I am a sensational triathlete*

Well, if by "sensational" you mean, "sensationally incompetent." But I did finish the Danskin tri, and I wasn't even the last one to do so. Click OPEN WIDE for race report.

I knew I wasn't prepared to do the full event...especially the swim but I wasn't so hot on the run either. My 4 month training plan didn't really work out, so I went into this thing with absolutely no expectations.

This tri weekend was full of fiascos from start to finish. First off, the packet pickup on Saturday had a hard-close time of 3:00 pm. We live about 2 1/2 hours' drive from the site, so absolutely had to be on the road by noon at the latest. Still, I thought that keeping the beginner "field trip" ride on the schedule would be manageable. After all, it's only 24 miles, it starts at 7:30...even if it's the worst ride ever, it'll be done by 10:30, right? Besides, I had missed leading the last two field trips because both my trips to WI fell over the first Saturday of the month, so I was feeling a little guilty asking someone else to lead yet another one.

So of course, it was the worst ride ever. One girl had two flats in the first 6 miles, we ran out of flat-changing gear, everyone turned around at the 8 mile mark and I flatted on the way back as well. Then I sat on an anthill while waiting for the others to come back with the truck, and ended up with half a dozen ant bites on my ass. Woo! We (a triathlete friend--E.--went with me) were still out of town by 11:30, but it was with extremely-rushed last minute packing and a flat rear tire on my bike.

We got to the packet pickup at around 2:00, which was plenty of time. The pickup went smoothly, as did the bike drop-off (I did a field-change of the rear tube in the parking lot, since the bikes had to be dropped off by 4:00 that afternoon). We stopped at a bike shop and picked up some flat supplies, then headed to the hotel. After a little bit of confusion about which exit to take (the guy who answered the 800 number had some trouble differentiating between "north" and "south"), we got there, got checked in, prepared our transition bags and relaxed a bit before dinner. Then we had dinner with one of E's friends, and turned in early. I was beginning to think that things were going to be okay.

Bright and early Sunday morning, we gathered our tri stuff and headed out of the hotel an hour before the transition area closed. Plenty of time, right? Well, yes, if there hadn't been a line of cars a mile long going into the parking area, and only 5 shuttles to the transition area to transport ~2500 racers and all the spectators. We got to the bus area at 6:40, the bus left at 6:45, and we got there just as they announced that the transition area was closed. Um, I don't think so. So we ran in, ignoring the constant admonitions over the loudspeaker that "the transition area is now closed! The race is starting! Get out now!" No time to set out transition gear, air up tires, de-stress in any way...I just dumped my bag and bugged out.

Then I went back and got my swim cap.

Then I went back and got my goggles.

As I was getting my body markings, I realized that I had forgotten to take off my shoes. Grr. Thankfully, these were not shoes I would need again during the event, so I didn't worry too much about it. I took them off and set them by a tree about 100 yards from the swim start. (and forgot to go back for them after the event...good thing they were $10 Target specials)

The swim start area was a madhouse, and I was glad that I had a seasoned triathlete with me...if I hadn't, it would have been terrifying. Well, more terrifying...I was already practically sick at the thought of a 1/2-mile open-water swim. Those buoys? They were far.

About 10 minutes later, I was on the starting line, listening to Sally Edwards give her little pep talk, trying not to vomit or pass out. 6-5-4-3-2-1, and we were off! I tried freestyle for a little while, but was kicking too much and wearing myself out 20 yards in. I tried breaststroke, and discovered that I suck at breaststroke and couldn't make myself go anywhere. I flipped over on my back and tried backstroke for a while, which worked fine...until I flipped back over and realized that no matter where I aimed myself, I was veering left. Hello current! Meanwhile, the first buoy was still far ahead. Behind me, another red cap (that was my wave) was signaling for help from the swim angels, and I felt a perverse surge of relief. Though I was fading rapidly, at least I would not be the first.

I started survival swimming...sort of a hybrid freestyle-breaststroke-doggy paddle, where my head was out of the water the whole time, but I was still moving at a satisfactory pace. When I got tired, I flipped and floated. This lasted me till about 10 yards from the 2nd canoe, when the next wave of swimmers started to pass me. The water was choppy, I was tired, and every time I tried to breathe I was getting water up my nose. My feet were sinking. My arms were shaking. My goggles were fogging. I could no longer even see the buoy through my goggles, so I shifted my focus to making it to the nearest canoe. I made it there and hung on for a couple minutes to catch my breath, the terror starting to tighten its grip. This was a half-mile swim, and I hadn't even made it to the first of the 4 buoys.

I tried to give myself a little pep talk, then set off again. Less than 20 yards later, I was frantic, flipping over to float, then trying a backstroke, veering off course, trying a freestyle, wearing myself out, sinking, breathing water, oh-dear-god-where-the-fuck-is-the-next-canoe-I-AM-GOING-TO-DROWN. After I somehow made it to the kayak, I rested and tried to calm down. I set off swimming slowly, breathing every couple strokes, but I didn't feel like I was moving at all. The terror hit me when I was almost to the first buoy--I surrendered and raised my hand for help. A swim angel made it to me and talked me in to the canoe behind the buoy, where I rested for a ridiculous amount of time, babbling incoherently and practically crying.

I composed myself finally, and tried to set off again. By this time, I had reached the point where both the wind and the current were directly against us, and waves of stronger swimmers were coming up fast behind/around me. After about a minute of this, somewhere around 300 yards into the swim, my resolve broke completely. I flailed, I sank, I swallowed/inhaled about a gallon of lake water, raised my hand for help. I have never felt more mortal or pathetic in my entire life. Once again, I was rescued by a swim angel.

"Hey, you're doing fine...what's your name?"
"Joy. I don't think...I can make it the rest...of the way." [hitching sobs, coughing]
"My name's Denise, and I'll be with you right till the end. We're about 1/3 of the way now."

I burst into genuine, hopeless tears.

She handed me a swim noodle, and became my new favorite person in the entire world. We sat there a minute or two, while she asked me about myself, slowly got me moving again. Every so often, she'd encourage me to swim without the noodle, then give it back when I started to flail. As we went on, she'd stop and help others, and I'd wait all weak and kitteny, not wanting to keep her from doing her job but too scared to leave her side. Gradually, agonizingly slowly, she talked me around the buoys while I thanked her for sticking with me and apologized for being such an under-prepared drama queen. Finally, maybe 10 yards from the finish chute, I figured I could make it out of the water without the noodle. I handed it back, thanked her again, and swam to the end where there was a big burly volunteer to yank us out of the water. I have never been more grateful.

I took off my cap and goggles, and did the walk of shame up the chute to the transition area, trying to get my land legs back. By the time I got back to my bike (it was one of only two still in my row), I had mostly recovered my wits. Still, with the panic still wearing off and my stuff still crammed in my bag, it took me a while to get everything together...during which time I discovered that I had packed neither socks nor running shorts. Awesome! Luckily, my bike shoes are designed so that they're not outrageously uncomfortable without socks (no inner seams). I threw them on, grabbed my helmet, checked my bike tires, and jogged toward the bike start. About halfway there, I had to go back for my bike computer. Doh!

Finally, I was on the part of the course I was comfortable with. I passed a bunch of hybrids on the way to the first corner and was feeling pretty good about myself (one of the nice things about being slower than Christmas in the water is that most of the fast cyclists are already long gone by the time you hit the bike course. *grin*). I hit the corner at around 18 mph, no problem, and ran straight into a short steep hill. I had been warned about it by a girl in the port-a-potty line, so I was still feeling pretty confident. Unfortunately, she could not have predicted that crosswind, or the fact that they caution tape between the cones at the side of the road had been draped with too much slack. Before I really knew what was going on, a huge gust of wind came from the right side, the caution tape blew over my head and had me by the neck. Luckily, I was able to stop before it completely clotheslined me, but the spectators got some cheap entertainment. There was a guy with a camera about 10 feet away...I almost asked him for pictures. :)

So, I shook that off and finished climbing the hill. The rest of the course was pretty uneventful. After the next turn, it was all tailwind for 5 miles or so, and I felt like superwoman...all passing people left and right, going 25 mph uphill, 35 mph down. Then we turned, of course, and I was a mere mortal again. I also had to walk up the last part of one hill that kind of snuck up on me. It was right after a downhill 90-degree turn, and I was overgeared when I started going up again. I tried getting out of the saddle and powering through it, but it just wasn't happening. After chugging up another hill at about 8 mph, I reached down for my water bottle and discovered...I didn't have any. I had left them in transition. Awesome! By this point, though, I was 3/4 of the way through the course so it wasn't a big deal. The last uphill was brutal, too, with a semi-steep incline and a 15-20 mph headwind, but I managed to stay on my bike for it. Even with the hills and wind, however, the bike course was by far the most fun part of the event for me. I was almost sad when I had to rack Keiko up again and hit the run.

Or, in my case, walk. By this time, I wasn't even pretending to be "racing". I sat down next to my bike, took my time wiping off my feet and changing my shoes, clipped on my race number and stroooolled on over to the run start. I got some water, ate some jelly beans, and set off for a little 3-mile power walk. Nothing major really happened on this part...I ran for the cameras the first time, then tried again about a 1/2 mile later. I yelled encouragement to the bikers as they passed us, made conversation with the other walkers/runners as we passed each other. After what seemed like forever and yet no time at all, I could see the finishing chute. Dude, I was sooo ready.

With spectators shouting encouragement, ringing cowbells, waving, snapping pictures, I made it to the Danskin banners and started jogging to the finish line. Sally Edwards was there to give us a high-five as we crossed the line, and I was DONE. Footsore and exhausted, I picked up my finisher's medal, grabbed a bottle of water, and started looking for E. She was sitting just off the finish, looking refreshed and kind of bored (she had been done for over an hour). We picked up our stuff from transition and began the long walk back to the expo center with bikes/bags/assorted crap in tow (the shuttles couldn't load bikes, so we had to walk them back to the parking area). Now really feeling my blisters and the effects of too much sun, I was very grateful that we had parked on the end closest to the bus drop. We found the car, packed up, hit the showers at the hotel, and went home triathletes. Mission accomplished!

Once I got home I looked up my official results: 2306/2592 overall, 387/406 in my age group. Say it with me now...

I totally wasn't last! :)

*for each wave of swimmers in the Danskin triathlon, Sally Edwards (founder and champion of the event) does this pep talk that ends in a cheer ("what kind of swimmer are you?! What kind of biker are you?!", etc.), and give each wave a different word to answer. Ours was "sensational".

juuuust under the wire

I wanted to be sure to get this entry in before midnight, so that I can continue trying to post every day.

Urban Dare is complete, and I plan on having a race report up sometime tomorrow afternoon (for real this time, not one of those where I tell you there'll be a full race report and then never actually write it). It was a lot of fun, though I would've liked it to be a bit shorter. Our course, with backtracking and lost-getting, ended up a little over 9 miles. On foot. NINE MILES. If I were a marathoner, I'm sure this would seem like nothing, but since I'm not? That's a long damn way. :) We left town around 7:00 this morning and got back around 10:00 tonight, and what with the driving and the racing (9 miles!), I'm pretty beat. More on this tomorrow.

Re: Du the Bear

Screw it--I've paid the entry fee, I've done some training, I've got someone to carpool with. I'm just gonna go for it. Someone's gotta be last, right? May as well be me. Besides, if I do it now in this kind of shape, just imagine how much improvement I'll show in next year's event. :)

I'm going to pick up my packet this afternoon.

this just in: I totally SUCK

Instead of doing the run-bike-run workout I planned for today, I did another run-bike brick. About halfway through the run, I came to the bitter realization that I am not at all ready for the duathlon on Sunday.

When I have to talk myself through 3-minute run intervals just to make it through a damned MILE, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to survive 2 2-mile runs. With only two days left till the event, the only way I could conceivably do it is to give up on the running. Walk 2 miles, bike 12, walk 2. Risk the ridicule of spectators, all the while feeling like I let myself down. Which I did, whether I actually choose to do the race or not.

I planned to be in so much better shape by now, you know? I signed up for this thing 5 months ago thinking, "Five months, man, I can totally lose 25 pounds, get up to 20 mph on the bike, work up to 5 mile runs...I'll be a MACHINE!"

Now, here I am, 5 months later, 2 lbs heavier, topping out at 18 mph averages (at least I improved something), and unable to run for 5 minutes straight without gasping for air and hating every second of it. So much for THAT.

And now I don't know what I'm going to do. If I were doing this by myself, I'd just skip the event entirely. Wave goodbye to the entry fee, beat myself up a bit about how out of shape I am, and shoot for next year. Unfortunately or not, depending on how you look at it, I made plans to carpool with another girl from my club ride. She's faster than me so we wouldn't be doing the race together anyway, but she was happy that there would be someone else she knows doing the race. I hate to let her down. On the other hand, I hate to have her waiting at the finish line for a half-hour waiting for my sorry ass so that she can go home. I don't know.

The bottom line is, five months ago I signed up for more event than I could handle. Training did not go as planned (injury, vacation, etc.), and now I cannot possibly be ready to do this race to my own satisfaction. Do I race anyway, trying to content myself with simply finishing even though everyone else will likely have gone home by the time I cross the finish line? Or do I call my carpool buddy and just tell her I'm not ready? "Sorry, I'm a dumbass, good luck, maybe next year?"

What would you do?

Oh, and by the way, the Wisconsin trip was very nice. The flights were a nightmare and it rained all weekend, but it was great to see everyone and the wedding was lovely.

scheduling

I don't expect this post will be terribly interesting, but I wanted to get it out here so that I have some kind of accountability. I have less than two weeks before my event, and 5 of my training days will be eaten up by the trip to my dad's wedding. So, I need to get some kind of schedule in place, or I'm going to end up walking most of both runs and feeling like a gigantic loser*.

To that end, this is my plan:

Today - treadmill run, 4:1 intervals, 30 minutes (after some research, I've decided that this will be my strategy for the running. Not only will it make the runs tolerable, but it will probably make me faster overall than trying to gut it out and run two miles straight)

Wednesday - spin class AM, outdoor walk PM

Thursday - very short bike/run (3 mi/half-mi? I'm hoping to do this in the morning so it will be cooler, but that doesn't give me much daylight)

Friday - treadmill run, 4:1 intervals, 45 minutes (also, scramble crazily trying to get everything ready for our afternoon flight, run around DFW to make our connection, etc.)

Saturday - Dad's wedding (elbow exercises, mostly, and maybe some ridiculous dancing)

Sunday - rent bikes, do the rail trail

Monday - find some way/where/time to run 4:1 intervals

Tuesday - walk

Wednesday - more airport shenanigans

Thursday - run/bike/run (1/5/1)

Friday - rest day, maybe do some transition practice

Saturday - go easy on the club ride

Sunday - Just do it.

*Note that I am not implying that anyone who walks most of the runs is a gigantic loser. Just that I would feel like one, because I know I could have done better if I had avoided injury and been less of a slacker over the past 6 months. And lost 30 lbs, like I had planned.

mini-brick

(Note: I'm going to try to keep the duathlon training posts from dominating the entire site, but I expect that there'll be at least a few more. Since I'm scared to death that I'll crash and burn on this event, it's always on my mind.)

Tonight, while procrastinating on cleaning out my car, I decided to do a run-bike brick. I wanted to get some idea of the kind of bike speeds I could sustain after running, so that I know how much time I can make up on the bike and how fast I'll really need to run in the duathlon overall. I also wanted to see how my legs reacted to running on pavement, since I've been doing all my run training on a dirt track or the treadmill. The street behind my house is asphalt, which is a little easier on the bones than concrete. It's also newly repaved, which makes it a bit softer. I figured it was as good a place as any. I decided on a 1-mile run, 6-mile bike, since it cuts both du distances by half.

It went better than I expected.

Since I'm not yet ready to run a mile straight through (especially when it's 90+ degrees out there), I did one-song run, 1-minute walk intevals, and my average speed for the mile was 4.4 mph.* Running in bike shorts was surprisingly comfortable...though I WAS wearing my RS Flexes, which are the most comfortable bike shorts in the universe. They also have a relatively thin chamois, which helps where running is concerned. Definitely my race day shorts (and a great gift idea, since I only have the one pair and would love to have a closetful. Just a note, for any readers who might be married to me. *grin*)

It took me about a minute to change shoes, slap on my helmet, and get on the bike, and I was off. My top speed wasn't all that much different after running than it is on any other hard ride--I averaged 17 mph for right around 6 miles. I thought for sure I would be slower than that, so this sets my mind at ease a bit. (And, yes, Rob, you were totally right.)

Funny story...at about mile 5, I was riding in an unfinished section of a subdivision, and the only traffic was a couple ladies out walking. I was on the home stretch, so I decided to push the pace. As I passed one of the walkers at about 22 mph(on the other side of the street, giving her as much clearance as I possibly could), I heard her say "Whoa." I don't get very many of those. :)

So anyway, I completed the entire thing in about 34 minutes. If you figure on 3 more 11-minute miles + let's say, 3 minutes for the dragging-ass factor in the 2nd run, that's 36 more minutes of running for 1:10. Add a 1-minute transition and 30 more minutes of biking, and I'm looking at a 1:40 total time. I can accept that. And if I keep working on the running between now and then, and work in a bike-run brick or two, it might just improve to the 1:30 I really want.

*Per the Edge, which I've discovered works just as well for running as it does on the bike. Woo! I hit the lap button after the transition and slapped it into the bike holster, so that I could track the speeds separately...worked like a champ.

better all around

Well, I ran 2:1 intervals again yesterday, and I'm happy to report that I can totally walk today! My shins are a just a little splinty this morning, nowhere near last week's 4-day trip to DOMSland. Part of this is that I was completely unable to minimize the heel-strike yesterday, so my bones and joints took more of a hit than last time. Still, it's not bad.

Performance was, eh...progressive is a nice way to put it. I made it all the way through the 2nd run interval (woo!), but lost my will to live about halfway through the final 5-minute interval (boo!). My 2-mile time was just over 25 minutes, which needs some improvement. My fastest 1/2-mile was 5:26, which was all jogging. I'd like to see a little better than 11-minute miles on fresh legs, because I can pretty much count on a slower 2nd run on event day. If I can't muster more than 5.5 mph fresh, what will it be like after a 12-mile bike leg?

Another option I've considered is just to plan for walk intervals on race day. Maybe shoot for a 5-minute run, 1-minute walk sort of thing? I'd feel like kind of a dork walking during a race, but it's not like I'm going out there to win or anything. And that might do a better job of keeping my HR under control (my biggest problem right now...though I haven't been wearing the monitor, I can feel it about to leap out of my chest). Also, better to walk some during the first run than be forced to walk the entire 2nd one because I have nothing left. We'll see how the next couple weeks go, though...if the runs get easier, I'll try to gut it out for the whole thing.

I'm telling you, though...I'm beginning to wish I had waited till next year to do the multi-sport thing and shot for a 5k this year instead. It's starting to depress me a little that instead of coming into these final weeks wondering if I will make a respectable showing, I'm wondering if I'll be able to do it at all. I mean, sure, there was the ankle injury to contend with and whatever, but there was also a lot of laziness and procrastination. Also, the injury was mostly due to the laziness, since it probably could have been avoided had I lost 10-20 lbs this year. Since I can't turn back time, however, there's not a whole lot I can do about that now. All I can do is keep plugging along with the training and hope I don't humiliate myself too thoroughly.

maybe it won't be so bad...

I was just checking out last year's race results for the duathlon I'm doing in October, and I feel a little better about it than I did before. For one thing, I should be able to make up some time on the bike course, since the top Athena (women 150+, the class I'm racing) last year had an average speed of 16.5 mph. I can totally do that, especially on a traffic-controlled course. Now, can I do that after running two miles? I don't know. I think I might pull off 17 mph if I go easy on the first run. Of course, then I'll have to get off the bike and run again. Sigh. I just don't know.

What I do know is that the slowest posted time last year was 1:47ish. So if I figure on a 15 mph bike speed, that's 48 minutes right there. Plus...lets say, 3 minutes for transitions, that's 51 minutes. Therefore, to avoid coming in DFL, I'd need run speeds in the 27-28 minute range, or a 13 to 14-minute mile. If I can make up time on the bike, I could possibly go as high as 15-minute miles. But that's if my ONLY goal is to not be the last racer on the course, which--while an acceptable and realistic goal for someone of my size and fitness level--is not really my heart's desire.

What I'd really like to do is complete the entire thing in around 1:30--40-45 minutes on the bike, 20-25 minutes per run, 1-2 minute transitions. Considering that it's only three weeks away and I have yet to run a full mile straight through OR try a single run-bike/bike-run transition, that's a pretty tall order. :)

good news, bad news

Good news: I think my running form was considerably better yesterday than it has been since I started back on the treadmill last month.

Bad news: The reason I think this is that my calves are so sore today that I can barely walk. And stairs? I walked down three flights this morning and thought I was going to cry.

Song: Fighting in a Sack (link removed)

and I ran, I ran so far a-waaaaay.....

Today, I strapped on my ankle brace and ran on the treadmill for the first time since July. 1-song run, 2-song walk intervals, after warming up for the first 5 minutes. I don't feel like I have time to give this the full Couch-to-5k treatment anymore, so I'm starting somewhere in the middle.

Overall, it was solidly not bad. My HR was high on the run intervals, but I didn't feel bad...not gasping for air, etc. On the last minute or so of the last run interval, my legs felt sort of heavy, but that was about it. My ankle felt pretty good throughout, but the outer edge of my left foot would start to get cranky if I didn't concentrate on rolling all the way in on each footfall. I think my under-pronation is more pronounced on the left side, which could explain why I have more trouble with that foot/ankle than the other. The right foot points outward slightly by nature, so any knee problems happen on that side. Knee on one side, foot on the other...I'm a mess. :) But I'm running!

My plan is to keep with the 2:1 walk/run ratio through the rest of this week, then make it 1:1 next week. Then go 1:2, 1:3, etc, until I eliminate walk intervals altogether. If you figure the average song is around 4 minutes, I won't be able to eliminate the walk intervals completely before the duathlon...however, I can get pretty close. Close enough that I can stick out at least one non-stop 2-mile run on race day, and hopefully two. At least, that's my theory. I also need to try a brick or two before October, but I'd like to wait to do that until the new bike is ready.

Speaking of bikes...I was too wrapped up in my bike shop anxiety to mention it last post, but I had 16 PEOPLE at the beginner ride Saturday. The ultra-beginners had 10, also. I think it was a combination of great weather and...I don't know what. A perfect storm of circumstance, I guess? Twenty-four people showed up to ride with us this week! That's so awesome! While I was doing the safety announcements, I was practically giddy with excitement. We've come a long way since last June, when I was riding most weeks by myself. If it gets much bigger, though, I'm going to have to start recruiting a regular to either lead or sweep...it's hard to make sure I don't drop anyone otherwise, especially in the first part of the route. Still, more the merrier--bring me your old, your slow, your cycling newbies yearning to ride free...:)

Song o' the day: We Run This (link removed)

the best laid plans...

you know what's awesome? Going through all the trouble of bringing spin-class clothes to work for a 12:15 class that you want to try, leaving work an hour beforehand to be sure to get there on time (I wasn't sure how long the drive would be that time of day), and then hanging out at Barnes & Noble for 30 minutes before walking over to the gym only to wait another 15 minutes before discovering that THE INSTRUCTOR COULDN'T BE BOTHERED TO SHOW UP. Grr.

I suppose at that point I could have just walked into the spin room and made up my own workout for 30 minutes, but I always feel kind of weird getting on the class bikes without an instructor there. So I did abs instead, then changed and grabbed lunch before heading back to work. It better not be like this on Thursday, I can tell you, or I am so done with that 24-hour fitness location. (I'm sure they're shaking in their boots...)

Song o' the day: Change (link removed)

RIP, Ms. Astrale

It figures. Not two weeks after I say that I'm only going to count odometer-recorded mileage in the 5,000 miles needed for the Pilot's retirement, my bike computer stops recording anything altogether. About 3 seconds into the club ride on Saturday (literally--the time recorded is 00:00:03), speed went to zero and the timer stopped. I tried to hit it a couple times to make it work again(this had been successful in the past), but all it succeeded in doing this time is knocking the computer head off the handlebar mount and into the ditch. D'oh!

A couple of my regular riders was kind enough to find it for me after the ride (I did look, too, but didn't have any luck), and it seemed no worse for wear. However, the distance still says 4604.7*, and I've had enough of that crap. It's bad enough that I'm only getting 20-40 miles per week the way it is, and now my paltry mileage isn't even being documented?! Also, I'm already pissed that the cadence meter stopped working around the end of June. It's time to shoot this Cateye into the trash.

I had already started doing a little research on wireless computers a month or so ago (around the time the cadence sensor quit), and was seriously considering going to the Cateye Double Wireless. I did a few ebay searches, and had mostly decided on it for the new bike. But then nearly every Cateye in our group crapped out in the rain last Saturday, and I began to wonder about quality control. So, as much as I like the look and feel of the Cateyes, I started to look for something more resilient to inclement weather conditions. I mean, I'm kind of a lightweight, but even I ride in the rain occasionally. You'd think that a company that makes devices for use on outdoor equipment would design for weather other than "partly cloudy."

So, I thought and I looked and I asked around, and decided to go whole-hog into information overload with a Garmin Edge 305. Wireless! GPS! Heart rate! Cadence! Uploads! Software! And most importantly--waterproof.

It should be here by Wednesday. Since it is wireless, I'm even going to try to install it myself. That should be a laugh.

Song o' the day: Get Ready 2 Rokk (link removed)

*which is what it was on 7/11, too--I rounded up in that last post. Then I forgot the head on the desk when I went out on last week's club ride, and then this week...well, you know that story.

math is easy...swimming is hard

Did I say I was at absolute zero with my swimming endurance? Well, I was wrong--I'm at about -50. Five laps, stopping after every length, sometimes using an effing kickboard, and I had to talk myself into starting up again every single time. On the lengths where I experimented with "real" swimming (the kind where you put your face in the water most of the time and do that rhythmic breathing thing from the red cross classes I took when I was 7), I thought my head would explode and/or I would pass out and drown by the time I got to the end of the pool. I think I might be doing it wrong.

On the bright side, there was no one in the pool room to point and laugh. Also, I did swim 250 meters...even if it was 25m at a time and took me nearly 16 minutes. And even if I was all rubber-legged and starving afterward and could barely drive home. Also good? It didn't hurt my ankle at all. (just my lungs, and my head, and that crampy muscle in my calf...)

As I was driving home, I tried to console myself by remembering that it was just 5 years ago that going 11 miles on my bike seemed like a challenge, and that walking 3 miles in an hour set my legs shaking afterward. Now, those things are easy, right? So swimming will someday be easy, too, and I'll look back on this post and oh, how I'll laaaugh!

Still, I think tris/open-water swims are a long way off.

Poll results & other stuff

Well, the results of my Achilles poll so far seem to lean toward treating the injury...rest and medical attention. Which I kind of expected--the "no pain, no gain" folks would have been driven away by my lackadaisical weight loss style long ago. :)

I probably will go to the doctor next month* if it doesn't significantly improve by then, but for now I've been treating it with rest and anti-inflammatories. It was a little better this morning, I think, but I'm not going to go run marathons or anything. Kristi mentioned swimming in the comments, which is a great option that I had completely forgotten about. Not only is it zero impact, but it'll also build up my swim endurance. Currently, I'm at absolute zero on that, so there's nowhere to go but up. I'd to do a sprint triathlon sometime next year, and working on my swimming while I'm temporarily off the exercises I normally do seems like an excellent way to go. Right now, I'd consider one non-stop lap a victory. Hell, I'd settle for a length.

I am going to keep riding on weekends, and going to the spin classes on Mon/Wed. My Saturday ride keeps a pretty slow pace lately, so I think I can keep that up without putting undue strain on the tendon. Also, work is preventing me from doing any weekend rides until August anyway, so it should heal some by then. The spin classes don't really stress it either, except during the out of the saddle/high resistance drills. If I keep my entire workout seated/low resistance and just alter my cadence to match the class effort, I think I can still keep them as part of my routine.

Of course, you know that part of the reason I'm keeping the cycling in is so that I can get to 5,000 miles on my bike by September. At last odometer check, I was at 4,605. The actual total is a bit higher, since my computer has been temperamental lately. For the last couple rides, it's been pretty consistent about recording speed/distance, but before that it would just check out for as many as 20 miles at a time. I've decided that for new-bike purposes, computer malfunctions won't factor in--only the recorded miles count. Of course, my new-bike deadline really isn't going to matter much if I can't run in the duathlon in October anyway.

In non-bike, non-injury news, I picked up my new car today! The truck did not blow up in the parking lot, nor did it start randomly shedding parts on the way to the trade-in...maybe it wasn't conspiring against me after all. The dealership put my new hubcaps on last night, and they stayed put at least until the truck wasn't my responsibility anymore. Here's hoping the new owner won't have any further trouble.

I also detailed it myself last night, which was kind of fun. Normally, the only work I like to do on my car is signing the credit card receipt at the dealership/car wash/repair shop/whatever. Cars just aren't really my thing, and cleaning one out and returning it to showroom condition on a 95-degree summer evening is not my idea of a good time. However, by the time I stopped by the dealership and had the hubcaps put on, it was too late to go to the detailing place. So I stopped by the Walmart for some basic supplies (armor-all, upholstery shampoo, wheel cleaner), ran the truck through a car wash on the way home, then set to work on the inside. In just about an hour, it was spotless and new-car-smelly, and I had saved $50. Woo!

I'm not sure yet whether I like the new car...it rides lower than my truck, which takes some retraining. I find myself still wanting to push up with my left leg and vault myself into the driver's seat like I did with the running boards on the truck, which is not really necessary or comfortable, and looks supremely dorky besides. The feel while driving is completely different...the suspension seems more bouncy, which is suprising to me since I'm going from a light truck to something more car-based. You'd think it'd be a smoother ride, right? There are things I do like about it...the stereo has an aux port for my ipod, there's enough cargo space inside for my bike so I don't need to worry about stopping somewhere on the way home from my rides, and--most importantly--it gets double the gas mileage. So I think I'm going to like it, after the initial break-in period.

I also took my son to the doctor this morning, where we found out that the sinus infection we thought he's had since this weekend was actually a raging case of tonsilitis with a side of severe nasal allergies. The solution was the same as a sinus infection, though--antibiotics, rest, allergy medicine refill. He's supposed to be feeling considerably better by Friday, and I certainly hope so. I used to get either tonsilitis or strep throat every single winter until I had my tonsils removed, so I feel for him. It's a miserable, miserable way to spend a week.

Song o' the Day: Welcome to the Black Parade (link removed)

*Due to a change in work schedules, that's the soonest I'd be able to make an appointment.

running redux

...now with half the ankle pain!

I started the C25k again yesterday, on the treadmill. I put it on a 0.5% incline, and alternated between 3.5 mph walking and 4.0 mph jogging for 25 minutes after a 5-minute warmup. It wasn't too bad. My right knee complained a bit (it's bruised from the UAR this weekend, and prone to injury besides), and my left Achilles was surprisingly pain-free. It'll take a couple more workouts to know how healed it really is, because the pain didn't really come on until the 2nd week last time.

I was going to wait till next month to start this back up, but I was so dismayed by my run performance at the race this past weekend that I decided to start early. The run from the start line to the bike area was maybe 1/4 of a mile (downhill!), and I had to walk part of it in order to have any energy left to get on my bike. Suck! I may be heavier than I want to be, but I like to think that I'm still in fairly decent shape. Not being able to run from here to there without collapsing from heat exhaustion (hat tip)? Humiliating. Especially since my 17-year-old teammate was all composed and rested by the time I even got to the bikes, so I got to feel old as well as unfit. :)

So anyway, running on the treadmill for now. I'm not ordinarily a treadmill fan, but the heat is too much for me in the summertime, especially when just starting out. I'm looking into a membership at a gym with an indoor track, since it's a more forgiving surface & temperature than my outdoor options. The only thing stopping me is cost--the one I've been looking into would cost about $150 to start, and then $35/month. Since they don't have spin classes or extended hours, though, I'd have to keep my 24Hour membership as well. Considering that I only hit the gym once or twice a week, it hardly seems worth $80/month. The indoor-track gym does have 3-month and 6-month membership options, though, so I'm considering signing up just for the summer. We'll see...if the treadmill proves to be tolerable over the next couple weeks and I don't hurt myself again, I may just stick with it until the weather cools off. Whatever I decide to do, I need to stick with the running from now till October, or I'll never be ready for the duathlon.

Here are the HRM/treadmill stats from this first workout:

Time: 35:25
Distance: 2.01 mi
Walk speed: 3.5 mph
Run speed: 4.0 mph
HRMax: 174 bpm
HR avg: 147 bpm

~13 minutes in 60-70% HR zone, 12 minutes in 70-80%, 11 minutes in 80-90.

The HRs are a little higher than I would have liked, but I know those will come down over time. Right now, I'm more concerned with staying injury-free than staying aerobic.

I'm hitting the treadmill again today at lunch, and this will really start the true test of my ankle...will it hold up to two running workouts in one week?

Song o' the Day: Run Runaway - Slade (right-click, save-as, per usual...I'm trying a new thing here, attaching a song to each post rather than posting a handful on Fridays. What do you think? UPDATE: link removed.)

yoga

Man, did I hate that yoga class. I lasted about 10 minutes, and 2 of that was spent in mat placement and introductions.

Part of it is that I didn't know any of the moves, so rather than being able to focus on breathing and centering and whatnot, I had to keep looking at the instructor every time there was a new move. It kind of took me out of the moment, you know? That, and I'm not terribly into the more new-agey aspects of yoga in the first place. Maybe I'm just not spiritual enough to get it, but I had a hard time taking it seriously. I just felt silly and clumsy the whole time.

I don't feel like I've given it enough of a chance to be able to say that yoga is definitely not my thing, but I do know that I won't be going to another class until I've had a chance to get a little bit familiar with the terms and movements involved.

A Couch-to-5k update, in which I find new and interesting ways to injure myself

I’m now in my second round of the 1st week of Couch-to-5k, and I’m putting it on hiatus, effective immediately.

This week, I ran Sunday, Monday, and today, which may have been a little too ambitious, in retrospect. The Sunday-Monday schedule is the part that really messed me up, as is evidenced by the following stats:

Sunday
Total Time: 30:35
Total distance: 2.055 mi

Monday
Total Time: 30:17
Shortest Lap: 7:01
Longest Lap: 7:59
Average Lap: 7:34

Lap 1: 7:59
Lap 2: 7:01
Lap 3: 7:27
Lap 4: 7:50

Yes, Monday was faster than Sunday, but it was a bit shorter and hurt quite a bit more. Ankles, knees, arches, hips…every muscle and joint below my waist was screaming in protest and my legs felt like lead. If you compare it to the stats for Friday (when I was last on that track), it’s even more pathetic…especially when you consider that I had 5 additional minutes of run intervals on Monday. I think that in addition to the consecutive days, the decrease in performance was also because of the increased temperature (mid-80s at noon, v. mid-70s at 11:00 on Friday, or at 6:30 pm on Sunday) and the wear and tear of the pavement run the day before. Or not. But whatever the cause, I sure did suck up the place on Monday. Today was even worse:

Total Time: 32:53
Shortest Lap: 7:08
Longest Lap: 9:10
Average Lap: 8:13

Lap 1: 8:05
Lap 2: 7:08
Lap 3: 8:28
Lap 4: 9:10

As you may have guessed from the lap times, I stopped the running intervals in lap 3 and spent the remaining 2 laps trying to walk off pain. I’m pretty sure my left Achilles tendon in injured, or at least strained past the point where it would be prudent to continue running. The right one isn’t in such hot shape either, and both feel fairly swollen. My right knee is also unhappy, but that was really the least of my worries. I expected that…this Achilles thing was a-killing me. (Hee…I am so sorry, the pun was irresistible.)

As I was thinking about what might be causing this new pain, a couple options came to mind. The most obvious is that I weigh about 20 lbs more now than I did the last time I seriously tried running. Secondly, my all-cycling, all the time exercise regimen hasn’t done much to stretch or limber that tendon…in fact, it probably contributes to shortening, since most of my pedaling is in a flat-foot or toe-down position. Also, I’m sure my running form is total crap, since I haven’t been devoting any concentration at all to posture or gait…I’m just putting one foot in front of the other and trying not to die. And finally, I think that my casual shoes are partly to blame. In the past 6 months, I’ve gradually gone from wearing 2-inch heels nearly every day to wearing primarily flats. So my heel is closer to the ground on a regular basis, which has been stretching that tendon more than it’s used to, and then the running just completely stressed it out. Whether wearing heels for several years or the move to flats is the problem, I don’t honestly know. I don’t know if it’s a factor at all, actually…I just know that my damn heel/ankle area hurts to the point where I couldn’t run on it at all this afternoon, and have barely been able to walk since then.

Whatever the cause, my new running plan is to stop running--for now, at least. I’ve got over 19 weeks until the duathlon, which is still plenty of time. If I figure I’ll need 9-10 weeks of training in order to run two 2-mile segments, then I have an additional 9-10 weeks beforehand to get my body ready for that training. This will take three things:

1. Significant weight loss.
2. Daily walking.
3. Some kind of flexibility training.

Hopefully, #2 & #3 will contribute to #1, but I need to really crack down on my diet also. Food has always been my weakness, and I haven’t really made any significant progress in that arena recently. I’m eating less than I was last month, but not by much. My danger zone is still between 3:00 and 11:00 pm. That’s where my calorie count goes to hell every single day, no matter how carefully I plan before that. It’s partly a willpower issue, partly a blood sugar issue, partly an emotional eating issue…and does it really matter at this point? Examining the root causes of my inability to put down the donut (or candy, or chips…) in the afternoon hasn’t done shit to keep me from picking it up in the first place.

I am so, so tired of being all talk. Four years I’ve been doing this, and I’m still flirting with the 200-lb mark. It’s not as if I don’t know how to lose weight—I’ve done it before. It’s not as if I don’t want to. I just keep rationalizing and making light of things, turning every negative step into some sort of positive, starting over every single day, until I can justify any stupid choice I make.

The line between holding myself accountable and beating myself up isn’t as fine as I pretend it is, and I need to quit avoiding the first one’s territory to avoid accidentally stepping in the other’s. The “fiddle dee dee, tomorrow is another day” method I’ve adopted over the past year may have kept me from completely hating myself as I’ve gotten fatter, but it’s also kept me the same unhappy size. Now I can’t run for 60 seconds at a time without straining myself, and that sucks. Also, it’s entirely my fault, and it’s time to actually start doing something about my food choices and calorie counts, instead of just talking about them. Even when I’m tired, even when I’m frustrated, even when I’m feeling lazy, I need to do the right thing anyway. There will come a day when I don’t need to think about every single morsel that goes into my mouth, but today is not that day. Tomorrow ain’t looking too good either.

Today's run

I used my own music, and was slightly faster. I'm pretty sure these things are unrelated, but whatever. Here are the numbers:

Total time: 29:35
Shortest lap: 6:47
Longest lap: 7:56
Average lap: 7:23

Lap 1: 7:53
Lap 2: 6:59
Lap 3: 6:47
Lap 4: 7:56

I was surprised by the increased speed...I'm still fairly sore from Wednesday's run, so I was trying to take it slower. So not only do I suck at running, but I have no idea how to control my speed either. :) I might have gone faster because of the weather, also...it was significantly cooler out there today than it was Wednesday, and my performance is always better in cooler temps, in any sport. And who knows--maybe it was the music. In any case, I'm still turtle-slow, and was glad when each 60-second interval was over. I think it's going to be a long time before I actually enjoy running. If I ever do.

here it goes, here it goes, here it goes again...

I started the Couch-to-5k plan again. What's this, my 3rd time? 4th? :) Here are the stats from my four laps on the 1/2-mile track today, according to the stopwatch on my ipod:

Total time: 30:26
Shortest lap: 7:02
Longest lap: 8:22
Average lap: 7:36

Lap 1: 7:57
Lap 2: 7:02
Lap 3: 7:03
Lap 4: 8:22

Not such a bad start...though my heart was pounding a little more than I would have liked. I didn't have the chest strap on today, so I have no idea what my HR actually was, but I'm betting that I was flirting with the anaerobic threshold on every run interval. And they were only 60 seconds! Hopefully, that will improve over time.

With 21 weeks between now and the duathlon, my plan is to do each week of the plan twice before moving on to the next one. After I finish the 9-week program (in 18 weeks--kind of reminds me of my college career), I'll just keep running 5k's 3x/week until the event. Or I may bump it up to 4 miles in those last couple weeks, since that's the full duathlon distance. I read somewhere that your body doesn't know the difference between 10 minutes of exercise 3x a day and 30 minutes all at once, so maybe I need to be preparing for 4 miles straight to ensure that I'll be ready for two 2-mile runs. Or maybe I'll suck so bad at the first few weeks of intervals that I'll decide to do a third repeat of some of them. Whatever the case, I'll have plenty of time.

I'm also trying out the Couch-to-5k podcast (itunes link) that someone mentioned in the comments the last time I tried running. I was a little skeptical at first, because I'm not a big fan of the style of music he uses. It's the same problem I had with the cardio coach workouts...I like my music with words in it. However, I ended up really liking the workout...his instruction is minimal and not irritatingly perky, the strong beat of the music was good for keeping me motivated. My one minor complaint is that there were a couple run intervals where he didn't explicitly say "go", which was a bit confusing. Still, when he didn't say anything else for 5-10 seconds after the "ready?", I caught on that I was supposed to be running. Also, what kind of jackass complains about a free product, anyway? :) All in all, I think this series is going to be a good companion to the running program. Thanks man!

aw, you done did it now...

Hey, guess what I did yesterday? I signed up for a duathlon.

I haven't run since forever (or, you know, last fall), but I figure that with 5 months to train, I can probably manage 4 miles. Especially since they were kind enough to make it the bread in the multi-sport sandwich--2 miles on each end, with the biking in the middle. Maybe all duathlons are like this, I honestly don't know. This will be my first one. :)

So, whatever possessed me? Well, there was a triathlon in town a couple weeks ago...in fact, the same one that I mentioned in passing last year. Probably goes without saying that I didn't do it this year either. However, someone from my beginner ride did, someone else is doing the Muddy Buddy this week, and I am still trying to find a teammate for this year's UAR...so I've had competitive/multi-sport events on the brain lately. Then we were having dinner the other day, and Rob's friend called. They started talking about training for the Cinco Ranch Tri in September. I jumped at that, until I realized that it was the same weekend as my dad's wedding and a business trip. Trying to squeeze a long, stressed-out workday, a Wisconsin wedding, three plane trips, and my first triathlon into one weekend would definitely be a recipe for The Crazy. I had to pass.

However, with all the talk of tris and adventure races, the seed that had been planted at the bike skills clinic a couple weeks ago* took root. I wasn't giving up that easily. I started googling around for tris in the fall, and hit upon this duathlon. As soon as I saw it, I knew that it was the answer...mildly competitive, reasonable distances, and--best part!--no swimming to worry about. Count me in!

Now I just need to learn to run again.

*which I just realized that I didn't write about here. Hmm. Short version: four hour clinic put on by the club, covering cornering, bumping, pacelines/echelons, time trial starts, general bike handling. About a dozen people showed up, mostly race team with a few of us recreational riders in the mix. It was fun, a good way to get out of my comfort zone and see how my bike-handling skills measure up. Answer? Not all that well...I was repeatedly shown up by the 10-year-old mountain bike racer. However, so were some of the race team, so I didn't feel quite so bad. :) Anyway, kind of a reality check where racing is concerned, but totally worth the $10.

MS150 report: day 2

While escaping the hotel Sunday morning, I started to formulate a plan for the second day. My cell phone had died during the night, so I was pretty sure I would be flying solo all day. The girls I had ridden with on the first day were planning on connecting via cell in the morning, and that would be pretty hard to do when my phone wouldn't even turn on. On the bus ride to La Grange, I kept an eye out for Walmarts and other places where I could maybe get a battery or a pre-paid cell phone on the side of the highway. There was a Walmart on 71, but it was on the opposite side of the highway from where I would be riding. How would I sneak over there? No idea. I started to get sick to my stomach.

