Going solo

I got an email today while I was at work, informing me that the club ride this evening would be a kind of group Rabbit Run.   The Rabbit Run, for those of  you who don't know, is basically an on your honor time-trial out on some low traffic rural roads.   Now, to be honest, I had been thinking of doing the Rabbit Run sometime, just to see how I stacked up.   Thing is, I'm 99.9% certain that "stacking up" is going to look like me at the bottom of a very large number of better times.   That doesn't really bother me, but I didn't exactly want to be the person who took an hour to do the Run while every one else finished it in 30 minutes.  

So, what to do?  I had decided a bit ago that I was only going to do one club ride a week anyhow, so I figured I'd go for a solo mid-range ride.  I headed out toward the state park and did a little 30 mile loop.   I didn't set any speed records, but as I've been more than a bit of a slacker lately, a lot of it was just getting back in the rhythm of being on the bike.   Also, it was a beautiful afternoon / early evening and I did more than a little looking around at the lovely colors of summer.

I've noticed that I'm riding more and more in the drops as of late.   I'm not sure that it means anything, but I think at a minimum it probably means I'm getting more comfortable not sitting on the brakes.   Also, I feel all pro-cyclist-y.  I will say that I have a bad tendency to stare at my wheel in the drops though...need to work on that before it catches up with me in the form of a pot hole...or worse, road kill.

Workout: 31 miles / 16.6 mph average

Work vs. Life

I suspect this is an issue every aspiring amateur athlete encounters sooner or later.   Lately, work has been trying to take over my life.  Actually, it's probably more fair to say that it has taken over my life, judging by the amount of time I've spent doing that rather than what I would like to be doing.   The problem, of course, is that there are only so many hours in the day and when one area of your life becomes over balanced...well, there's only so much you can do.

For me, the problem is especially bad, because I work in a job that has a tendency to leave me brain fried if I'm at it for too long in a day.   After working 10 or 11 hours, I have no desire to do anything but sit on the couch and let the TV do my thinking for a while.   I'm sure there are stronger people out there, those folks who come off a long day and want nothing more than to go run or bike to work off the stress, but I'm just not one of those people.   Honestly, I'd probably be lucky to not get myself run over if I tried biking after my long days at work, as I doubt I'd have the mental awareness to pay attention to traffic.  

So, what's an aspiring triathlete to do?   This week I made a point of getting out for the Tuesday ride, even though it meant leaving work earlier than I probably should have.   Also, I've been trying to fit in mini workouts when I can, like doing core work while cooking, or walking around downtown for a bit before being banished back to my apartment to babysit new code.   It's not what I want to be doing, but it's something, and I'm beginning to realize I need to take that something where I can.  

Blowing in the wind

Yesterday was a beautiful day for a ride...mostly.  It wasn't super hot, the sun was out, everything has greened up a bit from our recent rain.  Lovely.    However, there was wind.  Lots of it, blowing straight into my face at speeds that made me quite sad.    I don't mind riding into the wind as much when I'm solo, but in a group it is disheartening to see everyone zipping along at the same speed they always do while my body turns into a giant sail, and my average speed plummets into the low teens.   Fortunately, I had some lovely people who were kind enough to stick with me (and I know they could have gone faster...).  

The nice thing about wind though, is that if you plan it right (and have a little bit of luck), eventually, you get to turn around.   Last night, turning around meant cruising at 20 mph with enough lung capacity left over to hold a conversation.   That's when you think, "Man, this biking thing is pretty awesome".

Workout:  33 miles / 16.3 mph average

Alternative exercising

I love biking.  It's fun, doesn't hurt (usually) and makes me healthier.   The problem is, when you start getting serious about something, you can take the bits of it you enjoy right out of it.   That was my problem today.   It was oppressively humid, and while I had told myself I going to go ride intervals after work when it came down to it, I really just didn't want to.   The old me would have then sat my butt on the couch and mindlessly chowed down on random snack food x while watching Netflix.   Instead, I decided that if I wasn't going to ride, I was going to do something else instead.   So, I got out my trusty Trek fitness bike and headed out to the garden.   

I tell you, it's amazing how much easier the road bike makes going up and down the little hills!   Still, it's good to get out at a more leisurely pace from time to time.  I took Lemond road out to the community gardens, cruising at a solid 10 mph average.   Once I got there I proceeded to attack the jungle of weeds that had taken over my garden.   A solid thirty minutes of yanking weeds (and the occasional veggie...whoops) and I was drenched in sweat and dirty from head to toe.   

