One more XC ski morning -- let's take advantage of the snowy island the safe and fun way

9am at SHS meeting with Tony (should be Tom&) and Jerry, John for little XC fun. Actually was a decent "slide" and a lot of fun on this connecting XC trail with lots of fun rollers!

a very nice trail, some cutting work for first tracks as well!

GAB Team Meeting later... and some new very useful accessories/tools for all of us -- unrevealing new 2011 Sponsors :-)

Wildwood XC

As road condition are ugly and in particular dangerous due to limited space, Py went for a safe and beautiful winter wonderland alternative XC ski excursion to Wildwood. Excellent best ever conditions!

One more storm

Winter is still alive. One more dump of heavy snow on LI. One more snow day. Starting with a shovel workout...

continuing with a trainer session testing the new life statistics hack...

... and watching tweeties at the bird house and bell, they love this bell!

PS: And most importantly, Py signed up for the 2011 D2R2 180k again -- this will be #6 for Py!

Signed in. Addicted to this one ;-) -- see you all again!! You know who you are...!

D2R2 - The Deerfield Dirt Road Randonnee 2011 Online Registration

www.bikereg.com

D2R2 - The Deerfield Dirt Road Randonnee 2011 Online Registration

Returning to the roads -- a freezing but sunny day

A MRI scan of Py's knee was performed, he did not yet received the official report -- but he could not find anything major at the area of suspicion on his own...

This is the machine:

...and more, well -- if any one notices some thing abnormal, please let Py know...

...also after now almost 7 weeks since the injury he is feeling so much better. Yesterday's set of indoor trainer/computer based tests made him more and more confident it is coming along just fine. Py himself suspects an injury to one of the bands (IT, ...??!), what makes a lot of sense thinking about it. The unusual tilt freedom of the foot on the pedal platform most likely put an overload on one of these bands -- don't ask which one...
Still curious if they will eventually notice anything on the MRI scan -- if this doc would possible take some more time to understand the issue and it's cause Py would may be have some confidence, but the guy he went to so far did not, barely took any time. Good thing, Py got a hint for a different doc he will follow up with if necessary. All the cycling and FB networking friends are just awesome.

And still feeling great this morning he decided to combine a little work at the Camp with a test ride -- except it was -9C at 9am, brrrr, all was perfect. No need for a hurry, towards noon temperatures rose up a bit to -5C, not to bad at all. Good day to try out this new jacket! Gearing up, this is always a little tedious in winter, but the right gear helps a lot:

• Toasty winter shoes, just a set of warm winter socks no booties needed!
• Strategically padded and wind breaking long pants
• Warm long sleeved base layer
• And his new Fugu Jack... love this build in hoodie already!
• And his still fairly thin wind breaking gloves, they were a bit at the edge today but worked out OK.

(actually getting ready to return home from work here)

some snow turkey...

Getting out..

Some icy stuff, but only this one spot, else all was fine and dry.

The only other rider he saw today and some kids playing on the ice.

At lake Panamoka -- feeling good, taking the longer route for the return.

So far so good -- all in the small ring today, regaining some confidence into his keen again :-)
... and this new Fugu Jack is just amazing, the anatomic fit -- Py did not even noticed it while riding, the fleecy build in hoody (or face mask if you flip it out all the way, did not), plenty of storage options -- perfect climate just a base layer below!

Enjoy a little footage of the ride:

Here the ride stat of Py's easy slow moving ride:

More snow on LI -- Blizzard #1 2011

January 11th, Tuesday night to Wednesday the second winter storm moved over LI -- #1 for 2011 -- and dropped an average of 18 inches of fairly heavy snow on us. In powder that may have been double that height!

Wind and heavy snow converted everything into a fantastic looking winter wonder land, almost like spray/snow painted!

As the storm settled down on Tuesday afternoon and roads got plowed Py could not resist to get out for an hour with friends to enjoy the winter wonder land in XC ski for very very easy -- he say "XC ski walk" in deep powder. The huge parking lot at SHS was not yet plowed and piles of snow were like barries. But luckily one section was already cleared, just perfect for us.

Starting just all the way across the deep snowed in parking lot... and entering the woods, a real fairy tale winter wonder land... making our way and first tracks.

finishing at dusk, the lights we took were just not really needed.

Just about fine for Py and his still rehabilitating knees to get a little moving. But the cold outside was just fine for them.

RRLs and such -- how much?

Py is slowly and carefully starting over into the new year. A easy B Sunday group ride, a few Road Ride Lunch's... trainer sessions and such. And in particular power monitored trainer sessions.

After even easy rides he still notices a slight bilateral discomfort in the global knee and may be even down the calf area -- but no sharp pain or moving related issues any longer. So far so good. Still working on a better routine of stretching and icing.

He took a longer nap this Sunday after icing -- just watching the icy snowy weather today from indoors. Plenty of time to think and beyond the obvious

1. How to determine the optimal intensity and duration of riding for recovery?
2. What about short peak loads, like a short hill -- to be avoided, just spinning up easy or may be short push is OK?
3. Resting periods to ride ratio? 1 day, 2 days in between or even 3 and put in a pool swimming session? What about XC ski?

a few possibly disturbing questions came up, assuming to be recovered from all this now -- how to prevent injuries a like in future?

1. OK, keeping the bike and pedals in good shape is easy, done.
2. But still, there may have been more than this one factor, as the pedals did not went bad in this one trouble ride. Too much? What is too much, to long at too high sustained power output? Now this is disturbing. Fact:
3. Py was resting for a few days, more than usual in a long time before this trouble ride. Now what does this mean -- was he may be able to output such sustained effort to hurt himself in conjunction with these pedal issue (well, he obviously was.)? Q: May this possibly could have happened also with good pedals?
4. Means he was able to output so much more power due to a few recovery days than usual -- as with sustained riding his peak power was always lower and safe to sustain?
5. Q: Now what? Assuming with more recovery cycles or days he seams to be able to output a non "system" compatible power. Seams odd to weird to throttle back yourself in case of an race or even hard training ride. Little over exaggerating: Can you image "just chill riding along..." on a "hard" ride?
6. Will going through recovery cycles eventually make ligaments adjust slowly in time to take it? And if so -- what possibly could be an safe indicator on "how much" is OK or too much?

.... may be just a set of possible dump thoughts and questions -- any comments?

Here Py's training and recovery or better rehabilitation attempts so far since the initial acute trouble causing ride in December 2nd:

What matters? What next?