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Sunday, June 10, 2012

The Bike Can Become Very Consuming

This week has gone quite well on multiple fronts.  I continue to see steady improvement on the bike thanks to all this mileage I've put in.  Equally important, my legs seem healthy once again and are responding positively to running.  So here is the week...

Monday: 3 mile run, real easy jog

Tuesday: 43 miles total cycling including...6.5 miles to work in the morning, 31 miles at an easy pace after work, and another 5.5 bonus miles after that to meet up with the TWSS crew at Gilman as they were finishing their track work.

Wednesday: 38 miles total riding with warm up.
 I finally made my return to group riding, specifically the Adventures for the Cure, Wednesday night West Side Worlds A ride.  It's a 35 mile route that contains three respectable hills (one with a section at 18% grade), and three designated sprint sections.  I never even came close to the end of this ride without getting dropped last year.  This time though, I survived the whole way.  Note: survived.  I made sure to just tuck into the draft and stay behind people that I knew wouldn't get dropped.  I only joined break aways to keep myself firmly planted behind another wheel.  Between that and my extra mileage, I was able to hold on and got a really solid interval style workout in.  And aside from death gripping the handle bars most of the way, my group riding skills were a lot more solid than they have been: holding my line, keeping my velocity and acceleration smooth, drinking water without endangering the lives of everyone around me, and keeping the gap with the next bike minimal.

Thursday: Commute to and from work by bike, 13 miles total.  Running...5 miles easy pace, but faster than jogging.  I felt no pain in my leg at all during the run.  My quads were a little beat up from the bike, but that was ok.

Friday: 4 mile run, real easy jog.  Everything was still ok on the running side.  As for the bike, here is a quick story:

I purchased my current vehicle, a 2009 Mitsubishi Eclipse (new) down in Annapolis, about 35 miles south of Baltimore.  This particular dealership has a ridiculously good service plan such that, I make the drive down there for maintenance (and once when I blew out a tire).  With free oil changes for life and a free loaner car (I only pay for gas I use), it's a pretty hard deal to pass up.  Plus, I like driving and the drive down is usually pretty quick.  This time though, I decided, why not just drop it off Friday, ride my bike back to Baltimore, then ride back down Saturday and pick it up?

Well I decided to do that, and it was pretty awesome.  I've been on many of the back roads between Baltimore and Annapolis and basically had a route planned out in my head already.  The only dicey part was the two or so miles in Annapolis in a pretty busy area on West street before it turns into Generals Highway.  But, with my experience riding within Baltimore city, I figured I could handle it.

The whole thing went off perfectly, I rode 35 miles back to Baltimore Friday, and 35 miles down to Annapolis on Saturday.  It was a little warm on Saturday, but the route was relatively flat.  I think the people at the dealership thought I was crazy...

Sunday: At long last, it was time to give myself a real test.  Originally, I was going to do 8 miles, but opted instead to join a few other runners for an easy 10.5.  Since I'm allegedly running a 10 mile race next week, I'm either going to be healthy enough to run 10, or still be injured.  At this point, there really is no in between, so 10.5 or 8 really shouldn't make a difference. So with temperatures reaching the mid-80s by the end of the run, we managed roughly 7:20/miles for a somewhat exposed, somewhat hilly course.

Most importantly, no pain in my leg!  Aerobically, I felt fine, but my quads were a little sore.  They felt better than they did on Thursday during that 5 miler.  I think its a combination of just not having run much the last three weeks, riding instead of running, and some tiredness from the riding itself.

I'll give it a go with another easy 6-7 tomorrow, to give me back-to-back days of legit easy running.  That will be the final test, and I'll be willing to release myself for more reasonable amounts of running if my leg still feels fine.  I have to get back to running ASAP, because I'm really on a fast track to becoming a full blown cyclist...

Total miles for the week:
Bike: 164 (no long ride so I could save my legs for a long run, and the B-10 next week)
Run: 22.5; finally something resembling actually running.

This week, more running if everything goes well, and a similar amount of riding.  There will be no West Side Worlds this week, as we are going down to Columbia, MD for a run-bike-run brick instead.  That should keep me fresher for the Baltimore 10 Miler, which I have no designs on racing.  I'm just going to go with the flow for that one and see what happens.

Beyond that...the Maryland 2xrip Duathlon is my main goal, the weekend of July 15th/16th.  It will give me an opportunity to use my upgraded bike engine in a race.  Unlike Cascade Lake, this race will be competitive, so no cruising to a victory this time.  Since no one legit races duathlons, I actually get to start in the elite wave of this race.  Should be exciting...

After that, it will be time to pick a fall marathon, because that distance and I have a laundry list of unfinished business.


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