I was supposed to do an open water swim race this morning, but my massage therapist, Mike, called me yesterday while I was tooling around on Clipless Fuck to tell me it was cancelled. I had suspected it would be cancelled, because we've had so much rain lately, and the geese aren't going away, so the bacteria levels in the Lake in the (fucking) Hills were high.
I was secretly pleased, because this would mean I could a) sleep in and b) swim at the outdoor pool during the day! Well, since I knew I could sleep in, and I wanted to get a good night sleep, I cracked a bottle of wine last night planning on 1 or 2 glasses, but that never happens, and I ended up drinking the entire bottle. I did a little dancing, a little record spinning, a little (almost) drunk dialing, and a little picture taking. All in all, it was 100% fun!
I woke up this morning hearing birds chirping, but wanted more sleep, so I turned up the fan in my bedroom, but on my sleep mask and went back to sleep. I slept 8.5 hours, which I haven't done in about a month, and it felt great! It was weird to wake up when it was already light out. I started a pot of coffee and immediately went outside to look around in my yard as it looked to be a gorgeous day. What should I see in my next door neighbor's yard but a deer! She was pretty big, too, and she just looked at me, and I think I said, "CRAP!" I tiptoed back into the house to get my camera, but when I got back out, she was gone. I assume she made it safely to wherever she came from, which would include crossing a busy road. That was really cool!
Then while putzing around on the Internets, I remembered there's a farmer's market and I can go! I am rarely around at 8AM on a Saturday during the summer, and all I could think of was tomatoes, but then I thought it was probably too early for the local ones. I also needed to drop something at the dry cleaners and also some books to donate at the library. I was preparing to swim at 11AM, and I thought I might be able to run :30 before as well, but once I got motivated to do my errands, I realized that I wouldn't have time to run before I swam, so I thought how nice, I could swim an hour, then run :30 from the pool, then go back in the pool to cool down!
The farmer's market did have tomatoes, but they are Canadian. Don't ask me how they are growing good tomatoes in Ontario now when ours are just green on the vine around the Great Lakes area. I didn't ask exactly how they were grown, but I bought a bunch of them, and the ones I've eaten so far (I'm a summer tomato glutton) are excellent. I also got some basil plants, as 2 of the ones I ordered from Burpee more or less disintegrated once I put them into the pots on my patio. So now I'm all set for boatloads of pesto later this summer, and that's sort of a tradition with me. My friend Matt also usually gives me bags of basil, and I'll need some of his since I'm not growing that much really.
I headed to the pool with all my crap, and lap swim was cancelled for some stupid swim meet. Crap! But someone said they'd have 2 lap lanes open at 1PM, so now I went with Plan B, which was to go home, ride for maybe 10 miles on CF, then do my :30 run, and then head to the pool to swim.
Riding was fun, but I could tell I've really been putting the hurt to my legs lately. I forget that 16-mile runs are pretty stressful to someone like me who doesn't run 6 or 7 minute miles. Anyway, riding was fun, and then I got ready to run, and I headed south into the headwind and uphill at the same time. I did this last weekend and about died, but today, even though my legs were plenty fatigued, I felt much better. I think I'm heat acclimating finally (it was about 82). I hadn't brought any Gatorade with me thinking I could deal with :30, but then I realized it was hot, and so I ended up running to this park where there's water fountains, which was a good thing, because I needed more water even though I chugged some Gatorade before I left my house.
Then I get home, drive back to the pool thinking I'm going to do 3,000 meters, and I get there and no lap lanes are set up. I inquire about this, and the young guards look at me like I'm crazy. Someone told me there'd be lanes, but they said nope. Well, it's a huge pool, so I figured, what the heck, I'll get my open water time in anyway. I only ended up swimming 2,000 meters, which was fine, because I was plenty tired anyway. I actually enjoyed having to go around people and a few times just dove underwater for a bit. I did achieve the Prime Directive, though, which was to start on evening out my tan.
I get home and messages are on my answering machine--one to remind me of my eye exam on Monday morning, and another from Cindy! Yeah--she's coming here and we're riding 200K tomorrow. Fuckin' A! We will have a blast all around. The forecast calls for a 40% chance of rain, but I don't care. It could change between now and tomorrow, and besides we'll be almost in Iowa anyway, so it doesn't matter.
