Wow, do my legs ever hurt today. You have no idea how happy this makes me. This is a sign that my body is coming around. This means that I really did push my limits (as planned) this past weekend. The goal was to get in a couple of good hard work-outs – and this I did.

Saturday featured a three hour ride with some challenging intervals for me. It was my first time taking myself out of my comfy tempo zone and pushing my body into threshold and VO2Max. Boy oh boy, did it feel good. There is nothing quite like screaming quads and heavy breathing to put a smile on my face. The numbers on the SRM were all really good and quite frankly I surprised myself with how deep I was able to push. This really puts a smile on my face because it reinforces to met that I’m on the right track and I can get back to where I once was. I know I’ve still got a long way to go, but progress is progress and after all you can’t eat an elephant overnight.

Sunday I strapped on my trusty Salomon trail shoes and hit the woods. There is something about trail running that really makes me feel alive. I’m guessing it is just being out in nature and soaking it all in. Now I’m not setting a blistering world record pace out there and I know my stride is more elephant-like than gazelle-like but I really love the way these runs make me feel. Sloshing and splashing through mud, hopping over trees, zipping through the trails – it just is a real sense of being alive. So yes on Sunday I had a good hard run. It didn’t seem like that hard of a run but I guess the run combined with Saturday’s efforts took a toll on my legs.

Today I woke up with very sore quads. The type of soreness that makes going up and down the stairs very unpleasant. But I’m happy to have this feeling. It is sort of like money in the bank – the pay-off later will be huge.

As for now, well I think by next week it will be time to do some cyclo-cross riding. The trails are drying up and I’m itching to get out and work on those ‘cross drills I mapped out way back last December when I was stuck in the hospital. I’m ready and I just can’t wait to get out there and get it done.