So you know its not good when you have about 1 week's worth of material to cover the entire month of January... but in the interest of not creating 4 ridiculous short separate posts, here's a summary. Assume all of the days in between were spent being a fat, depressed, blob of lameness...
... by which I mean that it's really hard to get up at 5 am and feel enough motivation to go ride in the pitch dark and 40 degree weather, knowing that the sun won't come up for another 2 hours. But I did do it once (ironically the very day that I was told I could no longer cycle), and it actually wasn't bad at all... which means that I'm still actually pretty lame for not having done it the other 17 days. Go figure.
Sunday 01/04: 18.6 miles, 1:13:40, A few easy RB laps with Peter before taking him to airport. Didn't get up early enough for a real ride, but it was nice... Felt pre-emptively unhappy about the end of vacation though... Went on my good bye run today as well, Huntington/Marengo in a slow 1:07:35, it was just supposed to be a few miles to make sure the right things hurt for the Dr's appt tomorrow, but it felt good to be out there... and I knew this was the last one for a really long time. So, I went... and it was a nice, peaceful run. The funny thing is, my foot is ironically feeling relatively calm these days.
Saturday 01/10: 2 hours, skate skiing with Peter in Colorado. My first day on skate skis--man was this hard. It took me a really long time to learn the basic motion of it, and I think I never quite learned how to not fall down frequently. It was also really tough with the 9,000 ft altitude, so I had to stop to huff and puff every 30 seconds. Once I got the hang of it towards the end, it was pretty fun!
Sunday 01/11: 2.5 hours, skate skiing at some different place in Colorado. It was pretty stormy and scary on the mountain roads today, but the skiing was actually really awesome. I felt 100% more proficient than yesterday, and probably covered 3 times as much distance than yesterday. Learned how to manage an uphill, and also to go without the poles for a little bit. The only part that I really hate is downhill. Most of my crashes were going downhill, which I suppose is some improvement over yesterday, where most of my crashes were on completely flat ground.
Saturday 01/17: 46.9 miles, 3:31:07, Couple of miles past Red Box on the 2 and back the same way. Life as a weekend warrior continues, due to lack of ability to manage the morning rides. Felt really cooped up, so hammered this ride from the get-go. Managed a respectable and much improved over the last trip pace through Clear Creek, then slowed down to make it the rest of the way. Legs actually felt great, I backed off of the pace because my HR was going crazy, but this felt like a really manageable, awesome ride. First time past Red Box on the 2, and saw some gorgeous panoramic views of the mountains beyond... Just felt really happy to be on the bike.
Sunday 01/18: 60.8 miles, 4:37:46, GMR back on EF/39 with KB. A sweet ride with an awesome gal. This ride actually felt really really good, probably due to a fantastic pancake breakfast beforehand. Took it really easy, felt a little huffy-puffy on the climb but it wasn't bad at all. The descent was scary but it was so great to be out that way again, and the kind of tired parts were not bad at all due to the good company. Felt pretty enthused and encouraged that I'm not in completely horrible cycling shape despite the large amounts of inactivity recently.
Wednesday 01/21: Really consterning ride of indeterminate length and some duration between 2 and 2.5 hours along River Trail in Denver. Took the vintage white bike out for a spin on a rare non below freezing day in Colorado. Had aspirations to find a nice road into the mountains, but got just horribly, horribly lost along the way. Bike paths are really confusing with no signs and lots of side trails and illogical turns. A nice man pointed me in the generally correct direction but I finally gave up and turned back without finding the road after I came upon one too many cryptic intersections and an icy tunnel filled with mounds of snow and deep water. Got lost twice trying to find my way back. Felt disgruntled bc of the directions and because I have absolutely no idea how far I went.
Wednesday 01/28: 46.6 miles, 2:49:17, Peter's (Short) Long River Trail Loop. A bittersweet victory, and my last training for a really really long time. On this morning, I did wake up, put on 4 layers, and embark into the darkness of a 40 degree morning on my bike. It was really surreal to be out there in the empty dark streets, but not in a bad way. It was calm and soothing and nice, though my eardrums were hurting from the cold for the first 30 minutes. Definitely felt like I was in worse shape than the weekend that I did Red Box and GMR, but I still felt decent. Rode hard, and kept up a good clip... but faded fairly signficantly on the stretch home on California. I guess, to be fair, a stiff headwind picked up once the sun came up towards the end. I felt really happy to have done this ride, and confident and excited that I could get up tomorrow and do it again... little did I know, I would not get that opportunity.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Week of 12/27/2008 - 01/02/2008 (Cross Training Week 1)
Home, Sweet Home...
