Recovery

Today was a recovery day.  My legs were still feeling shot from Saturday's exertion and I'm still trying to work up the courage to do week 5 day 3 of C25k.   It is silly, but jogging for 20 minutes in a row seems insurmountable.   More on that later.

Anyhow, it was a beautiful morning for a ride.  The rain from Sunday had passed, leaving behind that clean smell in the air that comes with rain.  It was a little muggy, but cool, so nothing this Minnesotan couldn't handle.  I had told Ann earlier in the week that I was going to ride the complete Trout Run Trail so I could show the folks back here what an "easy" trail looks like to Northeast Iowans.   The trail was only completed last week, so there was a decent portion I hadn't even seen yet.

It was a great ride at a nice easy pace.   After the first ten miles or so I had mostly gotten the lactic acid in my legs moving, which was good, as that is roughly where the first climb starts.  It is the sort of climb that looks more impressive at the top than at the bottom, partially because of the switchbacks that have been put in, presumably to keep roadies from killing themselves on the downhills.   As it stands, getting the bike down to the listed 15 mph speed limit on the curves requires a fair bit of breaking.   The climb was not as hard as I remembered, which is the most concrete evidence I have gotten to date that I am actually improving as a cyclist.  Yay!

Here is a link to the ride, as you can see, the interesting parts are in the middle.   Basically, it takes you up the bluff, down and then right back up.  I see "serious" roadies going up and down these hills all the time.  Today, I also saw a bunch of folks that fell firmly into the senior citizen category, complete with upright fitness bikes.  I'm pretty sure they were going faster than me.    It's good to stay humble.

On the running front, as of yesterday I have done 2/3 of week 5.   I have to say, I wasn't really feeling that run to start.   My legs felt like lead and I pretty much just wanted to turn around and go back to sleep.  I managed to finish, however.  Slower (and shorter?) than the day before, but finished nonetheless.   Now I have to conquer the next stage, and I'm not convinced I'm there yet.  So, in classic Jessica motivation fashion, I bought new things.   Specifically, I got these...

Sexy, no?   I damn well better do some serious running with these, or I'm going to use them to kick my own posterior.   On a more exciting note, those are a 9.5B.  If I can wear regular width in Saucony, I am in serious trouble on a shoe buying front.  

The run:  1.8 miles / 14.5 min/mile  Also, that hill feels a lot bigger than thirty some odd feet of climbing.  Just saying. 

P.S.  Saturday's ride has been linked to as well.