Where Are You Water Bottle?

This morning I got up and got ready for the Terrier brick. I have to say that after getting dressed, the first thing I did was check my bike tire, but this tube I put in seems to be holding out just fine. The problem with the other tube, I discovered, is that the hole in it is too close to the nozzle and I don't think that it's fixable no matter how many patches I put on. At least it wasn't user error! Of course, I was paranoid about it the entire time I was riding today.

I got to the Park and Robert told us that our workout would be the same as last week. Ride for 50-60 minutes pedaling the entire time, run for 20 and then do a half-mile loop running with your bike. I have to say that I was glad he told about the running with our bike part from the beginning. Last time I felt like it snuck up on me and I wasn't too happy about it.

The other thing I wasn't happy about? When I was riding today and reached for my water bottle only to discover that I had left it on the kitchen counter. Okay, not the end of the world, but a little bit annoying nonetheless.

Since we were supposed to pedal the entire time - uphill and downhill - I really tried to stay focused on that. I will admit that I did stop pedaling three times. The first time was when I was going up the East side by the 72nd Street Transverse at about 5:45 AM. The street lights were off and it was pitch black, so I stopped pedaling to slow down a little bit. It's actually a good thing I did because right after I had crossed 72nd Street, a biker came from the left and almost crashed right into me. The second time was just before 90th Street on my second loop of the Park. I could hear a lot of yelling before I could see who was doing the yelling. At first I thought that maybe someone had fallen, but it turns out that it was just a bunch of drunk kids yelling at the bikers and runners. The third time was at the 102nd Street transverse when a construction worker was telling everyone to stop so that a large dump truck could cross the street. I think that in all three instances I was justified in not pedaling and it was probably about a minute total that I wasn't pedaling, so I'm okay with that.

So, of course, I'm always paranoid about getting a flat while riding. I'm especially nervous after having just gotten a flat. Which meant that today, I was a nervous wreck. To add to that, I kept hearing a weird noise while I was riding (a metallic sound) and I couldn't figure it out. I was nervous that something was wrong with my bike. But, it wasn't until the end of the workout when I was running with my bike that I realized my CO2 cartridges and multi-tool were the culprit. Without a tube in my saddle bag (my spare is on my bike right now), they make a lot of noise rattling around in there!

After the bike, I changed shoes quickly and headed off on my run. I decided that I don't want to spend the whole season doing loops around the Lower Loop of the Park, so I decided to run north for 10 minutes, see how far I got, and then see if I could run back in the same amount of time. In 10 minutes, I had gotten to the Reservoir Path (so just over a mile). I turned around and ran back even faster than I had ran there. I have to say that I really felt like I was not moving at all while running, but I keep being surprised by my speed (not that I'm speedy by any stretch of the imagination) running off the bike.

As soon as I got back to the transition area, I grabbed my bike and headed off for my half-mile loop. I definitely remember last year the first time we did this, I could barely steer my bike at all. Now it seems like no big deal. (I should mention that when we do this, we can only use one hand and have to push our bike holding onto the saddle). This always seems like such a silly thing to practice, but it's extremely helpful transition practice!

I finished the workout with about 2 minutes to spare (the watchdogs are only there from 5:30-7:00), so I packed up my gear and headed home. And the best part of all about today is that (a) I wore shorts & a short-sleeved shirt on the bike and (b) I didn't get another flat! Whew!

Biking
Time: 55:06
Distance: 13.90 miles
Pace: 15.4 MPH
Calories: 528
Maximum HR: 174
Average HR: 155
Total Biking Distance: 16.95 miles

Running
Time: 24:26
Distance: 2.62 miles
Pace: 9:19/mile
Calories: 277
Maximum HR: 178
Average HR: 172