Memorable Run

Been away for a few days, not much to write about, so I haven't. I was off on Sunday all day - actually was sick, so that worked out okay. Yesterday was pretty hectic, though I managed to lift and run 5. No ride! The weather was just a bit too windy/cool to go out the day after being sick. The forecast for today was for snow, but I was hoping to get an opportunity to ride anyway.

Fat chance.

If anything, it was colder and windier than yesterday. Leisa and I went to the Eiteljorg Museum in Indy, and when I got home I had just enough time to buy some new shoes and get ready to run. My shout out to my friends elicited exactly one response, Miller, and we agreed to meet at the regular place and time.

With no Allen or Jimmy there to change the regular plan, it was left to me. I'd had it in my head to run north to the trailhead of the Milwaukee Line. I got the idea on my way home as we passed by the line, and it occurred to me then it would be a perfect wind break. Miller didn't have a problem with giving it a shot, so out we went.

The condition of the trail is "improving". There is still a large-gauge gravel on most of it, but it's beginning to pack in. More and more often there are very comfortable stretches along the way as well. We ran about 4 miles out in the direction of Williams, getting down by the river. We were almost halfway between Bedford and Williams before we turned, and for my part it was all a very enjoyable run.

I'm hoping it continues to improve. I plan on taking the girls team on this trail a bit this summer, especially when it gets hot. I won't be able to take them very far on it unless it smooths out a great deal, but I could see the possibility of a point-to-point run to Williams. That could be cool.

No rides this week thus far. With 5 days left it's still easily doable, but I'm getting the feeling of being backed into a corner again. One way or another, tomorrow I must ride. 

Calling it Early

I know I have averaged good numbers on the riding all year, and traditionally I try to bump my mileage up at Spring Break, but I need tomorrow off. Never mind I'm a little short riding this week - I need a day off. Haven't had one in a couple of weeks, and it's starting to show.

It's been hectic all week, what with the stress level in the building being so high as it always is the week before break, doctors' appointments, weather... I've just come up short. Can't stress about it. It is what it is.

The running side of things went very well. I managed three 10-milers in one week, completing my 30 for the week in only three days. It's one of the highlights of the week for sure, because this pattern will allow me to balance training enough to earn a day off every week.

Take today for instance. It started with a 10-mile run, then a weight/core workout, and finally a 52-mile bike. All told that's over 5 hours of activity, and it was mentally tough to face through the first 2/3's. If the argument is it makes you mentally tougher, yeah, maybe it does, but it's also a sign of failing to rest. One rest day a week can make all the difference in being mentally prepared to face the big days. Everyone wears down after a while.

I was able to train with a few of the guys today and Allen is kicking the idea around to have Strava challenges for different aspects of our biking. I like it - it's similar to the challenges we had a few years back with our "Wendy's Cup". The awards could be as simple as stickers for the bike or helmet, but I was thinking maybe of a traveling award for some of the bigger challenges. How about a traveling car magnet for the sprint king every week? I can see that already... pulling into the Spring Mill lot, winner walks up to the previous owner's vehicle, swipes the magnet, and says something like, "It's mine NOW!" Love it.

Anyway, I think Allen is looking for input. Or maybe just approval. You never know with him. I have an idea for an award, but for now, I'm keeping that under wraps...

Well, well, WELL!

The sky finally cleared this afternoon, and it got BEAUTIFUL! I hadn't planned to get a ride, but you know what? Though it couldn't be long, I was going to work something out. Thanks to last night's run, I'm ahead on running miles. That meant if I could carve out an hour, I could at least make 20 miles. And that's what I did.

It wasn't as pleasant as all that though. The wind was turbulent, and there really wasn't an easy direction to ride except one - west. Unfortunately none of my courses have a great deal of west in them. The only thing to do was head south and make it a quick as possible.

I wound up a bit over an hour, a bit over 18 mph, and my riding miles a bit more in order for the week. I have over 70 now, so with 80 miles I could have the bare minimum week. That ought to be easy from here on out.

10 more running miles to go, three days. I can do this. 

In a Corner

I know the week is only three days old officially, but with only 31 miles riding going into today, I'm concerned about my ability to pull off 180 this week. I won't get a ride tomorrow, so that would leave Friday - Sunday to get it done. That's 150 miles in three days. I don't like the sound of that. What are the odds we'll get three nice days in a row to ride, or that I'll be able to pull off 50 a day?

