I've been waiting... patiently. In the beginning, it's easy to make gains--or rather in this case, losses:
I thought that if I waited a week or so to weigh myself again, I'd see a marvelous drop--must more satisfying than seeing a slow trend downwards. Not only have I been riding consistently, but I've gone cold turkey on Cupcakes and second dinners. Things are looking better around the middle, and it's already gotten easier to cram my fat ass into jeans every morning. So, it seemed as if it would not be a matter of IF I had lost any weight, but... how much.
Around midweek I broke down and weighed myself again, and by golly my eyes buggered out: I've gained 1 pound! Is it possible that at this juncture, the muscle gain is outpacing the fat loss? I mean, there's got to be SOME fat loss, right? Ho, hum. Something about delayed gratification. I suppose for the time being, being fat must remain part of my newly mobile identity.
Sunday 04/05: 25.13 miles, 1:35:44 (15.7 mph), 6 x RB laps. What a difference a few days makes. It was windier and yet warmer than I'd like, but there was a significant improvement from the first two days, especially on the slightly uphill side. Was feeling pretty good, so I tacked on an extra lap, but on this extra lap, holy moly, I got my ass handed to me by a 75 year old asian man who had (I kid you not) a clear plastic bag full of chinese food tied to the back of his seat!
Monday 04/06: 41.58 miles, 2:37:23 (15.8 mph), Peter's short long loop backwards. Started from where I dropped off my car at the shop, so that cut about 4 miles, but they were pleasant downhill miles, so I didn't feel too bad. I was a little anxious about increasing the mileage, but this ride went really well! Started out easy, but picked it up along the way and felt great through the end. # of bees that flew into my mouth: three.
Tuesday 04/07: 28.37 miles, 1:47:03 (15.8 mph), 7 x RB laps. Feeling a bit uninspired today, so headed to the RB. Started out feeling a little bit on the tired side, but then felt better. On lap 6, I had to push a little bit to stay ahead of another female cyclist. We passed each other back and forth a few times, but I think I won this round, because she dropped way back on lap 7. I kept up the pace. It was a lot easier than I imagined. It felt good to go a little faster and touch upon some competitive instincts. Also, finally made it up that little hill on the way back w/o granny gears... eeeee, the climbing is definitely worse off than the flats.
Wednesday 04/08: 32.73 miles, 2:04:17 (15.8 mph), Encanto Park to North end of River Trails by Highway 39, back on Huntington. Ahhhhh, the wind, you rat bastard... whether it's slowing down my 2 mile repeats at the track, or impeding my progress on the bike... no, you can't just leave people alone now can you? I really thought I'd get my first >16 mph reading today, but ran into some nasty headwinds/crosswinds after Encanto Park, which rapidly quashed down my efforts. Otherwise it was a pleasant ride.
Thursday 04/09: 45.7 miles, 2:49:12 (16.2 mph), Peter's Short Long Loop. One day late, but just as awesome! Started out real easy, so I wasn't sure what the time would look like, but felt great and rode strong. Went a little crazy on that end part between Caltech and home, because I wanted to beat the clock (< style="font-weight: bold;">
(Brain, see below for some fabulous non significant figured approximations :))
Friday 04/10: 37 miles, 2:30-ish, Peter's work to home via a little ways along Deer Creek Canyon. Took the train to go collect Peter from work, but got lost along the way, so we ran out of daylight... so I didn't get to climb, but I went a short ways up a hilly side street which was really neat! Overall, this was a pretty difficult ride. Rolling hills are my worst suited terrain and there was plenty of that, so I got tired pretty quick. I also felt like I maxed out my HR at several points to keep up/catch up with Peter. Felt really dead on the way home.
Saturday 04/11: 53 miles, 4:30-ish, Deer Creek Canyon to High Grade Road, maybe 7 miles of climbing. A pretty epic ride. It was really hard from the beginning bc of the strong winds, but surprisingly things were calmer up in the mountains. There was some really wonderful mountain roads. Had to bail a little earlier than I wanted, bc the gearing on this bike is much harder than on mine, but was pleased to have made it even so far. I'd like to go back sometime, this is a great road.
Coming home was the scariest experience I've ever had on a bike. It was gusting heavily, and I was being blown about horribly--at one point, dangerously close to oncoming traffic. I think the amount of adrenaline alone kept me pedaling into the wind, despite the terrific effort it took to move forwards. Thankfully it was smooth sailing the last 10 miles home when the wind was safely behind me. Felt pretty good when I got home, and made delicious delicious pizzas :).
