solar squirrel

Yesterday was a cold, rainy, yucky day.  I told myself if I went running in it I would reward myself with a new pair of running shoes (which I needed anyway - I’ve been running on the roads in my trail shoes because I didn’t want to spend any extra $).  I bought some cute pink Asics which have tons of support.  I’ll wear these at Boston.

So I forced myself to go out in the rain and run.  You know - it wasn’t so bad!  I wore shorts, technical Tshirt, and a light fleece and gloves.  I was cold for about 20 seconds when I first walked outside and then I was perfect.  The rain wasn’t too bad at all, and I was out on the towpath by myself.  I like running on the towpath when no one else is around because you can hear the river.  It sounds really neat splashing along.  Plus you can hear the birds now that the weather has warmed up a little.  I didn’t wear my watch, but I felt like I was running pretty fast.  I only ran like 5 miles because I didn’t have much time so I was running a bit faster than I normally would.

Thank you everyone for the wonderful words of encouragement and congratulations on my new job.  I’ll be posting info about it once I officially start on April 6th.  I’m so excited!

Tonight I’m going to Ray’s indoor mountain bike park.  I’m a little nervous as I haven’t been on my mountain bike for MONTHS!  Oh, well - it will still be fun!

Tuesday evening I planned my second mtn. biking excursion at Westbranch.  Joe C. met me there at around 6:30 and after a few minutes of prepping our tires and getting on our gear we were off.  I felt like I was more afraid this time than my first time.  For some reason I had this fear of getting hurt that I didn’t have last time.  I guess maybe it was because I knew that the triathlon was this weekend and I didn’t want to get injured??  Not sure, but I felt more afraid.  I told Joe to take it easy on me for a while so that I could get warmed up.  Lucky for me Joe knows the trails so I can just follow him and not have to worry about where I am going and I can just concentrate on not falling or running into anything.

It seemed to take me forever before I felt comfortable enough not to have my brake on constantly - but then Joe taught me something that I didn’t know - you’re not supposed to use your back brake as much as your front brake.  I didn’t know that and I was using my back brake the majority of the time.  This was causing my bike to slide sideways on the downhill scary parts, in turn causing me to be even more afraid.  After Joe told me the secret about using the front brake and sitting back on the seat, I was doing MUCH better on the downhills.  Also this time I took off the straps I had on my pedals.  (Actually Joe took them off since he had tools).  Last time I had a heck of a time trying to get my feet in them especially on the up-hill parts where you are trying to get moving as quickly as possible so you don’t lose your momentum.  This proved to be very helpful.  I was able to just pedal whenever I needed to rather than trying to get my foot in the strap or flipping the pedal around.  I also noticed that because my feet weren’t strapped onto the pedal I was using my legs to help me navigate around rocks, tree branches, roots, etc.  I think this might be bad, since whenever I do get clipless pedals for my mtn. bike I’m going to have to re-learn not to do that.  Joe said it should be ok, since I will have more skills by the time I get them.  (Sheesh, I sure hope so!)

I felt kind of bad because Joe had to keep waiting for me.  I fell quite a few times - the one time catching my leg between a rock, my bike, and me.  It hurt pretty bad and I thought I broke my ankle, but after a few min. I was ok.  (My knee still feels a little weird…I hope I didn’t do any damage.)  Another time I was starting to fall so I tried to grab onto a tree, but I was going too fast so my arm got pulled and it felt like I pulled it out of socket.  It ended up being fine, though.  I think that mountain biking (especially for beginners like me) has got to be one of the most physically intense activities you can do.  I come home completely EXHAUSTED.  It’s a TOTAL body workout - no joke.  And you know what?  I think I am addicted!!!

Yesterday I biked to work for the first time this year. I planned to ride in with Joe, so that meant getting up SUPER early (middle of the night compared to my usual waking time!) since he likes to get to work by 7 a.m. I talked him into meeting at S. Chagrin Res. at 6:30 and then the plan was to bike the rest of the way in together. I planned to leave the apartment at 6:00 because I didn’t know how long it would take me to get to our meeting spot. Of course I was running late so I didn’t leave the apartment till about 6:15. Since I figured it would be a bit chilly I wore tights and bike shorts, smart wool socks, and on top a long-sleeved technical top, my bike arms (I don’t know what they’re called - arm-warmers?? - I call them ‘arms’.) and a sleeveless bike jersey. I didn’t even think to put on normal gloves and I just wore my normal fingerless bike gloves. As soon as I got on my bike I was like - WHOA - IT IS COLD. I’m talking painful cold. The good news was that there was very little traffic on Solon Rd. and Joe was early so he ended up meeting up with me before we even got to Cannon rd.

