Sunday, April 19, 2009
First brick of the season
When I saw this one on my schedule I was like cool, first brick of the season. Sure it was 30 miles of biking and 2 miles of running, but since I haven't run in forever, any kind of running is good for me. Woke up Saturday morning and was not in any kind of mood to go out and ride. Lilyan had two birthday parties to go to so I had to hit the road by 8 in order to get done in time to pick her up from ballet at 11 and rush her over to the first party. Wanted to get going at 7:30, but procrastinated enough that I didn't get started until 7:45. I decided to do the 27 mile route I had done a couple weeks back which is fairly easy to not get lost on. While last time there were no dogs to be seen, for some reason there seemed to be a dog barking every where I turned. But luckily I was not chased by any of them. Of course it helped to get me moving faster each time I heard the barking. It was going really well and getting more used to my aerobars again so I was quite happy. I made the turn home and started to eat my powerbar. 30 minutes later I pull into my driveway and start the transition to run. I start off and my legs are killing me, I feel like I am running like 12 min miles and like it is so hard. After 1/2 mile I look at my watch and see I'm doing 9:45 / mile and I'm like woo hoo, no wonder why this hurts so much. At that same time I start a long down hill section so I slow down and let the heart rate come down a little. finished the first mile in 9:42. Start feeling good now and pick up the pace and finish the second mile in 8:55. Great workout, gives me some confidence for my tri coming up on the 10th.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Me, Myself, and I
The three of us went for a ride together on Saturday. I told myself it was going to be an easy 30 miles as written on our schedule, but myself objected and said we should go more since it's so nice out. I was not hearing any of it but me popped up and voted with myself and I was overruled. So I looked up the loop that we've done in the past and it was 36 miles. All of us agreed that was enough and out we went. I was a bit cold and I was bitching up a storm the first ten minutes. But finally I warmed up and got into an easy rhythm. The first 20 miles was a southeast route and the wind was out of the west south west so it was easy going and we averaged 19 miles an hour and kept our heart rate down. I knew we were going to be in deep doo doo on the way back but just kept it to myself.
When we hit the left turn and started the ride back our speed dropped from the 20's right to 15. The way back is also slightly uphill. Me told us just to put are head's down and just try to keep the ave speed over 16 so I hit the lap button on my watch and started to push. Myself, whose idea it was to do the extra 6 miles was in charge of the open areas where the wind was full on. He would get down into the drops and be as aero as possible and push as hard as possible. When he got tired, me would take over and sit up to recover before I would take over on the break heads and pedal a consistent pace. Me was in charge of the hills. There isn't a lot of hills on the way back, just some bumps, but with the wind, even a bump is a hill. The three of us would split time, at about mile 7 of the 16 I was dying and ready to quit. Myself had just given it all for a mile and still the average dropped from 16.4 to 16.1 and the wind just wouldn't stop. Just then me took over and did an easy pull and let our average drop. Somehow we manage to keep it at 16 and came to an easy spot. This gave us some hope and at mile 10 we must have hit the end of the climb because I was able to keep the pace over 16 without hitting to high of an hr. At mile 10 myself took over and did a hard pull to get us back to 16.3, then each of the next 3 miles the average went up .1 until we were at mile 14 and at 16.6. I knew we would make the goal of over 16 mph ave for the return trip so we sat up and coasted in the last mile or so.
It just so happened that the last mile was not into the wind anymore so we ended 16 miles at 16.6 and combined with the first 20 at 19 gave us a 17.9 ave mph. I was worried there at mile 8 on the way back that evil bill was going to show up and ruin everything, but we were able to keep him under wraps, at least for the time being.