Training this week: ~263 miles, 17:53:39
Goals: 175 miles (25 per day?) I really don't know how to goal set realistically for riding...
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Friday, April 3, 2009
Week 0: Beginnings (03/29/2009 - 04/04/2009)
It's like in Running with the Buffaloes when Mark Wetmore tells the injured guy... I'll get you in shape when you return--just, don't get fat.
The guy got fat. I got fat too.
Nuts. But alas, one must begin somewhere, even if it is 20+ pounds overweight despite still missing a good amount of muscle mass out of my left calf and thigh. Somehow all of that stuff still doesn't quash the excitement of The Beginning. I guess this is the honeymoon phase of training, when motivation is still high, and your eyes blink open with glee at 6 am when your alarm goes off after 4 hours of sleep. The truth is that I just can't wait to get on my bike. I know this won't last forever, so I'm enjoying it now.
START: Cyclist for a year*
*Not sure about the exact time frame for this. I know I need a break, physically and mentally from running. It will be at least until September.
Thursday 04/02: 21.85 miles, 1:29:54 (14.5 mph) 5 x RB laps. I discover just how incredibly out of shape I am. Went really really slow and in small gears to minimize pressure on the navicular, but my heart still felt like it was about to explode in my chest by the time I got to the RB. It actually settled down after a lap or so, but it was still tough. Felt wonderful afterwards though. Good to be back.
Friday 04/03: 21.97 miles, 1:32:32 (14.2 mph) 5 x RB laps. I started out with aspirations to do SIX whole laps today, but that was quickly abandoned after realizing that the second day back always has and still does suck. You have no additional fitness, but you ARE more tired bc of day one. In cycling, your rear end is also worse for the wear. Oh, well. Everything felt a little more under control than yesterday though. Feet are also feeling good. I'm thinking it was also a good call to cram my old orthotics into my cycling shoes too.
Saturday 04/04: 26.84 miles, 1:41:26 (15.8 mph) Encanto Park, back on Huntington. 100% awesome. Perfect temperature, sunny, felt much better all around than yesterday. Rode a little bit less conservatively, and was pleased with the results. I'm not sure if I'm a fan of the portion of Huntington past Santa Anita Track, but this loop was so much more entertaining than RB laps, or even the out and back version of this ride. Felt just a little bit guilty towards the end because I did not feel appropriately tired, and going back on Huntington is a slight cop out due to the fact that there are significantly more traffic lights.
Training this week: 70.66 miles, 4:43:52
Goals: 60 miles, if I can do 20 miles per day without pain, I'll be pleased.
The guy got fat. I got fat too.
Nuts. But alas, one must begin somewhere, even if it is 20+ pounds overweight despite still missing a good amount of muscle mass out of my left calf and thigh. Somehow all of that stuff still doesn't quash the excitement of The Beginning. I guess this is the honeymoon phase of training, when motivation is still high, and your eyes blink open with glee at 6 am when your alarm goes off after 4 hours of sleep. The truth is that I just can't wait to get on my bike. I know this won't last forever, so I'm enjoying it now.
START: Cyclist for a year*
*Not sure about the exact time frame for this. I know I need a break, physically and mentally from running. It will be at least until September.
Thursday 04/02: 21.85 miles, 1:29:54 (14.5 mph) 5 x RB laps. I discover just how incredibly out of shape I am. Went really really slow and in small gears to minimize pressure on the navicular, but my heart still felt like it was about to explode in my chest by the time I got to the RB. It actually settled down after a lap or so, but it was still tough. Felt wonderful afterwards though. Good to be back.
Friday 04/03: 21.97 miles, 1:32:32 (14.2 mph) 5 x RB laps. I started out with aspirations to do SIX whole laps today, but that was quickly abandoned after realizing that the second day back always has and still does suck. You have no additional fitness, but you ARE more tired bc of day one. In cycling, your rear end is also worse for the wear. Oh, well. Everything felt a little more under control than yesterday though. Feet are also feeling good. I'm thinking it was also a good call to cram my old orthotics into my cycling shoes too.
Saturday 04/04: 26.84 miles, 1:41:26 (15.8 mph) Encanto Park, back on Huntington. 100% awesome. Perfect temperature, sunny, felt much better all around than yesterday. Rode a little bit less conservatively, and was pleased with the results. I'm not sure if I'm a fan of the portion of Huntington past Santa Anita Track, but this loop was so much more entertaining than RB laps, or even the out and back version of this ride. Felt just a little bit guilty towards the end because I did not feel appropriately tired, and going back on Huntington is a slight cop out due to the fact that there are significantly more traffic lights.
