Wednesday, July 8, 2009

A good training weekend...

Where to begin... it's been a long 5 days since my last post. Saturday morning I got up at 4 am to try to beat the heat in my 17 mile long run. Though my pace was slow (hey, it's still 90 at 4 am so cut me a break!) I managed to stay in the shade until my last 5 or 6 miles which was a huge blessing. And then I had a bit of a head wind to compensate for the sun beating down on me. After the run, I relaxed with the SkirtChaser in front of Le Tour, after which we took a nap, went to a movie and had an all around relaxing fourth of July. Happy Birthday, America!



On Sunday I was on the bike early. I was scheduled for a 5 hour ride and headed toward South Mountain. This was my first solo long ride since my crash and I was a little nervous. Traffic on Sundays can be light, but with the holiday I was worried about left-over drunks taking me out. About an hour into my ride, I noticed a guy on my wheel. Literally he came out of nowhere. He pulled up next to me and we exchanged greetings. I'm usually not good with guessing age, but I would put him early to mid- 50s. Slightest hint of an eccent. He mentioned that his bike was being custom painted in Columbia, so maybe he is from South America. He was riding on a collapsible travel bike which, when I inquired, he explained required about 30% more effort than his usual ride.



He asked me where I was biking, and if I minded that he join me. I was thinking he'd join me till the next stop light where it would become clear that I couldn't keep up. He rode with me for 3 hours! I was so thankful to have company. It not only made the time go by faster, but I felt a lot safer having another cyclist with me. We took turns pulling around the mountain. He clearly had more experience and was stronger but didn't seem to mind waiting on me when I fell off on some of the inclines. Several times I told him not to feel like he needed to wait, but he was just out for his weekend long ride and enjoyed the company as much as I did. We exchanged numbers before we parted so we could meet up to ride again. I am thrilled to have someone who can challenge me and yet is not in competition so has no interest in making the ride a "race". I was amazed to see that I averaged 18.2 mph for the 90 mile ride that day. And I worked my ass off! I always thought I shouldn't ride with someone because if I was drafting it was cheating and I wasn't getting the benefit. However, I can tell you that I worked harder in that ride than any ride I've ever done in training thus far. I worked hard for 5 hours. And my legs felt it when I finished. I was happy to put Triksie away and slip into my running shoes for my 5 mile transition run.



By this time it was about 110 degrees. I stashed an extra bottle of ice at the 1 mile mark on my out-and-back course. I payed close attention to how I was feeling and continued to drink and pour water over my head every 1/2 mile. I was surprised to find that I actually felt pretty decent. Yes, it was hot. But I didn't feel overwhelmed and I ran a decent pace... 9:40s for the 5 miles. When I hit the 1 mile to go, it was sooooo nice to have cold water to pour over my head. The ice had melted but the water remained very cold and refreshing. I finished up and had to walk around outside for about 15 minutes to let my heart rate come down.



And best of all, after my long HOT brick workout... it is recovery week! I had an easy swim on Monday, a 7 mile tempo run on Tuesday and today I had a killer swim workout followed by spin class, a transition run, core and yoga. But the swim... the SkirtChaser and I were doing anaerobic threshhold intervals (2 x 300, 4 x 200, 6 x 100) and I was swimming the 300s, and 200s at about 1:25 per hundred pace and the 100s on 1:23. Smokin' fast for me! I am not sure why I felt so good, cause I don't feel particularly rested, but it was an awesome feeling to see the splits. And I convinced a couple of fellow spinners to run with me after class so I didn't have to suffer in the heat alone. Awesome! Thanks Marcus and Boyd!

2 comments:

Aldi26 said...

Ok so let me get this straight...today you did a swim workout, spin class, transition run, core and yoga... How does that equal a day of recovery?? :)

FindingKona said...

I know, I know. But actually other than the swim workout which was ATI, it was all easy stuff. And I have to do core and yoga cause I'm soooo eff'd up and inflexible.... it keeps me status quo.