Run 39

It was a bike ride, not a run. It was my second workout of the weekend. It was blissfully easy. I had practically no muscle fatique in the legs, even after a few climbs up the Great Hill. This is a powerful endorsement for running.

If you care about distance and speed, don't ride in the Park on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. The top half of the loop is manageable, lots of cyclists and runners, serious about what they are doing. The bottom half is a disaster of tourists and pedestrians. It's inhospitable for the cyclist. But I've complained about this before.

The result was 13.3 miles in 55 minutes. My average speed was 14.4 mph.

Ten and Ten

I had a good weekend.  I was thinking about FA and his (and Mrs. FA's) Komen Run quite frequently and that motivated me to get out and be active.  FA wrote a a great post and it sounds like he and theMrs. had a nice first step into the world of road-race running.  I take the fact that FA was a bit disappointed in his time as a good thing -- it's fodder now for further improvement and motivation to keep going.  Congrats!

Saturday I had hoped to get in a trail ride but instead went for a ten mile road ride into a neighboring town towing Child One in the Chariot (w/bike atachment).  C1 enjoyed the ride despite the sand in her face (even through the screen) which we remedied at the turnaround by using the rain shield.  It was a little hectic through the center of town on a Saturday afternoon but it just inspired me to ride more quickly and get to "safer" roads.  I used my regular shoes on the clipless pedals -- I didn't need anymore complications with such precious cargo -- and it was totaly fine.  I put on a pair of workout shorts, but rode in a cotton tee and didn't have on my watch.  I covered the ten miles in under an hour.  Cardiovascularly speaking it was not overly challenging but I have some sore muscles that I'd forgotten about -- the right glute!

On Sunday I did a 10K loop from my house and covered it in 49:37.  All in all it was a good run though my lunch was sitting like a stone in my stomach and I threw up once in my mouth -- more a chunky burp really -- which was pretty nasty.  My ankle was pretty sore last night and I flash froze it (and my foot) in a bucket of ice and water.  It feels fine today and I'll hit the road again tomorrow -- I thought it best to rest it today rather than push it for another run though everything else felt good enough to go today as well.

Back on the Bike

I was feeling pretty wasted after my weird, lost, humid rushed run on Wednesday, so I took Thursday off and rode the trainer for an hour on Friday night, after the little FAs went to bed. (Ms. FA went upstate to do some masonry repair around the house, and the rest of us FAs stayed in the city.) I didn't care to measure speed or distance, and just plowed through two episodes of Weeds from season one.

I got out again on the bike this afternoon and turned three laps in the Park. Again, I didn't run the distance computer or use the HR monitor, though mid-ride I wished I had. I was fairly certain that my heart wasn't working as hard as it typically does during a Park ride, but now I don't have any measure of average bpm, or max bpm. I am not sure what kind of cardio benefit I shoud have after only 7 runs, but it does seem to have helped.

Speaking of Nips

You sit on a trainer differently that on a bike in motion. The physics are different, and as a result the sit on a trainer is heavier, less variable. I pulled out the trainer Monday night, so I could ride and talk with Mrs. FreeArtist, having arrived at home a bit later than is typical for lately. At 26 minutes / 7.5 miles, I had a bad feeling in the ya-yas, so I bailed. It was a little scary, actually.

I'm in San Francisco through Friday so won't ride/blog again until the weekend. Peace, boys.

Maybe Caught a Draft

I fell in behind a team ride last night, about 6 guys and a girl. (There are generally fewer girls on bikes, I've observed.) I wasn't close enough to catch a draft, and I don't know how to do that, anyway, but I definately had the feeling of being pulled along. While I didn't talk with anyone in the group, I think it was mainly due to the social nature of the encounter. I've thought several times about joining a cycling club but always concluded that my life schedule wasn't consistent with anything regular, esp. as most clubs ride on Saturday mornings. Rethinking that. Anyway, the group kept a comfortable 17 mph pace for a quarter turn around the Park. At the Carousel it decided to step on the gas, and promptly dropped me. So much for being pulled along.

I'm pleased that I got out four of the last five nights, but I am feeling fatigued. The FreeArtists head upstate tonight for the weekend and for unrelated resons I'll leave the bike in the city, though I am feeling like I could use the recovery time.

