Yesterday was my first day, and I managed to miss the one tricky turn on the route. Still, I didn’t get too off-track, and made it into work in what I felt was a reasonable 33 minutes (distance: 6.43 miles). Another coworker actually had her bike as well, so we rode to grab lunch together. As September draws nearer, it was great to have an excuse to be outside enjoying the gorgeous weather. We also stopped by a Farmer’s market after work before I headed home.

Today I figured out the correct turn, and the route came out at 5.95 miles. It’s definitely uphill on the way to work, but that just makes it easier to leave the office at the end of the day:

To work:
5.95 miles in 27:18. Avg speed was 13.1mph, max speed was 23.1mph. 318 ft descent, 567 ft ascent

From work:
5.97 miles in 21:25. Avg speed was 16.7mph, max speed was 28.8mph. 489 ft descent, 234 ft ascent.

So all in all in the past two days I’ve biked more than I have all summer! Surprisingly the knee seems ok with this added activity, which is great. I actually like fresh air on the way home, a way to clear my head.

I woke up at 5:30, and the iPhone seemed ok. I grabbed my stuff for the gym and headed over. Right before I got on the treadmill, however, my phone started acting up again.

Ok, treadmill runs aren’t really fun. Speed workouts aren’t really fun. But couple that with no music… ugh.

Still, I knew I had a job to do:

15-30 min warmup, 5-8 miles at MP, 15-30 min cooldown

Naturally, the warmup and cooldown weren’t going to be the fun part. Since the treadmill maxes out at 30 minutes, I decided to do 6 miles at MP (7:45) by running three, then restarting the ‘mill.

Even without music, I was surprised how quickly the time went. Sure, sometimes I felt as though the clock had stopped, but overall I felt ok. The pace wasn’t ‘easy’, but it wasn’t hard, either. I thought about Heather Daniels, who had just pulled off an amazing 3:14:xx at CIM, a 21 minute PR. I ‘only’ want to cut off 6 minutes, and getting comfortable at this pace is what’s going to do it for me.

I ran the 6 miles at an average 7:41 pace (target was 7:45), with an average heart rate of 174. The last half mile or so I was getting a bit tired/bored/ready to be done, but it wasn’t too bad. 20 more miles at that pace? Hmm…. well… gimme a few weeks!

A few of my twitter friends, @melissabernais and @paulmoneysmith, sent me some links, from which I learned that a biking cadence of 80-90 is ideal, and that biking at 70 is roughly the equivalent of running an 8 minute mile. I found that particularly interesting, as I seem pretty comfortable biking at 70, and my marathon PR is an 8mm.

Today I set out with Melissa for a ride, with the goal to try to get stay in this 80-90 range. I tend to cycle on a harder gear so that I feel the resistance, but then I am not able to sustain it. I hoped that by forcing a faster turnover I would naturally gear down.

I will admit I’m a bit confused about some of what I’ve read about fast-twitch vs slow-twitch muscle fibers. I have always associated fast-twitch fibers as those used by sprinters or short distance runners. As an endurance athlete, I use more slow-twitch fibers. I’ve always made the natural association that fast-twitch = fast turnover, slow-twitch=slower turnover. Yet in an article I read last night about cycling cadence, it stated that it was the fast-twitch fibers that were recruited during times when you were using more power (i.e. harder gear, slower cycling).
I suppose it does make sense when you consider that sprinters have absolutely explosive leg power, but it still seems like the definitions don’t line up.

Every week when I’m out with Melissa I tell her I need to just practice my leg turn-over, with no resistance. Yet to some extent I can’t help but wonder if that means I’m not really leveraging the power I have in my legs from thousands of miles of running. Although perhaps I need to look at it the other way: this cycling will help my running, if not the other way around..

Today may be the day I purposely don’t lace up.

It was a really good running week, too.

