Quick post today – 4.6 miles on foot. Part run, part walk. Took a total of an hour.
Here’s the path I took.
One day, I’ll actually run that entire thing!
Monthly Archives: May 2009
Week 1: Duathlon Training
So, week 1 is nearly officially over for my duathlon training.
Rundown:
Monday: Run/Cycle
Tuesday: Cycle
Wednesday: much-needed break
Thursday: Run/Cycle
Friday: Cycle
Thankfully, the weather cooperated so I could run outdoors! There’s something about running on a treadmill that just doesn’t appeal to me, which is why I don’t do it often. Same goes for running on a track. Not that fun.
I did find that, as expected, the running was tough. I haven’t really done consistent running for YEARS. And, running from the gym I start at anywhere is downhill, which means, for those of you who might miss this lovely fact…running back to the gym is UPHILL. Talk about excellent training ground! Granted, I have no idea how FAR I ran – only that I meandered until I ended up back at the gym.
As for the cycling? Well, let’s just say that between the soreness from running and the fact I haven’t really done the type of spin I’m doing in months, I hurt! I forgot how many climbs and races there were in these RPM sessions. And after doing the 50 miles cycling seated, it feels like I’m a jack-in-the-box (NOT the restaurant) on the spin bike! Throw in a little BodyPump-esque weight training, and you have a recipe for whipping someone into shape real fast!
Not that I was out of shape, mind you. Just not in shape for another half century or for a duathlon of any distance.
Speaking of distances, I guess I should find me a duathlon to sign up for…
Duathlon?
First, I have to start with one of the worst-named stores in Seattle. “Seattle’s Hugest Beer Selection.” Hugest? *cringe*
So – after completing the 50 mile ride, I started thinking about a duathlon. I have to admit this is in part due to hearing that a friend of mine is training for a triathlon. I don’t know I’ll ever get up to a triathlon – the thought of swimming in a lake/river just doesn’t sit well with me. Instead, I’m thinking of doing a duathlon – run/cycle.
Here’s the funny thing. I guess when you tell people you’re training for such a type of event, they expect you have a date in mind. Most people training for such an event probably DO have a date in mind. Me? No. I just like the idea of having a focus for my workouts, I guess. And it seems an achievable goal if I can find one that fits my schedule. I actually found a place called Elma, Washington, that seems to have a duathlon and triathlon scheduled for just about every holiday – Memorial Day, Father’s Day, etc. And it seems like a great place for this type of event – they have a novice level duathlon which is a 2.6 mile run and some distance cycle…don’t really remember. I just know there’s duathlons in July and August, which is my target date, if I can just find one that’s not too far away and that is on a Saturday.
Either way, I’m training for a duathlon that would be a 2.6 mile run and some distance cycling.
How’s that for targeted training?
Another funny thing – I’ve learned that not exercise is created equal. Doing cardio and the occasional spin is NOTHING like targeted training for anything. Once I decided I would start training (last Saturday), I decided on a game plan. Twice a week, run for half an hour, follow by cycling for half an hour. Twice a week, do RPM (45 minutes). Each of those days, do weight training – upper body one day, lower body the neck, etc. The schedule is Mon/Tues train, break Wednesday, then Thurs/Fri train. So far, it’s working pretty well. I’ve stuck to my Mon/Tues schedule. But here’s the thing – I’ve been exercising. I’ve been doing weights. But I went back to the BodyPump style of weights the other day and found my stamina for it has dropped, not to mention I’m SORE!! I also did RPM the other day and found myself struggling through some of the climbs. YEESH. I have some work to do!
I also found from my outdoor run Monday that everything from the gym I started at is downhill. Hey – makes for GREAT training with the running!
I feel much better about my workouts now that I have a focus again – it’s amazing how much of a difference that makes for me. What I’m really loving about things like the duathlon and the cycling events is that I can continually have something to work towards. I had no idea there were as many cycling events, duathlons, or even triathlons as there are just around Washington! It’s so cool! If I wanted, I could be doing some type of event every month! Craziness!
Z’s First Half-Century Ride
May 9, 2009, I found myself at Howard Amon Park in Richland, WA, setting out for my first ever 50 mile ride.
I’ll admit, I was nervous. I had never done an organized ride before, I wasn’t sure what to expect, and I was on my own. I was pretty sure I was going to fall over in the middle of some road, lost, with no cell reception, injured because of the fall, and nobody to know where I was at. These were the images running through my mind all week leading up to the ride.
Alongside those images were images of myself being caught wholly unprepared for this ride. No sooner did I register and pay than I found myself thinking, “Um, I haven’t really trained for this. I haven’t done a spin class regularly for awhile, and I haven’t really been out on my bike. In fact, I haven’t done a THING to get ready for this ride!”
