No sunscreen needed today

At least it wasn't snowing today, though I think I saw a snowflake or two during my ride. Yes, I rode and ran. Actually, I rode and ran and rode and ran. My coach has interesting ideas. I think she thinks I'm easily bored or something, always mixing up the workouts and trying new stuff. Actually, this is probably good for me, so I don't settle into a rut.

3 C is 37.4 F, and it had only just stopped raining. I am sick of this weather. A year ago this time I was getting my face slapped by a banana peel in Black Diamond in the middle of a long hot ride. Nice weather in other words. Not today. I dressed warm again, and got the hybrid ready. The first ride was to be 90 minutes so I thought I'd head up around the reservoir and back. This used to take 90 minutes, working hard. Holy crap have things improved. I got back to the house in 65 minutes, taking it easy. Of course it's not exactly the same path, but I just did a bit of plotting on Google Earth, and the path I used to take is 1.2 K longer than today's path. The easiest place to see the change is the hill out of the Weaselhead into North Glenmore. This used to be granny gear territory and a heart rate getting up near failure levels. Today I was mid cassette maintaining 80+ rpms and the heart rate only got above 140 at the very end as I was trying to maintain rpm. That hill isn't as long or as steep as it used to be.

To make up the time I went around the block, out onto Anderson, and back around again. My toes were frozen!! My knees were squeaking a little, since the geometry of the hybrid is a bit different. Maybe it was the cold. Linda says I was pretty red afterward.

Then out for a 30 minute run. My feet and legs felt a bit thick and slow at first, but I warmed up quick and moved much better. My feet and legs sure liked starting to run, and I could have gone on much longer.

I wasn't sure where to ride. I didn't want to go around Glenmore again. The Running Room had an event of some kind going on and there was hundreds of people hogging the path. Both paths. And they wouldn't move over no matter how much noise I made with my killer whale squeaky toy. I ended up riding on the road.

The second ride took me out onto 37 st, watching a cop pull a speeder over. I was a bit dubious about riding again, but my legs got into it again fairly quickly. Across Anderson, down Elbow, across James McKevitt (and holy cow I'd forgotten how much that went up!) down into Fish Creek to avoid a construction zone, and back up 37 st. Then around the block to make up the 75 minutes.

Then another run, only 15 minutes this time. This was more of a shuffle, though I warmed up eventually and picked up the pace a bit. I was tired at the end, in spite of the cookie at each transition. I suppose I could have run longer had I needed to, but I didn't take any nutrition on the bike and I suppose I should have. Stretched and cored for 45 minutes. Most of it was pretty good, especially the plank for some reason. But the pushups were a failure. Quickly.

I can't wait to get Estela back, and get out for some longer rides in nice weather. I'll mow the lawn when the snow all melts. I'll probably need the weed whacker to get it down to size, then use a mower to get it even. The lamb stew and barolo wine went down really, really good for supper. Really good. I can barely type. The word for the last couple days is "pre-obedient".

Weekly Summary
Swim 2.0 hrs
Bike 7.41 hrs
Run 3.42 hrs
Walk .75 hrs
Total cardio 13.5 hrs
Core 3.75 hrs
Total workout 16.8
Which is less impressive than it sounds since it includes two long ride days.