Biking like there's no tomorrow

I got new orthotics on Monday.  Now the orthotics for both feet are molded to take pressure off what are apparently "prominent metatarsals."  Maybe my feet are just too bony.  Pretty sure there's not much I can do about that.  Except wear orthotics or expensive shoes.  Anyway, I did the Pub Run on Monday and my foot felt fine.  That's not really saying much, since it's a short and slow jog, but still, no pain is good.  And then, despite the fact that I've been telling myself and others that if I started running again, I would definitely ease into it...I didn't really ease into it.  I went for a run on Wednesday afternoon.  I did start out easy...I did basically the same loop as the Monday Pub Rns, but backwards, to change it up.  I started out at what felt like a nice easy pace to both my legs and my lungs.  The first mile was a 7:06 pace, but it felt  easy, and that's what matters, right?  After the first mile, it started requiring effort to hold that pace as my lungs started dying.  But my legs felt amazing, and were begging for more.  So I worked to hold the pace.  I started feeling discomfort in my foot.  I decided that foot pain meant I probably needed to take more time off, but since I was already out there, I might as well enjoy the run while I could.  So I did.  I worked to keep up the pace for the rest of the 3.1 mile run.  I finished the 5k in 21:57.  And I swear that the joy of the run was worth every second of discomfort or pain in my foot.

This week : 

M : bike 21.4 (17.6 mph/1713 ft), jog 3.2

T : bike 23.1 (16.7 mph/2290 ft)

W : run 3.1 (7:05 pace)

F : bike 26 (18.5 mph/1844 ft)

Su : bike 2.9 (photographing a 5k)

bike 23.4 (17.5 mph/2211 ft)

total bike miles : 97.1

I had some really good rides on the bike this week.  Because the gear sizes are different on this bike than my other bike, climbing was a lot harder at first.  The bike is a machine when you give it the right amount of power, but it took some getting used to and adjusting my riding before I could give it an adequate amount of power.  I think my time on the trainer helped me get stronger faster, and now the new bike is a beast.  Now that I have adjusted to it and found the power I need, it takes what I give it and we fly.  I am riding faster than I used to, and powering up the climbs like I own them.  I am loving this bike!  

I used the bike to get myself around a 5k course to take photos 

of the runners in a few different spots this morning.  

In other news, my asthma has been worse than ever for the last 2 or 3 days.  I needed to use my inhaler just to go about my day this morning.  I am not happy about this.  I'm also not happy about the fact that in a few more weeks my health insurance cost is going to more than double if I can't somehow find a different and better plan.  And the odds of me being able to find an affordable plan are slim to none.  As of now, I am leaning towards discontinuing my new asthma drug that seems to be making me worse instead of better, and going back to just using the albuterol inhaler as needed, and save new drug experiments for the magical day when I'm not getting screwed by my health insurance.  I guess if I'm not running races I don't really need my lungs to be at super-human capacity anyway.  Or normal-human capacity.  I just need to be able to go about a normal day, and I was able to do that before I went to the pulmonologist.  If I can't breathe when I exercise too hard, I can always exercise slightly less hard I suppose.  

Frustrations...and a new bike!

What a week.  Monday wasn't too bad.  Too busy to ride that day.  Tuesday, I set out for a nice 20+ miler, but 8 miles in, on a quiet country road, my crappy rear derailleur malfunctioned and long-story-short I ended up with a broken chain. 8 miles from home.  At 4:30 on a Tuesday afternoon.  I spent about 5 minutes going through my phone trying to figure out who I could call that would not only be available to rescue me, but also have a car that could transport my bike.  Luckily, one of my good friends who also cycles and has a bike rack on his car, was able to come get me.

Broken bike...with the chain lying on the ground.

To add to my frustration, after I got home I opened some mail from the insurance company to discover that the physical therapy place "may bill me up to $105 for each visit."  I'm not even going to go back and try to count how many visits I've had to that place...but I'm dreading the day that bill comes in the mail. That cost, plus the fact that my foot is not showing any improvement, is really discouraging.

Back to Broken Bike...I just put a bunch of money into it a couple of weeks ago, new tires, a new front derailleur, and a couple of random little maintenance things it needed.  I was going to get the whole shifting system replaced, because it needed it, but it turned out that the rear derailleur was built into the bike frame in such a way that it could not be replaced.  So I had to make do with really unreliable shifting.  While that bike was getting worked on, I borrowed a road bike from the shop.  The road bike took a lot of getting used to, drop handlebars make me feel really off balance, as well as putting a lot of pressure on my back where it's weak/out of alignment from an old injury.  Once I learned that my bike was not ever going to be very efficient, I toyed with the idea of buying the road bike.  I didn't really want to spend the money, but I also wanted a bike that wouldn't constantly be needing tweaks and repairs.

The decision was made for me when my bike decided to malfunction and die 8 miles from home.  I'm going to get it fixed at some point, because it is kinder to my back and because I can take it on the river trail, unlike a road bike.  But, if I'm going to continue biking a lot, I need a reliable bike.  So, I picked up the road bike the next day.  For keeps.

