Week Three Wrap Up

Thursday:

On the bike.  Bust out the "Fooj" for a quick sprint.  This is the second fast ride on the bike.  I am keen to go fast, but don't want the pressure of having to beat the last time I rode on the bike (as going slower would obviously be a failure).  So I take a different route so that it has to be the fastest ride I have done on the bike on that particular route.  So I go the Alpine Loop, it is a little faster route than the "Normal Loop" (I think) because it is a bit less hilly.

I get through the ride in a moving time in 59:23 with an average moving speed of 20.5mph.  As I got to the downhill where I hit 43.3mph on the Trek, I didn't think I would have the legs to go faster, but I tried anyway.  The result 44.6 mph (71.7 km/h) new record!

Over I was pretty happy with the ride.  Riding the Trek and the Fuji alternately it is really easy to tell the difference between aluminum and carbon framed bikes.  The Fuji is so much stiffer and more agile, it reacts faster than the Trek.  The gears themselves I am not so impressed with, the difference between the old Shimano Tiagra and the new Shimano Ultegra doesn't seem to be too much, probably because the Ultegra needs a bit of work.  The 50-34 compact on the front crank of the Fuji seems easier to hold speed on than the 52-42-30 on the Trek.  Although I am pretty sure I am going to have some trouble on Old La Honda with the Fuji's gearing.  The other disadvantage for the Trek is I was also pretty well fitted for the Fuji, but I picked the Trek off a rack, so I am guessing the Fuji should "feel" better anyway.

Friday:

Got home a bit early and Colleen and I got all suited up for a ride.  Colleen's tire was down a little before the start and stupidly I just pumped it up and off we went.  4 miles in and her tire is flat again.  We go through the tire and find a bit of glass (which has now cost us three tubes).  I decide to take the tire with the hole in it off Colleen's bike's rear and put it on my front.  In doing all this messing around pumping up the tire I bust the valve stem (4th tube).  Colleen has had about enough of this so she sends me home.  I ride home as hard as I can and grab the car.  Driving back get her and her bike and now it is too late for a ride (and Colleen needs a new tire anyway) so off to Sports Basement for tires and tubes.  I also rented a wetsuit it was only $50 for a month, also the rental costs go towards a purchase so win-win.  I spent the rest of the night putting everything back together.

Saturday:

We planned to go to Capitola in the morning, but spent the morning selling the Subaru.  When we were finally done we decided there wasn't enough time required to get to Capitola and back and a swim and do anything else.  So we decided to go off on a long ride.  We were six miles in and phissht Colleen has another flat tire.  Now both our patience is getting frayed.  Colleen is losing patience because this is the third ride in a row where her bike has an issue and the third attempt to fix it.  Colleen is a bit upset that it isn't working out - she wants to ride, but the bike keeps breaking.  I am trying to tell her I can fix it - but there is a lot of evidence to the contrary.

So I try to explain to her the first one was the initial glass in the tire, the second and third ones were the the glass re-puncturing the tire until we found it.  The fourth one was the valve stem being torn by the fact that I was too rough pumping up the tire, and this the fifth was just because the tire bead didn't hold onto the rim properly.  I can imagine her frustration pretty well because mine was mirroring it.  She somehow believe all this and let me fix the tire again.  We then go forward into a proper ride for, instead of turning for home.

And what a ride it was, we went 34.5 miles in just about 2 hours (riding time, excluding the tire fixing).  Colleen and I averaged over 16 mph (16.8mph moving average) and the tire held up fine.  Thankfully she didn't get another flat tire just by coincidence, that might have pushed us into madness.

I went for a run later in the day.  I was hurting a bit from the ride, but still wanted a back-to-back exercice day.  So I went for the normal loop running (5k/3.3m) but in the late dusk I ran out of light, and ran past the normal turn and ran to a set of traffic lights that weren't suppose to be there.  As I got to them I figured out where I was and realized my mistake.  I ran an extra three-quarters of a mile, making in a just over a 4 mile run (6.5k's), rather than the 3.3 mile run I had planned.  I finished it up in just over 36 minutes, making it about 9 minute miles which I was fairly impressed with give the earlier ride and the longer run than I anticipated.

Sunday:

Keen to swim again, but it is just to far to the water I want to swim in.  Capitola is over an hour drive (each way) and Half Moon Bay is probably 30 minutes each way.  If I am only going to swim for 30 or 40 minutes it is just too much driving.  Now swimming in the lagoon's or the bay is much closer - but it all looks so icky.  So the wetsuit and a bay/ocean swim is still shelved at this point.

Then out to "The Dish" at Stanford for a walk.  The Dish loop is about a 3 mile loop, with the path to the loop that we take being about a mile, thus being about a 5 mile walk.  Colleen and Laura had set up this exercise date and I tagged along.  They walk fast.  Walking to me is supposed to be walking, running is how you exercise.  Apparently I was wrong.  My average heart rate was 110 and my clever watch was telling me I burnt about 500 calories over the hour and 25 minute walk.  That is fairly comparable to a 4 mile run for me.

After the Dish, over to the pool.  Colleen came for a swim, I think mainly because she hopes to lie around in the sun because of the summer like weather.  When I tell her I am half way done (1km/0.625m), she take this as a sign to "hit the sun" and is out sunbathing on the side of the pool.  I spend my time in the pool keeping pace with the fastest people I can see easily.  One guy with flippers proves a bit too fast.  I start to cramp in my calves again towards the end.  I gather cramping is a sign of a lack of hydration which always seems unrealistic given the vast amount of water in a pool.  Shouldn't some of that seep into me?  I swim 2k in 35 minutes.  Not too bad but I need to mix it up a bit to get a bit faster.