Pedaling Around.....

My Baby, Giant's 2002 TCR 1 Bike. Photo courtesy of GiantBicycles.com

Maybe I've mentioned this before, I love riding my bike. More so this year and I think it's because I haven't been riding it much lately what with all this running that I've been doing. It's nice to be going so fast with so little weight, to be covering ground at a much quicker yet smoother pace.

Yesterday I skipped track for an easy ride. Body's been slow to recover from the Sat/Sun workouts so I decided against track. Been waking up tired like I hadn't gotten any sleep, waking up as tired as when I went to bed. Also the left achilles, where it connects with the calf muscle, has been quite tight and sore. Sunday night it was making a clicking noise when I walked down a hill or the stairs - scary! It was definitely time for some rest and active recovery. Besides there would be no taking it easy in track. The moment I see my friends in my pace group I will race against them. Most of them know I'm an ultra-marathoner and I always feel that I've got something to prove. Like I need to prove to them that we long distance guys can hustle like everyone else, like we're not just about the walking and jogging - we can run like the dickens on a flat course too. Anyway the injury is fine now, no worries, although I might have to stop the hill repeats, they seem to bring the issue on.

So anyway I went for an easy bike ride instead. Serena joined in as well when she found out I was skipping Track for the bike. Hey I didn't say anything, all I said was "you need the bike more than the run right now" and she volunteered to join me. She's got a Half-Ironman event at the end of July and her weakest event is the bike. She needs to be biking, biking, and more biking. But hey it was just a suggestion, I didn't actually tell her to skip track:)

The wind was so fierce. Heading out on the bike towards the Golden Gate the gusts would seriously slow our progress. So we made the decision to stay in San Francisco. Crossing the bridge on those winds would have been a major pain. We stayed in San Francisco doing loops in the Presidio, we utilized an old YMCA Triathlon training route. It was a big loop divided into two parts, the first half was recovery and the second half a speed interval. The speed part was fun because the wind was on our backs. I let Serena take the lead so I could check her speed and form. She would hit 26/27 mph, which was quite good. Now I wonder how fast I could've gone? hmmm...should have checked. 26/27 is what I hit on a windless day. After about 4 loops of this we meandered around the Presidio a bit before heading home.

I was freezing by the time we got back. How did it get so cold all of a sudden? So I accepted a ride home. Before home we headed to our favorite grocery store. I felt very silly in my cycling clothes but I also needed the food. I did have one of Serena's extra tee's to wear but apparently I only succeeded in putting it on backwards. Sweet. Nothing like shopping for food in spandex, cycling shoes and a tee worn backwards. I ain't laughing now though. I'm drinking some of the red vino I picked up:)

Sore calf is doing much better. Got more sleep and I'm no longer waking up tired. When in doubt rest! I've adopted that motto as well in my training.