Recovery from Injury - Winter Training starts now

JacEim

Hi All

Am going to attempt a new log for two reasons - 1. Hopefully to motivate myself into keeping the the training going, & 2. To hopefully solicit some helpful feedback along the way. There might a an unintended third benefit in that you laugh at some of the idiotic things I do along the way...

Anyway. The background - Am in my early 40's, used to exercise a lot / play a lot of sports reasonably competitively in younger life. Kids came, exercise stopped and I ended up a fat b*st*rd.
Couple of years ago I was dared into doing a triathlon. Did a sprint and absolutely loved the training (bike and run) but avoided swimming like a plague. Wasn't too keen on doing another tri due to the swimming but the unintended benefit was that I lost 3 stone (from 17-14 stone) and generally felt great. Last year I did ROK and loved it & did Gaelforce West and absolutely LOVED it. Came in the top 100 except that I ripped my knee cartilage and got a badly bruised femur running / falling down Croagh Patrick which I only felt on the last 1km run to the finish line. Actually took too long to diagnose the issues because of the bone bruise so eventually only had surgery in late April this year. Recovery and a badly twisted ankle meant that I am only NOW ready to get back training.

Last year I was running 10k races in around 42 minutes, a few HM training runs in around 1.45 and would comfortably cycle with the lads at 30+kph pace for a couple hours.

Unfortunately, with a 'sit on yer arse' job, lots of travel and a love of Asian food/ Ice cream and Porter my weight has gone back to 15 stone 11 lbs. Surgeon has advised no outdoor training (hard surfaces or hills) for the next couple months (partly because I am carrying too much weight on the knee) and focus on indoor training.

So, The Objective:

If I have to train indoors for the next couple of months then by the time I am allowed outdoors the weather will be turning cold. So I'm going to commence an indoor weight loss / winter training program now through to Christmas.

Targets:
1. Lose 25 lbs to get me back to 14 stone.
2. Be able to run a 42 minute treadmill 10k.
3. Be able to cycle 100K in 3hours (How bored am i going to be doing this indoors).
4. Be able to do an indoor duathlon (5k/20k/5k) in 87 minutes.

I have a dedicated room at home with:
- Tacx Turbo trainer
- Nordic track Treadmill (to be fixed hopefully on monday/tuesday)
- Big TV with netflix etc to avoid boredom
Dependent on progress / knee health I will then start to focus on objectives for next year - Adventure races or perhaps I will try again to learn how to swim. Ideas gratefully accepted...

Training Started this week (didnt record full details but will in future)

Mon: Turbo 45 minutes at ~30 kph pace
Tues: Turbo 45 minutes at ~30 kph pace
Wed: Turbo 50 minutes at ~33 kph pace
Thurs:Turbo 60 minutes at ~33 kph pace & approx 180 watts

Will start recording more details on training specifics / diet / weight loss etc as I go forward.
Let's go !!!

EC1000

Best of luck with it all. I'm not in any position to give you medical advice but is running 10k on a treadmill really that much easier on your knees than running on grass? I would try to seek out options that will at least let you outside - why not cycle outside also on a flat route?

Kurt Godel

EC1000 wrote: »

Best of luck with it all. I'm not in any position to give you medical advice but is running 10k on a treadmill really that much easier on your knees than running on grass? I would try to seek out options that will at least let you outside - why not cycle outside also on a flat route?

^ Good advice there. You can have a thousand different reasons for knee injury, but what got me through a chronic knee injury was running on (flat) grass, barefoot or in socks. After a few months, graduated to minimal shoes on flat tarmac. Turbo with a good bike fit (or flat outside). Basically stay away from hills for a while, but there's plenty you can do outside. Swimming is brilliant if you can do it, so learn that over the next few months. Most of all, lose the gut as that is throwing you off balance when running, as well as adding to knee impact forces.

JacEim

Thanks for the responses guys

Yes - thinking about it I would love to be able to get out onto some grass for running as well as the treadmill. The local GAA club is only up the road and there's about a 1k run around the pitches with only a small bit on Tarmac.

The gut is really the primary focus for the next two months anyway, I would hope to lose most of the 25lbs by the end of September (I don't think this is aggressive?) and the turbo will help me do this better without putting all that ice cream loading on my knee. Once the weight starts to come off I will feel better about the running, so Turbo will be at least 80% of my training for the next 6-8 weeks at least. Saying that I always find it easier to shed the weight when running.

