Building a good foundation

BIKE 65 mins and ~16 miles? Indoors
RUN 25 mins total, 7 1-minute run intervals
BIKE COMMUTE about 3.3 miles
PT with JH

I pulled out the bike training workout book and turned to Endurance 1: Rolling Hills. I didn't do the exact workout as I didn't gear up (or would it be down?) to 70 rpm in the intervals. I just did "pushed" but kept the cadence higher. This is my first "real" bike workout on the trainer this year! Felt great, and felt weak on the 30s standing intervals during the WU.

Then a brick run, I did a total of 25-26 mins and did 2 min walk/1 min run intervals. I figured with the fatigue from Sunday and from the ride, 1 minute would be a good interval. Besides, save it for Thursday! I ran around BP, felt great. No obvious fatigue and no pain. And I wore shorts! Brrr but worth it.

Shower. M1. Work with partial commute in from FoPa, then off to PT with JH.

More like before with him, but with a graduation to standing up workout!! First the floor work, chatting about Missouri paranormal and zombie trail (searching on that still), racing next year (he jokes I'll be doing a marathon next week), racing my birthday (he correctly assumed a 100 miler), and a discussion of how it takes to run a 100 (yes, I consider myself a mere mortal).

Near the end, he pulled away the yoga ball. I was disappointed -- I wanted more! But then he helped me up and I got to learn a new squat! WHOOP!!!! Standing with weight on one leg, iso arm on butt and contra arm on quad; looking down in front of feet, stand pushing hip back, bending weighted knee, and sliding contra arm down to just below knee. The unweighted leg is behind as just a 'comfort balance', the hands help as 'markers' for hip going back and for knee not folding in/out; left iso shoulder and let contra shoulder fall in a rotation to help with balance. Got all that? Ha. When ready to come back up, push into the floor and engage muscles. I like this! I can do it while waiting for something instead of just standing.

Now to the foundation title. During the floor work, I commented with my surprise that the more I used the hip the better it felt. The period between December and February seemed a plateau in improvement. Pain and progress remained unchanged. Heck, I even had a set back in January after trying running in late December.

JH compared it to the foundation of a building. When the hole is being dug and the foundation pillars being put in place, it looks like nothing is happening from the surface. Then all of the sudden a building appears! Build a good foundation, and you have a good building. Build a bad foundation, it starts to fall apart at the top and repairs need to be made.

LOVE that analogy.