I've mowed my lawn, now it's time to fix bottles for tomorrow, get the grill started and assorted other crap like straighten up my house. I warned Cindy about the triathlon bomb that's gone off in my house--she can deal with it.
Tomorrow is going to be a fucking excellent day. Cindy and I will be bringing the HARDCORE AGGRO HARDEN THE FUCK UP!
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Friday, June 13, 2008
Good Luck to IMCDA Racers!
I know it's a week away and all, but it just seemed time to post a good luck message in case I forget next weekend, since I might be HTFU'ing up in Wisconsin. So here you go--Rob, Rich, Pattie and whoever else is racing IMCDA, I want to wish you the very BEST of luck--know that you are in the best shape of your life, and I'm right behind you getting ready for IMLP (just 4 weeks after you). I know what you will go through; I know how you will feel; I know all of that. Get your head into your game now and let it all go, and remember this:
To achieve satisfaction in everything
Desire it in nothing.
To possess everything,
Desire to have nothing.
To be everything,
Desire to be nothing.
To know everything,
Desire to know nothing.
And here are some pics of another in-shape person to remind you of what you've been doing:
To achieve satisfaction in everything
Desire it in nothing.
To possess everything,
Desire to have nothing.
To be everything,
Desire to be nothing.
To know everything,
Desire to know nothing.
And here are some pics of another in-shape person to remind you of what you've been doing:
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Time for some Pics!!!
Feelin' good and strong, you have to see for yourself:
My custom aggro shirt, also featuring my Slowtwitch alter-ego, FeFe Ze Iron Poodle
This one is for Blink140pt6, who is on his way to do IMCDA. I didn't have time to send him a lucky lobster, so here's one for you, Rob!
Uh...this is how my legs get with a lot of biking and running. Ya think???
And finally, wouldn't want to leave out an abs shot.
My custom aggro shirt, also featuring my Slowtwitch alter-ego, FeFe Ze Iron Poodle
This one is for Blink140pt6, who is on his way to do IMCDA. I didn't have time to send him a lucky lobster, so here's one for you, Rob!
Uh...this is how my legs get with a lot of biking and running. Ya think???
And finally, wouldn't want to leave out an abs shot.
Awesome Long Run this Morning!
I was scheduled to do a 2:30 run today (last week's long run was only 2 hours being just 2 weeks after Triple T). Yesterday I ran about 8 miles after a 2-mile swim plus riding to and from the pool, and my legs felt pretty trashed last night. But I stretched for :35, tried to carb up as much as possible (hot weather and lots of running=not really that hungry) for today's run.
About 10:30PM, I woke up to go pee, and I thought I heard my cell phone ringing, and sure enough, it did. It was a woman I met over the winter at the Y. She is one of the angels I've spoken of--she listened to me babble on about all the crap I was dealing with over the winter and into early spring. Now she has her own troubles. I don't know if I can be as much of an angel to her, but I'm going to try. She's a lot like me in many ways--very logical, analytical, purposeful and always striving for excellence. I can tell she's a bit overwhelmed with her situation (which includes the beginnings of a divorce and they have a 4-year old daughter), just as I was for several months over the winter. But she already knows and has said that she knows things will improve and she will find her happiness again. We talked for almost 2 hours, and I fell peacefully back asleep after that and woke up just as my coffee pot was beginning to brew about 4:45AM.
When I woke up, I felt pretty damn good. I remembered the discussion during the night, and I knew I had a tough run ahead, so I put on my HTFU bracelet. I basically got up, put my running clothes on, drank 2 cups of coffee and ate most of a Powerbar Triple Threat, filled my run bottles with (mostly) defizzed Coke, packed my run bag and I was out of the house within an hour.
The weather was pretty nice this AM--not too terribly hot or humid. I wondered how my legs would feel today considering how sore they felt yesterday before I stretched. But I also felt very good and motivated to run my very best. I hoped to knock out 16-17 miles, depending on how fast I was able to go. I drove to Waterfall Glen and was ready to take off running at 6:00AM on the nose. I parked in a place I don't usually park, which meant I had to start off on some short cut through the parking lot to get to the trailhead. The shortcut includes a few stairs and various roots.