I am going to try to be a little more scientific about the training also - focusing on HR zones. I have a HR monitor (which just needs a new battery) that connects to the Bushido and plan to train within the weight loss zones - I'll post on that in the next few days.

Anyway, Friday session:

Turbo: 1 hour, 33.6km, Average watts 164
I have no idea what these stats really mean except to say that I was pretty knackered afterwards (and sweat like a mule!). Even though I didn't have the HR monitor on I knew that my HR was way up because my fitness is so poor at the moment. Still, it felt like a good burn and even after 5 sessions this week I am starting to feel better about myself...

Food today:
Breakfast: water
Lunch: Two toast & poached eggs
Early Dinner (pre turbo): small bowl of pasta same size as kids were eating.... Tried to steal theirs when not looking... Unsuccessfully
Did have a sneaky choccy tea cake

Am damn hungry but need to retrain the tum...

tunney

JacEim wrote: »

Hi All

Am going to attempt a new log for two reasons - 1. Hopefully to motivate myself into keeping the the training going, & 2. To hopefully solicit some helpful feedback along the way. There might a an unintended third benefit in that you laugh at some of the idiotic things I do along the way...

Anyway. The background - Am in my early 40's, used to exercise a lot / play a lot of sports reasonably competitively in younger life. Kids came, exercise stopped and I ended up a fat b*st*rd.
Couple of years ago I was dared into doing a triathlon. Did a sprint and absolutely loved the training (bike and run) but avoided swimming like a plague. Wasn't too keen on doing another tri due to the swimming but the unintended benefit was that I lost 3 stone (from 17-14 stone) and generally felt great. Last year I did ROK and loved it & did Gaelforce West and absolutely LOVED it. Came in the top 100 except that I ripped my knee cartilage and got a badly bruised femur running / falling down Croagh Patrick which I only felt on the last 1km run to the finish line. Actually took too long to diagnose the issues because of the bone bruise so eventually only had surgery in late April this year. Recovery and a badly twisted ankle meant that I am only NOW ready to get back training.

Last year I was running 10k races in around 42 minutes, a few HM training runs in around 1.45 and would comfortably cycle with the lads at 30+kph pace for a couple hours.

Unfortunately, with a 'sit on yer arse' job, lots of travel and a love of Asian food/ Ice cream and Porter my weight has gone back to 15 stone 11 lbs. Surgeon has advised no outdoor training (hard surfaces or hills) for the next couple months (partly because I am carrying too much weight on the knee) and focus on indoor training.

So, The Objective:

If I have to train indoors for the next couple of months then by the time I am allowed outdoors the weather will be turning cold. So I'm going to commence an indoor weight loss / winter training program now through to Christmas.

Targets:
1. Lose 25 lbs to get me back to 14 stone.
2. Be able to run a 42 minute treadmill 10k.
3. Be able to cycle 100K in 3hours (How bored am i going to be doing this indoors).
4. Be able to do an indoor duathlon (5k/20k/5k) in 87 minutes.

I have a dedicated room at home with:
- Tacx Turbo trainer
- Nordic track Treadmill (to be fixed hopefully on monday/tuesday)
- Big TV with netflix etc to avoid boredom
Dependent on progress / knee health I will then start to focus on objectives for next year - Adventure races or perhaps I will try again to learn how to swim. Ideas gratefully accepted...

Training Started this week (didnt record full details but will in future)

Mon: Turbo 45 minutes at ~30 kph pace
Tues: Turbo 45 minutes at ~30 kph pace
Wed: Turbo 50 minutes at ~33 kph pace
Thurs:Turbo 60 minutes at ~33 kph pace & approx 180 watts

Will start recording more details on training specifics / diet / weight loss etc as I go forward.
Let's go !!!

Speed on a turbo is a useless metric. 30 kph with no resistance != 30 kph with lots of resistance. I'd suggest using a different metric.

JacEim

tunney wrote: »

Speed on a turbo is a useless metric. 30 kph with no resistance != 30 kph with lots of resistance. I'd suggest using a different metric.

Hi Tunney
Not sure I understand. I calibrate the brake on the turbo and it has my weight included. I thought that this was supposed to try to replicate normal flat cycling conditions (excepting wind etc).
It give me my watts and also Kj burned.

I will eventually start using the incline features on the turbo once I build up my fitness a bit (I am very unfit)

Am I missing something ?
Thanks