On the Trail Again

After almost an entire week off (that's becoming a very bad habit), I got back out there today. I felt like skipping again. I really did. I whined to John about how crappy I felt, but he wasn't buying it. He told me to go anyway and do what I could. I figured if I got the thirty minutes of mountain biking in that I said I was going to do every day, I'd be good. The plan was to do an hour and twenty minutes as well as thirty minutes of running. I figured I'd be lucky to get anything at all.

It turned out I did do the whole thing. Once I got going, I felt pretty good and wasn't quite as worried there weren't any bathrooms on the trail. (Yes, it was that kind of sick.) I did the whole loop faster than I've ever done it before and climbed hills better than ever, no thanks to my stupid gears. Despite being serviced, my dumb bike still doesn't want to shift into the granny gear without a lot of fiddling. I managed though. I still got off and walked quite a few hills, but I rode quite a few more. I done good.

I was concerned about running after riding. I haven't done it before, so I wasn't sure how it would go. I'd eaten well before I went out, but I didn't have any snot packets (aka power gels) or bars to take with me. An hour and fifty minutes is a long time to go without any energy, but I did ok with that too. If I had something, I may have done even better. I walked up quite a few hills, because I was quite pooped by that time, but I ran the rest, and I ran the return flat part even faster than I did on the way out. It definitely was tough to get off the bike and start running, but I think I did pretty well.

If I include the walking I did when I was finished, I did a full two hours of exercise. Pretty impressive. Now if I can just stretch that out to six hours or however long it's going to take me to slog through this adventure race, I'll be good to go.

I think I'll head back up to Moraine (the race site) this week while the kids are in school and hit the trail of rocks one more time. I wanted to do it this weekend, but it was so busy that driving up there was out of the question. I plan on going next weekend as well. I figure if I ride it a few times, maybe I'll get used to it or at least get a little better at it. I'm getting pretty good at the trails around here now except those stupid hills. In fact, I'm finding myself zooming along much faster than I used to do, and I enjoy it quite a bit. Who'da thunk?

So once again I believe I'm back on track with my training. I wish I'd quit saying that and start doing it. This is the week though. I can feel it.