My reward for this hard work was flying down the road back into town at a solid 22 mph (no peddling).   I remember last summer thinking that going 15 mph on that bike was a minor miracle.  It's amazing what 80 lbs or so will do!

Workout:  A little bit of biking, and a whole lot of weeding.   

Slacking

I've been swamped at work this week, and thus have been seriously slacking on the workout front.   Sadly, I just don't seem to have it in me to go out for a ride or run after an 11 hour day.   Well, that, and it has also been really hot.   However, in the absence of workout blather, I shall leave you with some reading.  Enjoy! :)

Float. Roll. Stroll. Finish.

Otter vs. Triathlete

Training on Vacation

Mind over Body

Breathing is hard

Sunday was my return to C25K after a brief hiatus.   I have a feeling I had better stop with the hiatuses if I want to keep progressing, as I'm pretty sure my legs and lungs are going to kick my butt if I try to take a week off running and then suddenly do a 20 minute jog (week 5, day 3).   Fortunately, I'm still on week 4, so I just had two long intervals of five minutes to contend with.   My stomach was a bit iffy at the beginning of the run as I hadn't waited long enough after drinking a couple glasses of water to start.  Fortunately, things settled down after the first five minute jog (either that or I was just too miserable in general at that point to notice a minor thing like queasiness).

I don't know if other people are familiar with the squeaky wheeze, but for me, that is the end game of the progression through what limited aerobic fitness I seem to possess.   Basically it goes:  regular breathing, heavy breathing, labored breathing, wheezing, squeaky wheeze, death.   I try to avoid doing the squeaky wheeze when people can hear me, as explaining that I'm not actually dying is difficult when I can't speak.   In any case, I was squeaky wheezing more than I would like to admit during this run.   Also on the breathing front, I still am exhaling on the right stride, despite trying very hard not to.  I have to consciously miss a breath to get it switched over to the left, but somehow it migrates back to the right.

Monday I pretty much slacked off.   My quads were sore, so I decided to take a rest day between C25K days, and besides, it was already quite warm at 8 AM.   I was going to go for a walk instead, just to move around a bit, but as I was walking past my car it occurred to me that I had a perfectly good mountain bike in the back and trails less than a mile away.   So, I got the Mamba out and headed over to River trail to get in a couple of loops on the Toilet Bowl (yes, really) before heading up and over the big hill and back to Larry's apartment.   Not a long ride by any means, but certainly as much effort as the walk I was going to take and more fun to boot!

Sunday workout:  I ran with my Garmin so I have HR info...it is only sorta scary.
                           2.24 miles / 4.3 mph average

Monday ride: Better than a walk  Garmin battery was dead, so My Tracks to the rescue!

Bicycling Duo

Since I was in Owatonna today, I started my day off with the OBC Saturday morning Coffee Grind.  The thing with the Coffee Grind is that I really don't like biking on an empty stomach, and I don't like getting up early enough on a Saturday to eat breakfast with enough time to digest it before the ride.  Generally, this leads to an iffy sort of ride, wherein my freshly eaten breakfast attempts to make its way through my digestive system whilst the rest of me is struggling to keep up with the group.   I think I made a good try at it this week, though having spent myself on intervals the previous day didn't really help.   All in all a fairly solid ride for a morning ride, but I am very grateful to Grant, who stayed back with me so I didn't get lost!

The afternoon was reserved for mountain biking.   Since last weekend's adventure in Decorah, I've been hoping to find some trails that are a mix of beginner friendly, but also challenging.   To that end, I met up with Ben in Rochester to check out Eastwood Park.   Eastwood has about 5 miles of single track that wind up and down the hillside.  Unlike Decorah, there are few drop-offs and the trail is predominately dirt (rather than rock).

We took on the easier trails first, which was a good starter course for me.   I am still having some trouble adjusting to the width of the handlebars, which I may need to shorten, so there were a couple times I hit a root wrong or nearly nailed a tree due to questionable handling of the bike.   We then moved over to the more difficult trails, which were good fun.   I definitively had to get off and walk more than a few times, though a lot of that was due to being in too high a gear for the hill I just turned onto.   I took a few of the obstacles and let go of the brakes once or twice on the descents -- progress.   I also had a few near crashes, including one that was almost a spectacular pratfall into some raspberry bushes courtesy of a errant tree branch.  In short, a fantastic afternoon.

This is what happens when you walk a lot. 

Workout(s):  23 miles / 16.3 mph average

                    I'll add the mountain biking once I have my Garmin data uploaded.
                    -- I lied...left the Garmin on for the trip back from Rochester, so the data is all hosed.

