Training weekend

This weekend was my second weekend back on the bike. I haven't done any serious training yet, but I got a good 75 miles on the road bike between friday and saturday. It feels great just to be riding but it is really hard to play by the rules which I've laid down for myself. After an overuse injury to tendon or ligament, the rules laid down for safe recovery are:

-Always warm-up before sport. That includes a dynamic warm-up to activate muscles in hips, hamstrings, and the weaker parts of quads. The foam roller is also excellent here to work the IT band and get some 'knots' out.
-Return to riding using the 10% rule: first week back, reduce volume and intensity by half. Throughout late December and all of January, volume for me was 13-18hours/week. So this past week, I rode 6.5 hours divided between 4 riding days with the longest ride being ~42miles. Next week, increase volume and intensity by 10%, so total ride time next week will be 7-ish hours and longest ride will be ~50miles. etc.
-After riding, stretch quads, IT band, hips, and hammies. Then ice massage the part of my knee that had been hurting.

I had really wanted to do the Dogwood road race, but right now, I'm thinking that 80ish miles at a cat 1/2 pace isn't in the deck of cards for me. Oh well, better to get healthy now and return to form slowly than go out and re-injure myself. Lost Valley however, looks like it will be a go.

Tuesday I head to St Louis to meet with a spine doctor and another radiation oncologist to talk about the metastasis in my vertebrae. The weight of the situation continues to loom and Maggie and I (as well as my parents) are still trying to comprehend.

On another note, here is the newest edition to the Miller family:



His name is Zulu. He thinks he's a dog.