Fiddlesticks!

These are fiddleheads - unfurled fronds of a young fern. I ate them all and they were great!

My Monday 6 mile easy run was in the pouring rain. It had been pouring all day but I went out anyway. Hairball galore again! Glad I did it when I did since it came down harder when I got home. How did my easy runs go from 3 miles to 5 miles to 6 miles now? I think my coach thinks I won't notice. So it was nice and slow as planned with around 9:00 miles.

Today's workout was a tempo bike ride. This was my 2nd ride since 2007 and 1st alone with my clipless pedals. I was a little scared! What if I crashed? I packed along my cell phone and headed out on the street but the ride was somewhat stymied in many ways.

First, I realized that the time spent between my apartment and the Springwater path is useless. It is not a workout and can't really be part of my workout, right? Too much stopping and going on city streets.

Because of this time suck, I realized that I was not going to be able to do the full workout and get back to work in time for a meeting. I just decided to do the best that I could, go to the end of Springwater and come back.

I started my Garmin right at the Hawthorne bridge - it took me about 14:01 to get to the end of Springwater and I used that as a warm up. I went 15.3 mph and my HR was 135 bpm.

After that I stopped for a minute and turned around to start my "tempo" or intervals or whatever. But when I looked at the training plan again I realized it couldn't be right...here is what it says:

Perform 3 X 10/3 min Z5/Z6 riding. Take a 5 min recovery between each interval. So since I couldn't figure it out I decided that I'd just do as many 3 on/5 offs as would take me back to Hawthorne. I did the next 3:00 @ 159 bpm/23.4 MPH. I just couldn't get my HR up that fast! Then I stopped for what I'd planned to be 5:00 but decided to cut it short after 3:00. Next 2:17 was at 160 bpm/20.6 MPH. I couldn't get in a full 3:00 because it hit a crowd of people and it slowed everything down. Obviously I'm going to have to get used to these workouts. It sucks that Springwater is too short and a distance away. How do people typically get their bike rides in w/o having to find a long route to ride? I suppose I could go back and forth on Springwater but doesn't that screw things up by stopping to turn around? I don't know... My total recorded was 27:08 minutes/136 bpm/avg speed 16 mph/7.38 miles. Add to that the distance to my apt and I guess it'd be about 10 miles total. How pathetic! I feel like this was not a very good use of time. I considered going out again for a 2nd time after I was done with work, but I just can't. Any suggestions on how to make this more efficient for me based off of where I live and my restrictions (no car, work schedule). Biking has a lot more variables than running and it is going to take some time to get used to it. I bought a leg floater for my swim pulls and new goggles! I still need some more bike shorts and a few bike tops. I scored a pair of nike sunglasses that I found on the floor of a bar last weekend. I'd normally hand them over to the manager but I was a bit drunk and felt lucky cause I needed a pair. Am I going to hell?