Training - Soreness

I knew that my sprint workout, as short as it was, would make me pretty sore. But I'd forgotten exactly how sore I'd feel.

Yesterday, in the morning drive to work, I realized I had a bit of trouble pushing the clutch pedal down to the floor. So I started skipping gears and doing other "my clutch is in trouble" driving maneuvers in order to reduce the number of times I had to press the clutch pedal.

I suppose that was a warning sign.

When I got to the office (just over an hour away at "pro commuting" speeds), the fact that I couldn't lift my leg out of the car seemed like a bad sign. I had to lift my leg with both my hands as my muscles were screaming in pain when I tried to lift my leg with, well, my leg.

I avoided walking around too much and found convenient desks, shelves, and doorways from which I could lift myself up using my arms. Chairs with double armrests won over chairs with none (because I could use my arms to lift my body off the seat).

With a very big family get together planned (sis and husband flying in from Chicago, bro and wife from Boston, finacee's mom and husband driving in), we went up to meet everyone in our childhood house a town away. We had some food and spent the night.

I was so sore I couldn't even roll over in bed without groaning in pain. Various parts of my legs were tender to the touch and I was tempted to turn upside down on the bed so I could lay my legs up against the wall. That got nixed by my fiancee who didn't want to spend the night with me rolling around on bed and possibly dropping my legs on her head or something like that.

This morning I had to lift my leg with my hands in order to get dressed. My right sock in particular gave me a lot of trouble. I actually feel worse today than I did yesterday. I hope that my legs will ease up by tonight. I think all the spare ribs (30 pounds) my sis-in-law are preparing will help immensely.

Of course, having said all that, I know that my legs will be fine in a couple days. I may take today off, or if I feel adventurous, I may lope along a bit on the treadmill or get my bike and do a short ride. I figure tomorrow I can make some reasonable efforts without hurting myself for Sunday. Friday will be either easy or off, Saturday will be an easy ride.

As I've ridden about 45 minutes this week (my sprint workout was about 12 minutes long), I should have another hour before Sunday - a productive week as far as I'm concerned. Some spinning, some big gear efforts, and sprints semi-consistently for the last couple weeks. I'm really hoping for a good ride on Sunday.

But I have more immediate things to accomplish right now.

For example I need to get out of this chair.

And it has no armrests.