When I was about .1 miles into the trail, AJ ran up next to me. I met AJ this winter while doing one of my NothingMan's. Only I couldn't remember his name until much later! We chatted--he was doing the full loop (9.5 miles), and I told him I was going for 17. He actually got me started out on a good, ease into it pace. I was tempted to stay with him, but I knew I had much more to go, so after about 1/2 mile, I told him to go on up ahead. But I could see him for about the first 4 miles, and I wasn't that far behind.
I ended up running to the Mile 4 marker and a little beyond, and then turned around. I stopped to use the porta-potty that is just before the Mile 4 marker. On the wall I saw a big tick! Well, that made me hurry up and get out of there, although I tried to kill the tick before I left. Of course, just seeing a tick made me itchy and thinking there were bugs all over me for a little while.
I had plenty of Coke for the way back, and didn't feel underfueled or dehydrated. My first out and back loop was about 8.6 miles, and I drank 12 oz. of Coke for the distance. I was running (slowly, but still running) the hills, and feeling pretty good. Back at my car, I drank about 3 oz. of Coke from another bottle (I had brought 3 just in case), and then grabbed another 12-oz. bottle and took off again. I felt so good for the first loop that I wondered if I'd still feel good, since I had already polished off a little more than I ran yesterday.
About 1.5 miles into my second loop, I saw one of these just sitting on the trail:
It's an indigo bunting. I knew what it was because I have a bird guide and have looked through pretty much all of them at one time or another, and I knew it wasn't a bluebird because he was smaller than a bluebird. He just sat on the trail, and I got within about 3 feet of him! I figured this was God's way of presenting to me a very special gift, because it is truly a beautiful bird, and this one wasn't afraid of me!
Also on the way out on my second loop, I saw a bunch of guys without shirts coming the opposite direction, probably a high school cross-country team. I was running really well at this point and almost naked myself, and they all waved and/or said hello to me. I was just glad I was representin' at this point!
I kept going and turned around about 3.6 miles or so out. Now I knew I was getting close to being done. There were several other groups of naked runner guys (sweet) and a few groups of girls who were probably also cross-country runners. One of my favorite songs came on the radio, and of course, I had to do some fancy footwork, much like these guys:
About the same spot as the way out, who should I see again but Mr. Indigo Bunting? He was sitting on the trail in almost the same exact spot, and I stopped to gaze at him and then he flew up into a small nearby tree. A couple of women were running up near me, and I was pointing madly at the tree to make sure they didn't miss this beautiful sight. I told them what kind of bird it is, and one girl (in a heavy British accent) commented that there was probably all sorts of wildlife in there, and I told her that indeed, there is. They had seen a few deer--last week when I ran here, I saw 4.
Now I was pumped up to finish strong, and I told the 2 girls they should go ahead and pass me, but they didn't (they were running 4 miles), and I just took it home, toweled off, got in my car and drove home, feeling great.
And I still feel great. I've got about :20 of strength work to do yet today, and I'm already up to almost 10 hours of training for the week, with about 12 to go, and I'm feeling really, really strong! Between today (I ran 16 miles in 2:30, not bad for me) and yesterday, I've almost run a marathon over 2 days, and I really can't complain! Tomorrow I don't have to swim since I'm doing a 2-mile swim race on Saturday, but if the weather is good, I really want to go for at least 1500 meters at the outdoor pool to recover from today's run (and well, get even more of a tan!), and then I'm biking 2 hours.
I've gone from feeling like I'm about to crumble under the weight of all the training to really feeling great and hitting it hard! I think what's happened is that I'm finally recovered from Triple T and have absorbed it and all my previous NothingMan's.
So you know the drill--it's total HARDCORE AGGRO for the next 3.5 weeks! I'm in 100% HTFU mode now!
About 10:30PM, I woke up to go pee, and I thought I heard my cell phone ringing, and sure enough, it did. It was a woman I met over the winter at the Y. She is one of the angels I've spoken of--she listened to me babble on about all the crap I was dealing with over the winter and into early spring. Now she has her own troubles. I don't know if I can be as much of an angel to her, but I'm going to try. She's a lot like me in many ways--very logical, analytical, purposeful and always striving for excellence. I can tell she's a bit overwhelmed with her situation (which includes the beginnings of a divorce and they have a 4-year old daughter), just as I was for several months over the winter. But she already knows and has said that she knows things will improve and she will find her happiness again. We talked for almost 2 hours, and I fell peacefully back asleep after that and woke up just as my coffee pot was beginning to brew about 4:45AM.
