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.
I managed a nice easy run, in the hot, humid, rainy aftermath of Tropical Storm Lee. It felt good.
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.
Emily and I are aiming for a half-marathon together next spring, with a shorter-term goal of doing the Camp Letts turkey trot Thanksgiving Day. (I did this run last year with Tim and MJ. By “with” I mean I ran behind them at an ever-increasing interval.)
This is our first training run together and my first real run since hurting my foot in March. Here’s hoping for continued absence of pain. We’re starting very slow and plan to eventually work up to slow.
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.
160 miles
6 hours
25mph average
9,910 calories
dust, cobbles, carnage
Amazing
(Too bad there’s no heart rate data.)
Charlottesville Marathon
Tim and Mackenzie both finished Charlottesville strong and feeling good. Mackenzie was the youngest participant and, reportedly, dropped her dad around the 23 mile mark (no mercy) and finished at 4:12. Tim very shortly after at 4:15. Fantastic! I’m happy they made it and had a great time in the process!
Official results here.
I got to the diagnostic center last weekend and just got a clean result from the xrays.
Three views reveal anatomic alignment and no acute skeletal abnormality.
That means either it’s not a stress fracture or it’s so minor that a real man wouldn’t even notice…er, I mean a regular xray won’t show it. Since the pain is way down, I’m going to pass on the higher-radiation bonescan that might show a really teeny fracture.
While the xray didn’t show a fracture…
There are mild degenerative changes in the first interphalangeal joint.
…apparently I have the beginnings of arthritis in my big toe. Joy.
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!
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!