It was tough ride at the end of a tough week with 4 bikes and 3 swims, and then 12 hours of yard work/staining was still ahead. I think I should have taken Monday off from work as I really needed a vacation from my weekend
When we hit the left turn and started the ride back our speed dropped from the 20's right to 15. The way back is also slightly uphill. Me told us just to put are head's down and just try to keep the ave speed over 16 so I hit the lap button on my watch and started to push. Myself, whose idea it was to do the extra 6 miles was in charge of the open areas where the wind was full on. He would get down into the drops and be as aero as possible and push as hard as possible. When he got tired, me would take over and sit up to recover before I would take over on the break heads and pedal a consistent pace. Me was in charge of the hills. There isn't a lot of hills on the way back, just some bumps, but with the wind, even a bump is a hill. The three of us would split time, at about mile 7 of the 16 I was dying and ready to quit. Myself had just given it all for a mile and still the average dropped from 16.4 to 16.1 and the wind just wouldn't stop. Just then me took over and did an easy pull and let our average drop. Somehow we manage to keep it at 16 and came to an easy spot. This gave us some hope and at mile 10 we must have hit the end of the climb because I was able to keep the pace over 16 without hitting to high of an hr. At mile 10 myself took over and did a hard pull to get us back to 16.3, then each of the next 3 miles the average went up .1 until we were at mile 14 and at 16.6. I knew we would make the goal of over 16 mph ave for the return trip so we sat up and coasted in the last mile or so.
It just so happened that the last mile was not into the wind anymore so we ended 16 miles at 16.6 and combined with the first 20 at 19 gave us a 17.9 ave mph. I was worried there at mile 8 on the way back that evil bill was going to show up and ruin everything, but we were able to keep him under wraps, at least for the time being.
It was tough ride at the end of a tough week with 4 bikes and 3 swims, and then 12 hours of yard work/staining was still ahead. I think I should have taken Monday off from work as I really needed a vacation from my weekend
20 years ago
Well actually it's 21, but that's close enough. It was 1988, I was a junior in college at University of Florida, I got on the scale and it said less than 220. That was the last time I can remember that an accurate scale registered less than 220. Until last month. I was training for a marathon and my weight was down in the low 220's but still could not get under 220. It was warm day and I had an 8 mile run scheduled, the scale in the morning said 223. After the run I got on the scale and it was 218. Of course I knew that it was all water, but still it was nice to actually see it. The next day it was back at 224.
Then the event occurred. I finally admitted my hip was injured enough that I wouldn't be able to do the marathon. I went to the ortho doctor and he told me it was bursitis, gave me a steroid shot and said no running for 4 weeks. With 4 weeks of no running in my future, I did not want to gain back up to the low 230's where I was when I started the marathon training so I began tracking my calories in vs out and watching what I ate. Two days later I weighed 219. It was quite a shock since the last time I weighed myself it was 226. How did a lose 7 lbs in 3 days? I was going a lot, but I was also drinking a lot of water and had not exercised in 5 days so I just thought it was water lose combined with my body flushing out all the junk and figured it would go back up again.
Two weeks later I am still hovering right around 218 - 221. My scale's body fat percent has returned to what it was before the shot so no dehydration. I have resumed exercise, bike and swim and weights, but still watching the cals in vs out. I am aiming for 90% of what I need to stay at current weight so I can lose gradually without getting too hungry or sending my body into store mode. I will admit that I have been hungry probably 80% of the time for the last two weeks, but with the scale cooperating it has been easier to keep it up. So I am going to officially count it and hope that next week when I start running again I can keep it going and finally get down to the 210 - 215 mark that I really would feel comfortable with. If by some miracle I can get under 200 that would be 1985. Maybe next year on the 25th anniversary :-).
Then the event occurred. I finally admitted my hip was injured enough that I wouldn't be able to do the marathon. I went to the ortho doctor and he told me it was bursitis, gave me a steroid shot and said no running for 4 weeks. With 4 weeks of no running in my future, I did not want to gain back up to the low 230's where I was when I started the marathon training so I began tracking my calories in vs out and watching what I ate. Two days later I weighed 219. It was quite a shock since the last time I weighed myself it was 226. How did a lose 7 lbs in 3 days? I was going a lot, but I was also drinking a lot of water and had not exercised in 5 days so I just thought it was water lose combined with my body flushing out all the junk and figured it would go back up again.
Two weeks later I am still hovering right around 218 - 221. My scale's body fat percent has returned to what it was before the shot so no dehydration. I have resumed exercise, bike and swim and weights, but still watching the cals in vs out. I am aiming for 90% of what I need to stay at current weight so I can lose gradually without getting too hungry or sending my body into store mode. I will admit that I have been hungry probably 80% of the time for the last two weeks, but with the scale cooperating it has been easier to keep it up. So I am going to officially count it and hope that next week when I start running again I can keep it going and finally get down to the 210 - 215 mark that I really would feel comfortable with. If by some miracle I can get under 200 that would be 1985. Maybe next year on the 25th anniversary :-).
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