On Sunday, I flew back from the freezing east coast, to clear blue skies and warm 70 degree sunshine. From my car, I could see the mountains, clearly with no smog. It was beautiful. How could anyone want to be anywhere else?
I can't really remember a day where I was so excited to go cycling. No matter that I'd slept probably all of 4 hours, or that I was stuck in traffic at... 3 pm on a Sunday, none of this mattered because I just could not wait to get home and get on my bike. Which I did, without unpacking, I just dumped everything on the floor and got out the door in record time. Maybe something about being indoors under 3 feet of snow for a week... makes a person a little bit nutso.
Sunday 12/27: 27.8 miles, 1:40:40, something like 7 laps around the Rose Bowl. HR was going crazy, something like 160 or 170, not sure if because I'm extremely out of shape, I'm extremely sleep deprived, or I'm extremely excited about riding today. Didn't breathe hard, but felt like I was working a lot harder than I'm used to. It was really fun though, and the lap times were not horrible. Wanted to do 10, but ran out of both warmth and daylight. Got home in the dark and my feet were frozen solid for an hour and a hot shower afterwards. Eventually they warmed up though, and expressed their immense displeasure at being frozen.
Monday 12/28: 57.4 miles, 3:54:07, River Trail to where it splits, and then back home the same way. Had Clear Creek planned for today, but as soon as I got on my bike my legs began complaining loudly, so aborted and headed out for a flat ride instead. Yikes this was a tough ride even so--first, my L IT band had seized up after yesterday's ride, and I had to keep stopping to stretch it out. It was okay after the first hour. Second, I was feeling pretty strong after that, so I ambitiously went a fair ways out, and then catastrophically ran out of energy at about mile 45. Ate a gu, felt better for about 20 minutes, and then felt terrible again. Seriously had to crawl home for the last 5 miles at like... 10 mph. Got home and could not stop eating food for about 3 hours afterwards. Man, my body is not used to exercise....
Tuesday 12/29: 44.7 miles, 3:21:45, Angeles Crest to Clear Creek + 3 or 4 laps of the RB. The good thing about cycling, is that you can beat the crap out of your body on one day, and it will still basically ride okay the next day. Started today a little bit worse for the wear after yesterday, but I was excited and determined to do my first day of climbing. It was... really really really slow... and my HR was off the charts around 175 (normally for this rather mellow climb it is like, 155, but oh well) but I made it, and that was a moral victory for today. Did some laps around the RB to raise my average speed for the trip, and realized that I actually wasn't super tired out, I was just really unused to climbing. Picked up Peter at the airport and informed him of my plans to ride 3 hours a day. He seemed unenthused and then fell asleep... something about jetlag.
Wednesday 12/30: 45.7 miles, 2:58:17, River Trail Loop (out the weird way, and back the usual way) with Peter. Had to drag the boy unit out of bed, but we made it on this shortened River Trail ride, and it was really great. Felt really good, kept a better pace throughout than the Monday disaster. I think I went pretty hard on that last stretch home, because this time I had the energy left, and I had to stamp out the memory of pathetically trudging home.
Thursday 12/31: 28.9 miles, 2:23:27, Verdugo/Chevy Chase plus some Art Center Loops with Peter. Felt awful, awful, awful. Got a late start, felt unmotivated, and just horribly tired. I think I had hoped for another shot at Clear Creek, before the good weather ran out... but I felt so terrible even on the flats that I decided to push that ride off until tomorrow and do a more local ride. This ride was just really hard... I couldn't climb competently at all, and I felt really bad. Peter showed me some new routes, but I was so tired and delirious at that point I don't really remember how to get there anymore.
Friday 01/01: Run (55:57)/Swim (~800m). It's weird.... but I have really bad luck with training on holidays or signficant days. Typically birthdays, Christmas, New Years... it just doesn't turn out well. Today I felt supremely unmotivated, no stores were open for breakfast, and I just felt like there was nothing as unappealing to do as go and exercise. I think most of this was because it wasn't sunny anymore. I don't think of myself as seasonally affected, but I really hate cold and dreary.
