tired legs pushed hard

Once again a poor nights sleep. I'm not sure why. Certainly the beer has nothing to do with it. I actually went and slept in the other bedroom to spare Linda my acrobatic tosses and turns and thrashes and spasms and all the other stuff she says I do when I can't sleep. Still, I was up early to get ready for my ride.

It looked like another beautiful day and I was ready for another run at the Okotoks ride. Then I looked at the IGP™ and realized I only had to go 3 hrs max. I knew I'd never get there and back. So I decided to go 1.5 hr, then turn around. Within a couple minutes, that turned out to be the T end of highway 549 where you turn right to go to Okotoks.

First things first. It was cool as I was getting ready, so I put my arm warmers on. I haven't had a chance to wear them yet. I was putting the last things on Estela and getting ready to lock the door when I realized I was really warm. Sure, I was standing out of the wind and in the sun. So I walked out on to the drive way, to find the light cool breeze had warmed up. So off with the arm warmers, and on with the sunscreen.

As usual 20 minutes to the intersection of 37 st and 22X. I never really push this much and consider it a warm up. Then onto the good pavement. I didn't see any wildlife today, aside from a few ground squirrels. Last week it was all sorts of 4 legged critters going kaboink across the road. I got down to the end of the road at 1:12, which is lots faster than the last time (1:30). I turned left and began hoping none of my fillings were loose. Wow, is the pavement coarse! You can feel the difference in the pedaling. Made it to the T, and turned around. About then I finished my one energy drink, and decided to try swapping bottles from my behind the seat mount. Empty into jersey pocket. Full from behind seat to cage, empty from pocket to behind seat. No fuss, no muss.

For those keeping count, this means I can carry 4 bottles on my bike. The purists will decry the extra weight. The racers will say drinking that much means you need to stop and pee more often. Well, maybe they don't stop, but I would. I do not want to have to explain to anyone how I came to crash because I was trying to get tucked in again. And besides, I figure that carrying, or not carrying an extra kilo of water isn't going to make a difference to my time, and I might really want that water one ride.

Got back to the nice pavement again 50 minutes after leaving it. 20 minutes to the T, and 30 back. Saw a few cyclists on the road to Nepal, and two of them passed me right near the end. 60 minutes back up the road to home, as opposed to 1:10 last time I timed it. Of that, not quite 20 minutes back to the house.

I pushed fairly hard throughout, though my average speed doesn't really reflect that. My legs were tired, and I didn't think I was cycling particularly efficiently. There has been improvement though. These hills don't seem near so big now. When I got back I took Estela downstairs, popped on the new running shoes, and headed out for my run. Ugg, is what my legs had to say about that. I felt like I was back on the Chinook half course again. It was hot, and even though I was running slowly, my heart rate was way up. I walked a few times to bring it back down again.

As always for my faithful fans, here's some numbers.
68.75 K trip distance
3:03:39 trip time
22.5 KpH average speed
70 Average Cadence
84.5 Max speed

125 Average heart rate through bike and run
149 peak heart rate, almost certainly during the run, I didn't push THAT hard on the bike.
3300 calories
3:07 Transition
23:29 run time for 3 Km. I'm astonished it's that quick, it felt much slower. After about the 2K mark it started getting better.
128 Average heart rate during run, but lots of it was mid 130's.

Total time bike and run, 3:30. Walked a bit to cool down, which is a bit of a joke give the temperature outside then. Came in and stretched, showered, stretched, did some yoga (my total fave pose, and I think you can all guess which one that is!) then Linda massaged me a bit. Yumm!

I'm feeling a bit lethargic after the workout and suspect I pushed things about as far as they could go. Although I'm pleased with how it went, I didn't feel strong today. At almost any time I could have pulled off and gone for a nice nap. I'm tempted to do that now. It was a great day for a ride, with only a few moments of outright hot. The run was hot, and now it's looking pretty ominous and there's some thunder.

Total Weekly Time
Swim 1.0 hr
Bike 5.5 hr
Run 2.0 hr
Total 8.5 hr