A 50 mile bike ride and a spectacular hike

The cycling adventures continue.  My foot continues to hurt (or not) each day, with no rhyme or reason that I can figure out.  This week it felt fine for 3 days and then randomly started hurting again.  We had tried ultrasound at PT, and it didn't seem to help, so the PT made me some orthotics and told me to come back if they pinch/rub/don't work.  Gotta give them a few weeks to know if they are helping or not though.  If they don't work, it seems that injection is my only remaining option.  Yay fun.

Meanwhile, my back has been adjusting to life on a road bike.  Of my 4 rides last week, 2 were longer rides. One was 31 miles and the other was 50.  The 50 mile ride on Saturday took me south into Monroe County and then back to Greenbrier.  Lots of gorgeous scenery on that ride, it was a really nice day.  I'm still enjoying exploring new roads on my bike.  Eventually I will have exhausted all the possibilities and I'll have to start repeating long rides, but for now I'm going to enjoy new scenery as often as possible.

Sunday I went hiking with 2 friends.  We went to Devil's Marbleyard, near Natural Bridge, VA.  I went hiking there at the end of December, but it was cold and gray and the pictures didn't turn out too spectacular.  This time though, was spectacularly gorgeous.  The weather was perfect, the trees were green, and the sky was blue.  Perfection.

Sunlight through the trees.

My hiking buddies.

Check out that view!

Queen of the Mountain!

May 22 Concert

Last night a friend and I performed at the Irish Pub down the street from me.  We did a few songs there at a fundraiser several months ago, and were invited to come back for a full concert.  We worked very hard over the last 2 months to prepare 30 songs, and were really excited to perform.  Sadly, there were a lot of other things going on last night, and very few people were able to attend.  We are very grateful to the handful of people that were able to show up and support us!  We are looking forward to performing again sometime this summer or fall.  I figure the bright side to not having much of an audience is that we can use all of the same songs again!

One of my super awesome friends recorded each song on my camera for me.  I am going to upload as many as I can, but the first one took 6+ hours to load...so I expect it to be a long time before I manage to get all the songs up!

Here is our first song : "Dark Blue" by Jack's Mannequin

*update

Here's another song : "Still Fighting It" by Ben Folds

and...one of my favorites to sing:

"Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen

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.  

Cycling Explorations

Since I need to take time off from running, and I can't stand to not exercise regularly, I have had to embrace this whole cycling thing.  It was frustrating at first, because I didn't have the right muscle to ride with the same intensity that I was used to putting into my runs.  But after a few weeks, I have gotten much stronger, and am able to get a satisfying workout out of a bike ride.  It can still be hard to find the time for bike rides of a decent length, but I seem to be finding it.  I thought I was busy when I was running 30-45 miles a day, and now I find myself biking an hour or two, often longer on weekends.  Somehow it seems to fit in.  And on the days when it doesn't, I ride hard for 30 minutes or so.

My favorite part about cycling is that it takes me places my runs don't.  I am seeing parts of the area that I have never seen before, and since spring time has finally arrived in the Greenbrier Valley, the scenery is gorgeous, and often breathtaking.  The one-lane roads through farmland have very little traffic, but lots of cows and beautiful green fields.

I don't like stopping in the middle of a workout, so I don't have pictures of any of the scenery, except for today.  Today, the road I took turned unexpectedly into a dirt/gravel road.  Having already been chased by two different pairs of dogs, I really didn't want to turn around and backtrack.  So I took my chances that the map was correct and that the road would in fact continue to the next road I planned to take, and I stuck with it.  Parts of the road were decent, parts of it were very rutted and rocky and muddy.  But thankfully, my tires handled it beautifully.  I was rather angry about the state of the road, and desperately hoping I wouldn't end up lost, but as I looked around, it was so peaceful.  And every now and then I would get a glimpse of a breathtaking view as I wound my way up and down a mountain.  I had to break my no-stopping rule to snap a few pictures.

