Ugh
If I felt like crap yesterday, I’m not sure how to describe today. Last night, my stomach was pretty upset and as a result I didn’t eat nearly enough to prepare myself for a four hour ride today. Also, I didn’t sleep all that great. I know, here I go complaining again, but I’m just trying to find the factors to explain why today’s ride was such a struggle. Factors other than the freezing cold weather, the 15 training days without rest and the fact that my legs are just plain tired. Thinking about all those things helps me not to get worried when I suffer through a four hour bike ride like I did today. Last weekend I attributed most of my suffering to the cold weather. Today was colder, but my aching body and low energy affected me much more than the weather.
I decided to ride in Central Park today. Even though our place is about the same distance from Prospect Park as it is from Central Park, the path along the West Side Highway makes it much easier to get to Central Park. My normal complaint about weekend riding in Central Park is that it gets so crowded, but I figured that with the cold today, it wouldn’t be so bad. My plan was to go up there, do about ten laps, then ride home. 70 miles. Right from the start, I could tell that it wasn’t going to be the best ride of my season. My back was/is tight and my legs felt heavy. Regardless of that though, I got up to the Park feeling OK and handled the first few laps fairly well. About 25 miles in I started hurting a little. At that point, I stopped riding the big hill at the North end of the Park and just cut across the transverse. I felt like a wuss, but the hill was aggravating my back, and taking a lot out of me and causing my heart-rate to spike, all things I didn’t need today. At 35 miles, I stopped for a few minutes to use the restroom and put on glove liners. Both of my water bottles were slushy and the valve on one was frozen shut, which meant that I wasn’t drinking enough fluids. Also, for some stupid reason, I’d only packed two gels, so I had to ration and didn’t get as many calories as I should have. I’m so good about nutrition planning for running, but I obviously still need to work on it for the cycling. In the Park, I was probably averaging around 17.5mph, which would have been just fine for today.
But, at around 50 miles, I really started suffering. The pedals felt like dumbbells. My quads and lower back were on fire and I was getting a little light-headed. Fun. This is where a sane person would have stopped. As I’ve made clear, I’m too stupid to listen to things like my body. I rode another ten miles. At 60, I went over to the New York Road Runners office to try to pick up our numbers for tomorrow’s race (which I’m pretty sure we’re not going to do). They wouldn’t let me in with my bike and I wasn’t about to leave the bike outside, so I skipped it and rode back into the Park heading towards home. During the ride home, just to add insult to injury, the wind picked up and I rode the entire way home in a pretty strong headwind. During my little break at the NYRR office, I ate a Clif Bar, so I had energy for the ride home, but I was still pretty out of it.
Now I’m home. I had Endurox, I’ve eaten a ton of food and feel a little better. But now, I’ve got to lie down for a little bit. I still have a tough workout tomorrow, whether or not we decide to do the four mile race.
A funny thing happened yesterday: I’ve been lurking on Slowtwitch for some time, but finally signed up the other week. Yesterday I posted a question about running on the West Side Highway. One of the few responses I got was from a friend from college who I haven’t spoken to in years. He recognized me by my screen name. He’s been doing triathlons for a number of years and he’s actually doing IMLP as well. Pretty exciting to make that kind of connection.
Finally, last night Assaf and I went to the Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden. We got there pretty late, because the main thing we wanted to see (obviously) was the Wannamaker Mile. We scalped good tickets and had a great time. The race was exciting – Alan Webb, Craig Mottram and the eventual winner, Bernard Legat (in 3:54.26). It was a pretty close race until the final turn, when Legat turned it on and out-sprinted Mottram to the finish. Webb was running great early, but ran out of gas about two-thirds of the way through the race and fell pretty far back. The other exciting event was the women’s pole vault. I’d never seen pole vaulting in person either and it was amazing to watch the technique and strength that those women have to get themselves over the top. The winner vaulted over 15’9 3/4″. The final move when they turn themselves over and release from the pole is pretty awesome.
Bike – February 3
Time: 4:08:04
Distance: 67.8 miles
Average heart rate: Approx. 124 (heart rate monitor was in and out during parts of the ride)
Course: West Side Highway to Central Park
Conditions: Cold. Windy. 27 degrees (without wind-chill). It was really sunny though.