Wednesday, July 26, 2006

July 2006 Bike Odyssey--Virtual Race to Traverse City, MI--Day 3, 18 miles (70 total)

od·ys·sey ( P ) (d-s)n. pl. od·ys·seys
1. An extended adventurous voyage or trip.
2. An intellectual or spiritual quest: an odyssey of discovery.

I would say so far, this journey has become both 1 and 2. Its been a trip so far, that's for sure! Day 3 began with a quick check of the weather, with rain showers looming. My coffee hadn't even finished brewing when it started. Should I go with Plan B (running) or try for Plan A (biking)? Today its really dark out there, and rain. Maybe today I should run. I need to incorporate that into this program too. And I am sick of the same route on the bike. Truthfully, I am sick of the bike right now too. Man, did I wimp out early or what?? I decided to bring bike clothes for later in the day, but still wasn't sure. In fact, I no sooner got headed to the park when another downpour started. And it was darker today than yesterday. Okay, run it is.

I almost wimped out there too and hit the pool, but made myself get out the door. I was glad I did, since the rain had pretty much stopped and it was just a light mist. Whew, did my legs feel trashed. Fortunately, this only lasted a minute and I then was just plodding along. I decided to get in at least 3 miles, since I had an 8:30 appointment and was just not going to have time for more. I kept looking at my watch: 5 min., 6 min., 8 min. 9 min. Okay, I'll walk at 15 and turn around. At 15 I kept going. Twenty, 25, 26, and I'm almost back to my starting point. Whoa! That's 2 min. faster than on the way out! So I had to keep going to get at least to 30 min., and ended up at 32:55, so I'm figure on 3+ miles, but will round to 3 for now and up later if I need it. :)

What to do tonight? I was thinking of swimming, at least a mile, have an "easy" day and then hit it on the bike again tomorrow. But then the chatter starts in the office about so and so who comes in every day now and tells everyone what mileage he's up to. (Somehow I get excluded from hearing this, but one of my friends lets me know I am still ahead. :)) So that changes things some. I feel okay after the run, so maybe 15 on the bike again tonight, 15 tomorrow morning, 15 tomorrow night, Friday run 3? That puts me over 100 by Saturday. More math. I will wait and see again as the day unfolds.

After work, I decided it would have to be a bike. I was too motivated to just swim. I felt fine too, and the weather was good. Tonight was the night to spend with my daughter and her kids, but I could still squeeze in a bike and meet them for dinner and something after. So I push it, push it, push it to get done. My legs definitely were feeling the third day of biking, and after the run this morning they actually felt better than biking twice, but it was taking me a few minutes to really get spinning, but once I do, I find I am going faster than usual, and decidedly faster than even two months ago on the same course. So maybe this is helping? It has to because it sure it hurting too!

Because of the morning rains, the bike path was still wet, but cool because of it. I was seeing lots of runners from the Wednesday night group whom I never see since I usually do not work out on Wednesday nights. I could tell who it was coming by their gait before I reached them. There weren't a lot of them, so I wasn't sure if this was the sum total of the group or if people were cutting it short because of the weather. It was humid but not that hot. I think they were more surprised to see me than anyone else.

I was happy when I was done since I had really upped the planned workout of the day and still felt pretty good. Tomorrow would be another day.


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