Long Ride, Long Day

I woke up this morning around 4:50am trying to get up for Kettlebells and Kickboxing at 5:30am. I hit snooze over and over again. Nope, wasn't going to make it. I looked outside, the weather's been unpredictable all week. It looked good and I readied myself for a long bike ride. By the time I got some food in me and geared up it was 5:45am. I started my ride around 5:50, figuring I'd have about an hour and a half to ride. My goal was to go about 20mi and speed up my average of 14.5mph from Sunday's ride.

The more I ride the Roubaix the more I feel I made the right decision. I was going down the top of Whitney Ave around 16mph. With my Amphipod blinking, and only a few cars on the road, I felt safe. The only thing that sucked about my ride was the amount of snot pouring from my nose. It was unstoppable! Many times I had snot running down my face, flinging off in the wind. I felt like a 5 year old! I stopped about every few miles to blow my nose and wipe off. When I stopped completely, I'd stop my Garmin.

Once I got onto the canal, I didn't see anyone else for 5 miles or so. There was one section by some water where it sounded like a thousand song birds were meeting up. It was a beautiful but eerie sound, like they were having some giant convention. At one point, around mile 8 I noticed what I thought to be pollen floating down. I looked around for the culprit tree, until I realized the "pollen" was melting on my leg. It was snow!! It flurried on and off for the rest of the ride. At mile 9 I stopped and ate a mini Clif bar, and enjoyed the scenery.

At mile 11 I realized I should turn back and move it! I decided to stop stopping so frequently and just deal with the snot. I pushed myself and kept checking my Garmin, I really wanted to up my average speed. I thought back to spin classes, and the trainer I like shouting encouragement. I got back to the apartment around 7:35am, which was my goal. Stripped, stretched and plugged in my Garmin. Damnit, there was 14.5 staring back at me. I hope when I get the proper fitting, pedals and shoes I will do better. Also, it is only my second time on a road bike!!

Overall it was a great ride, and made me feel confident that I can commute the 14 miles or so to work no problem. I plan on talking to HR tomorrow about getting a locker in the warehouse to keep things overnight so I have less to carry with me. They offered me a spot there before, but I was slacking in my gym time around then. I also hope to see if I can chain my bike up in the warehouse or... (crosses fingers) maybe in the game room? The game room would be ideal for me since I don't exactly trust the warehouse staff, and the game room is pretty empty most of the day. We'll see.

Twelve hours after my bike ride, at 7:30pm I was at pilates on the pool deck. I was WEAK! Could hardly finish any of the exercises. The pool swim was a struggle. Thankfully I was in the second lane with two girls I talk to and a guy who was pretty cool. At first I felt like the slow poke, and wondered if I should just go into the slow lane. At some points the water felt like pudding, everything was so heavy and I was so tired. My lane was doing the B distance, 2800 yards. Gulp! I wanted to do the C workout of 2150! I sucked it up and just pushed myself.

It wasn't until we were doing kick only drills I had an Ah-ha! moment. Without the kickboard, my kicking is AWESOME! I was coming up on the guy in front of me every time. Oh! I CAN be fast! My kicking ISN'T HORRIBLE! It was the BOARD! I mentioned to the guy this discovery and he said, "Oh yeah! I hate the board! My kicking is WAY better without it!" I proceeded to flip off the kickboard on the deck and beat it with my catch-up stick. "Hey hey Heather! Tsk. Behave!" Pascale, the coach chided me. I don't know why, but it makes me feel like a naughty little kid being scolded by a heavy French accent.

After that I felt much better about myself, and my times improved. I concentrated on kicking like I did during the drill and noticed I was going faster. It was the boost I needed to get me through the rest of the workout. Luckily my comrades decided they didn't want to do the last 150y drill, and just do the cooldown. Yessss. Turns out we only got to swim 100 more yards before they kicked us slow pokes out. It was great being in a lane with people about my speed, and we pushed each other on. I didn't have to stop, and I only got caught up to once. It helped me to push myself and we all walked away a little annoyed we didn't finish the entire plan, but happy we did it together.

Tomorrow is definitely a rest day!