By the time I met up with Joe (about 4 miles in) my fingers were starting to lose feeling and I had a bit of frost on my eyelashes (I am not joking). I brought a sandwich and had it in my pocket and I was planning on eating it as my breakfast since you know I didn’t make time to eat before I left - but at this point my fingers could barely shift, let alone open up a ziplock baggie!! We both felt like we could go faster, but the faster we went the colder it was, so we were riding pretty relaxed. We passed about 6 wild turkeys and then 2 geese. The momma goose had her wing out and I saw a little yellow fuzzy baby head poking out from under it! It was so cute and it made me happy that I decided to ride in even though I didn’t have feeling in my toes or fingers.

We made it in 1:15 (that’s from my starting point). Not too bad considering the stopping and the fact that we were going slow because we were so cold. The ride home was the perfect temperature, which definitely made up for the morning. I think I’m going to try to ride at least once per week - it will have to be Tue or Thur though, because I will have class on Mon and Wed nights starting in June.

Here is a link to our route. (Note that I don’t have the marker starting at my exact apartment location just in case someone tries to stalk me…)

We got 1st, 2nd, and 3rd!  Way to REPRESENT ladies!

Today was my first attempt at a duathlon.  I’ve done triathlons, of course, so I wasn’t too worried about dying, but I was not sure how hard I should go out on the first 5k.  Of course Elizabeth was going to go all out on the first 5k so I couldn’t run with her…and Janet wasn’t feeling quite up to par since she went to a wedding last night and was hung over…I was on my own.  I didn’t realize the race was starting when it did, so I didn’t even have my watch on - luckily the first mile I ran with Nick and he told me we were a bit under 7-min pace (I think 6:50).  A little after the first mile I pulled away from Nick and just tried to keep a good pace that felt decent.  I forgot how fast a 5k is over, before you know it the transition area was in site.  I finished the 5k in 20-something…I honestly don’t remember what the girl said(I think it was 20:20)!  I felt good, though, and Elizabeth was just getting ready to head out on her bike.  I screamed to her that I was going to catch her and these 2 old people who were watching laughed at me.  (For those who don’t know, if I ever get the chance to see Elizabeth in the transition area I always tell her I’m going to catch her…she’s always ahead of me, but sometimes I can catch her on the bike).

I did end up catching Elizabeth (and Todd) on the bike course.  (Todd was having bike issues…)  Going into the 2nd 5k my legs just felt like they were sooooo heavy.  It’s the weirdest feeling to run after biking - your legs just don’t work right.  I have no clue how fast my 2nd 5k was, but it was good enough to get me first female overall and I even passed a few guys on the run!  Woo hoo!  The one guy I was running with for a little while had passed me at the very beginning of the run and I caught him on the last mile and I was like “come on, we only have a mile left!”  he stayed with me for about 30 sec. and then fell back.  He was breathing pretty hard.  All in all a great race.  I felt pretty good the whole time and the best part was that me, Elizabeth, and Janet were the first 3 females!

So week 3 is almost over in my 6-week effort to watch my nutrition in hopes of getting faster.  The good news:  I’ve managed to drop about 5 lbs. so far.  The bad news: I’m NOT faster, and I look EXACTLY the same!!!!  What’s up with that?  I guess another good thing is that I really don’t have any desire to change my eating habits, so that’s good.  Blah.

Here’s last week’s training summary:

Mon: Run at lunch 4.5 miles.  45 min. bike class after work
Tue:  ugh…meetings ALL day so I couldn’t do anything at lunch - Roller-blading w/ Katy in Independence after work ~1hr.
Wed:  Run at lunch ~5 miles
Thurs: Run at lunch 6 mile route easy pace w/ Marina
Fri: Cycling class at lunch
Sat: rest
Sun: bike 18, trail run 8.

Weekly totals:
Run: 23.5 miles
Bike: 38 miles
swim: 0
other: rollerblading 1 hr.

Sunday is the duathlon.  I have absolutely no clue how I’ll do.  OMG…I am watching The Office and it’s an episode about a flasher - I am laughing SO HARD - it is seriously the dumbest show ever.  I absolutely love it.  

-H. G. Wells

Running on Thursday Joe and I were discussing our plans for biking to work this year. He has a goal of riding at least once per week. Hmmm, I thought…that is easier said than done. My route is only an hour and a half each way, but the biggest problem I have is being afraid of someone running me over with their car. The majority of my ride is through the park, but I’m still really afraid of getting hit. We discussed the possibility of meeting somewhere to ride in together, which would make me more comfortable - safety in numbers.

Regardless, biking to / from work really gives you a sense of freedom and independence. It’s one thing to go riding for training and exercise, but it’s a totally different feeling when you actually are using your bike and your strength to get you somewhere you need to go. It’s freeing, actually. Almost as if you are being sneaky or cheating or something…hard to describe. You’ll have to try it for yourself to see what I mean.