Maybe the goals will happen and maybe they won't, but I at least have to try. Modifications to the plan had to be made. I stuck with the first part of today's outline. I lifted then ran 10 miles. This went off well with no difficulties. This also brought my running total to 20 miles, 2/3 of my weekly mileage goal. For that part, I'm ahead, and it gives me a bit of wiggle room.

As the run ended, I thought more and more about how the week is developing, and decided it would be best to try to slip in a ride tonight. No way it was going outdoors - the wind is pretty strong, and after last night's ride and tonight's run it would have been courting disaster. That meant a spin.

Yuck. Indoor riding. I really, really hate the idea of doing any rides inside at this point. There wasn't much choice, so I did it. It wasn't much, just a 20-miler, but attached to the day's other activities, it rounded things out to right at 3 hours of exercise. That's enough for mid-week. Now I only need to do 130 miles in the next four days (in which I will be able to ride three). That is palatable, at a little over two hours a day average. Likely as not I'll go bigger on one of the days and lighter on another.

Still jazzed a bit over how well everyone rode last night!

First Time Trial of 2014

Though I had the day off, it was anything but restful. It started with dropping my mother off at the hospital for a medical procedure. I left her there and went to a doctor's appointment for my yearly exam. That went very well - enough so that I captured some money from my insurance plan!

After my appointment it was back to the hospital to retrieve mom, take her home, then head home for lunch. My original plan was to get all this done, have a block of time in the afternoon to run, then go to my eye appointment. I wasn't left enough time to get the run and be cleaned up, so I skipped the run.

Eye appointment completed, my eyes were so dilated I couldn't be outside for a time, so the second part of my plan, to ride early, was out. That cut my workout to a simple 30-mile ride from Spring Mill. As it turned out, it wasn't so simple.

Six of us showed. There was Miller, Jimmy, Allen, Troy, John T., and me. There was also a steady SSE wind with strong gusts and ample cloud cover. This would make for great pace line conditions, IF we could get out there fast enough to beat darkness. For the second week in a row we were forced to bury our heads a bit and pace line out to the start.

I took the first pull. It wasn't really fast, only between 17-19 mph, but the wind made that difficult for some to hang on. My intent was never to drop anyone, only to lift the overall pace a couple miles an hour to buy us some time. I held it for just west of Bromer and handed off to John T. I could have held it all the way, but I was afraid of burning my legs off completely before the hard part ever started. We had some horses there, and there was the real possibility of getting dropped if I wasn't on my game.

So John T. took a turn, passed to Miller, who passed to Troy. That got us to the county line, ready to make our plan. Only thing was, there was no plan. It's March 18th. Who could have imagined we would be doing organized lines already?

I'd been on the front long enough to know the headwind had been substantial, and it would be a perfect night for Troy to take the KOM. I hadn't felt good all day, at least not enough to feel ready to take a crack at an early season time trial, but I knew Troy could. I was too late - he'd already done 30 miles, been out on the course, and took a swipe at it. I'm guessing if he put his back into it at all he's the new KOM, but I digress a bit.

The other guys seem ambivalent about what to do. I got the sense Miller didn't want to time trial, Troy was waffling, John T. wanted a group, and I knew Allen and Jimmy wanted a group, so in the end all but Troy did group and leave. I had declared I was time trialing, I didn't care what anyone else did. Troy acquiesced and offered himself as rabbit (but would also take another shot at the record).

We gave the group a big head start - at least a minute or more. I gave Troy the same gap, figuring I would never see him again. I wondered too if I would catch the other guys, because working together they could probably easily hold us both off. What the heck, we show up to work hard. It was a carrot.

Troy flew away as I knew he would. I found it hard to accelerate, normal for this time of year, but I did eventually get the speed up over 30 mph down the straightaway. I didn't seem to be making much on either Troy or the group, in fact Troy seemed to be pulling away, as I thought he might. I just kept cranking, giving it a chance, waiting to see what might develop.

By the time I entered Bromer I could tell I was beginning to take time out of Troy. I couldn't even see the group, they were so far ahead, but I was yo-yoing  with Troy a bit, slowly but surely drawing him back. There was no telling if the gap would close altogether, but it was closing.

In the Lost River Valley a couple of things happened. Troy caught the group, and he stayed with them. I wondered if that might happen. He'd ridden awfully hard before, so I'd wondered how much gas he would have to push again. In his place I probably would have done the same thing. Now it was clear that not only would I catch the group, unless Troy broke away, I would catch him too.

