Planned Rest

Revisited my northern crescent loop this morning after yoga. This features a fair amount of ups and downs and I maintained a modest pace for most of the way. I really like this route as it avoids many of the most heavily trafficked roads in the area. Every now and again you cross a busy road and get stuck at a traffic light but even so the traffic feels relatively manageable. Wound up with 10 extra miles added to my usual morning 10.

I've been geeking out over at this website. Pretty neat tools if you're into physics and energy. The rest of the week promises to be extremely busy with a one-day business trip to Pittsburgh scheduled for Thursday. It would really be nice to get in a run in a (mostly) foreign city but on behalf of my right foot I don't think I'm ready to take that risk. So it looks like I'll get a day of rest.

Four in One

Let's see...

Thursday. More climbing with Dean. Got a few more lead climbs under my belt. Spent some additional time working out some tougher bouldering routes. Hand is good.

Friday. Bike to work day. This is something organized by some type of cycling advocacy group where "pit stops" are located all around the area. Felt like a normal commute to work for me, except that I met some coworkers for a longer ride. And I got some food and a t-shirt at the end. Morning ride was 27 easy.

Saturday. I was indecisive coming into the weekend about which day I'd take a longer ride. This because I wanted to also get in some weights. Chose Saturday for the weights and it was a good decision.

Sunday. Beautiful, if only slightly damp, ride out to Patunxent. This was a variation of a route I'd recorded back in April. I began slightly reserved, keeping recovery in mind for this weekend. The cards unfolded and I felt great, enough to surge here and there and pick up the pace for the second half of the ride. Last weekend's hills made the Patunxent loop seem flat as a pancake. There are some rollers but it's very moderate compared to northwest of the city. Also experimented with an altered nutritional approach. This has been on my mind lately. How do I best balance my various interests while enabling them to benefit each other rather than work against themselves? Less abstractly, how do I make sure all the cycling isn't altering my metabolism in such a way as to sap me of strength while at the climbing gym?

I've been reading a little bit about how body builder's gain mass. Not because I want to do that, really that I just don't want to metabolize too much muscle tissue on my rides. It seems steady carbohydrate intake is one of the keys to providing a buffer against this. I've read so many times in various running related articles about the reasoning behind fueling up on long runs. And I don't think I've ever come across a connection between carb consumption and buffering against loss of strength. Maybe I just read over it, but I'm not sure there are many references to the topic. If I'm reading things correctly, insulin in the bloodstream induces an anti-catabolic (anti-muscle eating) state, so taking a gel for instance can be of greater benefit than just topping off the energy reserves because it raises insulin levels.

All of this to say really that I took more gels than I normally would have yesterday (two instead of one) and mixed some whey protein into one of my water bottles. The lack of junk in my legs this morning is indication of either the positive results of this approach, my increasing tolerance for longer rides, or my vulnerability to placebo. 50 miles in almost exactly 3 hours.

Last week came in lower than average at about 90 clicks. This week should be more but I'm a point where I don't really want to push things, so I may rest a few days as well.

On the Other Hand

My attendance at the Tuesday morning yoga class I frequent has been sporadic for the past few weeks but yesterday I didn't feel like I'd missed much. Yoga always helps me discover the problem areas and I certainly noticed some tightness in my hips. Something to work on.

Commuting seemed more like a chore than anything, and the cool rain didn't help that issue. I was glad to cut my route short and change into a dry pair of clothes that much sooner. The evening ride out to Rockville was better, but I'm still feeling pretty beat up from the weekend.

Climbing, on the other hand, made up for my lack of enthusiasm in other areas yesterday. My right hand is healed and just needs a little bit of TLC to prevent the dead skin from cracking too much. I taped the trouble spots for good measure and hooked up with Dean for some lead climbing. Before I could comfortably belay him, I told him he'd have to take a fall. Recall the reason for taping my hand in the first place is that the last time I lead belayed for Dean he took a fall and I broke that fall largely with my grip. Rope burn.

