the last few years to help out with the first and last SAG which is located 10 miles from the starting point. In return we have a booth at the start line, get the word out about our program and the send us some funding.

Myself and Rick Knaggs, my co-coach for this LLS TTN program, where there bright an early on Saturday morning at 5:15 AM and if you do your math and build in a half an hour will realize I got up at 3:30 AM.  We set up our location and I didn't leave until 4:30 PM.

To tell you the truth it was the most rewarding thing I've done in a while.  If you are a rider you should take one event and be a volunteer every once in a while.  Believe me you will know what I'm talking about at the end.  You'll be able to provide some thoughts at the SAG for the rides that some time non-riders who volunteer don't realize.  I now think I know what a doctor feels when so many people say thank you for being there.

We fixed bikes, passed out food, provided water and mix...it was a great day to be out there cheering on other riders.  I have a portable PA system that I've been itching to see how many hours I could get out of the batteries.  6 hours in total with my iPod hooked to it with music I like.  The last 2 or so hours the Boy Scout Troop who manned the stop with us had a few iPads of their own music.  It was the perfect mix of the old and the new.

So, because of this I didn't get the weekend miles that I had planned to do on Sunday.   After almost 10 hour on my feet on Saturday I had to give that knee a break today with plenty of ice. The CAF organization had put together a reunion ride that left Solana Beach and went to San Clamente and back.  My goal was to ride up to the Marine base to get in around 30 miles up and back.   I did get plenty of riding during the week with stationery miles.  I focused on time in the saddle and increasing the resistance.  I'm up to an hour now and pushing 150 Watts for the majority of the time.

Last week was also a time to reach out to others.  Since I've started writing about my experience I've had some people send me a note or two on the side with questions, thoughts along with details about their own knee replacement.  During my first replacement a friend of mines mother was having both her knees done at the same time.  We once a week would send a note and or respond to the other with an update.  Sharing was helpful and provided a sanity check.  I'm currently corresponding to Cammy who just had her knee done as well.  She was struggling for a while.  I made a few suggestions and checked in a week later.  She was much better and had turned a corner towards recovery. 

Your doctors and nurse can tell you a lot but if they haven't had the experience it's from a different perspective.  I would highly recommend you connect with a person and help each other.  It won't be the same issues all the time but it will help to share them.  This is a mental game as well as a physical recovery.
So this week I'm going to start adding in ILTs, Individual Leg Training, to my time on the trainer.  I'll also get the miles I need on the road next weekend and even move towards hills.  Nothing drastic just more up and down.

Week 10 Hit the Road Jack

Wow, did that feel good.  It was like having a piece of chocolate pie when you haven't had it in years.  It's smooth with a crunchy graham crust and leaves the chocolaty rich taste in your mouth.  That is what my first ride on the road felt like today.

I started at the Home Depot near my home where I parked.  My home is situated on a hill that I knew would be too much at this point for me to climb.  I rode up Black Mountain Rd to where it changes to Kearney Villa Road once it crosses over Mira Mar Rd.  The course didn't have a lot of climbing.  My Garmin recorded 299 ft in total.  The first little hill at 4% grade was about a 1/2 mile long just before the change in street names.  My expectations is this is where I would feel pain or a problem because of the additional muscle strength need to climb.  To my surprise, it felt great.

This was not a full out hard ride to say the least.  My goal was to test the legs and iron out any problems.  So I kept the pace at a nice easy moderate rate.  I wasn't breathing hard at all and again was impressed with my average speed on the way out, 20 MPH.  Of course that was with the wind at my back.  The return route I was averaging 14 MPH.  The end average was 16.5.  Heart Rate average was 165 BPM which is good for me.  I'll need to retest my max rate which in the past has been as high as 205.  I have a resting rate of 50 when laying down and 55 when sitting. 

I scared myself when I put on my cycling gear which is mostly black.  Those legs were albino white.  Even a little bit of color would be an improvement and night send the children off screaming and pointing at the ghost.   I was impressed with the muscle definition at this point.  The calf at least has some tone.  Crystal likes my legs too...she's a leg woman.

The knee over all feels good now that I'm sitting and writing but I can tell I'll need to ice for about 30 minutes after a quick shower.  Prior to the ride I went down to the Kolby Swap Meet with Crystal and walked around for 2 1/2 hours.  So again, coupling that with the cycling today I think I put the knee through it's paces and the end result is very positive.  Just have to keep up this process and focus.

Tomorrow I head out to Colorado on a business trip for 3 days.  I'll take along some workout clothes and my iPad with some training videos.  I don't want to stop now.  Things are just starting to come together.

The LLS training will begin at the end of the month and I now feel a bit more confident in my ability to lead this group.  You don't have to be the strongest rider in the group but you certainly don't want to be hanging off the back.  It's a matter of putting the miles now to gain back the endurance while slowly adding in strength and power.  For now, I'll focus on the endurance and start increasing the time in the saddle.  Today was less than an hour but over 30 minutes. 

Start of Week 9

I was really looking forward to hitting the road over the holidays.  I had a few days off from work and I figured it would be the perfect opportunity to find some flat stretches and just enjoy the view.  Unfortunately I wasn't ready for that yet. 

I've moved over to the stationary training where I have my cyclo-cross bike set up.  During the season I primarily ride a road bike and once in a while go off trail on a mountain bike.  However, I also have a cyclo-cross bike that can do either.  I take that on trips to Tahoe and places where I want to do both road and off road riding. 

The Cyclo-Cross is set up in a Saris PowerBeam Pro.  What's great about this setup is the unit measures heart rate, cadence and watts or power.  That's not super important at this point but it is providing me some feedback on how I am progressing especially in comparison to where I was before the knee replacement. 

I'm using really light resistance at this time starting at 50 watts and progressing up to 150 watts of resistance.  This in comparison would be about 12 to 15 MPH at 150 watts on the road that was flat with no wind.  The muscles are still getting used to flexing many times and when I step down I have some swelling in the knee.  However before icing I move over to other exercises for another 15 to 20 minutes.

When standing and pedaling on the bike the knee doesn't feel comfortable with that as of yet meaning all the pieces are not moving smoothly; the strength is lacking and there is a choppiness to the stroke.  It's not super bad but I won't go out side and ride without more confidence in that.

I'm looking forward to starting ILT (Individual Leg Training) which is an exercise I learned from Dr Arnie Baker.  He has been a fantastic coach and mentor to me over the last 16 years.  ILT is using a single leg to pedal either in stationary or on the road.  It's one of the best exercises I've found to build strength and there are a lot of different ways to adapt this exercise.  More to come on that.

My other focus is building back the endurance.  It feels like it's been a year since I've put in over an hour on the bike.  My body is screaming for a long ride up the coast.  For now I have to settle for watching DVDs while I train from EpicPlanet and Sufferfest.  At least they provide a great view of the world and I feel that I'm in the pack competing.  Below is a interview of Allen Jones the producing of EpicPlanet(Ride) videos.