As we started climbing Lost River Hill the group started looking back. They'd spotted me, and whether or not they were pushing to stay away or just watching the show didn't matter - I would pass them. It looked like John T. was on the front and Troy and Allen on the back. I wondered what would happen when I went by.

Before I got to them Troy jumped off the end of the group and sprinted up to catch John T. John T. had broken away, perhaps 50 yards or so. I don't know if he saw me and decided to hold me off a little longer or just wanted to be on the front with John T., but I heard some "DfO" comments floated afterward.

The pass occurred pretty much right atop the hill. I got back down into aero, pulled wide left and went around the tail end of the group hard. A little further down the road I caught the other two. By then I was up to 28-29 mph or more, solid speed, but not nearly enough to hold them off. And I didn't. Before long I could hear John T. talking to me, and I heard Troy's voice too. That was fine by me; it didn't change my individual effort so long as I didn't allow them to pull or allow myself to be pulled.

Of course in the final sprint they both whizzed by me effortlessly. I had no intention of following them, mainly because I really couldn't, but also because to do so would have meant taking their draft. Nope, that wouldn't be fair.

There was no way to know at the time if it was a winning effort. I'd been faster than Troy on this turn, but he'd gone alone earlier and I suspected much harder. He wouldn't have had to be much harder than this trip to take the crown. Still, there was no shame in the effort. Wind aided? Of course! That invalidates the whole thing a bit I suppose, but what I think was positive was how quickly I got back into the groove. The focus, effort, and appetite were all there the moment the ride started. On top of that, I was able to hold the effort the whole way without blowing up.

What might it have been without the wind? Probably more like 25-26 mph, I'd guess. I still can't climb all that well yet, and lactic acid accumulates very quickly. My top-end speed isn't here yet either. My main strength at the moment is endurance - whatever speed I do have I can hold for long periods of time.

The group had a solid ride - Allen, Miller, and Jimmy came in over 25 mph. I didn't hear any complaints.

Tomorrow I plan to run again. I lost some riding miles, so I'll have to look at ways to make that up. I could spin tomorrow night after the run, or maybe Thursday night after the banquet. Ugh. I don't like either choice!

St. Patrick's Day

A kid told me at school I was going to get pinched today - I had no green in my clothing. I bet him I wouldn't, and I didn't. Such is respect! (or loathing)

I didn't wear green on the lift or run either, but they went well. I've stripped back the lifting a bit, and I like the balance. I still get the essentials, spend some good time on core, and don't leave feeling like I am coming apart at every joint. I even tried a bench psuedo-max the other day to see what I could push at the end of a workout. I was surprised by the result, really. Not going to drink the Kool-Aid and go hard lifting again, it's just nice to see I'm on the right track.

After the run yesterday I tried to lay around as much as possible to recover from the previous day's long ride. I was pretty tired by the end of the day, and my legs were tight. It was a good call, because today I was scheduled to run 10 miles. There was no telling how that might go, considering how difficult it was to run yesterday morning. All there was to do for it was to leave the house and start rolling.

It was slow, but not terribly so to start. The first mile was 7:45, and given how poorly I felt yesterday this was a surprise. How much more so the next two miles, 7:04 and 6:56 respectively. It slowed a bit after that as I considered I planned to run 5 more. So at the midpoint the run stood at 36:15 or so.

Jimmy, Miller, Heatherly, and Bartlett were there to run the second part, Jimmy planning to go the full 5. That was fine by me... I needed to go slow and careful. Jimmy actually looked pretty good, running the equivalent of a 42-minute 5-miler. Considering what he's been through, that's great stuff.

I wound up with almost 79 minutes for 10, quite good when I was hoping for 80 minutes. Sure, it's not fast, but it's faster than it's been for a while. I'll take that.

We are riding tomorrow from Spring Mill, 5:45. I'm going to try to get there early enough to pick up another 20-30 miles ahead of time. It's a busy day with several doctors' appointments, so this is all subject to change. 

Riding the Edge

It's been months since I've posted; those that know me best know why. The situation has been resolved, so I am here again. Judge for yourself whether that is good or bad.

In the time I have been away, training has actually been pretty heavy in some areas, relatively light in others. In the running department I have been relatively light compared to my previous years of running. I just can't take high mileage anymore. Who am I kidding - I can't take medium mileage, either. I'm a 30-40 mile a week runner, and that's not going to change, other than for very brief periods of time.

Biking has been another story altogether. I've averaged right at 175 per week this year so far, with a high week of 255.  I have ridden at least 5 centuries, and though most have been on trainer, yesterday's outside ride shows a very comparable performance level. My overall biking fitness is very solid.