So, I did what any sane person would do. I tried to squeeze in 12 weeks of recommended training into one! I had it planned out – I’d ride 20 miles each on two days on an indoor spin cycle, and do strength training the other two days, and take Friday off to relax.
In the end, I didn’t work out the first day, I rode 15 miles the next day, then strength trained on Wednesday, and Thursday, I was sore. End training.
Back to Saturday morning. Having spent some time with my dear husband reviewing the map, and still not knowing where on earth I was headed, I was off!
I first tried to match pace with a few ladies in front of me. I was doing okay until we hit a hill. Oops! Here’s where the training would’ve been nice! Half-way up the hill, heart pounding like mad, I decided I’d rather finish slow than not finish at all, and I prayed I’d be able to follow the route.
After that, it wasn’t too bad. UNTIL after the rest stop at mile 16. After that rest stop, I had an option: turn right and head back the way I came for the 25 mile loop, or turn left into unknown territory for the 50 mile loop.
I turned left.
I maybe should’ve turned right.
What I didn’t realize, and what my friends failed to tell me, was the 50 mile loop contained some crazy hills. The first part of that 2nd portion of the ride, I found myself soaring down a hill, then realizing that what goes down, MUST come up. Dang. Not too long after that realization, I took a turn and looked ahead…and laughed. It was a Seattle-looking incline. “Well, here goes nothing,” was what went through my head as I started pedaling up the cliff/incline. An eighth up the way up, a couple was stopped on the side. “You guys okay?” I asked, hoping the answer was no so I could have an excuse to stop and try to help. “Yeah, just learning a lot about fixing flat tires!” “You have a spare tube and all?” “Yup.”
Darn.
Up I continued. And then, up I stopped. I nearly started rolling backwards, but managed not to lose my balance with one foot still clipped in and the other on the ground. I gained my breath, and tried again. After another few pedal strokes, I stopped again. Someone passed me and I was happy to see this very fit looking guy going rather slowly up the hill. I was determine NOT to walk my bike up this hill, though, so I simply got back up and tried again. Do a few pedal strokes and stop. Catch breath. Repeat. Repeat 4 times, in fact. Laugh a couple of times and consider the ridiculousness of the situation. Finally, I made it, ON MY BIKE, and passed the guy who had passed me earlier. He had stopped to wait for his buddy who was somewhere behind us both. He congratulated me and I said they needed a rest stop at the top of that hill.
I thought the hills were done for the most part.
They weren’t.
Coming up next? Rolling hills. I didn’t catch the drift of racing down one hill and using that momentum to get most of the way (if not all of the way) up the next until after a few hills. Up one of the hills, I had to stop again. This time, I tried to get back on and fell over. I waited a bit, tried again, and nearly fell again. My right foot refused to touch the right pedal. So…against all my wishes, I got off the bike and walked a little bit. A truck of field workers passed by and I think every guy in that truck looked over at me walking up that hill with my bike. Oh well, once I hit flat roads again, I got back on to cycle. I’m proud to say that was my ONLY moment walking my bike.
I’m NOT so proud to say that not long after that, as I was riding along, a tractor passed me. I was still recovering and waiting for the next incline I’d need to face.
Once I realized I was on ROLLING hills, I actually said out loud to myself, “THIS is what they call rolling hills!” and started racing down one and not having to pedal up the next! NOW I was having fun!
Then I got to the bottom of all that fun and couldn’t figure out which way to turn. According to the map, I was at the wrong intersection. I’m still not sure if I made a wrong turn or missed a turn somewhere, but I called my sweet husband who looked up where I was (thankfully, there was a huge cutout of a little kid with an address on it) and he helped me figure out which way to turn so I’d get back to the rest stop.
After my break at the rest stop, I had to convince myself to finish the ride. It was odd, but I looked at the bike and honestly thought, “What on EARTH am I thinking? WHY would I want to get BACK on that thing and keep riding right now? I hurt, I’m sunburned already, and I still have another 15 miles to go.” I finally convinced myself to get back in the saddle and ride.
I learned a trick to hills on the way back – because we had one hill to climb on the way back, not long after the rest stop (which I personally thought was a little mean of them to do). The trick? Just focus on the pedaling and don’t focus on how much longer there is of the hill. It got me up that last long incline!
My last fight was with my right knee. At mile 37.77 (I checked my mileage tracker), my right knee started hurting. I spent some time pedaling mostly with my left leg. I still don’t know what it was, but, by that point, I was NOT stopping. The pain was pretty bad and seemed to hit randomly. But I kept going. I wasn’t stopping for no stinking knee pain! (Maybe not the wisest decision, but I was too close to quit!)
Finally, I made it! I stopped about 4 miles out and called Rich to let him know I was on my final stretch. It felt SO good to know I was actually going to finish! Sunburned, exhausted, but having accomplished what I set out to do, I rolled back in to the starting point at Howard Amon Park.
