Some Must Watch While Some Must Sleep: Number, numbers, numbers...

Right now I'm focusing my caged energy on the numbers of my life. Its all about the numbers for me actually. Sometimes I think that us cyclist can get a little hung up on all the number data we are fed these days, but some things really can't be measured unless it is put into facts and figures. I'm not talking about "heart" and motivation, since there is no way to measure that, but all the other things that surround us that can really be broken down with numbers. Right now, I'm paying close attention to them like so:

I'm 5 weeks out from surgery. I have roughly 8 weeks total in the cast. That leaves me 3 more dreadful weeks in this contraption. In 1 week I can start weaning out of the cast for 1-2 hours at home in an air cast splint at night. On the 23rd I go see Dr Porter for my 6 week follow-up. This point is always a good insight to recovery and I look forward to how he thinks things are progressing. He has estimated that I can start to clip into pedals and start riding outside in 2 more months. Maybe by then the 15 degree weather will be about 35 degrees! I hope. But at this point I'd ride in a blizzard just to feel the open road again. While I make my comeback I need to wear a compression hose on my leg for 3 months and a brace for that time too. At about the 6 month mark I should finally start to see an end to the swelling and should be about 100%. Just in time for cross!

Right now I get to do some mild physical therapy at home. This is a big change from my past surgery as I had a different surgeon with a different approach. Now I am getting about a 3 week jump start on keeping a little ROM. Currently, I focus on doing rehab about 3 times during the day. I do about 8 exercises to keep things stretched out. That's 2 sets of 10 reps. After each session I need to ice for about 40 minutes. Icing is like my life saver right now! A little ice goes a long way and is a simple way to help the body heal.

Other numbers in my life include the hours of the night and day I can actually sleep. With the nerve damage full force between 11pm- 5am. I really can't sleep good at those times. So if I need to be up for work at 530am I totally need a nap in the afternoon to make up some z's. Ideally, I can sleep from 5a- 10a, but I'm now back to the real working world. Sleep is vital to recovery right now, so I don't stress about taking naps or sleeping 12 hours at a time. I need it, my body has a lot to rebuild!

Other than that, I am all about the numbers for my workouts. I hit the gym 5 days a week for core, weight conditioning. We all know that's all about numbers. I am doing 3 sets of 15 reps for my variety of exercises I do. I'm hitting a circuit type plan to try and keep my heart rate higher than 100 bpm to hit a aerobic cardio range. This last for about 1-2 hours a day.

On the bike I keep it pretty tight on numbers as to not overdo it. Since I'm still on flat pedals, this isn't too hard to do. My goal is to ride 5 days a week. I get to add 1 minute each day to my ride time as long as the pain and swelling is okay. Tonight I made it up to 49 minutes! I keep it under the 100 watt range, which is easy to do since I'm still pretty sore and weak. I started in the 60 watt average range and now I'm breaking the 80 watt mark! Crazy how I was easily doing 260 watts a little more than a month ago. I also try to keep a close eye on the hr on the bike. I know that if the hr starts creeping up and I'm feeling pain, I need to back off to give the ankle a rest.

Another big number game is calories in and calories out. During racing time, its not such a big deal, but off season is another story for me. I've been doing this cool little LiveStrong application that Johnson Chiropractic turned me on to on the iphone that lets me track all the items I eat and track my workout calories too. It has been a big help in keeping me aware of what's going in and out; and helps to keep a check on the macro nutrients. Since I had some major anemia before and after surgery, I need to pay special attention to this to give the body what it needs to repair and get the hgb back up to 13ish so my o2 can have some places to bind once harder training get under way!

Of course these aren't all the numbers, because there are hours to count at work, money numbers to estimate for all the upcoming equipment I will need to buy, tallying up the number of vacation days I can take for races next year, and estimating how many GU packets I may need from GU. Stuff like that.

They seem to keep me a little focused. I just keep it one day at a time until I hear "starting in 30 seconds... 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, GO!"