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. 

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.  

7 runs in 6 days

I have abandoned the 20 miler plan.  It's not going to happen.  But I decided that to make up for not getting the long run, I would start doubling up once or twice a week.  This week the only day I doubled was on Wednesday, but it enabled me to get my weekly mileage above 40 for the first time in...18 weeks!  I was shocked when I went back and counted and found out how long it has been since I had 40 miles in a week.  I feel like I should be getting 40 every week, but I have been nowhere near it.  The closest I've come was 38, and that was 9 weeks ago.  Perhaps 40 is not realistic for me.  We'll see how this double-run plan goes.  Of course it will only work as long as I am still getting up at 4:50 in the morning for an early run.

This week:

M: 4.7 / 39:45 / 8:27 (15 squats, 12 lunges)

T: 4.7 / 39:25 / 8:23 (15 squats, 20 lunges, 10 pushups)

W: 4.7 / 39:12 / 8:20 (15 squats, 20 lunges)

7.17 / 55:14 / 7:42 (10 squats)

R: 4.7 / 37:18 / 7:56 (15 squats, 20 lunges)

F: 5.56 / 44:40 / 8:02 (20 squats, 20 lunges)

Sa: 11.01 / 1:26:14 / 7:49 w/Josh

Su: rest day

total : 42.54

I like this new plan of squats before my run and lunges afterwards.  The squats help get my legs ready to get out the door running, and the lunges are a nice extra little burn in my muscles after the run, and sometimes help loosen up anything that is still stiff after the run.  I definitely need to start doing more arm workouts as well.  I had the kids in PE do chin-ups the other day, and I went first.  I just barely got one chin-up.  I used to be able to do 5...

I've been purposely not pushing the pace in my runs because of the bad cough I got last week.  In Wednesday's second run this week, I jogged the first half, and was feeling pretty good, so I decided to up the pace for the second half.  It was the first time I felt like I was actually running instead of jogging, and it felt great to stretch out my legs for the longer stride.  It didn't really make me cough, so I upped the pace again on Thursday morning.  Friday I decided to run a little longer, and was contemplating 7 or 8 miles, but it started pouring rain 10 minutes in, and then as soon as I added the extra hill for the 5.56 loop my back started hurting, so I decided not to add anything else.  My shoes were squelching by that point and while rain doesn't bother me too much, I'm really not a fan of running in soaked shoes.  My back didn't bother me too much during Saturday's longer run, but then I tweaked it while cleaning my room Saturday afternoon... Might need to take another couple of days off.  

Interruptions

Things were going pretty well.  I wasn't getting super high mileage, but I was at least running consistently, and I felt like I was on track for a decent 20 miler this weekend.  Then, Monday morning, I caught a cold.  And then my back decided it wanted to start hurting for no apparent reason.  By Thursday, I felt like I would throw my back out at any moment, and I had a terrible nasty cough, so I had to call it quits on the running.  This also happened to be my first full week of classes at school.  That was fun, since every time I talked for too long, or had to raise my voice at all, I went into a painful and nasty coughing fit.

So, I had to call off the 20 miler.  Technically, I don't mind at all since I didn't actually have any desire to run 20 miles.  However, I feel like it would be a good idea to get a 20 miler before I run a marathon in November.  I may try to do it this coming weekend, but if not, I'll just have to run the marathon without the training run.  I am not going to run 20 miles too close to my October half marathons.

Monday thru Wednesday I ran at 5 in the morning.  Thursday I almost went for a run but convinced myself to stay inside and do a light workout instead.  Sunday, after 3 days off that made my back neither better nor worse, I decided to try to get some mileage in, so I did a nice slow long-ish run.  I kept it slow enough not to strain my lungs and induce coughing, and I avoided steeper hills so as not to aggravate my back.

This week's runs:

M: 6.3 / 51:05 / 8:05

T: 4.7 / 42:44 / 9:05

W: 5.54 / 47:39 / 8:36 

R: mini workout

F: off

Sa: off

Su: 7.8 / 1:05:24 / 8:23

total : 24.34

This week's "workouts":

M: 10 burpees, 10 squats, 12 lunges

T: 10 squats, 10 lunges, 10 push-ups

W: 15 squats, 12 lunges

R: 4 rounds: 12 squats, 50 boxer twist w/10 lbs, 12 lunges, 10 leg raises, 30 sec plank, 5 push-ups

On Saturday, I did some office work at the bike shop, and then got to take pictures of this:

pretty cool.

I love playing with my camera.