When I woke up, I felt pretty damn good. I remembered the discussion during the night, and I knew I had a tough run ahead, so I put on my HTFU bracelet. I basically got up, put my running clothes on, drank 2 cups of coffee and ate most of a Powerbar Triple Threat, filled my run bottles with (mostly) defizzed Coke, packed my run bag and I was out of the house within an hour.
The weather was pretty nice this AM--not too terribly hot or humid. I wondered how my legs would feel today considering how sore they felt yesterday before I stretched. But I also felt very good and motivated to run my very best. I hoped to knock out 16-17 miles, depending on how fast I was able to go. I drove to Waterfall Glen and was ready to take off running at 6:00AM on the nose. I parked in a place I don't usually park, which meant I had to start off on some short cut through the parking lot to get to the trailhead. The shortcut includes a few stairs and various roots.
When I was about .1 miles into the trail, AJ ran up next to me. I met AJ this winter while doing one of my NothingMan's. Only I couldn't remember his name until much later! We chatted--he was doing the full loop (9.5 miles), and I told him I was going for 17. He actually got me started out on a good, ease into it pace. I was tempted to stay with him, but I knew I had much more to go, so after about 1/2 mile, I told him to go on up ahead. But I could see him for about the first 4 miles, and I wasn't that far behind.
I ended up running to the Mile 4 marker and a little beyond, and then turned around. I stopped to use the porta-potty that is just before the Mile 4 marker. On the wall I saw a big tick! Well, that made me hurry up and get out of there, although I tried to kill the tick before I left. Of course, just seeing a tick made me itchy and thinking there were bugs all over me for a little while.
I had plenty of Coke for the way back, and didn't feel underfueled or dehydrated. My first out and back loop was about 8.6 miles, and I drank 12 oz. of Coke for the distance. I was running (slowly, but still running) the hills, and feeling pretty good. Back at my car, I drank about 3 oz. of Coke from another bottle (I had brought 3 just in case), and then grabbed another 12-oz. bottle and took off again. I felt so good for the first loop that I wondered if I'd still feel good, since I had already polished off a little more than I ran yesterday.
About 1.5 miles into my second loop, I saw one of these just sitting on the trail:
It's an indigo bunting. I knew what it was because I have a bird guide and have looked through pretty much all of them at one time or another, and I knew it wasn't a bluebird because he was smaller than a bluebird. He just sat on the trail, and I got within about 3 feet of him! I figured this was God's way of presenting to me a very special gift, because it is truly a beautiful bird, and this one wasn't afraid of me!
Also on the way out on my second loop, I saw a bunch of guys without shirts coming the opposite direction, probably a high school cross-country team. I was running really well at this point and almost naked myself, and they all waved and/or said hello to me. I was just glad I was representin' at this point!
I kept going and turned around about 3.6 miles or so out. Now I knew I was getting close to being done. There were several other groups of naked runner guys (sweet) and a few groups of girls who were probably also cross-country runners. One of my favorite songs came on the radio, and of course, I had to do some fancy footwork, much like these guys:
About the same spot as the way out, who should I see again but Mr. Indigo Bunting? He was sitting on the trail in almost the same exact spot, and I stopped to gaze at him and then he flew up into a small nearby tree. A couple of women were running up near me, and I was pointing madly at the tree to make sure they didn't miss this beautiful sight. I told them what kind of bird it is, and one girl (in a heavy British accent) commented that there was probably all sorts of wildlife in there, and I told her that indeed, there is. They had seen a few deer--last week when I ran here, I saw 4.
Now I was pumped up to finish strong, and I told the 2 girls they should go ahead and pass me, but they didn't (they were running 4 miles), and I just took it home, toweled off, got in my car and drove home, feeling great.
And I still feel great. I've got about :20 of strength work to do yet today, and I'm already up to almost 10 hours of training for the week, with about 12 to go, and I'm feeling really, really strong! Between today (I ran 16 miles in 2:30, not bad for me) and yesterday, I've almost run a marathon over 2 days, and I really can't complain! Tomorrow I don't have to swim since I'm doing a 2-mile swim race on Saturday, but if the weather is good, I really want to go for at least 1500 meters at the outdoor pool to recover from today's run (and well, get even more of a tan!), and then I'm biking 2 hours.