So he climbed up to about the second bolt on a moderate route, we both braced ourselves, and he dropped. No problem. He took another drop without warning a few seconds later. No problem. I'm sure this was twice as nerve racking for him given that he's the one who would get hurt if he actually hit the ground.

It's amazing how much better I felt about it all after going through this exercise. Lesson learned.

We hit a handful of other routes, all below 5.9. The lead aspect makes an easy route more challenging, and I was content to focus on smooth movement, breathing, etc. Afterward I spent some time in the bouldering area. I nailed a V5 after a few attempts, one of two problems I've completed at that level. My form is getting better and it is getting clearer how important this is in preventing strains and climbing with efficiency. I left the gym feeling very satisfied, and I'm looking forward to more on Thursday.

The greyness of the sky complements my ambivalence about turning my legs in circles so I'm not biking today.

Someday

With me and Maia alternating weekends of visitation, Mondays have become either an early trip down the NE Corridor or an early morning seeing Maia off. Today was the former, although I caught a later train than usual. It was still an early morning though and hectic as always.

I took the rain as a sign that I shouldn't ride today. I did check out the gym after work, though. This is possibly the worst time of day to go; I even had to wait in line for a locker. But I'm glad I went nonetheless. Short intervals on the rower, a brief stair climbing session and some weights. Got my money's worth in less than 1:20. I seriously contemplated hopping on the treadmill. Not today. When it's time, I think I'll know it.

I spent yesterday afternoon riding around Philly with Maia and some friends. Got a chance to pick Lou's brain about his training (he recently returned to bike racing) and fantasized that maybe someday I would contemplate joining him. That's a lot of maybes.

The weather was perfect and my legs are feeling pretty good after Saturday's excursion. I have some soreness in the knees and right achilles, but this is par for the course for me when I'm riding a lot.

Poolesville!

Lord, you ought to been uptown

And seen that train come down

You could hear the whistle blow a hundred miles

Well, I didn't make it a hundred miles today, but I did make it 80. Gmaps says less, my bike odometer says more. I'm splitting the difference.

Today was one of those rides that just kept changing, morphing in response to the terrain, my physical sensations, the scenery, the position of the sun in the sky. When you have the opportunity to experience a long stretch of road first hand in a relatively short period of time, these types of changes become magnified. You are, after all, sitting on two wheels by yourself, for hours. One of the few other times I've experienced this sensation was during a Longs Peak summit attempt last summer. You begin at 9000' of elevation and work your way up toward the top at over 14000'. That's nearly a vertical mile and everything from the temperature to the geology to the ecology and the thinness of the air change right before your senses. This is a much longer day, as I believe it takes something like 12 hours to summit and return back. I don't know for sure because during my attempt I fell victim to the altitude (started feeling sick somewhere around 13500') and the subfreezing temperatures, sleet and fog (it was the end of July yet it seemed more like an east coast winter). I had to throw in the towel a mile from the summit, but that's another story altogether.

Today's metamorphoses were more subtle than a Colorado fourteener, but things I picked up on ranged from the radial progression of city to suburb to exurb (and the socioeconomic implications of such), differentiations in watershed ecology, and my own physical ebb and flow in response to things such as hills, food and water intake, and traffic.

I turned the iPod off within the first 1.5 hours. This is atypical of me but as soon as I shut it off I was glad I did.

I won't (nor do I believe I even could if I tried) recount the trip mile for mile, nuance for nuance. I began very early, and I felt pretty sluggish and wondered if I would decide to turn back at the 20 mile mark. But as I've heard from other riders and runners, a day can't necessarily be judged by how you feel at any given moment. It's the sum of the parts that's more important. The sluggishness toward the outset was probably more related to the time of day than anything else (I had a 5am departure) but I didn't exactly have the freshest legs either.

