Training update: 7/30/07

Well, we've now officially broken the 1,000 mile mark. Our season training ride total is at 1,014.84 miles. We completed a 49-mile ride yesterday at a record pace for us - we were able to maintain an average speed of 16.1 MPH. In general our 40-50 mile rides are usually ridden at about a 14 MPH pace. So we had quite the ride yesterday, despite the heat & humidity. We were awfully proud of ourselves, and a little surprised as well.

Karen is still having shoulder issues - we had to cut our ride a little short yesterday. Her shoulder was really bothering her toward the end of the ride, and since she notices the strain on that muscle the most during the hills, we cut out the final hill. It will be interesting to see how the shoulder thing holds up during the early part of Saturday. (In case you hadn't been subjected to her whining, Karen managed to tear through some scar tissue in her shoulder while stretching 2 weeks ago. Apparently, this is somewhat of a good thing - she can now re-build the scar tissue in a less obstructive manner, but in the mean time, its sore & painful).

We plan on spending this entire week doing some light cardio (to help flush out the muscles) as well as sleeping A LOT, drinking a ton of water, and eating very well.

Training this year has been going much better, and we think that is in a large part due to our return to omnivore-hood. All of our good rides seem to come right around BBQs or nights out for Sushi. Ken seem to have largely solved his leg cramp issue from last year - and the only difference we can think of is the inclusion of meat in our diet. So we'll be eating lots of meat this week. Sushi, BBQ leftovers & grilled Salmon or tuna. We're also going to be bringing a bag of beef jerky with us on the ride. If you consume protein within 30 minutes of when you stop riding, you can re-load your muscles with protein. If you miss that 30-minute window, it could take weeks to replace that protein store.