Sun, Apr 13, 2014

Yesterday, I happily completed a 60/65 mile bike ride. I don't have my exact personal data on this one due to a variety of foibles : forgot to restart my clock after a stop, saddle needed adjusting -thus a stop, ran out of water -thus we stop, people needed the bathroom - thus, we stop, and finally, although he had just had a tune up, his crank was about to fall off around mile 60- thus, we stop. And so it goes.

But I didn't necessarily choose that ride so I could get long length of speed in. I chose it because they were heading toward Lemont and I knew it would be hilly and we would get our hill repeats in.

At one point someone realized we were at the bottom of the hill we just went up and lamented what a cruel ride leader we had! No doubt it's a strain on your legs and glutes and I could feel the lactic acid burning a hole right through my riding shorts.

I'd get to the top of a hill full of energy and the flat parts felt like a breeze. We went through rollers and some serious quarter mile 8/9/10 % grades as well. I'd say we did at least five or six of those. Probably 15-20 hills altogether. Not so bad.

And speaking of breeze, the spring change in weather definitely didn't fail us. Even on the flat parts the head wind was making sure we were doing our part to struggle.

I felt a little stuff going into a bootcamp following the ride. I was a little endorphined-out as well. More afraid I wouldn't be able to lift my own wait than actually being able to lift my own weight. The ethereal lightness remained with me and I remained more concerned about the way is feel the-day-after than on the day.

I did rest a good eleven hours after finally hitting the hay when my day came to an end - and I feel great. The nutritional changes and work out habits have done their job it seems. Since about March 26th, I've been fasting after 4 or 5pm and have made my nutritional focus on clean, organic green vegetables and proteins and have increased my consumption of soy/almond milk. I've also increased my swim and cycling routine... Although I know I have to add in running pretty soon. Not my favorite. Who knows, I think maybe I'll go for a 5.5 miler today.