Training this week: 70.66 miles, 4:43:52
Goals: 60 miles, if I can do 20 miles per day without pain, I'll be pleased.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
01/04/2009 - 01/31/2009 Summary
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.
... 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.
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!
Monday, December 29, 2008
Week of 12/14/2008 - 12/20/2008
Here Comes the Rain....
Maybe a more appropriate title is... "Here Comes the End". After teetering on the edge since November... its finally over. Appointment has been made to see the podiatrist, the self diagnosis: navicular stress fracture. Probably of the middle one, that doesn't heal. Meh.
Sunday 12/14: 1:14:02, CA to RB feeling slow and rickety. Felt better towards the end, but then felt depressed that so much effort was expended to run so slowly. Bad L ankle... did a lot of physical therapy afterwards, but with mixed results.
Monday 12/15: Off... still bad L ankle... determined that the problem seems to be that once my heel is on the ground, I can't push off the toe to complete one stride... which explains why I can run (as long as a toe-strike) long past when I stop being able to walk normally.
Tuesday 12/16: 1:08:14, Hungtington/Marengo from the apartment. Really slowly... tried to pretend that I wasn't favoring the bad leg... but I was. In addition, I felt really really worn out by the time I turned off of Huntington towards the end, which was really discouraging. It's been a while since a slow 7 or 8 mile run would cause fatigue.
Wednesday 12/17: 1:06:52, Same as yesterday, in the rain. Hedged my bets on getting a late start, and lost. It started raining almost as soon as I started my run.... bleh. I tried to make myself run normally even if it hurt my ankle, but that didn't seem to help the slowness very much. Still a better run overall than yesterday, despite the rain. On the plus side, I now remember that running in the rain isn't as bad as I usually imagine.
Thursday 12/18: Off, now L ankle really, really, really hurts. Ehhhh.... Work is also stressful. Trying to get everything done before the holidays. At least no coworkers have commented on my new brisk shuffle-walk, which is my attempt to have the least amount of contact between my L heel and the ground.
Friday 12/19: Off, shots. Depressed and sad. Felt awful, physically, emotionally etc. My department was the last to leave work... it was really stressful, I forgot a whole bunch of things I needed to do before I left because I was just focusing on making sure my minion got to go home at a reasonable hour.
Saturday 12/20: 48:45, Monterrey Recovery Loop. I've been riding my bike to the trails recently, but today I drove, because I was feeling so depressed and unmotivated that I knew I wouldn't go if I also had to overcome the inertia of leaving warm bed to go biking in the cold. Ankle hurt, breathing hurt, and got horrible cramping and gastrointestinal distress. Arghhhh... I guess this is the universe's way of telling me that running is over for a good long while.
Total Training this Week: 4:17:53
Maybe a more appropriate title is... "Here Comes the End". After teetering on the edge since November... its finally over. Appointment has been made to see the podiatrist, the self diagnosis: navicular stress fracture. Probably of the middle one, that doesn't heal. Meh.
Sunday 12/14: 1:14:02, CA to RB feeling slow and rickety. Felt better towards the end, but then felt depressed that so much effort was expended to run so slowly. Bad L ankle... did a lot of physical therapy afterwards, but with mixed results.
Monday 12/15: Off... still bad L ankle... determined that the problem seems to be that once my heel is on the ground, I can't push off the toe to complete one stride... which explains why I can run (as long as a toe-strike) long past when I stop being able to walk normally.
Tuesday 12/16: 1:08:14, Hungtington/Marengo from the apartment. Really slowly... tried to pretend that I wasn't favoring the bad leg... but I was. In addition, I felt really really worn out by the time I turned off of Huntington towards the end, which was really discouraging. It's been a while since a slow 7 or 8 mile run would cause fatigue.
Wednesday 12/17: 1:06:52, Same as yesterday, in the rain. Hedged my bets on getting a late start, and lost. It started raining almost as soon as I started my run.... bleh. I tried to make myself run normally even if it hurt my ankle, but that didn't seem to help the slowness very much. Still a better run overall than yesterday, despite the rain. On the plus side, I now remember that running in the rain isn't as bad as I usually imagine.