The numbers:

Distance: 12.3 miles
Time: 00.48.32 hours
Av Speed: 15.2 mph (I stopped to take a cell phone call; not sure how stopping affects this metric. I know, excuses, excuses.)

No HR info today.

More Short Distances

Not much to say tonight. It's 69 degrees and clear in New York City. The nice weather must have finally put the zap on my fellow New Yorkers. I've been out in the Park three times in the last four days, and its been more crowded each time. Keeping the hubris bottled up is easy when the bankers and lawyers are out on their bikes in force, in their racing jerseys with I-talian logos, buzzing past at twice my speed. At least I won't fall.

The numbers:

Distance: 12.35 miles
Time: 00.46.48 hours
Av Speed: 15.9 mph (small improvement tonight, I think)
Av HR: 158 bpm
Mx HR: 221 bpm (this must be a fluke...that's weirdly high. My HR has never been above 178-ish)
Calories Burned: 764

Peace,

Short Distances

I snuck out last night for a quickie, round and round the Park Drive. I haven't exceeded 18 miles since my new cycling year began a few weeks ago, and I am starting to jones for a longer ride, particularly as I've started to use a dromedary bag for my water supply. I am drinking much more than when I carried water in bottles. Anyway, I expect Memorial Day weekend will likely be my next best opportunity for a 30+miler, so I am starting to plan for that. No numbers today...I didn't wear my heart rate monitor last night, and my distance/time/av speed is on the on-board computer at home...but I don't want to slow my blog momentum!

yes, I s*ck, but not today

I'm posting this for FA, it was originally written on 4/20/08. -- Agricola

Gents, just took the bike out for a shortyin CP, my first ride of 2008. (As interminable as my late fall/winter/early spring slothfullness became, I cling to this scrap of pride: I NEVER hung laundry on the bike!) Anyway, my first stats for the news season read like I've got work to do:

Distance: 11.35 miles
Time: 43.53 minutes
Av Speed: 15.5 mph
Av HR: 152 bpm
Mx HR: 176 bpm (The Great Hill)
669 Calories burned

So, I caught up on the April posts, VTR's injury, Ag's Sherman-esque run through ATL. Saw the Agricolae last weekend and heard an idle thought from Ag that the blog might shut down. That would be too bad.

The BTV Marathon is May 25. Don't know if our plans are for PH that weekend but if so, we'll aim to root for Ag from the sidelines, maybe with the VTRs?

I've blown being in any kind of shape for the Montauk Century, but am looking for alternatives later in the summer. I'm open to suggestions. VTR, is cycling in the rehab plan? If so, let's look for a Saturday morning in May / June and do a section of the champlain bikeway.

It feels good to blog again, to get out and break a sweat, to look forward to another ride. Feels good to catch up with you both.

Peace,
FA

A Hard Slog

I got out last night for an hour. It was a beautiful early fall evening, temps in the 70s and the Park was not overly crowded. But it was a hard ride. I had no gas for it. I blame the plain fact that I frittered away the summer, really riding hardly at all, and we were out late Saturday drinking flagons of wine. So I am doing my penance with poor performance and sore muscles.

The days are setting shorter, gents, which means the trainer comes out from under the bed. Look in this space for ruminations on how the mind wanders while stationary.

The numbers:

Time: 1.05.27
Distance: 17.59 miles
Mx Speed: 24.1 mph
Av Speed: 16.1 mph
Mx HR: 171 bpm
Av HR: 146 bpm
Burn: 926 cals

Labor Day

I got out today with an old friend who took up cycling recently for better overall fitness, so she and I are pedaling in the same direction, so to speak. She led us up this bike path in Westchester that I recalled traveling by bike with friends way back in the eighth grade, in the days before we wore helmets, and the weather today, just as then, was so fine. After the ride we had a BBQ feast, three couples, eight kids, on a big back porch. God bless Labor Day.

