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.