This was a part where the gravel road was relatively smooth.  

I love green trees and blue sky, such perfect weather!

Almost Heaven, West Virginia. 

What a view.

Eventually, the dirt road came to a T with a paved road.  With no street signs.  So I had to guess...up hill or down hill.  It wasn't how I remembered it looking on the map, but it turns out I hadn't looked closely enough at the map.  I knew that the place I was headed was most likely downhill, since it's near the river, so I chose downhill.   It turned out that where I had thought the road I started on continued straight and I needed to turn off to the left, it actually didn't go straight. The road I was on continued to the right, the one I had planned to turn off onto, was to the right.  I have no idea why that intersection wasn't labeled, but good thing I have a decent sense of direction! In the end, the road I took spit me out on a two lane road that was also unlabeled, but which I knew had to be the next road I wanted, Highway 63.  So, I made it home without actually getting lost, even though I felt lost for about half of the ride.  Adventuring is fun on weekends when I have the time for it!  Especially when the weather cooperates.

Yesterday, I went for my longest ride so far.  40 miles.  It didn't have any significant mountain climbs, so it wasn't particularly difficult, just long.  I actually felt like I could have kept going.  The only reason I didn't, was because the skies opened up and it started pouring when I was about 7 miles from home.  So, I got drenched.  It stopped raining right around the time I got back into town, which made it tempting to continue riding, but in the end the desire to get warm and dry won and I headed straight home.

Last week, I rode 90 miles, which I felt was pretty impressive for a busy person who has just picked up this new cycling hobby.  This week, I made a goal of hitting 90 again.  And then I hit a grand total of 118.9 miles for the week.  I would continue this quest to see how many miles I can ride in one week, but this coming week is looking pretty busy, so I suspect it will be a lower mileage week.  Time will tell.

Blue Ridge Half Marathon Race Recap

2 days after the race.  My legs are just as sore now as they were when I woke up Sunday morning.  In other words, really, really, really, really sore.  Must have something to do with the fact that I raced a bunch of mountains after being unable to train seriously since December...  However, even though I'm hobbling around like I'm crippled, it hurts to sit down, and stairs make me want to cry, I have no regrets.  None.  It was a beautiful day.  The scenery throughout the course was gorgeous.  The spectators were wonderful.  The course was every bit as tough as it bragged to be.  There is nowhere else I would have rather been on that Saturday morning.  And I surely can't wait until next year, when hopefully I will actually be in shape, and will be able to power up those hills, race back down the hills, and leave them in my dust.

I was more excited for this race than I have been in awhile.  I always love racing, but lately I haven't always completely looked forward to each one until after the starting gun.  I think because there was so much uncertainty about whether or not I would be running this race, it made me all the more excited when I decided that I could run it.  
 

Sunrise on race day.

Saturday dawned bright and sunny, and warm enough to leave my sweat pants in the car rather than lug them around.  That in itself was enough to put a smile on my face, I'm so sick of the cold weather!  I did not do a warm-up jog for this race.  I wasn't sure how my foot would hold up for the mountainous 13 miles and I certainly wasn't going to waste any of its strength on a warm-up.  I wasn't expecting to win the race anyway, I figured it really wasn't necessary for me to be warm enough to sprint the first mile.  I started off the race at whatever pace felt comfortable to me.  I'm sure it was faster than ideal for a warm-up, but it was mostly a slight downhill anyway.

Matching shoes and fingernails...

Straight off the start line.  

I just want to say...take a look at my leg muscles!  

I have trouble understanding how my legs are that ripped after all my time off...

Last year, I remember powering up Mill Mountain like it was nothing more than a bump in the road.  This year, it wasn't super difficult, but it definitely required more effort than I remember.  I'm sure that had something to do with the fact that I hadn't done any hill training in weeks...or months...  About half way up the hill, last year's half marathon winner passed me.  She didn't pass me until the last 2 miles last year, so I wondered if I was going that much slower, or if she was starting out faster.  Then, we reached the place where the half and full marathons split, and she took the marathon split.  Before I got tendonitis in my foot, my goal was to beat her this year.  Turns out that wouldn't have been an option!  (And since the course changed this year, I couldn't have beat her course record either.)