Democracy Rd is a bear of a hill, long and steep enough to make you work. Just around every bend there is more hill. My mood picked up markedly as I turned onto S Glen Rd: narrow, winding, and car free.

I picked up another rider for a short stretch out in Darnestown, and he hung as long as he could before dropping off and turning off my course. Darnestown Rd was a pain in the ass. The forest had given way to corn fields, allowing a mean headwind to slow me down. And it seemed that it was uphill for the whole 10 mile stretch of it to Beallsville.

The roads out near Poolesville, MD are pretty ideal for riding. At one point I passed a couple perched on camp chairs on the side of the road. Thinking they were just out for a morning picnic, I waved good morning and carried on. It was after I remembered a story by a co-worker that I realized they were there spectating. There was a bike race underway (or about to be) and eventually I road straight into a swarm of shaved-legs types. Somehow I got turned around and wound up in "downtown" Poolesville which is really just a crossroads with a gas station. It turned out for the better as I really needed a water refill so I popped in the gas station and filled up.

I made it out of there before the gun went off and I luckily didn't find myself amidst a race peloton. River Rd seemed like it took forever and after turning off of it I found a second wind. This was largely mental as I was really looking forward to being done with the ride and I could sense that I was getting close. Altogether the door-to-door was somewhere around 5:15 and the saddle clock read 4:51. The former accounts for some short breaks I took for eating, drinking, and peeing. I brought 3 energy gels and half a bagel. I think it was more than enough but I have to find an alternative to the gels. They just get gross after the 2nd one.

Northern Crescent

Enjoyed an extended commute to work this morning. The molasses in my legs has finally melted away and this was enough to lift my spirits a bit. The leaves seemed greener, the traffic seemed less, and the riding seemed easier at faster speeds. All the ingredients for a good little jaunt.

Throughout the day the soreness from yesterday's lifting session crept in slowly, making moving around the office more challenging than usual. But it's the gratifying kind of soreness, meaning I did something challenging that will in turn be easier next time around.

I rode home from work late, on the outskirts of a lightning storm that easily could have dumped on me. I'm pretty boneheaded sometimes when it comes to things like that. 30+ miles on the day, feeling good.

You Will Sleep Well at Night

Fortune cookie I had for lunch. Got my fingers crossed.

Low key ride up the CCT to Bethesda this morning. The spinning was still a bit viscous today and this will factor into my weekend plans. If it persists, I may revisit the Patunxent loop I blazed at the beginning of the month. This will keep the mileage down a bit. If I'm feeling good I'll go the opposite direction, out toward Poolesville again, expanding upon last weekend's ride..

While the riding was slow, I did find the energy for some lifting after my commute. Basic stuff, adding a little weight here and there. During squats and deadlifts my low back is clearly the weakest link, and I'm hoping these biweekly sessions will help me improve there. I haven't been at it much more than a month but I'm already noting improvements. Mostly in terms of reduced discomfort after sitting for a few hours, or feeling less of a strain bending over to pick something up.

A brief status check on my various ailments. The hand is feeling good. Still a little tender here and there but on the mend. My feet (notably the right) have improved even more. They feel great during the day but I'm hesitant to try and run until I can get out of bed in the morning without stiffness in the heels. Prospects are good for a mid-June test run, but I'm not setting any expectations.

Some Days

You can't have a great ride, run, whatever, every day. Some days it's just enough to make an effort. This morning I revisited the same Arlington wineglass loop I did last Wednesday and just couldn't find a rhythm. Lots of stuff roiling around, both mentally and physically, as there is quite a bit of junk left in my legs from this past weekend. I did manage to beat last week's door-to-door time but that wasn't much of a feat.

I was spared a ride back to Arlington this afternoon by way of a colleague's rooftop bike rack. I was 75% glad but there is still that minor part of me looking for more punishment today. I'll have to wait till tomorrow morning, I suppose.