I've gone from feeling like I'm about to crumble under the weight of all the training to really feeling great and hitting it hard! I think what's happened is that I'm finally recovered from Triple T and have absorbed it and all my previous NothingMan's.
So you know the drill--it's total HARDCORE AGGRO for the next 3.5 weeks! I'm in 100% HTFU mode now!
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Hey There
While running today, I heard this song. It has several connotations to me--one of which is directed towards someone that I'm not sure is reading my blog anymore. Another would be, well, my general obsession with Ironman, or should I say triathlon or should I say biking? No matter--I like the song, but please excuse the 80's video--it sucks.
And for the record, I'm fucking tired. Biked to/from pool, swam 3200 meters (I feel so Canadian!), and then around noon I ran 8 miles at a pretty good clip for the first 5, and then my legs said slow down, and I'm still heat acclimating so I did.
WHO STOLE MY LEGS????
And for the record, I'm fucking tired. Biked to/from pool, swam 3200 meters (I feel so Canadian!), and then around noon I ran 8 miles at a pretty good clip for the first 5, and then my legs said slow down, and I'm still heat acclimating so I did.
WHO STOLE MY LEGS????
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Actual Bike Porn
Click on the post title. Stay tuned--this Friday is gonna be good!
I've left a link to this blog in my sidebar.
And you thought *I* was a dirty bike whore :)
I've left a link to this blog in my sidebar.
And you thought *I* was a dirty bike whore :)
Sex my Bitch Up!
Believe it or not, I haven't washed Bitchie since last fall. I know, I know--I'm guilty of Bitch abuse. I have wiped her off a litte bit here and there, but no full cleaning until this morning. And because she now sports Nokons, I can no longer just hose my Bitch down--I have to gingerly fondle every nook and cranny with the Bike Wash either lightly sprayed on (which I can do on the brakes and rear derailleur), or wiped on with a splooge towel (well actually a shop towel, but go with me here).
Well, today was the best cleaning I've ever done of Bitchie! I got almost everywhere on her, and I know she appreciated the attention. I think I now know where all of her special spots are. And I'm almost motivated to take her completely apart this fall--does anyone know where I can find a Bike Valet to do this for me???
Anyway, here she is all cleaned up before I put all the accessory crap back on her:
And here's the Hydro Tail with the new Specialized Rib Cage Pros:
Beautiful, huh? Funny thing is I took Bitchie to The Bike Shop Saturday afternoon to get these put on and a few other things, but the dude put both the X-lab straps on the same cage, which is not what I wanted, but I didn't realize it until I got home. I coped for Sunday's ride, but then I figured I'd just move them around. Nope. I needed to buy an 8mm wrench to hold the lock nuts in place to screw properly. Then I realized that the longer cage bolts required for the X-lab straps would not fit end-to-end inside the Hydro Tail properly, and I'd need slightly shorter ones (imagine that--needing a shorter screw). So last night before massage school, I went to the local Trek store, and headed to the Service area to get some different ones. Turns out one of the wrenches is a very young guy who had just done his very first triathlon, only the swim was cancelled and it was a duathlon! He asked me how many triathlons I've done, and I told him I don't know exactly...but 12 this year already! He and the other wrench got all googly-eyed at this, and I told them to track down my blog.
So before I started the foreplay...er...cleaning this morning, I undid the cages and switched to the new bolts, and everything is all good now.
Here are Bitchie's lubricants. She gets a little dry from time to time since I ride her pretty hard:
And finally, here she is with all her accessory crap on (and her lubricants):
Now that she's all sparkly and all, I almost don't want to ride her. Nah--you know me--I'm going to go ride her like the little Bitch she is soon enough. And if we have good weather on Sunday and it's not too windy, I'm going to put on the disk and front Cane Creek and we'll go stylin' as Ultra Bitch and Crackhead!
Well, today was the best cleaning I've ever done of Bitchie! I got almost everywhere on her, and I know she appreciated the attention. I think I now know where all of her special spots are. And I'm almost motivated to take her completely apart this fall--does anyone know where I can find a Bike Valet to do this for me???
