12/30 Random Monday Thoughts

Gear:
Wore the wrong watch to the gym tonight. It was probably very amusing to watch me stare at my calculator watch in confusion when I was ready to record the treadmill workout.

Bike:
I’ve had almost 6 hours of indoor trainer rides with the new bike. I am feeling really good about the fit — once again, Erik at Adventure Cycling did not disappoint. The seat, however… not so sure. I did make a small tweak before today’s ride that seemed to help so I’m not giving up on it quite yet. I will go another week or so and see how things develop.

Nutrition:
I have been following a very low carb diet (aka Keto) for the past year and a half. Helped me drop 45 lbs quickly and pretty effortlessly maintain it. But (and there’s always a but, isn’t there?) as training intensity starts to ramp up — or maybe I should say as I get healthy enough to train more — I have been having my doubts about sustainability as an endurance [quasi]-athlete.

Being in ketosis seemed to work out well for my few longer bike rides last year. Burning the fat I carry around is far easier than having to carry around food and remember to eat it during the ride. But I have to admit while I had pretty great endurance, I didn’t have the power or “pop” that I used to.

Hopefully with help from Coach Jenn I’ll get that figured out for this upcoming training season. I’m fine with going back to a more “normal” diet as long as fat Chris doesn’t make a return appearance. Stay tuned…

Health:
Shoulder rehab continues but it isn’t holding me back from swimming anymore. Swam over 2800 yards yesterday with minimal issue. Sure, some soreness later but nothing at all during the swim itself. That’s progress! Still doing PT for whatever I did to the triceps but somehow that doesn’t bother me much swimming.

The knee is getting better as well. Cycling doesn’t bother it much anymore — even the almost 3 hour spin on Saturday just left it a little stiff. Did a 10 minute trot on the treadmill tonight with minimal issue too. I’m thinking maybe this is the last week of no runs. Hopefully next week we can get the runs back into the training schedule. Yay(?).