So, after lunch today, I walked over to Toga and bought lots of flat supplies. I bought 3 tubes and when I asked for three, the person helping me asked "how many wheels do you have?". But, it wasn't all for me. Drew never bought flat supplies when he bought his bicycle last year and I figured that if we're going to be going on longer rides this year and not just doing loops in the Park, I thought that he should have everything he needed in order to fix a flat if we were out riding.
I got home from Toga, put the new tube on my bike, crossed my fingers and headed out for a bike ride. I went to my secret spot, that I'm now afraid to talk about given that every time I wanted to go there I ended up getting a flat and since I didn't want to mention where I went, I feel a little bit Harry Potter-ish with the "He Who Must Not Be Named" title of the post!
But, in order to properly document my ride, I guess I'll break down and tell you that I rode up the Westside Path. At the base of the George Washington Bridge, there is a decent hill to ride up and down. However, if you keep going north, you'll have to conquer a much steeper hill. Neither is particularly long, but they are pretty much one after another and I thought that it'd be a good thing to practice going up and down.
After I rode up the hills the first time, I thought that I really wanted to be done with the whole thing and skip the hill repeats. However, I then thought that I might not get a chance to do them again, especially since I keep getting flat tires every time I even think of heading up there and since I was already there, I should just suck it up and do it.
After you get up the steep hills, there is about a mile left on the bike path. The first time, I decided to ride there and back in order to get my heart-rate down. That 181 maximum was definitely from the ride up! On the first pass, there was a girl on a bike ahead of me and she was pedaling up the hill. However, she stopped maybe 10 feet from the very top of the path. I couldn't believe it! She was so close!
When I was starting to head down the first time, I practically had to force myself to ride down the hill. It's pretty steep and when you get to the bottom, you have to make a left turn through a short tunnel and I just don't trust myself (or my brakes) sometimes. But, I did force myself to go down. I think I was going like 8 miles and hour down the hill, which was faster than I was going up the hill, but not by much!
On the way down, I noticed that there was some sort of photo shoot being set-up with a (nearly nude) male model. There were just some flowers covering the family jewels. I then realized that since this was only my first pass, I'd probably start to look like a perv to the photographer and model since I was just going to keep riding by again and again.
Even though I might have looked like a perv, I learned a great deal about hills and my ability to climb up them this morning. On the steepest hill, I could make it up in the middle ring if I stood up and pedaled out of the saddle. However, if I switched into the granny gear, I could make it up staying seated in the saddle. It's good to know that I can do it either way and I'm sure that Drew's glad that I got some standing practice. For some reason, he really worries about that it seems.
I ended up doing the hills 4 times. Twice in the middle ring and twice in the small ring. Then I headed back home. When I got home, I had gotten an email from TriBike Transport saying that my bike now has to be dropped off next Monday (April 19th) by noon, so I really only have a week left of riding before San Francisco! I'm thinking that perhaps this Monday I might take it in for a tune-up, but if that doesn't happen, I don't think it'll be the end of the world.
Here are my actual workouts from the week:
I think I did pretty well. Granted, I didn't get in quite enough swimming, but I was only 800 yards short - the time is a little deceiving, which I think will continue to be the case throughout the course of the training season. I also went way over the biking time, which I'm really happy about. I think that while I've got my bike here, I've got to take advantage of that fact and I can work on picking up more swimming and running once the bike has been shipped. Maybe I'm approaching this all wrong, but that's what makes sense to me.
Biking
Time: 1:38:45
Distance: 19.45 miles
Pace: 11.82 MPH
Calories: 810
Maximum HR: 181
Average HR: 141
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