Last Hard Ride

This morning I did my final hard bike ride before the Whisky Dick triathlon next Sunday. 26.4 miles, including 16.5 miles of hard hill repeats (12 total). This is the third time I've done this ride in as many weeks, and I wish I could say it felt easier. Today, for some reason, it felt pretty frickin' hard! My legs might be a little spent after Friday's run/hike in the mountains and Saturday's hard interval ride...both of which felt great. I'm actually looking forward to an easy 20-miler (or so) on Wednesday, then nothing until the race. Right now, a taper sounds great, but I know I'll be getting antsy a couple of days before the race and second-guessing my preparation & fitness level. Don't most of us do that? Having never raced on a bike before, I have no real time goal. I can't really go by my training times, since this course starts off with a 12-mile uphill section. I guess my goal would be to survive the hill and race the rest. My teammates (David Dick and Arthur Martineau) will be well prepared, so unless I suck the gas pipe, we may have a shot at placing well in the team category. Should be fun.

Oh, one other bit of trivia - I finally hit 40 mph on my bike on this particular training route (downhill, of course). I always try to hit that every time on one particular hill, but before today I could only reach 39.5. So that was kind of cool.

Anyway, after the race, I'll (happily) transition back to running. I'll be training for a September 10k and an October half-marathon. I'm really itching to run again! It'll probably take a week or two to get my running legs back.

The Post I Probably Shouldn't Make

What I'm going to write is dangerous...to me, anyway. It's risky on a couple of levels. Number 1 - it's going to sound cocky, and trust me, I know I have nothing to be cocky about. Number 2 - I may "jinx" myself. But damn the torpedoes...here goes. I felt very strong during this morning's 35-mile bike ride. I did 5 x 1 mile hard, 1 mile easy during part of the ride and hardly breathed heavily. My legs felt like iron. There, I said it. Cocky and jinx-worthy. Seriously, I can tell I'm peaking right now. I still wouldn't consider myself a cyclist (and I know most "real" cyclists could ride circles around me), but just comparing myself now to myself 3 months ago, I can FINALLY feel the results of the training starting to pay off. After yesterday's run-hike, I thought I'd be struggling on this morning's ride, but when I finished, I felt like I could turn around and do the whole ride all over again. How will this translate to my race next weekend? I don't know. But I'm finally starting to feel pretty good about it.

I'll probably do my hill repeat ride on Monday (which, I believe, had been THE key workout in my bike training), then probably an easy ride on Wednesday, then stay off the bike until race morning (Sunday, Aug. 9th).

Lots of work to do today, so I'm out. Enjoy your training this weekend, folks!

Amazing Run-Hike to End a Fun Camping Trip

We just returned from 3 days of camping in the White River Camp Ground, near Sunrise (Eastern side of Mt. Rainier). As is my tradition, I get up early on "getaway" day, drive up to Sunrise, and do a solo hike out to 3rd Burroughs Mountain and back. It's a bit over 8 miles, round-trip, from 6400' elevation to about 7900' elevation. I wore my old retired running shoes, strapped on a fanny pack loaded with 2 water bottles and some granola bars, and took off about about 5:50am. The sky was an un-poluted, brilliant blue and the temperature was in the mid 60's. I ended up running all flats, downhills and slight uphills, and speed-hiked the big hills. And there were, indeed, some big hills. As the name would suggest, there are three "Burroughs" mountains total. The third provides an unbelievable view of the Whitman Glacier on Mt. Rainier. Once you've reached 3rd Burroughs Mountain, there's nowhere to go but back. I mostly had the trails to myself and was free to run and hop over rocks as much as I could, unimpeded by traffic. There were some steep downhills where I had to brake myself as I ran, to avoid pitching over the side of a cliff. I ended with a time of 2 hours and 6 minutes...which was nearly TWO HOURS faster than I did the hike the previously (when I was fatter and in pretty sad shape). My quads and lungs responded amazingly well, especially considering that I wasn't used to the elevation. I can tell the hill workouts on the bike have strengthened my quads quite a bit. My calves and hips are a bit sore, though, but that was expected. But I honestly can't remember EVER enjoying a hike more than this one. I can see what draws you ultrarunners out there! It may be awhile before I consider doing that for 50 or 100 miles, but just that taste of it was very cool. No people (almost), no cars, no polution, no noises other than the wind, a few birds, a squeaking Pica, and my feet crunching over the rocky trail. Oh...and I managed to see a small herd of elk (including one huge bull), 42 mountain goats, and 1 very curious ptarmigan.

My original plan was to do a hill repeat workout on my bike tomorrow morning, but given the above story, I'll still ride, but will probably opt for some mile repeats on a slightly less hilly course. We'll see how badly I hobble when I get up at 5am tomorrow!

Have a great weekend!

Off to the Mountains!

I had tentatively planned on riding this morning, but, for a few reasons, that didn't happen. We're heading to Mt. Rainier this morning for a camping trip. Last night, I felt absolutely exhausted (I also lifted weights yesterday, after my ride). I thought I was pooped from the heat (we're in the midst of the hottest weather we've...maybe ever...had...supposed to break 100 deg F today), but I woke up with a sore throat this morning, still with no energy. So no ride. I'll go out for a tough ride on Saturday morning. If I start feeling better, I'll get in a good hike.