Rain, rain...

I would like to start out by saying that weather.com totally told me I had until 6:30 or 7:00 before the rain came.   Having said that, this is what I saw roughly 5 miles from town on my return route:

So, yeah, I got pretty wet.    The funny thing about rain is that it hurts a lot for something that is supposedly a liquid.   This is especially true when you are flying along at 20 mph trying (in vain) to avoid getting soaked down to your chamois.   Still, it was at least a warm rain, and the lightning wasn't too close.  

Annoyingly, I would have completely missed the rain, but I spent 45 minutes after work hemming and hawing over whether or not I really wanted to go for a ride.   As far as I can tell, that 45 minutes was how long it took for my post-work Luna bar to hit my system, because after that I was fine.   Intervals were on tap for the ride, starting off with an attempt to best my previous time on the Rose Street Strava segment.   Whoo boy, did I do that...not only did I get a PR, I also beat the only other time on the segment, which was set by a dude, who I shall choose to believe is an awesome cyclist.  So, you know, happy dance.  

After killing myself on Rose Street, I decided to do intervals in 2 mile breaks.  So, 2 miles all out, 2 miles resting, repeat.   I got three (?) in before the rain started, and after that I was too concerned with making sure I could see to mess around with trying to keep track of distances.  

Workout:  20 ish miles / 16.4 mph average

Fix a Flat

Ladies' ride was entertaining tonight.   As we heading back towards town about to take the longer way in, someone in the back yelled "FLAT!!".   So, on the side of Highway 218 the five of us huddled up and got the tire fixed.   Thank goodness for Straight River Sport's Fix a Flat class or we would have had to call in the husbands, which is no fun.

I like to think of Ladies' Night as recovery night...not that I go any slower, but the pace of the group is not as fast, so I don't feel compelled to keep my heart rate at the wire for the entire ride to keep up.   Actually, I was a little worried for tonight's ride, as my quads were still pretty sore from last night.   I did okay, but it's probably not a bad thing we ended up taking the shorter way back into town, as my legs were jelly when I got off the bike.  

I think I need to readjust my diet again.  First, I'm not losing weight as quickly as I would like.   Second, and more importantly, I am not making the kinds of gain in cycling that I was hoping to see, and I'm beginning to suspect that it's because I am inadequately fueling myself for the kind of workouts I am doing.   It seems counter intuitive to eat more to lose weight, especially as a woman who definitely still has weight to lose, but I think it's time to try.   The trick is to eat more on the weekdays, but not go crazy on the weekends.

Workout:  18.8 miles / 16.9 mph average

Cramps

There is something profoundly depressing about riding to the point of cramping and STILL being the last person in the group ride (by a lot).   I try to not let the fact that I'm slow bum me out, but on nights like tonight, I seriously start to rethink my desire to ride with the club.   On the other hand, moping aside, I have to admit that I kick out much faster rides chasing down the group than I do solo.  However, I'm thinking that the benefits of this are probably of the diminishing variety.  To that end I've made the decision to only do one of the Tuesday/Thursday rides each week, and use the other day to work on interval training.    The end result of this should be faster me, and less annoyed club members.  Win win!

As a random note...I really want this jersey.  Or maybe just the matching cap (but one size fits most probably means doesn't fit my huge noggin)

Running is just not happening lately.   I am, quite frankly, exhausted.   I need to get to sleep right around 9:30 PM if I want to have any hope of waking up at 5:30 AM, and this week even when I get to bed early I have no energy when my alarm goes off.   I'm thinking it is residual fatigue from last week, so hopefully it gets better as I put in a solid couple nights of sleep.   I know, I know...that looks like an obscene amount of sleep to some people, but long experience has shown me that I have very little room for skimping on sleep before my body shuts down on me.   Ultimately, I'll skip on the running to avoid that.

Workout: 31 miles / 16.9 mph average

"Intervals"

Today was my first solo ride in Owatonna in ages.   I was propelled by the power of my new cycling gloves, which are all kinds of awesome, and make you faster!!*

New gloves of awesome

Anyhow, so out I went, promising myself a few things:

1) I was going to try and set a respectable time for the Rose Street Strava segment.

2) I was going to do intervals

So, how'd I do?  Well, I didn't exactly hammer out the Rose Street hill, at least by any one else's standards.  By my "hey, I'm hauling 215 lbs up a hill" standards, I was peddling my heart out.   On the plus side, I appear to be the only woman doing Strava in town, so my QOM is probably safe for a while.     The intervals I was moderately successful at as well.  I wasn't doing set intervals, more of a "ride hard, then rest until you can breathe again" type interval.   It wasn't anything impressive, but it's a start.   I can definitely feel the workout and it was a pretty short ride, comparatively.   