Rich asked if I could ever see doing a full 100 miles after doing the 50? NO WAY. Though, a few days later, at least a metric century (64.2 miles) isn’t looking so bad…
My First Half-Century Ride
Well, I did it. I completed a 50-mile bike ride – otherwise known as a half-century. I wasn’t sure if I was going to make the whole 50 miles, but I set that goal and I got there!
This ride was the GroupHealth Inland Empire Century. They had routes for those who wanted to do 25, 50, 75, or 100 miles. When I was riding every weekend last summer, I was doing 25 in about 1.5 hours, so I knew I could do that. I also did 23 miles a few weeks ago here in Seattle. So, I figured I’d shoot for the challenge and go for 50. After all, if I found that I just couldn’t finish, I could always call the help vehicles and get driven back to the start of the ride.
The week before the ride, I still hadn’t decided if I was doing it or not. I’d only done a 23 mile ride, and I had JUST started decreasing the amount I was working out! AND, I hadn’t really been consistent with my cycling at the gym – neither spin class nor my own spinning there. So…I wasn’t all that prepared. But this ride was in the Tri-Cities, and I wasn’t TOTALLY out of shape, so I thought I’d give it a go.
As soon as I signed up, I realized I wasn’t really well-prepared. And I only had a week to prepare. So I decided to do what I could in the week leading up to the ride. I cycled 15 miles (on an indoor spin bike at the gym), did weights, and did a series of core-strengthening moves that I found online specifically for helping cyclists. Then, two days before the ride, still sore from my sudden decision to step my workouts back up, I decided to look online for “how to prepare” tips. Everything I read told me I should actually be taking the week easy, not suddenly going all-out. I figured I was condensing the typically-recommended 12-week training period into, oh, 4 days. BUT, I paid attention to everything that said to rest up the two days before the ride so that the body wasn’t aching at the start! That put a serious kink in my plans (ride 20 miles two days before the ride). But, hey, I figured the people posting those tips had a point…not sense in starting a long ride all sore and achy, right?
All week long, I was nervous.
A post about…shoes?!
First, the cycling-related comment. I went riding (FINALLY!) a couple weekends ago – the weather was cool, but not cold. I don’t have cold-weather cycling gear, else it wouldn’t matter what the weather was like (other than rainy). Anyway – I did a 23-mile ride! It felt AWESOME. Loved every minute of it…except for finding out that the famed Burke-Gilman trail was NOT flat. I thought I’d read somewhere online that it was fairly flat…nope…slight incline from Fremont up to Lake Forest Park. I got off my bike twice thinking my brake pads were too close to the tire or something. It wasn’t until I was on my way back down the path that I realized I was breezing through, going FAR faster than I had on the way up, and I finally clued in that no, I wasn’t totally out of shape, I’d been riding nearly 11 miles uphill!
Anyway – that was two weekends ago. Last Saturday, the weather wasn’t fantastic, so no ride. I went for a walk, was comfy in my sweatshirt and jeans, but would have been a little too cold cycling. Today, it’s supposed to reach over 70 degrees (Farenheit) outside, and I WANT TO BE RIDING! Why today (Friday) and not tomorrow? Because tomorrow, it’s supposed to rain and be in the 50’s!!
Seattle – you taunt me with your beautiful weeks and cold Saturdays.
On another note – I was happy to learn from my husband that Barnes and Noble is actually just a couple of blocks away from Borders downtown! I’d walked to B&N before, but it seemed like it was in a completley different part of Seattle than Borders…turns out I was just disoriented. So, yesterday, to test this new knowledge, I went for a walk. I found B&N, walked from there to Borders, saw all sorts of new shops, and then decided to look for shoes. Why? Well, I was wearing shoes that did not match what I was wearing. This bothered me. So I used Goog411 to find the address of a Payless Shoes that sounded like it was in downtown Seattle, and found it one block away from where I was at the time! WOOHOO! (I love it when my personal world map expands!) So, in I walk, and I set about shoe-shopping.
I came back with two pairs of shoes. One is multi-colored…not my usual! I usually get either straight black or straight brown – I’ve always hesitated on other colors. But, about a year ago, I started wanting red shoes. I got red flats, but I never know if I’m wearing them well – do they match, so do I look like a Ronald McDonald impersonator? This has kept me from expanding into other colors for awhile.
But seeing the fashionistas around here has made me a bit daring. Recently, I bought a pair of casual shoes that are bright blue. I love them! Yesterday, I bought a pair of black sandals and a pair of plaid peep-toe shoes. That second pair was a first on two fronts: peep-toe shoes and more than one color on the shoe. Exciting!!
Surprisingly, there were even more shoes I wanted to buy. I’ve never been too much of a shoe-shopper; I often think shoes are cute, but, when I try them on, they hurt/look awful/look dumb. So, having lots of shoes I liked, fit, AND I thought were cute? Well, it was just fun!