Three days in the saddle, you know my body hurt

The subject above is what I kept thinking about during the second half of my bike ride on Saturday.

Those words are the opening lines to the song "Me and My Uncle", which I know primarily as a Grateful Dead song, sung by Bobby Weir. But, the song was actually written by John Phillips of The Mamas and the Papas.

Anyway, I didn't spend 3 days in the saddle, but I did spend 3+ hours in the saddle of my bike (in the song, they have horses, not bikes) on Saturday. The weather forecast was ominous, with a chance for severe thunderstorms in the afternoon, but the weather stayed nice for my ride. (The severe storms did arrive later and Vermont experienced a very rare tornado during the storms. On average, there is a tornado every other year or so in Vermont.)

The first 25 or so miles of the ride went great. I was taking it fairly easy, trying to spin rather than push bigger gears, and I was just cruising along. But, at mile 25, I turned south to head for home and hit a stiff headwind. And, I had to climb for quite a while. And, the sun was out and it was getting hot. Plus, after all of my recent riding, I was starting to deal with some saddle sores.

So, I found myself riding down the road, thinking about Me and My Uncle. The last 8 miles or so, everything hurt. My quads hurt. My butt hurt. My feet hurt. My shoulders were tired and hurting. My hands hurt. But, I rode for 3:12 on a rolling course and it was a good workout.

Later that day, I went to a local bike shop and spent some money (a lot of money) for some higher quality bike shorts. Hopefully they'll make a difference when I ride again tonight.

Friday afternoon, I had a great PT session and the therapist showed me some new techniques to use a foam roller to work on my hamstring and my ilotibial band on my left leg. Because the hamstring is so tight right now, I can't perform my normal ITB stretch, and I can feel the ITB getting tighter. The therapist cleared me for using stair climbers and elliptical trainers, as long as I had no pain. After work on Friday, I did an intense 30 minute interval workout on the stair climber and I felt pretty good.

I have PT again on Wednesday and on Friday, I see the sports doc and the chiropractor again. Hopefully, I'll be ready to do some running by the weekend.

Tonight, I'm planning a 90 minute bike ride after work, as long as the new shorts help me to stay comfortable on the bike for that long.