By the time we got to the fairgrounds and unloaded, it was 6:00 and the line of bikes at the start line was already down the block and edging around the corner. One of the veteran MS150 riders on the bus was saying that there was no way we would get out of there before 8:15, arriving "so late" like we did. Man, I totally should have taken the 4:30 bus.

I would have gotten lost on the way to my tent again, but there were some riders on the bus with me who were riding with the team whose tent was next to mine. I asked them if I could follow them, because I had no idea where I was or where I was going. They were happy to oblige, so I found my way without getting clipped by any sag wagons this time. :) After dropping off my bag and picking up my bike, I headed out to find the end of the line. About 5 seconds out of my tent, I heard someone call my name. It was my girls! They had just happened to be walking by as I was coming out. Talk about your perfect timing.

After we hit the team port-a-can and refilled our camelbaks (separate errands), we sought out the end of the line....around the corner and back about 50 yards. Yikes. After nearly two hours of idle chit-chat, we finally got on the road at just after 8:10.

Once my legs loosened up and my butt got used to the saddle again, the second day of riding wasn't so bad. It was hillier than the first (we did the "lunch express" route rather than going through the park...maybe some other year), but I used the first day as sort of a crash course in effective shifting. Mostly, I handled the hills by getting into the biggest gear I could safely spin 90 rpm on the downhills, which was usually either the 2nd or 3rd-highest on the bike (53-13 or 53-14, for the bike geeks). Then once I started feeling some resistance I'd either go down one or two or just drop immediately to the middle ring, depending on the grade/length of the hill (shallow/short stayed in the big ring, long/steep got the middle treatment). The strategy was to ride on momentum for as long as possible, then shift to a manageable spinning gear to survive what was left. Probably not the best technique in the world, but it worked. Surprisingly, I only used the granny gear (third chainring) once on the 2nd day.

I know I've said this more and more in the past few weeks, but I'll say it again--I have fallen in love with the big ring. It feels so much smoother and more powerful than the middle, which is where I used to spend most of my time. I was always kind of afraid of the big one, because I thought I wouldn't be strong enough to push any of the higher gears, and I didn't want to be in a cross-chain position all the time. In certain situations, though, I've discovered I can spin the high end of the big ring pretty comfortably now--tailwinds, downhills, smooth flat roads if I'm feeling strong or riding with a group. So, as I've started to get comfortable with the big ring, I find myself staying there as much as possible.

Aaaanyway. :) I called Rob from the last rest stop from Kellie's phone, to let him know we would be coming in between 3:00 and 3:30. It was too noisy at the finish for him to hear it, though, so I left a message and hoped that I would be able to spot him as I came in to the finish. Our little group got separated on the hills into Austin (and those were some hills--damn), with me somewhere in the middle. I rolled across the finish line sometime around 3:10-3:15, which put my total time for the 2nd day at just over 7 hours for 66 miles. I saw the first girl right after I crossed the finish, so I rolled up to talk to her, and then we walked our bikes to the sidewalk and waited for the last one to come in. She did, and just when I was starting to wonder whether Rob and Noah saw me come in and how on earth we would find each other, I spotted Rob across the street! Sadly, he hadn't seen me come in, because he was looking for me in a team jersey and I wasn't wearing mine the 2nd day. Damn...I should have mentioned that. Still, I was so glad to see him, and he finally got to meet some of my bike friends. We took one last picture, and got on the road.

While part of me was kind of looking forward to riding solo the second day, I'm glad that I was able to hook up with the same girls again. We didn't talk a whole lot on the ride, but it was nice to have someone to hang with at the rest stops. We stayed at them a bit longer than I would have by myself, but that's a fair enough tradeoff. I wasn't looking to break any personal records on this ride, just finish and have fun doing it. Mission accomplished!

Thanks again to everyone who sponsored, encouraged, or otherwise helped make my first MS150 a success. I couldn't have done it without you!

MS150 report: summary, a little bit about Saturday, and why Best Western is now dead to me

It's over! I survived! And I actually feel pretty okay. The entire distance ended up about 172 miles(~106 Saturday, 66 Sunday)...I say "about", because there was so much going on at the finish on both days that I didn't think to mark the distance on my computer. Ditto on the total times, and the average speed. I can say that we averaged right around 16 mph the first day and something like 14.2 on the second. With stops...well, let's not talk about our with-stops averages, k? I was on the road for over 9 hours on Saturday, and over 7 on Sunday. Remember when I was worried about getting into La Grange 3 hours before the shuttles started running? Oh, was that a steaming pile of wishful thinking. I got in about 20 minutes before the shuttles started running. It was sort of a moot point, though, since I bummed a ride with a friend (thanks Jarrod & team!)

Nothing was really much like I expected. The Woodlands start was good, and some other members of my team actually started there as well, so that was cool. I didn't ride with them, but I did talk to their support person and she hooked me up with directions to the team lunch stop. I ended up riding with the same two girls from the club both days, the first day deliberately, the second day by fate. (More on that in the Sunday recap.)

La Grange wasn't at all the way I pictured it...I don't know, I guess I thought there'd be more open space, more people milling about and not every square inch of the place covered in tents. I also expected that my team's tent location would be on the posted maps, but it totally wasn't. I'm glad that the coordinator did send an email with landmarks (on Thursday), or I may still be wandering around that place right now. As it was, I was able to get to the tent in about 10 minutes (but not without being bumped by a SAG wagon when I stopped to ask directions!), park my bike, grab a burger, and get out to the road to catch my ride. That was all of the La Grange experience I wanted, now or ever. Well, I suppose I could have done with a massage, but since I was already 2-3 hours later than I expected, I didn't want to make my ride wait any longer. That, and I was exhausted, disoriented, and kind of in fight-or-flight mode in that tent full of strangers who all seemed to know what they were doing. Also, my cell phone was beeping about low battery, and I wasn't sure how long I would be able to even call him before the thing went completely dead. (Answer? About 4 hours.)

The ride to the hotel was uneventful, but things went rapidly downhill on arrival.

Desk clerk: "Hi, can I help you?"
Me: "I have a reservation for Joy ----."
DC: [looks at her checkin slips, checks computer] "We don't have a reservation in that name."

Oh, no she di'nt. See, I've called about this reservation 3 times. In November, I asked about my credit card, since the one I used to hold the reservation had a March expiration date. Then I called again in February when I got my renewed card, asking if I needed to provide my new information. Both times, they found my reservation, and told me that they don't charge the card until arrival, so it was no problem. Then, I called on Friday to confirm that I had a reservation with them. I did. On Friday. This Friday. So, sometime between 2:00 pm Friday and 6:15 Saturday, my reservation disappeared. Incensed does not even begin to describe how I was feeling at that moment. Thankfully, I had printed my confirmation, they had vacancies, and it all worked out after a little bit of bitchery back and forth. Well, moreso on my end.

But it was totally deserved...dude, this hotel sucked so hard. I paid an insane rate for the room because it was an event weekend, right? Then they lost my reservation, so they tried to give me a different room (two doubles) for $20 more than my reserved rate. When I insisted on the room I had reserved (n/s king) at the price I reserved, they didn't have any. I still refused the doubles, so they ended up giving me a king suite at my original rate. Fine--one issue down. Then they asked me about a wakeup call, but I was so flummoxed at that point that I just waved my hand and babbled something about letting them know.

When I got to the room, the toilet was dirty. Not, you know, filthy...just maybe someone was not as diligent with the brush as they could have been, you know? And if you can't be bothered to make sure there aren't cling-ons in the bowl, it kind of makes the whole rest of the housekeeping sort of suspect. I was too tired to care, though, so whatever.

After I showered, I weighed my options on calling Rob. I could use my nearly-dead cell phone, or I could use my hotel ripoff-rate room phone. Since I left the wall charger for my cell in WI the last time I went and haven't gotten around to getting a new one (I know, totally stupid, and I'll be picking one up tomorrow), I decided to conserve my battery as much as I could while I had another phone to use. As long as I didn't have marathon conversations, it wouldn't be so bad. So I followed the instructions on the phone to make a long-distance call. Which didn't work. I tried again--fast busy. The hell?

After looking both on the phone itself and in the (useless) welcome packet in my room for the number for the front desk, I tried to call the standard local number. Local calls didn't work either. Awesome! So I threw on some shoes and slogged down to the front desk (did I mention that this was a traditional motel, with all doors open to outside?)

"Hi, what's the number to call you guys from my room?" I was being much more pleasant now.
"Just dial 0."
"Ok, also, my cell phone's dead, and I was trying to use the room phone, but I just get a fast busy when I try to make a long distance call."
"Oh, you can't make long distance calls."
"..."
"You have to put down a deposit." And you didn't mention this at checkin...why, exactly?
"Ok, how much is the deposit?"
"It depends on how much you plan to use it." This from the other front desk guy.
Sigh. Aaaand there goes my patience. "Ballpark it for me."
"$10-20."
"Fine, can you just put that on the same card as the room?"
"Sure."
The girl pipes up. "And if you need anything else, you don't need to come down here. You can just dial 0." So, I may have been all extra sensitive, but I kind of took that as "Leave us alone, you high-maintenance bitch." Fair enough. But maybe if you printed the words "Front desk: Dial 0" ANYWHERE IN THE DAMN ROOM, you wouldn't even be seeing me now.

When I got back to the room, my line was activated. Yay! They did something right! I called and talked to Rob a couple minutes, let him know I was in safely and that my cell phone was nearly dead. After I hung up, I realized that I forgot to confirm the La Grange shuttle times for the hotel. So I called Rob back and asked him to check the MS150 website. It said 4:30, 5:30, 6:30 for Bastrop hotels, but to ask the bus driver about exact times. Great...except that I didn't ride the bus to the hotel. So I dialed 0.

"Front desk."
"Hi, Do you have information about what time the MS150 shuttles run from here to La Grange in the morning?"
"No, I'm sorry, we don't have any information about those." From her tone, I'm pretty sure she didn't even know what the hell I was talking about.

So now, to recap: Lost my reservation, tried to charge me more for a different room, the room they put me in was less than clean, and they have no information about an event for which they triple their room rates every year. But it gets better!

I resolved the shuttle time issue myself by staking out the front of the hotel until the next drop-off and asking the bus driver. After that, I was feeling a little peckish, so I went back to my room and got money for the vending machine. Whose dollar slot was broken, so I got to go harass the front desk kids some more.

"Hi, I need change for the coke machine--the dollar thing doesn't work. Also, do you have a food machine, or just drinks?"
"Just drinks. But there's gas station down the road by the Comfort Inn."
"How far?"
"About a half mile." Well, it's a good thing that I didn't bike over 100 miles today, or I'd really hate the thought of that ten-minute walk through the ditch along the side of the highway at dusk to get a damned snack. Oh...wait.

And just for good measure, and since the room had no alarm clock at all... "Thanks. Also, I need a 4:00 wake up call."
"[My room number]?"
"[My room number]."

And that was the end of my dealings with the front desk for the night, thankfully (on both sides, most likely). I walked down to the gas station and got snacks, came back, read a little bit, set 2 backup alarms, and went to bed.

I'm happy to report that the wake-up call did work, and only 1 minute behind my other two 4:00 alarms. (Since I'm hardly Ms. Atomic Clock, I figure that's close enough.) After calling Rob and working out a tentative game plan on my phoneless and most-likely-solo day two, I headed for the lobby, since I couldn't see the shuttle stop from my room. I figured I could check out, then hang out on the couches there and wait. I walked around the building to the front door...and it was locked. Oooookay. I went around to the rear door, where a sign was posted "This door locked between 9:00 pm and 6:30 am. Use front door." Back to the main entry. I went to the night window, peered in. Didn't seem to be anyone back there. I knocked on the window, called hellooooo...nothing. Well, this was par for the course, I guess. A couple more people came by, I apprised them of the situation, they tried the same tactics with the same results. Just as I was beginning to picture some kind of horrible "robbery-gone-bad" scene in the back room, the guy came out of hiding and let us all into the lobby. The other guys were pissed that there was no coffee, but I was so beyond that point. I had my chair, my coke from last night's gas station trip, and my drastically lowered expectations. Five minutes later, the bus came and the Bastrop Best Western was out of my life forever.

So, to summarize, last night I stayed in a motel with no restaurant, a drinks-only vending machine (that didn't accept dollar bills), in a room with a dirty toilet & no alarm clock. I paid the same price for this experience as I did a room at the Westin at Christmastime. Including the room-service breakfast.

That said? It was still 100x better than camping at the fairgrounds. If I ever do the MS150 again, I'll be hotellin' it all the way.

Just not that hotel.

T - 2 days

I went and picked up my bike last night, and she was very happy to come home.

For those of you waiting with bated breath to find out which pedals I put on to replace the clicky ones (all 0 of you), I went with the Quattros. It sort of breaks the rule of not trying anything new at a major event...well, no "sort of" about it--it totally breaks the rule. However, I figured I have a couple days to get used to the only-slightly different clipping mechanism, and the larger platform will be nice to have on back-to-back long rides. That, and they're a new toy! I wanted to play with them as soon as possible. :)

In other decision making news...the company team leader told me when I picked up my jersey last week that he would be sending out an email with the route and start details "on Monday". Now it's Thursday, and still no email. I appreciate that he's a busy guy, and running the MS150 team is not his only or his primary job. However, I can't handle this waiting till the last minute for everything. I'm not sorry I signed up for the team (free jersey, if nothing else), but I'm going to ride from the Woodlands. The communication from the team running that start has been excellent, and I feel comfortable that I'll know exactly where to go and what to do if I start from there. Sure, the route's a little longer, but it comes out to about 103 miles on the first day instead of 90. I've done 100 miles before, right? Piece of cake! (*snort*)

2007 IS the year of the century: Space Race ride report

Distance: 100.02 miles
Total time: 7:16
On-bike time: 6:30
On-bike avg mph: 15.3
Avg. mph, incl stops: 13.8
High speed: 24.3 mph

My first century!

Instead of doing a play-by-play (because it's been a long day and it's all sort of hazy at this point), here's a list of things that sucked/were awesome:

Suck: Realizing that I left my saddlebag at the house, about 45 minutes too late to go back for it.
Awesome: Not needing it--no flats, no mechanical problems, despite seeing more flats on this ride than on any other event I've ever been to. I passed one poor couple twice. The second time, I jokingly called "Aw man, AGAIN?" The guy replied, "this is the fifth time!" (Though I didn't say it, after 5 flats on one ride, maybe it's time to look into some new tires, dude. Or check the air pressure. Or maybe try not to run over shit. Of course, now that I've typed this, karma dictates that I'll have, like, 9 flats on my next ride.)

Suck: Riding in the rain for the first 20 or so miles, and into the wind for the first 40-50.
Awesome: The rain stopped shortly after rest stop 2, and the last half of the course was all tailwind.

Suck: How badly I wanted to turn at the 40-mile turnoff...I was soaked through, miserable, and tired of battling the wind.
Awesome: I went straight for the 100-miler anyway. (Rain be damned...I'm so hardcore!)

Suck: At rest stop 2, between getting my ipod into a plastic baggie and wringing about a gallon of water out of my gloves, I dropped my car keys.
Awesome: I noticed the key drop right away...if I had made it to the finish without them, the suck list might have included "total nervous breakdown."

Suck: Climbing the steepest bridge in the universe (well, maybe not...but it felt like it at the time).
Awesome: This was the only hill on the entire route.

Suck: Missing the (UNMARKED, thankyouverymuch)turn onto Hwy 171, causing me to have to climb another bridge...twice, since I climbed the other side during the backtrack.
Awesome: I also got to do the downhill twice. And those extra miles came in handy later.

Suck: Getting to the 84-mile rest stop 10 minutes after the 100-mile course closed and being forced to take the shortcut to the finish, knowing full well that if I hadn't overshot the turn onto 171, I totally would have made the cutoff. I also felt really bad for another girl at the stop with me. She was so upset that she was going to come up short of a century...when I saw her come out of the port-o-potty, it looked like she had been crying.
Awesome: Those extra 4 miles that made me miss the cutoff were also just enough to make it possible for me to ride a century on the short course.

Suck: Crossing the finish line with my odometer reading 99.71 miles. (I'm pretty my exact words were, "Aw, HELL no.")
Awesome: Doing the victory lap around the parking lot to my truck to hit the 100-mile mark. I eyeballed it perfectly, too...the odometer flipped to 100.00 just a couple yards from the tailgate. :)

Now, to further accentuate the positive, some more things that were awesome:

• The rest stop at the fire station, where they had kickass cookies, a volunteer to air up my tires for me (I was just going to borrow the pump and do it myself, but since he offered...) AND they let the women use the indoor restrooms.
• The SAG vehicles and ride marshals all over the place...I didn't have any problems, but it was nice to know that I wouldn't have had to wait long for help to come along if I had.
• Sustaining 21 mph in the tailwind for about 10 miles. All hail the big ring! (I slowed to about 17 mph after that...I still had 30 miles to go at that point, and was afraid I would end up limping in if I kept it up much longer)
• Finishing my first century ever in a little over 7 hours, without wanting to pass out afterward. :)

Ride report - Bluebonnet Express

Distance: 65.2 miles
Total time: 6:01*
On-bike time: 4:18*
On-bike avg mph: 15.1
Avg. mph, incl stops: 10.8
High speed: 28.3 mph

*times are estimates, since I forgot to turn off my watch timer for about 10 minutes after we pulled in, and didn't think to check the bike computer until after I got home. I figure I rode about 1/4 of a mile after I crossed the finish line, so I deducted .2 miles from the 65.4 my computer reported and recalculated the average speed.

(WARNING: This recap still turned out reeeeally long, even after editing out 3 whole sections. Sorry..."concise" is not so much my middle name.)

I learned a few things on this ride. In order of discovery:

1. the Houston cycling community is a small, small world
2. I don't need coffee before a ride, and may do better without it (though that doesn't make me want it any less)
3. I have a harder time staying hydrated when I ride with a group
4. My bike needs a tune-up...badly
5. I need to add a small tube of sunscreen to my ride kit
6. Post-ride massages RULE
7. I'm ready for the MS150 (I think)

So, I once again misjudged how long it would take me to get to the ride location. Again, I should have known how long it would take, because I've already been to this place twice for the Tour de Pink. Still, I managed to get there about an hour early, which turned out to be a good thing anyway because a TON of people were already there. I mean, there was a line of cars stretching back almost to the freeway, and they were already parking cars in the field when I got there. I don't know where they would have put me if I had gotten there at 7:30 as planned.

Lesson #1: And they shall know us by our bottle cages

So, I parked the truck and started to unload my gear. As I was doing this, the girl parked next to me struck up a conversation. It was the usual "how far are you going, man can you believe all these people here so early", pre-ride small talk. Then she got her bike out of the truck--light blue Pilot 5.2, matching bottle cages. I knew that bike! But I had to tread carefully, because I also remembered how I knew it. If she wasn't the same girl, I didn't want to offend her...some people get weird about riding the SAG wagon. A pride thing, I guess.

"Hey, did you ride the Katy Flatland last year?"
"Which one was that--with all the wind?"
"Maybe, it was last summer. I just remember the heat."
"I don't remember...maybe I did."
"The reason I ask is that I think I recognize your bike, but maybe it was someone else..." And then I just decided to go for it, "...I sagged in from mile 54, and I think we were on the same truck."

The light went on. "YES! That was the one where it was so HOT! In JULY! I was riding with..." Then she gave me the whole story of who she was riding with and how they ended up on the SAG truck and didn't get weird about it at all, thank god. Then we talked about how dehydration sucks and how neither of us had any desire to try the 100-mile course at Katy ever again. It was a nice bonding moment.

So, of the 1500 or so people I could have parked next to at this ride, it turned out to be someone I had met before. Funny, that.

Lesson #2: My kingdom for a Starbucks...or not

This makes two rides in a row where I wanted to grab a latte on the way and was thwarted. Last week, my usual Starbucks was on the way, but hadn't opened yet when I was driving by. Then I didn't see another one for the remaining 50 miles to Manvel. You'd think in a city with over 200 stores in the metropolitan area, I'd pass at least ONE within sight of the freeway. Alas, no. I even tried to get coffee at the Burger King/gas station in Manvel, but it wasn't open yet either. Arrgh! So I did the ride without my customary hit of caffeine, and it went fine. Better than fine, actually...I felt better after that 88 mile ride than I did after the 65-mile ride the week before.

Yesterday, it was more of the same. The route I chose to take to Prairie View didn't have any standalone Starbucks stores, and I didn't want to go to Kroger just for a latte. Besides, those in-store branches are kind of hit-or-miss with their business hours and espresso skills, so I didn't want to chance it. I figured I'd see a standalone location somewhere out by Fairfield, but no--my latte jones was denied once again.

And once again, my ride felt better than my previous, caffeinated rides. Hmm...I'm beginning to see a pattern here. Maybe it doesn't give me the push that I thought it did. Or maybe I do better with my caffeine coming later in the ride...the Shot Bloks I like have 100mg of caffeine per package, and I've gone through a full bag on each of the past two rides. That's about 1/2 as much caffeine as I would get from a pre-ride grande latte, but it's being dispersed more gradually, and later in the ride. Also, with 100% less milk. Aw hell, I don't know...no one ever accused me of being Ms Wizard. All I know is that I've felt better on these last two rides, so I'm going to stick with what's working.

Lesson #3 - Let's get on down to the main attraction/With a little less talk and a lot more...hydration (Apologies to Toby Keith)

I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to find anyone to ride with yesterday, so I packed my ipod just in case. As luck would have it, I spotted a club jersey just as I was pulling into the parking lot. After I finished up the conversation with my parking buddy (who was riding solo, but only going 48 miles...otherwise I may have offered to ride with her), I rode back over there to see who it was and how far they were going. It was one of my semi-regular beginner riders, and her riding partner was the girl who rode with me at the Continental Classic. Score! They were planning to go 82 miles, though, so I asked if they minded me tagging along with them until the turnoff. And just like that, I had riding buddies.

When we got to the start line, we ran into another couple club riders who were doing 63, but they were riding with their MS150 team. Still, this made my girls sort of waver on their commitment to the 82-mile course. Then the announcement came that all courses would be closing at 2:00, and that settled it. They weren't sure that they could make the deadline, so they decided to plan on 63 instead, but make the final decision at the turnoff.

Well, they chose the 63, so my ipod stayed in my pocket. By the time we got to the 2nd rest stop (we had skipped the first one), I had begun to realize that while it does make the ride faster and more enjoyable to have a riding buddy, I have a harder time remembering to drink regularly when I have someone to talk to. After about 25 miles, I still had 1 1/2 of my two bottles of water left. Something that also sucked? The rest stop ran out of food and gatorade about 2 minutes after we got there. Not so bad for us, really, but I don't imagine that the couple hundred riders behind us were very happy about it. This was also a pattern that repeated at the next two rest stops...by RS5, things had pretty much caught up to us (and we camped out at that one for about half an hour anyway), but by then it would have been too late for someone who was really suffering. I'm not sure the organizers were prepared for the turnout, or else they didn't weight the food distribution as well as they could have.

Lesson #4 - click...click...click-click...click...AAAARGH!

My bike hasn't had a proper cleaning in about 2 months. I mean, I do relube the chain every now and again, but I've had a hard time finding a really good degreaser so the thing is pretty grimy. It also hasn't had a tuneup for about 2500 miles, and I've changed 2 rear flats since then and taken the front wheel off about eleventy-thousand times. So yeah...my bike is not in peak mechanical shape, and it's finally started to show. A couple weeks ago, the shifting started to get dodgy in the lower gears. In typical Joy fashion, I didn't worry about it much, because the bike was still driveable (for more info on this tendency, see also: Spring Breakaway, Brakes section and My 1999 Corolla, Catastrophic Brake Failure Of). This week, I started to hear a persistent clicking noise while pedaling. Didn't matter what gear I was in, didn't matter what the cadence was or the speed...if the crank was turning, the bike was clicking. By rest stop 3 of this ride it was driving me INSANE, so I stopped by the mechanic and had it checked out.

The first thing he did was tighten the mount for my saddlebag. With that eliminated, he ran through the gears and lubed the chain. Still clicking. His diagnosis? Bottom bracket, and nothing we could really do about it in the field. Also, he wasn't 100% sure that was the problem anyway, because, and I quote, "your bike shifts so badly that I can't really tell." Oy. He then advised that when I do take it in for a tune-up (in fairness, I had admitted to him earlier that the bike was badly in need of one), I should ask them to clean and repack the bottom bracket. Which I did, when I brought her into the shop yesterday. I'm also having them replace the chain and recommend a good degreaser. I'm picking her up tomorrow, and that infernal clicking had better be gone. If not, I might be building the Orbea a wee bit early.

Lesson #5: REAPPLY

This one's short and sweet...racerback jersey + camisole-width straps + one half-hearted pre-ride sunscreen spray = brand new tan lines! Well, eventually. Right now it's a mildly painful sunburn on parts of my back that I can't quite reach. A new travel-sized tube of sunscreen has been added to my ride essentials.

Lesson #6: $1/minute, and worth every penny

This ride was the first time I've ever used the massage guy, and I gotta tell ya...totally worth the half-hour wait. My shoulders were so sore, and after 10 minutes' work, I felt like a whole new person. Totally worth paying for, and you bet your ass I'll be hitting the massage table in the team tent on the MS150.

Lesson #7: I did not bite off more than I could chew, after all

After my fourth metric century (or longer) in as many weeks, I finally feel like signing up for the MS150 was not a huge mistake of optimism over ability. I've gotten more confident with each ride, I can feel myself getting stronger, and I'm constantly discovering what works for me and what doesn't.

This weekend will be my last long ride before the big event--100 miles at the Space Race on Sunday--and then I'm going to keep the distances down to 20-30 miles/day on weekends. I'll try to make a point of hitting the spin classes during the week to keep the weekly mileage up, but no more centuries (standard OR metric) until the big weekend. Maybe three weeks is too long to taper, but with Easter and everything, I figure this is a good a time as any to start backing it off. I'm as ready as I'll ever be. :)

Ride Report: Great Escape

Distance: 88.55 miles(!!)
Total time: 6:42
On-bike time: 5:54
On-bike avg mph: 15.0
Avg. mph, incl stops: 13.2
High speed: 26.3 mph

OPEN WIDE for the recap.

This ride was longer than advertised, which I figure is karma coming back around for the short Continental Airlines ride. Luckily, this route was flatter than Kansas, and laid out perfectly for a southeast wind...all the tailwind was on the last third of the route, so by the time the wind started to pick up, it was at our backs.

I was a little worried about hydration at first...since I didn't drink enough the last time I used my Camelbak, I decided to try bottles on this ride. I had two 24-oz bottles ready to go, but forgot that the big bottles are too tall for my seat-tube bottle cage. After several attempts to cram the second bottle under the top tube, I gave up and left it behind. In retrospect, I think this turned out to be a good play, since having only one bottle made me hyper-aware of how much I was drinking. Since the rest stops were super close together, I had already decided to only hit every other one, so I gave myself a goal of emptying the bottle between them and refilling. If the bottle wasn't empty when I got to a stop, I finished it before I refilled.

Fuel wasn't a problem...I brought two packages of shot bloks, and the rest stops were well stocked with fruit and girl scout cookies. I even managed to snag the last Samoa at mile 39. Woo! :)

My biggest issue on the ride was with my feet. I took advantage of the monthly club member sale at our sponsor shop to buy a new pair of shoes, and I made the mistake of breaking them in on this ride. My cleat placement was okay, thank goodness, but I cinched the velcro WAY too tight initially. By the first rest stop, my toes were screaming at me. Once I loosened them a little, my feet gradually got better, but they still bothered me for most of the ride. I've no doubt the shoes will be great once I've worn them a few times, but making their maiden voyage my first 80+ miler? Probably not the best idea I've had.

My shoulders were better on this ride than the last one...I made a conscious effort to keep my shoulders down and back, and I think it made a huge difference. My back's still a little sore between the shoulder blades, but not nearly as bad as it was last week. Maybe the flatter course made a difference as well, who knows.

The other thing that made a difference in my overall enjoyment of this ride...my ipod. Since I knew I would be riding alone, I decided to flout the rules and bring my headphones. I mean, I love me some me, but spending seven hours with nothing but my own thoughts for company? No thanks. I figured they weren't going to bust me as long as I kept the volume low and one ear free, anyway. It did work really well to keep me motivated, and I think I'm going to have to figure out some way to take music on the MS150 without feeling guilty.

I didn't end up riding the whole ride by myself...most of it I did, but on the second time through the nastiest part of the headwind (the 68-mile & 84-mile routes had a loop at the southmost part of the route--the 68 milers did it once, the 84-milers did it twice), I got passed by a group of three bigger guys that weren't going all that much faster than I was. Since I had had enough of fighting the wind by myself, I upshifted after they passed and latched on to the end of their paceline. Ah, relief! I stayed with them until the next rest stop, and made sure to thank them for pulling me along back there.

That would have been the end of it, except that we were some of the last riders on the course, so some of the corner marshals (volunteers who sit on the corners and direct the riders where to turn) had already packed it in. These guys were all from the area, so I decided to tag along with their group and let them figure out where we were going. Plus, I wanted to practice my paceline skills and maybe take a pull for them, since they helped me out earlier (whether they were aware of it at the time or not).

By the time we got out of the rest stop, I was feeling really good. I had been careful to pace myself conservatively in the first part of the route, so now that we had a tailwind and I was riding with a group I was feeling like a superstar. Still, I stayed in the middle of the group for a while, until I happened to get through an intersection first. I got out in front, and one of the guys called up in a joking way, "So, you gonna drag us along for a while now?"

"I'm gonna try...I don't know how long I'll last, though."

And so I started to ride. The wind was pushing us along, and I didn't want my joining of their group to slow them down, so I set the fastest pace I could comfortably keep...about 17-18 mph. This went fine for a while, then a couple things happened at once: we turned into the wind, and Here It Goes Again (itunes link) came on the ipod. I matched my cadence to the beat of the music and threw all my concentration into maintaining a respectable pace for my adopted group.

By the time the song was over, I was starting to get tired. I slowed down the pace a bit, figuring that I had made decent go of it and someone would come up to relieve me any second. Didn't happen. I slowed a bit more, tried to control my breathing--still nobody. Finally, I chanced a look back as I rounded a curve.

There was no one there. The closest guy to me was a good 50 yards back. In trying to not embarrass myself by being too slow, I accidentally dropped the lot of them. Crap! Well, at least now I didn't need to worry about backing off. :) I was, however, of two minds about it. On the one hand, I felt like a shitty paceliner, since I didn't bother to check that my group could keep up with me. On the other, I RULE. Even after over 60 solo miles, I was TOTALLY stronger than these guys. :) They caught me again at the next intersection, and the same guy was all, "Where'd that burst of energy come from back there?" All I could come up with was, "Dude, I have NO idea. I thought y'all were right behind me...sorry about that."

The next time I took the lead, I was careful to maintain the same pace of the guy who was leading before me. Even then, though, a different guy from the back came up almost immediately and pushed the pace up a couple mph. Huh? Do I offend?

I shrugged it off and stayed with him, again figuring that the other two were right behind me. They weren't, but caught up at the next rest stop. So was that dude just going off the front on his own for a while, or was he expecting everyone to keep up? I don't know. By this time, I was kind of unsure of myself re: the whole group dynamic, but I still wasn't confident I could find my way back to the start by myself if the signs were gone. I also wasn't sure whether it would be more rude to just leave on my own at this point, or to continue to tag along with them and take turns at the front. They didn't seem to mind me, but I didn't want to be that weird girl that wouldn't go away, either. So I stayed back toward the tail end of the group for those last 7 miles, then ended up first through a light and beat them to the finish by about a minute. I waited to thank them for letting me tag along with them, smiles and waves were exchanged, and that was that.

So, yeah...sore feet and paceline etiquette questions aside, it was a good ride. I paced myself well in the beginning, the wind situation went mostly in our favor, the ipod was a godsend, and my overall average speed was exactly where I like it to be. Also, now I know I can do an 88-mile ride, which is just about equivalent to an MS150 day. If there had been hills, it may have been a different story, but I'm still more confident of my readiness than I was last week.

Continental Airlines Classic ride report

Distance: 64.69 miles
Total time: 5:36
On-bike time: 4:35
On-bike avg mph: 14.1
Avg. mph, incl stops: 11.6
High speed: 30.2 mph

The course was shorter than advertised, which is always good. There were some hills, particularly between miles 22 and 39. The granny gear was used...extensively. However, I also made use of the big ring, which I almost never do. It balanced out. Once again, I got confused about wind directions, and went into the ride believing that a south wind meant we'd have a tailwind on the back (ie, southward) half of the course. Needless to say, we did not.

I got to Montgomery plenty early, having misjudged how long it would take to get there from my house. I really wish I had known ahead of time, because I had stayed up till 2:00/3:00 Saturday night to monitor the daylight savings time change, and getting up at 5:30 was pretty rough. Had I known it would only take me 45 minutes to get to the place, I could have squeezed in an extra hour of sleep.

I had planned to ride alone, but I ran into someone from my club rides at the registration/map pickup area who was also riding alone, so we decided to ride together. The last time she rode the beginner ride a month ago, she was on the slower side, so I figured we would be well matched. What I didn't count on is that she's been riding 4 times a week and training with her MS150 team on weekends since then. Whereas, I can barely be bothered to make it to one spin class and a club ride every week. All this to say, the girl has improved. I kept up with her reasonably well for the first 40 miles, but she dusted me on those last 20. She was at the last 2 rest stops a good 3-5 minutes before I pulled in. We did finish together, though, so that was good.

It's so much nicer to ride with a partner or group...that's one of the things I enjoy most about being part of a club. Even if I go to one of these events by myself, I usually run into someone I can ride with, or at least tag along with for a while.

The only mechanical problem I had was with my seat...I moved it back and tilted it to a level position (v. pointed slightly down) before the ride, and I didn't tighten the bolt enough. By the time we got to the first rest stop, it was tilted up about 20 degrees. In order to fix that, I had to take all the electrical tape (yes, I did upgrade to electrical)off my saddlebag strap, which meant that it started to rub my leg again at around mile 30. By the 40-mile rest stop, I was seriously worried about ruining another pair of shorts. And since I was wearing my best pair, this concern was enough for me to approach four different volunteers until I found one with electrical tape. We bound it up again, and everything was fine for the rest of the ride. Today, I ordered one of these. Look ma, no straps!

This was my first long ride with the new handlebar, and honestly? I can't tell if it's better or worse. On the plus side, my hands never went numb and I don't have the upper shoulder/neck soreness anymore. However, those muscles between my shoulder blades were killing me by about halfway through the ride. I think the narrower grip just uses different muscles, and I have to retrain for the difference. I also think the shorter reach has my weight too far forward, because my front wheel started creaking and clicking toward the end. That could be because I didn't twist the skewer as tight this last time as I normally do, also, so I don't know. By the time it started getting bad, I was too tired and too close to the finish to really worry about it. I am going to keep the 75mm stem, though, because I think it's going to be a better fit when transferred to the Orbea. I can work with it for a few months.

So, overall, the ride went well. Since I did it on 2 hours' sleep, I crashed as soon as I got home (after I made sure the boy took his medicine, Rob). After 14 hours of sleep, I feel considerably better. :)

and speaking of music...

...did you know that OK Go has a treadmill workout album (iTunes link)? And that it is completely awesome?

I tried it for the first time at the gym last night, and enjoyed every minute. The interval workout was designed by a professional trainer, and the OK Go guy's coaching is excellent--cues and encouragement in all the right places. He makes a lot of references to that treadmill dancing video they did, so some things may be lost on you if you haven't seen it...but who hasn't, by now?

The 30-minute continuous mix with the coaching voiceover is an album-only track, so you have to buy the entire thing to get it. It's totally worth the $15 all by itself, though, so getting the full versions of all the songs besides is just gravy. Go check it out!

Ride Report - Spring Breakaway

Total distance: 67.01 miles
Total time: 5:31
On-bike time: 5:00
On-bike avg mph: 13.4
Avg. mph, incl stops: 12.1
High speed: 25.9 mph

So, that makes it the longest ride I've done to date. The course was very flat, but also cold and very windy. The last few miles were really rough--I was down in my granny gear, less than 10 mph, telling myself lies just to make it to the next curve ("maybe it'll be tailwind this time", "only 2 miles to go now", "oh, wait--NOW there are only 2 miles...", etc). But I made it!

Lessons learned to follow, sorted into pairs by topic.

Saddles
• My saddle angles downward slightly, and it's possibly too far forward. I spent the entire ride slipping forward on the saddle until I couldn't stand it anymore, then pushing back again. I'd be comfortable for about a minute, then would slowly start sliding again. I would have adjusted it, but I forgot to put the multitool back in my bag.
• I need to put the multitool back in my bag.

  Brakes
  

• Brakes have a bolt that attaches them to the frame. When this bolt gets loose, the brakes wobble and rub against the tire, no matter how you position the wheel. (The mechanic that I asked to fix my front brake pre-ride said that he had to tighten it 4 turns.)
  
• Bikes roll much easier when the brakes aren't rubbing the wheel constantly.

  Wind
  

• Even though the route is a loop, the wind keeps blowing in the same direction. If I'm going an equal # of miles in every direction to get back to the start, I'll only have the wind at my back 1/4-1/2 of the distance. The faster I go, the sooner it ends. Time = distance/speed, baby.
  
• In other words...just because I'm comfortable going 25 mph in the strongest tailwind doesn't mean I should. Next time, I think I'll be a bit more conservative, giving myself more time to enjoy it before the next eternal headwind kicks in and makes me hate the world.

  Food
  

• A caramel macchiato, while delicious and chock-full of calories, is maybe not the best pre-ride breakfast for long distances.
  
• Black cherry Shot Bloks are actually pretty tasty, though I couldn't tell if they helped the energy level much. Might have been too little, too late by that time. At least they didn't make me gag...unlike every goo I've ever tried.

  Gear
  

• Specialized makes good gloves. When I bought them, I was afraid that the padding was going to be too thick--I used to have a pair of PI touring gloves with pads of a similar thickness, and I returned them because they made my hands go numb immediately. I bought them anyway, because I couldn't find my other gloves, they were on sale, and the blue ones match my new bike (hee). At any rate, they're super comfy...could be the gel, or maybe the pad placement.
  
• Sugoi RS Flex shorts still rule. I know I mentioned this briefly a little while ago, but it bears repeating.
  

on giving 106%

I went to my usual spin class this morning, and it was the hardest that class has ever been for me. I don't know if the instructor was feeling mean today or what, but it was just one interval after another without much rest between...completely kicked my ass. Of course, I also forgot to eat before I left, which is not so good. One of the many things I've learned about myself in the past couple years is that I bonk mightily when I exercise on an empty stomach.

Anyway, I usually average about 75-80% of max HR in these classes, with my peak hitting anywhere between 92 and 99%. Today's peak? 106%! Which is, of course, impossible. All that really means is that my max HR setting in my monitor is set too low.

What's funny is that when I put the number in manually, I was worried I was setting it too high. By the age method (220-age), the watch told me that my max is 187. I knew that wasn't right, since I see higher numbers than that pretty regularly. So, I did what the average non-scientific exerciser would do, I think--I added 10 to that. :)

This class is the first time in a long time that I've felt like I was really pushing my limits. I could very well have hit my true max today, and if that's the case? It's somewhere around 208.

I guess this shouldn't surprise me. On longer rides where I'm not really pushing myself much, I generally average about 70-80% of max on my watch. I've worried that I've been working too hard without realizing it, so I've been purposely slowing the pace of my club rides to keep my HR in the low 70s. However, if my max HR is 12 bpm or more higher than I thought it was, then those numbers were right where I would expect them to be based on how I felt (65-75%, roughly).

Hmm...something to think about.

striving desperately for 5000

After several failed attempts despite the best of intentions, I've determined that I'm not going to add miles to my Saturday ride. However, I'm way behind on my mileage goals, and I don't feel very ready to ride 150 miles in two days in April.

So, I've given myself some external motivation--charity rides. I had already planned two next month, but now I'm actually registered for them and 3 more between now and 4/1:

March 4 - Spring Breakaway, 65 miles

March 11 - Continental Airlines Classic, 68 miles

March 18 - Great Escape Ride, 84 miles

March 25 - Bluebonnet Express, 63 miles

April 1 - Space Race, 104 miles

That's what--385 miles? Plus 5 weeks of club riding is 498, and if I commute on Fridays, that could be as much as another hundred. My odometer is currently at just under 3500, so this will put me over 4000 by MS150 time. It doesn't look like I'll make 5000 by then, but I'll probably hit it by June. And you know what--that'll be about the time my new bike will be ready for assembly!

Heh...I love it when a plan comes together.

the universe wanted me to buy a handlebar today

You ever have one of times where it seems everything in your life is leading you to do a specific thing? I just had a minor one of those.

First, I decided to buy the Orca. Then I decided to wait until I could afford all new components rather than move the Pilot components over to the new machine. Then I started shopping for what I wanted and planning my budget.

While I was doing this earlier in the week, I got a newsletter from a local bike store chain about their "Women's Weekend" thing going on this weekend, with clinics and rides and whatnot. One caught my eye...a representative from Specialized was coming to do a clinic on women's products and bike fit on Friday night. And there would be wine! It was like they had been reading my diary. As it happened, I had a meeting yesterday that was going to get me out of work about an hour earlier than normal, so I would have plenty of time to get across town to this thing. I signed up.

Last night, I made it to the clinic, and it was really great. However, since I got there about 45 minutes late (the universe may have aligned to send me there, but traffic did not), I had missed the main thing I wanted to hear--the part about reach. Because, as I've mentioned a time or a thousand to everyone who will listen, I have reach issues on my current bike, and I am worried about perpetuating them on the new one.

So, after the clinic, I approached the Specialized girl with my reach questions, and after I described my shoulder pain, she mostly* confirmed what I already thought--my handlebars are probably too wide. She rolled out a 51cm Ruby, had me stand over it and put my hands on the hoods.

LOVE.

Not only did the narrower grip feel more natural, but the the drops were shallower and more curved, so the reach to every hand position was reduced by as much as 5mm. Lemme tell ya--my legs may not be suited to womens-specific geometry, but my arms sure as hell are. :) Though I didn't test ride, I was pretty sure this was exactly what I had been looking for. I got the name of the carbon version(Ruby SL), so that I could google for deals.

The only things I found on the internet were confusion about sizes (I had always measured end-to-end, sizing is center-to-center), and someone else on a forum, asking if anyone knew of anywhere she could score a deal on a 40cm. Apparently, this handlebar is hard to find as a separate component and eBay is useless on the matter. Crap. I would fall in love with a handlebar that I'd have to buy retail.

But this story isn't over. Because it rained this morning, I was going to just forget about my club ride and go to the 7:00 spin class instead. Then the other beginner ride leader called and said that it was just misting at the start area, so I told her I'd be there, if only to wait and see if anyone would show up. By the time I got there, it had graduated from mist to rain, we were the only people there, and we both decided to cancel.

On the way back to Rob's, I still really wanted a ride in some form, so I decided to go get breakfast and then hit the 9:30 spin class. I don't like the instructor at all, but I need miles and it was better than nothing. It turned out to be a good decision. While I did hate her more each minute of her whooping, weird-face-making, ponytail-swinging directionless "class", she did mention that one of the bike shops in town was having its big sale weekend. It's not my shop of choice, but it is a Specialized dealer. I left the class 10 minutes early, changed clothes, and headed to the big sale, hoping to score a good price on my handlebar.

The shop was as busy as I'd ever seen it. Since I was still unsure of the size I needed or if they even would have any in stock, I waited to talk to a salesperson. I had my keychain tape measure with me (I'm such a dork), so I spent my wait time measuring handlebars from end to end. Eventually, a salesguy approached me, and I got my questions answered--I needed a 38cm handlebar, they did have one in stock, and it was 10% off through the end of the weekend. Woo!

