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On Sunday I joined a group of riders from Macon County Cycling on a Blue Ridge Parkway ride. The ride ‘as billed’ was to be a 45-50 mile out and back from Balsam Gap, going up to the highest point on the BRP – Richland Balsam Mountain @ 6053′ – and then continuing on to some point I’m not real clear on.
The ride got shortened quite a bit, not exactly due to weather.
After Wednesday’s creaky ride up to the top of Elijay climb, I figured I’d spend some time on Sunday pulling the Flyte apart, reinstalling the BB and making sure there weren’t any other loose bits. I got it all reassembled and decided to ride into Sylva for an outdoor concert series downtown at Bridge Park. It was a bluegrass group, not really my cup ‘o tea, but what the heck. The ride started out quiet, and I thought maybe, just maybe, I had it all sorted out.
A quarter mile later I found out I was wrong. Very wrong.
To say I was a little bit nervous about today’s 14 mile Friday Night Runs would be a huge understatement. After last week’s horrible 8 miler and subsequent miserable walk through downtown Philly and subsequent abandonment of the Livestrong ride, I was beginning to think some seriously dark thoughts about Ironman.
Amazing what a change of shoes can do for your perspective – and pain level.
Wednesday evening I headed up and over Flowers Gap and into Franklin for the Smoky Mountain Bikes/Macon County Cycling Wednesday night ride. The start location and route changes from week to week, but this time they were leaving from the bike shop, a 12 mile ride from my place. The route was an out ‘n back up to the top of Elijay Road. I figured I’d have enough time after the ride to get back up and over the Gap and into the driveway before it got dark.
Um… almost.
It was a nice Tuesday evening in Sylva, NC, and that means the regular Tuesday Night Ride from Motion Makers. I had planned to ride there and back now that it’s only seven miles each way, but I opted to take the car and take the Flyte into the shop. And since I was doing that I decided to kill a few birds with the same stone. Made my first trip to a laundromat in over ten years.
Talk about sticker shock. I didn’ t know I could carry that many quarters!
[note about this post - it's pretty negative even though there were some highlights to the day. apologies in advance - just turned out to be one of those crappy days where things don't go right. tomorrow is another day.]
After a four consecutive weeks of building mileage on my Friday Night Runs (9, 11, 13, 15.5), this week was a drop back down to 8. I thought it was going to be an ‘easy’ run. Saturday morning. Philadelphia, out and back route along both sides of the Schuylkill River from the Museum of Art. Finish with a symbolic run up the Rocky Steps.
I seem to remember a ways back when somebody (who I won’t name publicly, but I referred to as a devil, and it wasn’t Vince) left a comment on my blog saying I was way too addicted to cycling to ever pull off the running and swimming parts of a triathlon. Today I absotively posolutely 100% shot that statement all to hell. After our company meetings wrapped up this afternoon, I had a choice to go out and ride or go out and run. I laced up my running shoes and did roughly four miles.
I had a 450 mile drive to do from NC back up to Ohio on Tuesday. Takes about seven hours average, based on the five trips I’ve now made (not counting driving the U-Haul with car in tow). This time I did something a little different and added in swim and run training on either end. First, I stopped in Waynesville – 25 miles from the start – for a 2000 yard swim. Then, I stopped in Dayton – 25 miles from the end – for a 6.4 mile Turtles run. And it’s a good thing for me the run was a half hour later than I remembered, and I built in a lot of slop. Otherwise I would have missed that run.
All I can say is… “West Chester – WTF?!?”
I really haven’t been doing much riding lately, the longest being the 45 miles on Thursday evening. That and the Tuesday night ride were it for this past week. I seem to remember writing about how little time I was going to spend training for Ironman compared to what I am used to doing in prior years with cycling only. I also seem to remember hearing contrary opinions.
Well… I told ya so.
This weeks Friday long run plan called for 14 miles, which would be my first venture over a half marathon. I had been nervously anticipating the run for a couple days since the impact of the latest toe/foot pain is largely unknown. Would the flatter route help? Would I make the full distance with little or no pain? Would the pain build over the distance, but stay manageable? Or would it become unbearable and force me to quit midway?
In case you didn’t decipher the blog title… the results were both good and bad. Read more on Twenty-5kop…
Gonna combine multiple posts into a big long one. It’s been a truly hectic week, but I have managed to stay on top of my ‘training’. Training? Running is training – sorta. Swimming (when I do it) is training – definitely.
But, no matter how hard I try, I just can’t think of riding a bike as anything but fun for the sake of fun. Even when it hurts.
Hmm… is it a coincidence or a sign that the exact number of days that I ‘lived’ at Sawbuck Farm was 30. Like the song, 30 days in the hole. What’s that Spinal Tap song… [I'm livin' in a] “Hell Hole”. The biggest question I have, and will have for the rest of my life is…
What the hell was I thinking with that Sawbuck Farm nonsense?
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