Nobody Ever Drowned in Sweat

Jeez, what a cliche for a title.

That particular phrase is on the back of t-shirts sold by Rebound Physical Therapy in Redmond.  However, I am glad this week has come as I am glad to be able to start sweating again.  After being in Oshkosh standing around talking to customers all last week for EAA Airventure, I started this week on the technique trainer that Laurie got for me from Performance Bike about 100 years ago it seems.  I started off the ride with a high pedal cadence (90+ RPM)  to get blood flow through the legs and allow me to push less hard to protect the knee.  I also need to work on my pedal mechanics.  Here is a video from the Livestrong YouTube Channel and Chris Carmichael regarding high-cadence pedaling.




I start with 5 minutes small ring-big ring and every five minutes skip two gears until I am small front-small rear for 5 minutes, then back up for cool down.  This has been the morning wake-up all week and I am amazed at how much I have been sweating with that little 30-minute exercise.  The goal is to turn my left quadriceps back into muscle instead of the pudding they currently are.  I will move up in resistance next week.

What is disappointing, or maybe better described as embarrassing, my shorts are practically threadbare!  I have Pearl Izumi's much like these on the left from STP.com and I really like how they fit.  They have been the best pair of road riding shorts that I have owned so far, including those from Performance Bike. However I am considering either the Giordana (right) or the Descente C6 Optima.  Not that the Pearl Izumi shorts were not good, it's just good to sample different brands.  It is nice being able to purchase these from sierratradingpost.com (and a gob of other things you cannot live without) at a significant discount and not have buyer's remorse!  The next investment I need to make for my bike are new aero bars (and these have to be the coolest ever Profile Design CX3 Time Trial Bicycle Aerobars - White - RHCX38 - if anyone is interested in getting me an early Christmas present!)

I had the pleasure of spending Tuesday morning with Joy down at Rebound Physical Therapy in Redmond.  For those of you that think PT is for wimps and you can do it yourself - as I too thought - you are foolish.  Joy almost made me cry.  Can you get any more profound by having a name such as Joy and being a physical torturer?  The first thing out of her mouth was "I am going to make you sweat today."  Yay.

After having me warm up on the stationary bike for 7 minutes, she put me on the table to see what my range of motion was.  Prognosis: "yes you are getting better, but we need 12 more degrees to match your right leg...let's try this!"  If I wasn't a macho egotist, I would have cried.  Joy gave my left leg quadriceps a stretch that I was not too happy with.  Once she had me in a submission hold and I was about to tap out, she decides to make it more fun "now push" she says.  I laughed, although it wasn't funny, it was a nervous laugh.  Here I am, face down on the table, my knee is almost as painful as it has ever been, in a position I could never get there myself, and she wants me to push against it?!?!  So I try.  "I said push. Quit being a wimp!" was all I got from her.  And then "Wow, your muscles really have gotten weak, look at that quad shake."  We did this for about 2 minutes although it felt like 4 hours.After this punishment, she rechecked my range of motion.  "Great, we got six more degrees!"  Whee, thanks.  Don't mind me, I am going to curl up in the corner and lick my wounds and rebuild my ego....

She then put me on elecro-stimulation and I got to do other core-based exercise while my muscles were being stimulated to help rebuild them.  She had me doing squats on the

Bosu Balance Trainer with a medicine ball to force me to use that leg.  I cheated.  She forced me to use the mirror to see that I was heavily favoring my right leg.  Obviously something to work on.  Resistance band side steps, heel raises, balancing one-leg medicine ball throws, more muscle stimulation and ice.  I get the pleasure of her evil devices Friday morning, hopefully I can function afterwards.

I have also been swimming pretty heavily this week during my lunch break using the pull buoy and hand paddles for 500M at a time, then kickboard only for 100M.  I start with a 100M warm-up lap, and then follow with a 100M flutter kick (see Mechanics and Kinesiology of Swimming (The Crawl Flutter Kick)).  Then use the blue TYR Strength and Stroke Paddles  and pull buoy for 500M, kick 100M, then the red TYR paddles and pull buoy for 500M , kick 100M, then the FINIS technique hand paddles, for 500M with pull buoy, and finish with 100M kick.  Earlier in the week, I didn't think I would be able to even kick a 100, but by Thursday, I was able to do one pretty well (in comparison with Monday).  I have had to focus on balancing my kick so I don't cheat so much with my right leg.  Hopefully it will make me a better swimmer and I can keep up with Laurie!

So here is a theory I would like to propose in regards to what I have seen in my muscle atrophy and how successful Lance Armstrong became after having cancer.  Many still believe he is guilty of performance enhancing drugs.  I disagree.  Why?  Because what I have seen in just the three weeks since my knee surgery,  my muscles in my left quad have become worthless and I have to rebuild them.  So with Lance getting chemo and being off the bike for as long as he was, his muscles had to atrophy - his whole body had to atrophy!  When he got back on the bike, his mind had the memory of what it took for the proper mechanics to become good again, and he had a body of clay that was to be remolded into the machine he is today.  Sure he had the best possible training available, but I really believe now that it was his body restructuring that allowed him to become a new rider.  My 10 cents anyway.