Lifting has been good. I am rehabilitated with regards to my injured shoulder. It took a while, but I am now pain-free in both shoulders. I think I've found the balance there.

Body weight is excellent. I am running in the upper 170's, very light for this time of year. That should help out once the heat training begins.

I'm not the only one out there - every member of our running community has thumbed his/her nose at Mother Nature and made the most of the winter. Everyone rode or ran (or both), and the fitness level in the riding department especially is breathtaking. There are no slackers this year!

Strava still plays an important role in our daily fitness lives. Every month Strava hosts a Fondo, which is a fancy name for a public challenge. So far they've been distance goals, this month's distance being 100 miles. I made the first two challenges of the year, so I was certainly going for this month's. Allen joined too, and even promised to do the previous two challenges to make up for passing them before.

So Allen went away this weekend and put in 80 miles, the distance of the first two challenges. Being the troublemaker his is, he had to publicly harangue me for "lack of integrity" regarding my first two Fondos... he assumed I did them on a trainer. How short the memory! He was part of the first Fondo I did in January, an outdoor ride. I'm not going to pick (too many) nits, but I'm pretty sure an outdoor Indiana ride in January is a bit more challenging than an outdoor Alabama ride in March (#theresareasonitwasachallenge).

It could be Allen thought he might manipulate me into doing something, like riding outside yesterday. Whether or not it was his intent, he'll take credit for it. Let's face it, he'd take credit for air if we let him, but taking credit for me riding outside yesterday is like taking credit for making birds fly.

As fate would have it, I was in a bit of a mileage pinch. The week had been very busy, the weather not always great, and I wound up down on the numbers. I needed something big, because Sunday was going to be lousy for outdoor riding. Add to that March is half gone, and I realized the Fondo might be hard to get if I didn't get it soon. Saturday, with forecast highs in the 50's, looked like the day.

Heatherly and Scott bought in for the ride, if not the whole distance. Heatherly only planned 50 from the start; Scott kept his cards closer to the vest. I had a feeling he was tempted to go the whole way, but it's not up to me to push anyone into that. Remember the epic Dan Dyke and Rand century rides?

Scott had a riding plan - we would leave from Parkview, ride to Mitchell High School, then ride the 60-mile course from the fall charity ride. That would give us around 85 miles, and if things looked good from there, I could complete the 100. It seemed better than what I had, so we set out.

From the beginning I thought I might be in trouble. Scott is very fit, and he began to pull out ahead. Anyone who has run with him knows he doesn't look back often, so you you have to keep up or get dropped. The hills especially were putting me under a bit of stress early on. It wasn't as if he was blasting them, but he was aggressive - too aggressive for me knowing I had hours to ride. I resolved to take it easy up the hills and catch them on the flats. I told Heatherly it was to early to smash the hills and I would lay back, and that's what I did.

We had a slight headwind for much of the ride, though I wouldn't call it much of a factor. The ride wound first out of Mitchell to the south, into Amish country, and ultimately to Huck's where we parted ways with Heatherly. From there Scott and I continued southeast toward Leipsic, Campellsburg, and Saltillo. We wove in and around all the country lanes, and were really having a pretty good time of it.

There were signs that trouble might be coming. Scott never talks a great deal (I talk too much), but his conversation fell off entirely. The pace began to slow markedly, and I began to wonder if he was in trouble. I noticed my water was getting low, and we had a bit over half the ride to go, I asked if we could stop in Campbellburg for some water.

I finally worked up the nerve to ask about his drinking. "Are your lips getting kind of dry?", I asked. "Yes", he replied. I told him I'd yet to see him take a drink from his bottles. That's the thing about training in cool weather. You think you don't have to drink because you aren't sweating, but you are always perspiring - through your mouth. I suppose the word is really "respiring", but the net effect is the same - you are losing water when you breathe.

Scott is a soldier. Though I know he was suffering a great deal, we made the stop, and he finished the tour, leading me all the way. We stopped in Mitchell to eat a Cliff bar and drink a bit, then we took an easy trip back north. By the time we got to Parkview, Scott had a smidge under 85 miles, the longest ride he's ever done. I had a bit more (started from my house), but I was going to get the 100, so the last 15 miles were done around town.

Fondo Accomplished!

This week training looks a bit problematic again. There are plenty of conflicts on the schedule, the weather is looking spotty, so I could see another big day coming for the weekend. In the short term I plan on lifting and running tomorrow. Distance: 10 miles.