Because I'm kind of an asshole, I told them that I'd come back, and then went over to my regular shop to see if they would match the price so I could buy it there instead. This brought some more sizing anxiety, because the guy there insisted that my shoulders look like they should fit a 40 (see footnote). After some measuring and talking and checking of inventory, we determined that my current handlebar is a 40, and that a 38 is worth a shot(maybe just to shut me up about it...who knows?). Also, the only one they have in stock is a 40, and he couldn't match the other shop's price on a special order. They would, however, be more than happy to put the bar on for me once I get it. So, I drove back to the other shop, where they seemed surprised to see me again. :) I grabbed the box and some sport beans and stood at the counter line. Where the owner was manning the register, and asked me if I was sure about the sizing. Sigh. I fought back the urge to bang my head on the counter.

After I explained my whole handlebar odyssey (chronic upper shoulder/neck pain, three stores, differing opinions, feel totally fucking clueless, etc), he retrieved a big carpenter's level from behind the counter. He held it just below my shoulders asked me to put my middle knuckles on the 10cm and 48cm marks. Looking at the result, he pronounced me a definite 38, and even that was pushing it. Hmm...while I don't doubt the best intentions of all the shops I do business with, this experience kind of makes me wonder how much my bike fit has been influenced by stock on hand. The guy who had a 40 thought I was a 40, the guy who has a 38 thinks I'm a 38. Fortunately, I also feel like a 38, so I bought the handlebar with renewed confidence. Still, I made sure to put my receipt in a safe place. Trust but verify, you know. :)

So, to sum up--delayed gratification, work, email, traffic, free wine, google, weather, and a big weekend sale all came together to cause me to buy a 3-ft piece of bent carbon tubing. I paid more than I originally wanted to, but I think it will be worth every penny.

*(warning: geeky bike rant ahead) she also said that she would normally fit someone my size on a 51cm WSD frame. You know, after spending the past year or so talking with different people at different shops about bike fit, I've come to the conclusion that it is very subjective. When I first bought the Pilot, the first shop I went to was dead-set against selling me a womens-specific bike because I have long femurs for my height. This was confirmed on the test rides, when I felt very cramped on a 51cm Dolce. I based my entire shopping experience on that first impression. That guy's apparently the only one who could see this on first glance, though, because everyone else who looks at me says that they would "normally fit" me on a 51 (The Orbea guy said a 48, but that top tube is the same length as a Trek/Specialized WSD 51cm frame). Then I have to explain again that I've been there, done that, needed a longer top tube. They always kind of shrug when I tell them my legs need a top tube longer than 52cm, but it makes me doubt myself every damn time. I mean, if the experts can't agree, what hope do I have of ever finding the right fit?

progress report

okay, so about 4 months ago, I decided I was going to do the MS150. Then I made up this challenge where I set some completely reasonable goals for where I wanted to be by April. Since we're now a little over halfway there, I thought I'd do a progress report.

First, the goals:

• Ride the MS150 at a respectable pace without SAG help, and recover quickly. Can't comment on this yet, but if my performance on the Frost Bike 50 is any indication, I'm going to do fine.

• Lose 30 lbs. Um, I don't think we're going to make this one. With just a little over 9 weeks to go, I've lost a whopping 3 lbs. So the only way I have any hope at all of making this goal is if I average over 3 lbs/week from now through April. Doable? Probably. Realistic? No.
  

How am I doing with the "plans" portion of the challenge? Well, there were a few things I didn't factor into the planning process:

• lots of cold, wet weather (in winter?! yeah, I know)
• getting sick in February
• moving out and getting settled in a new place
• how much I would absolutely adore my new TV/DVR
• Netflix, the return of American Idol & Lost, and my latest obsession with What Not to Wear (methinks #4 & #5 are related)

Bottom line is, I've been spending more time on my couch than anticipated. This translates to less time on the bike, and the sickness means more sleeping, so basically? "Ride lots" became "ride when you don't have anything better to do". The Saturday club rides, a couple commutes, spin on Wednesdays, a couple charity rides...that's about it. I haven't made 100 miles/week since November, so I'm really going to have to crack down in these last 10 weeks. Luckily for me, most century training programs are 10 weeks long, so I can pretend that I just started training. Woo!

As for the weight training...it stopped with the trainer sessions. I keep meaning to get back into it, but I hate it so much that it's hard to really find the motivation. I mean, if I can't muster up the energy to get off the couch and do things I like to do, what are the chances of doing things I hate? Non-existent. I need to start making it a priority, though, because all that core progress I made with the trainer is really starting to go. I bought a Pilates for the Woefully Uncoordinated DVD a while back, so I think I'll start by doing that a couple times/week. Once I've made that a habit, I'll move outside the core. Or not. Honestly? Don't care much about strength training. The stuff that makes riding easier/better/more comfortable, I'm all for that. And I wouldn't mind gaining some upper body strength...sigh. Did I mention I hate lifting weights?

About the food. Well, I quit WW, because it didn't seem like a good way to spend $40/month now that I'm paying my own utility bills again. Since then, I haven't been following a plan. I eat when I'm hungry, don't eat when I'm not, use small plates, don't eat in front of the TV, try to keep the junk food in my pantry to a minimum. It's working for maintaining my weight, but I'd really like to get on with the losing. I haven't been cooking at home nearly as much as I should, and that's a lot of the problem, too.

On the bright side, I've gotten a lot better about overcompensation. I still have my days when I come home and eat the world after a ride, but usually I can rein myself in.

For the rewards section...I haven't had many $10 weeks. Two, actually, which is not as many as I had hoped by now. If my last count is correct, I have earned $37 for the MS Society so far--$27.80 from me, $9.20 from Frazier. Again, not where I had planned to be at this point, but it's better than zero, right?

On the other reward, it doesn't look like there's a bike upgrade in my immediate future. I'm pretty confident that I'll make goal #1, but goal #2 would require some serious buckling down. I'm afraid that if I restrict my intake to the point where I could lose 3 lbs/week, I'd sacrifice the energy I'll need for training. Or maybe that's bullshit and I just don't want to make any more drastic changes to my lifestyle right now. Either way, 30 lbs. is not going to be a realistic option.

I still think I can make it to 10, though. :) Making it to 186 by April won't earn me a new bike, but it just might get me a new jersey. Or maybe a sweet pair of shorts (I decided to splurge on a pair of these when '06s were marked down to $90, and instantly fell in love--SO comfortable! But alas, out of my everyday price range).

new house, new scale

Because I'm taking advantage of the big move to de-clutter my life, I left anything I didn't absolutely need back at Rob's house. For this week and through this weekend, I'll be sorting through what's left and deciding what goes, what stays, and what gets rolled out the curb on trash day.

One of the things in the "stay" pile was the bathroom scale. We only had one, and it only does 0.5-lb. increments, so I figured this was as good a time as any to get a new one. To keep the weights as consistent as possible, I bought one of the same brand, nearly the same model. The only real difference is that it measures in 0.2-lb increments. Right now, it thinks I weigh 198.0 lbs.

If it doesn't change its tune by Friday(official WI day), it's going back to the store.

Seriously...that does look about right. Moving is stressing me out, I haven't been drinking much water, the eating could be better, and it's TOM week besides. I am hoping to shed a pound or two by Friday, though.

Polar F55 update

So, I thought since I threw such a little tantrum about my troubles with my new heart rate monitor, I'd give an update.

Based on Mary's comment on my earlier post about it, the issue with the logo is at least partially resolved. I can now remove the yin yang, though I have yet to successfully add a logo to the device. This, however, is a cosmetic problem, and I'm not terribly worried about it so long as the more functional stuff works. Which it does, when I can figure out how to do it. UPDATE: Success! I was able to change the logo.

The first time I wore the F55 was on my long ride on Saturday. Everything looked fine, it started monitoring (My body seems to like to ride at about 82-83% of max HR...gets there in the first 5 minutes and camps out. Need to work on that). Since I neglected to read about basic operations before heading out, I didn't know how to display the time of day while the monitoring was going on, and I also didn't know how to pause. So I turned exercise mode on and off about 6 times in 3 hours. However, it didn't really matter, because it turns out that I also never started an exercise session. I started it monitoring, but never pressed the button again to start recording a session. I should have known better, since the only monitor I've had/seen that started the session on the first click was the little F4. Nevertheless, I was so disappointed when I went to look at my ride stats and discovered...there weren't any. RTFM, Joy.

Regarding my uplink issues, I was able to download the correct software to do the upload from my watch to the web application shortly after my last post. However, since neither of my computers has an IR interface (not even my laptop, which surprised me), I had to buy the Polar USB IR adapter before I could use the software. Though shopping for it was not exactly pleasant (I couldn't find a single local store that carried the 2006 version, had to hit Amazon and wait. Plus, $60? Damn.), I am utterly satisfied with this little device--installation was easy, it's tiny and unobtrusive, and--most importantly--it works. I set my F55 to connect mode, the Weblink software found today's exercise file and uploaded it to the web. Easy peasy.

One thing that I'm unclear on, though...it won't let me transfer workout programs for some reason. It comes to a screen that gives me three options--transfer the workout program from my wrist unit to the web app, transfer the workout program from the web app to wrist unit, or don't transfer anything. "Don't transfer anything" is the only one I can choose. I think this might have something to do with the settings I chose when I set up my watch, though, so I'm going to have to review my settings some more before I complain too loudly.

So, though it may not be coming across this way, my overall impression of the F55 is really pretty good. It's got a lot of features that I'm looking forward to figuring out, and I like the web application (though I'd also like a local application option). Its out-of-the-box learning curve is a little steep, but I'm catching on as I work with it. I suspect I would have caught on faster if I had spent some time with the manual before trying to use it but, pshhht...who does that?? :)

Polar, you SUCK

So, Rob bought me a new HR monitor as an early Christmas present, because I was complaining that I couldn't find my M32, and the strap on the F4 was broken. I now have an F55 (the red one), and I was totally psyched about transferring data between my HRM and my computer. Neither of my other monitors could do that.

Until I went to the Polar web tool and actually tried to do it. First, the download page for the Weblink tool was down last night, so I couldn't do anything except play with the Personal Trainer app (which, admittedly, is pretty nice), but with no way to download the workouts to my wrist unit.

This morning, the software download page is back up, but I think I downloaded the wrong thing. At least I hope I did, because the thing I downloaded (Polar UpLink tool, which is what they told me to download when I selected my model) doesn't work. Well, I take that back...it works. It transfers data to the wrist unit. I know it did, because it changed my time from AM to PM.

Trouble is, what I was trying to download was a logo to replace the stupid yin-yang symbol that's the default. I did the transfer, and even though it said it was OK, the logo stayed the same. I've been working with this software a total of 30 minutes between yesterday and today, and already I want to kill myself.

Nice work, Polar.

UPDATE: And if anyone can tell me why my MS150 button over on the sidebar has a transparent background in Firefox but an ugly-ass gray box around it in IE, I'll give you a dollar. Fuck. Stupid software.

UPDATE to the UPDATE: My limited research, along with trial & error, have determined that the problem's related to the type of file I stole from the MS150 site used for the MS150 logo. According to some documents so technical that they may as well have been written in binary (I had to read through one 3 times before I made any sense of it at all), IE doesn't always render transparent PNG files correctly. As with many, many other aspects of the web-browsing experience, Firefox apparently does it better.

I'm not good enough with HTML to be able to figure out how the MS150 site got around the issue, as theirs displays fine in IE. And I tried converting the image to other formats in photoshop, but the gifs looked like crap and I couldn't get anything else to save with a transparent background. Maybe this is the National MS Society's way of discouraging folks from swiping their logo file for their own nefarious (or fundraiser link-making) purposes...I don't know. :) That'll teach me, I guess.

lest you think I've forgotten...

...the post about the challenge I mentioned on Sunday has been in draft mode for two days. I'm having trouble putting it all together. I'm closing in on it now, though, so I expect to post it by tomorrow morning, at the latest.

more evidence of my flakitude, or possibly a black hole in the gym parking lot

You think YOU have a knack for losing things? Oh, you don't even know. I have an ongoing struggle to keep track of any number of essential things--driver's license, debit card, access card for the office, car keys, house keys, gloves, lip balm--you name it, I've lost it. Or I'm currently searching for it, or I've bought a new one.

Today, it was the gym card. I had it this morning for the 5:30 spin class, and purposely left it in the car afterward because I knew I would need it for my PT session at noon. So, I got to the gym 10 minutes early and began the search. Passenger seat? No. Console storage? No. Purse pocket #1? No. #2? No. DAMMIT. #3? Yes!

So, this story should have been over right there (and thus, pretty boring). However, that would be vastly understating my ability to lose shit. Less than 2 minutes later, the card was gone again. This time, it was utterly unfindable...it was like it fell through a hole in the earth. I had no pockets, so there was no way that I could have put it in one. It wasn't in my purse, or my gym bag, or the console or the seat or under the seat--in the time it took to grab my bag from the back seat and collect a bunch of trash from the front floorboard, it had vanished. I retraced my steps for another 5 minutes, to no avail.

So, I think this might be a personal record for object misplacement. I don't understand where it could be. The car's not that big! Yeesh.

not AGAIN.

So, I'm doing the NovemberFest Metric Century tomorrow. I've been checking the weather all week, and it's been highs in the 60s, lows in the 40s. All good, right?

Then I expanded the details.

Wind! Dude, we'd better be going straight north the whole way, or I'm gonna be in trouble.

This route is less hilly than Elves and More, though, so I could be fine. All things considered, I think I'll be sticking to the plan for 40 miles, instead of stretching it to 62.

once a jolly swagman, seated by a billabong...

...under the shade of a kookabah treeeeee/and he sang as he sat and waited while his billy boiled/You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me"

Yeah, those aren't the right words. But those are the ones I sang over and over and over and over and over again during the last 25-or-so miles of my 43 mile Elves & More charity ride yesterday. Followed by the chorus (which I got right), then this same verse again. My apologies to Australians--it's the only verse I know!

The ride went reasonably well, considering that I had to contend not only with rolling hills, but also a soul-killing headwind. I averaged 14 mph on-the-dot, which is half a mph faster than last year. Of course, I did 20 fewer miles this year, missing all the "real" hills, and I was riding with (read: being pulled along by) a group for the first 6-8 miles and trading off with another girl for the 20 after that. Still, any improvement is good, conditional or otherwise.

I started off riding in a group of five women--3 regulars from the Saturday ride (T., E., and K.), another club member whom I only know from the Sunday club ride (speedy K), and me. We met at a bike shop and formed a convoy of sorts to drive out to Montgomery, since I was the only one who had been out there before. It was weird, leading that line of cars, because I only know these women from club rides. The whole time, I kept wanting to do ride things...call out debris, signal turns with my arms, yell out "everyone make the light?!" :)

Anyway, we got there safely, got our first poker cards, and headed out. Speedy K led out, setting a pace of about 16 mph--uphill. I kept up for about 35 seconds before dropping off and vowing to catch up on the downhill. After all, I had about 75 lbs on everyone in the group...descents are just about the only time that's an advantage. Sure enough, we (K. behind me...our levels of road training and speeds were well matched) caught them on the downhill, hung with them through the next turn and into the headwind. I struggled valiantly to stay on the wheel of E., but it was all I could do. Then we hit this nice, gradual 3%-ish incline that went on for about 900 years, and my legs started to flag. I stood up, I tried putting my hands in the drop bars to cut the wind...nope. They just kept getting farther away. Somewhere around year 700 of the climb (okay, okay...minute 10), I gave up and figured I'd catch them on the downhill. Except that there was no downhill. It went flat, and then it went up some more, and then there'd be a woefully short descent where my momentum was totally stolen by the stupid fucking headwind, and then I couldn't even see my group anymore.

This was when I started singing. Though I didn't have my monitor, I could feel that my heart rate was up somewhere between "holy shit" and "stroke", so I needed some way to monitor my level of exertion and keep a steady cadence. Singing works well for both those things...the music has a beat, and if I can't breathe enough to sing, I need to slow the hell down. So, I started with Jesus Walks, relying on its military cadence in my head to establish rhythm. I'm sure I sounded ridiculous...me rapping is like Kanye West singing "I Feel Pretty". Anyway, it did what I needed it to do. This got us through to the first rest stop, where the Speedy Three were waiting. As it turns out, T. and Speedy K. had spotted some riders they knew and raced them to the stop, so even if I hadn't been the completely candy-assed climber that I am, I probably wouldn't have been able to hang on for long.

After a few minutes of rest, a banana, and a cookie, we once again set out as a party of five. This lasted about a mile and a half, then we were two again. By this time, I didn't mind. I went into the ride knowing that everyone I was riding with was capable of going faster than me (even K., actually. She was having an off day due to a couple injuries and more mountain than road training.) I had a feeling that they would eventually drop me, and was ultimately fine with that. I didn't think it would be so quickly, but I hadn't counted on the wind. I can handle hills OR wind, but not so much both. Them's the breaks, you know?

Once I had resigned myself to letting them go, I was able to ride my own ride. Which is, spinning up hills at 8-12 mph and wringing as much momentum as possible from the descents. I found this easier to do than riding in the middle of a pack, particularly my pack of little birdie women (no offense meant--I wish I was one). It definitely conserved energy to ride in the group, but I found myself getting frustrated when I had to put on the brakes on a descent to avoid ramming the tiny uber-fit grandmother in front of me. I wasn't a good enough climber to keep a satisfactory pace pulling uphill, so I didn't feel comfortable getting out in front on the descents. Still, I was finding it harder and harder to get enough momentum to hang onto the back of the pack on the inclines. I'm sure this also had a lot to do with my inexperience with paceline riding in general, and I think that's something I'm ready to work on. In any case, I was much more comfortable in my little group of two. While I did pull most of the time, K. was more than willing to take a turn when I needed her to, and it was nice to have someone to talk to (when I could talk).

We met up with the three leaders again at rest stop 2, where they decided to go do the 63-mile route with the guys they had been racing. After joking that I would not do the 63-mile route in that wind even if a truck was pulling me, our group officially split into the Speedy Three on the 63-mile route and the More Leisurely Two on the 42-miler.

K. and I took turns pulling for the next 15 miles, patiently then not-so-patiently waiting for the tailwind to kick in. We were going the opposite direction, right? There was a headwind on the way out, right? So where was our tailwind? I WAS PROMISED A TAILWIND, DAMMIT. Instead, what we had was a strong crosswind, more headwind, and tantalizing and cruelly short bursts of what might be a tailwind if it would only stay long enough for us to consider it. And many, many repeats of the first verse and chorus of Waltzing Matilda, which had replaced Jesus Walks as my song of choice.

Somewhere between rest stops 3 and 4, I started to lose K. Because she couldn't wrestle in my weight class if she was soaking wet and strapped to an anvil, she was having a harder time in the crosswinds than I was. It wasn't easy for me to hold a line in some of the stronger gusts, but she was getting blown all over the road. I pulled off an waited for her once on a rare flat stretch, and she told me to go ahead without her. The tailwind finally kicked in for real on the last 10 miles or so, we met up at the last rest stop, and K & I finished pretty close together. I crossed the finish line at 12:29, and cheered her through about 5 minutes later. If she hadn't stopped to check on another rider, we would have finished at nearly the same time.

After I changed clothes and filled out my poker hand (which sucked--I had an ace and 9 of clubs, jack, 3, and 5 of diamonds), K. had left and I hit the free lunch. The weather was beautiful for sitting around, so I decided to wait for the other girls to come in. I figured they'd be along fairly soon, since they were faster. At 2 pm, I decided to head out and ask them how it went at the Saturday ride. As I pulled out of the parking lot, I was thinking that it would be just my luck for them to be coming in now, after I had waited for nearly two hours. Wouldn't you know it, they were! Not a half-mile out of the parking lot, I spotted them on the other side of the road. I turned around at the next light and made it back in time to greet them at the finish. Talked to them for a few minutes, then I headed home.

So yeah...it was a good time. The weather was perfect except for the godforsaken wind, and it was nice having a group to ride with, even for a little while. I didn't think the ride was as well organized/executed this year as it was previous years, but it was still a great event. And I was faster this year! Woo!

progress, maybe

I had my last Biggest-Loser trainer session today, and we did the weigh-in/measurements thing.

The bad news: I've gained a pound since our first session (last Thursday).
The good news: I've lost 4 inches!

The inches were on my neck (.5"), thighs (1" each!), hips (.5"), and left calf(1"). My bodyfat percentage was the same overall, but the caliper measurements had gone down some in certain places--my back, primarily. Hooray for lost back fat!

Now, some of this can be attributed to lost TOM bloat, and the fact that I did cardio immediately before these measurements were taken. My trainer was unclear on whether the cardio thing would make the measurements go up or down ("depends on your body"), just that it may affect the numbers. Anyway, I'll take any losses I can get, and I'll know more about how the measuring conditions factored in next week.

I did go ahead with 10 more sessions, since I really need someone to push me in the gym right now. I'll be going Tuesdays and Fridays from next Tuesday through the end of November. I doubt that I'll continue past that, because I figure the cost will outweigh the benefit by then. Even right now, we're not doing anything I couldn't do on my own...I just need outside motivation to actually DO it.

I also tried the stairmaster for the first time today. Holy frijoles. That's HARD. It was all I could do to talk myself into 10 minutes, and I kept having to slow the thing down. By the end, I was at 54 steps/minute, my thighs were screaming, and I was a big fat sweaty mess. I moved to the treadmill for 20 minutes after that, just to recover my strength before the lower body workout with the trainer. I think I could have stayed on the stairmaster if it was my only workout for the day, but I was still surprised at how hard it was. Now that I think about it, though, I don't know WHY I was so surprised. The display had me at the equivalent of 33 floors. When was the last time I took the stairs up 33 floors? Never, that's when. I'm not opposed to exercise, but dude...that's what elevators are for.

checking in

I know that I'm in for a rough week when the WEEKEND seems long. Seriously...Sunday was an eternity. I mean, it was nice to sit around and do nothing all day while listening to the rain and stuff, but every time I turned around to look at the clock, I'd see a time 3 hours earlier than expected. I went to bed at 9:00, out of sheer boredom.

Then it was all torrential rain yesterday, but I did manage to make it to my personal training session. It was #4 of 5, so she pitched the prices for the continued sessions, which are a bit bigger than I expected them to be. I think I'm still going to go through with 10 more sessions, though, because that will take me through twice a week till the end of Biggest Loser contest thingie they're doing. My chances of winning are about as good as...well, something not very good. Still, I want to keep on it at least that long.

She also talked about other packages--the hour-long session ones, and a special they were having with 11 sessions for an extremely discounted price. I perked right up to this, until she said that it's actually 5 full sessions, and then 6 nutritional sessions. Uh-huh. I have absolutely no interest in nutritional sessions. The 2 and a half minutes we already spend each session talking about what I've been eating is over 2 minutes longer than I'd like. You might say that this indicates that it's a sore spot with me, something I really need to work on, and it is. I just don't want to pay to talk to a trainer about it for 6 hours. So, no thanks on that.

She also did a weigh-in at the last session. I wasn't too worried about it, thinking it would probably be about the same as last time. Well...it wasn't. It was about 4 lbs heavier than last time. Talk about embarrassing. I mean, I know why...my clothes were heavier than the initial weigh-in, I was just coming off a weekend (which included the Couch Slug Sunday I mentioned earlier), I had put away 2 bottles of water and a cup of coffee that morning. But still, to sign up for a Biggest Loser program and GAIN 4 pounds in the first 4 days? Suck!

In non-trainer related news, I started Couch-to-5k (C25k) again today, by doing 20 minutes of 60-second runs, 90-second walks. The track was kind of muddy in places after yesterday's deluge, so my footing was not as good as it could have been. Also, my lap times increased over the course of the workout, instead of the decrease I was getting on the walks. After the initial warmup lap, I went from 6:37, to 6:54, to 7:13. I guess this is to be expected...I'm not used to running, so I wore down rather than pushing myself harder over time. I also made a conscious effort to slow the pace on the last few running intervals, because I was a bit dismayed by the 6:37 lap. The last thing I want to do is go all gung-ho and fuck up my knees again. That, and it was humid out there...the temperature was in the 70s, but I swear it felt like 95. And the gnats?! By the time I was through, I had a sprinkling of their little corpses stuck all over my face. Charming.

In any case, I started slow and tapered off. :) I'm taking the whole running program very, very slowly...I don't intend to move from the week 1 program for at least 3 weeks. I want to feel utterly comfortable with the 60-second intervals before I move on to anything longer. Hell, I may be on 60-second intervals till the end of the year. I haven't set any deadlines, any goals. I just want to be able to run. Someday.

The Elves and More charity ride is this weekend, and I've signed on for the 42-mile option. I can't decide if I'm excited about it or not. I love this ride, and the weather looks like it's going to be just about perfect, but I just don't know. The last long ride I did was Tour de Pink, and I'm just not sure I'm ready for 40 miles of rollers. I'm not saying that I'm going to bail on it, I'm just nervous. Since the club is providing SAG support, there's no way in hell I'm availing myself of that option. It's one thing to be hauled in by strangers (see also: KFC), quite another by people that you ride with regularly. So, if I start, I'm going to damn well finish. I'd LIKE to finish before noon, but that may be pushing it at my current fitness level. We'll see.

On the food front, not a whole lot to report...other than I ate a 17-POINT SCONE for breakfast this morning. I should know better by now--scones are the debbil. My new #1 Starbucks rule: Nothing but latte, baby. And even that I'm cutting back to twice a week.

21 points for breakfast. Criminey.

you want a grain of salt with that?

Well, yesterday I went to the gym after work and signed up for the Biggest Loser promotion. Today was my first personal trainer session. Well, my first two sessions, since the first one is a weights/measures/fitness assessment session. I think I'm going to like my trainer fine--she seems to know a fair bit about lifting and form, and she was very encouraging.

However, I have a couple beefs with my first sessions.

First, what's with the supplements? They had me buy one last night (which I only accepted because it was 30% off + I had a $5 off coupon), and then she pushed two more in today's session. One was a meal replacement shake, the other was some kind of pill to curb carb cravings. Apparently releases the same chemical in your brain, whatever, whatever. $30 for a 30-day supply. I read the ingredients, didn't see anything I recognized, declined them both. I think I'll just bring snacks to work.

Second, we have different philosophies on cardio. I warmed up on the treadmill for 5 minutes before the lifting, and she calculated my target heart rate at 155. I am in the "build an aerobic base" mindset right now, so I'm trying to do longer sessions at lower heart rate. She's more of the 75-85% for 30 minutes cardio camp. 155 is fine for her way, but way too high for mine. And getting to 155 in 5 minutes during a warmup seems a bit much. Also, she went on to explain that 155 was 55% of my capacity, a beginner level. Um, no it's not. Even with the most optimistic of max HR, 55% would be somewhere around 120. She must have realized something was amiss with her calculations, though, because she kept mentioning 140 as my cardio target for the remainder of the session. 140 is more like it, but if she's expecting me to get there in 5 minutes on a frickin' treadmill, we better crank up that incline. Later on, she told me that the treadmill burns the most calories of all the cardio machines, because it's a full body workout. Uh-huh. With my hands on the HR sensors.

She seemed to be obsessed with the calorie burning, actually. I was burning calories lifting this, burning calories standing up, burning SOO many calories doing the prone cobra thing (which was really, really hard, by the way--those little muscles at the back of my waist? Haven't felt those before). I get that it's a weight loss promotion, but damn. You don't have to keep reassuring me. I understand the basic thermodynamics at work here--this is not my first rodeo. All the calorie chatter wouldn't have been irritating, except that she was so indiscriminate about it. I hate to think that she really believes that performing a mat exercise using small muscle groups for 30 seconds at a time is a massive calorie burner. Core strengthener? Sure. Good for me? Absolutely. But I seriously doubt it burns as many or more calories than, say, walking to the door and back. She also told me that a bike doesn't burn as many calories as a treadmill and tightens the hip flexors. I'm with her on the hip flexors, but I call shenanigans on the calorie thing.

Those things aside, I liked her fine. I learned some exercises and stretches I haven't done before, and I think I can learn from and work with her. I have 3 more sessions on the BL promotion--Friday, Monday, and Wednesday--then I can decide whether to continue on my own or pay for additional sessions.

My measurements were a little discouraging, in that they were frickin' huge. Did you know I have 41% bodyfat and 47" hips? I do. No wonder my jeans don't fit.

Proof that new shoes make you faster (among other things)

I've been keeping lap times with my iPod for about a week now. After each workout, I type the data from the ipod into a spreadsheet, and it's been fun and motivational to watch those numbers change. If I weren't so Excel-impaired, I'd make a graph. I bet it would be pretty interesting.

Anyway, here are the stats for the past week:

10/2

Total time: 34:50
Lap 1: 9:00
Lap 2: 8:40
Lap 3: 8:31
Lap 4: 8:37
Avg speed: 3.45 mph

10/3

Total time: 51:50
Lap 1: 9:01
Lap 2: 8:29
Lap 3: 8:26
Lap 4: 8:28
Lap 5: 8:30
Lap 6: 8:53
Avg speed: 3.47 mph

10/5

Total time: 34:43
Lap 1: 9:10
Lap 2: 8:34
Lap 3: 8:26
Lap 4: 8:31
Avg speed: 3.46 mph

10/6

Total time: 49:44
Lap 1: 8:33
Lap 2: 8:24
Lap 3: 8:21
Lap 4: 8:10
Lap 5: 8:00
Lap 6: 8:13
Avg speed: 3.62 mph

A couple things to note:

1. The track is just shy of 1/2 mile. I think the one time I walked/ran it with GPS, 5 laps was something like 2.496 miles. To ensure that I'm getting the mileage I want, I count the path to the parking lot on the first and last lap. It isn't long, but I figure it makes up for the shortness of the intermediate laps. Therefore, the first and last laps will always be a little longer...the first lap especially so, because that's my warmup, too.
2. Lap times are also affected by how much traffic there is on the driveway. The track crosses it twice, and cars are generally pretty good at stopping for pedestrians. However, I don't like to make them wait any longer than I must, so I jog across the intersection if there's someone waiting on me.
3. The weather was significantly less humid today than it has been all week.

Even with these factors considered, there's a distinct downward trend going on with the times--both throughout the week and within each workout. It seems I'm getting stronger already. And on my first walk in the new shoes, I shaved over 2 minutes off my 3-mile time! (Of course, there was a lot of driveway traffic and the weather was nicer, but it could be the shoes, right?) I'll be ready to run before you know it.

I wish I had HR stats for these walks, but I lost the watch part of my monitor. I know it's around somewhere...probably in one of my many bags and piles of things. As soon as I find it, I'll start tracking those stats as well. Going by the RPE scale today, I was probably in 12-13 range on the fast laps, which would put me in the mid-130s. Still got a little way to go before I'll feel comfortable moving to the fast lane.

gorillas, er, commuters in the mist

So, lately, it's been working out well for me to bike-commute on Wednesdays, since I have no meetings and the traffic seems lighter than on Tuesdays. So yesterday morning, I put on my bike clothes, packed my work clothes, grabbed some breakfast, walked out the door... and right into a cloud.

It wasn't a bad fog, really...visibility was pretty good for a block or more. Still, I didn't relish the thought of riding my bike on a 45-mph road with no shoulder. Sure, there are two lanes each way, but that won't do me much good if cars can't see me. Can't avoid killing what you can't see, right?

Still, I was already dressed for the commute. I packed my bike into the van, and started driving toward the parking lot where I start the bike commute. As I drove, I noted that the fog seemed to be thinning a bit as I got closer to Houston, and wasn't nearly as bad at ground level as it was on the raised highway. I got to the parking lot and sat there a minute or two, trying to decide what to do. I could drive the rest of the way in, but then I'd still have to go to the locker room and change, and that would make me feel retarded, since I didn't actually work out at all. I had also already committed to going to lunch with a co-worker, so I couldn't walk during lunch. If I didn't bike and I didn't work out during lunch, I would likely not work out at all. I've been doing so well with workouts lately, and I'm by-God NOT GOING TO GAIN AGAIN AT THIS WEEK'S MEETING, so that was unacceptable. Several more run-on thoughts later, I got out of the car, unloaded the bike, turned the blinky safety lights on, and was off.

Traffic was heavy for a Wednesday, maybe because I left a bit later than usual due to all the thinking. Visibility was okay, and all the cars seemed to see me in plenty of time. My biggest problem was that my glasses started to mist over almost immediately. By the time I hit the queue of cars waiting for the traffic light, I could barely see. Luckily, my fingers made excellent windshield wipers, and I had plenty of opportunity to use them, since I was in stop-and-go traffic at that light for nearly 10 minutes.

Bike commuting in mist was quite the adventure. The first part of it was the worst...in the morning, that's where all the traffic and dangerous curves are. I was really nervous about taking the lane around the 15 mph curves, but avoiding it was not an option. If I stayed on the edge, some jackhole would inevitably try to pass on the curve, either edging me off the road or colliding with oncoming traffic. Either was a greater risk than just blocking their progress until passing was safe. I consider it a public service. :)

Anyway, no one honked or buzzed me, so I guess the blinkies were doing their job. I had to stop once I got to the residential part of my ride and really clean my glasses, and the commute took about 10 minutes longer than usual, but other than that it was fine. So my first commute with weather of any variety besides "partly cloudy" was a success.

I did get honked at on the way home, while I was attempting to merge into the left lane. I did everything right, too...waited for a huge gap in traffic, signalled, started to move over just as the last car was clearing the place I wanted to go. Apparently, it was too close for his comfort, though, because he objected by slowing down and laying on the horn. I moved over behind him anyway, and there may have been some unpleasantries exchanged before he sped off.

I really wish my first reaction to those sorts of confrontations was nicer. I'd like to be one of those people who can smile and wave instead of throwing the predictable (if well deserved) F-bomb out there. I feel like I'm giving a bad impression of road cyclists generally by getting all combative about it, not to mention the inherent safety hazards of getting into an argument with a 2-ton SUV while riding a 20-lb piece of aluminum. Still, my first reaction is always to call him a jackass and make angry hand gestures, and then to feel bad about it afterward. Especially when it was my fault in the first place (which this one wasn't, but it's been known to happen).

In any case, we all came through it safely, and I can't undo it. Next time, though, I think I'll try to make a more conscious effort to be nice first, save the shouting of obscenities for later. Maybe once I'm back in the safety of my own 2000-lb. metal cocoon.

70, 25...what's the difference?

and I quote: "Me, I've got an oil change/car wash and 70 miles of biking on the schedule."

I managed the oil change/car wash, but only did 25 miles. The rain came later than expected, and continued past the start time of the charity ride I was going to do Sunday. Checking the weather report, there was a possibility that it wasn't raining as hard or as long at the ride location, but I didn't feel like driving for half an hour only to ride in the rain. So I stayed home, and no recap stories will be forthcoming.

I also bonked mightily on my club ride on Saturday. I woke up late, threw myself in biking clothes, and rushed out the door. It was only when I got to the starting place that I realized that a) I had not eaten anything, and b)I had brought no water bottles. Luckily, I still had water on my bike from my commute Wednesday, so all was not lost. All was kind of stagnant and nasty, but hey--at least it was wet.

We started off okay, had a really great group, cleared all the lights and turns together (usually we have to wait for stragglers). At the first stop, we were averaging over 15 mph, which is almost unheard of on this ride. Then we hit the back part of the Alden Bridge curve, and BAM! Headwind! Why don't I ever see those coming?

Man, if there's anything that takes it out of me faster than wind, I don't know what it is. By the time we got to the 2nd regroup stop, I was flagging badly. Some of my faster groupies like to sprint the last 2 miles to the 2nd regroup, since it's at the end of a dead-end street. They all left me in the dust, so I slowed down to 12-13mph and stopped to fill my water bottle at a park. I guess I was gone a little longer than they expected, because they sent out a search party. :) I met them about 2 blocks in, and we all turned around.

It only got worse after the 2nd stop, unfortunately. I led out for about 2 miles, watching my speed drop from 16...to 14...12.9...okay, this was ridiculous. It was time to fess up and let someone else take the lead. I explained my situation to one of the regulars, gave her directions for the rest of the route (there was only one more turn), and dropped back. There was another guy back there who had worn himself out on the sprint, so I stayed back with him and we came in together. My average for the entire ride was 13.4 mph. I do love my group, though...they waited for us to come in, and were super supportive when we got there. Of course, this is the 2nd time I've done something unleaderish--got lost that 2nd week, then ran out of gas this week. If there ever was a Ride Leader of the Year award, I'm pretty sure I'm out of the running. :)

So, lesson learned--if you're going to ride 20 miles, eat first, and bring water. It's a simple lesson, but one I insist on forgetting every 3 months or so.

oooh...purty

Checking out 2007 bike models (Just looking, Rob), came across this one--it matches my dragonfly jersey! Love that color, too...it's definitely in the running for my next upgrade*. Now, if Orbea would just hurry up and preview their 2007s...

*Next fall, at the earliest.

weight watchers, alternative (art) history, and also biking for b00bs

So.

Relieved of my pending health issues and inspired by having to look at my ass picture again, I decided not to wait until Friday to start shopping WW meetings. One of the locations near my office had a noon meeting today, so I used my lunch hour to head that way.

At first, it was all right. I talked to the scale lady about Monthly Pass and how it might work with my existing Online membership. I filled out the startup forms, paid my $40, and weighed in at just about what I expected at that time of day and in these clothes--203. (Eeep.) Then I sat down in the meeting room, wrote down the recipe on the whiteboard, and daydreamed until the meeting started.

And that was when I started to wish I had one of those "I'm blogging this" t-shirts, so the leader would have at least gotten fair warning.

The subject of the meeting was distractions and follow-through. A particularly good subject, since this is a huge issue for me. However, she started out with a "guess the historical figure" thing, and that's when things went weird. Here are her clues, as I remember them:

This man was not only a famous painter, but he was also a noted anatomist, inventor, sculptor...he had many unfinished projects because he would get frustrated and stop in the middle because he couldn't realize the vision he had pictured in his head. Blah, blah, blah, [more historical facts about him that I can't remember--I had it at "inventor" and "anatomist". I mean, it's obvious, right?].

Then she asked the group who she was talking about. Immediately, someone called out Michaelangelo. I wasn't entirely surprised by this--they're both renaissance artists, and the woman may have been living in a CAVE during the whole Da Vinci Code book/movie/scandal/fad thing and not seen any sort of news item or description of da Vinci since high school or whatever. But then, I was completely blown away when the leader nodded and said she was correct! And flipped her easel to a printout of the Mona Lisa. You know, Michaelangelo's Mona Lisa. The one that's been on every news blurb, every book cover of every copy of the Michaelangelo Code for the past few years. Oh, wait. :)

Now, I'm no art history major, and I'll be the first to admit that the primary reason I know that da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper is because of that stupid book and the umpteen documentaries about it. But GOD.

Being new to the group, I didn't want to be That Guy and point out in front of all the regulars that the leader was wrong. So I kept my mouth shut and waited for someone else to point it out as the leader prattled on and on about how she had been to Italy and seen several of Michaelangelo's unfinished works, paint techniques, studying of hands, and how he used to hire jesters and entertainers to perform for his models to get them to smile..."and yet this was the best he could do?", all the while gesturing at the Mona Lisa. At which point, I couldn't help muttering, "well, maybe because da Vinci painted that one."

I bolted from the room as soon as the meeting was over, and I'm pretty sure I won't be back to the Wednesday noon meeting anytime soon. I'm still trying to figure out whether she knew she was talking about da Vinci and didn't want to embarrass the person who guessed wrong, or if she had combined facts about the two artists, or if she really thought that she had the right guy. Or maybe that they were interchangeable? It just seems to me that if you're going to base an entire meeting on a Renaissance man, you may want to know for sure which one you're talking about. Especially when he's been the subject of a controversial book/movie lately.

I'm just saying.

Moving on to the last subject in the title...Tour de Pink. :) As I mentioned before, I'm riding it again this year. I debated asking for donations here, because I hate asking for money in general. However, if you're so inclined, click here and throw a couple bucks my way. All the donations go to the Pink Ribbons Project, which sponsors free mammograms and breast cancer awareness classes, among other good things.

I surely do appreciate any donations, and if you have any causes that you support, send me a link and I'll return the favor.

besides, I could get a new bookmark!

So, weight watchers just introduced this new plan--Monthly Pass. Unlimited meetings & e-Tools for $40/month. I'm currently paying $17/month for online tools only. I'm considering the upgrade.

I'm not a huge fan of meetings, but can't deny that they helped me when I took them seriously. One of the main reasons I stopped going to them (well, besides The Elephant) was because I would have to pay extra for e-Tools, and I didn't see the point of paying $11/meeting and then shelling out another $13/month for the privilege of logging my food online. But now that they're packaged together for less than the cost of meetings alone? I'm strongly tempted to sign up.

Do you think it's worth it? Would you do it, if you were me?

Century survival plans

Well, I'm going to ride my first century this weekend. If I haven't mentioned it much in the last month or so, it's because I haven't really thought much about it. Or trained much for it. In fact, with all the other stuff going on in my life lately, you might even say I completely freakin' forgot about it until this week. So, understandably, I'm a little nervous. However, I do still plan to tackle the 100-mile route, and here's why:

1. It's flat. Katy Flatland Century. They're not kidding.

2. The ride is well supported. I've ridden the shorter routes on this ride for the past 3 years, and it's had plenty of supplies and volunteers every year. If I reach my limits, they'll have my back.

3. It has a very generous time limit. The ride starts at 7:00 am for the century riders, and the shutdown time for the 67-mile stop isn't until 2:00 pm. Even if I stop for 10 minutes at every rest stop until then, I would only need to average 12 mph on the bike to make the cutoff. I'm hoping to average around 14-16 and skip the 2nd rest stop, so I should make it in plenty of time.

4. There are a few bail-out points on the route where I could take the short way back. The decision point (60s straight, 100s left) right after the 26-mile rest stop is the most obvious place, but I could also hang a left onto 529 OR 1458 for a little off-route action, picking up the 60-milers' route back to the finish. There's also an option to go straight past Simonton on 1093, which would make for a shorter finish as well. I think I'll know before the 67-mile mark whether or not I'm up for 100, but it's nice to have another chance to rethink things there, too.

5. I really, REALLY want to do a century this year. I could wait and do the Tour de Pink in September, too, but that one's not as flat. Ditto on the Bike For Sight and TX Cycling Classic, which make the jump from "not as flat" to "um, sort of hilly". This is my last real shot at a flat century this year, and I intend to take advantage.

So, I'm going to do as much of it as I can. It may take me 10 hours to limp my way in, and I may not be the same for a week afterward, but I'm not going to quit unless my body or the ride organizers tell me I have to.

My plan is simple: good breakfast, start out slower than I really want to go, ride steady, take short rest stops, hydrate like a madwoman, and listen to my body. We'll see how it goes.

Race report, Part IV - Trails, Bubbles, Scooters, and Accidental Gymnastics

Part I
Part II
Part III

Invigorated by the big wheel obstacle, we set off down 3rd St and picked up the Town Lake trail. After a few seconds debate about which way we needed to go on the trail, we headed left toward the S. 1st St bridge. Noah had regained his sense of adventure, and was fascinated when we passed what looked like a tour group of sightseers on Segways. At his request, we stopped to rest for a few minutes under a tree about halfway to the bridge. I wasn't really in any hurry anymore...now that we were having fun again, I was going to do everything within my power to keep it that way. And it seemed to be working...he barely even complained when we went up the ramp to the bridge path, just made a joke--"Man, I hated this the first time!"

We headed straight down Barton Springs to Jack & Adams, where we rocked the plunger relay and duck/frog/fish hunt (each team walked into a pen filled chest-high with soap bubble foam, and had to search the floor for a duck, a frog, and a fish to complete the obstacle. As it turns out, Noah and I are very talented toe-gropers--took about 30 seconds).

While de-sudsing ourselves and putting shoes back on, we assessed our situation. The checkpoints would start to shut down at 12:20 or so, and I had overheard another team at this checkpoint saying that they had to wait at "the duck pond" one for over an hour. Not being familiar with Austin or this race, I wasn't sure "duck pond" referred to the location or the obstacle, so couldn't tell if that was one of the two checkpoints we had left to go. It was 11:42, leaving us less than 40 minutes to complete the race. It was right around this time that Rob called...he had been waiting at the finish line for us, but was now going to go back and check us out of the hotel before noon. We were both hot and tired, and ready for the race to be over. With only a little regret, I decided that we wouldn't have time to try to get out to the rowing dock checkpoint and back. Leaving it out would shorten our course by over a mile and--more importantly for our morale--eliminate another short, steep uphill.

