Thanksgiving Run

Thankful for me.

Decided to go for a run around the middle of the park.  Just over 5K.  I ran slowly and kept my breathing regulated.  I forgot to wear my heart rate monitor.

Perfect weather, considering the season.  A great end to my day of personal exploration.


Happy Thanksgiving.

Back to Us

Nice ride today.  I worked really hard, actually.  I am still suffering from an upper respiratory infection, but spinning my legs out really helped move the lactic acid build up from Boot Camp out of my body.  I am in so much pain for days after Boot Camp.  I forgot to wear my heart rate monitor, but I figure I was in Z3/Z4 for the duration.  The park has opened up the drives for the season, so it's crowded on the east side.

Beautiful fall day.  Crisp weather.  Nice ride.  Great company.

Boot camp - 2 of 12

I took a couple weeks off from boot camp because I have been sick.  And, the last boot camp destroyed my legs for a full week.  I really couldn't believe how much pain I was in.

Because of that, I tried to go a little easier this time.  Plus, I'm still not feeling 100% and the weather has gotten chillier.  I will say that I am in love with all of the cold weather fitness gear I acquired last year over the winter.  It will save my buns this season.  Yay!

And then it rained.

I've been pretty sick this week.  Today I decided that I needed to get out of the house and go for a run.  I planned to do 5k in about 30/35 mins.  Nice and easy (9:30/10) around the park.  It was a little chilly today, but I figured I'd dress reasonably and get my lungs working.

Unfortunately, within minutes of hitting the pavement in the park it started to sprinkle a cold rain from the sky.  At this point I was rounding the first turn at the lower loop... so I could either finish the loop and go home, run home now - cutting at least 2 miles off the intended run, or I could try for the full 5k.  I decided to finish the lower loop and ditch.  I made it 2.75 miles.  My ear hurt from the chill in the air, I was fairly soaked, and I felt like a bit of an idiot for even going out.  Plus, instead of running an easy 9:30/10 pace, I picked it up in order to be out for less time... Ran 8:57.

Oh well.  I did it.  There it is.

Boot Camp - 1 of 12

My friend wanted to do a boot camp and asked me to sign up too, so today at 6:30am, we met in Central Park and did dozens of squats.  Ouch.  My legs already hurt and I haven't even slept yet.

The hour of work wasn't really all that difficult, but it definitely did what it was supposed to do.  Squats, lunges, planks, kettle bells, sprints... seems like a pretty well-rounded boot camp to me.

Spinervals 18.0

Rode inside today.  I liked pacing myself within Z2 today.  It took all season for me to learn why to appreciate zone 2 training.  Now it's me and Coach Troy for the "off season" and we are going to learn how to stay in zone 2, dammit. 


Good ride.

Ride to Nyack

Rode up to Nyack today with a friend.  The road was long and hilly and I was concerned that I would bonk on the way back... or worse, on the way there.  Having just finished a race two days ago, it probably wasn't the wisest move to go on such a long ride (my longest ever), but I had already committed and didn't want to cancel on this person again.

Getting up to and across the GWB was not as harrowing as I expected, although I was informed that it is usually very busy.  We rode up and out onto 9W and I was struggling to get myself into the right gear.  My legs felt fatigued and my HR was already too high to sustain.  I spent the majority of the first half hour trying to catch up and then losing ground again almost instantly.  I considered turning around and going home by myself, but I persevered.  I confessed my fatigue and a decision was made that I would draft to save energy.  This made me nervous, but I knew that if I didn't do it, I wouldn't make it.  So, I HTFU and made myself draft for the next ten miles or so. 

When we got to Nyack I felt much better than I anticipated.  We grabbed a coffee and some food at a little coffee shop, chatted and then hopped back on the bikes to head home.  I knew that there would be a lot of hills, but was reassured that it was just a few miles that were hard and then it was mostly downhill.  I appreciated the "forced" drafting throughout the trip.  Every time I was too far back, I would get the signal to get on the wheel.  Good thing too, because my personality is one to defer to the other person and not assume that I'm okay to draft.  I made it up the hills by adhering to the advice "toss it in a low gear and just spin it out" and once we were past the two to three miles of "hard" I hopped back on the wheel and drafted most of the way back.

We made pretty good time coming home and there are a good four miles in there where we were going an average of 21/22 mph solid.  I really liked getting into the zone and just riding the wheel.  My brain went into a total autopilot mode and I felt unaware of my physical fatigue, my speed, everything just locked in and I maintained good form throughout.  Overall, including some stopping (there was a bad accident on 9W heading up) I averaged 16 mph.  I'm pretty happy with this.

It was really fun to just jet down some of those long hills too.  I like to go fast!  Good ride.  I'm going to be sore and tired, but I did it.