Anyways, I did not want to exercise, but I got guilted into exercising by the boy unit. So I ran Huntington/Virginia starting from the house and ending at the gym while he ate breakfast and did core strengthening. Run was pretty miserable. Running felt weird after all of this time off, my foot still vaguely hurt, and my legs felt heavy and unwieldy. I felt really sad. Swimming at the gym with Peter cheered me up a little bit. We didn't get too much quality exercise in, but he taught me how to do a flip turn, and I swam a little bit. Only managed 2 successful flip turns, and those were still pretty shaky on the distance and timing, but it was fun!
Saturday 01/02: 47.3 miles, 3:30:41, Big T back on Clear Creek. A really nice ride. I bundled up as much as possible to deal with the unappealing cloudy cold weather, but it turned out really well. Felt strong on the way out... but struggled a bit with the climbing again. I'm not sure why it's been so tough, when I first started riding, all I did was climb... and I hated the flats they tired me out. It was fun to do a ride I haven't done in a long time. Felt pretty decent all in all, maybe the day off helped.
Training this week: 251.8 miles, 17 hours 48.5 minutes. Not a bad week, now if only every week were vacation... and I had 3 hours a day to ride.
On Sunday, I flew back from the freezing east coast, to clear blue skies and warm 70 degree sunshine. From my car, I could see the mountains, clearly with no smog. It was beautiful. How could anyone want to be anywhere else?
I can't really remember a day where I was so excited to go cycling. No matter that I'd slept probably all of 4 hours, or that I was stuck in traffic at... 3 pm on a Sunday, none of this mattered because I just could not wait to get home and get on my bike. Which I did, without unpacking, I just dumped everything on the floor and got out the door in record time. Maybe something about being indoors under 3 feet of snow for a week... makes a person a little bit nutso.
Sunday 12/27: 27.8 miles, 1:40:40, something like 7 laps around the Rose Bowl. HR was going crazy, something like 160 or 170, not sure if because I'm extremely out of shape, I'm extremely sleep deprived, or I'm extremely excited about riding today. Didn't breathe hard, but felt like I was working a lot harder than I'm used to. It was really fun though, and the lap times were not horrible. Wanted to do 10, but ran out of both warmth and daylight. Got home in the dark and my feet were frozen solid for an hour and a hot shower afterwards. Eventually they warmed up though, and expressed their immense displeasure at being frozen.
Monday 12/28: 57.4 miles, 3:54:07, River Trail to where it splits, and then back home the same way. Had Clear Creek planned for today, but as soon as I got on my bike my legs began complaining loudly, so aborted and headed out for a flat ride instead. Yikes this was a tough ride even so--first, my L IT band had seized up after yesterday's ride, and I had to keep stopping to stretch it out. It was okay after the first hour. Second, I was feeling pretty strong after that, so I ambitiously went a fair ways out, and then catastrophically ran out of energy at about mile 45. Ate a gu, felt better for about 20 minutes, and then felt terrible again. Seriously had to crawl home for the last 5 miles at like... 10 mph. Got home and could not stop eating food for about 3 hours afterwards. Man, my body is not used to exercise....
Tuesday 12/29: 44.7 miles, 3:21:45, Angeles Crest to Clear Creek + 3 or 4 laps of the RB. The good thing about cycling, is that you can beat the crap out of your body on one day, and it will still basically ride okay the next day. Started today a little bit worse for the wear after yesterday, but I was excited and determined to do my first day of climbing. It was... really really really slow... and my HR was off the charts around 175 (normally for this rather mellow climb it is like, 155, but oh well) but I made it, and that was a moral victory for today. Did some laps around the RB to raise my average speed for the trip, and realized that I actually wasn't super tired out, I was just really unused to climbing. Picked up Peter at the airport and informed him of my plans to ride 3 hours a day. He seemed unenthused and then fell asleep... something about jetlag.
Wednesday 12/30: 45.7 miles, 2:58:17, River Trail Loop (out the weird way, and back the usual way) with Peter. Had to drag the boy unit out of bed, but we made it on this shortened River Trail ride, and it was really great. Felt really good, kept a better pace throughout than the Monday disaster. I think I went pretty hard on that last stretch home, because this time I had the energy left, and I had to stamp out the memory of pathetically trudging home.