The numbers:

Distance: 19.44 miles
Time: 1.32.53 hours
Mx Speed: 20.5 mph
Av Speed: 12.5 mph
Mx HR: 173 bpm
Av HR: 134 bpm
Burned: 1203 calories

There but for the grace of dog, go I

I got out tonight at 7:35pm and the curtain fell pretty quickly; it was dark by 7:55. So there I was, pedaling through the Park in the dark, just passing the Guggenheim when a profoundly oblivious woman stalked across the road with a giant shaggy dog, about 25 yeards ahead, directly into the vector off three guys who had just passed me. The middle guy hit the brakes so hard he went bike over ass over helmet, landed on his right shoulder and hadn't come to a complete stop before the woman started blaming him for reckless cycling, climate change et al. Nearly a dozen passing cyclists came to his aid, which was pretty cool, this being NYC, after all, as well as an older runner who appeared to be an orthopedist, which did not surprise me one bit, this being NYC, after all. Everyone agreed the orthopedist had rank so we sped away.

Adventures, fellas. Central Park is full of them. I am getting out Labor Day morning with a friend on a 30 mile loop trail up in Westchester County, and looking forward to that.

So I took a slow second lap and called it a night. Strangly, the heart rate monitor wouldn't give up my average amd maximum heart rate but provided a level of alternative detail I've never seen before. And so the numbers are:

Time: 0.54.39
Mx Speed: 23.3 mph
Av Speed: 14.7 mph
Distance: 13.34 miles
Burn: 746 calories

Hard: 19.30
Moderate: 27.44
Light: 8.02

(I presume these last three stats are judgment calls on my heart rate....)

Ride to blog...

Mini Me

For my first ride since Bastille Day I took the elder little artist for a spin in the Park early this morning. It was a successful outing, the first time she didn't need help getting up the hills. We stopped a few times, but in all she was a trooper and loved it and it was truly sad and delightful to see how strong she's grown.

As I figured she'd need me to hop off and on my own bike a few times, I rode the mountain bike I acquired during the first Reagan administration. That was odd. Heavy. No toe clips. The saddle was comparatively comfortable. But as I watched all the roadies whiz past us, I longed to ride again. I am blocking out time and hoping this will be my week.

More on that later, fellas.

The Big Weekend

So Mrs. FreeArtist bought a roadie this past spring, and we got out together for the first time today.

We had a big downtown wedding last night and celebrate our anniversary tonight, so Gammy and Poppy FreeArtist have the little artists for the whole weekend. I say, the sense of liberation is palpable. Went out hard last night, got in late, slept in, rose hungover, went for brunch, worked out together, and it ain't over yet. Oh me, oh my.

So anyway we turned three laps together and then I put on a fourth with more verve. It was a big slow ride but I haven't been so relaxed and happy on the bike in a long time. It is a beautiful day here, hot, dry and clear, and the beatiful people are running and sunning all over the Park. I had U2's "40" on the brain, which closed last night's party. All is well. Cheers, gents.

The Numbers:

Time: 1.57.47 hrs
Distance: 24.90 miles
Mx Speed: 25 mph
Av Speed: 12.7 mph
No heart data today.

BuzzKill

So there I was, geared up, on the bike, flying down the west side at 22 mph when I hit a seam with low air in my rear tire, which promptly went flat. As in dead flat. And me without my extra tube, cell phone or metro card. So I had a 9 minute, 27 second ride, and a long, 47 block walk home. Now I must learn how to change a tube, which I should have learned a long time ago. Look for my post on that subject in a few days. Everyday is new.

Gravity is Just

I love starting the week after a ride. I turned three Central Park laps last night, a bit touch and go as the NYPD and Parks Department were cleaning up after the Puerto Rican Day Parade, and the Park was an obstacle course for all the garbage trucks and patrol cars.

Distance: 18.88 miles
Time: 1.13.06
Mx Speed: 25.2 mph
Av Speed: 15.5 mph
Mx HR: 180 bpm
Av HR: 152 bpm
calories burned: 1,112

So there I was, plodding down the hill behind Lasker Rink/pool, moving slow, I don't like to go very fast down hill, when two big dudes, bigger than me and not in great shape, blew past me and one shot me a smug look. Right, I thought, I am going to smoke these tubs on the Great Hill. And I did, totally blowing past them without undue effort. Feeling great, I changed gears, dropped my chain, and had to hop off just past the point where they could see why I had to stop and huff and puff by the side of the road as they passed me up again. Just when I was thinking that gravity is just.