Catching Up, Pt. 2

You see, lately, even when I think I have time to do this, I inevitably get distracted by something else...

Here's a pic of my hand a day after rope burning it:

This kept me up most Thursday night. I've had tattoos, broken bones, smashed faces, you name it. This was the most painful thing I've ever experienced as far as I can remember. I'm just glad it felt a lot better when I woke up on Friday.

So, beyond the obvious injury to myself caused by the climbing incident, it took possibly even more of a mental toll. I was somewhat worked up about it for a couple days. Because I thought I was acting responsibly, it really makes me doubt my own ability to lead belay. I could care less about my hand - that'll heal. What if this had been outside on an actual rock wall? There are mats at the rock gym, but outdoors, Dean certainly would have been hurt.

I've decided that the only way to gain my own trust back is to catch an intentional fall the next time I'm at the gym. I'm gonna ask Dean to take one from a safe (relatively speaking) height so I can prove (mostly to myself, but also to him) that I can be trusted on belay. Only way I see to get some closure on the issue. Of course, this'll probably have to wait until next week to give my hand time to heal.

***

Moving on, it's been a good month for cycling. In the past 30 days I've logged 3 rides over 45 miles, and my average days are approaching the 25 mile mark. This is huge progress as this time last year I wasn't riding more than 20 at a time.

Saturday I left super early and explored out northwest of the city, working toward Poolesville on the recommendation from a co-worker, but not quite making it there. Total ride was about 63 miles. I wish I would have logged this as soon as I'd arrived back home because it was quite an inspiring ride. I don't know how I rode down the C&O canal before and not noticed Great Falls, but I definitely saw them this time and it's really spectacular. Here's a view from the cockpit:

I departed before 6am so the traffic for the most part was minimal. The ride began and ended on familiar roads. I timed the segment along the CCT between Fletcher's Boathouse and Bethesda, knowing I'd be looping back around after coming east on the C&O Canal trail. It's almost exactly 5 miles, constant gentle grade, and would give me an idea of how well I could hold a pace after riding for a few hours. First time around went by in 18:06. I didn't go full throttle so as not to jeopardize the rest of the ride.

There were some pretty serious (by local standards) hills between Bethesda and Darnestown, and I was glad to get to the canal trail. I popped an energy gel at this point (about 2 hours, 34 miles) and was on my way. The canal trail is crushed cinder and at some points got pretty treacherous. It really required a lot of focus to a) not get bored and b) hold a reasonable cadence. The scenery helped.

I popped another gel at about 3 hours (50ish miles), just before turning back onto the CCT to test my endurance. Judging by the way my legs felt at this point I thought for sure it would take me longer than 18 minutes to get back to my checkpoint in Bethesda. On top of my fatigue, there were now dozens of weekenders out on the CCT, including some sort of charity walk/run that made it difficult to move quickly. I threw in a few final surges and hit the split button without checking the time. I was surprised when I got home to see that it went by about 40 seconds quicker than the first at 17:24. After this it was smooth sailing for the final 5 miles back home. Altogether it was 3:47:16. Next time (perhaps not next week but the week after) I'm going all the way to Poolesville, which should push the distance to the 80 mile mark.

Yesterday was a brief gym session. I've been setting a timer when I go lately, which keeps me focused in addition to forcing me to cycle quicker between exercises. Some basic full body lifts, etc, etc, the typical gym rat stuff. Took 1:30.

Today I added a prologue to my commute by heading out to Fort Totten before looping back down to Georgetown to pick up the CCT. Legs were definitely tired but felt peppier on the ride home this evening. I was looking forward to another 2+ hour ride on Wednesday morning, but I'll be commuting down to Arlington early that afternoon for work so I may just stick to the the usual routine.

Catching Up, Pt. 1

Life has superseded any posting the past few days. I'm finally relaxing as I write this and yet I still feel like I have 10 other things I should be doing.

I'm not really complaining, I think, just sort of justifying my absence here.

