National Bike to Work Day

It was busier than usual today on the bike path.  Part of this was probably due to National Bike to Work Day.  It could also be partially attributed to the absolutely gorgeous weather we had - upper 70s, blue skies, and NO humidity.  There was the usual lycra-clad crowd bombing down the trail, slowed up slightly when they would come upon the hipsters on their pink hipster commuter bikes wearing their cute hipster helmets in fun colors.  It kind of made me want to trade my sweat-wicking jersey and boring helmet for something a little more fun.  Everyone on the trail was cordial and it was nice to see so many people on their bikes.  Even the cars were semi-courteous once I got into the city.

My commute in also served as my workout for the day.  I don't usually wear my Garmin because I shouldn't be trying to PR my commute because then it makes blowing stoplights and stop signs a little more tempting, all in the name of getting to Point B a little faster.  But I wore it today... and kind of made it to work in record time.  No blown stoplights either.

I had all sorts of grand plans tonight to paint my nails (I know, super grand plans) and clean up around the house and watch a movie.  Instead, I found myself outside in my bike-grease stained skirt, a cheesy Ironman shirt bought at an expo and normally just reserved for bed (lucky Mark) and not public appearances, and a bunch of de-greaser and bike lube.  I'm making an effort this year to keep my bike cleaned up and in shape.  I think that Glen from Tri Camp would be proud of me.  Now I can sneak up on people instead of having them hear me coming from a mile away.

A couple of my friends rode the Ascension loop in Maryland today.  I've been jealous all day.  I love that ride and I've missed it each time this year because they've been on days that I've been out of town.  I did this ride two years ago in prep for all of the climbing at Ironman France.  And while I think it would be a little excessive for Ironman Lake Placid training, I'd still love to do it.  I don't even know how many feet of climbing I did two years ago when I rode Ascension - I just know that it took over an hour for my speed to hit double digits AND I called home around 1:30 that afternoon sort of wanting to cry - "I've been biking for 6 hours and I've only done 70 miles."  I grossly underestimated my time in the saddle.  I was literally biking all day.  I think I celebrated my finish by eating the biggest burrito I could find.  As it should be.

Skyline Drive 100 Miler

Can we talk about how much I love biking?  And how much I love Shenandoah Valley's Skyline Drive?  And how much I love the two of them together?  OK good, because that's ALL the next few paragraphs are going to be about.

The morning did not have an auspicious start.  I was running late (par for the course), proceeded to get a bit lost, go to the wrong entrance and found out that I needed to go to a different entrance thirty miles down Skyline Drive.  Now I was really, really late.  And why don't we top it off by going to the wrong meeting spot, 8 miles down the road in the opposite direction.  Oh, no cell service either so I just hoped my friends figured I was fine and would eventually catch up (which I did).  By the time I got my bike on the road, it was an hour later than I had initially planned and my excitement for the day was a little deflated as I faced the potential of 100 very hilly, very lonely miles on my own.

I left my car at the Mile 24 marker on Skyline Drive and enjoyed some very fast miles out to Thorton Gap.  Most of the time when I ride Skyline, we jump on 211 at Thorton Gap and go down into Luray to do the 80 mile SkyMass loop.  Only once have I ever biked past Thorton Gap and continued down Skyline for a few miles.  Today was going to be from the 24 mile marker to about the 74 mile marker.  Climbing galore in both directions.




Some sections of Skyline reminded me of Mt. Lemmon in Tucson, just a bit less steep.  I was able to stay in my big ring the whole day today without any problems.  There were sections where you could settle into a rhythm and feel like you were really making progress on the hills.  However, unlike Mt. Lemmon (which is 25 miles of UP and then 25 miles of DOWN with very little variation in between), you are constantly climbing or descending.  And when you're doing an out-and-back, every descent you enjoy on the way out means an ascent you get to enjoy on your way back.

I caught up with Melanie, Mike, Chad and Tom a bit after the 50 mile mark.  It was SO NICE to have someone to ride with - time just flew by and suddenly we were at mile marker 74.  We couldn't have had a better day weather-wise either.  The way back felt like it had alot of climbs.  Part of this was probably because we were getting tired.  I tried to stay on task with my nutrition, taking in something every 20 minutes and then taking some water every 10.  But on the last few miles of the bike, I was definitely feeling a bit of a calorie deficit and couldn't wait to eat some non-powerbars/Clif bars/Hammer gels after the ride was finished.

I completed the ride in just over 6 hours and was very close to evenly-splitting the ride time-wise, so it was nice to know I didn't lose too much time on the way back.  Besides feeling a bit of a calorie deficit at the end, I felt really strong the whole ride.  Hopefully this bodes well with the rest of Ironman training and Lake Placid in July.  Toward the end of the ride, I was remembering my first really long ride (68 mile organized bike ride in Myrtle Beach after the 1/2 marathon in 2008).  It was flat, flat, flat and yet it still took me FOREVER to complete the ride (4:45 or something ridiculous like that).  I think today illustrates that improvement in biking really does take time (in my case 4 years).

Here are a few pictures from the day.  A huge thank you to Melanie's husband Joe for being a great sport and sagging for us the whole 100 miles!

Bikes at the rest stop 

 How we really felt at Mile 85

 One of the vistas.

Don't Grocery Shop Hungry. Just Don't.