New Bike 

My back has not been happy with me since I got the new bike.  I was only able to do short rides, and it was really painful to stand up straight as I got off the bike because my back was locked into position.  I took yesterday off to let my back rest, and then today I went out for a long ride.  I stood up on a lot of little hills that I would normally sit for, and spent some time on the straight bars instead of in the drops or on the hoods, and that helped take pressure off my back.  I ended up getting 34 miles today, which I was not expecting to be able to do, so I was happy about that. With today's ride, I doubled my mileage for the week, ending up at 67.7 miles.  My back is sore, but it wasn't as bad during the ride as it had been earlier in the week. I'm going back to the bike shop tomorrow to really get fitted to the bike, I think the seat needs to come forward a bit, and we may change the stem as well.  Hopefully I will soon be as comfortable on this bike as I was on Broken Bike, and I can get back to exploring and finding out just how far I can ride.  

On the bright side, New Bike makes mountain climbs seem like a joke compared to how they felt on Broken Bike.  So much easier!  It helps having reliable shifting.  The old one rarely let me use the smallest chain ring in the front.  

15 days off

This poor blog has been getting neglected.  Because it's primarily a blog about running.  And I haven't been running.  Today I ran for the first time since my race on March 22.  That's 15 days off.  The longest amount of time I've taken off, on purpose, probably in...forever.  I thought the 12 days I took off in January was long and arduous.  I realized this time around, that 10 days is really the most I can take off from running before it begins to damage my emotional stability.  (I realized this around day 13, when I was starting to wonder why I couldn't shake an in-explainable bad mood).  But, I made myself wait until today before I ran again.  I have a race on Saturday, so I need to run a few times before then!

As I started out on today's run, my legs felt really weird.  Like they weren't really sure what was going on.  "What is this strange running-thing we're doing?!"  But, it only took a few minutes to settle in and love the run.  I did my standard 4.7 mile loop. I didn't push too hard, but I wasn't just jogging along either.  I ended up with a 7:07 average pace, which is pretty stellar after 15 days off!

Of course, I didn't just spend the last 15 days sitting on the couch.  That would have been unbearable.  The 12 days I took off in January taught me that I have to keep my cardio up somehow while not running, or my lungs get really weak.  So, I needed a cardio alternative to running that didn't involve a gym membership, because I don't have money lying around to spend on that.  I decided it was time to start biking.  Naturally, it snowed the day I planned to start biking.  And it snowed for the next several days.  But eventually the snow melted and I was finally able to get out on my bike.

Biking is not my favorite form of exercise. (obviously) It's not terrible, but it's so easy to just coast along, I've always had trouble riding hard enough to get a good workout.  Obviously, coasting along would not keep my lungs in shape.  Thanks to Strava, I found a way to motivate myself to ride a bit harder.  Using my phone, I can track my rides on Strava, and it ranks me on various "segments" of roads created by users.  Fastest guy/girl on each segment are the king/queen of the mountain.  There aren't too many people riding consistently here who use strava, but there are a handful.  I didn't get QOM on all the segments the first time I tried them, but I got most of them pretty quickly.  There are only a few segments left that I have ridden on not gotten QOM on.  So my real goal is to get as high on the leaderboard with the guys as I can.  Because being competitive is the main thing that helps me stay motivated during rides.

My longest ride so far was yesterday.  I rode 29.2 miles.  I still felt pretty good at the end of it, so I am planning to push for closer to 35-40 soon.  Also, I biked 85 miles last week.  Not too shabby for my first full week of biking. Way better than the 18 measly miles I got the week before...

My main frustrations with biking right now?
a) The wind.  It has been really windy here lately.  And riding into the wind is ridiculously not fun.  Especially when your quads are already sore from previous rides.  Ouch.  Also, riding into the wind makes my back hurt.
b) Biking is shredding my quads and doing NOTHING for my calves.  I developed restless leg in one of my calves just a few days into my 15 days off, and biking barely alleviated it.  Because it was too busy making my quads feel like they were being stabbed by knives.  On the bright side, my quads are getting really strong...
c) So time consuming.  Sure, I can go for a 30 minute ride and ride as hard as I possibly can, and it's a great workout.  But, back to the quads issue...I can't ride that hard every day.  I have a high pain tolerance, but it's not that high!  Especially not when I'm also fighting the wind.  But in order to get a good workout out of a slower ride, I have to be able to devote at least an hour and a half, preferably more, to the ride.  That's a lot of time out of my day. a/k/a not gonna happen most days.
d)  I thought since I was exercising regularly, I would be able to maintain my sanity.  But then I discovered that biking does not relieve stress for me like running does.  That was a sad and disappointing revelation.  Luckily there's not too much stress in my life right now to begin with, so I'm still able to do pretty well.  But my frustration-threshold is definitely lower right now...  I think biking is not working because my quads hurt too much before I am able to ride hard enough/long enough to get the same workout I get from running. Maybe once my quads get into bike-shape it will be different.