Thursday 12/18: Off, now L ankle really, really, really hurts. Ehhhh.... Work is also stressful. Trying to get everything done before the holidays. At least no coworkers have commented on my new brisk shuffle-walk, which is my attempt to have the least amount of contact between my L heel and the ground.
Friday 12/19: Off, shots. Depressed and sad. Felt awful, physically, emotionally etc. My department was the last to leave work... it was really stressful, I forgot a whole bunch of things I needed to do before I left because I was just focusing on making sure my minion got to go home at a reasonable hour.
Saturday 12/20: 48:45, Monterrey Recovery Loop. I've been riding my bike to the trails recently, but today I drove, because I was feeling so depressed and unmotivated that I knew I wouldn't go if I also had to overcome the inertia of leaving warm bed to go biking in the cold. Ankle hurt, breathing hurt, and got horrible cramping and gastrointestinal distress. Arghhhh... I guess this is the universe's way of telling me that running is over for a good long while.
Total Training this Week: 4:17:53
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Week of 12/07/2008 - 12/13/2008
The Stupid
Whether it was the shirking of physical therapy, the sudden week of concrete running, or my suddenly inspired burst of relative speed... maybe we'll never know. On Sunday, all I know was that I was not running... or ... walking. Man. One small step leads to one giant leap backwards.
And here I find myself... staring down the end of the year thinking... once upon a time I thought I'd race the 2008 cross season... then it was the 2009 track season... and now, it's looking like the 2009 cross season. Maybe there comes a point where it becomes so pathetic that it's painful to watch. Someone really needs to come and tape a big DNR on my racing career's chest.
Every time I take 4-6 days off, it gets harder... it gets harder to believe that things ever get better. It gets harder to shove down all the crazy and make good decisions. Towards the end of the week, I wasn't sure if the days off were due to my foot still hurting or just because I was too depressed to get out of bed.
On Saturday I dragged my hopeless and morose self out to the Arroyo to do the shortest of all of my runs, just so that one week would not have passed with zero runs. Honestly, it felt horrible. The last two times I took time off in the past few months, it actually did feel physically regenerative, with not too much loss of fitness, but this time, I think I over-expended my fitness bank account... or maybe it was because it was 3 pm and I had yet to eat or drink anything. Who knows.
45:51 for Monterrey Recovery Loop, which is a lot slower than the effort felt like, and when I got back to my bike, I felt extremely dizzy, followed by slightly nauseous, and then this overpowering feeling that I've never been so thirsty in all of my life. I waited for all of those sensations to pass before biking home. Like I said... it was horrible. The intention was that I didn't want the entire week to pass by without a single run, and that I felt like if I managed to run today, psychologically it would make it more likely that I would run tomorrow... but I think I felt even more demoralized after this run than before, if that is humanly possible.
Whether it was the shirking of physical therapy, the sudden week of concrete running, or my suddenly inspired burst of relative speed... maybe we'll never know. On Sunday, all I know was that I was not running... or ... walking. Man. One small step leads to one giant leap backwards.
And here I find myself... staring down the end of the year thinking... once upon a time I thought I'd race the 2008 cross season... then it was the 2009 track season... and now, it's looking like the 2009 cross season. Maybe there comes a point where it becomes so pathetic that it's painful to watch. Someone really needs to come and tape a big DNR on my racing career's chest.
Every time I take 4-6 days off, it gets harder... it gets harder to believe that things ever get better. It gets harder to shove down all the crazy and make good decisions. Towards the end of the week, I wasn't sure if the days off were due to my foot still hurting or just because I was too depressed to get out of bed.
On Saturday I dragged my hopeless and morose self out to the Arroyo to do the shortest of all of my runs, just so that one week would not have passed with zero runs. Honestly, it felt horrible. The last two times I took time off in the past few months, it actually did feel physically regenerative, with not too much loss of fitness, but this time, I think I over-expended my fitness bank account... or maybe it was because it was 3 pm and I had yet to eat or drink anything. Who knows.
45:51 for Monterrey Recovery Loop, which is a lot slower than the effort felt like, and when I got back to my bike, I felt extremely dizzy, followed by slightly nauseous, and then this overpowering feeling that I've never been so thirsty in all of my life. I waited for all of those sensations to pass before biking home. Like I said... it was horrible. The intention was that I didn't want the entire week to pass by without a single run, and that I felt like if I managed to run today, psychologically it would make it more likely that I would run tomorrow... but I think I felt even more demoralized after this run than before, if that is humanly possible.
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