Thursday 7/10

Got out on the road bike today. I needed some new brake pads for my bike as mine had worn out, so I stopped by Urban AdvenTours in the North End to pick some up on my way home. Threw them on my bike while watching the Tour de France and was out the door for my ride by 6pm. Unfortunately, I still needed to make some adjustments to the brakes, but I didn't bring the right tool to fix them. By the end of my BC loop, I basically didn't have brakes, but thankfully, I didn't need to stop short at all. The weather was great: mid 80s, sunny, and very little wind. I felt like I put in a solid effort today and split 1:17 for 25 miles. When I got home, I decided to make it an even 30 miles by adding on 5 miles on my indoor bike in 14 minutes. I would have just added on with my road bike, but not having brakes in the city is pretty risky. I'm not quite skilled enough to ride Premium Rush style. 30 miles in 1:31.

Wednesday 7/9

Another day on the bike. My heel is showing no real improvement, and I'm beginning to fear that I may have just lost the fall as well as the summer. Today's workout was one long session on the indoor bike which I won't be doing again any time soon. The effort itself felt fine, but when I got off the bike, the top of my hamstrings were very sore from the seat. I really need to figure out a way to fit a traditional bike seat on my indoor bike if I am going to continue biking. 30 miles in 83 minutes.

Tuesday 7/8

Another day on the bike. On Sunday, I put in Sarah's A/C unit, and she thanked me today by making some amazing chicken chili. Absolutely delicious. Since I knew I'd be heading over her apartment for dinner, I went home at lunch and did 10 miles in 28 mins. After work, I did 12 easy miles on my road bike including the ride to Sarah's apartment to see how it felt on my foot. Still not great, so I did 10 miles in 30 mins on the indoor bike a bit later rather than riding outside. 32 miles total but it was a fairly easy day overall.

Monday 7/7

My workout for today was 2 rounds on the indoor bike. I've been favoring the indoor bike rather than my road bike because the former puts less pressure on my heel. The only downside of the indoor bike is the saddle. It has more of a seat than a road bike saddle, and the seat isn't terribly comfortable. It presses against the top of my hamstrings which get sore after a while. To avoid this, I usually break up long workouts on the indoor bike into 2 sessions. Today's first session was 22 miles in an hour right after work. Since I don't typically use my indoor bike for my primary workout, this was actually one of the hardest efforts I've put in on this piece of equipment. It was the fastest I've made it to the 20 mile mark and the farthest I've made it in 1 hour. The second session was about two hours after the first. Another solid effort but not quite as far. 13 miles in 36 minutes. 35 miles overall.

Friday 7/4 - Sunday 7/6

No workouts what so ever. I decided to take a few days completely off to see if it would make a difference. Doing so over the 4th of July would also help me to focus on other things and, hopefully, not go completely crazy due to lack of exercise. It worked in that sense. My 4th was a ton of fun. Unfortunately, the situation with my heel isn't looking good.

Thursday 7/3

I felt like my road bike was putting more pressure on my heel than my indoor bike, so I wanted to see if riding two short sessions on my indoor bike would give my heel a break. Since I was doing two short sessions, I went a bit faster than I had been going recently. My AM session was 10 miles in 28 minutes, and my afternoon session was 10 miles in 26 minutes. Felt like a solid effort and didn't seem to be pressing on my heel. I think I am going to have to take a few days completely off though. As much as I love bike riding, it isn't a full running replacement.

Wednesday 7/2

Going a bit crazy not being able to run, but my heel is still sore. Today was pretty much a carbon copy of yesterday with the exception that I picked up the pace a little. It was in the high 80s when I got home, so I decided to wait for things to cool off. After some food and TV, I started off on the indoor bike again. This gives me some extra time before heading outside which is usually more enjoyable around 7 pm, and it also makes the workout seem shorter by breaking it up. Spending nearly 2 hours on the bike can get a bit boring for me. I did 10 miles indoors in 29 minutes while watching some Netflix before heading out on my road bike. The weather was slightly better than yesterday as it had cooled off a few degrees due to some cloud cover. I ended up doing the same 25 mile loop out to BC and back in 1:18. Total workout was 35 miles in 1:47.

Tuesday 7/1

Got home from work and decided not to start my workout right away. The USA vs Belgium game was on which I obviously didn't want to miss. It was also a very hot day (high 80s), and I wanted to give it a chance to cool down. After the soccer game ended, I still wasn't in the mood to head outside yet, so I hopped on my indoor bike. Still not running to give myself a chance to recover. I did 10 miles in 33 minutes while watching The Office. I'm rewatching the seires on Netflix, and I have to admit that I forgot how good it was. After half an hour on the indoor bike, I realized that I was sweating just as much as I would be outside, so I hopped on the road bike and headed out. Decided to do the BC loop which heads along the Charles for the first 10 miles, turns away from the river to the hills of Newton, runs through BC, over to Brookline, and back towards the North End via downtown. Ended up being 25 miles in 83 minutes which is a fairly good time for me on this loop. 35 miles biked total in 1:56.

Overall, not a bad day even though all I really want to do is run. Unfortunately, my heel hasn't shown much improvement. At least I was able to get in a solid effort on the bike.

Monthly Recap: June 2014

Days Run - 25 out of 30
Total Miles Run - 252.8
Average Run Length - 10.1 miles
Average Mile Pace (excluding workouts, tempos, pick ups and races) - 5:54
Track Workouts - 1
Runs with Pick Ups - 0
Tempo Runs - 0
Races - 3
Wins - 1
Most Common Run - 11 mile out and back along the Charles River (9 times)
Days Biked - 5 out of 30
Miles Biked - 99
Average Bike Length - 19.8

Mile Pace Chart for June (excluding workouts, tempos and pick ups):

Overall, things could have gone much worse this month, but it definitely felt like a step backward. I had to take 5 days off from running, averaged fewer miles per run, averaged a slower mile pace on training runs, only got in 1 workout, and missed a race I had been planning on running. The obviously highlight was a win at the JPM CC though. 

Monday 6/30

It's time to evaluate things. June was meant to be a month of racing to test my fitness level. I had originally planned on running 4 races in 4 weeks but had to drop the New Balance Twilight Meet due to injury. After 3 races in 3 weeks, I feel like I did make some progress over the spring. After missing the entire winter, I was able to get back into shape fairly quickly. Unfortunately, I seem to have stalled out at about the same point as last year. The parallel between the two years is actually eerily similar. To avoid what happened last year, I think it may be a good idea to stop racing for a while. My plan is to spend this week on recovery and begin a new training cycle once my legs feel ready. I'm hoping that without the training interruption and stresses of racing, I'll be able to progress through the fitness level I have seemed to cap out at over the last two years.

Today was an off day from running. I have a sore spot on the bottom of my heel that has been gradually getting worse over the last week and a half. I'm optimistic that a few days without the pounding of running will be enough to sort it out. Instead, I decided to ride my indoor bike a bit. I put in enough effort to make it a workout but didn't really push the pace. My hamstring is still slightly sore, so I want to make sure that gets a chance to recover as well. 29 miles total.