Anyway, here she is all cleaned up before I put all the accessory crap back on her:
And here's the Hydro Tail with the new Specialized Rib Cage Pros:
Beautiful, huh? Funny thing is I took Bitchie to The Bike Shop Saturday afternoon to get these put on and a few other things, but the dude put both the X-lab straps on the same cage, which is not what I wanted, but I didn't realize it until I got home. I coped for Sunday's ride, but then I figured I'd just move them around. Nope. I needed to buy an 8mm wrench to hold the lock nuts in place to screw properly. Then I realized that the longer cage bolts required for the X-lab straps would not fit end-to-end inside the Hydro Tail properly, and I'd need slightly shorter ones (imagine that--needing a shorter screw). So last night before massage school, I went to the local Trek store, and headed to the Service area to get some different ones. Turns out one of the wrenches is a very young guy who had just done his very first triathlon, only the swim was cancelled and it was a duathlon! He asked me how many triathlons I've done, and I told him I don't know exactly...but 12 this year already! He and the other wrench got all googly-eyed at this, and I told them to track down my blog.
So before I started the foreplay...er...cleaning this morning, I undid the cages and switched to the new bolts, and everything is all good now.
Here are Bitchie's lubricants. She gets a little dry from time to time since I ride her pretty hard:
And finally, here she is with all her accessory crap on (and her lubricants):
Now that she's all sparkly and all, I almost don't want to ride her. Nah--you know me--I'm going to go ride her like the little Bitch she is soon enough. And if we have good weather on Sunday and it's not too windy, I'm going to put on the disk and front Cane Creek and we'll go stylin' as Ultra Bitch and Crackhead!
Monday, June 09, 2008
Yesterday's Ride and I Had One of "The Dreams"
I got EIGHT HOURS of sleep last night!!!! See, I was so exhausted and sore yesterday, I figured I'd sleep well, and I did. Even though I woke up at 12:30AM to a lot of lightning and thunder, I fell back asleep pretty quickly as it was a quickly passing storm.
Yesterday I was planning on driving north to do this ride called BCLC Ramble. I enjoyed it so much last year that I thought I'd repeat. But when I looked at the weather forecast, it called for a higher chance of rain up there (pretty much due north) than by me, and then I thought how nice to not spend 3 hours driving, so I bagged it and decided to ride to Fermilab from home.
My legs were fucking tired at the get go. But I thought that with a nice 1 hour warmup they should come around. They never really did. About 2 hours in, I started having the thoughts of gee I could just bag this--if I only rode 4 hours it would be enough. But then that little HTFU guy was sitting on the other shoulder telling me that I needed for this to be a huge training week. So I pressed on, even though I wasn't riding particularly well.
And then the winds really picked up. I mean REALLY PICKED UP! Look at the graph below and notice what starts happening around 9:30AM:
On Saturday, the winds were around 15MPH, which is still pretty good wind for working hard (and I did), but when this shit started, I was like OMG! When I was riding east, the cross winds didn't bother me, but riding west or south were crazy! Since I wasn't feeling too great anyway, at first I didn't acknowledge that it was the wind causing me to suck so much, but as I came on other riders, I'd ask if it was worse than yesterday, and they said hell yeah!
I pressed on, planning on doing 4 loops, which would give me 94 miles. When I was midway through the last loop, the sky began to look a little menacing, but it looked like it was to the north. Still, we've been stuck in this thunderstorm factory for about a week now, and I decided that with all the wind, even if I didn't do a full loop I'd still get in plenty of riding.
As I continued around now, I cut out 2 east-west sections, as I just couldn't face riding west into the headwinds anymore. As I neared my exit, the clouds began gathering above me now, so it was time to hammer the hell home.
It's been a few years since I've done rain sprints, and good thing I hadn't been riding too hard because I had plenty of giddy up in my legs once I got through the 1/2 mile south leg before I turned east.
And when I turned east, it was all good. I just put the hammer down because now I was trying to beat a storm. At one stoplight, I was next to a car and a little girl was smiling at me. Dad rolled down the window and told me she had said, "That boy is going really fast." Well, from the back, it's hard to tell. I took it as a compliment because I was riding really fast. They did, however, notice that I am a girl, and I said to the little doll, "See? Girls can ride really fast, too!" She smiled, the light changed, and off we went again. More hammering.
