Wednesday, October 7, 2009

My two best friends

My leg still hurts!  I will be making an appointment to see a doctor.  Still pain when I try to run.  I start my workout by running half a block to see if today is the day…and it’s usually not so I hope on the bike.  I would like to introduce you to my two current best friends:

Foam Roller The foam roller

Ice Cup THE ICE CUP

During high school cross country when we had shin pain, we would all flock to the trainer’s room and grab some ice cups to use on our shins.  Admittedly, I did this even when I didn’t have shin pain because it was kind of fun.  The idea behind it is very simple…you fill some (wax-coated) cups with water, freeze them, then peel down the sides and rub all over where you have the pain for about 10-15 minutes.  For me, I use it on my outer thigh/knee.  This method has been shown to be more effective than icing alone, as you have the massage factor going on too.  It feels good for me.  I recommend the ice cup.

some good rides

When we got back from Maryland on Sunday, the Rocket Scientist had his 20 mile long run to do…and I had some biking to do.  I figured I’d go bike about ninety minutes, as the longest I’d gone this far was about seventy minutes.  I live right by a nineteen mile trail that I go on all the time, so I headed over there.  Once I got about 45 minutes out, I figured I must be near the end of the trail…so I kept going.  The end of the trail ended up being about fourteen miles away, so at that point I decided to go for an even thirty mile ride.  That’s a long way to ride, but I made it!  I think I did pretty good for my first two hour plus ride!

Sunday, October 4
30.08 miles in 2:13:07, avg pace of 4:26 (13.6 mph)

Rest day on Monday…my legs were tired!  On Tuesday I decided to ride for about an hour, exploring a different part of the trail.  I ended up getting lost in the local state park, but a friendly park ranger pointed me in the right direction.  Yay!  This ride was pretty hilly…hills on a bike are so difficult!  But I made it and had a really fast ride based on my overall speed.  I must be getting better at this whole biking thing.

Tuesday, October 6
14.72 miles in 1:02:44, avg pace of 4:16 (14.1 mph)

Ahhh legs were ridiculously tired today…and it was crazy windy!  I almost fell off my bike sideways…good thing I wear a helmet!  Really nothing else to write about this ride other than I wish I was on my feet!  I rode past a couple runners and all I wanted to do was tell them that I’m one of them…not that they really cared about my biking!

Wednesday, October 7
11.22 miles in 49:02, avg pace of 4:22 (13.7 mph)

cancelled-ish

I got called off for the first four hours of work tonight since I stayed about 45 minutes late last night.  I have to call at five to see if they want me to come in at seven…I don’t know whether to hope that I get called off the rest of the night (day off, woo!) or hope to go in for four hours (how bad can four hours be?  Plus, money is always nice.)  I guess we’ll see…

14 comments:

  1. Ice cups are genius! Thanks for the tip.

    Good job on your bike ride. I hope your doctor can figure out what's wrong with your legs.

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  2. Oh man I hope you get some useful news from the doc. My mom used to use ice cups. Talk about intense icing!

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  3. Boo about the shin pain! Is it both of them or just one leg?

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  4. Wait wait wait.. you had an AT's office in HIGH SCHOOL!?! Dang.. where did you go!?

    Nice job on your first 2 hour ride! Just a word of caution: make sure your bike is fitted to YOU.. otherwise the angle your pelvis sits at and the angle your knee moves forward can cause even more knee pain.

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  5. It sounds like you are having fun on the bike! I hope the doctor has some insight though. It's hard to be riding a bike and see everyone else running.

    The cup is a great idea! A friend of mine recommended freezing a water bottle, so I've been doing that!

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  6. Ice Cup! I need to do this!!!

    At least you have the bike to hop on to when you need an alternate workout :) not a bad thing to have around!

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  7. Wowsers, that's a long bike ride. You're really taking off on the riding. I would MUCH rather tackle hills while running than biking. I suck at them on a bike! Hopefully the leg heals soon so you can get back to running. :(

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  8. Sorry to hear you're still not feeling great! I hope it's nothing serious. Gah, I love the ice cups! Those things are great, used them all the time for my knee and shin splints, totally a high school thing! Great work on the bike!!

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  9. I like your ice cup idea, but not liking the fact that you still have pain when you run. Wow, it's been way too long. I think it's good that you're getting yourself checked out. Hope it's at least informative and helpful...

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  10. I used ice cups when I got shin splints during gymnastics, too. :-) Hope your leg heals soon!

    Sounds like you are getting to be an expert biker. I would love to do more biking, but somehow I don't think my 18 speed purple wonder bike will cut it, haha.

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  11. good luck at the dr... i hope you can get something figured out!!

    i love my foam roller too :)

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  12. People always told me the ice cup method but I didn't know you were supposed to peel the cup off!!! No wonder, I was always like 'it's the same as just icing.' Apparently not...I gotta try that!!

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  13. I've always wanted to try the ice cup trick, I just never have wax cups lying around. I'm glad they work though!

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  14. I'll have to try the ice cup at work tonight. I can't bring my foam roller (looks just like yours), but I CAN bring my rolling pin :)

    They haven't been cancelling us at work, just pulling us all over the stinking place. UGH.

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