We headed left onto Barton Springs, away from the rowing dock and all hope of completing all 7 checkpoints. I got a little impatient again as we rode. Barton Springs had more traffic than our previous routes, both cars and bikes. A lot of the adult teams doing the full race (included 3 landmark checkpoints, not on the family race) were now starting to hit this cluster of checkpoints as well. Not only were the bike lanes starting to get crowded, but the crowds were faster. By this point, Noah only had one speed, which we'll call "pedal, pedal, coooooooast, pedal, coooooooooast". We were having hell making the lights, getting dusted by other racers, and I had to fight with myself not to start pushing him again. I settled for sing-songing "pedal-pedal-pedal!" each time we crossed a major intersection. We were nearly at the finish, and more than anything, I just wanted both of us to arrive safe and happy.

Checkpoint #6 was a bike board scooter course, which was another event at which Noah excelled and I pretty much sucked (oh, and if you look at that picture...see the brake? I am very certain mine didn't have one of those). Miraculously, I made it through without crashing into anyone, and collected our checkpoint bead. After a quick phone conversation with Robert, during which Noah rode around the parking lot impatiently (where was all this energy an hour ago??), we were back on the road. We had 6 of the 7 beads, and that was good enough for us. Off to the finish!

The closer we got to the finish line, the more impatient we became. I blessed the tolerance of Austin drivers while preparing for the turn onto 1st St, crossing 4 lanes of (very light) traffic at less than 10 mph in less than a block, trying to get to the left turn lane. I just about fainted when Noah cut off some dude in a pickup, but not a single person honked at us. Now less than 3 blocks from the finish, that last light took HOURS to change. Finally, we were able to make our turn. Thinking that Noah would take my lead, I picked up speed for a finish-line sprint. Apparently, I should have spelled this out, because I looked back to see him a full block behind me. Sigh.

I had half expected everyone to be gone by the time we got there, but I guess we weren't as far behind as I'd thought. People were standing around clapping as we came in, calling "Good job!" and "Just one more!"

Wait--"Just one more"?! I had somehow forgotten about the finish line obstacle--looked like some big inflatable climbing thing and waterslide. Oh LORD. Do you know how well I climb? Or how well I handle enclosed spaces? Not well, that's how.

We parked our bikes in the holding area, took off our helmets, and now that the inflatable monster was out of sight, it didn't seem so bad. Anyway, I'd have to go through it regardless, if I wanted to finish. I tried once again to entice Noah into running around the underpass to RunTex. Once again, he would have none of it. We walked. Slowly.

Of course, looking back on it, maybe "Dude, c'mon! If we run, we can finish this stupid race, have a burrito, and go home" isn't the best motivational speech in the world. :)

After taking off our shoes as the volunteer directed, we climbed into the big rubber deathtrap inflatable obstacle course. Noah, of course, did fine...he has been raised on all kinds of moonwalk-y inflatable things, and these things are designed with his age group in mind. You know, that age where you can still bend over and touch your toes, and your back doesn't go off like firecrackers when you have a good stretch? Trying to run an adult through this thing is a little scary, particularly when said adult is the most uncoordinated being in the known universe, and dislikes small cramped spaces enough to get panicky when elevator doors don't open fast enough.

Put simply, this thing kicked my ass. Noah was all the way through and on to the water slide before I was over the first hump. Literally. I went through the (much too small for my liking) entry, and was immediately faced with a 2-ft-tall rubber hill. I launched myself onto it, and promptly fell off. I tried hoisting my leg up over it, fell off again. In the meantime, kids are flying by me, all but vaulting over the hump one-handed. It was so hot and cramped in there, I was getting short of breath. I couldn't go back out, because a) I was not going to come this far and quit, by god, and b) too many people were backing up behind me. I hate enclosed spaces a lot, but not as much as I hate the humiliation of making people wait for my clumsy ass. So I gritted my teeth and launched myself at my short red nemesis. I'm sure I looked like a total spaz, flailing for purchase to get over a stupid hump of inflated plastic. Then, suddenly, I was going over!

Unfortunately, I was going over headfirst, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Here's a short transcript of what went through my head in those few seconds:

"Holy shit, I made it!"
"Falling on my head!"
"I'm going to break my neck!"
"I totally should have kept my helmet. God, what a stupid way to di--"

It was right in the middle of this thought that instinct and momentum took matters into their own hands. My head tucked under and I did a graceless somersault into the wall. I did a quick look around to make sure no one saw that, then fought my way through the rest of the course. Other than the exit chute surface being hotter than that of the sun, the rest passed without incident or injury to anything but my dignity.

Noah, bless his heart, had waited for me by the ladder to the water slide. We got back in line and climbed up the (slimy, wet) net ladder one after the other and slid down. The water was filthy yet refreshing, and we were done!

We walked over and handed our chain of beads to the race volunteer. I babbled something about us skipping one checkpoint, to which she nodded, noted our time, and told us we could keep the beads if we wanted. (You bet your ass we did! I'd never worked so hard for 6 plastic beads in my life.) Race over, we joined the party.

Of course, for us, "joined the party" = "wandered around looking for food and drink before Mom gnawed off her own hand". Noah was disappointed by the selection, and the fact that I had no cash to buy ice cream from the Ben & Jerry cart. He ate some watermelon and settled on a vitamin water, while I went for a burrito and beer. As he appointed himself and a group of newly-made friends (how does he DO that?) vitamin water tub attendants, I pulled out my phone to call Rob and let him know we were done.

Ruh-roh. I found my phone sticking to a soggy mess of map in my back pocket. At some point, I had caught the ziploc bag of supplies in my pocket's zipper, tearing the plastic. My waterlogged phone was, to quote the mayor of Munchkin City, "morally, ethically, spiritually, physically, positively, absolutely, undeniably and reliably" dead. I took it apart and dried it out, but it was no use. After a few minutes, I gave up, put it in our race packet, and found a kind volunteer who lent me his phone to call Robert.

Though there was an award for all family race finishers, we did not stay to see what it was. We were both exhausted, wet, and grimy. Unless the prize was a shower and a dry change of clothes, it was just not worth it. We headed back to the hotel to meet Rob. And somehow missed him--but that story would make for a whole 'nother section, so I'm not going to get into it. :) We found each other eventually, and then found our way home.

So, despite the fights, injuries, and mayhem, I have to say we had a good time. Per the official race results, our finish time was 13:30:39 (I think they added 10 hours for the missed checkpoint), 43rd of 50 in the family race.

Considering that our only race goals were 1) don't quit, and 2) don't be dead last, we totally exceeded expectations. And hey--if you count only the people who didn't hit all the checkpoints, we were first! Woohoo!

Race report, part III - Salvation by Big Wheel

Part I
Part II

After Noah had calmed down and we had collected ourselves after the crash, I traded water bottles with him and gave a quick pep talk as we walked our bikes across the plaza to Speedway. Noah was still crying a little and was in a foul mood, but got on his bike willingly enough. We made our way through the UT campus at about 7 mph, with me calling out encouragement as we went along, and Noah complaining that it was hot and his leg hurt. After making the turn onto 30th, the road went uphill again. Noah began to lose his will to live, I think. As I rounded a curve, I looked back to find him over a block behind me. Frustration welled up again--we had gone less than a mile from the plaza, and our next turn was less than two blocks away! We were getting nowhere fast. I stopped and waited for him at a gas station. When I looked at his blotchy face and exhausted eyes, my frustration was tempered by concern.

"How you feeling, boy?"
"I'm hungry, I'm hot, my leg hurts, and I think I'm going to throw up."
"Okay. How about we rest, drink the rest of your water, then walk up this hill? Our next turn is right up there, and then it's downhill to the checkpoint. It's really not far at all now."

He gave me a reproachful look. "You've been saying that for MILES, Mom."

Touche. "Well, now I really mean it."

We walked about a block, and got on our bikes to make the left on 32nd. It wasn't quite as "all downhill" as I remembered from the night before, but at least it was shaded. We finally made it to our second checkpoint--Ozone Bikes. And they had food! And water! We rested a minute as I filled the water bottles and we ate some fruit, then took on the basketball-dribbling/waterslide obstacle. There were no lines at this stop--one of the advantages of falling this far behind, I guess.

I checked my cell phone clock, and called Rob to let him know that we would be finishing closer to 11:30/12:00. After another minute's rest, we were off north again. Noah was in a slightly better mood, having solved the hunger problem and cooled off by the waterslide. About halfway up Marathon to the next checkpoint, though, I started to get frustrated with the pace again. I mistakenly decided to give Noah cycling technique advice.

"Honey, it might help you if you geared down and pedaled faster without coasting...I know it sounds weird, but it would actually take less effort and you could make better spee--"

He flew into a rage and burst into tears again, standing up on his pedals and picking up speed for a few seconds. "IS THIS FAST ENOUGH FOR YOU!?"

Whoa, SO not the reaction I had intended. "That is NOT what I meant. If you downshift and pedal faster, it will GET EASIER NOT HARDER."

He clicked his shifter a couple times, glaring at me. "I'M ALREADY IN A LOW GEAR!"

"All right, ride HOWEVER YOU WANT. Sorry." He cried the rest of the way to the checkpoint, and I gave up all hope of this being a fond memory someday.

The Chipotle checkpoint (three-legged race) went quickly, and Noah and I reached a shaky peace. He was disappointed that Chipotle was not open, because he was still hungry. He doesn't even like burritos, so I knew things must have been desperate. I assured him that this was a turning point in the race--from here on out, we would be going south. Downhill. (Well, mostly.)

We got back on Marathon, and I began narrating our route. He was still complaining about being hungry, so we stopped at a gas station and got cold water and some cookies. ("What do you want to eat?" "I don't care." I buy cookies, bring them to him. "Aw man, cookies?" "You said you didn't care. Shut up and eat them." Can't you just feel the love?) After the cookies were gone, the map checked, and the water bottle situation worked out (he was in worse shape than me, so I made sure he got the fullest, coldest at all times), we were back on the bikes and FINALLY downhill. Noah complained that it wasn't steep enough--"we aren't getting any of the GOOD downhills."

Sigh.

A few turns, map checks, walks, and fights later, we navigated a scary 4-lane crossing right turn onto 6th Street, and found our way to checkpoint #4: Pure Austin. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is when things started looking up. Noah's mood had been slightly improved by a couple steep downhills on the way, and the Big Wheel obstacle was right up his alley. He navigated it beautifully, even doing a little Tokyo drift move on the last turn. I was less successful, having some trouble with the steering and a couple of ruthless racers coming up behind me and trying to pass, even though their steering skills weren't really any better than mine. I did do a cool whip-around, sliding-park thing at the end that I was pretty proud of, though. (You know that scene in License to Drive where they launch off the embankment and land the caddy in the drive-in parking lot, sliding perfectly into the parking space? It was kind of like that, only no launching.) When we got back on our bikes, the tide had turned--we were having fun again.

Next up: Part IV - The Home Stretch: Trails, Bubbles, Scooters, and Accidental Gymnastics

Race report, Part II - And we're off!

Click here to read Part I

Despite having only 2 hours sleep, I was surprisingly chipper when I woke up Sunday morning. I got up, got dressed, checked my tire pressure, and woke up Noah.

I don't know if I've mentioned this, but Noah inherited my aversion to early mornings. He hadn't slept much either, complaining half the night that his bed was sooo uncomfortable. (Not that I blame him...there is a reason I haven't slept on a sofabed since I was a teenager.) He still dropped off around 1:00, but five hours is about half of a normal night for him. As a result, he woke up with about nine different kinds of attitude...grumbling under his breath, throwing things around, shooting me sullen glances, the whole bit (man, can I wait till he's a teenager!). I was determined to remain calm and cheerful, and we managed to get his bike from the van, breakfast from the Starbucks in the lobby, and on the way to the start location (about 1/2 mile away) by 6:50.

We had our race packet by 7:10, parked our bikes in the staging area, and were left with nothing to do but lounge around until 8:00. I took this time to assess the competition. I heard a lot of conversations about route plans, and the consensus seemed to be "North first." I decided then that we would fall back to my old plan of hitting Jo's Coffee first, only taking a right on Congress instead of going down S. 1st St. This way, we could walk up the short incline on James, then get back to 1st St going mostly downhill, taking the northbound bike path across the bridge. By the time we got up to the checkpoints, all the "north firsters" would have cleared out. Brilliant! I spent the rest of our idle hour trying to find a suitable place to stash our race packet and trying to get Noah cheered up. I was able to accomplish both goals by 7:45, and we joined the lineup by the start area.

We were assigned numbers 101 and 102, which meant that we were in the first heat--I must have done pretty well on that bonus quiz. After a delay to be sure all checkpoints were ready to go, the start horn sounded at 8:20. Finally, we were off! We ran to our bikes, holding hands and trying not to get run over by the crowd.

The running lasted about 15 seconds, after which Noah let go of my hand and insisted on walking. I tried a couple times to get him to at least jog, but he was having none of it. I gave up by the time we rounded the underpass, reminding myself that this is supposed to be FUN, and I didn't want to waste what little good humor he had left. We got onto our bikes before the next starting group, anyway, so it was still okay.

Once on the road, we were going at a satisfactory pace of around 12 mph. There was a traffic cop at the first intersection, and not many people going our way, so I was feeling pretty proud of myself for altering our route. About this time, Noah yelled up to me, "You're going too fast! This isn't the 'leave your son in the dust' race!"

We slowed our pace, and got to the turn onto Congress. This, too, was fine...until we hit the uphill. It wasn't steep, but it was persistent. The more I looked back, the more Noah was falling behind. I slowed down. I slowed down some more. I noted with dismay that we were getting passed by dozens of bikes. Since Jo's was the only checkpoint in this direction, this was a very bad sign. I stopped to wait for the boy. He caught up, and I did my best to stay with him until we got to the checkpoint. This was a pattern that would repeat every time the incline was greater than, oh, I don't know...let's say 2% elevation.

When we got to the checkpoint, we got in a line behind roughly 20 other teams. I read the obstacle instructions, which involved filling a bucket with water from a kid's wading pool, each of us running back and forth with one small plastic cupful at a time. Easy enough, right? There was another activity where one teammate had to carry the other on his/her back through a course of traffic cones while wearing a blindfold. Man, was I glad that I was choosing the water one!

I was just about to the front of the line when a man spoke up. "Have you done the piggyback yet?"

"No."
"You have to do that one first, the line goes over there."

Luckily, everyone was doing the same thing, so we didn't have to get in line again, just angle a bit. As we inched closer to the front of the line, dread was creeping up on me. Noah weighs about 130 lbs. I somehow had to carry him on my back and make it through a 25-ft maze of cones. Blindfolded. Our less-than-healthy lifestyle of the past 10 years was coming back to haunt me.

As it turned out, it was easier than I expected. Noah was a good navigator, and even though we went very, VERY slow, we didn't knock over any cones, and I never had to put him down and rest. The water event went quickly...without the extra weight, I practically flew to the wading pool and back. Noah was speedy too, having rested during the wait and the piggyback ride.

By the time we got our bead and were back on our bikes, this first checkpoint had taken over 45 minutes. Oy. I began to realize that my hopes of a 10:00 am finish had been hopelessly optimistic.

The ride between checkpoints 1 & 2 was fraught with distress. This was the hardest part of my planned course...hot and mostly uphill, with our moods going rapidly downhill. We went straight up Lavaca, which was actually a pretty good route. The road wasn't steep, but the incline was constant, which Noah found particularly punishing. I tried to keep the mood light, but he was getting gloomier with every pedal stroke. I pointed out the capitol building as we passed, since he had been anxious to see it up close. He shot it a resentful glance. Shortly after that, we took to the sidewalk and walked. I was still trying my very best not to get impatient, but it took some serious effort.

Once the road sort of leveled off a bit, I made him get back on his bike and started to pull out the Mom lies.

"We're nearly there!" We were crossing 12th St, at least 8 blocks before our turn onto MLK.

"This is the last big hill before the next checkpoint!" Well, kind of. I honestly wasn't sure that Speedway was any shorter/less steep.

"You're doing great!" I really did mean this. I know that he's not very fit, and all things considered, he was really holding up very well.

Somewhere around 18th St., I looked back and saw him walking again. Slowly. I missed two lights in the time it took him to walk one block, and managed to scrape the back of my ankle on my drive train somehow. Now, I was frustrated. After a few fruitless gestures, my patience broke and I rode back to where he was. "Noah, get back on your bike. This is barely uphill, and we don't have far to go. We have to finish this race by noon, and we're never going to make it if we walk every time there's a little incline. Ride."

"I hate this stupid race and I want to go home." He started to cry. I felt like a giant asshole. I shifted to a slightly gentler tone.

"We talked about this, Noah. We are not quitting. Get on your bike." He did.

We finally reached the turn onto MLK, and I discovered something that I didn't scope out ahead of time--Congress does not actually become Speedway, the way it seems on the map. Instead, there is a large building and plaza between the two. I hadn't seen this the night before, because I took the Trinity around the capitol and picked up Speedway at 21st. It was too late to do anything about this, though, because riding MLK all the way to Trinity would mean a steep uphill to Speedway, and I couldn't bear the thought of another 2 mph walk. We turned left into the plaza. Noah missed the ramp, and crashed into the curb, landing heavily on his side.

I dropped my bike and ran to him. Thankfully, there was no bleeding. A couple who was crossing the street saw what happened and offered me their cell phone, but I waved that he was okay. And he was...we checked for broken bones, sprained joints, and found none. He was able to walk, and I picked up the bikes and leaned them against a pillar while we rested and calmed down.

It was now about 9:45, we were both injured, we were down to one bottle of water, and we had only completed one of the seven checkpoints.

Next up: Part III - Salvation by Big Wheel

Race report , Part I - Preparation

I'm happy to report that Noah and I survived the Urban Assault Race. We only did 6 of the 7 checkpoints, because I was afraid we would run into the time limit if we tried to make it to the rowing dock and back. Plus, the way back from there involved a short steep uphill, and I was afraid that Noah might throw down his bike and launch into fits of weeping if we had to climb one more hill. :) There had been enough crying already, and I was too hot and tired to deal with any more. I'm not totally sure what our finish time was, but I think it was somewhere around 3:45. I do know that our average speed on the bike was 8.6 mph, because I could check that on my bike computer.

There was one fall, a couple long checkpoint lines, an unintended somersault, some whining, some fighting, a couple minor injuries, and a little bit of cell phone drama. Despite it all, there was still a good amount of fun, too. I'm not sure we'll do it again next year, but I'm glad we gave it a try.

That might be all you really want to know about this, in which case, you can skip the extended entry and the next few posts on the subject. :) I'm going to try to get the entire story up in the next few days, so that I don't forget anything. If you do care to know the details, OPEN WIDE.

Upon getting the bike up to our 9th floor room, I discovered that the back tire was flat, probably from one of the dozens of times I had to navigate around glass on my ride that morning (seems like every person in the Woodlands has been throwing glass bottles out the window lately). Luckily, I had a spare tube. Not so luckily, I had left the floor pump in the van. So, by the time I retrieved the pump, got the tube changed, washed my hands (and arms, and leg...), and put my riding clothes on, it was after 6 pm. This didn't leave me much time to test-ride the race route, but it had to be enough--I wasn't about to go into it blind.

It took me just under 2 hours to ride to all the checkpoints, and it was well worth the effort. Here's what I discovered:

-The roads that go around the capitol building were closed with iron gates and traffic cones, even though the bicycle map had them marked as green (easy) bike routes. Rob thought it might be that congress is in session, but they could be like that all the time for all I know.

-The trails I mentioned the other day? All but useless on a road bike. The Town Lake ones were okay, but most of the Shoal Creek section was either too rocky or under construction. I spent a good 10 minutes slogging through gravel and mud trying to get back out to Lamar when I ran out of rideable trail there. Later on, I got lost on the Town Lake trail, accidentally taking a little offshoot onto Robert E. Lee and getting so disoriented that I finally had to sit down and triangulate my position based on a Zilker Park sign and the direction of the setting sun (thanks for that tip, Rob). So, needless to say, the trails were out for race day.

-In downtown Austin, East-West routes were generally steeper than North-South routes. North and west are mostly uphill, south and east mostly down. At least, that was my experience.

-Austin drivers are more bike-friendly than Houston drivers. And all those beautiful bike lanes! Almost makes me want to move.

-My route plan needed some fairly drastic revisions.

I also was feeling fairly optimistic about the race. The streets were mostly quiet, and yes...a little hilly, but not nearly as bad as I'd thought. I was able to average a little under 15 mph, and even with getting lost and everything, I only did 20-21 miles. With a little route-tweaking, I could get it down to 14-15, and keep the steep inclines to a minimum. Noah may even be able to average 10 mph on-bike, and if each checkpoint took...oh, let's say 10 minutes, we could be done by 10 am!

Oh, how naive I was. :)

After I showered and got some food, I started reworking my plan. I decided not to go to Jo's Coffee first, deciding to move it to the end and go straight north to the two farthest checkpoints instead. That would also get the hardest part of the race over first, which I thought would be better for Noah...by the time he got really tired, it would be mostly downhill and we'd be stopping a lot. I kept working on it, obsessing over which turn to take when (how well would Noah really do on a 4-lane one-way street? Could we get all the way to the left from the light without some Froggering?) By the time I was satisfied with my battle plan, it was close to midnight. Despite doing two 20-mile bike rides and driving 150 miles between them, I had some trouble sleeping. Like, I finally dropped off somewhere around 4 am. My alarm was set for 5:45.

Next up: Part II - And We're Off!

Austin natives...help!

So, anyone here from Austin?

I'm wondering what the bike "trail/path"s marked on this map (brown dotted lines) are like. Paved? Gravel? Fraught with obstacles and kids on scooters? Even real? Having only ever driven in Austin (and only once, at that), all these roads are pretty much just lines on a map for me.

I've been working out various routes for the UAR, and I can shave over 2 miles off the total distance if we use the trails. The rules don't expressly forbid them, and I think they'd be better for riding with the kid, so long as they can be traveled safely at a decent speed. If we're going to have to dodge dogs and slow to 5 mph every few yards, then it's probably not worth the trouble.

I'm going to have time on Saturday to scope everything out, but I don't want to spend too much time considering the trails if they're not going to rideable on Sunday morning.

So, help a girl out. Who knows Austin?

blind leading the...um, less blind

So, did I mention that I got lost on my last club ride? You know, the one I'm supposed to LEAD?!

Well, I did.

Oh, it started out easily enough. I got to the start area about 10 minutes early, and waited for my group to start showing up. They trickled in by ones and twos until there were five of us, three new faces, me, and one repeat from the week before. All were regular riders that I recognized from the Sunday ride, so I felt pretty at-ease. I gave a brief overview of the route we'd be taking, ran through the safety speech, and we were off.

The trouble started about 11 miles in. See, here is the route I was intending to take:

Note that loop at the top of the route, and how it hits the same road twice. To follow this route correctly, we would cross that road the first time, and turn right onto it the second time. Due to my dumbassery, what we actually did was turn right the first time, skip the loop completely, and go about 3 miles in the wrong direction. About a mile after the wrong turn, I started to notice that traffic was getting heavier, and the road was longer than it should have been. I was starting to get seriously uneasy. Something was rotten in the state of Denmark. (Or, you know, Texas.)

Luckily, around the same time I started realizing that I had lost my way, one of the guys pulled up beside me.

"Where are we turning?"
"I don't know. I meant to go to the end, but I'm not sure how we ended up here. Shouldn't we be hitting Branch Crossing pretty soon?"
"We're way past Branch Crossing."
"Crap! What the hell did I do? Let's stop. STOPPING!"

Luckily, this guy did loops in the area all the time, and after a brief pow-wow with the group, he found us a way back that only added 3 miles to the intended route. Of course, that didn't prevent me from feeling like a TOTAL ASSHOLE and apologizing constantly for the next hour. I didn't even completely understand where I went wrong until about 2 miles later, when we came to an intersection I recognized from last week's route. My internal compass returned with a thud, and I realized where I had gone astray. Dammit!

Then, as a final indignity, I managed to miss another turn leading out from a regroup point, and the entire rest of the group had to call me back. I surrendered leadership after that, since I was obviously unfit for the job. We got back to the start safely, I apologized profusely, and we dispersed. I rode home after that, defeated and wondering if I'm really fit to lead this ride. At the very least, I'm pretty sure none of those folks will ever ride with me again. Sigh.

On the bright side, the route we took back to the start was actually better than what I had originally planned. By getting lost, I was able to plan a safer, easier loop for next time:

Note the complete lack of turns onto Research. :)

While I'm still not sure I'm a worthy ride leader, I'm going to cut myself some slack and give it another go. It's only my second week, after all.

the new kid

Meet the latest addition to our family:

I've spent the evening getting her road-ready--putting air in the tires, exchanging pedals (it took all three of us to get the platforms off...the left one was tightened by God, I think), getting the seat to the right height. I think I've got everything the way I want it now, but we'll see on the commute tomorrow.

She doesn't have a name yet...Noah votes for Molly, Rob favors Elle, and I'm leaning toward Lucy or Daisy. Any suggestions?

more bike stuff

My commute this morning took 57 minutes. The right turn out of the parking lot worked much better than last week's left, but I was still stuck at the light for-freakin'-ever. Or, you know, 10 minutes. But if you're on a bike surrounded by two lanes of bubba trucks, 10 minutes is a long time.

One bright spot in that wait, though...I had a fun little conversation with a guy in the left lane. I'm not brave enough to try and go around the traffic at a red light, even if there is enough room on the right. On this particular road, there's really not. So at lights where everyone is creeping along at 5-10 mph anyway, I like to move toward the center of the lane and stay behind the same car the whole way. Once I get to the light, I move over closer to the curb so people can pass me when traffic picks up. So, this is how it happened that I was creeping along next to the same little blue car for a good half-mile. At one point, the driver called out to me.

"You should at least pass the Hummer." He gestured at an H2 two cars up.

I laughed a little, and answered, "I don't think I have the strength to take him."

"Maybe, but it'd be cool. There's also a Dodge hemi up there, both with one person in them, like always."

I paused for a moment, relishing the mental picture of me, a 190-lb thirtysomething woman on a bike, blowing by this 2-ton SUV...wearing a skirt, no less. Hee. "Yeah, that would be fun, wouldn't it?"

He smiled and nodded, and then we were off on our next 10-foot creep toward the light.

In other bike news, I made it to my first cycling club meeting last night, paid my membership fee, and then took complete leave of my senses volunteered to lead a beginner's ride on Saturdays, starting somewhere around the middle of this month. I now vacillate between being totally psyched about it and wondering what the hell I was thinking when I raised my hand.

On the one hand, I think there's a demand for a beginner's Saturday ride in our area. I don't know how MUCH demand, but I know that it's one of those things that I've been wishing the club had available. They do have a Saturday ride, but the slowest group is 17 mph and they ride out in the middle of nowhere. I haven't even tried it, for fear that either they'd drop me in the first 10 minutes and I'd have to call Rob to find me, or one of the faster riders would have to hang back shooting me embittered glances as I limped along at my pathetic 14-15 mph. ;) So, I think a slower-paced, in-town social ride on Saturdays is a great idea.

On the other hand, I'm slightly terrified to lead one. I think I have enough knowledge to do it. I've been riding on the road for 5 years, I know the rules, I can ride in a straight line, change a flat, etc. However, I'm not the most social person. I'm not terribly charismatic, people don't just like me. I can lead things if no one else is available (which is pretty much what happened here--a call for volunteers to lead a Saturday beginner ride was met with an uncomfortable silence...so I spoke up), but I'm more at ease hanging back and keeping to myself. What if no one shows up? What if people do show up, but then think that I'm a total asshat and never come back? Or what if it goes really well, and I have to be all organized and responsible and stuff?

The biggest thing I'm afraid of, as with any project I take on, is that I'll get all perfectionist about it. You know, set ridiculously high expectations, agonize and totally blame myself if it doesn't meet them, overthink and obsess over it until I've blown it so completely out of proportion that it isn't fun anymore? Which I'm kind of doing already, so I'm going to just try to think about it as little as possible right now. I'm not even starting for two more weeks anyway, and all I have to do before that is get with one of the other ride leaders who volunteered to help me plan a route. Whatever happens happens...worst case, I only committed to do it for a month or two anyway. If I really suck at being a ride leader, I'll pass it on to someone else.

Well, that's about all the time I have. I need to change clothes for the ride home. High-80s and humid...I'm glad I went sleeveless today. :)

triathlon?

I took Noah to the park today, and noticed that there was some kind of class going on. After about 5 minutes, I crept a little closer to the event and thought it sounded like a "triathlons for dummies" sort of thing. Since I had passed signs on the club ride this morning warning of race traffic on 5/6, I called Rob to find out if there was a triathlon in the Woodlands next Saturday. Hey--there is!

So, feeling only a little bit guilty, I listened in on the first-timers clinic for about 10 minutes. Not long enough for me to feel like I should have paid the registration fee, but long enough to make me want to do this triathlon. I bet I can be ready for it by next year, if I start working on the swimming and running next winter.

Later on, I had an opportunity to talk to one of the clinic coaches (they needed the little wall I was sitting on for the other swim clinic at 2:30), and asked when the event had sold out this year. March 27th. So, I just have to remember this in February so I can register before it sells out.

bike commute update, and a couple more reviews

I did it! The entire trip took 54 minutes, and it took 12 of those to go the first mile and a half. I didn't get honked at a single time, though I had to "Hey!" a truck that was about to pull out in front of me. The weather was perfect, and I really enjoyed it. A couple observations to file for next time:

-Leave the house earlier. Any kind of traffic is going to set me back, and I can't count on making up time with faster speeds on the empty roads (though I was able to maintain 18 mph for about 3 miles). Ideally, I want to be on the bike by 7:30. It was closer to 7:45 today, and that cut my showering time a little close. I was still in my office before 9:00, but there was some mad blow-drying goin' on.

-The first road on my route is much busier at 7:30 am than it is at 8:30 (when I was driving it). I parked on the opposite side of the road from where I had originally planned, thinking that it would be easier to turn left in the morning than in the evening. I think that I may go back to my first draft on this one...left in the evening looks like the way to go.

-That road also has a lot of storm sewer drains (oh, the things you don't notice in a car), so riding at least 3 feet from the curb is a Good Idea, even if it does irritate the drivers. It's a good time to recite the "My bike is a vehicle" mantra under my breath.

-The sidewalk on the second busy road is almost unrideable. I had planned to slow to a crawl on it anyway, but it was so torn up that it was all I could do to coast and stay upright. I'm better off taking the road in the mornings, and walking the bike on the sidewalk in the evenings (when a crappy sidewalk still beats the dangers of a left turn onto a 4-lane throughway at an uncontrolled intersection).

-The last left turn is really dangerous if there's anyone at all coming the other direction on the street I'm turning from (WNW street)...that's where I was almost hit by the truck. It's another uncontrolled intersection, and since the road I'm turning onto (SSE street) is steadily trafficked all day long, it's one of those places where you have to be quick if you want to get across. I thought I'd be okay because WNW is a low-traffic street, but today there were 3 cars coming the other way and none of us really knew what to do with each other. So I think I'll be safer going straight across SSE, and either doubling around to make a right turn instead or coming through the parking lot of the warehouse behind my office building.

-My cleat was not positioned correctly on my right shoe. I recently put the Frog pedals back on my bike and moved the cleats to my road shoes, and I don't think I put the right one far enough back. I feel like I'm pointing my toe, and my right knee is aching a bit at the moment. I moved the cleat back as far as it would go this afternoon, so we'll see if that helps.

So, yeah...except for these things, it was a really good ride. I'm glad I did it, and I plan to do it again. Once school's out, I think I'll try 3-4 times per week.

Now, those reviews:

Larabar Apple Pie - You know how, when you're in the first phase of some low-carb/South Beach-y kind of diet, and the day comes when you just want to swim in a vat of mashed potatoes, so you go looking for alternatives and someone gives you a recipe for mashed cauliflower and says it tastes JUST LIKE mashed potatoes? And then you decide to try it and feel totally cheated because it SO doesn't, and it's just a poor, sad substitute for the real thing? So then you start craving pie?

Put down the pie and buy this instead. (Well, not if you're on South Beach or some other low-carby diet...with the bar's 19 (23g/4g fiber) net carbs, you probably couldn't have it either.) It really does taste like apple pie, I swear. Stick it in the microwave for a few seconds and add a scoop of ice cream, and you've got yourself an a la mode. Of course, the entire Larabar staff would probably faint dead away, since the bars are all vegan and raw foods and rah-rah-rah. Whatever...my point is, they're good stuff. You should try one.

Brilliant Brunette shampoo & conditioner - Not only do they make my hair all shiny and smooth, but they make it smell like summer. The conditioner smells like that old-school cocoa butter tanning lotion my mom used to use, and the shampoo smells vaguely of insect repellent. When I use them together, I shake my head and suddenly feel like going to the beach. :)

no--really. for real this time.

Oh, and I forgot to mention...partly cloudy and a high of 83 tomorrow. I'm so totally bike commuting.

bike commute - cancelled!

I've decided against the bike commute today, and here's why:

Yesterday? That "strong" wasn't there. Also, the text weather report says this:

"Locally strong thunderstorms possible. Storms could contain large hail..."

There was more, but I only got as far as "large hail" before I said "aw, hell no." I'm nervous enough about this whole bike commute thing without worrying about possibly being pummeled by big ol' iceballs on my way home.

So, maybe Thursday, when it's supposed to be partly cloudy. The boy can take the bus or something.

UPDATE: Of course, it's now 2:30, and there is absolutely no sign of the deathstorms that weather.com warned me about. Dammit, if it doesn't at least RAIN today, I'm going to be seriously pissed. I gave up my bike commute--for clouds! They're not even DARK clouds!

T - 16 hours

I brought an extra set of office clothes and a toiletry bag to work today. Tomorrow, I am going to do my first partial bike commute.

According to weather.com, I may be riding home in a thunderstorm. Or not. It really doesn't know, other than that there might be thunderstorms, maybe severe, anywhere in Houston at any time after noon tomorrow. I'll keep my fingers crossed that the storms will either hit my area before 5:00 or after 7:00. It would be a shame to get struck by lightning on my very first ride to work. :)

Even weather aside, I am pretty nervous about this. I've driven the route about a dozen times, so it's not like I'm afraid I'll get lost. I'm more afraid I'll get yelled/honked at*, or run off the road by someone not paying attention, or I'll discover when I get into the locker room that someone has moved my pants. Or that every towel in the company is in the washer.

Really, though, I'm sure it will be fine. Maybe I'll even love it.

*Speaking of that, I got honked at 4 times on my Saturday ride...the most in a quite a while. Only one sounded like malicious honking (accompanied by some dumbass teenage boy's head hanging out of passenger window saying something I couldn't quite make out), but it was still out of the ordinary. Maybe because it was MS150 weekend? I don't know. I'd like to think that it's because I look absolutely smoking hot in my bike shorts, but I don't think that's the case(yet). Maybe it was just that it was almost 90 degrees and my face gets alarmingly red and blotchy in the heat. "Holy shit, that fat girl on the bike's gonna have a coronary! Honk at her so she won't pass out!"

my next big thing

So...I'm seriously considering starting a partial bike commute this summer.

I can't do a full commute, because I live 25 miles from work by freeway. If I tried to find a route that avoided major highways, the distance would probably jump to 40-50 miles, and there are just not enough daylight hours. With a 3-4 hour commute each way, Noah and Rob might forget what I look like.

However, there is a huge empty store (and thus, empty parking lot) at somewhere around the 1/2-3/4 mark on my normal route. I've been thinking that once I don't have to drive The Boy to school anymore, I could get an early enough start that I could park there and bike the rest of the way. I ran a couple route options through the gmap pedometer yesterday, and the best (read = safest, least trafficked) one comes out to just over 11 miles. That would add to my total commute time, but only by an hour or so each day. About equivalent to the time it takes to hit the gym after work, really.

If I bike-commuted even three times a week, that would give me 60+ additional miles on the bike, at a time when I'm going to be training for a century. It would also save me a little gas (at $3 a gallon!) and avoid having to park my car in the work parking lot, which is about 30 spaces smaller than it needs to be. I mean, I guess parking on the street a 1/4 mile away also makes for some exercise, but if I have my druthers I'd rather not walk that far in my girl shoes.

Of course, this plan also has its downsides. For one thing, even though I tried to avoid busy roads as much as possible, it is a high-traffic area during rush hour, and none of the roads have shoulders or bike lanes. I was able to run most of the route through residential areas without adding much distance, but there are a couple unavoidable turns onto heavy-traffic 4-lane roads. I'm only on them for a block or two, but it's still a little scary.

Secondly, there's the clothing/hygiene problem. There are showers and towels in the workout center at my office complex, which is awesome, but I'd prefer not to carry a messenger bag or anything on the bike. So, I'd have to bring clothes and toiletries to work in my car at some point and store them there. This is really a minor problem, because I have a quasi-closet in my office, and there are cubbyhole-type lockers in the fitness center also. No one's going to want to steal my clothes, so I could leave a week's worth there if I really wanted to. So this one's really not an obstacle so much as a matter of logistics and hassle.

And finally, there's the weather. Heat, humidity, hurricane season...mmm, that's good ridin'! Of course, I'll get acclimated to the heat, and it won't ssem as bad after the first few weeks. I'll need to do that anyway, since chances are good that it's not going to be all 65 and cool breezes for my century in July, either.

So, obviously, I have mostly talked myself into this. I think I'm going to do some test runs on the next few Tuesdays (Noah has an early practice at school, so I have more time on Tuesday mornings), see if it's as appealing in practice as in theory.

"Lie down now, rest, and we'll talk about this when you regain your senses." *

Yeah, so I did the Space Race yesterday. It was a beautiful day for it, high-60s, low-70s, and if not for the godforsaken wind, it would have been absolutely perfect. The 41-mile course ended up being a little over 42 miles...which, as it turns out, is maybe 5-10 miles short of the max distance my body is willing to ride at the moment. Meaning that, beautiful weather or not, I was so ready for the finish line. If I hadn't had a riding partner (thanks again, Jarrod), I may have had to hop on the SAG wagon for those last wind-in-the-face five miles. Also meaning that there's no way in the universe that I can be ready for 90 miles next month. No Shiner for me, thanks.

As for the rest of the day, I took a long bath and nursed a saddle sore on my leg from where the strap of my saddle-bag kept rubbing on every pedal stroke for the last 15-20 miles. It didn't rub until after the second rest stop. Either laying the bike down or the adjustment of my shorts was enough to bring thigh and strap in contact--about 7000 times. Despite stopping twice after that, I never figured out how to fix it. Also, OW.

After the bath, I read some books, watched some TV, thought about doing some laundry, and tried valiantly to convince my body that it didn't need a nap. I was able to hold it off until 5:00 or so, but then I lay down on the living room couch and crashed hard. About 5 hours later, I got up and moved to bed, where I slept like a rock until 3:00 am, then more fitfully until 7:00. I haven't done that after a 40-mile ride for...2 years? So, basically, I'm not nearly as fit as I used to be. But I knew that already.

On the bright side, my odometer is up over 1500 miles now. Not a terribly impressive number for 9 months' worth of riding, but still a lot of road.

*that's part of a quote from Million Dollar Baby, which came to mind as I was trying in vain to stay awake yesterday afternoon. Full quote: "The body knows what fighters don't: how to protect itself. A neck can only twist so far. Twist it just a hair more and the body says, 'Hey, I'll take it from here because you obviously don't know what you're doing.... Lie down now, rest, and we'll talk about this when you regain your senses.' It's called the knockout mechanism."

While I wasn't knocked out, exactly, I was definitely at the point where my body knew best. :)

workin' it out

So. I lost half a pound this week. If I'm honest with myself, I consider that pretty darn lucky.

The fact is, I haven't been consistent with the eating at all...I'm averaging around 1800-1900, but it sometimes gets as high as 2500. And that's on days where I'm actually trying to keep my calories down. Of the anniversary weekend eating, we will not speak.

So, since food is a problem that I'm obviously not ready to overcome, I'm concentrating on the exercise. This month begins a new quarter, so my work fitness points reset back to 0. I'd really like to get my gift certificate(s) this quarter, so I've worked out every weekday this month. Sure, that's only three, but it was 3 consecutive days. Do you have any idea how long it's been since I've done any kind of intentional exercise for 3 days in a row? Long and long. So this is progress.

As I always do when I start making progress, my next thought is that I need to kick up the frequency. Conventional wisdom says that I should do this gradually. Add one workout a week, you know, whatever. I say, screw gradual. I gradually put on 10 lbs in the last 2 months, and I'd like them to go away. As soon as possible. I'd also like to get out of the "weekend warrior" cycling mode, and do more weekday riding. Unfortunately, the sunrise/sunset times aren't quite right for me to fit outdoor rides into my schedule, and since I cannot abide the trainer, this means classes at the gym. Not that there's anything wrong with classes...I actually enjoy them, and having an instructor gets me to do things that I wouldn't do on my own (like, standing climbs). They just require some planning, and make me beholden to someone else's schedule.

After checking the schedules of the local 24-hour fitnesses*, I found that the one on the way home to/from work has a 24-cycle class at 6:00 pm Mon-Thurs. So, with that in mind, here's the workout schedule I've come up with for the coming weeks.

Monday: walk at lunch(2 miles), 6pm class
Tuesday: early morning cardio @ gym(45 min-hour), walk at lunch
Wednesday: walk at lunch(2 miles), 6 pm class
Thursday: early morning cardio@gym(45 min-hour), walk at lunch
Friday: early morning cardio@gym(45 min-hour), walk at lunch
Saturday: solo ride(30-50 miles)
every other Sunday: club ride (30 miles)

I also give myself permission to skip 1-2 workouts/week, if I don't feel up to it. I'm willing to bet that 90% of my skips are going to be the early morning cardio, because I am so not a morning person. However, with this schedule, it doesn't really matter. There's still plenty of exercise in there, and varying levels of intensity.

You may have noticed there's no strength training. I know I need to add it back eventually, but right now I'm more comfortable sticking with the cardio. I also may add flexibility workouts eventually, but I'll be taking my time about it. Just going with a lot of the stuff I like right now.

We'll see how it goes.

*I also discovered, entirely by accident, that I don't need to log into 24hourfitness.com's gawdawful eClub interface to look up the group schedules at my favorite clubs. I can just go here, and choose the club I want to see. Woo!

back in the saddle

Nothing's really changed since yesterday, but I've decided to forget about that whole drama and proceed as if I've never heard the words "empty sac". Worrying about it doesn't do me any good, and neither does the moping (though it did help to write it out, a little). It's not denial, exactly, just moving on with whatever parts of my life I can control...one of which is my ride plans for the next couple months.

So, in the spirit of ignoring the elephant moving on, I've signed up for two rides--one in March, one in April. Because of my recent 10-lb gain and over 2 weeks off the bike, I'm starting slowly. The ride on March 11th is only 23-25 miles (it depends on where you look...the active.com registration page alone had two different numbers), and the one on April 9th is 41 miles. Even if I am still pregnant by then, I should be able to handle those distances.

I'm also hoping that, now that it has stopped raining every effin' day, I can get back on the bike on weekends some. I did finally get into a 24Cycle class on Saturday. I've been trying for weeks, but the 7:30's always full, no matter how early I get there*. I didn't give up this week, though, and rearranged my schedule to make the 9:30. Unfortunately, it was with the instructor I hate. I still managed to enjoy it a little, so I'm going to try to make the 5:30 am class tomorrow, too. If Perky McScreamerson turns out to be the instructor again (the schedule lists only first name, and I think there are two Robins), there's always the elliptical.

Even if I don't try to LOSE this month's 10 lbs right away, I need to start doing something to help keep my weight steady, at least.

*UPDATE: Looking at the online schedule to check instructor names, I've discovered that the 7:30 is actually a 7:00. Duh...no wonder it's full at 7:05. :)

making progress

I'm happy to report that my workouts are getting better. After over a week of turtle-slow workouts, I think I've figured out the secret to avoiding the cramps. Are you ready?

WARM UP.

