Second outdoor ride with Milly in 2006!
I met up with John, Jill, Allison and Hyun on Sunday morning at the Marymoor Velodrome parking lot. We left the parking lot going around Lake Sammamish, counter-clockwise, at a pretty good clip. I was trying to watch my heart rate as my coach wanted me to have an average of 160 or lower. So I was trying to slowly go up the hills and not push as hard even though some of the group was at least 1/2 mile ahead.
At some point we were all riding together when there was a lot of debris in the road. The seam area where the 'white line' is painted was bad. Pot holes, bad seam that makes crossing out of the shoulder (into traffic lane with no cars coming) very tricky! However, there was a huge branch in the middle of the shoulder. It basically took up the whole shoulder. It was about 1/2 - 1 inch thick and about 6 to 8 feet long. Hyun just went over it and narrowly missed a crash - fish tailing slightly. I was only about 2 bike lengths behind him and was praying since I didn't have enough time to brake appropriately - especially on a fixed gear.
I hit that branch and it took me right down and hard! :( I feel like I tried to tackle a line backer. :( My whole right side is sore and tight. My right thigh is bruised a beautiful pink/purple color. I got road rash about 3 or so inches long above my right elbow on the forearm. Then my left side knee and inner calf, right below the knee, is bruised. My left palm is bruised as well.
Well at least the ride this week was good and I had a 163 ahr so it was slightly down from the week before (166)! :)
It's been a few days and I am feeling quite a bit better. I didn't do my easy spin workout on Monday but went to bed around 9 instead. Last night I did the same thing: relaxed and went to bed around 9. I am tired but my body is slowly healing. It doesn't hurt to have pants on my thigh; however, moving my arm to open/close a door, etc. hurts a bit. Not too bad but sore like I overtrained it with an upper body workout. My right shoulder/neck area is very stiff and may need to get a good massage in a couple weeks to get beyond the stiffness and make sure I heal properly. My forearm hurts when I lay down in a particular manner on anything (desk, arm rest, etc.) but I know that will just take time. It is nicely bruised with a good case of road rash going on. :)
Oh well.... this week is all about an easy workout/training anyway. Saturday I am supposed to do an easy ride and Sunday nothing at all. Sunday evening I am to go to Izette's (my coach) work place to do a oxygen VO2 test such as:
Active Metabolic Rate (AMR) - Learn your body's physiological response to, and requirements for exercise, including:
Aerobic and Anaerobic VO2 thresholds
Custom training zones based on thresholds, using heart rate or power
Amount of calories and fat burned in each training zone
Profile of aerobic base and level of fitness
Suggested training plan to improve performance or weight management
This should greatly increase my training results and racing results for this year. I am excited and nervous as hell, all at the same time, to find out where I am at, where I need to go, what I need to do to be able to better lose weight, use more muscle, more fat, more oxygen to my advantage for kicking ass on the track! We will see what comes about with Sunday's results! :)
Saturday's Adventures
So Saturday I drove down to Des Moines to help my girlfriend's family put together her wedding invites. Her wedding is in one month - February 18th - and she had to get them out asap! I am in her wedding and it should be a very pleasant wedding. I hope everything works out well for it. I think she's nervous and excited all at the same time as is expected. :)
I spent from 12 to 7:30 helping them put together the invites. It was a lot of work and I was a bit tired as my neighbor had blaring music happening from 3 to 5 am that kept me up until I fell asleep. :( It was nice to visit with her mom and grandma. She had to do some 'special shopping' that day with her Aunt. They were gone until about 4 or 5. She had a fun time with her Aunt and then I got to visit with her and her Aunt though. Her Aunt is very nice and such a strong character! :)
I think her wedding plans are coming along really well but I worry about the time frame we have to work in. I hope all will work out ok as I want her to have a really nice wedding.
Jane called me that morning after she completed her VO2 Max test with Izette. She stated her base is pretty much non-existent and Izette is putting her on a new training schedule. Jane is such a great friend! She was very supportive and encouraging for me to do my own test. I want to be very supportive of Jane and Jill to also be successful on the track. So I am glad Jane got the test and got good results and feedback so she can have better training and race results. :)
We were all encouraged by Jane's courage to do this test. :) So Jill also did her test this week and had good feedback regarding her results. I am doing mine on Sunday and am worried but excited.... we will see.
