It’s Wednesday and the first chance I’ve had to sit down at my computer and write about this past weekend’s activities. Note that I said sit at my computer, not sit down, as I’ve done plenty of sitting since Sunday morning!
This past weekend I drove to Kerrville to visit my parents and get in some training in the hills. It turns out that I didn’t do so much visiting because the training really wore me out!
I sent my father my training objectives for the weekend, and he set up a bike ride and run for me. He played SAG wagon for me both days, providing extra water and nutrition, leading the way so I wouldn’t get lost, and offering support.
Saturday morning we drove out to the start of the ride. I took off down the road and very quickly came across the hardest hill I’ve ever done. It really caught me off guard being so soon in the ride. It wasn’t long before I’d dropped to my lowest gear, and then stood up hoping to make it to the top. I scared me thinking I might actually have to walk on the first hill I’d come to. If I couldn’t do this first hill, how was I going to do this ride at all? I should have paid attention when my father told me there were two hard hills, one at the beginning and another near the end, because I would have felt better about myself after getting to the first summit.
The ride did settle down after that, and was actually quite nice. There was almost no traffic and I took as much of the road as I wanted. While it had rained the day before and today was overcast, the roads were nice and dry, with just a few exceptions. The first was where a river/creek was flowing over the road. Naturally this was at the bottom of a big hill. Not expecting this I was flying down the hill and really had to work the brakes to slow down in time to safely get across. The second was the same, but was a bit wider and had as a bonus a water moccasin swimming across at the same time. I laugh today, but I watched him very carefully and was trying to determine how far he could strike and the probability of him being able to get me as I rode by. I definitely kept my legs spinning the whole time!
The next two water sections were much deeper. The first was clearly not passable by car or bike and required an adjustment to the planned route. The last was a bit further down the new route. I racked my bike thinking we could drive across, but then decided at the last minute it wasn’t safe. Unable to continue towards the original destination we decided to make this an out and back, and headed back to where we started. Fortunately, my friend the snake was long gone by the time we re-crossed that stream.
We got home sooner than I’d planned for my workout, so I jumped on the trainer for a bit, and then I threw on my running shoes for a short run. I didn’t think I’d pushed that hard on the bike because my legs felt pretty good for the run. Even starting out uphill it didn’t take long for me to get my running legs under me. I easily finished the scheduled 4 miles (8:30 pace) and could have run more. This was a good experience to take into my race next weekend.
Sunday was a run day, and I woke up with fatigued legs. I had some breakfast, got some fluid in me, and headed out. The plan was to warm up in a subdivision before hitting the main section. I turned on my music, took a GU, and settled into a rhythm. After about a mile my father drove up and told me to get in the car. We had taken a wrong turn and he wasn’t sure where we were. I hated to stop running, but not knowing where to go I couldn’t keep running.
We got on the main stretch where it stopped being fun. Almost immediately we hit an uphill, and it was a long one. I felt ok on the hill, but quickly discovered that today wasn’t going to have any flat stretches. It seemed to me while I was running that most of the first half was uphill. I said something along those lines to my father at the turnaround, and his response told me I was clearly mistaken. He was right, the run back was just as hard. Just after mile 9 I threw in the towel. I could have run further if necessary, but this was just a training run and only 2 weeks before a big race. I’d gotten in the workout I needed.
Sunday afternoon I put my feet up, drank my customary two beers, and started a 24 hour feeding frenzy. I wanted to say that it took my legs 2 days to recover, but I don’t think they have recovered yet. It turns out that I rode harder Saturday than I should have, and Sunday’s run was clearly the most difficult road I’ve ever tackled.
My next big race is just 10 days away. The difference this time is that I’m headed into it feeling better about my conditioning and general ability to conquer the challenge ahead of me. After this weekend, this hills of California should be much easier!
No comments:
Post a Comment