About 7 miles from home, 3 roadies (not FRP's) came up on me at a stoplight, and we chatted about the wind, etc. I asked them how much riding they'd done and they were at about 80 miles. One of them looked at my Ergomo and saw the time on there and said, "Oh, looks like you've been out for awhile, too." Yep. So I latched onto their wheels for about 3 miles, one of them split off, and I stayed with the other 2 for about another mile.
Then it started raining. I'm 3 miles from home now, and the rain is coming a little hard. I made an executive decision to duck into a parking garage, and it was a wise move. Then the deluge began. Rain dumping down going every which way, but I was all safe and snug in my parking garage. I even did a few laps in there! The clouds looked to be moving fast, so I knew I wouldn't have to wait very long. I didn't time it (I no longer wear a watch while on the bike; the Ergomo has a clock, but I don't bother making intervals), but I figure it lasted 20 minutes? Thing is now when I have to wait like this I'm pretty relaxed. Actually I was glad for the break, but I wasn't too happy about riding on soaked roads, but what are you going to do? I figured I had to make a fast break because there would probably be more rain coming.
I made it home pretty filthy from all the road spray, and I took everything off Bitchie and wheeled her into the garage to clean her off a bit (full cleaning sometime today).
When I showered, there were bugs all over me as well as some nice road grime, and then bike grime since I'd wiped down my rims and that stuff got all over my hands. As always, though, it was the best shower ever, and then I made myself a big plate of nachos, and decided I wasn't into the Endurox R4. I mean, how can you drink that with nachos? So I cracked a beer, and it tasted, well, great.
I noticed pretty quickly than in stopping exercising that my legs were pretty fucked up, and that I would need to lay down. I checked the TV listings (no, still don't have cable; I barely watch TV anymore as it is), and saw that Jackie Brown was on. But on network, meaning they would need to censor pretty much every line. Still, I wanted to make it without passing out to the scene where Louis shoots Melanie. Below is a funny scene and then a summary of the movie with all the shit that got censored from the movie.
And I pretty much laid around and then stretched and then passed out for good. When I woke up this morning, I had just had a dream that I was doing IMLP and I had just got my bike to go ride. My legs felt bad, I couldn't pedal, and then I look down and notice my power meter is gone as are my aerobars! In the dream I then stopped and was sobbing uncontrollably. And then I woke up.
Yesterday I was planning on driving north to do this ride called BCLC Ramble. I enjoyed it so much last year that I thought I'd repeat. But when I looked at the weather forecast, it called for a higher chance of rain up there (pretty much due north) than by me, and then I thought how nice to not spend 3 hours driving, so I bagged it and decided to ride to Fermilab from home.
My legs were fucking tired at the get go. But I thought that with a nice 1 hour warmup they should come around. They never really did. About 2 hours in, I started having the thoughts of gee I could just bag this--if I only rode 4 hours it would be enough. But then that little HTFU guy was sitting on the other shoulder telling me that I needed for this to be a huge training week. So I pressed on, even though I wasn't riding particularly well.
And then the winds really picked up. I mean REALLY PICKED UP! Look at the graph below and notice what starts happening around 9:30AM:
On Saturday, the winds were around 15MPH, which is still pretty good wind for working hard (and I did), but when this shit started, I was like OMG! When I was riding east, the cross winds didn't bother me, but riding west or south were crazy! Since I wasn't feeling too great anyway, at first I didn't acknowledge that it was the wind causing me to suck so much, but as I came on other riders, I'd ask if it was worse than yesterday, and they said hell yeah!
I pressed on, planning on doing 4 loops, which would give me 94 miles. When I was midway through the last loop, the sky began to look a little menacing, but it looked like it was to the north. Still, we've been stuck in this thunderstorm factory for about a week now, and I decided that with all the wind, even if I didn't do a full loop I'd still get in plenty of riding.
As I continued around now, I cut out 2 east-west sections, as I just couldn't face riding west into the headwinds anymore. As I neared my exit, the clouds began gathering above me now, so it was time to hammer the hell home.
It's been a few years since I've done rain sprints, and good thing I hadn't been riding too hard because I had plenty of giddy up in my legs once I got through the 1/2 mile south leg before I turned east.
