Chasing Lance

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.

2 comments

  1. so… duathlon’s in 2010? 15 in 39 sounds fast to me. i’m impressed you were able to make yourself xt instead of run. glad the calf is doing ok, hope it held up for today’s long run!

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