Bring On The Dancing Horses

PM: 90 Minutes Trainer Ride - Workout

Man, my google alerts are being inundated with Radiohead news stories, except they are not the band Radiohead stories, rather they are about a race horse named Radiohead. I don't like horse racing anymore (not that I ever loved it or really even liked it) but its cool that some owner named their horse after the best band on the planet.

Not sure why that was worth talking about but I just checked my alerts for news and the first 4 stories were horse racing related. Tonight, I banged out a hard session on the bike. Probably pointless since I am only trying to keep general fitness but I was in a self torture mood for no particular reason. I just thought about Forest Gump right as I wrote that sentence. Anyway, I warmed up for 20 minutes and for the next hour I did intervals ranging from 20 second tabatha sprints to single leg efforts to out of the saddle hill climbs. I was dying at the end but so content with the work I put in. The evening was made better by going to Abes for a few pints with the fearless leader and Coxy. I Like Thursdays.

If you like the band Fiery Furnaces you should probably reconsider. They gave the middle finger to Radiohead because they thought that the song "Harry Patch, In Memory Of" was actually about an American composer Harry Partch. They proceeded to claim Radiohead were simply trying to associate themselves with things that other people consider cool. How silly do they look now. The Fiery Furnaces, pathetic. You only wish you had the talent of Radiohead. But you don't.

Love Kel

With A Buzz In Our Ears We Play Endlessly

PM: 90 Minutes Trainer Ride - Steady Tempo Effort

There is a significant chance that Liverpool will not qualify for the Champions League knockout stages. Awful. And very frustrating. A season that started with so much promise looks like it will be the worst under Rafa's watch and questions must be asked. Energy was low when I got on the bike but after the first beads of sweat crested my brow the energy was back and I was firing. No matter how tired I feel it seems to drift away at the first elevation of the HR. When I still feel awful after the first 10 minutes then I know I'm tired and I stop. After 90 minutes today I was still hungary for more but the wise part of my brain encouraged me to get off. Lovely evening in the saddle.

Driving home I was cleaning up old CD's that litter my car. Some really terrible ones too ! They find their way into cracks and under the seat during the moving process. I had to toss a couple because they are brutal. But found a few great ones including Portishead - Third. One of my favorite albums of 2008. I forgot I bought a hard copy.......thats a sign of the times if there ever was one! So I listened and was completely content. What an amazing journey. The Rip is my favorite track, and not just because Thom York covered it, but because it is beautiful.

Love Kel

Lets Go Down The Waterfall

PM: 75 Minutes Bike Trainer Ride

PM: 31 Minutes Swim

It felt so good to workout again. 6 days off, with the exception of a dodgy run in Central Park, does not help the head or the heart. So tonight, I jumped on my trainer and did a solid 75 minutes steady. I went straight up to PC pool after and managed to swim for just over 30 minutes. Not a straight swim mind you, more a warm up followed by random reps of 50, 75, and 100 yards. my arms are hanging off me right now, evidence that I have a long way to go before I become shark like and blitz through the water. Ok maybe not shark, but you get the vibes.

Nothing beats starting off the day in a GE cylindrical imagining machine getting in depth pictures of my knee. I've had 6 MRI's on my knees now and a total of 14 MRI's in my career. 3 Shin, 2 Pelvis, and 3 Sacrum. This is what I can remember, there could have been a couple more. I fell asleep to the jackhammer sound but if it was quite I would not have fallen asleep. Odd, I know. Having a REM sleep while getting an MRI clearly indicates that I'm tired from the week in NYC. And since the unplanned Nap I have felt amazing. To celebrate being one day closer to an answer about my knee pain I listened to Sigur Ros, loud. I also spoke to Frankie on Skype which is amazing.

So the plan of attack (I have to many plans, and none of them ever come to fruition) is to ride and swim all week, awaiting results. If there is no tear then I will get aggressive on the therapy, and if there is a tear I will get another surgery. At this stage it is more natural to get Knee Surgery than it is to run races. It will be my last running related surgery because if it comes down to operation number 4 it might be time to listen to the alarm bells and stop running. Hopefully it does not come to this but I don't feel like getting a knee replacement at 32. I have many more raves and concerts to attend........

Love Kel

Here I'm Allowed, Everything All Of The Time

I'm alive. Just on the road in NYC for the last week. I had the New York Marathon Expo to look after and as per usual I promise myself lots of breaks and bed early and as per usual I take no breaks and I stay up late. Its an intense 4 days but really fun. The only downside is the pain I have in my knees. Working an expo for 13 hours is worse on the knees than any run. I was feeling depressed after the last day because of how sore my knees were and watching excited athletes on the eve of the marathon didn't help.

The marathon itself was awesome. I was really happy to see USA get their first win in over 25 years and even more pleased to see Meb get it done. He has been such a consistent performer since graduating from UCLA in 1998 and in recent years has somewhat slid under the radar. With Teg, Ritz and Hall putting forth such amazing performances it seemed that everyone forgot about Meb. The joy he exuded after crossing the line showed that he probably felt some of that loss of spotlight too. It was a real wake up to everyone that Meb is one of the best American distance runners we have ever seen. He really deserved the win and I believe everyone was genuinely happy for him. Ryan Hall may not have lived up to his pre race favorite tag but 2:10 being a "bad" run in New York shows what a class act the guy is. Lots of friends had good runs but I was disappointed for Paula Radcliffe who carrying an injury faded to 4th. Great day and another first class event by NYRR.