And when I turned east, it was all good. I just put the hammer down because now I was trying to beat a storm. At one stoplight, I was next to a car and a little girl was smiling at me. Dad rolled down the window and told me she had said, "That boy is going really fast." Well, from the back, it's hard to tell. I took it as a compliment because I was riding really fast. They did, however, notice that I am a girl, and I said to the little doll, "See? Girls can ride really fast, too!" She smiled, the light changed, and off we went again. More hammering.
About 7 miles from home, 3 roadies (not FRP's) came up on me at a stoplight, and we chatted about the wind, etc. I asked them how much riding they'd done and they were at about 80 miles. One of them looked at my Ergomo and saw the time on there and said, "Oh, looks like you've been out for awhile, too." Yep. So I latched onto their wheels for about 3 miles, one of them split off, and I stayed with the other 2 for about another mile.
Then it started raining. I'm 3 miles from home now, and the rain is coming a little hard. I made an executive decision to duck into a parking garage, and it was a wise move. Then the deluge began. Rain dumping down going every which way, but I was all safe and snug in my parking garage. I even did a few laps in there! The clouds looked to be moving fast, so I knew I wouldn't have to wait very long. I didn't time it (I no longer wear a watch while on the bike; the Ergomo has a clock, but I don't bother making intervals), but I figure it lasted 20 minutes? Thing is now when I have to wait like this I'm pretty relaxed. Actually I was glad for the break, but I wasn't too happy about riding on soaked roads, but what are you going to do? I figured I had to make a fast break because there would probably be more rain coming.
I made it home pretty filthy from all the road spray, and I took everything off Bitchie and wheeled her into the garage to clean her off a bit (full cleaning sometime today).
When I showered, there were bugs all over me as well as some nice road grime, and then bike grime since I'd wiped down my rims and that stuff got all over my hands. As always, though, it was the best shower ever, and then I made myself a big plate of nachos, and decided I wasn't into the Endurox R4. I mean, how can you drink that with nachos? So I cracked a beer, and it tasted, well, great.
I noticed pretty quickly than in stopping exercising that my legs were pretty fucked up, and that I would need to lay down. I checked the TV listings (no, still don't have cable; I barely watch TV anymore as it is), and saw that Jackie Brown was on. But on network, meaning they would need to censor pretty much every line. Still, I wanted to make it without passing out to the scene where Louis shoots Melanie. Below is a funny scene and then a summary of the movie with all the shit that got censored from the movie.
And I pretty much laid around and then stretched and then passed out for good. When I woke up this morning, I had just had a dream that I was doing IMLP and I had just got my bike to go ride. My legs felt bad, I couldn't pedal, and then I look down and notice my power meter is gone as are my aerobars! In the dream I then stopped and was sobbing uncontrollably. And then I woke up.
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Weekly Workout Totals 06/02/2008-06/08/2008
I'm not even sayin'...I'm too fucking tired to be sayin'...you just be readin' and thinkin' 'bout how this feels. And oh yeah, check out that TSS score. Yeah, you heard it right. I HTFU'd. Did you?
| Weekly Workout Totals | 06/02/2008-06/08/2008 This week's totals are sponsored by the WIND. There was so much of it this weekend that I have to hold it accountable for my extreme tiredness. |
| Swim: | 10400 yards (5.9 miles) in 3.85 hours; 17% of weekly workout time; approx. 1348 calories burned Canadian: 9509.76 meters |
| Bike: | Approx. 211.79 miles in 12.1 hours; 55% of weekly workout time; approx. 5220 calories burned; Total TSS=612 Canadian: 340.84 kilometers |
| Run: | Approx. 32.45 miles in 5 hours; 23% of weekly workout time; approx. 2260 calories burned Canadian: 52.22 kilometers |
| Strength: | 1.13 hours; 5% of weekly workout time; approx. 283 calories burned Canadian: I lifted many grams |
| All Sports: | Approx. 250.14 miles in 22.08 hours; approx. 9111 calories burned Canadian: 402.56 kilometers |
| Sleep: | 7.32 hours avg./night Getting a little bit more now. Seems I need to be 100% exhausted to sleep well, but hey, waking up at 3:45AM comes in handy on the weekends when I have to ride to Alaska and back! |
| Stretching: | 2.18 hours. Massage: 2.5 hours I done well here, eh? |
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