Riding Milly for the 1st time in 2006!
WHEW LORDIE! Sunday - January 8, 2006 1st outdoor ride of the year.
It felt good.... I have had a lot of challenges with my mom's health, recently going on insulin, having fallen; the holidays; being sick over the holidays; being busy just in general and anything else that is called "life" ... it felt real good to see familiar faces in the Marymoor Velodrome Parking Lot. Felt like good ol' times to see John, Jane, Brian, The Aura's and Carol. Felt really good to socialize, get a bike ready and anticipate a great ride. This would be the first maiden voyage of 2006. I have been spending all winter on the trainer with minimal riding outside. I am trying to do my scheduled workouts to a T from what my coach, Izette has given me. Izette showed up on her Lemond fixie (well free-wheel single speed - i.e. she can stop pedaling and not get torpedoed off the bike!) that she transformed a geared bike to and was not only there to show us her stuff but to see what our riding style was and what we needed to change or work on.
It felt good to roll out of the parking lot on a clear sky, free of rain, crisp airy Sunday morning and start heading around the lake. We rode going counter-clockwise. :) I spoke with Izette and let her know I ran 25 mins the day before and then rode my trainer bike for 1.5 hours of the scheduled 2 hours. That was fine, she stated, since 20 mins of running is like 45 mins of riding. SWEET! I was concerned about my legs though as I felt them a bit on the trainer Saturday night.
I seemed to handle the hills and the whole ride just fine. My legs were a bit tired as we were climbing but it felt good to challenge them and feel my muscles tear slightly as there was sure to be growth afterwards. On the west side of the lake I managed to stay up in front, for the most part, with another 3 to 4 riders. On the south end I had to take my gloves off, after already having my jacket off, since I was feeling too hot still. It was incredible as part of the ride I was absolutely blinded by the sun's glare on the wet pavement from the overnight rains. I didn't care... I was happy to see the sun out, no rain and enjoying a great ride with friends!
We re-grouped near FedEx and I was debating taking off my "Byrne Speciality Cases" beanie cap. I should have... I was explaining to Izette, during the regroup, that I definitely felt a difference. I definitely felt I was bouncing less while going down the hills. That I was trying to visualize my feet going forward and back rather than up and around. It appears that my visualization wasn't strong this time around and/or my legs (after doing all the spinning drills at home) knew exactly what they needed to do. They took over and I felt less effort was needed to try to move my feet more in the forward/backward motion - it just was happening! SWEET!
We started to go up the eastside of the lake. Jane was leading out, pulling strong, and then we switched out. I was now pulling strong, leading out with Jane and Izette behind me. Jane and Izette were discussing their cadence. I hear Izette nagging on Jane to up her cadence more and at the same time I thought she was referring to me as well. I was like - dang I am on the fixie and I am slowly feeling overheated and exhausted - I don't think I can do much more. About half the group slowly pushed past me.
At the top of one of the larger 'hills', on the eastside, I stopped and took off my beanie cap as the rest of the group passed me. I then descended down the hill and was able to catch up to the last person, Brian. I could periodically see a few more riders in my view but they were probably close to a mile ahead. I rode behind Brian a bit, talking just a bit but he seemed tired (he also rode to the start from Kirkland). I then pulled next to him and eventually in front. Around Inglewood Hill, knowing I had 5 miles left, I started to get a second wind or maybe it was just the horse seeing the barn syndrome but about 4 miles out of the park I started to pick up speed and strength. I felt really good and I looked over my shoulder and realized I had dropped Brian quite a bit more than I thought I did.
I turned into the backroad into the park and waited for Brian. We then rode into the Park and the parking lot together. I think this was a great ride for all of us to really see where we are at for a starting point in the beginning of the year. It will be a measure of where we are, what we need to do and where we need to go to improve for track this year. We are planning on meeting up this next Sunday as well and Izette definitely wants me only to ride Milly once a week and lower my heart rate going around. My heart rate was an average of 166 over the 1.5 hour ride. I was in my zone only 37 mins of that and burned 1027 calories. Awesome but definitely need to get that heart rate down!
Until next week... when we do it again and hopefully each week we will keep improving. It felt good though... real good to be out, with friends, on a beautiful, rain-free morning - bicycling around the lake. The season is beginning! I am sooooo excited!
