Playing Sherlock and a new cycling best

Today was a great day for two reasons. The first, I think I may have found the reason my shoulder isn't healing as fast as I'd like. The second, I hit a new personal-best on the bike today.

The shoulder: Two days ago, Jen and I bought a new bed. We've been kind of waiting for our tax return to do it, but now that we have the dough, we bought it. It's an upgrade from a full size to a queen and during the past four months or so, I've been sleeping on the floor because it's too crowded with Jen, myself and two dogs. I genuinely sleep better on the floor. However, I'm just now realizing that my shoulder pain almost exactly overlaps the time frame where I've been sleeping on the floor. Being a side sleeper, it makes sense that it could be the reason my shoulder isn't healing right. The inner Sherlock Holmes in me failed to put two-and-two together.

The new bed. Now it's time to paint the bedroom.

I know it's only been two days on the new bed, but I haven't had even a wince of pain in those two days. I'm going back to have my yearly check up with the doctor next week, so I'll double check to see if that's a possibility. Here's hoping.

The bike: Today, I woke up determined to push myself hard during my workout. I had to wait a few minutes for my favorite bike to get freed up, but I took that time to stretch and warm up on the indoor track. Once I got on, my goal was to beat my previous best distance of 17.5 miles in an hour. I set it for my normal pace (level 8), but this time, every 15 minutes I'd increase it to level 9 for 2 1/2 minutes, then level 10 for another 2 1/2 minutes. Then, I'd drop it down to level 8 again. I did that for three increments of 20 minutes and I think that extra 15 minutes of higher levels did the job, because I managed 17.65 miles before doing a two-minute cool down.

Did a hair over 18 miles if you include my cool down.

By the end, I was sweating particularly bad, so I knew I didn't slack off. I followed it up with some shoulder work with dumbbells and sat in the sauna for about 15 minutes and did some nice deep stretching. My stupid nose started bleeding in the shower, though. I probably should have hydrated better.

Total distance: 18 miles cycling