On A Roll

Even though Drew stayed in bed this morning (which makes it sound like he was lazy when the truth is that he didn't get home until 1 AM), I managed to get myself up and out of bed for a quick bike ride. I realized as I was pumping up my bike tires this morning that I still really need to take my bike for a tune-up. I kind-of wish that I was good at bike maintenance, but I realize that it's never going to be my strong suit, so I'm going to take advantage of the fact that since I bought my bike at Toga, they'll do the tune-ups for me! The only issue is that in order to take advantage of that fact, you actually have to take your bike there. Maybe tonight. Or this weekend?

I didn't really have a plan in mind for this morning. Maybe I should start thinking about that if I'm really going to put these triathlons back into play this year. And, to answer everyone's questions, I don't know what I'm doing yet. I'm waiting to see how this week plays out and then I'll make some final decisions next week. I just need one good training week under my belt.

So, without a plan, I headed to the Park and went riding. I was hoping that I could keep up the same speed as I had last Wednesday when I rode my bike. Last week I noticed that I could finish each individual mile in 4 minutes or less and I just kept the same mentality this week. It was actually really interesting to see which miles were fastest and which were the slowest. Interestingly enough, the slowest mile is those dumb rolling hills on the Westside. I think they're my arch nemesis. It's sort-of a fun game to see how far under 4:00 I can do each mile. Of course, this might not be the best game on the open road, but in the Park it can get a little boring doing the same old route again and again and again.

I ended up doing two loops of the Park today. My main focus while riding was to (1) stay in the biggest gear possible and try to push myself a little bit and (2) keep my elbows from locking. As far as keeping the bike in a bigger gear today, I think it was really successful. Obviously my speed didn't suffer (I was actually faster than last week), so that was a good boost to the old ego! It turns out, however, that doing this makes your legs pretty tired later on (although that could also have something to do with the fact that this is the first time I've been consistent with my workouts in who knows how long?).

I think I mentioned last week that I've had consistent elbow pain in my right elbow (the one I didn't break) when bike riding. Last week I realized that I was locking my elbow while I was riding and I think it was just getting stiff as a result. Today I concentrated on making sure my elbow stayed slightly bent and I didn't have any pain at all. Hopefully if I do that a few more times it will just become second nature. I'm guessing that moving my seat around might help that, but since I have no bike maintenance skills, I'm just going to go with what I know works for now.

I definitely had time to keep riding this morning and part of me wishes I would have to see how my legs felt after 18 miles, but I decided not to for two reasons: (1) tomorrow I'm going to go to the Terrier brick and I also have a 3 mile NYRR race after work and (2) if I bailed after 12 miles instead of 18, I could still get home in time to spend some time with Drew before he left for work early!

Tomorrow is quite the day, so I hope my legs will hold up! I have to say that they're tired, but it's a good tired feeling. I think I forgot what it was like to be training for a triathlon, but I like it.

Biking
Time: 47:52
Distance: 12.50 miles in the Park (14.20 miles total)
Pace: 15.67 MPH
Calories: 434
Maximum HR: 180 (85%)
Average HR: 165 (78%)