a week in RI

This week : 

M : run 2.5 / 7:44/ 223 ft

T : group bike intervals 23.7 / 18.5 mph / 689 ft

W : run w/Diane 3.2 / 11:08 / 63 ft

(warm up + 4x400 (1:37-1:44) with 400 walk/jog recovery)

R : group bike hill circuit 26.7 / 18.6 mph / 1263 ft

total run miles : 5.8

total bike miles : 50.5

I spent 11 + hrs in the car on Monday driving from WV to RI.  Had dinner upon arrival, and then thought it would be ok to run within an hour or so of eating.  I was wrong.  Hence the ridiculously short run.  

Met up with the Ten Speed Spokes crew on Tuesday for the Ocean Drive interval ride.  Tried this ride last year, and got dropped every time.  This year, instead of trying to join in the middle of the ride, I started on time with the group.  We did the first lap at a steady pace as people joined us, then the second lap picked up the pace along the drive, but kept it at a pace that everyone could hold on to.  The third lap a chaser group held back, then overtook the rest of us somewhere along the drive, causing some of us to also speed up and try to hold on.  I chased the faster group til I knew it was a lost cause, then held up until the people behind me caught up.  I called it a day after that loop, because my back was starting to bother me.  

My back was pretty sore on Wednesday, but I decided to run with my sister anyway.  We did a 1+ mile warm-up around the fields, and then did the 4x400 on the track.  I let her set the pace.  About halfway through the 3rd 400 sprint, my back started spasming.  It was a weird experience.  I've had back spasms before, but never during a run!  If they had been much stronger I probably would have fallen on my face.  I kept running however.  I decided if they got too bad, I would drop out, but I did end up doing all 4 of the 400s.  I skipped the cooldown jog in favor of walking 2 laps though.  

At some point, I finally located the source of the back problem as a really really tight muscle or 5 in my hip.  Since my foam roller was back home in WV, I ended up using some hard balls of yarn to try to roll it out.  

Thursday I met the TSS crew again for their hill circuit ride.  I missed out on this ride last summer when I was in town, so I really wanted to do it this year even though my back was telling me I should probably skip it.  I made it through 2 of the 10+ mile figure eights, then called it a day because my back felt like it was breaking in half.  It was slowing me down and I didn't want to hold up the group.  Or break my back.  

Was going to try a jog on Sunday but I napped for 2 hours instead of 1 and ran out of time so...more time off.