Well, duh, right? You'd think that after a couple years of regular exercise, I would have discovered the value of a 5-10 minute warmup. But, being stubborn and impatient, I like to hit the ground running(or at least walking fast), especially on short workouts. Pre-elephant, this was not a problem, because my body could handle 3.5-4.0 mph (or 14-16 mph on a bike) right out of the gate. Now? Not so much.

On my walks on the last two days, I have forced myself to go slowly for the first 1/2 mile. After those first 9-11 minutes, I can pick it up to a more satisfying pace (3.5 - 3.8 mph, depending on my energy level) and not have cramping problems. Woohoo! I haven't tried the oh-so-innovative warm-up philosophy with cycling or the elliptical, but I'm pretty sure the same concept will apply nicely there.

I also bought a yoga DVD today, which I'm hoping to do a couple times a week. I'm much less flexible now than I was 11 years ago, so I figure that learning some stretching exercises would be a Good Thing. I've never done yoga before, so hopefully this DVD will have a big instructional chapter. Even if it does, it will probably take me 3-4 sessions before I can do any poses with any degree of confidence. We'll see.

As far as weight goes, I stepped on the scale this morning to discover I've gained back about 2 of the 3.5 lbs I lost last week. I'm not terribly concerned about it...I think it's mostly water retention. I haven't been stepping on the scale nearly as much this week, so I don't know how much it's been fluctuating. If I can weigh in under 190 when I see the doctor next week, that'll be good enough. I've also mostly accepted the fact that I'm going to see the 200s again this year. Not happy about it...just resigned.

I've also been revamping my ride plans for the coming months. I'm not going to do the Huntsville ride (Pedalfest 2006) this month, because it's more hilly than I want to go. It's going to be virtually impossible to keep my HR under 150 while climbing, and I'm not pregnant enough to not look like a candyass walking up a hill. :)

I think the Continental ride is still doable, though I'm going to have to do the 25-miler. I just remembered that we've got Cirque du Soleil tickets for that night, and I'd like to be able to stay awake for that. Plus, the 25-mile route is a little milder, if I recall correctly.

Space Race is still a go, probably for 40 miles if I feel up to it. Shiner is out, and so--sadly--is the Urban Assault Race. I'm most upset about giving that one up...I was really looking forward to it. However, my center of gravity will have shifted by then, and a bike race/obstacle course/scavenger hunt in an unfamiliar city is probably not such a good idea under the circumstances. Even if I didn't feel the risk of falling was too high, my doctor is not likely to approve. And Rob would worry himself sick. *sniffle* Ah well...there's always next year.

After June, I think I'll stick primarily to the bike trails. Noah and I drove to The Woodlands on Sunday afternoon and did a 8-10 mile ride around the trails there, and I could totally see us doing that well into the pregnancy. We had a really good time, and we don't do enough stuff together the way it is.

So, that's the plan right now. I'm off to get a walk in before lunch!

how I've been doing

the short version:

Not so good, but making progress.

The long version:

Since the beginning of the workweek, I've worked out either once or twice...I honestly don't remember. This is pretty sad, considering that that's only 4 days to remember. The problem is that I've intended to work out every day, so sometimes my brain is tempted to turn an "I need to work out" on Monday to a "I did work out" by Thursday. The only one I'm really sure about is Tuesday, because I went to the gym and mistook my driver's license for my membership card, and there was this whole big thing. Otherwise, I may have forgotten that one too.

On the food, well...no. I'm having a hard time getting my groove back with the food. I've mostly got breakfast back on track (1 1/2-egg omelet, cheese, sometimes oj), but lunch dinner and oh-dear-god-the-snacking have been a challenge. On the days that I count at all, my points totals range 35-45 pretty consistently. For those unfamiliar with the points system, that's about 10-20 more than the recommended range for someone my size. It's still not outrageous...converting it to calories @50 cal per point (rough estimate, varies with nutrition) makes the range 1750-2250, which is part of the reason I've still managed to lose 3 of the 4 lbs I inexplicably put on last week. That, and drinking vast amounts of water. That's, like, the one thing I'm doing right.

So, something needs to change if I want to have any chance of making goal this year. And I really, really want to make goal this year. I've been working on this for over 3 years now, and I'm running out of ways to spin my weak results. "Losing slowly makes it easier to maintain" has been keeping me going for a couple years now, but as my average loss has dwindled down to less than a 1/4-lb a week, it seems like more of an excuse than a justification. It's not like I don't know what I need to do to see results...it's time to start doing it. Again.

ride plans

Just about the time I make the gym's Tues-Thurs 30-minute cycling class part of my plan, they cancel it. According to the online schedule, tomorrow's class is the last one. Grr. So now I need to decide whether I want to do an hour-long class instead, on Mon, Wed, Fri, or some combination thereof.

Speaking of cycling, I put about 65 miles on the bike this weekend, bringing last week's total to somewhere around 75. Not too shabby for the first week back after a month off. I have to say, though, finishing Saturday's ride was hard. The first 23 miles were fine, but I just did not want to get going after the break. If Rob had been home when I called him, instead of on the way to borrow a truck (we needed to buy a 6-foot ladder, and one would not fit in either of our teeny cars), I totally would have had him pick me up. As it was, I would have had to sit at the Starbucks for over an hour, so I decided to just suck it up and ride the 18 miles back home. Of course, then I decided to take a new way home, got lost, and added another 2 miles or so to the total ride. So it ended up being 43 miles, with an average speed of around 13.5 mph.

Sunday was the club ride, and it was a big group this week. There were a lot of slower and first-time riders, so I was able to hang out at the back of the pack and not feel like the lone wuss. Not that the other riders were wussy, because they weren't (there were some hybrid riders in there that could pedal, man). I just was slacking a little more than usual. It was nice doing the club ride again. A few people recognized me, and I met some new people that were about my speed. We skipped the extra 5-mile loop, so the ride ended up being about 22 miles. I think my average was around 13.5 mph on that one, too.

One of the side effects of the club ride is that someone there reminded me about the Frost Bike 50 at the end of this month, which I have now signed up to do. I teetered on the fence between the 45 and 55-mile route, but decided to do the 45. It's only 2 weeks away, and considering how much I was wishing for a SAG truck on this Saturday's ride, I think 45's the better bet.

This has also got me thinking about my charity ride plan for this year. Ideally, I'd like to do one a month, but the timing doesn't always work out. Tentatively, here's what I'm thinking I'll do:

January: Frost Bike 50 (45-mile)
February: Pedalfest 2006 (40-60 mile, probably 40 because it's hilly and I'm a candyass)
March: Continental Airlines Cycling Classic (62-mile)
April: Space Race (60 or 80-mile)
May: Shiner Bash (I wanted to do this last year, but wasn't ready for 90 miles in May. They don't even have a date set for this year's event as far as I can tell, but I'm doin' it, man. Bring on the free beer!)
June: Subaru Urban Assault Race (provided they do one in 2006 June 25th--woo! I swear they just put the 2006 info up this afternoon--it wasn't there this morning AND I can find someone to drive to Austin and ride it with me)
July: Katy Flatland Century (100-mile)
August: ?
September: Tour de Pink (if they do it again this year--62-mile)
October: TX Cycling Classic (62 or 87-mile)
November: Tour de Doughnut and/or Novemberfest (62-mile)

I think I'll take December off, unless something really cool comes up. And, of course, all of this is riding (heh) on staying unpregnant this year. Pregnancy at any point in this schedule may not eliminate rides altogether, but would scale back the distances considerably.

So, that's the cycling plan. Now, if I could just get as complete a diet and weight-loss plan together, that would be something.

before I forget again...

I've been wanting to mention this since it happened, but I keep forgetting--on Saturday, 11/5/05, my bike's odometer rolled past the 1000-mile mark.

I didn't get to see it roll over while I was on the bike, because I always keep cadence and time/speed on the display. I knew it was getting close, though, so I checked it as I pulled into the driveway--1012.4! I would have taken a picture, but we were out of AA batteries and the ones in the camera were dead. Now it's at, like, 1075, so the photo-op has passed.

My last bike had less than 800 in 4 years...this one has over 1000 in less than 4 months. :) How times have changed...

the clueless n00b does a club ride

well, I did it. I got past my fear and went to the cycling club ride on Sunday.

I was a little nervous at first because I got there super early, and couldn't see a meeting place. There was one SUV with a hitch rack and a couple bikes, but they weren't getting out of their car. I was too chicken to walk up and actually talk to the people (presumably) inside, so I decided to park in a side parking lot and watch them, all incognito you know? Well, after about 3 minutes of this, the SUV started driving over to my parking lot. It hit me--"Shit, they're new too! And they think I know what I'm doing!"

Of course, I panicked. I threw the car in drive and took off aimlessly through the neighborhood. I would have done this until 8:00 rolled around, except that I had drunk half a water bottle and now needed to pee. I parked near the entrance to the grocery store and tried to look purposeful on my way to the restroom. Right after I got back to my car, a guy rolled up on a bike.

"Are you here for the club ride?"

I just about fainted with relief. "Yes! Have you done this one before?"

"No, this is my first time. I was hoping you knew."

Oh, goddammit. I asked him if he was a member of the club, hoping he wasn't so that we could be party-crashers together. He was a member, but you don't have to be a member to ride. More the merrier. Woohoo!

So, feeling a little more at ease, I mentioned the mystery SUV, and how they were probably new also, since it looked like they had tried to follow me (I didn't mention how I had sped away like a scared little girl as they approached). He rode over to them and get the story, while I cowered in my car and waited to see if they would...I don't know, eat him or something. In a minute or two, a father and teenage son piled out of the car. After they had stood there talking for a little bit, I drove my car over and parked with them. Nope, not a single one of us knew where to go. Joy!

As we were standing around talking about charity rides we had done, weekly mileages, all the clubs we've known before, that sort of thing, a couple more cars pulled up. After 5 more minutes with still not a clue among us, one of the new guys offered to scout the other parking lots, see if maybe we were on the wrong side.

By 7:45, rumors were flying...it starts at 8:00/no, 8:30/sometimes people don't show up till 9, the speed is 16-19 mph/14-16 mph/one group goes 25+, etc. I panicked a little when the speed came up, but the guy who busted out with 16-19 assured me that "you can ride faster in a group." This made me immediately think of pacelines. When I mentioned that they scare me to death, it became obvious that while they were very nice and not the least bit threatening or condescending, all these other guys (even the 15-year-old) were seasoned team riders and I was just some hapless dork in a skort...obvious at least to ME, anyway.

Just as I was starting to fear that NO veterans would show up, one did. We actually weren't far from the right parking lot, so we moved all the cars over and started unloading gear. It was 10 more minutes before another woman showed up (with a lovely pink bike which I admired from afar, since I was too shy to introduce myself). Eventually, a group of about a dozen people started to form--a pack of racers, some casual-looking riders, and my group of newbies from the other parking lot. The ride leaders showed up around 8:20. We introduced ourselves around, went over safety rules and ride procedure, and grouped by average speed. One of the 4 women (not Pink Bike...she was faster) asked me if I wanted to ride with them, as they generally bring up the rear of the pack. Still dwelling on the 16-19 mph rumor from earlier, I asked how fast they go. 14-15 mph. Oh, I could have kissed her. That was perfect. We waited for the fast group to go out, and then we were off!

The ride itself was nice. Those who wanted to ride in a paceline did, but the rest of us just tagged along. We regrouped every 5-10 miles, stopping longer some times than others. The middle group always waited for us before continuing on from the regroup points...after the midway point, I think the fast group did extra miles, so they met up with us at the finish. We did a 29-mile route, most of which I had never ridden before. I rode comfortably in the second-to-last place, and had a great time. After the ride, we sat around and had coffee and smoothies. I did end up talking to Pink Bike, who had done the Doughnut last week also. After 10 minutes or so, I decided to head home, feeling good that my very first club ride went so well.

Of course, you know I couldn't get by without making an ass of myself at least once, right? Mercifully, this ass-making incident didn't happen until after I left the coffee shop and rode back to my car. As I approached the car, I turned my right leg out to unclip...and didn't. I tried again--my foot turned, but the cleat would not come out of the pedal. Shit! I knew my cleat must be loose...I always forget to check the screws. I clipped out the left side to keep from falling, but had NO IDEA what I was going to do next. My foot was stuck to the bike. I couldn't drive home!

Luckily, I spotted the father/son SUV still in the parking lot. I pedaled/Flintstoned my way over there, and knocked on the driver's side window. The kid opened the door.

"Can you help me for a second? My foot's stuck on the pedal--I think my cleat came loose."

He looked at it for a second. "Yep, it looks like you lost a screw--it's just going to keep spinning."

"How can I get out?" Panicked, I put myself at the mercy of a 15-year-old. (In my defense, this particular 15-year-old has a $2500 bike and a 22 mph average.)

He thought for about two seconds. "Well, you could take your foot out of the shoe."

Oh. My. God. I am such a dumbass. "I totally can. I can't believe I didn't think of that."

He helped me get my shoe off (I couldn't work the ratchet and stay upright), I thanked him profusely, and we went our separate ways. I ended up mounting the bike on the trunk rack and spinning the shoe around on the pedal to unscrew the cleat. I drove home, thinking that I have a totally kick-ass guardian angel. Dropping that cleat screw in the parking lot after the ride was embarrassing, sure, but if it had happened during the ride, it would have been seriously worse. It's like that thing with the broken chain last month...God watches over fools, I'm telling you.

I had to go to the bike shop (such a hardship :P) to get my cleat out of the pedal, since I was unable to wedge it out myself. They worked their magic, and after I put the cleat back on the shoe and the pedal back on the bike, I'll be good to go. I have also officially added "tighten cleat screws" to my pre-ride checklist.

You can say this for me...I may regularly make an ass of myself in public, but I seldom do it the same way twice. :)

le Tour (de Doughnut)

Well, Noah's first organized ride lasted till the first rest stop, about 10 miles. He ate three doughnuts, then decided he was all in. I was going to go ahead and finish, but then decided that I get enough solo riding the way it is, and rode back in the SAG truck with the boys.

Overall, Noah did really well. He's going to need more bike-handling practice and endurance training before we do another group ride, but he was still better than a lot of kids his age that were out there. There was a heart-stopping moment when he decided one of the SAG vehicles in front of us wasn't going fast enough and passed it ON THE LEFT. On a narrow two-way road. It was kind of my fault, because I had tried to make sure he knew to pass BIKES on the left, and to call out as he was doing so. I never said that the same wasn't true for cars. He did pass like I taught him to...yelled "on yer left!" and blasted between the Jetta and a BIG FUCKING TRUCK coming the other direction.

Good god. Took ten years off my life, I'm telling you. I managed not to keel over right there, and educated him on the finer points of passing cars once I was able to pass the car (on the right shoulder, thankyouverymuch) and catch up with him. Talking to him about that one was an exercise in self-control...I kind of felt like that scene in Major League A League of Their Own (I can't believe I got that wrong), the second time Tom Hanks is telling the blond that she's still missing the cut-off man? All trying not to make him cry because he really didn't know any better, while also trying to impart that he nearly scared his mother to death just then. It is a delicate balance.

Anyway, the ride was fun, but in retrospect, I wish we had waited for one with a 10-mile route option. This one was still fine, because there were a lot of groups with kids that didn't finish, so I didn't feel bad about catching a ride from the first rest stop. The SAG volunteer who drove us back to our car was really nice, and he and Rob talked cycling most of the way there. We got the bikes back on the car and were home by noon. It was a nice way to spend a morning as a family.

the frogs

Well, my pedals finally arrived yesterday. After a run to Walmart to buy a wrench set so that I could get the old pedals off my bike (which is weird, because I KNOW I had the correct wrench when I put them ON...), they installed without any trouble. The cleats were also simple enough to install on my spinning shoes. They just barely fit in the cleat opening, though.

I tried them on the trainer last night, and then went for a ride first thing this morning (and it was freakin' COLD...I really need to invest in some full-length cycle pants. Or at least knickers. I swear, my knees are still thawing). I still can't tell whether I like them or not. For one thing, they seem kind of high maintenance. According to the documentation, the cleats are supposed to be dry-lubed every couple rides, the pedal bearings greased every 2000 miles. I can barely remember to get my car's oil changed every 5,000 miles...how likely is it that I'm going to do maintenance on pedals? Maybe it's not the big deal I think it could be. I mean, I do wipe down my bike after every ride...lubing the cleats can be part of that. The mention of a grease gun sort of makes me nervous, though.

As far as riding in them goes...eh. I did like the lack of resistance on the clip-out, though it feels sort of freaky right now. I can see a lot less near-falls at stoplights. However, the flip side of that is that I never really feel clipped in. I mean, I AM...when I pull up on my foot, I take the pedal with me. Even standing, they stayed clipped in. It just never makes that reassuring clicking noise, you know? They also have a tendency to clip out when pulling backward if my toe is pointed down at all, especially on the right side. This could actually be a good thing, since I should be keeping my feet flat on the pedals anyway, but it makes me think that maybe I don't have the cleats adjusted quite right. Which could really be the root of ALL my problems, now that I think about it.

On the plus side, I like the way the cleats fit into my spinning shoes...they are flush with the rubber sole and don't click annoyingly when I walk. I'm not saying I want to walk miles in them or anything, but it beats having to do the penguin across the convenience store*. I also haven't missed the pedal on clip-in yet, which is an improvement over the SPDs. I don't know what it was with my ride on Saturday, but I slipped off the right pedal half a dozen times while trying to clip in. That sort of hurts, even for chicks. :) I can't really tell if the frogs are any better on my right knee, though...I can't really feel a whole lot more float on that side than I did before.

So anyway, holding off on buying another set of cleats for my road shoes until I've done a couple long rides with the Frogs. I'm fairly sure I'll like them once I'm more used to them and I've got everything adjusted right, but I'm sort of on the fence about them right now. It's actually an excellent time to ride with my spin shoes anyway, because they're warmer. The road shoes are mesh on top, and that can get a bit chilly when it's 50 degrees in the mornings.

*Hee...typing that line made me start singing "Doin' the Pigeon" from Sesame Street. Then of course I had to spend 20 minutes hunting down an mp3 (right-click, save)...I do have the Sesame Street classics CD somewhere, but it was probably lost in one of my many moves, since it apparently never made it into my iTunes. Ah, well. That skit was one of my favorite Bert & Ernies, though...you don't see Bert's legs often, and he's really quite the dancer. :)

I'm contagious

Last night, I was telling Noah that Rob and I were going to do the Tour de Doughnut, and he decided that he wants to do it too! My cycling fever, 'tis spreading.

Noah's become a stronger rider just since getting his new bike last week, though I'm still not sure he's going to be ready to do 28 miles in 2 weeks. As I've said before, though, we're not looking to break records or anything. Even if we average 8 mph, it's going to be fun riding together. Worst case, he and Rob can go as far as they can, then wave down the SAG truck.

Amelia's currently in the shop for a tune-up, and I'll be picking her up today and dropping off Rob's bike. When we rode on Sunday, the chain was slipping like crazy...since it looked like something that would require tools to fix, into the shop it goes. I'm also bringing in the back wheel of the hybrid...its back tire wasn't holding air, so I attempted to replace the tube. Exactly like the last time I tried to replace a tube, everything went fine until I tried to get the tire back into the rim--I got it over halfway there, but then it would go no further. Even Rob couldn't budge that last foot of tire this time, so now I must swallow my pride and admit that my tire changing skills are much like my dancing skills--while I understand the concepts involved, I cannot actually DO it. Unlike dancing, however, I do still have hope that I'll be able to change a flat someday.

UPDATE, later: Of course, even Jr. Bike Guy was able to get the tire back on the rim in less than a minute. Though he did say that it was a tight fit.

and a "duh" moment

A while back, when I started running again, I made a comment about how my right ankle felt weak. I was puzzled about it, because I couldn't think of anything that would have injured it.

Well, I figured it out yesterday, and it was a forehead-smacking moment.

I have two pairs of cycling shoes...one that I use for spinning classes, which have a recessed cleat, and one pair that I use on most rides, with the cleat sticking out from the sole of the shoe. They both have SPD cleats, so I can use them interchangeably.

Since I was going to be walking into a WW meeting on my ride today, I decided to wear my spinning shoes, which are much easier (and quieter) to walk in. However, while their cleats are SPD, they are sort of cheap and don't really work very well with my pedals. It takes a significant amount of effort to get the cleat out of the pedal.

And that, kids, is how I discovered what was causing my ankle issues. The first time I clipped out, I felt my ankle wrench and my knee tweak a little, and it was all I could do to not stop and say "Oh MY GOD, how stoopid am I?"

Now, like I say, these shoes require a LOT more force to unclip than my other shoes, so it's not all that surprising to me that I didn't make the connection earlier. If it doesn't hurt, I'm not likely to notice that I'm doing the same thing over and over. Yesterday, though, as soon as it hurt, it all became clear. I think my ankle problem is a repetitive stress thing from always clipping out on the right side first.

So, now that this mystery is solved, I'm going to try to fix it by clipping the left foot out first at every-other stop. Hopefully, this will give the right ankle enough of a break that it will stop complaining at me. It will also make me more able to clip out on either side in an emergency situation. Worst case, I'll succeed in crippling both my ankles. :)

alas, poor Peanut, I knew him well

Well.

I left the office fully intending to do the Cardio Coach workout at the new 24-hour fitness. I got my work process started, then filled up my water bottle and went to the bathroom to get changed. This is where I believe things went horribly, horribly wrong.

You see, I have this Nalgene OTG bottle. It's a nice enough bottle, and I really like it a lot. In fact, we have two more just like it at home, I like it so much. However, it doesn't have a very secure watertight seal, especially after being run through the dishwasher a few times. All it takes is one bump on the catch (say, when setting a bag down on a tile floor and/or pulling clothes out of it), and it's splashing water all over the place. Or perhaps creating a small lake in the bottom of my workout bag. This would not have been much of disaster--if anything, it might have given Gigantor a much-needed cleaning--except that Mr. Peanut was riding to the gym at the bottom of said bag. Sadly, I did not notice the spill until a good 5 minutes after the fact, and didn't remember the iPod until at least 2 minutes after that. So, Mr. Peanut was likely submerged in about 2 inches of water for nearly 10 minutes.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have now answered the question, "Can iPods swim?"

The answer, much to my dismay, is NO.

So anyway, when I got to the gym (which was AWFUL...I don't think they're finished yet, but if you ask me, they really shouldn't have opened early. The machines are new, but there's only, like, four of them and no locker rooms. Good thing I dressed before I came. And there were computer problems and well...I won't be going back until the other part is open), I still hadn't realized how wet poor Peanut was. I plugged in the headphones, and I thought everything was okay...but then he wouldn't play. The green light flashed once, then went out forever.

I took out the headphones and removed the lanyard, and water dripped out both ends. Not a stream or anything, but still an alarming amount. I did the best I could to blow the water out of the holes, but it was a lost cause. I had to go to Emergency Backup Audrey, which didn't have the Cardio Coach workout. I ended up doing treadmill intervals to an audiobook.

I'm going to let Mr. Peanut dry out overnight and see if he can be salvaged. Worst case, I'm pretty sure he's still under warranty. I hate to put in a claim for something that is so painfully my fault, but I'm pretty sure they'd send me a replacement anyway. If not, I'll have some decisions to make.

Whatever the case, the Cardio Coach review is not coming tonight. We'll have to take a raincheck...almost literally.

quick note

On a tip from Jarrod via Rob, I checked out Cardio Coach today. It looks like a cool idea, so I downloaded their workout volume 1 mp3s. I'm trying it at the gym tonight, and will report back tomorrow with a full review.

Since I'm planning on going to the Saturday WW meeting, I'm skipping the meeting tonight and working instead. Since the process that I'm working on has a wait time of about 40 minutes for one of the steps, I'm going to kill that time at the gym. I've been wanting to check out the new 24-hour fitness down the street since it opened a few weeks ago. Since I broke my access card for my office building today (I've gone through 3 of them now...I'm hard on all things plastic), it'd be a hassle to use the onsite facility, so this seems like the perfect opportunity all around.

I also ordered some new cycling gear today...a Terry Commuter Skort. Though I'm sure the WWers won't mind me showing up in bike shorts, I'd rather be a little more modest, at least at first. I ordered from Team Estrogen, whom I LOVE for their forums and soooper fast shipping, but they don't usually have all sizes in stock. They didn't have an XL in the regular sizes OR a 1x in the plus, so I'm a little afraid that the size L is going to be too small through the hips. I sure hope it fits, because I hate returning things.

Update on the heart rate

I ran with the HR monitor today, and I'm happy to report that it wasn't too bad. My resting HR doesn't seem to have gone up much...in the locker room, I was in the high 60s, rather than the low 60s. Considering that my locker room HR was up in the 90s when I first started using the monitor, that's still a pretty good improvement. Of course, that was also a couple years and at least 10 lbs ago.

Once I got moving, I did notice a slight increase over my previous numbers, but only by 3-5 bpm. Heat also could have been a factor, since it was over 80 degrees out there. My running numbers were not at all good, topping out at 181 by the third running interval. But that's just about what I expected. It was warm outside, and I'm out of practice. My average HR was 144 for the total 2-mile workout, which was about 40% running. Definitely room for improvement there, but it was better than I thought it would be.

I got another 500, 'nother 500 miles before we shut this engine down...*

Well, I made it! Elves & More ride is complete, with a total distance (per my bike computer) of 64.16 miles, completed in about 4 hours and 45 minutes. With stops, it was right at 6 hours. (I don't know exact times, because I forgot to look at my watch AND my computer at the time I crossed the finish line.) My top speed was 31.3 mph (woo!), low speed around 7 mph. My average was 13.5 mph.

The course, as I believe I have mentioned before, was hilly. According to the elevation map at the start place, there were about 2780 ft of climbing. I do have to say, though, that my earlier reports of the wicked hills on the Anderson loop were wildly exaggerated. As it turns out, hills look much steeper when you're driving up them in a car than they actually feel on a bike. I did have to hit the granny gear a few times, but just for a minute or two. I really started using it like crazy on the hills that I thought were tamer...the ones 40-60 miles into the ride, when I was already tired.

The biggest mishap on Saturday happened before the ride, and almost ended it before it started. I got to the place about a half-hour early which, if you know me at all, you know how remarkable that is. Not only was I on time, but I was EARLY. I was feeling pretty smug about this as I gathered my stuff. I leaned my bike against the car and headed over to the registration tables to get my first card for the poker run (I ended up with an almost-straight, but didn't even bother getting my last two cards at the finish because the top three hands were all 5-of-a-kinds--I had no chance) and some safety pins for my bib number.

By the time I got back to my bike, it was about 6:45, so I put on my shoes and walked over to the mechanics to have them double-check the tire pressure on my back tire. There's something wrong with the valve, and I can't get air into it with my pump at home. Bike Guy, of course, had no trouble. I thought about going back to the car, but decided to set my bike down and hit the hydration/fuel table. I set it down by the curb, did the water/banana thing, and returned. It was about 6:55, so I decided to head toward the start line. (I swear there's a point coming up soon, folks.)

I mounted the bike, clipped in one side, and turned the pedals. It was making a lot of noise. Rattling, clanking, maybe a little screeching. Figuring that I didn't quite get it aligned right after my shifting practice the night before, I started shifting. The sounds got worse, and about 3 more revolutions in, my pedals stopped completely. I could get halfway around, then it stopped dead. WTF?

After my requisite near-fall on the dismount (I forget that I'm clipped in about half the time), I walked it over to Bike Guy and explained the problem. He put it up on the rack thingie and tested it. Same thing. He was just as puzzled as I was, so he called over Super Bike Guy. SBG diagnosed it in about 5 seconds--broken chain. Brought it around and sure enough--there was a link dangling.

Of course, faced with mechanical failure bare minutes before the start time, I reacted in stereotypical chick fashion--I panicked and nearly cried. But have no fear, for Super Bike Guy was here (er, there)! He got out this little chain tool and a grease rag, and had Amelia back in riding condition in less than 5 minutes. There are very few things that make me feel more like a girl than standing around asking stupid questions while someone else fixes my machine. :) SBG was very nice, though, my dorkiness aside. He also made the excellent point that it's a good thing I noticed the chain problem before the ride...I could paraphrase his comment, but suffice it to say that the word "faceplant" was used. (I also appreciated his use of "noticed the chain problem", as opposed to "broke your chain")I agreed, and added "recognize and fix chain problems" to my list of things I should really learn to do.

Anyway, with my crisis averted, I got to the start line with time to spare, and you know most of the rest. I was a little apprehensive about riding 60+ mile on a repaired chain, but SBG was confident in his repair, so I went with it. He turned out to be right--there was no noticeable difference.

So yeah, overall this ride went really well. The weather was perfect, though overcast for the first 3 hours or so. It was 62 degrees when I started, 72 when I finished. The organization of the whole ride was also as close to perfect as they could get. Last year's ride was also really well organized, but they managed to top it this year. They must have really taken those surveys seriously...from what I could see, they kept everything that worked from last year, and eliminated or overhauled the things that didn't.

The rest stops, particularly the one in Richards (which the three long routes went through twice), were excellent, routes were clearly marked and there was a volunteer standing at every major turn. I wish they were all this good. And that this one was less hilly. :)

I will definitely be back next year, and I fully intend to take on the 87-mile course.

*This (right-click-and-save-please) was the song on the ipod right before I got out of the car, and stuck mercilessly in my head. I was singing that part of the lyrics for pretty much the entire ride. It was oddly inspiring. :)

2005, the year of the METRIC century

Finding myself with a little time on my hands Sunday afternoon, I decided to drive the Elves & More 87-mile route to get a feel for the terrain. Here are my thoughts on it:

1. It's pretty. National forest, farmland, long two-lane country roads. Downright idyllic, in fact.

2. It's hilly. There is no part of it which is not at least slightly hilly. And from about mile 17 to mile 38? SERIOUSLY FUCKING HILLY.

I mean, I knew there were going to be hills. I've ridden some of this route before. I remember climbing some, and coasting some. I knew it was going to be a tougher route than what I usually ride. However, I have never ridden that little piece that daggers out to the west, and after driving it yesterday, I can say that I am woefully underprepared for what I found there. I can also totally see why the route map refers to it as "Hell's Gate". I've been on roller coasters that were tamer than some of those hills. Good God.

So, in light of the fact that I have done no real hill training whatsoever, I've decided that there is not a chance that I am going to be able to ride even 50 more miles after that stretch of road, let alone over 70 more. No. Way. At. All. Even trying to do another 25 is pushing it, but I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I wussed out of the "real" hill section completely. So, this is going to be another metric century for me, and I am completely, blissfully, totally content with that.

Now, to focus the rest of my training this week on working the granny gear.

I'm not sure whether to be hurt or impressed

I got an email today saying that the race pictures for Tour de Pink were ready. I searched by bib number AND by name and found nothing. Then I went through FOUR THOUSAND pictures, 50 at a time, and couldn't find myself in ANY of them. They have 2-3 pictures of a flippin' DOG, but not a single one of me. Not even in a group shot.

Nice work, boys.

one of the reasons I've been such a slug lately

You may have noticed the distinct lack of posts about how great my latest workout was, and how I'm totally rocking the exercise schedule. That's because I'm not. There are several reasons for this, and one of the biggest is this:

The heat index today was something like 115. Outdoor exercise is out of the question, at least for wussy yankee me, after 10 am. I was hoping the hurricane, even if it did ruin us, would at least make the weather cooler afterward. As it turned out, it left us AND the steamy weather completely intact. Ah well.

I did make it to the gym today, though, because it's Errand Day and I had to change my credit card info with them anyway. It's been a while since I've been on the Precor...my half hour of intervals was really nice. Even though I am woefully underprepared for the 10/8 ride, I'm tempted to do the 7:00 spin class instead of a long ride on Saturday if the weather doesn't improve. And if it isn't significantly cooler on ride day, there's no way I'm going even 87 miles. Will. Not. Happen. Probably not even 63...I'll have to be a 42-mile ridin' fool, if I don't just scrap it altogether.

In the time it took to write this, my weather gopher display went up to 102. I'd like to go back to Wisconsin now, please.

a series of loosely-correlated bullet points, only without the bullets

Since my new debit card arrived yesterday (I can spend money again! Woo!), I signed up for the TX Cycling Classic today. On the registration form, the 87 and 110 mile routes are combined into one radio button, so I dodged that decision for now. Considering that I lost serious training momentum last week and I haven't been anywhere near a bike since Friday, it's probably going to be 87.

Having my debit card again also means that I can get a haircut, since I am in dire need of one. My hair is in that weird in-between place where I can't put all of it up at once except in pigtails, but leaving it down is messy and uncomfortable. I have some salon fear, though, because my last haircut was so perfect that I'm afraid that I can only be disappointed this time around. I just know that if I try to replicate that cut, they're going to go too short on me. I would go home looking like a 10-year-old boy circa 1985. An irate, sad, and hysterical boy.

In iPod news, my mini lanyard arrived last week. It turns out that it will not work with the Nano because the platform the dock connector clips into is the same size as the bottom of the mini. In addition to looking weird attached to something so much smaller, it would also block the headphone jack on the nano. I still really, REALLY want a Nano, though...definitely 4 GB, but I'm torn on whether I want black or white. Honestly, that's the biggest reason I haven't ordered one already.

To randomly change the subject, seeing my baby brother has renewed Babyquest 2005 for me. I've been kind of indifferent about the prospect of getting pregnant for a while, but after spending a few days with that sweet little bundle of cute, I'm now hoping to have a bun in the oven by Christmas. It may even be worth going low-GI carb diet and taking the metformin again for a while. (I'm not diabetic, but was prescribed metformin a while back because there's some evidence that this helps PCOS patients conceive.) Probably wouldn't hurt my weight loss progress, either.

And speaking of diet things, I've felt like crap the last few days, probably related to my high-sugar, low-nutrition vacation diet. Part of it is the remnants of whatever disease I had leaving the system, but I have a hard time laying my dizziness and nausea at the feet of my leftover chest cold. I've been slacking on the healthy lately, and it's time to stop that. Like, seriously.

It's also time to go check on my server and finish what I'm doing so I can go home at a sensible hour.

Tour de Pink, by the numbers

Miles ridden: 63.3
Time on the bike: 4:12:09
Total time on the course: 5:06:10
Average speed for the first 20 miles: 18 mph
Average speed for the last 10 miles: 11 mph
Average speed throughout: 15 mph
Including stops: 12.4 mph

Number of flat tires: 0
Number of rain showers: 0
Number of times I accidentally shot water up my nose: 2
Number of dead possums witnessed: 3
Number of butterflies struck and killed: 1
Number of falls: 1
Number of injuries: 2 (knee and elbow)
% of exposed skin I could reach with the sunscreen: 95%
% of exposed skin burned to a nice healthy pink: 5%

Number of times I passed someone: about 10
Number of times I was passed: about 100

I'd post more, but I'm very, very tired. But hey--now I can say that I've done a metric century!

I should have worn my flash socks*

The average speed on my ride last night was 16.8 mph. :) Of course, I had the HR pretty much pegged at 80-90% the whole time, but I've decided that is going to be the point of my "brisk" ride. 5 rides per week, I take it easy and ride within sane limits. For that one hour a week, though? Let's see what this body can do.

If last night's course had been completely flat, I could have averaged 18-19, I think...it was the hills that got me. They weren't even serious hills...I could still go 80-90 rpm without going anywhere near the granny gear. However, they slowed me down to 12-13 mph for a mile or two, which messed with my average. Still...almost 17 mph for 16 miles. Rock on. I did intend to do the scheduled 19 miles, but I was at 16 miles when I got back to the gas station where my car was parked, and there was a train blocking the road on the extra loop I was going to take. I took it as a sign from God.

*I really do own a pair of those flash socks, but I'm shy about wearing them in public....it feels like I'm making fun of myself. My 14-mph average is not yet Flash-worthy.

*yawn*

Not only did I not walk yesterday, but I didn't work out at all. My heart wasn't in it, I needed a day off, so I took one. Can't say I didn't feel guilty about it, though...particularly since it was a high-calorie day. As a result of the day off, my century training is one day behind until Thursday...today's an easy 9, tomorrow a pace 15, brisk 19 on Thursday, after which I catch up to the schedule with the pace 15 on Friday. I'm still pretty tired today, but I fully intend to get the easy ride and a walk in before the end of the day.

I think I'm going to start adding some core strength and flexibility to my exercise routine. I haven't quite gotten the hang of pilates the couple times I've tried it, but I'm thinking maybe some abs work, and a yoga class for flexibility. That would also get me back into the gym, making my membership fees seem less like a donation. I don't know where I'm going to fit it in, though. Abs work is easy enough...5-10 minutes after a walk or something. But classes are harder, since I'd have to work around a posted schedule.

I need to find some way to do it, though, because while my shoulders and legs are getting harder (and my upper back looks fabulous, if I do say so myself), I'm getting softer through the middle. And as Lee's post the other day reminded me, flexibility is a nice thing to have. I've always neglected it, though, because of my coordination/clumsiness problems. A lot of exercises that work on flexibility require a certain amount of natural grace to keep from looking like a jackass doing them. I do not have any such thing. The only skill I have that even approaches grace is the ability to avoid falling when I trip over stuff, or to fall lightly if it can't be avoided. I credit this skill to the ballet and tap class I took when I was three. I never learned to dance worth a damn, but I can fall like a champ. :)

Anyway, flexibility and abs...gotta get me some of that. In order to make it happen, I'm probably going to cut out a walk or two. This will not break my heart, especially since flexibility/core classes are generally indoors and it's been surface-of-the-sun kind of hot around here lately. If I don't get out to the track by noon I'm treadmill-bound, and I'm not much of a fan of the things. They bore me, and the ones at work are not kind to my knees. If I can substitute an evening class for an afternoon walk, all the better.

I was looking at the 24-h0ur fitness class schedule for the one nearest my house, and there is a PiYo (Pilates & Yoga) class at 7:30 on Thursday and a Core Cross-training class on Sundays at 2:00. Both these classes fit pretty well into my schedule, though I can't say whether or not I'll like either of them. I can't try the PiYo this week because I'll have to bike in the evening (I can't do 19 miles in the half-hour between sunrise and shower-time, unfortunately), but I can definitely check out the core cross train thing on Sunday. Hopefully, there'll be a good crowd so that I can hide somewhere in the middle. :)

I never use one word when 1,000 will do

I started to write this long post about my rides this weekend and the mishaps therein, but then I got about 3/4 of the way through and even I lost interest in the play-by-play. So let's just say that instead of riding 42 miles on Saturday and 13 on Sunday, I rode 20 on Saturday and 32 on Sunday. Saturday's ride was ended by a flat, Sunday's had seat problems and was called when I was overtaken by darkness.

The good news--I learned to change a flat! After I got home Saturday (thanks to the Giant, who came and picked me up because Rob was across town), one of my first errands was a trip to Barnes & Noble for a bike maintenance book. I evaluated about 6-7, and chose the one with the most detailed pictures.

Several hours and a trip to the bike store (for tire levers and tubes) later, my flat back tire--why does it always have to be the back tire?--was changed. I had to enlist Rob to help me with getting the last bit of tire back into the rim, and also getting the wheel back on the bike, because the mechanics of the derailleur/chain/cog relationship elude me. The whole process took somewhere between 20 minutes and an hour...several small tantrums were thrown, hands were washed several times, but no blood was shed. I'm reasonably confident that I can at least START to change a tire by the side of the road now, though I may need to fall back on my standing-around-looking-pathetic-and-helpless skills in order to get someone to help me finish the job.

Other than that, nothing exciting. I was at work from 11-1ish last night, so I'm sort of tired and I don't want to walk today. I'm also sort of achy in the calves, probably from walking 3/4 of a mile in bike cleats on Saturday. I'm going to walk anyway, though, because I've got a new sports bra, my freshly-laundered favorite workout clothes, and nothing better to do with my lunch hour. Sometimes, that's all the motivation I need. :) No, it's not enough. I don't want to walk today, and that's that. The fresh clothes will keep till tomorrow.

more century crap

Hey, look...a route map!

The dark side: The course closes at 3:00 pm, per the map (though the flyer says 5:00?). Which means that I need to finish in 8 hours. if I factor in an hour for rest stops (between 5 & 10 minutes at each), my average speed would have to be between 15 and 16 mph. My current average speed is around 14 mph. Hopefully, my training, the cooler fall weather, and the hill descents can boost my speed up enough to finish by 3:00.

The bright side: The 110-mile route is actually the 87-mile route plus the 23-mile route. So, if I am running turtle-slow by the first time I roll through the start/finish line, I could just call it at 87 miles. Ditto if I'm keeping up a good speed, but the thought of going 23 more miles makes me want to die.

Overall, I don't think it looks too bad. Of course, you can't really see hills on that map, and I know there are going to be some. I've ridden that 42-mile route (or a similar one) twice, and remember some 4-mph climbs...not fondly, either. Of course, that was on the hybrid when I weighed 190 lbs, so who knows what they'll be like with 30-50 less lbs to schlep up those hills. I'll probably try to ride some of the course on the Saturday rides in September, just to get an idea what to expect.

As far as my training goes, I'm starting to see some improvement. Not amazing strides or anything, but just "finding my groove" sorts of things. For instance, I think I've discovered my happy place with cadence--my legs are most comfortable pedaling at 75-80 rpm. It's slower than I'd like, but not prohibitively so. I experimented with keeping myself above 85 this week, and only succeeded in going slower with a higher average HR. I suppose with training and the right shifting, I could get my comfort zone up to 85-90, but I don't really want to at this point. 75-80 suits me fine.

It's also gotten easier to stay in my aerobic zone. On the Monday "easy" ride, I was surprised to find that I could average over 13 mph while keeping my HR in the 110s-120s. I have to really haul ass to push my HR over 120 on walks, even in the middle of the day with heat indexes in the high 90s. I can't wait to see what I can do when the temps are back down to the 70s in a few months. :) The 14-mile pace ride yesterday was also better...14.1 mph with an average HR of 133, vs. the 13.1 mph/134 of a couple weeks ago. I'm not sure if it's fitness or technique improvement, but I'll take it either way.

Today's ride was something new...17 miles at a "brisk" pace. I wasn't really sure the best way to do brisk--higher gear or higher cadence? So I did both. I ended up with an average of 15.3 mph with 150 bpm HR average...pfft. I was hoping for at least 16 mph, since I want to bring my pace rides up to 15 by the middle of next month. I guess there's still plenty of time to get there, and I'm happy with the HR, at least. Patience. Must. Have. Patience.

switching it up

Everything's been going pretty well over here, other than that I've been TOTALLY EXHAUSTED. I almost fell asleep at the dinner table on Saturday. I mean, we eat kind of late, but seriously. I haven't done that since I was about four.

Part of this is that I'm over 30 years old and still don't know how to go to bed at a sensible hour. Another part is that I've been getting up before dawn to ride my bike 5 days a week. Also, I've been getting a minimum of an hour of deliberate exercise every day except Sunday, with a body that's used to five or six hours a week tops.

Partially in response to the exhaustion thing, I'm switching century training programs. The other day when I was in REI, I spied a Bicycling magazine with an article titled "Beginner's Guide: How to Ride 100 Miles in One Day." I didn't buy it, but would keep thinking about it all week until I finally picked up a copy at Barnes & Noble this weekend. In it was their century training program...the mileages are smaller on the weekdays, but the overall weekly mileage is comparable to the program I was already doing. For instance, this week is Week 4 for me. My current program has me riding 18 miles Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri, and 40 miles on Saturday, total miles = 112. The Bicycling program Week 4 looks like this:

Mon: 8 mile easy
Tues: 14 mile pace
Wed: 17 mile brisk
Thurs: off
Fri: 14 mile pace
Sat: 42 mile pace
Sun: 13 mile pace

Total mileage: 108

(pace = desired century pace, easy = "leisurely", brisk = 2-3 mph above pace)

So, the shorter weekday distances are better for my schedule, and I'm really only losing 4 miles. Since I generally overshoot the recommended distances anyway, it'll come out about the same. I also lose a day off, but I'm always antsy to do something on Sundays now anyway. I also think the variation of distances during the week will keep it from getting stale, which honestly? It's starting to get a little bit stale, this riding the same route 4x a week. This program also has the advantage of "thousands of riders have used this program for their first century", vs. "this program is not based on any science or anything, but you should be able to do a century after completing it" on the CRANE program. So I'm switching. We'll see how this goes.