Thursday 12/31: 28.9 miles, 2:23:27, Verdugo/Chevy Chase plus some Art Center Loops with Peter. Felt awful, awful, awful. Got a late start, felt unmotivated, and just horribly tired. I think I had hoped for another shot at Clear Creek, before the good weather ran out... but I felt so terrible even on the flats that I decided to push that ride off until tomorrow and do a more local ride. This ride was just really hard... I couldn't climb competently at all, and I felt really bad. Peter showed me some new routes, but I was so tired and delirious at that point I don't really remember how to get there anymore.
Friday 01/01: Run (55:57)/Swim (~800m). It's weird.... but I have really bad luck with training on holidays or signficant days. Typically birthdays, Christmas, New Years... it just doesn't turn out well. Today I felt supremely unmotivated, no stores were open for breakfast, and I just felt like there was nothing as unappealing to do as go and exercise. I think most of this was because it wasn't sunny anymore. I don't think of myself as seasonally affected, but I really hate cold and dreary.
Anyways, I did not want to exercise, but I got guilted into exercising by the boy unit. So I ran Huntington/Virginia starting from the house and ending at the gym while he ate breakfast and did core strengthening. Run was pretty miserable. Running felt weird after all of this time off, my foot still vaguely hurt, and my legs felt heavy and unwieldy. I felt really sad. Swimming at the gym with Peter cheered me up a little bit. We didn't get too much quality exercise in, but he taught me how to do a flip turn, and I swam a little bit. Only managed 2 successful flip turns, and those were still pretty shaky on the distance and timing, but it was fun!
Saturday 01/02: 47.3 miles, 3:30:41, Big T back on Clear Creek. A really nice ride. I bundled up as much as possible to deal with the unappealing cloudy cold weather, but it turned out really well. Felt strong on the way out... but struggled a bit with the climbing again. I'm not sure why it's been so tough, when I first started riding, all I did was climb... and I hated the flats they tired me out. It was fun to do a ride I haven't done in a long time. Felt pretty decent all in all, maybe the day off helped.
Training this week: 251.8 miles, 17 hours 48.5 minutes. Not a bad week, now if only every week were vacation... and I had 3 hours a day to ride.
Week of 12/21/2008 - 12/27/2008
Christmas! (... but Santa doesn't bring me a new foot...)
Went home to Boston for the holidays. No training to report for the following reasons:
1) There's a lot of snow... a LOT of snow. The first day I shoveled snow for like, an hour... most of the difficulty was because there was already so much snow everywhere else, that we had already run out of places to PUT the new snow. All of the sidewalks and parking spaces were under 3 feet of snow, and all of the streets were full of displaced parked vehicles, and annoyed moving vehicles trying to get around said parked vehicles. It was crazy. My back hurt a whole lot the day after from hurling snow as high as it would go to make larger mountains of snow.
2) My L ankle hurt... from Saturday's run, for about 5 days. The first 3 were fairly excruciating, in so much that it affected my ability to walk... then after that it was just a dull ache and an occasional stabbing pain.
I guess the good news is that I was not as tempted to run as had their been less pain and less snow. I wished for a new L foot, as I do every time there's an occasion where gifts are given to me... but alas, I did not receive one (like all of the other times). But Merry Christmas nonetheless!
Went home to Boston for the holidays. No training to report for the following reasons:
1) There's a lot of snow... a LOT of snow. The first day I shoveled snow for like, an hour... most of the difficulty was because there was already so much snow everywhere else, that we had already run out of places to PUT the new snow. All of the sidewalks and parking spaces were under 3 feet of snow, and all of the streets were full of displaced parked vehicles, and annoyed moving vehicles trying to get around said parked vehicles. It was crazy. My back hurt a whole lot the day after from hurling snow as high as it would go to make larger mountains of snow.
2) My L ankle hurt... from Saturday's run, for about 5 days. The first 3 were fairly excruciating, in so much that it affected my ability to walk... then after that it was just a dull ache and an occasional stabbing pain.
I guess the good news is that I was not as tempted to run as had their been less pain and less snow. I wished for a new L foot, as I do every time there's an occasion where gifts are given to me... but alas, I did not receive one (like all of the other times). But Merry Christmas nonetheless!
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