Been off the music scene for a week now. Really frustrated by this because I just got on the blogs for the first time and I have missed a lot of stuff. Therefore I have a lot of reading to do tonight and tomorrow. I am getting an MRI on my right knee to see how severe the loss of cartilage is on that side. Nothing like having two battered knees and attempting to still run.

Keeping the faith and the love,

Kel

In Pitch Dark, I Go Walking In Your Landscape

PM: 90 Minutes Trainer Ride

PM: 2,000 Yards Swim

Not sure why I didn't get up and ride in the AM. I didn't sleep particularly well so my energy and desire to bang out a session were non-existent. Plans to visit the chiropractor were also on my mind. I have an MRI lined up for next week because my knee is really sore and not getting any better. The Dr doesn't think its super serious. Just a strain or some bad tendonitis but the course of treatment will be determined by what results the MRI show. If there is a tear then I am on the sidelines for a while but if its just inflammation then we will go back to intensive rehab.

I jumped on the bike and banged out 90 solid minutes with 15 x Min on/off. After the session I went straight to the pool and did another session. 500m warm up, followed by 5 x 50m w/15 sec rec. 100m breast stroke, 5 x 100m w/20 sec rec. 100m Breast stroke, 5 x 50m w/15 sec, then 300m cool down. My arms are still weak but my stroke tonight was an improvement over last week.

I did not search out new music today, nor did I listen to new bands in my iTunes. Rather, I drove to an acoustic Radiohead session I found in my car. It is a show from 2003 that I have on DVD. Amazing. Check out the song below. So good!

Love Kel

All Local Ingredients

AM: 90 Minutes Trainer Workout

Last night I had the best sleep in as many years as I can remember. I went to bed fairly late and with no sleep aids and only 2 pages of my book I drifted into a blissful sleep. I awoke in a panic at 9:30am. I NEVER sleep through the night without waking up and I NEVER sleep through the night without feeling like I have to use the bathroom. I drink so much water and coffee that I am completely used to a 3am or 4am trip followed by a 6am trip. So as you can imagine it was pretty weird to wake up at 9:30 having slept 9 hours straight. This is what people experience and I want more of it. I jumped out of bed and onto the bike where I did a very hard session.

After 2o minutes w/u I did 10 minutes really pushing the HR up. From 30 -48 minutes I alternated 1 min out of the saddle in a big gear, 1 min in the saddle in the same gear, and 1 min hard in a lesser gear. I took 2 minutes recovery and then did a set of tabatha sprints. 20 seconds all out with 10 seconds recovery x 8. That part was hard. After that it was 3 x 6 minutes big gear work and about 6 or 7 minutes easy spinning to cool down.

But back to the sleep thing. I am obviously dehydrated or something. What with getting all light headed and then sleeping 9 hours with no herbs or even prescription drugs. Very odd. I spent the day replenishing with lots of fluids and food (although food is never an issue with me). I also took my bike out to ride around Providence because P-Town in the fall is beautiful. Things went pear shaped when the rain pished down on me but nothing that ducking into White Electric coffee shop couldn't fix. I am now over at Blue State about to visit Not Just Snacks with Lee and Myene followed by a trip to Abes. Nice little Saturday.

I spent time surfing the interweb of blog, particularly music blogs and came across this gem of the track. I have heard of the artist, edIT but I never paid too much attention. His music didn't do it for me. He falls under the Glitch-Hop category what ever that is. But this song is just beautiful and on constant rotation here at the coffee shop. Check it out.

Love Kel

I'm Not In Love With The Modern World

AM: 75 Minutes Trainer Ride

PM: 60 Minutes Trainer Ride

Nothing like spending 2.25 hours in a basement sweating hard and listening to tunes. The AM session was just a straight up ride, getting progressively faster and harder. I kept my HR below 150 BPM to keep the session controlled. Lovely ride followed by a lovely cup of thick, black coffee. I took the single speed out and rode around P-Town, since I don't get over the far side too much these days. I stopped into Blue State Coffee and spent hours chatting with John "The Eyeball" Lawlor while getting even higher on more coffee. Blue State do free refills. Awesome. The lady next to me fainted. She seemed like a drama queen but I felt bad for her, at least for about 30 seconds when I realized that she was really over the top. My intuition was spot on because after the ambulance arrived and took her away her friend came back in and told us that she has an eating disorder and it happens all the time because she basically runs out of battery power. And that she is a complete attention seeker.

I raced cars up Smith street and easily beat them. I wish I could ride my bike to work because it is so enjoyable to blow past cars stuck in traffic. Got in the door, went downstairs and jumped on the bike for another solid hour. This time I did some reps and single leg drills. Any plans to test my knee with a jog went out the window sharpish when I nearly had my own episode. I felt very light headed after the session and obviously drank too much coffee and not enough water. A trip to Thai star and some Ben and Jerrys certainly did the trick. I'm a happy camper now.

I just bought my Tix to see MEW. Very happy and really looking forward to it.

Love Kel