Last week I did a pretty terrible job at getting all of my workouts in. Ohhh, I ate too many crepes, I cannot possibly run that prescribed one hour. Or I'm too jet-lagged to pull my TRX out of the closet and use it. Etc. Etc. Etc. As the saying goes, there is no extra-credit in Ironman training. If you miss a workout, chances are pretty good you're not going to find the time to make it up. Do it or lose it. And updating Training Peaks?! HA - you slay me. I'm simply going to say that I was just giving Jen an opportunity to completely focus on the Illinois State Swim Meet by not filling in my Training Peaks for last week.

But this week - it's a new week. I woke up determined to start it off on the right foot. This consisted of waking up late, scrambling to find my yoga mat, scrambling to scribble down the bootcamp workouts, and forgetting my lunch on the way out the door at 5:40am (I'm still mad about that - so mad that I remade that lunch when I got home from work just so I could enjoy the veggie quesadillas I missed out on at lunch. It was my pre-dinner dinner). The morning did get better - bootcamp went well AND I ran into Kendra on my way to swim and we split the lane - SO GREAT to have someone else to swim with! Then I made the unfortunate mistake of stopping in at the grocery store while I walked from the Metro to my office. Never go to the grocery store post-bootcamp-swim workout. I walked in to grab breakfast and somehow found myself leaving with over $40 worth of snacks. Chobani, cottage cheese, strawberries, a loaf of olive bread (??), butter, and bagels. Whoops. And my co-workers love me because I now own half the real estate in our tiny office refrigerator with all my loot.

And the workouts I did manage to get in last week - they all went really well. This past weekend I was in Tennessee to see Erin, Ashley, and this cute little girl:

Reagan's pretty sharp - gotta watch what you say because she'll say it right back!

Can I just reiterate that the people down in Tennessee/Kentucky are the friendliest around? Not only did drivers wave at me while I was running and biking, but fellow runners gave me high fives, others joined me for a little bit to chat, neighbors and their kids waved at me from their yards. It was like living in Pleasantville. I could get used to that. Cars did not swerve near me or honk at me while I was biking - not that there were many cars around, most of the roads looked like this:

70+ miles of this Sunday morning.

I spent much of the ride out patting myself on the back for the speed I seemed to easily be holding and for how good I felt. Note to self: when you haven't been on a long ride in weeks, do not automatically think you've made magical gains in bike fitness. Odds are - you've had a tailwind that whole time. I was in for a rude surprise when I turned around and was slapped in the face by a nasty headwind. And so began the slower slog home - the skies were becoming grey and I was becoming hungry and cranky. Once I made a few turns and got out of the headwind (and downed some more PowerBars), I felt better and was able to pick up more speed and negative split. My quads were yelling at me afterwards for it, but this ride was worth it.

The only ruckus I encountered was when I was chased by a pack of dogs - twice. The first time was unexpected. Three dogs came bolting out of a yard, aiming straight for me. Two of them were short, fast little things that looked like they were ready to take out my ankles. By sheer luck, I avoided hitting them and/or falling off my bike and made it away unscathed. The second time I passed that house (no choice - I was doing an out-and-back route), I was ready for them. I ate a Clif bar to get my energy up. I rolled up my armwarmers (or rolled them down - whatever you did with armwarmers), put on my game face and started to sprint as soon as I got in sight of the house. I was cocky and thought about hollering at the dogs to egg them on, confident that I could easily outsprint them since I was expecting them, but fortunately I thought better of it. True to form, the dogs came charging out of the yard. I dropped two of them pretty fast but the third hung on for what felt like forever and he kept getting right near my front wheel. After a hundred yards or so, he got tired of chasing me and gave up. And that was my excitement for the ride.

Well, I'm off to eat the olive bread topped with Chobani, cottage cheese, strawberries and butter. KIDDING. At least I won't starve this week at work.

Winter Outdoor Riding!

A miracle occurred today. It's January, below thirty degrees this morning, and this happened:

It's my bike! And me! And we're going for a ride outside!

That's my bike and I - outdoors. I ACTUALLY BIKED OUTSIDE TODAY IN THE FREEZING COLD. I can't remember the last time I rode outdoors in January - at least a few years ago - and I haven't been on my bike outdoors since October when I rode around the Marine Corps Marathon course cheering on my friends. I still had remnants of my cheering costume on my helmet (a bow) that I left on today. Maybe I'll leave it on this entire season.

So, drama aside, biking outside this morning was actually... pleasant. It went by REALLY quickly and I warmed up fast. Hill repeats were on the schedule so I paid a visit to the hills in Rosslyn and had some fun there. When I went for my T-run after the ride, my legs felt a bit heavier and more tired than they normally do after a trainer ride - probable proof that riding outdoors is a bit more challenging than indoor trainer rides. I should probably ride outside more often.

Speaking of challenging, it was hard work getting into and staying in my proper heart rate zones. Not impossible, but it required work, which isn't how it used to be. I'm really excited, this could mean good things for this season! It means I can work harder and not be as worried about blowing up on the run.

In totally non-triathlon news, I figured out how to blow dry my hair straight. I know, big news, right? But it really is a big deal; I could never can figure out how to get my hairbrush positioned right without making a rat's nest out of my hair, so I always resorted to the flat iron. But this new way was faster and I like the results better.

We finally watched the movie Miracle last night about the 1980 US Olympic hockey team that beat the Soviets - it has been on my list for awhile and it didn't disappoint. There was definitely some interesting sports psychology throughout the film and it made you think about hard work and how much it is worth.