Bolder Bouder Race Report

This will be my shortest race report ever. Refer to my last posting on why. I have about 3 minutes free each day...

Anyhow, I had a 100+ mile ride on Saturday. Because of the weather, I got about 75 in outside and then came back to the trainer. That is dedication. But whatever, the ride sucked. I'm getting slower with each ride. At some point I should go through my recent LT test results, but since it couldn't explain anything, it may not really make much sense.

My legs and butt hurt on Sunday. It's funny, I usually spend the Memorial Day weekend planting and am always sore Monday morning for the BB. But it's arms and back and things I forget can get sore. But no planting this weekend since I was too busy sitting on the bike. So it was just the legs and butt that were sore at the start of the race.

Like Adam, I did a 3 mile warm-up, way more than I usually do, but I guess when you're used to going so long, 3 miles becomes nothing. I really wasn't looking forward to the race. I'm just not into Z4. If it were Z3, I might not have minded. I actually started thinking that it would be nice to be with the M's or the walkers or some other group that would just mosey through the race to do it and have fun. But who am I kidding...there's no way I could go that easy.

The race started, mass amounts of people started moving, and I just went along with them. This year was the first year I wore a watch with the hopes of actually trying to follow my zone plans. It didn't work. I don't think I hit mid Z4 until the end and I should have been approaching it somewhere between 2 and 3. My legs hurt and I didn't go all out (not sure if I can ever go all out). I finished a minute slower than last year, which means back to the C waves. It was disappointing since my running has been getting better and I would have liked additional confirmation. I know I was coming off the long ride, and I got a work call at 11:30 Sunday night, but I was still hoping for something better.

After the race, I still had another 9 or so miles to do, so Adam and I ran home. My knees and IT band started aching partyway through and I'm hoping it's just because of the massive amounts of activity I've done over the last few days. We'll see...I have another race on Saturday and will be doing a bit more resting.

As for the BB, I guess there's always next year.

One of Those Days...And Then Some

It was a day for the records. I hate to say that it can't get worse because there's still time for that to happen. I say this in an effort to not jinx myself. If all goes according to plan, I will be in bed soon.

I awoke this morning before the alarm. A good sign because it meant that I was reasonably well rested. After an intense weekend, it was much needed. I got up, took the dogs out, and packed my many bags for the day (it really was an everything but the kitchen sink kind of day). I had a run and a ride to do and the plan was to run at lunch and ride after work. For once, I didn't feel rushed in getting everything ready (I actually got to work at 8!).

Feeling nice and organized, I decided to pump up my tires at home rather than waste time at the end of the day tracking down the pump at work. My thought was that since it would be so hot today, I'd actually store my bike inside the office and therefore avoid the risk of popping a tire with it sitting in the hot car. This happened a few weeks ago and it was an unwelcome surprise at the end of the day when I was dressed and ready to go and then, oh, flat tire. And did I mention that I also got a flat this weekend? That was even more unfortunate as it probably took 5 miles for me to finally figure it out (why is this getting harder and why am I so tired and why to I keep bouncing?). So here I was thinking that I was planning ahead. My rear tire, the one that died over the weekend, seemed to be holding up so I thought I was good to go. I got to the front tire and this thought actually crossed my mind: what is the actual pressure limit for these tires? My pump has a gauge but I just use it as a rough estimate - I have it marked and just go to where it's reasonably close to the arrow. So I pumped it within my designate range and thought, I should just give it one more pump and so I did. It's no surprise that this comes back to haunt me later.

I got to work (at 8!) with 4 bags. I got to my desk and before I even set anything down...shit! I forgot my running shoes. Should I go back and get them? I IM'd a friend to see if she had an extra pair. She didn't, so there should be no lecturing me. I have a really, really old pair at my desk (like several years old). I have them in case I want to go for a walk (we're right on the bike path) and I don't have appropriate shoes for walking (it is kind of silly considering I really only wear podiatry recommended shoes). But this I knew would be stupid. I thought I might be able to run home before lunch and grab them. Ha!