At the top of Mill Mountain, I was in 2nd place, although I had absolutely no idea what place I was in, as there was no sight of any women ahead of me.  The backside of Mill Mountain, going back down, is extremely steep.  I knew if I flew down the hill like I did last year, I would destroy my foot.  So I ran more conservatively than I normally would.  I got passed by a woman or two, and lots of guys, but I didn't let it get to me.  I knew taking it easy on my foot with more than half the race left was more important than keeping up with the competition.  There was one woman who had almost caught me by the bottom of the hill, but I sped up once I reached the bottom, and didn't see her again for a long time.  After some time on the mostly flat greenway, the course eventually picked up its new course, sending us into a very steep neighborhood, called "Peakwood."  Peakwood has always been a part of the marathon course, but it has never been part of the half marathon before.  Peakwood was every bit as challenging as it was advertised.  It is one of the steepest hills I have ever run, and much steeper than the ones I run on a normal basis.  Many people alternated walking and running on this hill.  I maintained at least a jog, but I certainly wasn't going very fast on some of the steepest parts!  I passed a woman on this hill who I never saw again, but I got passed by someone else at some point, who went on to win 2nd place.  The downhill off of Peakwood was not as steep as Mill Mountain's downhill, but it was steep enough to strain my foot.  However, there were only 2 miles left in the race at that point, so I pushed a little bit harder than earlier, knowing that the race was almost over anyway.  In the last mile, I knew that I was in 3rd place, but I had absolutely no idea how much of a lead I had on 4th place.  I picked up the pace as much as I could, and when I passed the 13th mile marker, I sped up to a sprint to the finish, hoping no one was going to pass me on the line.  A guy caught up to me, but that was it.

While I would have loved to have defended my 2nd place title for the 3rd year, I am completely satisfied with 3rd place.  I know that I lost 2nd on the downhills, but it wasn't worth the strain that I would have put on my foot.  I'm so glad I was able to run this race and finish strong.  And even better, it didn't seem to make my foot any worse.  I went back to PT this morning, and was instructed not to run again for at least a week.  And after that, who knows.  I was also told that I shouldn't plan on running a 5k on the 17th.  I am putting my race schedule on hold for the time being.  I really didn't want to give up the Blue Ridge, but I will give up my upcoming races in order to get rid of the tendonitis.

Finisher medal. 

With elevation profile of the mountains I ran.

1:43:32, 3rd female, 21st overall

My family of Blue Ridge trophies.

2011 : 2nd in age group 20-24

2012 : 2nd female

2013 : 2nd female

2014 : 3rd female

This year's addition to the family.

I'd also like to mention how grateful I am to the wonderful people at the Hyatt Place in Roanoke, who let me stay 2 whole hours past check-out, for free, (even though they were booked solid), so that I could get a nap before my drive home.  Life-saving.

Blue Ridge Half Marathon 2014

Just a quick post to say that I am alive and well and had a great race. The new hills they added to the course were some of the toughest I have ever run. I took the steep downhiils easier than normal to try and spare my foot. I finished 21st overall, 3rd place female. 1:43:32. NO REGRETS!

Blue Ridge Countdown : less than 48 hours!

I will be running this year!  I went to physical therapy this morning, and the PT was sympathetic to my burning desire to run the race.  So she told me go ahead and run it, and if the pain is too much, drop out.  I've been jogging this week, and as long as I take it easy on downhills, my foot really doesn't hurt.  As she said (and I completely agree) we've barely started the physical therapy, it's not like running the race will be undoing anything we've already done.  So, I'm going to run the race.  And then go back to PT first thing Monday morning.


I'm super excited...Saturday morning can't come soon enough.  I love this race and am looking forward to running it for the fourth time!