Week 22 Recap

With the Mountains of Misery trip being roughly two weeks away from the date of this post I knew this past weekend would be the last chance to test the legs. I headed back to Charlottesville, VA for another climb near Crabtree Falls. This time I decided to bike the course in the opposite direction of Week 20's 44-miler. By doing so, I didn't have to attack the steepest part of the entire ride right out of the gates. Instead I had to face a short yet challenging climb six minutes into the ride (800 feet of elevation). From there I rode a mix of rollers and flats until I climbed for a solid 53 minutes up the valley (2000 feet of elevation) to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Here's an idea of how I taxed my body during the long climb (note one rest stop for a snack at 1:27, and anaerobic @ HR > 170):

I knew the magic number on my Garmin was 39 miles, Reeds Gap. From here I held on tight and dropped 1700 feet of elevation over five miles in nine minutes. Whew!

Even though I've been feeling some deep fatigue lately and had a big ride on Saturday I felt decent enough to try a 13-mile romp around the Yorktown Battlefields on Sunday. I took a little extra time to make sure I was stretched before setting out. Nine miles into the run I felt something give below my right shin. It appears to be a ligament I overused between the two days. It was so painful the front of my leg cramped up while I jogged back to the car. I don't think it’s serious but I'll be taking it easy this week just in case.

The injury is disheartening considering I was on a training roll. Week 22 featured some tough workouts and had great results. I put in just over 10 hours of training with 5100 yards swimming, 90 miles biking, and 26 miles running.