Since I won't be here tomorrow, I did my weigh-in 1 day early. Here are this week's stats (and changes from last week):

Weight: 147.6 lbs (-.2 lbs)
Waist: 30.3" (-.2")
Bodyfat%: 10.2 (-.3%)
Resting HR: 41 bpm (-2 bpm)

My weight was basically the same as last week, which is interesting. I've been relaxing my diet just a bit...which makes my waist and bodyfat measurements even more surprising. That's the lowest either of those has been since I started keeping track about 10 years ago. My goal for bodyfat % is to get under 10%, so it's getting closer.

I better help finish packing, before I get "the business" from the Mrs. Enjoy the rest of your week!

Early Morning Ride...Nice and Easy

I hadn't planned on riding today, but felt the urge to do a relatively short (20 miles) and easy (16.1 mph avg) ride today. I went out at 6:30am, since it's going to be a million degrees here today in the Seattle area. It was beautiful! A deer even ran across the trail in front of me. There were a LOT of people out, presumably getting their daily exercise in before the sweltering heat kicks in.

Recently, all my rides have been pretty tough, so it was nice to just ride easy this time, without regard to time or pace. I haven't decided yet if I'll go out for a punishing ride tomorrow morning. We're heading out on a camping trip tomorrow, so we'll be packing & loading up. Plus...tomorrow is supposed to be the hottest day yet (a bazillion degrees, officially), and even early in the morning, it'll start getting hot and humid. The humidity we've had lately is something us Pacific Northwesterners don't normally have to deal with. As you may or may not know, most of us in western Washington don't have air-conditioned homes. They're usually not needed more than maybe 3-5 days per year. Well, it would be REALLY NICE to have it now. But I'll still take this over the cold spells we sometimes get even during summer. I'll just sit naked in front of an industrial fan. Just not too close. Sorry about the visual.

More Hill Repeats on the Bike

This morning's ride was identical to last Monday's, except that it's quite a bit hotter today. I hit the road at about 9:30am (after rush hour died down) and rode a total of 26.4 miles. That included 16.5 miles of hill repeats (12 hills total). The repeats took 64 minutes. The total ride was 1:39:27. This was one of those workouts where mind games really came into play. I was feeling a bit of stomach distress the whole ride. After the first set of hills, I thought I may not be able to do the whole workout. Then I thought "on race day, if I decide I can't do the first 12-mile hill climb, that's called a DNF". The mental part of endurance training is so much more difficult than the physical. I knew that, physically, I could do this (like I did last week). Mentally, I nearly gave in. I'm glad I didn't. I can't have that kind of mindset - in any aspect of my life, not just sports.
Lots of work to do, so time to shower off this coating of salty sweat and get back to the grind. Happy Monday!

A Bit of History

I was digging through some boxes in the garage yesterday and stumbled upon my old high school track spikes (Puma Mirage, from about 1984).I had to put them on. They still feel great! Probably not too many miles on them, since I mostly wore them to meets. Still have some replacement spikes, too. Now I'm itching to wear them again...someday. I may enter a local All-Comers track meet, possibly next summer. They've been boxed up for 24 years, but I still don't know about their structural integrity. I can just see myself rounding the last turn on the track and having pieces of them flying off, like a blown tire on a speeding semi. Or a pulled calf muscle. But, man, putting these on again really pegged the "nostalgia meter". Fun to reminisce sometimes.

A Rare Run

I couldn't overcome my urge to get in a short, slow run this morning. And it's a good thing I was thinking "short and slow"...because that's all I had. I ran 3.5 miles in 29:54 (8:32 pace). I don't know if all the riding has wiped out my legs, or if I'm actually losing some running fitness, but this was a tough run (just a few weeks ago, I ran a pretty easy 10 miles at an 8:09 pace!) But I know that, when the cycling madness ends, I'm sure my running mojo will return within a week or two.

Busy day today, so I'm out! Enjoy your weekend!

Another high-effort ride

I rode 35 miles on the bike today (17.5 mph avg), but threw in 5x 1 mile repeats, pretty much all out (with a recovery mile between each). I also threw my chain today for the first time in years. My front derailleur still isn't adjusted quite right, and as the ride went on, it became increasingly more difficult to bump from my middle chain ring up to my large. Finally, at an intersection, a driver stopped to let me go, and when I stomped on the pedal, off went my chain. Had to stop and fix it, obviously, then continued with black, greasy hands. After that, I was pretty much relegated to my middle chain ring. I'll have to fix it before my next ride.

I can tell my quads are starting to get stronger. I haven't been riding a lot (3-4 times/week lately), but have thrown in a lot of intensity in just about every ride. I really sense the need for recovery time, so I'm listening to my body. I could probably do easy rides between my harder ones, but in this case, I don't think there would be much benefit...especially with my race coming up in just three weeks. I could be wrong, but quality is my main objective right now.

Okay, back to work. Have a great Friday night, folks!

Barefoot Ted and Born To Run

As I Tweeted earlier today, there's an interesting audio interview with Barefoot Ted (who I've never met, but lives down the road from me in Seattle) posted on his website. I'm not sure I'm ready to slip off the shoes yet and go for a run, but this whole movement is very intriguing to me. I've run around barefoot in my yard and enjoyed it, so who knows...I may get brave enough to venture beyond.

And if you're a runner, I don't know how you COULDN'T have heard of the recent book by Christopher McDougall, Born To Run. If you haven't read it yet, I IMPLORE you to go buy a copy and read it. It's excellent!