The calf pain had eased up quite a bit by the time I woke yesterday morning, but I decided it would still be prudent to give it a day of rest with a race only a week away.  So, I hit the stationary bike with my customary 3 miles on the bike for every 1 mile I would have run ratio.  I was planning on 5 easy miles, so I did 15 miles on the bike.  This was also a convenient distance since the Amgen Tour of California hit the town of Solvange for an individual time trial also of 15 miles length.

I pounded out my 15 miles pretty much in time to the music from my mp3 player.  There were several long stretches when I was really hauling ass (or at least I felt like I was).  I finished the 15 miles in 39:56…and waited to see how the likes of Levi Lepheimer, Lance Armstrong and Dave Zabriskie would compare…

Pretty well as it turns out.  Lance had me by about 8 minutes, finishing 14th in the time trial.  Levi and Zabriskie were 1 and 2 respectively - both under 31 minutes.  Pretty impressive considering they were negotiating curves and hills while I just had my head down on a stationary bike.

After my time on the bike, I took the opportunity to do a full body strength workout:

Lower

2 sets of single leg squats with 35 lb dumbells

2 sets of leg press with 270 lbs

2 sets of toe raises (hoping to pull back on my calf from the other side)

Upper

2 sets of decline press with 250 lbs

2 sets of incline press with 110 lbs

2 sets of high row with 140 lbs

1 set of shoulder shrugs with 55 lb dumbells

1 set of shoulder shrugs with 60 lb dumbells

2 sets of bicep curls with 40 lbs each arm

Core:

2 sets of roman chair leg raises (not me in the picture -ha!)

30 second side plank on each side

30 second plank

The calf felt fine this morning (though my butt is damned sore) and I completed a 5 mile easy run without so much as a peep from it.  Let’s see if it complains about 10.5 tomorrow.