Instead, I ended up doing my first and hopefully only firing. I'm sure if I had a heartrate monitor on, I would have been in Z10. Lunchtime came and went and I had now rearranged things in my mind so that I would run after I rode. I figured I could cut the run a little short since I'd essentially be turning it into a brick. As I mentioned to HR afterwards, I hope I never have to do that again.

Oh, and did I mention another guy on my team gave his two weeks notice on Monday. So now I'm down 2 people.

Around 4:30, it finally felt like the day was finally slowing down. I was starting to get anxious for my ride. I desperately needed to get rid of some very pent up energy. But there were all these emails to deal with as well as some miscellaneous items that I never got to today. So around 5:30 I was finally able to leave. Me and my 4 bags headed off to the bathroom to change and then I went to the bike room to get my bike. I got it off the rack and started to roll it towards the door. It wasn't really moving. It was that broken shopping cart feeling where as much as you push, you just won't budge the cart because the wheel is stuck. So I thought maybe my rear wheel had locked up like maybe the brakes got hit or something. I checked them and everything was fine. I started off again and nothing. I looked down and my front tire was pancake flat. So with all my efforts of moving the bike inside to avoid the heat and the likeliness of popping a tire, I still pop a tire. I now know the answer to my pressue limit question...one pump less than what I had done.

So now it's already getting late and by the time I changed it, it would probably be about 6. I decided that I just needed to go home. I'd go home and just do my run since I needed something. But after taking the dogs out and seeing the weather getting progressively worse, I decided that I really just needed something a little more mellow. So I decided to do an hour on the trainer. I'd at least get part of a movie out of it. I changed the flat - and an impressive one it was. There was probably a 5 inch whole where it exploded. I drag everything down to the basement and started to set up the bike when the phone rang.

Oh yeah, did I mention that I'm on call? Starting today through next Monday. It was work calling about a job that failed. So I had to log on and take a look. It turned out to be nothing - had they just tried to rerun the job, they would have been fine. But for something that was nothing, I had to provide a detailed explanation, just in case it happened again. And since I was logged on, I happened to see my inbox with additional emails that I felt like I had to respond to. At this point it is now 7. If I rode for an hour, I would be eating until after 8 and I've been trying to avoid doing this, partly in an effort to get to bed earlier and partly because I just feel too full and can't sleep.

So here it is, a little past 9 on a hellacious day that I'm ready to end. It's really quite unfortunate that a day in which so much goes wrong is one that I desperately need a work out and can't get one because of all of the things that went wrong.

Open Your F@#king Eyes!!!

This comes after almost being hit by a car twice in two days. Both by people looking someone other than through the front window. The first came on Sunday. You'd think that during a 98 mile ride, chances are higher than you'll have some sort of run-in with car. Especially going through Larimer County where they seem to pay people based on the number of cyclists they can take out. But no, #1 came during my 2 mile run off the ride. Through my golf-course neighborhood. I was running on the road (on the left-hand side) as I always do. The road is wide enough and it's not a high traffic area and in general cars are going slow enough. As I was about to cross a driveway, a car from behind me promptly turned left into the driveway, cutting me off by mere inches. My torso was maybe a foot away from this woman's driver-side window. She never even flinched. And it's not like there was a lot going on near the entrance to her driveway. There were no trees or bushes that I could have somehow blended into. I wasn't wearing bright cycling clothes, but I also wasn't dressed in camoflauge either. I was visible. If you had your eyes open. I started screaming and waving my arms thinking maybe she'd see something through her rear windshield. Nothing. Of course, this morning when I walked by her house, sort of hoping to find her outside so I could yell at her, I noticed a man outside. He was about 4-5 feet in front of the closed garage door, facing the garage door and marching in place. Clearly the entire household is a few cards short of a deck.

Near death experience #2 came yesterday when I was riding home from work. I was at the 4-way stop at Baseline and Cherryvale. I was coming from the bike path. I stopped at the intersection, even when most people do not. After waiting more than my fair share of cars going through, I started to go. I figured I'd wait until the people on my left and right went since they had less of a chance of seeing me, whereas the car facing towards me really couldn't help but to see me. Or so I thought. I started to go. As did he. He was making a left hand turn into me, the entire time looking over his shoulder to the right - the exact opposite direction that you should be looking when making a left hand turn. He had his window open and once again I started screaming. I didn't have many options at this point to get out of his way. He was probably a foot or two away when he finally heard me, looked up, and said, "Oh". Yes, "Oh". That's all. Not "Oh shit! Sorry!". Just a causal "Oh". My bike is bright orange and yellow. It's really hard not to see me. If you'd just open your f@#king eyes and pay attention!

