Forerunner leads to faster times, then faster recovery

By this December, the daunting task of training weighed heavily on my mind.  Late that month, I headed out for a 9 mile run that roughly simulated the course from Mirror Lake past the ski jumps left over from the 1980 Winter Olympics – my route dropped 500 feet in four and half miles then returned back up. Kept up a great pace down the hill. And a very solid pace back up – except for dull ache in my left Achilles.  Not good.  I forgot about it until the next morning…when I could barely walk.  Even cycling caused severe pain.

The skies were gray, the temperature cold and the outlook bleak for someone who wants to run or bike everyday.  One of my two friends started to crank up his cycling.  The other moved to two workouts a day.  I could only hope that RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation) eventually paid off.  For anyone with an injury who craves working out, time goes in slow motion waiting for the body to heal.  Once the swelling went down and pain subsided, I realized I could start riding my bike.  If the 405 could help me build up to races, why couldn’t it speed my recovery as well?

With some good physical training advice, I set up a workout on my Garmin to keep my heart rate on cycle in zone 2.  Every other day, I rode my bike on rollers using the workout for a progressively longer period of time in zone 2.  The watch kept me from overusing the Achilles and allowed me to safely rebuild strength.  As of today, I have increased my riding to over an hour and am absolutely ready for the group ride the first weekend the roads are clear.  Thanks, Garmin!

Thanks, Paul, for telling us how you use so many of Forerunner's features to boost your training and aid your recovery. To see these features in action – including bike mode, heart rate training and indoor workouts – visit our Forerunner 405 learning center for tutorial videos.

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