Monday: I’d planned to hit the gym when it opened (5:30am), so I set my alarm for 5, anticipating a few snooze cycles. Instead, a jumped out of bed, dressed and was ready to go by.. 5:06. So instead of driving to the gym, I ran around the neighbourhood for a bit, got some water and a gu, then ran TO the gym (2.5miles), hit the treadmill for a few, then ran back. This also miraculously helped me avoid getting rained on. All in all, got in 12.5.

Tuesday: busy day at work, I snuck in one mile right before bed.

Wednesday: ran three miles before work. I actually forgot that by the end of the day, and was getting ready to run again when I remembered I didnt need to go force a mile in the dark.

Thursday: the joy of the office closing at noon is that sometimes you need to go in at 6am to try to get your work done After we got off work, I ended up having a mid-afternoon nap, then headed out for a little run downtown. I wanted to measure out a new route, but crowds were gathering for the Red, White and Boom fireworks display. I ended up shortening the route, but got in four miles.

Friday: hurray for days off! Went to the gym and ran 7.5 on the treadmill (I’m almost done listening to “the anatomy of buzz”, then rode the bike for another 8 miles (solely because I wanted to read the new Runners World magazine). I did some weights, feeling great for the rest of my day!

Saturday: the gang wasn’t running together, and I was a bit dehydrated from the night before. I’d also realized I didn’t know where my iPod was, so I ran to the gym in the hopes it was there. Thankfully, it was! I considered running further (I had in my head that 10 was a good distance), but I was just feeling sluggish. Less than a quarter mile from the gym, my left knee twinged, so I turned around.
Ah yes, the left knee. My achilles heel. By mile 4 I noticed that starting to run after stopping at a stop light was no longer fluid. At 4.78 miles I considered stopping at 5 and walking it in. I felt decent while I was running, however, so I ended up bringing it in and running a full 6. Later, I did some yard work (getting a nice back sunburn in the process), and in the afternoon as I was doing some errands I noticed my knee hurting more and more. By the end of the evening it was actively SORE.

Sunday (today): As I sit here, my knee cracks when I bend it. Darnit! I had planned to go cycling with Melissa this morning, but she noticed my facebook status yesterday and kindly encouraged me not to push it. I had told myself to wait and evaluate, but yes, it’s certainly not doing well.

The week went well, mileage-wise, the most I’ve done since May. Hm.. any connection? I hope not, since I have a little 50K race I’m supposed to do in two weeks. Rather, I’m going to chalk it up to the recumbent bike and the weights (I was doing some heavy leg presses and perhaps my leg was out of line), or maybe the dancing in heels on Friday night Anything but this running stuff I love so much!

I will hold out hope that I can put in a couple miles before the day’s end, but there is no way I’m going to risk real injury.

“Balance is the key to success in all things. Do not neglect your mind, body or spirit. Invest time and energy in all of them equally — it will be the best investment you ever make, not just for your life but for whatever is to follow.” – Tanya Wheway

It’s amazing how easily I forget it. Even though I have been running something every day, I haven’t derived the same enjoyment from as it as I sometimes do. A sure sign of that has been my desire to run with an iPod. For the longest time I didn’t even have an mp3 player, it was never part of my running routine. But I started using it for some long runs over the winter, and recently have turned to it as a crutch for my long runs. It’s been even worse since I haven’t been making it out to my group’s long runs on the weekends.. my mileage has suffered along with my motivation.

Well thankfully today I made it out for a bike ride with Melissa, and wow, everything feels so much better now. I feel envigorated and energized and gung ho! To some extent, it’s what Mike Krotscheck and I were talking about the other day – sometimes you’re just in a rut – you can even recognize it, but there you are. I was running, but I was using crutches to go through the motions. I wasn’t fully engaged and it wasn’t ‘easy’ or ‘fun’.

Generally Melissa and I ride 20 miles. (As in, I’ve never run further than that). Today at the turn around point, I suggested we keep going. So we did 30. I came home, changed, grabbed some gu and headed out for a run. I was feeling strong, happy, energetic and stable. I spend a lot of time in my own head, and I can get really anxious and bothered by things. When I have a good workout like today, I feel like things are in their proper perspective.