110?!

Hey--guess what? The website for the Elves & More ride (the one I've been referring to as "my century") is up. The route distances? 23, 42, 63, 87 and 110 miles.

Yeah...that's 10 more miles than I was bargaining for.

The confident part of me says, "If you're training for 100 miles, what's 10 more, really? A difference of...what, another 45 minutes, tops?"

The slacker part of me sucks in a deep, whistling breath and says, "Goddamn that's a long way. Are you sure you don't want to wait till next year?"

The fat girl part of me just goes slack-jawed and drops to the floor in a dead faint.

Even though she's arguably the smallest part of me, Ms. Confidence is currently in charge. All the same, I think I'll hold off until the end of August before I register. If I don't think I can be ready, I'll go for 87 miles instead.

110 miles. Criminey.

Centuries

After spending a little time at the team estrogen forums this morning looking for posts about skyrocketing HRs and what to do about them, I came across a link to a 10-week century training schedule. My mission got a little sidetracked.

Did I mention that the century I want to do this year is exactly 10 weeks away(Elves & More TX Cycling Classic, no link available yet for this year's event)? No, I haven't mentioned it at all, because a) I didn't realize it was that close, and b) I'm not sure I'm actually going to do a full century for that ride. I said back in January that I wanted to do one by the end of the year, but I was hoping that it would be more like November-December--not to mention a flatter course. However, I haven't been able to find much in the way of 100-mile flat charity rides in November and December, so it looks like October is going to be it.

Can I be ready in 10 weeks? I don't know. I still want to do HR training...but I think that, other than the weekly "hills" ride, I can do both with the same schedule. The first rides are 10-12 miles, so I could finish them in an hour even keeping my HR in check. Hopefully, by the time the mileages start really going up, I'll be able to increase my speed enough to keep my times down. Taking an hour after work to ride 10 miles is one thing...taking 3 hours to ride 30 is another. I'd run out of daylight.

Still, I think I want to give this a shot. I'll know within a couple weeks whether my HR and century training regimens can co-exist. If they can't, they can't. I'll sign up for a shorter course in October and tackle the century next year. If they can, though, I'd love to get a century under my belt in 2005.

So, this week's training schedule looks like this:

Monday - 11-mile moderate ride (140s avg HR, 155 max)
Tuesday - 11-mile hill ride (I'd like to see a 155 or less avg here...I know it's going to spike a bit)
Wednesday - off
Thursday - 11-mile moderate (140s avg, 155 max)
Friday - off
Saturday - 22-mile easy (120s-130s avg, 145 max)

I moved the sample schedule back one day because I can't do Sunday morning rides every week, and my proposed century is on a Saturday anyway.

The HR numbers may change, but the tentatives are based on a desire to stay at 50-70% of max HR, calculated on a resting HR of 62 bpm and a max of 195(It also corresponds, give or take 5 bpm, with the 180 rule for finding my anaerobic threshold). I'm sure the hill course is going to take me into the 80-90% range on the climbs, but it's only once a week. If I can average 155 (70%) on that one I'll be happy.

The distances are 10% higher than the sample because my century course will be hilly. I was tempted to up the mileage 20% because I'd also like to do the century in less than 6 hours, but I decided that's pushing my luck. I'm thinking 7-8 hours is going to be more my speed on this first one.

So, this starts tonight. Wish me luck!

UPDATE: First workout stats--11.3 miles in 47 minutes (14.4 mph avg), after 5 minute warmup ride. Average HR was 142, very-brief high of 161. Once I figure out a comfortable range of gears and precisely when to shift, I think everything is going to be okay. :)

I think the warmup was really the key. On these weekend rides I've been doing, I've been going a pretty good pace right out of the driveway.

Amelia's maiden voyage, and HR training

I took Amelia out for her first long ride on Saturday. I had ridden a few miles around the neighborhood the night I brought her home, but this weekend was her first real test. Total ride time was 2 hours and 46 minutes, average speed was 15 mph. Total time with 2 stops (one for breakfast) was around 3:30-3:45. :)

The ride went pretty smoothly, and I really liked being able to adjust hand positions, and to drink while on the bike (though I need more practice--I weave). I only had one near-fall...I was pulling up to the curb at a gas station, forgot that my left foot was still in the toe-clip. I'm not overly fond of the toe-clips, as I've mentioned before. Even though I'm a little afraid of going to clipless pedals, I'll be glad when I'm comfortable enough with the handling of the bike to give them a try.

I got the hang of the shifting really quickly, though I still haven't shifted the front ring. Honestly? I'm a little afraid of this, too. I don't know which way is which, so I'm afraid that if I'm going to switch to a higher set of gears when I mean to go to the lower range, or that I'll hold the shifter too long or not long enough. Since I don't normally encounter anything but the slightest inclines on my weekend routes, there isn't any call to get out of the middle ring for now anyway.

I also really like the bike computer I had them put on for me (Cateye Astrale 8). The computer on my hybrid was a super-cheapo model that I installed myself, and it may never have worked quite right. It was also a front wheel mount, so it would put on mileage anytime the front wheel spun....like when it was strapped to the car. This one still isn't anything fancy, but it is rear-mount, the interface is much simpler to figure out (one button for everything, second button to reset the counter), and the cadence feature is nice. While I tried to keep my cadence somewhere around 80 rpm on the old bike, I really didn't have any way to tell other than just by feel.

The bike does have some problems, though. Even after trading out the standard saddle for a women's model, it is going to take some getting used to. Even though the seat was not especially comfy on the hybrid, I didn't have any kind of chafing problem. On this one, the...um...girly bits are having some issues. It may just be a matter of adjustment, or I may need to try a few different saddles until I find one that works for me. I'm going to stick with the one I have for a few weeks, see if it improves.

The other problem is not one with the bike, per se, but with my overall conditioning. My average HR on this ride was 167. This is way, way too high for a long ride. What's most frustrating is that I didn't feel like I was working that hard. I also didn't feel like I was working any harder than I do on the hybrid--if anything, it felt easier. But then I'd check the HR monitor, expecting to see mid-150s, and it would be 175. I'd back off, but as soon as I stopped paying attention again it'd sail right back up into the 170s. On the last mild uphill stretch, I hit 183. Part of this can be blamed on the heat (low 90s by the last hour, humid), but not all of it. Even though I'm getting in better shape all the time, my cardio conditioning is not where it should be. Even after months of daily exercise, my legs continue to write checks my heart can't cash.

I know why this is, though I hate to admit it. I haven't really been doing any cardio work...not really. Every one of my workouts except weights and walks are done in the borderline-to-anaerobic HR range, usually in the neighborhood of 75-85% max HR. Since weights are anaerobic by nature, that leaves walks as my only true aerobic activity. You know how often I go for a walk? Not often.

The problem is that I like to go fast, even on the cardio machines where I'm not technically going anywhere. I like the feeling of pushing myself, and if I don't feel like I'm working hard, I don't feel like I'm working out. I have no patience, and I can't stand going slow. Or slower than the last time. Or slower than that girl on the next treadmill/elliptical/spinning bike. However emotionally satisfying, my need for speed doesn't do much to improve my aerobic base.

If I'm going to continue to increase my distances on the bike, I have to improve my aerobic conditioning. I've just about reached the limit of what I can do safely in the higher ranges--a three-hour ride in the high 160s is not ideal...a century in the high 160s is crazy. I'm not sure when it would happen, but I would crack. Severely.

So anyway, it's time for some heart rate training. I've read several theories on it, and I bought a couple books yesterday that I plan to read this week. The hardest part of it is going to be accepting that I'm going to have to go backward to go forward. Slow down to speed up. I'm going to have to be content with 11-12 mph for a while. Let people pass me. Let people snicker as they pass me, if that's what they are wont to do. God, even typing that makes me pout a little.

Road bike shopping, part IV: Full Circle

Alternate title: What I bought, already! :)

(Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)

Already mostly decided on the Cannondale R500 at the last place, I arrived at the last shop and looked around for a while. They had two super-cute 2006 Trek 2200 WSDs (They're pink! Pink!), but they were like $1800 and not even close to my size. All the 1500s they had were 2005s, and therefore ugly. I glanced over the Specialized stock, noting prices, components, available sizes. I considered test-riding a Sequoia, but the models under $1000 had the Tiagra shifters that I didn't like. I decided that I would just take the Pilot for a test ride and call it a day. There would even be time to go back to the other shop and buy the Cannondale.

I had plenty of time to consider all of this, because no one noticed I was there for the first 5-10 minutes. I wasn't terribly upset about it, because there were only 3 guys, and they were all either helping customers or working on bikes in the back. After I flipped through the all the cycling jerseys and assorted gadgets, I tried to make eye contact with someone who could help me.

After a couple minutes, I caught the attention of a guy fitting a mountain bike for one customer and selling a Madone to another. I told him what I wanted, and he got "Mr. Steve" to help me. I repeated to Mr. Steve that I wanted to test ride the Pilot in a 52. He didn't try to sell me anything, just hooked me up with the assorted accoutrements, made sure the seat was positioned correctly, stowed the wallet and keys behind the counter, and we were off to the parking lot. As we walked, I asked where I should go.

"Well, go ahead and take one lap around the parking lot to make sure everything's adjusted right. Then if you take a left out of the parking lot there," He pointed to the side road. "and go down to the stop sign, you can take another left and you'll be in a residential area."

Whoa. So, I could leave the parking lot?! I could just take off into some random neighborhood? Rock. "Oh, okay."

I started to walk the bike off the sidewalk and was stopped short by a horrible grating noise. I had flashbacks of when I blew a tire while test driving a car one time, and felt sure that I had broken something before I even got to the parking lot. Mr. Steve seemed unperturbed, and I quickly discovered that it was the sound of the toe-strap thing scraping against the sidewalk. Oops.

I got around the parking lot without incident...everything seemed to fit fine, and I even got BOTH feet into the toe-clips by the time I got back to the sidewalk. After a brief discussion about the crappiness of toe-clips and my backordered shoes, Mr. Steve saw me off down the road.

I have to be honest--I felt like kind of a tool at first, riding this bike with the big yellow price tag on it through the neighborhood. Still, it was a great ride. On a longer stretch of road, I could really get a feel for the bike in a way I couldn't on the trainer or in a parking lot. This was also, by far, the smoothest ride I had taken all day. I played with the shifting a little bit...there was one place where it slipped and got a little squirrelly, but it seemed to do better on the downshift and was fine when I went back up again. I tried different hand positions, did a short standing run. Everything felt under control, and mostly comfortable. And fast. Oh, lordy. I don't know how fast I was going, of course, but it felt at least as fast as I go on the hybrid, with about half the effort. I probably rode about 2 miles around the neighborhood before I figured I'd better get back to the shop before they called the police.

I wanted this bike, but I was hesitant about the price. It was $200 more than the Cannondale, and I was beginning to doubt that it really rode better. After all, I didn't take the Cannondale very far, and I was negotiating parking lot obstacles and traffic the whole time. I decided to ask Mr. Steve.

I told him that I really liked the bike, but was also considering the Cannondale R500, which was $200 cheaper. "I know you don't sell Cannondale here, but do you think you could compare them for me?"

He asked about the frame material, components, wheelset. I knew most of the answers, but finally asked if I could run out and get the catalog I had gotten at the last place. I brought it back in, he looked over the specs, and gave his assessment. "The Cannondale's a good bike...I've ridden a few of them. The components on these two are pretty much a wash. I'm not familiar with the wheels on the Cannondale, but it's got an all-aluminum frame, which is going to mean a harsher ride than the Pilot. It's probably slightly lighter, though. The Cannondale's designed more for speed, and the Pilot is designed to be comfortable over long distances. It all comes down to what you want to do with it."

That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you talk about the brands you don't sell. Don't tell me how much better your brand is than theirs, just give me an objective assessment. I liked this guy.

We talked for several minutes about the bikes and what my goals were--ride a century in less than 6 hours, do longer distances faster and more comfortably than on my hybrid. I asked about whether I would take a speed hit with the Pilot's more upright riding position...he didn't think so. Per Mr. Steve, aerodynamics only really come into play once you get into the 22+ mph range. Unless I'm going to be racing, other factors make a lot more difference than riding position. I asked about hill climbing, which he said was even less affected. I might see more drag on descents, but that was about it. We weighed the bike (about 20-21 lbs.), looked at the specs some more, then he started talking about wheels.

"I don't know what the wheel design is like on the Cannondale, but this dual spoke pattern is very sturdy." He considered me briefly. "Though you don't look like you have a problem with weight..."

I then threw my arms around the neck of this middle-aged bike geek and kissed him full on the mouth. He was flustered for a second or two, but managed to continue, "...I've found that these sort of wheels hold up better even for a heavier guy like me."

Oh, I did not. But my smile probably brightened a little. Empty flattery, maybe, but I'll take it. :)

We discussed the pros and cons a few minutes more, then I told him that I wanted to try and test ride the Cannondale one more time before I made my decision. I waved, I thanked, I drove. And then I broke my promise and called Rob again. After talking to him for a few minutes, I decided that I had ridden enough bikes for one day, and I was just going to go home and make my decision with the information I already had. After all, the only thing that was really keeping me from choosing the Pilot was the higher price.

Rob and I talked about it when I got home, ran over the specs again. After he bounced the two choices off Jarrod (who had called about something else entirely), it was determined that the Pilot was probably worth the extra $200 just for the component upgrade. Good enough for me!

So, once again, I spent all day shopping for something, only to choose the first one I tried on. :) Now all that's left is to pick her up. I stopped by the shop on my lunch hour today to let them know I would be buying it, and Multitasker Guy was the only one there. He remembered me--"So, did you decide on a bike?"

I nodded. "The Pilot."

"Yess!" (He said this with a victorious fist-pump thing, which made me laugh. Think Napoleon Dynamite at the FFA meet..."The contaminant is...oil.")

I'm going over there to get everything settled tonight, and will be driving home with a new Pilot 2.1.

I think I shall name her...Amelia.

Road bike shopping, Part III: Nearly there

(Part 1, Part 2)

After I extricated myself from the salesman at the last LBS, I got back in my car and started down the freeway to the next one. I was pretty confident that I would find what I wanted, because their people had treated me well the last couple times I was in there. Still disheartened from the previous shop, though, I began to talk to myself in the car. After I had re-enacted the conversations at the previous shop, saying all the things I wish I had said back there but had only just thought of, I was exiting the freeway with a, "Please, please, let me get someone who knows what they're talking about. Because I'm running out of places to go."

As I started driving the road to what I hoped would be my final LBS of the day, I spotted one on the right that I hadn't been to before. I had seen their website, though, so I knew that they sold Cannondale. Since the place where I was headed did not and I still had some time before closing, I decided to stop on the way.

I walked in with some trepidation, and I almost turned around when I saw an older saleswoman approaching. She looked like an elementary school principal. I had already parked the car, though, so I figured I could give her a chance. I told her I was interested in a road bike.

With an air of competence, she said simply, "Do you know what price range or components you're looking for?"

I relaxed then, feeling a little guilty that I had misjudged her. I told her $800-1100, Shimano 105ish. She showed me two bikes in that range--some kind of Lemond and a Cannondale R500. I wasn't crazy about the look of the Lemond, and had shopped enough now to realize that not even a perfect test ride would make me want to buy it. (Girl! Girl!) The paint issue was the opposite of the Trek 1500--the Lemond was boring where the Trek was garish. I prefer the middle ground. I looked at the shifters on the Cannondale, and asked if it was all 105. "It's 105 in the back, Tiagra in the front...but the back is the one that matters anyway."

She said this with absolute confidence, and I found that I couldn't really disagree with her--for me, anyway. I've been riding my bike for 4 years and have moved out of the middle ring in the front twice, I think. So I asked her if I could test ride a R500 in a 52cm. We walked down the row of bikes, with nary a 52cm R500 to be found. There was, however, an R1000 in a 52, and she said I could get an idea of the R500's ride from it. The components were better, but the frame was essentially the same.

So, after equipping the bike with some pedals, me with a helmet, and securing my wallet and keys behind the sales counter, I test-rode the R1000 in the parking lot. And lo, it was good--the best I had ridden so far. I felt a lot more in control on it than I had on the Allez, even though the parking lot had more traffic and speed bumps than the other place. I tried to avoid shifting, since I knew that the components (Ultegra) were better than I could afford anyway. If I bumped my price range up again, Rob may threaten divorce. :)

When I got back to the shop, I told my sales lady that I really liked it, but I had one more place I wanted to check out. I also asked if they had a 52cm R500 in stock that they could build for me, if I did decide to buy one. She checked in the back, and they did, and added that they usually can put them together by next business day. Awesome! With some regret, I traded the R1000 for my keys and wallet. Would I like a catalog? Why yes, yes I would. I thanked her and left, my faith in local bike shops restored.

I called Rob from the car. "I know you're reading, I'm sorry, this is the last time I'll call, but I think I've found The One."

And really? I was almost sure that I had. This last store was really just a formality...I wanted to see if maybe they had some 2004 Trek models (read: 1500 in a different color scheme), and maybe the Pilot in the correct size. I also wanted to ride a Trek on the road, rather than on the trainer, before I made my final decision.

UP NEXT (yes, I know, I'm SORRY): Road bike shopping, part IV: Full Circle

Road bike shopping, Part II: Dances with idiots

(Part I is here.)

So, by the time I left the first bike shop, it was after 11 and I was hungry. I decided to go home for lunch, and try another bike shop closer to my house that sold Specialized and Bianchi. I was anxious to try some of the other Specialized models, since the first place had nothing in stock in my price range but the Dolce.

Before I get too far into this, I want to say that I REALLY wanted to like this LBS. They were the ones that fixed my tire after The Flat, and the guy I worked with then was friendly and seemed like he knew what he was talking about. It's also much closer to home than the shops I had worked with in the past. So even though I couldn't really care less about Bianchi, I decided to check out their Specialized stock and see what their prices were like.

Well.

I walked into the shop with my requirements firmly in mind--Shimano 105 or above, 52cm frame, no WSD, $1200 price limit. I was able to look around at their pricing on my own for a minute, and discovered that aside from a few token sales, they were selling everything at MSRP. Nothing wrong with that, I guess, but it did cool me to the store a little. I'm not a haggler, and I'm not even sure haggling is acceptable in bikeland. I remained hopeful, though, because really great service might be worth the higher prices.

After a few minutes, I caught the eye of a sales guy--about 20 years old, very eager to help. So far so good.

"What can I do for you today?"
"I'm looking for a road bike."

His face lit up, and he walked straight to the Dolces. My heart sank.

"Specialized makes some really great road bikes that are specially designed for women. Most women don't fit well on men's bikes, because women generally have longer reaches and shorter leg proportions than men..."

Um, no. I mean, he got the words right, but exactly backwards. I let him finish his spiel, then decided to let him know that I had already ruled out WSD.

"Really. I did fittings on some bikes this morning, and the Dolce didn't fit me very well at all--my knees were about an inch from the handlebars on the 51. It could have just been that the frame size was too small, but the men's 52cm bikes fit better for me, particularly the Trek 1500."

His face lit up again. "Oh, you're going to like Specialized sooo much better than Trek. They ride better, they handle better, they have better components for the price.."

Oh gawd...I don't know if this is generally true or not--I haven't done a side by side comparison pricing. However, no one EVER gets very far with me by bashing the competition. He talked some more about some women on their riding team with Specialized Sequoias and Allez...es? Allezi? Anyway, I wasn't really listening anymore, because it was becoming increasingly apparent that this guy didn't know any more about road bikes than I did. If he was selling cars, he would have been showing me the vanity mirror right about now, without even considering that I might want to look under the hood. After the fitting guy at the other place, this was such a disappointment. Ah well, cut my losses. Even though I knew that there was no way in hell I was buying a bike or anything else from him, I figured I could at least do a test ride.

"Hmm. Great! I think I'd like to try an Allez."

After a fit test that consisted of grabbing the handlebars and the seat and lifting up to check for clearance, he grabbed me a helmet, and we went out to the parking lot. I asked him to move the seat up a little, and then I took it around the parking lot. It didn't fit very well--the reach was too long to the brakes, and it wasn't a comfortable ride for me at all. I didn't feel in control of it...maybe it was partly because I hadn't ridden a road bike in a long time, but fit was definitely an issue. I wasn't crazy about the Tiagra shifters, either.

I came back in after a few minutes, and gave my assessment. The reach was too long--was it possible to try a shorter stem?

"Well, each one of our bikes comes with a complimentary fitting after you buy it, where we make sure the seat is the right height, and the handlebars are adjusted..."

So, that would be "no", then. All righty! If I left now, I'd still have time to hit another LBS by 5:00. Still, I wanted to give Specialized one more shot, so I asked if he had a Sequoia in a 52. He did not. What about a Dolce in a 53? I seemed to remember that they came in a 53, and I was curious about how WSD would feel in a larger frame size. On this one, he had to call someone else from the back, who told me (quite pleasantly, at least) that the Dolces jump from 51cm to 54cm, and they didn't have a 54 in stock. He repeated the thing about the complimentary fitting after purchase, etc. In all fairness, this guy seemed more knowledgeable about road bikes, but it was too little, too late.

I gave them the best fake smile I could manage, and backed slowly toward the door with weak statements that I "might be back".

It's not likely, but I hate to be mean to people unless they really deserve it. My salesman wasn't a bad guy, after all, and maybe if I were shopping for a mountain bike he would have been just the guy to talk to. Still, if I come into your store looking to spend $1000 on a road bike, I want to be directed to someone on staff who knows more about them than how to read a specs page and rattle off a sales pitch.

Oh well, on to the next store! I called Rob to have him find out when they closed, and with just 2 1/2 hours of shopping time left, I headed down the road.

UP NEXT: Road bike shopping, Part III: The Home Stretch (that title is lame, so might change once the post is actually written)

God did not want me to ride 60 miles today

NOTE: Barring death or dismemberment, Part II of the road bike shopping saga will be posted tomorrow. I will get them all up by the end of the week for sure, because I'll actually have my new bike by then. I'm sure I'll be dying to prattle on about it. :)

If anyone was interested in that story, I hate that I'm leaving you hanging like this. I should have written all the parts of the story yesterday, but by the time I was satisfied with the first part, I needed to get some sleep before the KFC. Which, incidentally, is what THIS post is about. So, forgive me this little interruption, and I'll put up Dances with Idiots tomorrow. Promise.

Well, the KFC has come and gone. My metric century was cut short due to thunderstorms, and I ended up only doing around 47 miles. My total ride time was 3:22, for an average of just under 14 mph. My total time with stops was just under 4 hours, though I can't say for certain exactly how long it was...I was soaked to the skin when I got back to the parking lot, so in the rush to get out of my wet clothes I forgot to check what time it was. I know I left the parking lot at around 11:30-11:40, and I was mounting the bike and changing clothes for 5-15 minutes, so...we'll say 11:20. Since I started at almost exactly 7:30, 4 hours is close enough. When I look at the pictures from the finish I'll have a better idea--I'll probably be in the 11-11:15 group, since the pictures were about 10-15 minutes before I got to my car.

The first part of the ride went really well, and it looked like it was going to be a great riding day...partly cloudy, relatively cool. I was maintaining between 14.5 and 16 mph pretty consistently for the first 22-23 miles or so, then the storms started to roll toward us. About that time, I turned onto this road that was that kind of pebbly pavement (Buller Rd), and right into a headwind. Those two factors combined to bring my top speed down to around 11 mph, and also to piss me off royally.

I stopped at the 2nd rest stop at ~27 miles, and the volunteers were recommending that the 100-milers take the 60-mile route instead because there were lightning storms to the south. Sure enough, looking down our remaining stretch of Buller from there was like looking into the sky in hell--huge dark clouds, lightning, thunder. Holding onto a faint hope that I would somehow miss the storm, I set out from the rest stop as soon as I could.

The good news is, the wind changed to more of a crosswind after about 2 miles, and I was able to pick up some speed again. The bad news is, it was a headwind again a mile or so later when I caught up with the rain. I was probably only riding through the rain for 10 minutes or so, but it felt oh, so much longer. I mean, at first it was kind of cool, in that "woo! Riding through the weather! Hardcore!" sort of way, but that wore off quickly once I could no longer see through my glasses. By the time the sky started to lighten up again, I was drenched and my shoes were totally waterlogged. But I soldiered on, because hey--only 30 more miles to go! And what else could I do anyway? I was in the middle of nowhere, and I'd be just as wet waiting for the SAG truck. AND I'd feel like an wuss.

As the weather stayed clear and the road conditions improved, I started to entertain the hope that I could do 60 miles after all. I was mostly dry by the next time the next round of drizzle hit me, and this time it wasn't even blowing directly in my face! Woo! I was back up to a 14-16 mph pace by the time I reached the Brookshire rest stop (37 mi), where I nearly missed the turn. I took off my wet gloves there because they were chafing my knuckles, and was getting my drink refilled when the head volunteer advised that they were strongly recommending that everyone take the 30-mile route back to the finish line. There were storms all over, particularly south, and they wanted everybody in safely.

I considered. It wasn't raining at the time, but I had puddles in my shoes and every inch of me was soggy. I decided against another two hours of thunderstorm riding. I called Rob and told him that they were recommending that we take the short way home, and to go ahead and stay at the house (He and Noah were going to meet me at the finish) because I would be back at the mall before they could get there. I put on my wet helmet, tried in vain to drain my shoes, and stuffed my wet gloves in my back pocket.

The next 6-7 miles were actually quite pleasant, except that I missed my gloves. Unfortunately, there were about 10 miles left of the course, and the last 3 of those were utterly miserable. Essentially, a replay of the storm on Buller, only on the I-10 feeder (frontage road, for the non-Texans). I was able to average nearly 14 mph, though, due to the better road surface, and an intense desire to get the hell off the road before a wayward car creamed me or I sprouted gills. I was also singing a litany of kid's songs to pace myself(She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain, Right Field, John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt, etc.), which was surprisingly helpful.

About a mile from the finish, I passed the picture guy. It was still raining pretty hard, but the songs had cheered me. I still didn't feel like smiling, though, so I just put on the most pleasant face I could manage as I went by. I'm sure it's going to be pretty grim, but it can't be any worse than any of my other ride pictures.

UPDATE: Yep, pretty grim.

The rain had pretty much stopped by the time I found my car...which also took longer than I would have liked, because I was late coming in and forgot to make any kind of mental note of where I had parked. I changed everything but my sport bra in the driver's seat of my car, totally not caring who might see me half-naked in the parking lot. I figure all of the cars around me were fellow riders anyway, and they'd have their own problems to worry about.

After I was in mostly dry clothes, though, I started to feel really good. I drove home singing along with the ipod (FM transmitter) and car-dancing. This energy stayed with me until about 34 seconds after I ate lunch, and I've been fighting to stay awake (and not bitchy) since. I'm mostly succeeding.

So, while 47 miles is not the 60 I wanted, it's still the 2nd longest distance I've ever done. I'm really happy with my average speed, and my cadence and HR were better than usual, too. Part of that can be attributed to the course being so flat, but I can't deny that I'm also more fit this year than I was last year at this time. Even with the rain, I was able to ride about 14 more miles this year in the same 4-hour timeframe. Rock.

Road bike shopping, part I: Internet research & the first test drive

So, since it was kind of rainy today, Rob had blocked out the day to read the latest in witchcraft and wizardry, my escrow refund is in the mail, and I have had biking on the brain for weeks, I decided to go road bike shopping today.

(Warning: Because my desire for a road bike has graduated to full obsession status, this story is very, very long. I have broken it into multiple posts so that you can read it without going blind/nodding off halfway through. I have put most of it in the extended entry so that you can skip it if you couldn't care less.)

Since I intend to make Sunday's ride my last long haul on the hybrid, I've been researching bikes and components for about 2 weeks now. My price range($600-$1200) is pretty entry level, so I knew I would have to cut corners on some things while getting the best bike I could in more important areas.

First, of course, I had to find out what were the most important things to look for. Everywhere I looked and everyone I asked said that fit was going to be the most important factor, but after that it was a tossup between components and frame. There was also a consensus that mid-range components were the way to go, but I didn't know what "mid-range" meant. All the bike specs on the manufacturer sites had names on their components--Tiagra, Ultegra, Mirage, oh my! I mean, it's cool that they like naming things and all, but unless you work for a bike shop or keep up with cycling as a hobby, it can be a bit hard to figure out which one is better than the other from those catchy names. So I just stuffed the words "mid-range components" into a little cubbyhole in the back of my mind, and hit the review sites.

I read all the reviews I could get my hands on, and also any manufacturer propaganda literature/message boards/articles/etc. on women's specific designs. This was as confusing as the components. It seems that I fall right on the edge of WSD usefulness. With my relative shortness (5'5"), short torso, longish legs, short arms, and yet pretty big hands(long fingers), a WSD would benefit me in some ways but hamper me in others.

After several days of intensive research (read: lots of quality time with google and team estrogen), I picked out a handful of bikes that I liked, and started compiling a list of local bike shops that carried them. I also eventually figured out the Shimano component scale by pricing them in various places, then discovered the good-better-best table for them on the sidebar of a Trek spec page about 2 seconds later. (It's Sora, Tiagra, 105, Ultegra, Dura-Ace, in ascending order. Who knew?) I crammed as much information into my brain as I could hold, and now all that was left was to test ride and decide which was right for me.

What prompted me to start today was that when I went to pick up my race packet for the KFC yesterday, I noticed that the bike shop had one of the bikes I had short-listed (Specialized Dolce Elite) on sale for about $400 off MSRP. I had seen that they had a 51cm, so I wanted to check it out before the sale ended.

I got to the shop about 11:00 this morning, just as it started to rain...I swear, it did it on purpose. Nary a sprinkle until I was at the freeway exit, then BAM! Pouring. Anyway, I went in, cornered a salesperson, and told her I was interested in a road bike. After telling her my needs, a list of bikes I wanted to try and my "to WSD or not to WSD" confusion, she handed me off to a fitting guy.

Even though I had told him I wanted to try the Dolce Elite, he seemed reluctant to show it to me. He had no problem with showing me all the other bikes I requested, though--Trek 1500, Giant OCR2 (I wanted OCR1, actually, but they didn't carry it), and Trek Pilot 2.1. We started out with 50cm frames, but it became evident as soon as we clipped the Pilot into the trainer that this was too small. Since he didn't have a bigger one, Pilot was out of the running. I tried the Trek 1500 in a 52, and that was MUCH better. It was a good fit with very little pressure on my hands and arms, rode and shifted smoothly...but, well, I'm sorry, but that red-white-and-blue paint job is just ugly. I didn't say anything about it, though, because I felt like such a girl for making paint design a factor in choosing a bike.

I finally asked to ride the Dolce, since that's what I drove across town for in the first place. He got the 51 down for me, and from the second I sat on the seat we knew it wasn't going to work. As soon as I seemed to realize the fit was wrong, he gave his opinion that WSD bikes would not be a good fit for me because of the seatpost angle. Apparently, I have long thighs, and WSD bike geometry puts my knees too close to the handlebars. I suspect he knew this from the start, but I appreciate that he let me see for myself. With some regret, I crossed Dolce Elite off my list. Also, all other WSD bikes.

It then occurred to me that I hadn't tried the OCR2 yet. I wasn't overly enthused about this one, mainly because it had lower-grade components than the rest I had tried, but also because (sing it with me if you know the words) I didn't like the look of it. I'm not a black bike kind of girl. The guy seemed very excited about this bike, which struck me as odd because 1)it was the least expensive bike I had tried, and 2) it didn't fit. At all. The handlebars were too wide, the reach too long. The only thing that really did fit was that my elbows were now directly above my knees. It didn't really matter, though, because I didn't like the feel of the shifting at all. It was jerky and there was a persistent rattle...he said that it was a cable adjustment problem, but the shifters didn't feel nearly as responsive as the ones on the 1500 either. The bike did not make a good impression, and was off the trainer faster than you could say "Jane, get me off this crazy thing!" Or Jim, as the case may be.

Thinking I could maybe get past the paintjob on the 1500, I had him put it back into the trainer for another test ride while I pumped him for information. What did HE think was the most important thing? (Fit, fit, fit. Also? Fit.) And what are some ways you can tell by looking that a bike is a good fit for someone? (I don't remember all the answers, but "No 90s." for reach stuck with me. Meaning, nothing in the rider's upper body is at a 90-degree angle...back, wrists, elbows, etc. I thought that was interesting.) Are bikes in this price range pretty idiot-proof to maintain, or are there some that are better than others for, say, someone who fucks up her brakes every time she takes off the front wheel? (They're all about the same.) For someone riding 100 miles/week or less, is it better to get a lower end bike and upgrade components later, or get a higher quality bike from the start?

Now, up until this question, I was pretty confident with his right-bike-getting abilities, but he let me down a little bit with this one. He said that you always want to get the whole bike, and then sell the whole bike to upgrade. Oh, and you should always do it within two years, because bikes go down in value considerably after two years. Now, I don't doubt that this is true, if you have the means to buy a fully equipped road bike every 2 years. I do not have such means. It struck me as a solution you might suggest if, say, you sold bikes for a living. But it was a minor annoyance.

By the time I got through my battery of questions, I knew that I couldn't buy a bike I thought was ugly. I also felt like we had finally built up enough of a rapport that I could just come out with it.

"You know, this bike rides great, shifts smooth, it's comfortable. There's only one thing keeping me from buying it right now, and I'm embarrassed to even say it because it makes me feel like such a girl."

He smiled and waited.

"I just..." Agonized pause. "...I really don't like the color. I think it's ugly."

"Well, color is an important factor." Bless his bike-sellin' heart, I could not detect even a TRACE of sarcasm in that reply.

I got off the trainer, thanked him sincerely for his time, and we shook hands. I walked out without a bike, but with a much clearer picture of what I wanted--52cm frame, Shimano 105 components or above, and no WSD.

UP NEXT: Road bike shopping, part II: Dances with Idiots

where have you been all my life?

This is the coolest thing I have seen this month. Genius. For a numbers-crazy outdoor exerciser like me? Absolute heaven, I'm telling you.

According to this, my bike route on Saturday was 55.0991 miles. That's not as accurate as it could have been, since one of the roads I took was finished only last year, and is not yet on Google maps...I had to do a sort of "as the crow flies" approximation of the route for about 2 miles. Other than that, though, I was able to map it nearly perfectly, right down to the side of the road I was on. I am practically giddy with the possibilities for mapping future rides.

This also confirms something that I've suspected for a while--my bike computer is running short/slow again. Last year when Rob and I did the Katy ride, his computer was consistently showing 1-3 mph faster than mine when we were riding the same speed. It seemed to correct itself over time, because my car showed the same mileages as my bike when I drove the route. Lately, though, the mileages have been inconsistent enough to make me worry. While this mapping plug-in may not be any more accurate, it does seem to back up Rob's computer as the correct one.

You know what this means, right? I've been riding faster and further than I thought I was! :) Yet another reason to love this new toy.

how to make my day

I rode 52 miles today, in just over 4 hours (5ish with stops)! I think I can safely say that doing 62 next week is totally within my reach.

That's not the thing that made my day, though.

When I was into the 22nd mile or so, rocking along at around 14-15 mph, concentrating on keeping my cadence steady and watching for road hazards (which I've been particularly diligent about since The Flat), a guy on a road bike pedaled up next to me. I was expecting him to just wave and pass on by, but as he passed he said, "Man, you go fast on that [little]* bike! I've been trying to catch you for a couple miles!"

Fast? Me? I was too stunned to say anything clever, but managed a "Really?"

"Yeah, on a road bike, you would be really fast."

Of course, 8 billion things ran through my head then, all of which would minimize the comment--"Well, I've only gone 20 miles so far/I just took a break/this is mostly flat..." But I didn't say any of them. I said "Thanks" and he turned at the next intersection.

Hee. I still can't believe it. :)

*he may have said "mountain"...I was on a hybrid. It sounded like "little" to me, though.

KFC

No, not the chicken. The ride.

I've signed up to do 62 miles, or a metric century (which sounds cooler). This is about 20 miles longer than I've ever gone before. If the weather and my speed stay as they have been lately, it's going to be in the low 100s when I finish in the early afternoon.

My thoughts on this ride vacillate between complete confidence and mild terror. On the one hand, it's a relatively easy course. All flat, well supported, stops every 10-15 miles. Rob and I rode 30 miles last year, and I didn't have any trouble at all.

On the other hand, 30 miles is a far damn cry from 62. Forty miles is a shorter cry, and I don't have any trouble with that these days, but still. Twenty extra miles is a long way, especially in the heat.

I also have this fear of being the slowest rider on the course. It's an irrational fear, and I know it. In the grand scheme of things, and the range of riders and bikes that sign up for such things, a 12-14 mph average is not terribly slow. Not fast, certainly, but not prohibitively slow. And once you throw the 100-milers into the mix, I know I won't be the last to cross the finish line, anyway. I just hate being passed, because there's a part of me that always speaks up with "you shouldn't be here, fat girl, you're only getting in the way of the athletes." I don't like that part of me, but it's been with me forever, and it's going to be a while yet before it goes away completely.

The good news is, the confident side surfaces more often than the insecure side. I want to do this, and deep down I know I can. There aren't any official rankings, and I'm fairly certain they're not going to pack up the event before I cross the finish line, so what do I care how many people pass me on the way? In the end, I'll have done 60 miles on a hot day and lived to tell the tale.

Hopefully. :)

wussy foot

The pain in my left foot is not going away like I thought it would. It's pretty much all the time now, not just when I'm working out. There's no more tendon or arch pain, but the pain at the place where the heel meets the arch is there every time I put weight on it. Walking, running, climbing stairs...doesn't matter. It seems to be worse in the morning, and when I wear heels or other such "girl shoes" without much in the way of cushioning or support. It's persisted long enough that I'm considering--gasp!--seeing a doctor over it.

Before I take that much-hated-and-feared step, though, I'm going to take a break from running (even intervals) for a while and see if that helps at all. I can do intervals on the elliptical for a couple months, maybe throw in some swimming or cycling if when that gets stale.

If the pain doesn't either go away completely or subside enough for me to quit worrying about it, I'll see a doctor at the end of August.

Sigh. I know I need to do this, but it still pisses me off. It's always something, you know? I was so close to being able to run 30 minutes straight, thought I had all my injuries (knees--fixed!, shin splints--fixed!, arch pain--fixed!) out of the way, but I can't seem to shake this one. And now that it's progressed to pretty much whenever I move, I can't really truly rest it anymore either. It's not like I can quit walking altogether. Stupid foot.

stats & music

Morning. Sorry I haven't had much to say the last few days...I've been busy, and haven't exactly been a pillar of virtue where the plan's concerned. Yesterday, I'm pretty sure I hit 2500 calories, due to poor planning and no desire to cook anything once I got home. I also didn't do my second workout and took it easy on the first one. Oh, and I didn't drink enough water. See what I mean?

But I did work out once yesterday, and that's something. I took it easier than I normally do, though, so the calorie numbers are lower than I would have liked. Here are the stats:

Workout: Precor EFX, interval course, resistance 7/8
Time: 35:00
Avg HR: 135
Calories: 277(125)

In other news, I'm a little bummed because I had a buyer for my blue ipod mini, but then when I tried to erase it I discovered its battery was dead. Thinking it was just because it's been sitting on the computer desk for a month and the older model doesn't charge well on USB after it's completely drained, I hooked it up to the wall. 2 days later, she's still reporting no battery power as soon as I unplug her. It's very sad to see Minnie this way, hooked up to the wall like someone on life support. (Okay, maybe not exactly like that.)

The good news is, she's still got warranty coverage for 20 more days (nothing like getting it in just under the wire), so I've opened a call with Apple support. They'll either fix her or send me a replacement, either of which will be fine since I was planning on clearing before selling anyway. The bad news is, it'll take at least a week, probably longer since they're shipping me a box to send it to them before they send a replacement. But hey, at least it won't cost anything! Hopefully, I'll still be able to sell it.

Speaking of ipods, it's been a while since I've posted any music. I've been using the last playlist I posted for all of my runs lately, and my 60+-song workout playlist for everything else, so I haven't felt inspired to throw anything up here. However, I'm in a giving mood this morning, so you get music. These are songs that I can't get enough of lately:

Unconditional - Willy Porter
Held - Natalie Grant
Bottom of the Barrel - Amos Lee
Seven Spanish Angels - Ray Charles & Willie Nelson
Only in Dreams - Weezer
Dance Music - Mountain Goats

Right-click, save as, enjoy. They'll be here until tomorrow, at least. Files are gone.

Workout stats - 5/27, 5/29, 5/31

I know I said last night. I got distracted.

Friday
Workout: Precor EFX, interval course, resistance 6/7
Time: 36:32
Avg HR: 143
Calories: 327(131)

Sunday
Workout: ~31 mile ride
Time: 2:21:41
Avg Speed: 13.1 mph
Avg HR: 160
Calories: 1523(457)

Tuesday
Workout: 3-mile walk/run, per-song intervals
Time: 44:23
Avg speed: 4.05 mph
Avg HR: 147
Calories: 404(141)

So there ye have it. There was supposed to be a strength workout yesterday, but I skipped it last night because I wasn't feeling up to it. I plan to do that tonight, and an elliptical workout this afternoon. I still fully intend to make my workout goals this week. (Of course, now that I've said that publicly....)

Workout stats--finally!

I'm home from work today, having pretty much spent the night last night. Barely 15 minutes before I was ready to leave for the day, a server crashed with a very persistent, strange, and utterly catastrophic hardware problem. The server's been up and down for weeks now, and it's having problems nearly identical to another server we had of the same model. After weeks of replacing parts over and over and essentially gutting the machine, we just gave up and redeployed the server on different hardware. The dead husk of that machine has been littering my office for a year.

Now we're seeing the same problem on another server of the same model, and I'm not at all confident the vendor's going to fix it. We've already had them out twice on this one, replacing the same parts both times. In all fairness, though, the parts they're replacing are the only ones that logically could be bad. But whatever. Blah, blah, blah, work crap. Point is, I'm home on comp time today. I tried to sleep after I took Noah to school, but it just wasn't happening. So here I am!

It works out really well for me, actually, since Noah's been wanting me to come eat lunch with him at school and there are only 2 days left in which to do that. I can also run some errands, get a workout in (which I did NOT do yesterday), buy stuff to send to the stepmom's baby shower, and pick up some groceries. Yay, errands!

So anyway, workout stats from Friday, Saturday, and Monday, before I completely lose my train of thought:

Friday
Workout: stationary bike
Workout time: 36:55
Average HR: 143 bpm
Calories burned: 322(129)

Saturday
Workout: spinning class
Workout time: 1:05:22
Average HR: 149 bpm
Calories burned: 614(215)

Monday
Workout: Precor elliptical, interval course
Workout time: 35:08
Average HR: 147 bpm
Calories burned: 319(128)

And today is going to be an hour-long walk. Starting....now!

and lo, they shall see the floor littered with the discarded husks of their predecessors

I ordered a new pair of running shoes last week, and they should be here today or tomorrow. This brings the athletic shoe count on my side of the closet to...7 pairs--4 running, 1 walking, 2 cross-trainers. Oh, and the spinning shoes. Eight. Only 2-3 pairs of these still get regular use, but I can't bear to throw any of them away.

My current pair is barely 2 months old, but I'm having a problem with my left heel. It started after my last road run a week or two ago, with a tightness in my arch, then pain where the arch meets the heel, and a dull ache in the tendon at the back of my foot (Achilles?). I thought it would clear up in a couple days, but it didn't. It's actually gotten a little worse...I'm hobbling around like an old woman over here, especially when barefoot.

