Monday I ran an easy three miles and did a total of 40 miles of biking, 15 on my hybrid and another 25 on that road bike. The stress fracture pain seemingly disappeared.
Tuesday was a day off, Wednesday I biked a hard and hilly 15 miles and followed that up with a 5.5 mile hilly run. Still no pain in the leg.
Friday was an easy 3.
Saturday, I participated in the North Face Endurance Challenge, specifically the trail marathon relay event. We had a rather stacked team of 4 runners, each of which had to run a ~6.4 mile trail loop. The course was flat and not all that difficult, I've done significantly harder trail races. I won't give a full blown race report because there is not much to report. We decided to send our fastest runner (me) out first to try and build a massive lead, figuring it would be hard to pass people at the end of the race with the narrow trails. I completely blow the field out of the water by nearly 3 minutes, crossing the line in 35:11, for a smooth sub-6 minute pace. I ran somewhat conservatively early since I did not know what to expect on the course, so I felt pretty strong at the end. Despite the huge lead, we ended up finishing 3rd. My time was the 2nd fastest on the day. The best news of all, no pain in the leg.
While all this running was going on, I made the decision to officially pick up cycling as a second sport. Up until this point, I had bought a hybrid bike only to cross train and try and maintain my running while on the come back. After borrowing a Trek 1.2 road bike, my thoughts immediately went to picking up the sport for real. I have always wanted to get into cycling, but never really saw the need when my running was going so well. The seed got planted though, thanks to my injury and some very convincing friends.
So I decided to make an investment. Cycling is extremely expensive to get into, but comparative to running in terms of ongoing cost after the initial investment. I want to start with duathlons, and had no interest in buying some junk entry level bike that was going to put me at a huge disadvantage. I wanted something on par with my general athletic abilities. So, I took the plunge and purchased a Cannondale SuperSix 5 105 Road Bike with Speedplay Zero pedals. It has a full carbon fiber frame, fork, and seat post, with shimano 105 components, and shimano RS 10 wheels. That sucker can fly with me as the engine. Now all I have to do is turbo charge it by training!
Sunday I took it out for 27 miles, then ran 6 afterward.
Monday I ran an easy 3, then took the SuperSix for another 40 miles.
I can really feel the momentum again, hopefully this time for good. I'm also excited about throwing cycling and duathlons into the mix. I can really use another challenge, since these days, it's getting harder to get good competition at races unless I do the real big ones.
Here is the bike. Since taking this picture, I've added a wireless cycling computer to track cadence, speed, distance, and time. I also added a seat bag and a double water bottle holder under the seat. I've gone as fast as 38mph, and could have hit 40 had I not been approaching an intersection that I had to slow down for.I averaged roughly 18 mph on my first ride while still getting used to the gearing. On the longer ride, I took it a bit easier and averaged 16.5.
I'll try and take it for a "harder" ride sometime this week.
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