Heading to Scout camp, fellas, this Thursday night for a bit more than a week. I may squeeze a ride in Tuesday but otherwsie I won't be on my bike again until the week of June 25. Don't interpret my absence from the blog as entropy or sloth. I'll be traversing the North Woods by pack and paddle, and expect a workout.

Achievement

So this woman who works in my office....26 years old, she swims, bikes, does yoga, would probably fit in with VT Runner's new friends from the UVM ski team....she told me this afternoon that she achieved a personal record on three Park laps, 1 hour on the nose. So damn me if I didn't have to chase that. I hit the Park hard tonight and did three laps, 18.71 miles, in 1 hour, 5 minutes. I didn't have a PR on three Park laps, a common time trial for NYC cyclists, so I'm taking it, and since I am more than a fair bit older, heftier, and less fit than my associate, I am psyched. I needed to feel like I had achieved something this week, and I am satisfied.

Athletic achievement is not familair to me. That's why I'm doing the Century and I find that the more I achieve physically the more it is motivating. More on this later, I am taking my sore ass to bed.

Distance: 18.71 miles
Time: 1.05.06 hours
Mx Speed: 26.9 mph
Av Speed: 17.2 mph (I am really pumped about this stat, in particular.)
Mx bpm....hit 180 at one point, on the Great Hill. Hmmmmm.

The Best Laid Plans

So the plan called for 48 miles in the Park early this morning. Other plans got in the way.

We hosted a long-planned dinner party on Saturday night and we all had a load of fun and afterwards discarded lots of empty bottles. So we didn't roll out of bed today until 10:00am, then Church, then a planned visit with neighbors. By the time I suited up and headed out, Isreal Day had overrun the bottom half of the Park and the riding was dangerous.

As an alternative I focused on climbing - not my favorite thing - with 5x 'round the Great Hill-102 St Trancept loop.

After a tough week away, it was not the auspicious return to the bike that I had anticipated. Mildly digusted with myself, I didn't bother to record the stats.

The Park

When I bought the bike last fall I was suffused with the romantic notion of rides in Central Park. Truth is, the Park is not a fun ride. Unless it is empty, which happens only before 6:00am, the roller bladers, families of six with double-wide strollers, kids on scooters, and pedestrians who forget that they are crossing a city street, all contribute to make it one of the riskiest rides in the NYC area.

I rounded the corner today on my fifth lap, 32 mile, just less than 1 lap from my goal and feeling strong when WHAM....about 10,000 Walk for Parkinson's suburbanites were like a wall to wall carpet, as far up the road as I could see. I pulled over and watched the other cyclists round the same corner, and use the same profanity, as I had. Some of them tried to wade into the throng, but surface roads took me home.

Dist: 35.57 miles
Time: 2.35.31 hrs (including the 15 miutes or so I stood gaping at the walkers.)
Mx Speed: 26.3 mph
Av Speed: 13.7 mph

Have the heart monitor now, but still figger'n it out. Mx heart rate was around 176, on the great hill.

Red Winged Blackbirds

Start at Crown Point, cross the bridge into Vermont, head towards Middlebury but turn along the bikeway and watch the cows and the lake for about 45 minutes, repeat in reverse.

I fell 2x (more later on that) but stopped counting red winged backbirds at 13. A gorgeous day.

Time: 1.33.02 hrs
Mx: 32.2 mph
Av: 14.1 mph
Dist: 21.95 mi

Cardio data should come online in about two weeks.

Bands on the Run

Having avoided regular, organized exercise for most of my adult life, my cycling venture is bringing me close to many issues I've been able to avoid. Like dealing with regularly with pain. It appears that I suffer a bio-mechanical problem....I pedal bow-legged, which strains my IT Bands, particularly on the right side. Inflamed bands make staircases and lateral motion difficult and painful. So I've researched stretches specific to bands and am careful to warm up and wind down. But the trainer has become particularly important for this reason. The lack of landscape and shifting topography allows me to use trainer time for improving pedaling form: knees in, flex the foot on the down pedal. It's made a great difference.

I spent a few thousand reward points on a heart rate monitor and am anticipating its arrival shortly, so I'm looking forward to gaining greater insight into my physiology and performance.