Great Saturday

Start of yesterday's ride in Fermilab

It's 45 degrees here at 5:20AM as I write this, and the heat is on in my house, which means I am not going to be driving north to ride today. I will eat the breakfast I was thinking about at 3AM of scrambled eggs and toast around 8, read the Sunday paper, and then motivate back to Fermilab for 4 hours in warmer temperatures.

Yesterday's forecast originally called for 80's, but upon waking, even though it was already near 70, there was a much higher chance of rain than originally predicted, too. Since I was up early, and since my access roads are under heavy construction now, I loaded LGL into my car plus running gear and headed to Fermilab with the goal of riding 3 hours or 60 miles, whichever came first.

It was plenty humid but not actually raining when I started at 7:15AM. At least I didn't need arm warmers! But it was quite windy, and so I knew my speed would be depressed, but wind usually makes me work hard, so I'd be riding by time today. Below you can see the wind data for yesterday:

I think I got about halfway around one loop when it began raining. Since there are plenty of buildings in Fermilab, it's usually easy to duck in somewhere and wait out rain, which I did way

too many times last year. The way it's been raining so regularly this year, it may be a repeat of last spring! This time I was a ways from a building on my way to the West Gate, but there is a shortcut bike path to the Ledermann Science Center, so I hightailed it there and made it up the ramp after a near soaking. I think I waited less than 10 minutes for that shower to blow over. I know, I know--I am a wimp, but if I don't have to be soaked, why would I?

Back on and around to the Big Ring, and I just got on there and the sky opened up again. I ducked behind some building that had some sort of generator thing next to it and waited for the short downpour to stop. I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the lap, pushing hard, and even saw a group of 3 deer in there. I was also enjoying some tunes. Now that I finally have an MP3 player, I've taken to riding with it, but only when I'm in Fermilab. On residential streets it would just be too dangerous. So even though I'm just circling around, it's a little more enjoyable than it used to be.

I made it back to my car to grab another bottle of Infinit (my first bottle was leftover from a few weeks ago and was pure Money Shot, aka loaded with caffeine, but my other 2 bottles weren't as potent) and decided to strip off the bike jersey and go with a singlet--gotta work on the tan! Even as breezy as it was, I was quite comfortable, but now I began watching the gathering clouds, as the sun didn't want to come out.

I got sprinkled on some more but didn't need to stop for it and headed back to the Big Ring for another round. Once I got in there, and about halfway around, the sky started to look pretty ominous, so I began thinking whether I should go back out to the South Gate or not before heading back to my car. I decided against it, and of course, as soon as I got off the ring, it began raining again. At least this time, I thought "GOOD DECISION," but it wasn't stopping anytime soon, so I just pedaled really hard to get back to my car and load up.

I got in almost 2:30 of riding in Fermilab, and not very fast at all with the winds the way they were. But it was all good, and I figured I had time to drive home, ride another half hour (outside, weather permitting), get in my planned :40 run and then a short swim (on Saturdays the only lap swim is 12-1PM so it limits when I can sneak in after a long ride). I made it home pretty quickly, took LGL out of the car, put some stuff in the house, and headed back out. I decided I'd just big ring it hard for the remaining time.

I was pleasantly surprised at how the winds had either died down (it was about 10:30 now) or else just because I was no longer in the wide open spaces of Fermilab it wasn't as bad. At any rate, I enjoyed standing up as much as possible since I was just riding for 1/2 hour. When I got back home, I stripped off my disgusting cycling clothes and changed to go run.

As I headed up the 1/4 mile gentle hill right from my house, I thought, hmmm...I must have ridden fairly hard based on how my legs felt. But I was able to run OK, taking tiny steps as is mandated when beginning a brick run. I needed to decide which direction I would run, and being the masochist that I am, I decided to head south on Main Street to McCollum Park, which is basically 1.5 miles uphill, and with the south wind blowing, even better! Kind of like how the Triple T run takes you 2 miles straight up!

I was hot, disgusting, but I was running and went by a man who had been running, but as he turned to begin up the hill was walking. As I went by him, I told him to keep running! As I kept climbing, I thought to myself what the fuck am I doing, but of course I was doing exactly what I wanted to do and was even enjoying it.

When I got to the park, I ran a lap around it, which is about 1.25 miles, mostly flat, so that was a nice break from the hill climbing and the wind. When I finished the lap, I just stopped and thought now what? If I just turned around and went home, I wouldn't make :40, and that would be OK, but I'm a masochist, so I turned to head further south on Main Street which entailed climbing uphill some more, and I just set my sights on a particular street at which to finally turn around and head home.

Since the way back was mostly downhill and slightly wind assisted, it felt pretty good, and I do enjoy going down much more than I ever used to and do it confidently, so I was having a great time. When I got home, I was so disgusting that I couldn't sit down on any furniture, so I just stripped off my running clothes (throwing them downstairs onto the floor!) and put my swimsuit on and a pair of shorts over it and a dirty t-shirt. While this swim wouldn't be training per se but rather just cooling down, I didn't need to do it, but knew it would feel good at some level, so off to the Y I went.

I never know what I'm going to end up doing when I swim after a solid bike and run, but I knew I did not want to kick at all. So I just started in with the pull buoy, and ended up just swimming 1,000 yards straight. The water wasn't as cold as I would have liked--either that or I was just too heated up. I showered and wanted to stretch a little in the sauna, but when I went in there it was just too hot for me, which meant my core temperature had to be up, so I skipped it.

I got home and ate some lunch and crawled into bed for a little lay down and heard my phone chirp and figured it was my niece, so I got up and it was and shit, figured I should just get up and get going on to her place. She had organized a clothing swap with some of her girlfriends, and honestly I get a kick hanging out with her (she's 25). I was pretty tired when I got there, but had fun trying on all sorts of things. I ended up with some really neat stuff, some of which I am calling "skankwear," but hey, can't have too much of that, can you? At one point, I asked Michelle if she had anything made of sugar, as I could tell my blood sugar was crashing and I needed some calories. She gave me some Ho Ho's which was perfect considering the skankwear I was wearing. That fixed me right up!

When I got home, I fixed this really great salad of shrimp, grapes, pineapple, almonds, litchees, celery and water chestnuts, then got down and stretched, then ate, read a bit, and fell asleep early.

I had intended to drive somewhere to ride, but I'm not too keen about riding in the 40's, so another breakfast and reading the Sunday paper seems in order before I head back to Fermilab.

Oh yeah, when I downloaded the Ergomo data, turns out I did ride hard, at 85% of FTP! So no wonder my legs felt a little toasted while I was running, but since I got a good 8 hours of sleep last night, I don't feel too bad, plus I don't have to run today!

Happy Sunday!