Now, good sense would say that if I just took it easy on that foot for a few days, everything would be fine. That's probably true, but that course of action doesn't give me an excuse to buy things, so I discarded it immediately. Instead, I went looking for new shoes, since CLEARLY these were worn out. :)

As luck would have it, these were on sale. They're a different model than the Rykas that I have grown to love, but the added forefoot cushioning sounded like a good idea. The running form I (try to) use involves landing on the balls of my feet, so all of the impact is taken on the forefoot. It's not a whole lot of impact, since the other part of the form is to keep your feet on the ground as little as possible, using the momentum from the forward lean to propel you ahead. The idea, as I understand it, is to treat running as sort of "falling with style", as they said in Toy Story. Lean forward, then lift up one leg and catch yourself with the other, over and over. The amount of lean and how high/how fast you lift your feet determines how fast you go. It looks a little weird, since the stride is so short, but I'll put up with looking like an asshat if it means my knees stay happy. (NOTE: As is typical for this site, my explanation of P0se is grossly oversimplified and probably at least partially inaccurate, but that's how I remember it. Following the link up there will give you a more accurate description, I'm sure.)

At any rate, it would stand to reason that enhanced forefoot cushioning would help me here. So, despite the slightly-worrisome fact that they are designed for overpronators (which I used to think I was, but then I did better in shoes designed for under-pronators), I figured I'd give them a go. I've had good luck with the Rykas, so we'll see.

oops, I accidentally ran 5/8 of a mile

I intended to go to the sculpting class today...I really did. I got over to the locker room at noon, changed into my workout clothes, headed upstairs, set up my step, got my weights...and waited with the other class people for the instructor to get there.

And waited. And stretched, and waited, and fidgeted, and then waited some more. After waiting nearly 15 minutes past the scheduled class time, I decided to scrap it and walk the track instead. Of course, by the time I had gotten my keycard and mourned my lack of an ipod, I got outside just in time to pass the (late!) instructor on his way in. By that time, though, I was committed to the track.

I meant to walk...really I did. It was hot (mid-80s?), and you know how I feel about hot weather. Walking was really the best course, right? I made halfway it through the first lap, then boredom set in and my music-deprived mind started the churning...

"God, my HR isn't very high. And it doesn't really feel that hot. Look at those guys playing soccer. Oh, look, the basketball game. They're running around all fast, and here I am. Walking."

"Maybe if I run a half-lap, I can get my walking HR over 120."

I ran a half-lap, checked my lap time.

"Not bad."

I walked a full lap, thinking that Hamlet marching chant thing from Renaissance Man, "Hamlet's mama she's the queen/Bites it in the final scene..." After two run-throughs, I was to the 1/4-mile marker again and getting itchy feet.

"I wonder how fast I could go. I'm gonna do the rest of this lap as fast as I can." So I did...and made roughly half the distance in about a minute, before I felt like I had to stop.

"Not bad. I think I'll do intervals! Oh, wait. I guess I'm already doing intervals."

A 1/4-mile later..."I wonder how quiet I can run."

And so it went. All together, I did a normal 1/4-mile jog, a fast 1/8-mile run, a 1/4-mile jog focused on keeping my footfalls light, and walked the rest of the 2.5 miles. I finished in 37:30.

So, have I now reached the point in my fitness career where I resort to RUNNING to stave off boredom? I guess it beats boredom eating.

update on today's run

After doing the 10:1 intervals again today, I think it's safe to say that the faster run time I saw Friday was no fluke...today, I beat it by nearly 30 seconds. :)

This research is not terribly scientific, though, since there were several variables that changed today from Friday--temperature, time of day, clothes worn, stomach contents, mood, energy level...and I'm sure there are more. Still, it's striking to me that I not only improved my time, but my HR was lower overall as well. Here are the differences, with Friday's numbers in parentheses:

Time: 44:13 (44:30)
Run time: 27:30 (27:52)
Speed(mph): 4.36 run, 4.07 overall (4.30 run, 4.04 overall)
Avg HR: 149 (161)
In zone: 22:54 (18:51)

Rock. Though I'm pretty sure that the HR and speed numbers had as much to do with the weather and the digestive issues as anything, it's still improvement across the board. And you know how much I love the continual improvement.

Now, where do I go from here? Well, 2-mile 10:1 intervals for the rest of this week, for sure. Then I'm considering either 10:1 for 2.5 miles OR 1-mile:1-minute intervals for 2 miles. I'm leaning toward the latter right now, but I could really swing either way by next week.

remember that total eclipse of the sun a few weeks ago?

I thought, maybe, if I put some strange and interesting stats in the window, I could attract readers. Why don't I go to the basement and get those strange and interesting stats I've been working on?

Ahem, sorry. :) But I really do have some strange and interesting stats from my run today! First, the story...

Da-doo. (MP3 link removed 5/2...it was a song from this musical, if you didn't figure that out already.)

I ran at about 12:45, because I had a meeting at 2:00. The weather was what you might expect for 12:45 pm on a late-April Houston afternoon--80 degrees, humid enough that my weather gnome was telling me that it felt like 83. Mercifully cloudy, though. I decided to hell with my "no running in over 80 degrees" thing, because I'll be treadmill-bound till October if I stick to that. I got dressed, hooked up the iPod, and hit the track.

You'd think after the Chip0tle incident earlier in the week, I would have thought to wait more than an hour after eating before doing so. But of course, I have the memory of a particularly stupid goldfish when it comes to these things, so it only occurred to me as my HR was hitting the 130s on the warmup lap. Shit...this was going to be a loooong workout.

Somewhere in the middle of the first running lap, I grasped the full extent to which this was going to suck. My legs felt like lead, my stomach was lurching, and my HR was in the 170s at a 1/4 mile. I decided that I would try next week's 5:1 intervals a little bit early, just to see if that would keep me from passing out and/or throwing up by the time I hit the 2-mile mark. Since I had already run more than 5 minutes, I wasn't sure whether I should just walk immediately, or wait until I got all the way around. I toyed with the idea of keeping the 5:1 ratio (10-minute walk, 2-minute run), but rejected it on the grounds that I would feel like a total candyass if I dialed it back that far. In the end, I opted for 10:1 intervals instead.

So anyway, I did the run in 10-minute segments with 1-minute walks between them. My HR wasn't really much better, but I stopped feeling sick, anyway.

Now, here comes the strange and interesting part--I finished faster with the walk intervals. Check it:

Workout time: 44:30
Run time: 27:52
Avg speed: 4.3 mph

WTF? I KNOW that I did 4 running laps--I counted, and I'm pretty sure I wasn't delirious or anything. I didn't feel like I was going any faster today than Wednesday, and I walked a full two minutes of it besides! How could I possibly have been going that much faster? Bizarre.

Bizarre in a good way, though. I was afraid my speed was going to suffer quite a bit going back to intervals, but it seems (at least from this test) that I actually run faster if I don't think I'm going to run as long. I'm going to try it again on Monday and see what my times are like then. It's entirely possible that this is a fluke.

fun with gadgets--the speed/distance watch

I recently acquired (by marriage) a speed/distance watch with a GPS thingie. Today was the first time I used it. I tried using the armband for the GPS, but I felt like a dork with it strapped to my arm. I tried tying it to the drawstring on my shorts, but it made me look like I was wearing a cup. Finally, it dawned that these shorts had pockets, so I dropped it in one of them.

The first lap, everything was kind of fine, once it found the signal (about halfway around). When I finished the first lap, the distance display said .24 mi. I made a note of this and started my first running lap. At first, 4.2 mph...so far so good. Then I rounded a corner and went under some trees, and it reported 2.6 mph...even though I never slowed down. Hmm. Got to the next bend, and it was displaying 4.1 mph, which seemed more likely. When I hit the trees at the 1/4 mile mark, though, it was still reporting a reasonable speed. I ruled out trees as the cause, and figured that maybe it was just a fluke.

When I completed the lap, the distance meter said .74 mi. Once I got back around to the previous lap's slow spot, I checked the speed again--2.7 mph! The hell? Once I got to the next bend, it sped up just as before. Maybe I slow down around that corner, or it has trouble with the angle (~70-90 degree turn, probably), and it takes the device until the straight section to catch up. In that case, though, why didn't it slow down on the other corners? At any rate, it didn't seem to affect the distance calculation, as we'll see in a minute.

The next couple laps I got gradually slower, but managed to stay constant at around 3.8 mph. Somewhere around the middle of the fourth running lap, I realized that 2 miles was going to have to be long enough. My HR wouldn't stay out of the 170s unless I walked, I had a stitch in my side, and I was feeling the frustration start to simmer. I picked up my water bottle and leaned into the last tenth of a mile to pick up some speed (5.1 mph...yippee!). Then, I walked another lap. The ending distance on the watch was 2.71 miles. If I subtract the incomplete first lap from that (.24 mi), that'd be 2.47 mi for 5 laps, making each lap...0.494 mi.

Hey, what do you know...it IS a 1/2 mile track! Or close enough.

Going with a run distance of 1.98 mi (in 28:17) and a total distance of 2.96 mi (in 45:15), my speeds were 4.2 mph running and 3.9 mph overall.

I'm not happy about stopping the run early, but I think I'm going to be keeping it at 2 miles through next week. I'm also considering doing a 5:1 interval (5-min run, 1-min walk) thing for a while, but I'm not sure which is going to be better for me. Right now? Leaning toward 5:1 for next week.

Oh, and on my future use of the speed/distance watch? I liked having the constant feedback, but it was kind of a lot of equipment. With this thing and the HRM, I had a GPS receiver in my pocket (and the thing was bulkier than I would have liked), a chest strap, and a watch on each wrist. The speed/distance watch is also huge on me, since I have small wrists (Ray Charles would have thought I was fabulous, if the movie is to be believed). Now that I know the track is close enough to a 1/2 mile, I'm just going to base my speed averages on that. I'm not to a point where I'm really dying to know individual lap speeds, so having constant speed assessment is really more of a distraction than a help. For now, I'm only going to use the time/distance watch on road runs, so that I have more flexibility in the routes I can take around the neighborhood. Or anywhere, really.

What would really be nice is to have one (small!) gadget that does everything--HR, distance, speed, lap times, etc. I imagine such a thing exists, but I'm also sure it's completely out of my price range.

hey, free beer!

I'm considering this.

I haven't registered yet, for a few reasons.

1. My longest distance to date has been 42 miles. This is, um, twice that.

2. May 14th is less than 3 weeks away, and the longest I've ridden since...November? is 16 miles. I did it easily, but 16 is a pretty far cry from 90.

3. I'm not sure I want to ride it alone. I mean, not alone alone, since there'll be a bunch of people riding from Houston, but alone in the sense that they're all strangers. There's someone at church who did the MS150 last week that I could potentially ask to ride with me...but, um, she did the MS150 last week. I'm not sure that she'd want to hop on her bike for another long ride so soon. And I'm not sure how she feels about beer...we're not an "alcohol is the debbil" church, but you never know. This may not be her thing.

4. Transportation. There are shuttles back to the home city after the event, but they don't leave till 7 pm. I'm not sure Rob and Noah would want to drive to Shiner to wait for me, but they probably would if I asked them to.

5. I've never been to Shiner, so I don't know what the terrain is like. I mean, I know it's not mountains or anything, but what if it's 90 miles of steep hills?

6. Noah's soccer game that day. We'd miss it.

So, I just don't know. Most of me thinks it'd be a really fun way to spend a Saturday. Yes, it's a long way, but the rest stops are spaced the same as they have been in every other ride I've done. Instead of doing 3 10-12 mile rides in a day, I'd be doing 8-9, right? The event goes till 7 pm, so it's not like there's a time limit on this. I could take my time. But there still that niggling part of me that thinks I can't be ready for 90 miles in less than 3 weeks. It could be an epic disaster, ending with me, utterly humiliated, riding the SAG truck 50 miles to the finish line.

So, what do YOU think?

my new definition of slack

I'm not going to run today. I forgot my HR monitor thing, it's sort of hot outside, I'm still a little twingy-sore from yesterday's walking lunges, and mostly? I just don't want to.

I've been really, really tired the last few days. Even this morning, after going to bed at a sensible hour (10:00ish) last night. It might be a symptom of TOM week, but whatever it is, my energy level is low. I feel run down, and it might be my body trying to tell me something.

So, I hereby declare this Friday a recovery day, not a running day. I'm going to do SOMEthing at the gym tonight, but it's probably going to be more in the neighborhood of an easy Precor workout. I've been wanting to try some of these since someone linked to the page the other day...can't remember who (if it was you, tell me). Maybe tonight's the night.

I also really want to get into the spinning class tomorrow...I haven't been for several weeks, and we don't have soccer stuff until noon. I miss my spin--omelet--exactly-3-cups-of-coffee routine. My weekends haven't seemed quite right without it.

Of course, I am going to have to fit today's skipped run in somewhere, if I want to stay on track with my running program...the weather is supposed to be really nice on Sunday (mid-70s high, partly-cloudy), so maybe I can hit the road after church. Whenever I decide to make it up, though, the bottom line is that it ain't gonna be today.

distance v. time

I'm going to try something new on the run today. It may be a mistake, but I need to know. I'm going to run for distance rather than time.

Instead of upping my run to 30 minutes this week, I'm going to do two miles. With my speed slowing down like it has, this may come out to just about the same thing, but I think it's going to end up around 28-29 minutes. I'm going to do a 1/2 mile warmup and a 1/2 mile cooldown, for a total of 3 miles (6 laps). Hopefully, I'll do this in less than 45 minutes.

If this works out okay, I'm going to make it 2.5 miles next week, 3 miles the week after that, and 3.5 after that. I'll stay at 3.5 for the foreseeable future, maybe taking it up to 4 in the fall.

I may also stretch it out by 1/4-miles each week (2.25 next week, 2.5 week after, etc.), but I think it's really going to depend on how I feel after this week. Or probably after next week. If another 1/2 mile seems like too much of a jump, I'll back it off.

So, why?

There are a few reasons. The main one is that C-to-5k only goes up to 30 minutes, and it's going to be a long, loooooong time before I can run a 5k in 30 minutes. If my objective is to run a certain distance, then I think I should be training by distances. If my objective was to run for an hour straight, then the time increases would work better.

Another reason is that I can get a better idea of how long it takes me to run a specific distance. If I know that I'm going to run exactly 2 miles or 3 miles or whatever, I don't have to go through the math olympics to figure out my run speed. If I'm running 28 minutes and I almost make it to the 2 mile mark before walking, how do I quantify the almost? What I've been doing is just calculating speed for the full 2 mile distance, which includes some walking. Going for distance makes me seem faster without actually having to be faster.

And finally, it's the music. I like to shuffle play. I'll probably still create running playlists, but I won't need to worry about the play order so much this way.

today's run

Today's run was good, better than the last several weeks. There were several factors involved...the weather was mid-70s with a light breeze, it was earlier in the day than I've been going lately, I had a decent lunch. Mostly I think it was that I made a conscious decision to see if I could keep my HR below 165 (80%) and still run.

The answer, sadly, is "not right now". My highest HR was 177, and my average was 160 for the 37:25 workout (28-minute run). However, I did feel 100% better running at a lower HR. My shins didn't complain as much, I didn't have to talk myself into the last 5-10 minutes, and I wasn't exhausted afterward. This makes me think that I really was straining too much at that upper range, and probably hurting myself more than I was really helping. I'm not an athlete, and I think training at that level for an entire 30-minute workout is more than my body can handle without setting myself up for injury. This puts me in a difficult position, because I can't run in an aerobic range either. If I slow down to a pace where I can still run but I don't feel like falling over dead afterward, I'm squarely in a 155-175 range (75-85% MHR, roughly). It's not optimal, but I'm okay with it for now. My speed is not entirely embarrassing in that range--4.2 mph running.

After reading some things and exchanging some emails, I think that I'm overthinking this whole HR thing. The HRM data is important, but I'm not really in good enough shape (yet?) that tweaking it at a micro level is really going to do much good. I'm just making myself crazy worrying about the ranges, when my focus right now should really be more on making exercise a habit, and figuring out what works for me. If I get too hung up on the numbers, I'm likely to quit altogether (it's what I do). And what good would that do?

So, I'm done with that. I'm still going to note my HR, and I'm going to do the workouts at the intensity that I feel most comfortable with. Hopefully my numbers will improve gradually over time, but the hand-wringing over them is...well, over. Until I'm fit enough to concentrate on improving my performance v. just getting out there and DOING it, the HRs are what they are.

28-minute run playlist (Couch-to-5k, Week 8)

I guess it's about time I posted another playlist, eh? The reason I didn't post the one from Monday is mostly that it just wasn't very good. To get all Randy Jackson on you, "It was just aight for me, man."

The first song was a mix that I downloaded from...somewhere, and even though it totally rocks for the Precor, it sucked to have an 18-minute mix for my first running song. I didn't realize how much I depend on the (even slight) pace changes throughout the workout. Eighteen minutes of music at exactly the same speed made me want to die. That, and did I mention that it was hot? I think I might have made an off-hand remark about it. :)

So anyway, the playlist for last night's run was better. I just took a bunch of songs I felt like hearing and dumped them in a pile, then added and cleared until I had exactly 28 minutes for the run portion. Read on for the result.

Warm-up: Each Coming Night - Iron & Wine

Lose Yourself - Eminem (5:20)
Lakes of Pontchartrain - Be Good Tanyas (4:43)
Push It - Salt-n-Pepa (4:32)
No One Like You - David Crowder Band (3:54)
Gone - Switchfoot (3:45)
Stillwater - Chris & Johnny (2:55)
Trust Me - Barenaked Ladies (2:51)

Cool-down: One Voice - Gear Daddies (7:26) This song contains a untitled bonus track, which I like to call "The Zamboni Song". The band might have, too, for all I know. But no title was listed in the CD info or in iTunes when I checked, so there you go.

I've only linked the ones that a) I had in MP3, and b) I don't remember posting before. Because, really, how many copies of Push It do you want?

As always, right-click, save-as, enjoy. They'll be gone by Saturday. They're gone.

Today

I have a meeting exactly in the middle of the afternoon on Wednesdays, so I couldn't go running at the usual time (1:30-2ish). By the time the thing was over, it was 82 outside. Since I imposed my ban on running in temps over 80 degrees, I am not hitting the track today.

I'm hoping to get on the treadmill later, but Noah has a soccer practice at 6:00. Since I was somehow roped into being team manager (that's what I get for getting to the game early last week), I should probably be there. If it gets done by 7, I could conceivably stop by the gym at 7:20ish, finish by 8, pick up dinner, and still see who goes home this week on the AI elimination show (PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LET IT BE SCOTT).

Even if I don't make it back for that, though, it's no big deal. I'd be just as happy if finding out who's eliminated without actually watching the show. In fact, since they've crammed an extra 25 minutes of commercials and filler crap into it this week to make it an hour long, so I'm even less interested in seeing the "drama". Mostly, the elimination show just makes me want to beat the crap out of Seacrest, and whoever came up with the idea for those craptastic group songs.

I am going to miss seeing Lost at 7, though...the previews looked pretty good. Maybe they'll kill off Locke this week! Or Kate!* Maybe I can catch it at the gym.

*Well, probably not Kate, but a girl can dream...

28 minutes is a long-ass time

I ran 28 minutes today. It was a beautiful 82 degrees with relatively low humidity, sort of breezy. Perfect weather for lounging around the pool, but (sing it with me if you know the words) TOO DAMN HOT for running. Especially running longer than I've ever run before. I'd say it sucked, but that would be an insult to things that suck (Ditto biting things, blowing things, etc). It was not at all enjoyable, let's just put it that way. Adding to my misery was my lack of a headband to keep my bangs out of my face, and my dollar-store headphones that kept slipping off my head at the worst possible moments.

But you know what? I did it anyway. I went slowly, stopped 3 times for water (stopping the music and the timer), and walked about 17 minutes in warm-up and cooldown. My total time for 3 miles was 45:10, for an average speed of just under 4 mph. I ran about 2.1 of those in 28 minutes, making my average run speed 4.5 mph. My walk speed was around 3.1-3.2 mph, mainly because I kept the clock running while I stretched and also while I stopped to talk to someone for a minute. With those things added in, it took me over 8 minutes to walk my 1/4 mile warmup.

My average heart rate was lower (154 bpm), because there was more walking this time and I took breaks during the running. I was in my 120-170 bpm zone for over 19 minutes.

Even in the longest stretch of the run, though, I don't think my HR ever got over 180. Now, if I had continued to run without the water breaks, it may have gone higher...but I'm not exactly itchin' to see what heat stroke is like, so I figured I'd play it safe.

So, in summary, 28 minutes seems a helluva lot longer than 25 to me, even though there's only 3 minutes difference. And I'm no longer running outside unless the temperature is less than 80 degrees. I may even bring that down to 75, because (again, sing it with me) hot-weather running SUCKS.

Run update, 4/8/05

The road run went well! I wasn't as fast there as I was on the track, but it usually works out that way. I have a sneaking suspicion that the track isn't quite a 1/2 mile. Either that, or my car's odometer doesn't quite measure distance accurately. I'm not sure which, and it could be both. I can't exactly drive the jogging track to find out, so I'm just going to have to go with what's posted there, and accept that I may not be as fast as I think. Or I may be faster than I think, if I choose to believe my car instead. :)

At any rate, the route that I took Friday was 2.3 miles in my car. I ran 1.8 miles of it in 25:03, for an average speed of 4.3 mph. I walked the other 1/2 mile in 8:46 (3.4 mph), for a total time of 33:49. Average speed for the entire distance ended up at around 4.1 mph.

Average HR looked better (down one bpm to 162), time in zone looked worse (10:29, down from 12 minutes & change). When I checked the monitor as I was walking, though, my HR was at 117. Because I wanted to start running after the 4-way stop, there were a full 6.5 minutes of warmup (the last 2 were without music, to keep the 25-minute run intact). So I was actually over 170 for around 16 minutes.

I don't think I know anymore how to get it lower, or even if it matters all that much. The thought of doing actual research doesn't fill me with glee, so I'm just grabbing pieces of advice here and there. Rob says that if all I'm ever wanting to run is a 5k, then keeping my HR elevated for 30-40 minutes isn't a really big deal--it's a sprint distance. However, I don't want to spend my entire life feeling wiped out after a 3-mile run. So apparently, the key is going to be longer recovery runs/workouts between the 5k sprints.

But let's stop there a minute. I have a really, really hard time accepting a 5k sprint. I know athletes do it, but I have never been nor will I ever be an athlete. What's even harder to accept than a 5k sprint distance is a 4.8 mph sprint speed. That's not a sprint, in my mind--it's a...what's a good term? Endurance pace? It's freakin' slow, is what it is. And yet, it's as fast as I can go right now without my heart exploding, so really, it is my sprint speed.

I don't like being slow, is really the problem. I don't want to be a world-class runner or anything, but I don't like being lapped by kids on push scooters either.

So now I'm at a crossroads, sort of. In order to get my cardio conditioning to improve, I need to start doing longer workouts at a lower HR between the 5k "sprints". I've been doing that some, with the long walks on strength days. Still, I have a hard time not worrying over my sustained 170s & 180s on the running days, because it doesn't seem healthy to me. Of course, I'm neither an athlete nor a cardiologist, so what do I know?

I should probably read a book or something. I just need to find one that won't put me to sleep.

It's free music Friday!

I really need to make a category for playlists.

Ordinarily, I test these things out before I post them, but I'm not going running until early evening today, and I'll forget to post if I wait till then.

Why tonight? While I was out on my bike last night, I discovered that one of the side roads back by the neighborhood golf course goes all the way around a small lake before coming back to the main road. Though I'm not overly fond of road running, I'm getting bored with the view from the track, and this route looks like a good way to get a little variety. On my bike, the loop portion was between a 1/2 and a full mile, and it's about a mile from my house to the loop. The distance should be just about perfect for a 25-minute run.

The other reason is that the weather will be slightly cooler then. But you knew about my heat-wuss tendencies already, right?

Anyway, the playlist. Today there's a alternative-ish, rockish theme. You know, all that crap that sounds like it might have played on a college rock station in the 90s? The cool-down is technically a Christmas song, but it's not all jingle bells and mistletoe about it. You'll see. :)

Oh, and for the curious/nit-picky out there, the total time for the running portion of the playlist is 25:03. I may or may not walk for those extra 3 seconds.

Warm-up: Wear Sunscreen - Baz Luhrmann

Come Dancing - The Kinks
Stupid Boy - Gear Daddies
Anything, Anything - Dramarama
Shoe Box - Barenaked Ladies
Bright Future in Sales - Fountains of Wayne
Out the Window - Violent Femmes
Buddy Holly - Weezer
Oh, Goddamnit - Hot Hot Heat

Cool-down: Fairytale of New York - Pogues

These files will be gone tomorrow afternoon. Exactly when tomorrow afternoon is unknown, since Noah has a soccer game and I'm a flake.

As always, right-click and save-target-as to download. Please.

UPDATE: Okay, MONDAY morning, not Saturday afternoon. But they're gone now.

Running update, and a playlist

Well, I just finished my second 25-minute run. The temperature this time was a little higher (77 degrees v. 65ish), the windspeed a little lower (15 mph v. 21). Other than that, conditions were pretty much the same. So were my speed and average heart rate.

My total time was 33:45, which is about a minute longer than my last time. For the 25-minute running portion, my distance was almost exactly 2 miles. If I want to get technical (and I do), I ran 2 miles in 24:54 and walked the last 6 seconds. My average speed for the total workout was 4.4 mph, and 4.8 mph for the running portion. It's slower than my last run, but I expected that. I consciously tried to go slower to keep from overheating. 77 isn't like an oven or anything, but it's warmer than my ideal. I'm new at this running thing. And hey--I'm from Wisconsin. Even after living here for nearly 7 years, I'm still better at handling cold than heat.

Anyway, the heart rate was a little better, probably because of the reduced speed. My average was 163, which is an improvement over last week's 166, but still higher than I'd like. I was in my target zone (120-170) for 12 1/2 minutes instead of 10. Baby steps, people. Baby steps.

So, who wants some music?

This is another playlist that I cobbled together to be exactly 25 minutes, excluding warmup/cooldown. I've been trying to stick to themes with these "long" runs...last week was dance mixes/hip-hop/etc., this one is mostly what Rob calls "long-haired hippie crap"(In the nicest way possible, of course). I threw some pop stuff in the middle because I ran out of upbeat folk/singer-songwriter stuff...although I'm sure that somewhere in the world there are hippies listening to Britney.

Warm-up: Somewhere over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World - Iz

Run:

Lakes of Pontchartrain - Be Good Tanyas
William & Davy - Kate Rusby
Shame on You - Indigo Girls
American Girl - Tom Petty
Toxic - Britney Spears
Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard - Paul Simon
The Fox - Nickel Creek

Cooldown: Sylvia Hotel - Cheryl Wheeler

As I always say, right-click and save-as please.

I'm only linking the ones I have in mp3 format right this minute. I could convert the others, but eh. I don't feel like it.

Some of these are repeats, and "The Fox" will only be available until I get home tonight. Nickel Creek is a little sensitive about mp3 sharing, and I respect that (kind of). If you want that one after 7 pm today, you should buy the CD. It's been one of the favorites in my collection for years, and it's perfect fitness-walking music (if you're a bluegrass sort of person).

Couch-to-5k status/update

Yesterday, if I hadn't been on vacation, I would have begun my second time through week 6 of the Couch-to-5k program. Since I didn't, now I'm debating whether I should just skip on through to Week 7.

There wasn't really a whole lot of difference, effort-wise, between 8-10 minute run intervals and just running 25 minutes straight. I think I'm just going to go for it. If my knees/shins start complaining, I'll go back to intervals for a while.

If I do each of the upcoming weeks (7-9) only once, I could enter my first 5k race by this summer. This would leave me some time to pick up my bike training again, which I've been neglecting. I still want to do a century in November, and I'm not even sure I could still do 40 miles right now. I mean, I could, but I might have to sleep the rest of the day to recover. The spinning classes have been good, but they're not really the same as being out on the road.

So, here's my plan--this week is Week 7, all 25-minute runs. Next week is 28-minute runs, then 30-minute runs the following week. The week after that? True 5k distances 3 times per week, until I can do 3.25 miles* in less than 45 minutes AND without my heart going crazy. Since I'm not terribly far from that now (except for the crazy heart part), I figure I can enter a 5k race this summer.

In addition to the running 3x per week, I'm also introducing biking back into the schedule. I still really like the spinning class, but I think I'm going to make it every other week for the foreseeable future. On the Saturdays that I don't do the class, I'd like to bike 1-2 hours in the morning. Eventually, I'd like to work my distances up to 25-30. Though I haven't quite worked it out yet, I'm trying to find a way to fit in a 30-40 minute ride on Tuesdays and Thursdays too.

So, tentatively, here's my workout schedule for April:

Sunday: Rest
Monday: Run 25-45 minutes, depending on training week
Tuesday: Sculpting class, 8-10 mile ride
Wednesday: Run 25-45 minutes
Thursday: Strength workout, 8-10 mile ride
Friday: Run 25-45 minutes
Saturday: Spin class or 15-20 mile ride

We'll see how it goes.

*I think a 5k is 3.1-3.2 miles, but it's easier to measure distances on the track in 1/4-mile increments.

go Speed Racer, go Speed Racer...

Despite standing vigil over Desktop Weather and whispering sweet nothings at Mother Nature all afternoon, I could not will the windspeed down. In fact, by the time I finally gave up around 1:00, the wind had upped to 21 mph. I figured I'd better get out there while it was still below gale-force, so I packed up my stuff and headed to the locker room. After some self pep-talking and some stretching, I hit the track about 1:45. Around 1:50, I set down my water bottle by a tree and started to run. By 2:25, I was back in the locker room.

I won't lie to you--it was hard. The wind was plenty gusty, and in my face about a quarter of the time. Some of the time, it was trying to blow me over sideways. Of course, the rest of the time it was at my back, but that didn't happen nearly as much as I would have liked. And then, there was the fact that I had never run this long without walk intervals before. By the time Salt-n-Pepa was (were?) through, the voices in my head were in full-on coach mode.

"just make it to the corner...okay, now the other corner..."
"just two more songs, and they're short! And...and, here comes Pink now!"
"For God's sake, don't look at that heart rate again. You are not dying."
"You feel great, right? Don't you feel great? Feel GREAT, DAMMIT!"
"Okay, I'm sorry I yelled, now just make it to the driveway...."
"'since you been goooooone, I can breeeathe for the first time'..."

And when I passed my water bottle for the fourth time, it hit me that I had run 2 miles straight, and I still had 28 seconds of Kelly Clarks0n left. I almost cried. It was completely worth it. When I did the math back at my office, it came out to 12:16 per running mile, so almost 4.9 mph. Total average speed for the 32:42 I was out there? 4.6 mph. So not only did I run 25 minutes straight today, but I was running at personal record speed!

The less good news is, I was also running it at personal record average heart rate. While my max only topped out at 183 bpm (yeah, I know, only), my average was 166. I was only in the 120-170 range for 10 minutes. While I'm sure that 3-5 of those other 23 minutes were under the range during warmup, I'm positive that the majority of them were over it during the running. And I'm using a BIG range, there. I slowed down every time I saw it over 180, but I still really, really need to work on that.

You know what, though? Working on the heart rate is tomorrow's problem. Today, I ran over 2 miles in 25 minutes, and lived to tell the tale. :)

Ahhhh...Friday

Is it just me, or did this week go by really, really fast? The hours drag on each day, but then I still find myself thinking that it should be Wednesday right now.

Just me? Okay, then.

Couch-to-5k tells me that there's a 25-minute run on my agenda today. While I'm a little nervous about it, I think the weather is going to cooperate, at least. The other day, it was nearly 75 degrees at this time of the morning, today it's 59. The humidity's higher (60%), but it doesn't feel it. The wind's a little outrageous, though--gusting at 16 mph, according to the weather gnome that lives in my system tray. (Or Desktop Weather, as it likes to call itself.) Anyway, I'm hoping the wind will die down by 11 or so, though I can't get DW to make any promises. I'm going outside either way, but it would be nice if I didn't feel like I'm going to be blown to Oz while I'm out there.

I'm very excited about today's playlist...not because the songs are works of earth-shattering awesomeness (except for Salt-n-Pepa, of course), but because the running portion comes out to EXACTLY 25 minutes. I mean, to the second. Check it out:

Wear Sunscreen - Baz Luhrmann (5:11, warm-up...just in case I forget)
Lose Yourself - Eminem (5:20, run)
Shake Ya Tailfeather - Murphy Lee, et. al. (4:53, run)
Push It - Salt-n-Pepa (4:32, run)
Heaven - DJ Sammy & Yanou (3:55, run)
Get the Party Started - Pink (3:11, run)
Since U Been Gone - Kelly Clarkson (3:09, run)
Damn, Feels Good to be a Gangster - Ghetto Boyz (5:09, cool-down)

From Eminem to Kelly Clarkson, it's exactly 25 minutes. This tickles me.

Just as a side note, I try to order the songs by diminishing length for the running parts, because it keeps my going. If I feel like I'm losing steam, I can say to myself..."come on, just make it through this song, all the rest are shorter..." It sounds a little hokey, but it works for me.

MP3s will be are up later for everything but "Wear Sunscreen" and "Damn...Gangster", since I've posted both of those at least twice already.

UPDATE: Also the Pink song, since I only have that in protected format. Right-click and save-as if you want any of the others...they'll be gone in the morning.

UPDATE, 4/2: MP3s are gone now.

Oh, by the way...

I'm happy to report that after over 2 years of trying to exercise regularly, and nearly 4 years of employment with this company, this quarter I earned a fitness incentive for the first time.

Without getting into too many details, the company has a free onsite workout facility (which includes the 1/2-mile track that I've mentioned on this site at least eleventy-million times), and they offer quarterly incentives to any full-time employees that work out 36 times or more in a calendar quarter.

I have been here for 4 years in June, and I have never qualified. The closest I got was 6 or 9 months ago, when I topped out at 30. This quarter? I'm at 39, as of my workout this afternoon. Woohoo! 15th time's the charm, I guess.

Next quarter, I'm shooting for 40.

no fear

Today is a running day. Per the schedule, I'm supposed to do 10-minute running intervals, with 3-minute rests. At the moment I type this, it is 82 degrees outside, with 51% humidity, wind 8 mph NE. Not bad for Houston, but even so...I don't want to run in that!

Okay, it's not so much that I don't want to run in that...it's that I'm afraid to run in that. I know that if I'm going to continue to a) run for exercise, and b) live in Houston, I'm going to have to learn to run in temperatures over 75 degrees. And with summer a mere 3 months away, it's got to be soon. Still...the thing I like absolutely the least about this city is the heat. The sticky, oppressive, 90-degrees-in-the-shade-for-4-months heat of it.

Unfortunately, I also don't like treadmills. Therefore, I must learn to run in the heat, and I guess today is a good a day as any to start. So I fill my water bottle, make sure I have shorts and a sleeveless shirt, and swallow my fear. 80 degree running, here I come!

Barring heat stroke, I'll report back later on how it went. :)

UPDATE: I survived! My average HR was higher than usual, it took longer to cool down afterward, and there was a bit of a gnat problem, but it was otherwise fine. 2.5 miles in just under 35 minutes. :)

another day, another run, another playlist

Well, today is Couch-to-5k week 6 #2, which is 5-minute walk/10-min jog/3-min walk/10m jog. In the spirit of American Idol last night, I went with 90s and 80s songs (okay, okay...so they're mostly 80s and I created the playlist before AI aired. Work with me, here).

Without further ado...the playlist for today:

UPDATE: I changed one song, because I realized that it was on the last playlist also. I don't want to get burned out on it, since I only have so many 2 1/2 minute songs. The replacement is new to this site, so it's linked.

Here With Me - REO Speedwagon (5:05, warm-up walk)
The Warrior - Scandal (3:59, run)
American Girl - Tom Petty (3:34, run)
Boys Will Be Boys - Gear Daddies (2:28, run)
She's Happy - Gear Daddies (3:05, walk)
Goodbye to You - Scandal (3:46, run)
Anything, Anything - Dramarama (3:20, run)
In Between Days - The Cure (2:56, run)
Just A Sign - Allen Wayne Damron (3:45, cooldown walk)

MP3s for the ones I haven't posted before will be linked after I get to work. No really--I promise. When they get here, right-click and save-as please.

(And for the record, those songs are Here With Me, The Warrior, She's Happy, and possibly Just A Sign. UPDATE: And Boys Will Be Boys.)

Couch-to-5k Week 6, Workout #1 playlist

I'm posting all of this immediately, so I can't forget to upload the files again. I'm also only linking the ones that I don't think I've posted before:

UPDATE: MP3s are gone.

Loving Hands - Christine Kane (4:45, warm-up walk)
Oh, Goddamnit - Hot Hot Heat (2:28, run)
Punk Rock Girl - Dead Milkmen (2:38, run)
Planxty Fanny Power - Sally Rogers (2:58, walk)
Lakes of Pontchartrain - Be Good Tanyas (4:43, run)
Every Time You Say Goodbye - Alison Krauss (3:15, run)
Only You - Yaz (3:09, walk)
I Held Her In My Arms - Violent Femmes (3:01, run)
Blister in the Sun - Violent Femmes (2:24, run)
Hold On - Tom Waits (5:33, cooldown walk)

Right-click, save-as, please. Get 'em now, for tomorrow they will be but a happy memory. Or something like that.

I was in a sort of bluegrass-folksy-hippie sort of mood today, so there's a generous helping of that on this playlist. I was a little worried that some of the songs wouldn't be good running tunes, but they did pretty well. Lakes of Pontchartrain was a particularly nice surprise...While it didn't really have an especially strong beat to match my cadence to, it was steady enough that I could find my own rhythm.

I was on the track a total of 35 minutes and 17 seconds, 18.5 minutes running and the rest walking. I made 5 laps (2.5 miles total), so my average pace was 4.25 mph. So I guess the mellower music didn't slow me down any...my last average speed was 4.1-4.2 mph.

Thanks, Baz*

I just finished my second week 5 in the Couch-to-5k program, with a 20-minute run. Outside, on the road. The weather, she was like this:

I don't usually run in temperatures over 65, or on surfaces as unforgiving as pavement, so this was a challenge. I'm glad I went early in the day, though, because the day is getting sunnier and hotter by the minute. I finished the entire workout in 32:17, but I have only have the most general idea of how far I went. I do know that I averaged about the same speed on the 2nd half of the run as I did on the 1st half, because I turned around at 10 minutes. At 20 minutes, I was back almost exactly where I started.

I'm going to hop in my car after my shower and drive the route I ran, so that I can get a better idea of what my average speed was. If I had to venture a guess, I would say no more than 4-4.2 mph. I had a slow down a couple times because my HR was getting into the 180s. But still, 20 minutes straight, in 70 degree weather, on the road, and neither my knees nor my shins are complaining about it! That's hella progress.

UPDATE: It was 2.2 miles, so my average speed was 4.1 mph. Can I call it or what? I also measured the run distance on its own, which was 1.5 mph. I ran it in just over 20 minutes, somewhere between 4.4 and 4.5 mph average. Rock.

UPDATE: I know I said that I was going to add links to the playlist "later today" on Friday, but I'm a flake. Since a Week 6 playlist is coming (snicker) later today, I'm going to skip the MP3s on this one. I think all but 2 of them have been on previous playlists anyway. Sorry about the part where I LIED TO THE WORLD, though. ;)

*The first song on my Week 5 #3 playlist is Wear Sunscreen, by Baz Luhrmann. When it started playing, I realized that since I was sleeveless and it was kind of sunny, I should probably take that advice. I went back in and applied some SPF 30, and sooo glad I did. It was only 20 minutes, but I'm feeling a bit of a burn in the places on my back that I couldn't quite reach. So yeah, the song saved me from being a crispy critter.

Wait--have I posted my Week 5 #3 playlist yet? I don't think I have. Here ye be:

Wear Sunscreen - Baz Luhrmann (5:11, warm-up walk)
December 63 - Four Seasons (3:28, run)
Anything, Anything - Dramarama (3:20, run)
Bring Me To Life - Evanescence (3:57, run)
Goodbye to You - Scandal (3:46, run)
In Between Days - The Cure (2:56, run)
Shoe Box (Radio Remix) - Barenaked Ladies (3:09, run)
Watercolor - Willy Porter (5:21, cool-down walk)

The MP3s will be linked later when I take some time to upload them, and will stay up through at least tomorrow noon. As always, right-click and save-as to download. If you want the files, once they're here, which they're not yet. Shutting up now. :)

never *pant* judge a *gasp* book by its *puff* cover

One of my co-workers called me this afternoon and asked if I was working out today, and if I wanted to walk with her. I almost never turn down an invitation (and she's one of the people I actually like around here), so I met her in the locker room and we went to the track.

Now, this girl is 5 feet tall, maybe 5'2" with shoes on, so I'm anticipating a nice, easy walk. I've got about 3 inches of leg on her, after all, and I'm a reasonably fast walker with my 16.5-minute mile average, right? Oh, what a silly, silly fool I was.

Holy crap, this girl could MOVE. From the second we stepped onto the track, I was struggling to keep up with her. At first I thought it was that I just wasn't warmed up yet, but when I looked down after the first lap, we were going almost 4 mph! I couldn't believe it. I commented during the 2nd or 3rd lap that she walked fast for a little person (which may have been offensive, now that I think about it, but I meant it in the nicest way possible). She said that all her friends are tall, so she walks fast so she can keep up. Yeah, buddy...I know THAT feeling.

We managed 2.5 miles in less than 40 minutes, and it may have even been 3 miles. She lost track because of the talking, and I lost track because I had to put every ounce of concentration I could muster into keeping up with her.

I mean, I was never working so hard that I couldn't maintain the conversation, and it was fun to have a really challenging walk for a change. That was definitely the fastest walking I've done for any kind of distance...not quite the leisurely stroll I was expecting. :)

the best idea I've stolen borrowed had lately

Okay, so yesterday I started the Couch-to-5k week 4 workout. It went pretty well, just about comparable to the walk/run workout I was already doing. There were a couple things that bugged me about it, though:

1. Since I hadn't yet memorized the intervals, I had them written on my hand. This worked fine until the serious sweating started and the ink began to wash off. By the end of the workout, my hand was a big blur, and poor Audrey was covered in blue ink streaks.

2. I was constantly checking the stopwatch to make sure I was switching the intervals at the correct times. This wasn't a big deal, but it made the workout seem longer than when I was doing a lap at a time, even though it was actually shorter.

Well, today I happened upon the perfect solution to both problems. I took my huge workout playlist and sorted it by song length, then I put together a playlist for each of the workouts in week 4 and week 5 of the Couch-to-5K. Today, I just switched between walking and running every time the song changed. I didn't have to think about it, and the workout flew by!

Here's the playlist I used today, for the week 4 workout. I've linked MP3s for the ones I had on hand...some of which I'm sure I hoovered up from places elsewhere in the blogosphere (so thanks to anyone who has ever posted music! I've been introduced to some of my favorite artists that way...). The unlinked ones are downloads from iTunes that I haven't yet made unprotected copies of. If you want one of those, email me or go buy your own. :) The downloads will only be available until noon tomorrow, so get 'em while they're hot. (Right-click and save-as, if you please.)

UPDATE: The MP3s are no longer available, links removed. Snooze, lose, etc.

Damn, Feels Good To Be a Gangster - Ghetto Boyz (5:09, warmup walk)
Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison (3:05, run)
The Wind - Cat Stevens (1:42, walk)
Lose Yourself - Eminem (5:20, run)
The Fox - Nickel Creek (2:30, walk)
Punk Rock 101 - Bowling for Soup (3:08, run)
Oh, Goddamnit - Hot Hot Heat (2:28, walk)
Shake Ya Tailfeather - Murphy Lee, Nelly, P. Diddy (4:53, run)
Wear Sunscreen - Baz Luhrmann (5:11, cooldown walk)

Yeah, it's a bit...eclectic. :) The times aren't a second-for-second match to the C25k intervals, of course--I even threw in a 2 1/2 minute song for a 90-second interval toward the end because I felt I need a longer recovery by that point in the workout (and have you ever tried to find a 90 second song?!).

new tools

Two good things that came out of my conversation with my co-worker yesterday:

1. He sent me a link to Couch-to-5k, which I've been thinking about picking up again now that my knees aren't bothering me when I run. I started the week 4 schedule today, and it went really well. I'm probably going to do each week twice (starting at 4) just to be safe, so that would have me finishing the program at the end of May, I think. Then I can take the summer to build up my speed and do some heart rate training.