I forgot to follow up about the elbow pain I'd noted last Monday. I did end up going to the rock gym on Tuesday night and it felt fine. It's not the climbing that bothers it, so I think I'm safe there. I'm pretty sure that yoga plays a part in it, surprisingly. A certain vinyasa I've been practicing really stresses the triceps, and I see how I could have strained something there. That in combination with close grip pushups and dips could easily be the cause. So I'm easing up on those exercises for a while.

Thursday evening I went back to the rock gym with the goal of passing my lead belay and lead climbing safety tests. Every rock gym requires a demonstration of knowledge and skills related to lead climbing before you're allowed to climb and/or belay any lead routes. I was somewhat apprehensive about the test since I hadn't practiced a whole lot. I ended up doing pretty well, good enough to pass. So now I'm certified.

Immediately after the test I hopped on a route and completed it, struggling somewhat with mostly mental aspects of the new fears involved with leading. Then it was my turn to belay for Dean. I definitely didn't think twice about my capabilities here, and Dean began to make his way up the wall. He had just reached the 3rd draw and he seemed to be having difficulty clipping into it. He looked down at me and gave me the signal that he was going to fall. I braced myself, he dropped, and a second later I felt his weight tugging on the line. I'm not really sure what happened here, but the best I can explain it is that some wires crossed in my head and instead of locking into break position I clasped my left hand around the rope, breaking Dean's fall with my grip. The rope raced through my tightened fist and Dean hit the ground. Not hard, but hard enough to scare me and some others who were close by. Dean was fine, but the rope messed up my hand pretty bad with some nasty burns. More than the burning sensation on my hand, I was hit with the reality of what had just happened.

To be continued...

Arlington Overachievers

Rode to Bethesda by way of Arlington, VA this morning. This was almost exclusively on paved trails. For the most part it was pretty enjoyable, but I was astonished at some crowded sections of trail. Walkers, joggers, cyclists, folks doing pushups on benches, all out and about at 6 AM. I got turned around a few times during the first portion and it seemed to take me a while to wake up.

Threw the hammer down at about mile 14 and didn't let up until I was locking up at the parking garage in Bethesda. Immediately after doing so the ride got more interesting. Something to keep in mind. The ride took about two hours door to door, so I must have really been dragging an anchor those first few miles. After commuting home I have just under 40 miles on the day.

***

When I got home today I weighed my bike and loaded pannier. 43 lbs. I wonder how fast I could ride if I had an F16 instead of a 747. I suppose I'll find out, some day.

My Grass is Blue

And so were the skies down in sunny Wilkesboro, NC over the weekend. Couldn't have hoped for better weather, and it only sprinkled on us once during the very wee hours of Sunday morning. Had to miss filling in on bass with these guys at a show in Philly, but it was worth it. Saw Tut Taylor give a dobro workshop, Tony Rice backup Peter Rowan, and Elvis Costello perform with Jerry Douglas, among many other great acts. Picked many a string and stomached a fair share of bourbon, too.

It's back to the grind this week, and it looks like some fair (if not slightly hot) weather ahead for my commutes. Wednesday morning I'm thinking of extending my normal route by an hour or so, perhaps to about 30 miles. Have to think of where that will take me but it will probably be somewhere out north of the city.

I have tentative plans to ride up to Rockville tomorrow after work for some climbing. I say tentative because some on and off soreness in my elbow joint has returned a little since last week. This thing has helped a lot with the issue, which I'm guessing is tendonitis of some sort (tennis elbow?) and I've been trying to use it more frequently lately. It's only a few specific motions that make it hurt but I'd rather not risk it turning into something more serious, so I'll make it a game day decision.

On the flip side, my feet feel even better than they did last week. I did a whole lot of walking around in minimally supportive footwear over the weekend and I'm no worse for the wear. I'm not sure how much longer it'll be before I try to run, but I'm not gonna rush back into it.