Sunday thoughts: riding and running

Wow. Rode outdoors today for the first time in about three weeks. It was tune-up time for the bike, so it was in the shop for week and I took the opportunity to go running a few times. I bought new running shoes, some bright orange Adidas, really light but more rigid than the Nike Free shoes I last purchased. The shoes feel good, running feels pretty good.

The problem is, my legs are not at all used to the pounding they get from running. I tried to spend at least some time grass or dirt, and I suppose it helped. Late yesterday I ran for 60 - 70 minutes and I had trouble getting to sleep because of how sore my legs were. I'm glad I'm getting some running in now. Spring Break is next week. We'll be taking some vacation time, and that means no cycling for about 10 days.

This afternoon, I rode for about 2 hours. My goal was to give it a moderate effort, not leave myself too tired. I think I did that, although the extreme wind made it hard to keep a consistent effort. 60 deg F and wind gusts up to 30 mph, according to weather.com.

I'm glad I took the bike for a tune-up. Shifting is so much better than before I took it in. I have to watch my mileage this year. I bet my very worn chain caused some of the trouble I had with shifting. If chains need to be replaced every 1500 miles, I probably should have been on my third or fourth chain; instead, I was rolling with the original chain.  

New Year, New Goals

It's what I like about a new year. Out with the old and in with the new. Yeah, it's not a truly clean slate but it's a closure of a sort and it really is a new beginning. So here are the goals for 2011, in no particular order other than the sequence they emerged to be typed into the blog.

1. Ride a few time trials. During the Wednesday night rides, I heard about some 10 kilometer time trials to be held in Gardner, Kansas. Why? I need to get faster, better able to hold intensity over longer periods.
2. Finish a century ride. I bailed on the two I started in 2010, so this is unfinished business. Yes, I DNF'd for valid reasons (broken rear wheel at the diabetes ride in June;heat/exhaustion/mental games at the Louisburg Cider Mill ride). On the other hand, I came so close to 100 miles at the Octoginta ride (~84 miles). I know I can complete a 100 mile ride.
3. Do more training and less riding. Vary duration and intensity of rides so that I'm really training. Most of the people I ride with are at least my age, if not older, so I ought to be able to keep up with them. Being smarter about how I ride will make that possible.
4. Get better at riding in groups. I learned a lot during the group rides and Octoginta, but I have a ways to go before I feel like I'm a skilled group rider.
5. Technical improvements, like getting comfortable making turns at speed and riding no-hands so I can eat or drink.

I think it's a list of achievable goals.

Centuries

Damn, it's been a long time since I posted anything. Not quite a century-length gap, but over a year. Short recap: I was right to worry about the 50K race. On a hot, humid day, one under-trained, middle-aged guy (that's me) managed to run/walk a single 25K loop of the course. I've run probably fewer than 30 times since then. Plantar fasciitis is a nasty condition. I've never really been hurt before, not in all those years of running. My best guess: over-use.

I replaced the running with bicycling. I like it a lot. However, I have the same problem as I do with running. I take on more than I ought to. Last August, I did my first ride, Sunflowers to Roses. I took the longest route option, about 70 miles. A few miles in to the ride, I latched on to a couple other guys and we rode the remainder together. Other than some bad calf cramps, all was well. I finished quite tired but happy and proud of myself.

This past June, I took ride #2 as an attempt for a century, a one hundred mile ride, on at the Kansas City Tour de Cure event. Weather was pretty good, I picked some good people to ride with, but a spoke on my rear wheel broke at about 30 miles. By 40 miles, I realized it was not going to happen and hopped a ride back to the start on a SAG wagon. The driver was a veteran of many RAGBRAI rides, and he assured me that it would happen some day.

Roll forward to yesterday, August 1, and the date for attempt #2 at a century. This time, it was the Louisburg Cider Mill ride. Huge ride, loads of riders, multiple course options (25, 50, 70 & 100 miles). Again, not my day. What went wrong? Calf cramps by about 30 miles. Quadricep cramps somewhere in the 40 mile space. Stomach trouble before 25 miles, getting worse as the day wore on. I bagged it mid-way up a hill at about the 65 mile mark. Metric century #2, done.

I'll take this as enough evidence to convince me that I need a bit more preparation and better weather before I try another century. I definitely need to figure out the whole calf-cramp thing. I suspect I need to find the proper hydration/electrolyte replacement beverage.

50 km?

Why did I sign on for the 50 km version of Psycho Psummer? The battle started in earnest this week. I believe I can do it, but the whole thing scares me.

How long will it take? I'd like to do it in less than 7 hours. I think I need to look at previous years' records to see if 7 hours is a realistic goal.

Time for planning

This is starting to look a lot like my college running years. Lots of running, not much improvement. The primary reason? Not enough variance in training. Really, it's worse than those years because at least then I got out and did speedwork on a somewhat regular basis.

Now that I'm getting to know how far and how fast I'm running, I see that I'm running about the same pace regardless of distance. I do see I'm running a bit more slowly when I go on ten-plus mile runs, but that's most likely because I'm taking some walk-breaks. I bet that the running is at the "usual" pace.

I think I need to plan some pace variance, in addition to the length variance.

Etc

Ooops. Been forgetting to post here. Looks like it's been a while since the last entry. Maybe now that I know I still have a job I'll be able to keep up better.

I'm still looking for a reasonable way to track mileage, routes, etc. Hand-mapping sucks anywhere, but without equal at MapMyRun.com. I'm trying AllSport GPS on my Blackberry Curve. It's ok, works with bicycling too, but doesn't give me the mile splits I would like. It also seems a bit inconsistent in terms of how well it tracks "rest" time.

Bought a road bike this weekend. Rode Saturday and Sunday. The new shifters, part of the brake levers, are a little tricky to get used to. I thought I'd be a lot faster on a road bike than on my mountain bike, but only 1 - 2 mph faster on the same course. Hmmm. Work on technique, I think.

Next Race and Goal

Going to run the Red Bridge Ramble this coming Sunday. Snow this past weekend should be melted by then. I haven't run the course before, but I think it might be nice and muddy. Today's weather report calls for temp near 40 deg. F at the starting time.

Looking back at my training the past couple months, I see that I'm getting more consistent. I think I'm running five days most weeks. Starting in March, I'm going to shoot for six days each week and at least one run of ten miles or more.