Workout:  20 miles / 15.5 mph average

Also, I totally weeded like a mad woman...upper body anyone?

  

*will not make you faster

Something new

I got my birthday present to me this Friday.  Specifically, I got a 2013 Trek Mamba hardtail 29er, courtesy of my amazing LBS, Straight River Sports.   I've been sniffing around the idea of trying mountain biking for awhile, and was firmly hooked after a demo on a Specialized at Decorah Bikes.   So, after much demoing and online research, I finally settled on the Mamba.   Unfortunately (or so I thought), the one I wanted was not available in the size I need, so I decided to wait for the 2013 models to come out.  I am so glad I did...the brakes were upgraded and, most importantly, the paint jobs are FANTASTIC.  I went with orange and black, and it is a thing of beauty.

Anyhow, I got the bike on Friday, but I wasn't able to take it for a spin until Saturday.   I was familiar with one of the trails in Decorah, but was hoping for some other beginner type runs, so I asked the kid at the bike shop.   He pointed one out that he thought was a good one, but also admitted he wasn't a biker.   Next time, I'm gonna make sure I ask the bikers, and not the trail runners.   The trail he recommended was much too technical for my skill level.   Still, nothing says you have to ride it, so I just ended up walking a bit more than I was hoping to.   No worries though, as I found a trail all on my lonesome.   I even sorta got lost and found a foursome of buff young men out trail running.  There are worse ways to spend an afternoon.


All in all, it was a fantastic experience.  I'm hoping to find some easier trails to work on my skills in and around Owatonna (and maybe in Decorah too).   And hey, even if I don't, pushing a thirty pound bike around is a pretty good workout in itself!

Workout:  No data, 'cause I don't have a mount for my Garmin yet.   But I was really sweating, so I'm sure it was a good one. :)

Plan for the week:  Get back on the horse with the running, and fit in some interval training on the road bike.

Doldrums

This week has turned out to be a wash as far as riding and running go.  Too hot, too tired, and generally unmotivated.   I did go for a couple short rides on the fourth, but nothing that was terribly impressive...excepting of course that it was 93+ degrees out for both of them.   I had hoped to get in a bit of swimming at the local lake, but while there was room to swim, the water smelled of goose poop.   Also, the blue gills were awfully aggressive for prey fish!   In the end, I did a bit of floating and then rode back home feeling like a twelve year old in my wet clothes.  

I had hoped to get some running in at least, but sleeping on the couch is not conducive to me getting a good night's sleep.   At this point, I'm probably just going to call it for the week and start again Saturday, when the temps are a bit more reasonable.  

Workout:   Well, I washed dishes...that counts, right?

Queen of the Mountain

The heat continues.   97 degrees in Owatonna this afternoon, and the forecast is calling for more of the same until Saturday.  I'm going to have to decide quickly if I have enough trust in my newly willing to sweat body to risk heat stroke during an afternoon ride.   At least I can go running in the mornings.   Actually, given that I have a less than pleasant looking week ahead at work, running may end up being the only thing I have time to do this week.  

I went for an early ride today, doing my "Bluffton Hills" route.   I happened to notice on Strava the other day that someone had defined a few segments on that route and I thought it would be fun to get my Queen of the Mountain designation for them.   Mind you, this wasn't exactly difficult as I am the only woman to ever ride those segments, but hey, a win is a win!

Workout:   21 miles 14.1 mph avg

Birthday weekend

Well, it's been scorching hot this weekend, but I managed to get my run and bike ride in Saturday.   The run was the first day of week 4, so it included 5 minute jog segments.   I'll be honest, I pretty much thought I was going to die, but I made it!   The bike ride was harder than I expected.  I did a flat 40 mile route, but my legs were just dead.  Not sure if it was a result of the run, or just the heat.   Disappointing, but it was my longest ride in a while, so that might be it too.   I'm still sitting on that 15 mph average that I just can't seem to kick.  

I had every intention of going out for a ride Sunday morning, but it was nearly 80 and humid beyond belief.  So, it being my birthday, I said screw it and went for a walk with Larry instead.   I then spent the afternoon floating down a river in a tube.  Not exactly strenuous, but a good way to spend a 90+ degree day.

Workout:  2.3 miles 4.7 mph avg  I'll post the ride once it's uploaded to Garmin.