Week 26 Summary...Progress

This week began with a trip to physical therapy at Plaza Physical Therapy where I got good news from Kevin Swanson, my PT. Kevin told me my incisions were closed and I was good to begin swimming. I went straight from PT to the pool and my arms reminded me that they don't like it when I go 16 days without swimming. It was my longest time out of the water in the last year and a half. I only made it 2,300 yards before calling it a day in the pool but I would be back for more later in the week. My achilles continues to heal from the surgery although running is not in the plans for at least two more weeks. I've had no pain at all biking which is a sign of improvement because pre-surgery I would have put the pain at a 1 on a scale of 1 to 10. It wasn't enough to keep me off the bike but the fact that it is now totally pain free has me excited. I went to PT on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. After physical therapy on Friday I made a visit to my massage therapist, Laurel Darren. I have long known the benefits massage can bring to having good workouts and then also aiding in recovery. Last year I went to Laurel for massages before all my big races and I believe the work she did helped me to race well in all of them. This year I plan to use Laurel's expertise even more as I will get massages before AND after all my races. I know the pre-race massage is important to getting my body ready to perform at its' best and the post-race massage will help me to recover quickly so I can begin training at a high level soon after the races. I also will sprinkle in some massages during hard training weeks when I'm not racing. I know these will help me to reach my goals. If you are looking for a massage therapist or have never used massage for sports performance call Laurel for an appointment. She is tremendous. Her office is conveniently located on Avenue of the Cities just off I-74 in Moline, IL. Laurel is also generously offering a tremendous deal of three 1 hour massages for $100.00. I don't think you'll find better in the QC. When I was at the Bettendorf Fitness Center the other day I saw an advertisement for their massage therapist for $1.00 for each minute. That doesn't come close to Laurel's 3 hours for $100.00.
On Saturday morning I had a great 53 mile bike ride with my good friend Stephan Marsh who was home for the weekend having just finished law school finals at Creighton University. The weather was awesome and it was great to get a real training ride in, my first ride of any substance since surgery. After the ride I went to the pool for a 3,300 yard workout and I felt awesome! I couldn't figure out why I felt so bad my first 2 days in the pool and then everything clicked on Saturday. The only thing I could think of was how well the massage loosened up my back, shoulder, and arm muscles. I just felt in a great rhythm. I followed up the swim with a session in the weight room and my total training time for the day was about 4.5 hours. It felt great to get such a solid day in without any pain in my tendon. I followed that up on Sunday with a 45 mile ride with Team Tri-Fit director Steve Meek and also got a 3,000 yard swim workout in with some fast 100's.

I had the opportunity to speak to youth on Sunday who are preparing for the Hy-Vee kids triathlon to be held at the Bettendorf YMCA on June 5th. It was awesome to see how excited the kids are to be competing in a triathlon. They are the future of the sport and I hope to see this sport continuing to be the fastest growing sport in the U.S. My total training time this week was right at 15 hours which I felt very good about. I need to start eating better to lose the weight I gained in my time off. I'm still optimistic about racing the Quad City Triathlon on June 19th. Thanks for reading. DREAM BIG!