Tag Archives: tri
7.9 with Tim
Sos – running in beautiful rural France
We were lucky enough to vacation in France this year. We spent a few days in Paris and a few days with friends. They are in a tiny town in the southwest called Sos. It’s a 4.5 hour ride from Paris on the 190mph TGV train, and then an hour drive from Agen. It really is in the middle of nowhere…and it’s wonderful.
I got in a couple runs and it was a great way to see the scenery. They were sightseeing runs more than training runs. One hilly and one flat; the narrow roads were all mine.
Highlights included:
- The hilly one showed me a fabulous view of the town from the next ridge. With the early morning sun at my back lighting the town with warm light, I wished I had the camera.
- Bored cows whose heads came up in unison, in what I’m sure is their version of giddiness at this new excitement in their morning, heads slowly pivoting to follow my progress like 30 white-faced mimes.
- A just-barely-not-turned ankle at the turnaround of an out-and-back run. Read: as far from home as possible. I was sure I was screwed but after a minute with the weight off it and a few minutes walking it wasn’t painful and got me home with no problems. It was very slightly swollen that night but, with no pain and no lingering inflammation, I feel lucky.
We were amazed at the number of runners we saw in Paris! I was hoping for an early morning, pre-crowds, run around Notre Dame and along the Seine but it didn’t work out.
Friday morning run with Tim
Beautiful, still, foggy morning.
60-minute NapTown run with Tim
It feels good to run long again! It’s been almost a year since I started having foot pain on long runs. I ended up bagging that marathon and a half Ironman later in the summer. I was bummin’.
Tim and I had a good hour this morning and I’m feeling good after it. My 10k PR, at the Camp Letts turkey trot, is only 2 minutes faster.
This is my first long run since losing 10 pounds and boy does it make a difference! Even at my fittest, long runs were usually over 10-min miles. I’m way less fit now but the mass reduction lets me keep up with Tim in the 9:15-9:40 range much easier! (He’s still waay faster. He PR’d in the 10k last year under 8 min/mile.)
Two hour easy spin
It’s been a mild winter here but I haven’t been motivated to get my ass out on the bike much. Now that I’m planning for the Columbia olympic in May, naturally I have some fear of failure as motivation.
It felt so good to be out today. About 40F at start and 45F at finish, sunny, clear, with just a bit of breeze. I worked diligently to keep from going too hard and it mostly worked.
Hill repeats
I suck at “climbing”. I’m not even sure what I do up hills would be considered “climbing”. So I should work on that, right?
Short hill repeats. 4 of Gov. Bridge and 1 of St. Geo Barber. Ouch.
15mi Ride – GovBridge-StGeoBarber Loop
This loop is a nice, convenient way to get a jamming 45 minute workout. The roads are scenic and usually low-traffic. Enough hillage to kill me (going up) and thrill me (going down) and close to home. The St Geo Barber hill will be a great place for hill repeats…as soon as I’m able to do it more than once, that is.
36 mile ride
It was nice to be out of the basement again and off the trainer. I sure do miss the nice warm weather of my last ride, though. I’m so easily tempted into believing I can ride in shorts and T-shirt already!
Even with full gloves, jacket, tights, and skullcap it was a great ride. That clear and calm that makes riding anywhere, anytime a joy. I saw about a half-dozen other cyclists and it was a nice reminder that other people enjoy this too.
I really like this route, the roads are smooth and low-volume. I’m adding this one to my short-list.
Come on summer!
34 mile evening ride
With the time change I’m finally able to ride in the evenings after work. And with the warm temperatures today it was too much to pass up.
I planned to go out for about an hour and ended up riding twice that. I finally got a chance to go south on Sands Rd and see what’s down there. It’s a great ride and I want to explore more.
On top of that I felt really good and hammered, or as close as I get to hammering, the last 20 minutes of the ride to keep the average above 17mph. I think the running is really helping my overall fitness and endurance, which is nice. I’ll never be fast but I love seeing improvement!
As Fat Cyclist commented recently, it was oddly distracting seeing my lily-white knees flashing into my peripheral vision the whole ride. Come on summer!