In a world where we’re so busy and have so much to achieve and accomplish, I love the fact that I just spent 4 hours (17% of the day!) outside, sweating. I wasn’t coding, or gardening, or doing laundry. I was thinking and feeding myself emotionally, physically and to some extent spiritually.
And it’s going to make everything else I do today so much better….

Update: and of course, a bit more digging brings me to the garmin cadence sensor that is compatible with the Forerunner 305. It’s actually cheaper than I expected. Ahhh, more toys!

We finished our 7 mile loop, and most people were done for the day. We’d gone a bit faster than I expected (7:56 mm), so I decided that was enough for me. Yet, it was so nice out.. how should I spend the rest of my morning?

Well, I can never enjoy nice weather unless I’m doing something. So I packed up my bike, a change of clothes and my camelbak, and headed outta town. When I was commuting to Dayton, I’d often stop by Yellow Springs on my way home, and run either on the trails at John Bryan State Park or on the bike path. I decided to see what this bike path was like on the mode of transportation for which it was intended.

So far I’ve only biked in town, generally on city streets with traffic lights every few minutes. The bike path was a great, fun experience. I gave the ole aerobars a try, and although I wasn’t quite “flying”, I felt pretty good! Yellow Springs has the bike path run right through it, so first I went one direction. After just shy of 7 miles, the route ran into a highway. I think there was a way to follow it a bit further and get back on the bike path, but instead I turned around, cruised through my starting point and kept going. The route was really nice because unlike a bike path in town, there were very few walkers and runners, and really only a handful of other cyclists. All in all, I rode for 21.5miles in 1:20:44, which is an average 16mph. It was actually quite different than the stopping and go-ing in the city!

Oh no, not done yet! For old times sake I had to go run the trails at John Bryan State Park. I was amused to find that after biking, I just didn’t really want to lift my legs very high! I wouldn’t say they were sore at all, it just took awhile before I managed to get back into “run” mode. I did another 5 miles on the trails, at a significantly slower pace. By this time, I was definitely ready to call it a day and grab something to eat!

I wandered back into town and picked up a fantastic sandwich, iced tea and water and enjoyed the sun for a bit. I feel great, although we’ll see if there are any physical repercussions tomorrow! Right now, however, I feel good and healthy and satisfied. There is just something about a great workout that leaves me feeling happy with the world…

I admit, I’m an endorphin junkie. I got home, feeling envigorated, and changed my shoes and headed back out the door. As we had ridden past the Park of Roses, I had wondered what was in bloom, so I drove back there to run.

I’ve heard my friends talk about how hard it can be to run after riding, and now I understand. Wow, I felt sluggish! One of my calves felt “blocked” (for lack of a better word), but it loosened up pretty quickly. I felt uncoordinated at first, and really during the run I kept feeling like I was working harder than I should have been. In reality, I was doing a decent clip (5 mile run: 10:07, 9:09, 8:42, 8:44, 8:15) but it never felt “easy”.

I was composing this post in my head as I ran, and I came up with the analogy of drinking. They say “beer before liquor, get sicker quicker”. I’ve always assumed this was because your body gets used to the lower alcohol content. It can manage it. Then if you switch to something stronger, it is a jolt to the system and it can’t process it effectively.

During the 21 mile bike ride, my average heart rate was 135, with a max of 173. During my 5 mile run, I averaged 161, with a max of 179. I was working much harder, after my body had become accustomed to the lower exertion. Not to mention the pounding… so the run felt harder than it could have (although a 9mm average is still a decent run).

I felt good and strong at the end of the run, although I had no desire to run more I have a bit of a sore spot on the front of one of my toes I’ll have to keep an eye on. We’ll see how I feel tomorrow, as I start another week leading up to a marathon.. we’ll hope today’s big workout day makes me stronger!!