18 miles

I wouldn't want to go so far as to say it was 18 miles of bliss, but it was 18 miles of really not so bad. I had somewhat been dreading this run, but mainly because of the time commitment with it being scheduled during the week. I've been struggling to get up early, and this would have had to be ridiculously early to squeeze it all in before work (sudden flashback to training for Florida and getting up at 4 to do a 17 mile run before work). I was also considering splitting it up as I did the previous week - half in the AM, half in the PM. But I knew mentally that I needed to do it all at once. I did have the time after work, and it might end up being my last full long run. But it's a lot to do after work.

My plan was to leave work early - 4:30, which is generally when I've been leaving on Thursday's in order to get a longer ride in. This really wouldn't be much different. Except that I work was crazy and it was impossible to leave. I finally managed to escape and was able to start slightly off schedule at 4:55. I feel like I've been kind of pushing it with the dogs...someone comes to let them out at lunch, which means that I don't have to rush home after work. Initially I would try to get home by 6:30, then 7, then 7:30, and then I started getting close to 8. I just have this fear that they'll get so hungry that they'll start barking. I know it's absurd because most likely they are sleeping the entire time. But I know how they act when I'm home and it's dinner time - it's like a mad frenzy. Why would they do this when I'm not there? They wouldn't. But I still think they might. Anyhow, I figured I'd had to cut the run a little short in order to make it home by 8 since I sort of figured it would take 3 hours. But 16 or 17 would also be close enough.

I started out on the bike path by work and headed over to the Bobolink. A few miles into my run, I started thinking about the mile repeats I had to do. I was just going to go out and back, assuming that I didn't run out of road, but then had a great idea to do the mile repeats on the same stretch of road I did them on about a month ago during another long run. So I start recalculating where I would have to turn around. And then I had another great idea - why don't I run home rather than go back to work. If I did that, the time I would have lost heading back to work and then driving home, I could make up for during the run home - meaning I'd be able to get in the entire 18. I started recalculating again to try and figure out now where I'd need to turn around. It's always a bad idea to try and do math in the middle of a workout. It never adds up. I then started wondering if it was a good idea to leave my wallet and keys in the car overnight. Normally it wouldn't have concerned me since I'm no longer in DC, but we did have a break-in last summer and that was during the day. It was probably safer to just go grab them. Recalculating again to factor in running back to work. It essentially meant that I had to turn around as soon as I decided that I was going to do this new plan. It actually turned out to be a good thing because then I was able to refill water. And I was quizzed by a co-worker who turned mom on me ('does Matt know you're doing this?' (no), 'do you have your phone?' (yes),'do you have a headlamp?' (no, this was sort of spur of the moment and I still have probably 90 minutes of daylight.),'I'm calling you at 8. if you're not home, I'm calling the Lafayette police' (give me until 8:15 since the last 5 or so miles are all uphill). And then I was off...

Of the last 5.5 miles, roughly 4 are uphill. A long slow slog up Baseline...and it actually wasn't too bad. Better than riding it. For a Z2 run, I was making pretty good time and only had one final workout math miscalculation. I had just under a mile to go (this part is all downhill), and I checked the time. Just under 2:45. And I thought "OMG, I can do a sub-4 hour marathon". There were only 6 miles left and even at a 10-10.5 min/mi pace, I'd still make it. I was ecstatic. With just under a half a mile to go reality kicked in...Except that I would have 8 miles to go to make it a marathon. And that would put me over 4 hours. I was bummed for a bit. And then I wasn't, having reminded myself that I had just run 18 miles, 14 of which were in Z2, 4ish of which were uphill, and all of which were 1000 times better than my previous long run of 16 miles. And I made it home by 7:50...plenty of time to spare.