I can run without hurting myself now, but my heart rate goes through the roof on the running intervals--170s-180s. I don't feel sick or lightheaded, but it should be a good 20-30 beats lower than that per minute to really be in the healthy range for my age. I need to work on getting my resting heart rate down, too.

Anyway, once fall hits, I think I'll be ready to sign up to run a 5k.

2. He brought his copy of FitDay PC to the office for me to install. I've been wanting to start tracking my nutrition better, and I love all the little charts and things. I know I could do it online, but it's nice to have the offline version, too. Right now, my ratios of protein/fat/carbs look pretty good, though I haven't researched much on optimal percentages. I'm going to look into that soon.

I remember when I first started using FitDay to track calories back in 2003, almost 80% of my calories were coming from fat. Eighty. Percent. Now, it's closer to 40%. What do you know, I am eating healthier! :) Not that fat is the only indicator of a healthy diet...it's just a good gauge of how far I've come personally.

Anyway, I need to go home, but I may add more to this post later.

thoughts on the HRM

Oh, while I'm thinking of it...I used my heart rate monitor for the first time yesterday. It's a fun little tool. I'm still trying to figure out how to make it stop beeping incessantly...when I glared at my wrist and said "Shut up--I know!", the guy on the next precor gave me a "bitch is crazy" look.

I tried doing an OwnZ0ne calculation, but my heart rate was over 100 in the locker room so it couldn't get a variable reading*. My age zone was about right, though. I found I had to go a lot slower on the elliptical high intervals than I had been in the past, in order to keep my HR in the recommended range. This disappointed me a little, since I was thinking that my cardio conditioning was better than it is. All this time, I've been working too hard on the high end.

I also discovered that if the exercise machine has heart rate panels built into it, the transmitter will send to it as well. When I first got on the elliptical, I was trying to see what the difference was in the HR measurements between the hand panels and the chest strap, not even considering that the chest strap was controlling both receivers. I was sort of surprised that the numbers on my watch and the precor display were exactly the same...even when I wasn't holding the hand panels! Spooky. Then it occurred to me that my chest transmitter was sending to both. D'oh!

The wrist receiver does work better than the machine receiver, though--I think because I have a coded transmitter and it established its connection in the locker room. There were a couple times that the machine's receiver lost my signal (maybe someone walked by with a transmitter on) and put out bad numbers, but the wrist receiver never did.

Speaking of the chest strap, it was more comfortable than I expected it to be. After a few minutes and some minor adjustments, I hardly noticed it was there. The electrodes are under fabric for this model, and the wet cloth felt clammy at first...but once I started sweating, it was all the same.

So yeah...I like the new toy. I'm going to take it out for a spin on the track later today, if it doesn't rain again.

*the way I understand it, P0lar M-series monitors will calculate your ideal HR target zone based on a 5-minute fit-test at the beginning of the workout, but your HR has to start under 100 in order for it to work. If it can't get a read, it sets the target zone by age.

noted

3 miles in about 48 minutes today. I'm not really sure exactly how long, since I kind of messed up the iPod timing method*, and I'm not sure when in the 1:50 minute I started. All I know is that I come up with 47:50 on the iPod and 1:50-2:39 on the clock. If the 1:50 minute was almost up and the 2:39 minute was just starting, that seems about right.

I should really just buy a stopwatch.

*iPod timing method = starting a playlist when I get on the track, noting at what point in the last song that I get off the track, then scrolling back through the running time of each song once I'm back in the office and adding them up. It generally works better than noting the time I left and the time I got back, because the clock doesn't display seconds. Today, however, I fumble-fingered the controls while taking a water break, and started a song over. I estimate that the song had about a minute left when it started over, but I don't really know.

Spinning, yay!

So, I did go to that beginner cycling class.

I am happy to say that it was completely awesome. :) It wasn't an hour workout, because the first 10-15 minutes were spent adjusting the bikes for everyone, giving instructions, and going over form in the various positions. The actual workout was about 30-40 minutes, and it was exactly what I was looking for in a spinning class. I made it through the whole thing without ever feeling like I was going to pass out, and I was even moved to go up and thank the instructor afterward, which I'm normally too shy to do.

Some things I learned:

1. In my previous two spinning classes, I did not adjust the bike correctly. At all.

2. It's okay to sit down if you don't feel up to some of the more intense parts of the workout. If you're light-headed, it's encouraged.

3. You're supposed to pedal flat-footed (vs pointed-toe), and this makes an amazing difference when you're out of the saddle.

4. It's much easier to pedal flat-footed if you tighten the toe basket things as far as they will go, or if you wear cycling shoes.

5. I want cycling shoes.

I plan to go again next week, and hopefully all the way through till the class ends in February. Rob's thinking of going with me.

Woohoo! I made it through a spinning class!

look what I can do!

I did another 3 miles in 45 minutes today. This time, I walked a little slower (18 min mile pace), and stopped for water every other lap.

You know why?

Because I ran half-miles this time. :) I alternated 1/2-mile laps, then split the last lap because I was feeling overheated (72 degrees is warmer than it seemed at first). I ran a total of 1.25 miles, which is longer than I've done before. I also had pretty good form* most of the time, and my knees don't hurt at all. I imagine my hips will have a story to tell tomorrow, but I don't think it will be as bad as Tuesday.

That said, I'm going to go back to 1/4-mile increments next time, until I can keep good form the whole time. Like I say, today wasn't bad...but by the end of the 2nd running lap, I was reverting to a sort of heel-strike shuffle. I'd rather run less without injury than keep increasing my distance and end up limping around for a month.

Still, it's nice to know that I can run for 5-6 minutes at a time. It wasn't so long ago that I maxed out at 90 seconds.

*I'm trying to go back to the P0se technique, from that running clinic I took this summer. The cadence is higher, which makes me wear out faster, but it's not nearly as hard on my knees. While my knees didn't really hurt after the run on Monday, I know they would start if I had kept doing what I was doing. That was how it worked last time I ran regularly...I was good for about 2 days, and then my body started to revolt.

spinning, again

I've tried spinning classes exactly twice* now. Each time, the class totally kicked my ass, and I didn't go back for months. With my goal to bike a century this year, though, I've been thinking that I might like to give it another go.

This has been a passive sort of thinking...the kind where I say to myself, "gee, it might be good to try spinning again" as I'm sitting on the couch watching American Idol. Or Lost. Or CSI. Or sitting at my desk reading blogs. Whatever. At any rate, I only really considered it when I was comfortably on my ass, and not pedaling frantically in a dark room with a shouty perky person and trying not to pass out.

So anyway, Christine's post this morning about the 24-h0ur fitness class schedules got me thinking again. First about the water classes, a couple of which looked fun**. While I was looking up my preferred clubs' class schedules, I noticed that the location closest to my house has a beginner cycling class on Saturday mornings at 8, running from last weekend to February. The thinking has flipped from passive to active.

If I could take that class through February, then do actual rides on Saturday mornings after that, I could conceivably be in pretty good cycling shape by summer. I'm not all that bad now, actually, but I know there are some things I could work on--climbing hills, faster cadence, etc. If I could do the 50-mile (or 60, whichever it is) course at the K@ty Flatland, I could be ready to take on a 100 by the end of the year, I think.

It all really hinges on whether or not I can drag my butt out of bed before 7 on Saturday.

*I was going to link "twice" to the post I wrote about my second spinning class, but I can't find it in the archives. It's making me a little crazy, because I distinctly remember writing it...mentioning that the instructor was less shouty and weird this time. Anyway, the point of the Amazing Disappearing Post was that the second class was better than the first one, but I still didn't finish.

**but nearly impossible to get to, unfortunately, since my membership is Sport level only. I can't go to the Willowbrook location. The only Sport to offer the Aqua Sport and Aqua Xpress classes is 1960 & Jones, and the class times are just awkward enough that it would be a major hassle to get there on time.

Guidelines, schmidelines

Here's an interesting article about the new US dietary guidelines.

Though I'm not really qualified to comment because I haven't actually READ the new guidelines completely through, I'm with her. If you try to follow these guidelines to the letter, it won't exactly develop a healthy relationship with food.

Of course, I'm someone who's taken over 2 years to lose just 40 lbs, so what do I know? But I've also kept 30 of those lbs off in those two years (the number on the scale has started going down again, too), and I've NEVER eaten 9-13 servings of vegetables a day OR worked out 60-90 minutes for more than two days in a row. Hell, for most of those two years, I didn't work out more than 2 days in a row at all. While I eat much better than I did 30 lbs ago, I don't sweat the occasional trip to McDonald's or the odd half-pint of Ben & Jerry's. In fact, I had a McMuffin just this morning (running late again), and we all know about the ice cream at midnight last week. Now, sure, if I did these things every day, I would gain the weight back. But so far and however slowly, "All things in moderation" has worked for me.

But I guess you could say that what the guidelines are trying to do is define "moderation" for hundreds of different foods/nutrients for millions of unique individuals. You've gotta draw the lines somewhere. I just think the 2005 guidelines may be drawing them in the wrong places, and maybe with a broader stroke than I'd like.

lately

well, so far so good this week. I got out on the track yesterday and did 3 miles in 45 minutes. It's a 1/2 mile track, so I started out walking a half lap, stretching, then walking again. The next 4 laps were 1/2 walking, 1/2 running, and the last lap was a cooldown walk. If you figure that I stopped once to stretch, once to pick up my dropped iPod (it's a miracle I haven't broken that thing yet--Apple builds 'em to last, I guess), once to shake a rock out of my shoe, and twice to tie my shoelaces, I made pretty good time. On the one lap I timed, my pace was 3.75 mph for the walking portion, 5 mph for running.

My knees aren't really bothering me today (unlike after my treadmill walk last week--yikes), but my hips are a little sore. I'm not sure if it's the joints or the muscles that hurt...I think it's the joints, though. This sort of sucks, because I know what I can do for muscle pain. Joints? Not so much. Glucosamine, I suppose. And quit weighing 185 lbs.

Food was okay yesterday...at least until about 3 pm. I had everything planned out, and then I got hungry mid-afternoon and shot it all to hell. I ended up with 38 points for the day, which isn't terrible (for me...real WW devotees would probably be falling on their swords over that number), but is about 10 more than I planned.

I think part of the problem is that I ate one of those new Spa Cuisine dinners from Lean Cuisine for lunch. I finally found a store that had the other varieties (besides chicken in peanut sauce, which seems to be available everywhere), so I bought all of them. I'm planning to eat one for lunch every day this week.

The problem with this plan is that they're not terribly filling. Or, they don't really last very long. If I eat one at noon, I'm obsessed with the vending machine by 3:00. I even ate a salad with my meal yesterday (Salmon with Basil--it was alright, though the salmon didn't seem fully cooked), and still broke down and hit the vending machine mid-afternoon. It's still a better option than going to Chipotle and eating a burrito the size of my head, though. Even with the peanut butter cups in the afternoon, I came out ahead of the average lunch outside the office. So I guess I shouldn't complain.

Today is Rosemary Chicken. We'll see if that one's any better at helping me ignore the siren song of the vending machine.

Just so that I won't forget this later...

Joy,

That treadmill at work? It fucks us right up. Please, for our sakes...pack a jacket, go outside. It's never as cold as you think it is. If it's raining, do weights or something. Hop on the stationary bike. Something, ANYTHING other than that treadmill.

Seriously, don't even think about it.

Love,

Your Knees

"Abs. The abs were screaming."

I'm not sure why this makes me think of Silence of the Lambs, but my abs are totally sore. Screaming, even.

I did the sculpting class yesterday, all the way through including the ab work. I normally don't do this, since the instructor likes to do the twisting crunches, and I end up flailing around like a newborn when he starts adding the alternating leg extensions. Yesterday, though, he didn't announce that we were going to do abs, he just sort of transitioned into them. I didn't feel too bad at the time, so I just went with it. By the time we got to the twisting crunches, I figured I was so close to the end I may as well just follow through. And also, he wasn't having us do the leg movements this time, so no flailing. But the soreness? Oy. I feel like my entire torso has been pummeled.

Anyway, I had another chat with the instructor, in which he lamented my sketchy attendance recently. I explained why I wasn't coming to the Thursday night classes anymore, and that I make it to the Tuesday when I can. It was a nice little conversation, and I didn't completely spaz out and apologize a bunch of times. I even made eye contact once.

I told him that I'd make it to his Friday class this week, which is more aerobics than sculpting and completely kicks my ass every time I try to do it. I may as well give it a go, though...the weather's gotten hot again (hello?! It's October! Even Houston isn't supposed to be high 90s in October!) and I don't like walking the track if it's over 80 degrees.

I don't know how I'm going to work out today. Lost is on tonight, so I don't want to go to the gym after work. It's too hot to walk outside, and it looks like it might rain besides. I think I'll probably end up on the treadmill with a book for 40 minutes after lunch today.

I'm really trying to keep up my "exercise every day" thing. I did really well last week, only missing Sunday. And with as much running around as I do on Sundays mornings anyway (and let's not forget the singing and dancing portion of the kids program), I probably could count that as a workout. I need to decide which 3 days I'm going to work out in the office gym, though, because I need at least 3 points per week to stay on track for the quarter. Tuesdays certainly, and Wednesdays and Thursdays are good too, since I watch TV those nights. If I can get my exercise out of the way at noon, then I don't need to worry about getting to the gym after CSI or whatever. And if I can make it through the Friday class without my heart rate going through the roof, it would make a good fallback workout day toward the end of the month.

So yeah....enough with the babbling. I'm going to go cook my Lean Cuisine pizza, and then I'm off to my date with Mr. Treadmill.

Four stanzas of excuses: all different, all lame

This one time, when I was young and cocky and didn't like to go to class, I had this freshman comp professor who seemed genuinely distraught that she would be forced to give me a B unless I had valid excuses for missing every class except when papers were due. The trouble was, I didn't really have valid excuses, and I didn't really care whether I got a B. But I did like her, so I ended up writing a very cheesy, very Seuss-y poem listing all the absences and my lame made-up excuses for each. I think I ended up with an A- for the semester, but I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure it was one of the only 3 As I got in my entire UW career. Just enough to keep the scholarship, that was my motto.

Why do I mention this? I haven't been to the gym. STILL.

I'll spare you the poem this time around, but it seems as though the universe is conspiring against me lately. Rob's truck was broken, I needed to run to the other house and scrub the tile on one occasion, let my brother in on another (since the zealously safety-conscious realtor locked every single door and turned off the garage light to disable the openers, and my brother didn't have a key), and there was church and meetings and a billion other things, and by the time I got home EVERY SINGLE DAY FOR THE PAST WEEK, all desire to go to the gym had left me. Last night was no exception...I had planned to go after my church meeting, but then traffic was straight out of hell on the way home and I was too pissed off to even GO to the church meeting. Or anywhere, so I didn't go to the gym either.

But tonight? Tonight I'm going to the gym. I'm going to get on that Precor, and I'm not going to get off until I've been there at least 30 minutes. Then I'm going to do some abs. And then tomorrow, I'm going to go back and do something else. Damn the excuses, full speed ahead!

I think I've finally found a bike route through this neighborhood I can live with...sort of T-shaped, about 5 miles total. If I repeat it twice, I can get 10 miles in without going down every street and turning around so many times (damned cul-de-sacs).

This morning, I did 10.4 miles in 50 minutes, which makes my average speed about 12.5 mph. Woo!

our unendingless quest for fitness

and speaking of that schedule, we've added a couple things to it (the Katy ride last weekend being one of them). The new schedule is this:

August 28, 2004 - Bike the Bend for Literacy. I have no idea what this course looks like, or really even where it is. All I know is I paid $20, and we're going 40 miles. And it's on a Saturday, so no church scheduling workarounds necessary. Woo!

September 19, 2004 - Biking for Sight Century. This one was already on the schedule, and we're still planning 40 miles.

October 30, 2004 - Elves & More Texas Cycling Classic. We haven't signed up yet, but we're bumping it up to 60 miles on this one. Since it's in the same general area (and actually has the same starting point) as the ride in September, I'm guessing that it's probably the same sort of route. If I liked that last year, I'm pretty sure I'll like this.

November 7, 2004 - Tour de Doughnut. No website info on this one yet...the flier said that information would be posted 8/1 online. Here's the synopsis: "The Tour de Doughnut is a unique bicycle where riders embark on an appetizing 20-mile journey with rest stops along the way serving as many delectable doughnuts as you can eat. For EACH tasty donut that a rider consumes, the rider is awarded a tempting 5-minute time credit. Eat enough delicious doughnuts, and you can finish the race before you even started! In addition to this mouth-watering challenge, riders can also ride the 60-mile course to get in shape for the 2005 BP MS150."

If the bottom of the flier lists the charity & sponsors, the ride benefits the Make-a-Wish foundation and is sponsored by Sun & Ski Sports and Krispy Kreme. Krispy. Kreme. If we decide to do that ride, we'll probably do 20 miles, since it's the week after our first 60-mile ride. But who knows...maybe we'll do 60 there too. If we do, though, there's not much chance our doughnut credits will let us finish the race before we start. That'd be...(math-math-math)...about 50 doughnuts. No man can eat 50 doughnuts.

January 16, 2005 - HP Houston Half-Marathon. If my run training progresses like I hope it will, I might actually run some of this. Maybe even most of it. But I think it will be closer to some than most.

April 2 or 3, 2005 - My First Tri, Galveston. Maybe.

I'd like to find something to go between January and April, but I haven't seen anything that really grabs me. Of course, it's only July. Some events probably haven't been posted yet.

damn you, Ronald McDonald!

You're messing up my schedule!

I just checked the Space Race website, and it's going to be in April this year. April 3rd, to be exact. This means that if we plan to do the triathlon, we cannot do the space race (well, we could...but I'm not THAT much of masochist). It also means that we can't use a Space Race duathlon as training for the tri, since the Space Race will be AFTER the tri.

Three years I've been signing up for this thing, and it's always been in March. The one time I count on it being in March, they switch it to April. Sigh.

bet you thought this post was going to be about food, huh?

weekend update

In case you were wondering, both events went really well. The Pose clinic wasn't really fun (mostly because I was so neurotic about being the only non-athlete there), but it was helpful. I improved my form a lot, and gained some confidence that I can run without injury. At the end of the clinic (5 hours of running drills, with about 3 breaks of about 10 minutes in the AC), I ran 4 minutes with very little pain in my injured knee. Go me! I'm still going to wait a week before I start week 3 of the C-to-5k program, but I'm sure I'll be able to finish it by the end of September if I can keep my form correct.

I'm probably explaining this badly, but the way I understand it, Pose breaks running down to three things--getting into the running pose, falling forward, and using your hamstrings to pull up your support leg. Basically, you're pulling your legs up and always landing under your center of mass, but since you're falling forward, each leg actually lands in front of the other. While reading the book, I couldn't see how that could possibly work, but after the clinic I understand that it does. And after seeing the before/after videos, I see that it doesn't look nearly as silly as I thought it would, either.

However, the one even slightly negative aspect is that the cadence (number of steps/minute) is considerably higher with this method than it is with my former running stride. Even though the instructor said I was actually doing an 11-minute mile, I felt like I was moving mega-slow for the amount of times my feet were hitting the ground. I'm still not entirely convinced, so it'll take me a lap on the track to convince myself that I'm really going that fast.

But whatever--if it makes it so I don't hurt my knees running again, I'm sold on the method even if it takes me 20 minutes to run a mile.

The ride also went well...We got to the starting line late, so we didn't actually get on the road until 7:30. My left calf was majorly sore from the running clinic on the injured knee, but it didn't really come into play with the ride, other than to slow my walking down at the rest stops. The weather was warm but overcast, and there was a 6-7mph wind throughout.

About 10 minutes into the ride, we discovered that my natural pace was too fast for Rob, so we slowed down. We averaged about 11-13 mph until we turned onto FM 529...and into the wind. Oh, sweet Jesus, the wind. Our pace slowed to 8-9 mph. I was still feeling fine, but Rob wasn't doing very well. We had to stop every 30 minutes or so after the first half of the ride, because he was having problems with his feet falling asleep.

Long story short, I finished in about 4 hours, Rob in about 4:15. For the last 3 miles or so, I was by myself, since Rob was having leg cramps and told me to go on ahead (I couldn't really help him anyway, and the SAG vehicles had been by 3 times asking if he needed help whenever we stopped, so I knew that he'd be okay if he got to where he couldn't finish). I averaged 14-15 mph for those last miles, and it felt really good. I'm not sure that I could have gone at that speed the whole way, especially into the wind on 529, but that little stretch did tell me that I was much more fit on this ride than I was on the Biking for Sight ride last September.

Like that ride last September, I pretty much passed out for the rest of the day. I need to find a way to get over that--it's all cool to be able to ride 30-40 miles, but I'd like it more if my body didn't go into total hibernation mode afterward. I have shit I need to get done on weekends. :)

Today, I'm limping pretty badly--my left calf is as sore as it's ever been, I think. I blame the running clinic and my injured knee for that. My thighs aren't sore at all from the ride, though I'm pretty sure my ass would protest if I tried to get on a bike seat anytime in the next few days.

Overall, I'm happy with how my body performed this weekend. Sure, I could have done the ride in less than 3 hours if I had pushed myself even a little, but I wanted to do the ride with Rob, and it was probably more fun at a slower pace anyway.

UPDATE: According to my calculations, I earned 37 activity points over the weekend. That makes me feel less guilty about the burgers & cheesecake.

%&$#!

I strongly suspect that if my left knee isn't jacked up by the running again, it's on its way. I've been back at it for 3 workouts. And I'm only going 90 seconds at a time. Crap.

I think it might be that soft spot on the track...it falls victim to runoff every time it rains hard (which is pretty often), so they put more gravel there, but it isn't as well packed as the rest of the track. It's kind of like running on sand, and my leg tends to twist there if I'm not careful. I tried to time it so that I would be walking when I hit that spot, but it didn't always happen that way.

I'm going to ice it tonight, and hopefully that will be enough to get me through the clinic tomorrow, where I'm hoping to learn some dramatic changes in form. I hope it's form that's causing my problem, or those extra 40 lbs I'm still carrying around. Both of those things will go away with time and practice...if it's just weak knees, that's harder to overcome. I sure as hell don't want to finish the half-marathon on a stretcher.

Picked up the Katy Flatland packets today--Rob and I are riders 638 and 639, respectively. The numbers went as high as 1430-something while I was there, and there were a ton of people filling out registration forms. I don't think it'll be as big as the last Space Race I was in (4500-ish), but it's going to be big. If the weather report is to be believed, it's also going to be hot. Not as bad as it could have been this time of year, since it looks like there's supposed to be a thunderstorm Saturday night which will cool things off...but still in the high 70s-mid 80s, humidity at 67-93%.* That's 93%. With a 9. At least it looks like there'll be a moderate breeze. Still, I suspect that my water bottle is going to become my new best friend.

As of right now, I have 2.5 points left for dinner tonight...5.5 if you count my activity points. We have houseguests, two of which are under the age of 6, so I have no idea what we're going to have for dinner that will fall under 6 points. With the running clinic tomorrow and the KFC on Sunday, though, I may just say "fuck points" and go over today, knowing that I will burn off any overages in the next couple days. We'll see.

It's going to be weird not going to church Sunday. I can't remember the last time I didn't go...I think it was Christmas, when we were in WI. On the one hand, it'll be kind of nice to not have that responsibility for a week. On the other, I feel a little out of sorts because I'm missing part of my routine. And I get a little neurotic about the kid's church when I don't bring the supplies. It's silly, because I do things anyone could do. I know the other volunteers are perfectly capable of printing verse cards and collecting game supplies, so I'm not sure if I'm afraid that the service will fall apart without me handling those things, or that it won't. If things run just as smoothly when I'm not there, then what if they decide they don't need me after all? Or what if I like not being needed, and taking care of those things becomes a chore? Oh well, I'm sure it'll be fine. The world seems to go on turning whether I'm trying to direct it or not. I'm sure my church does too.

*No, that's not the weather report for Katy. But Katy's just about the same, and I'm too lazy to make another screenshot for what is essentially the weatherbot's best guess anyway. It'll be hot, and it'll feel hotter than it actually is.

running

well, I signed up for the running clinic. It's an all-day clinic to teach the pose method of running (www.posetech.com), with video analysis before and after. The method is supposed to reduce the risk of injury and whatnot. Since I've had knee problems when I run, I figured a seminar on form would be good for me. I'm willing to try anything to get back to where I can run without killing my knees. Or hell, walk even. Though that has been getting better these last few days.

The workshop is on the day before the Katy Flatland bike ride, so hopefully it won't be too taxing. From what the guy said in his email, though, it doesn't sound like we'll be running all that hard. It's mostly the teaching of form. I'm looking forward to it.

things remembered

I got up early today and biked about 10.5 miles around the neighborhood. I had forgotten how good it made me feel to exercise in the morning...I'm going to have to do that more often.

running redux

Since we've sorta, kinda, almost-definitely decided to do the half-marathon in January, I figured I should probably find out a little bit more about the race than its date and time. So I went to the Houston Marathon website, and I came across two things that concerned me.

1. 7500-entrant limit per race. I don't think this is going to be an issue for the 1/2 marathon, but we should sign up early all the same. Of course, I have no concept of what 7500 people look like all in one place, or whether there's even a chance they'll have more than that many entrants for any of the races. I know there were about 5000 at the last Space Race I participated in, and that was a lot of bodies. It took us 15 minutes to go through the first mile with all those bikes packed so closely together. Which brings me to...

2. The 4-hour time limit for the 1/2 marathon. That's between 3.2 and 3.3 mph, my normal walking pace. I've never even watched a marathon, so I don't know if the same sort of bunching applies in one of these, where you have a hard time getting going among the throng of bodies. Even if that's not the case, I'm sure there will be need for potty breaks, water, etc. I also need to take my aversion to being dead last into consideration. I don't just want to make it to the finish line in 4 hours...I want to by-God beat someone to it. Even if I'm 7499 of 7500, that's fine by me. So this means I either need to sustain a faster pace than what I currently can, and for longer than I've ever walked, or I'm going to have to learn to jog/run a little.

Because of #2, I've been giving some more thought to starting a runner training program. I've read about the Cool Runnings Couch-to-5k plan before, and I think that's what I'm going to end up doing at first. I've only lost 5-10 lbs. since the last time I tried to run, and that time my knees did not take kindly to it. But I also didn't have any kind of system...I was trying to run too long of an interval.

Rob and I were talking about my plan this morning (before I actually had a plan), and I told him I was going to try some jogging on the treadmill today and asked what interval I should use. He suggested 30 minutes @ 2:30 walk/:30 run, which sounded good to me.

I just got back from trying it. Not bad at all! I did the same machine rotation I always do--alternating treadmill and stationary bike. I started out on the treadmill at no elevation, 3.3mph. After 2 1/2 minutes, I upped it to 4.0mph and found that was a little too slow to jog comfortably. I kept going until I was at a natural slow-jog pace, which ended up at 4.5mph for me. I stayed there for 30 seconds, and was surprised at how easy it was. I repeated that sequence 5 times, and still felt good at the end of it. Stretched, did the bike, came back and did 2:15/:45 intervals. Still fine! My right knee started to complain in the last minute, but it was not nearly as bad as the last time I tried to run. My heart rate never got over 170, and if I wasn't so anti-social and/or there was anyone else in the room, I would have been able to talk the entire time. I think the next time I try this, I'm going to do the recommended 90/60 second intervals for the first week, and follow the 9-week schedule from there.

I guess maybe I don't hate running anymore.

running redux

Since we've sorta, kinda, almost-definitely decided to do the half-marathon in January, I figured I should probably find out a little bit more about the race than its date and time. So I went to the Houston Marathon website, and I came across two things that concerned me.

1. 7500-entrant limit per race. I don't think this is going to be an issue for the 1/2 marathon, but we should sign up early all the same. Of course, I have no concept of what 7500 people look like all in one place, or whether there's even a chance they'll have more than that many entrants for any of the races. I know there were about 5000 at the last Space Race I participated in, and that was a lot of bodies. It took us 15 minutes to go through the first mile with all those bikes packed so closely together. Which brings me to...

2. The 4-hour time limit for the 1/2 marathon. That's between 3.2 and 3.3 mph, my normal walking pace. I've never even watched a marathon, so I don't know if the same sort of bunching applies in one of these, where you have a hard time getting going among the throng of bodies. Even if that's not the case, I'm sure there will be need for potty breaks, water, etc. I also need to take my aversion to being dead last into consideration. I don't just want to make it to the finish line in 4 hours...I want to by-God beat someone to it. Even if I'm 7499 of 7500, that's fine by me. So this means I either need to sustain a faster pace than what I currently can, and for longer than I've ever walked, or I'm going to have to learn to jog/run a little.

Because of #2, I've been giving some more thought to starting a runner training program. I've read about the Cool Runnings Couch-to-5k plan before, and I think that's what I'm going to end up doing at first. I've only lost 5-10 lbs. since the last time I tried to run, and that time my knees did not take kindly to it. But I also didn't have any kind of system...I was trying to run too long of an interval.

Rob and I were talking about my plan this morning (before I actually had a plan), and I told him I was going to try some jogging on the treadmill today and asked what interval I should use. He suggested 30 minutes @ 2:30 walk/:30 run, which sounded good to me.

I just got back from trying it. Not bad at all! I did the same machine rotation I always do--alternating treadmill and stationary bike. I started out on the treadmill at no elevation, 3.3mph. After 2 1/2 minutes, I upped it to 4.0mph and found that was a little too slow to jog comfortably. I kept going until I was at a natural slow-jog pace, which ended up at 4.5mph for me. I stayed there for 30 seconds, and was surprised at how easy it was. I repeated that sequence 5 times, and still felt good at the end of it. Stretched, did the bike, came back and did 2:15/:45 intervals. Still fine! My right knee started to complain in the last minute, but it was not nearly as bad as the last time I tried to run. My heart rate never got over 170, and if I wasn't so anti-social and/or there was anyone else in the room, I would have been able to talk the entire time. I think the next time I try this, I'm going to do the recommended 90/60 second intervals for the first week, and follow the 9-week schedule from there.

I guess maybe I don't hate running anymore.

playing with my new toy

According to my McDonald's stepometer, a trip to and from the restroom is 95 steps. If the pamphlet that came with the toy is to be believed, that means that I have walked about 1/5th of a mile today just to pee. Go me!

Long-range fitness planning

Rob and I are hatching a plan, we are. We spent most of the morning talking about the events we're going to do this year, fitness-wise, and whether or not we are going to try to join a gym (primarily for the pool). Here's what's on the tentative schedule:

September 19, 2004 - Bike for Sight Century, 40 mile route. I loved this ride when I did it last year. There's a lot of hills, but they're short, and the rest stops are every 10 miles, roughly. The weather's nice here that time of year, too.

January 16, 2005 - HP Houston Marathon. Before the "holy shit!" chorus begins, we're planning to walk the 1/2 marathon. We're neither in good enough shape for a full marathon nor completely insane. Champions Fit training begins July 10th...we bailed about five weeks into last year's training, but we're considering it again, if for no other reason than that it requires us to get up at those ungodly hours on Saturday mornings. If we're up that early, we can get two workouts that day.

March, 2005 - Space Race. Because the next event on the list is a triathlon (OMG!), this is an attempt at assessing our readiness. This event has both riding and running, so we can do a 11-mile bike/5k run duathlon and see if we're ready for...

April 2, 2005 - My First Triathlon, Galveston. 1/4-mile swim, 12-mile bike, 5k run/walk.

And then we'll take the summer off. Or at least I will.

So, you may ask yourself (as I did), what the hell we are thinking. Mostly, we are thinking that we're tired of being 50 lbs. overweight and sedentary. Since weight loss alone doesn't seem to be a good enough motivator to get my ass off the couch, I think having a few events on the schedule will serve as good deadlines. And as I mentioned yesterday, I always work better with a deadline. (Of course, I also always like to cram all the work into the night before the deadline, but that can't really apply here. Wait--can it? No.)

So, to that end, I've been working out a schedule to train for all these things. I'd like to keep the sculpting classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, because I like them. I'd also like to swim twice a week, which requires pool access that I haven't quite worked out yet. I'd also like to get at least two walk/runs and 2 10-20 mile rides in per week. Since there's only 7 days in a week for 8 workouts, and I'd like to have one rest day, we're looking at 2 double-workout days.

So here's the training schedule I want to use:

Sunday - break day
Monday - morning ride (1 hour12-15 miles)
Tuesday - noon sculpting class
Wednesday - evening swim (30 minutes)
Thursday - morning walk/run (1 hour), evening sculpting class
Friday - evening ride (1 1/2 hours, 15-20 miles)
Saturday - morning walk/run (varied), afternoon/evening swim (30 minutes)

Considering that my current schedule is "Tuesday & Thursday - sculpting class unless I don't feel like it", this is a huge change that I'll have to work up to gradually. Here's my planned schedule for June:

Sunday - break day
Monday - morning ride (1 hour)
Tuesday - sculpting class
Wednesday - break day
Thursday - sculpting class
Friday - evening ride (1 hour)
Saturday - morning walk (1 hour)

There's no swimming because I won't need it until April of next year anyway, and we currently have no lap pool access. I could use the community pool at the old house on Saturdays, I suppose, but it's always so crawling with kids that you can't really get a serious swim workout there. This week, break days are going to be Friday and Sunday instead of today, because I've already got exercise planned for today.

Long-range fitness planning

Rob and I are hatching a plan, we are. We spent most of the morning talking about the events we're going to do this year, fitness-wise, and whether or not we are going to try to join a gym (primarily for the pool). Here's what's on the tentative schedule:

September 19, 2004 - Bike for Sight Century, 40 mile route. I loved this ride when I did it last year. There's a lot of hills, but they're short, and the rest stops are every 10 miles, roughly. The weather's nice here that time of year, too.

January 16, 2005 - HP Houston Marathon. Before the "holy shit!" chorus begins, we're planning to walk the 1/2 marathon. We're neither in good enough shape for a full marathon nor completely insane. Champions Fit training begins July 10th...we bailed about five weeks into last year's training, but we're considering it again, if for no other reason than that it requires us to get up at those ungodly hours on Saturday mornings. If we're up that early, we can get two workouts that day.

March, 2005 - Space Race. Because the next event on the list is a triathlon (OMG!), this is an attempt at assessing our readiness. This event has both riding and running, so we can do a 11-mile bike/5k run duathlon and see if we're ready for...

April 2, 2005 - My First Triathlon, Galveston. 1/4-mile swim, 12-mile bike, 5k run/walk.

And then we'll take the summer off. Or at least I will.

So, you may ask yourself (as I did), what the hell we are thinking. Mostly, we are thinking that we're tired of being 50 lbs. overweight and sedentary. Since weight loss alone doesn't seem to be a good enough motivator to get my ass off the couch, I think having a few events on the schedule will serve as good deadlines. And as I mentioned yesterday, I always work better with a deadline. (Of course, I also always like to cram all the work into the night before the deadline, but that can't really apply here. Wait--can it? No.)

So, to that end, I've been working out a schedule to train for all these things. I'd like to keep the sculpting classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, because I like them. I'd also like to swim twice a week, which requires pool access that I haven't quite worked out yet. I'd also like to get at least two walk/runs and 2 10-20 mile rides in per week. Since there's only 7 days in a week for 8 workouts, and I'd like to have one rest day, we're looking at 2 double-workout days.

So here's the training schedule I want to use:

Sunday - break day
Monday - morning ride (1 hour12-15 miles)
Tuesday - noon sculpting class
Wednesday - evening swim (30 minutes)
Thursday - morning walk/run (1 hour), evening sculpting class
Friday - evening ride (1 1/2 hours, 15-20 miles)
Saturday - morning walk/run (varied), afternoon/evening swim (30 minutes)

Considering that my current schedule is "Tuesday & Thursday - sculpting class unless I don't feel like it", this is a huge change that I'll have to work up to gradually. Here's my planned schedule for June:

Sunday - break day
Monday - morning ride (1 hour)
Tuesday - sculpting class
Wednesday - break day
Thursday - sculpting class
Friday - evening ride (1 hour)
Saturday - morning walk (1 hour)

There's no swimming because I won't need it until April of next year anyway, and we currently have no lap pool access. I could use the community pool at the old house on Saturdays, I suppose, but it's always so crawling with kids that you can't really get a serious swim workout there. This week, break days are going to be Friday and Sunday instead of today, because I've already got exercise planned for today.

yeah, so, um...

I've been doing well. Unless you count the lack of exercise and the 40+ point day on Wednesday, that is. I blame the fried chicken that I could not stop eating that night. I followed it up with a 22-point day yesterday, though--which doesn't really balance it out, but certainly can't hurt.

My body seems to have taken a liking to 181, choosing to stay there every day this week despite diet fluctuations and lack of exercise. I'm totally okay with ups and downs, but this staying exactly the same from day to day freaks me out a little. It seems unnatural.

Anyway, for the past few days, I've been seriously considering reinstating my 24-hour f1tness membership. I had an all-sport membership for 3-4 years that I used about twice a year but paid dues on every month to keep from having to pay another enrollment fee if I decided to go again. I finally canceled it last year, thinking that having the workout room at work and a good walking route around the neighborhood was sufficient.

However, lately I find myself spending an inordinate amount of time thinking about the precor. It used to be my favorite cardio machine (along with everyone else in the world), and they don't have one at the workout center. They have an elliptical trainer, but it's that LifeFitness one with the cross-trainer bars. I'm not coordinated enough to operate those and move my feet correctly, and it feels weird to not hold onto them and have them whizzing by my head constantly. Plus, the foot pads aren't spaced quite right for me, which makes me have to lift up my heel and is generally uncomfortable. So yeah, I read weblogs that talk about the precor, and I think to myself, "I remember liking that machine. I miss that machine."

It seems silly to me to get a gym membership for one stinking cardio machine, but then I remember that the gym has a pool too, and there's the group classes. There's also a location right on my commute, so I could go before or after work. Of course, this is no guarantee that I actually will, as my previously-unused membership will attest. It is nice to have the option, though.

I've heard that some gyms (I haven't looked into it for 24-hour) will let you pay on a per-session basis, if you don't want to get a full membership. However, if I went through a phase where I wanted to go all the time, this would add up quickly. So I just don't know.

Yeesh, could I be more boring today? :)

yeah, so, um...

I've been doing well. Unless you count the lack of exercise and the 40+ point day on Wednesday, that is. I blame the fried chicken that I could not stop eating that night. I followed it up with a 22-point day yesterday, though--which doesn't really balance it out, but certainly can't hurt.

My body seems to have taken a liking to 181, choosing to stay there every day this week despite diet fluctuations and lack of exercise. I'm totally okay with ups and downs, but this staying exactly the same from day to day freaks me out a little. It seems unnatural.

Anyway, for the past few days, I've been seriously considering reinstating my 24-hour f1tness membership. I had an all-sport membership for 3-4 years that I used about twice a year but paid dues on every month to keep from having to pay another enrollment fee if I decided to go again. I finally canceled it last year, thinking that having the workout room at work and a good walking route around the neighborhood was sufficient.

However, lately I find myself spending an inordinate amount of time thinking about the precor. It used to be my favorite cardio machine (along with everyone else in the world), and they don't have one at the workout center. They have an elliptical trainer, but it's that LifeFitness one with the cross-trainer bars. I'm not coordinated enough to operate those and move my feet correctly, and it feels weird to not hold onto them and have them whizzing by my head constantly. Plus, the foot pads aren't spaced quite right for me, which makes me have to lift up my heel and is generally uncomfortable. So yeah, I read weblogs that talk about the precor, and I think to myself, "I remember liking that machine. I miss that machine."

It seems silly to me to get a gym membership for one stinking cardio machine, but then I remember that the gym has a pool too, and there's the group classes. There's also a location right on my commute, so I could go before or after work. Of course, this is no guarantee that I actually will, as my previously-unused membership will attest. It is nice to have the option, though.

I've heard that some gyms (I haven't looked into it for 24-hour) will let you pay on a per-session basis, if you don't want to get a full membership. However, if I went through a phase where I wanted to go all the time, this would add up quickly. So I just don't know.

Yeesh, could I be more boring today? :)

D&E log, 5/26 - 6/1

Can we make it two full diet logs in a row? Maybe, maybe not.

Points eaten: 99
Points earned: 5
Flexpoints used: 25

WEDNESDAY

low-fat granola w/milk: 4
grande mocha frappuccino, no whipped cream*: 6

banana: 2

J@son's deli turkey wrap: 8
fruit salad (strawberries & cantaloupe): .5
single-size box of Junior mints (4 pieces): .5

fried chicken-in-a-box: many
mashed potatoes: 4.5
corn: 1

Points eaten: 41 (the number that eTools gave me)
Points earned: 0
Flexpoints used: 17

THURSDAY

2 egg whites, one whole egg (to cut the slimy-ness factor): 3
diced tomatoes
low fat cheese: 1
latte: 3

1.5L water

KFC roasted strips meal (roasted chicken strips, green beans, seasoned rice): 6
biscuit: 4
diet coke

1.5L water

pretzels: 2
peanut butter: 2

tilapia: 2
asparagus

yogurt: 3

Points eaten: 26
Points earned: 0
Flexpoints used: 2

FRIDAY

honey nut cheerios: 3
latte: 3

chipotle burrito: 17
diet coke

1L water

hamburger on bun: 8
lettuce
tomato
mustard
pickle
chips: 4

1-hour walk: 5--DO IT OR DIE, JOY

Points eaten: 35
Points earned: 5
Flexpoints used: 4

*In the future, this will be listed as "mocha frap", and everyone will know what this means. (The description noted above, that is, not "a moment of weakness". But yeah--that, too.)

baby steps

Rob and I are considering this.

I know I've said that my goal in this is not to be an athlete, let alone a triathlete. But this event looks like it could be fun. The distances are short, and it's non-competitive and flexible(they do keep rankings, but they have a shallow area to swim or you can walk the run). Who knows...I might even like it, and want to do a "real" triathlon one day.

It could happen.

(but I seriously doubt it--I hate running.)

baby steps

Rob and I are considering this.

I know I've said that my goal in this is not to be an athlete, let alone a triathlete. But this event looks like it could be fun. The distances are short, and it's non-competitive and flexible(they do keep rankings, but they have a shallow area to swim or you can walk the run). Who knows...I might even like it, and want to do a "real" triathlon one day.

It could happen.

(but I seriously doubt it--I hate running.)

D&E log, 5/19 - 5/25 - Recommit week #4

Seriously, why do I even try to do these logs anymore? I never finish them.

(Well, because when I do, it works. When I try and fail about halfway through the week, it still kind of works. So I soldier on.)

I'm abandoning the Wendie plan, though, in favor of a meal plan. I don't have anything against Wendie, but history has shown that I don't do very well following it. I mean, I have no doubt it would work if I did. I just don't.

Instead, I've planned everything I'm going to put in my mouth and how I'm going to move my body from here until Sunday (by the time I planned Sunday, I was completely braindead and nothing sounded appetizing for Monday...I'll pick that up on Friday or Saturday). My points values still vary day to day, and they still fall within the limits of the Flexpoints plan. However, I'm not worried about hitting a specific target each day, or varying my numbers in any particular order. Saturday is still my highest day, but the other days vary. On my current plan, I use only 18 flexpoints between now and Sunday. To some, that seems like a lot...to me, it's a miracle.

Shutting up now.

Points eaten: 212.5
Points earned: 5
Flexpoints used: 42.5

WEDNESDAY

a NF-SF vanilla latte so badly prepared that I could only drink 2/3s of it: 2
scrambled eggs w/low-fat cheese and onions: 5

1L water

Boston Market classic rotisserie salad (no egg, no garbanzo beans, 1/2 the dressing): 11.5
big chocolate chip cookie: 5

1.5L water

1 hour walk: 5

1L water

broiled tilapia: 3
broccoli
brown & wild rice: 4

Points eaten: 30.5
Points earned: 5
Flexpoints used: 1.5

THURSDAY

NF-SF vanilla latte, grande: 3
banana: 1.5
vanilla la creme yogurt: 3

1.5L water

rotisserie chicken salad (lettuce, tomato, low-fat cheese, avocado, light dressing, chicken): 8

1.5L water

homemade pizza (boboli p