Bit o' runnin', bit o' ridin'

Did a 1 hour run last Thursday (gee time flies...), a 50 or so k bike ride on Friday which was very pleasant, had a massage on Saturday, and did a hilly 55k bike ride yesterday morning in sydney.

The roads were crap on the Sydney ride, it poured with rain leaving me saturated right to the core, and it was hilly (I haven't done hills in ages!), and my legs just died near the end. It was hard being in an area that I didn't know because I didn't have any idea on how far I had to go, or whether it was flat/hilly so had no idea what was coming up. It was a good hitout though, got the legs going, and I felt "tough" at the end from cycling in the rain :)

Cycling to work

Ho hum. Done nothing exciting this week so far. Cycled to work Monday and yesterday, and I now think it's about 12-13 k each way, so about 50k of cycling for the week so far.

My hammie and back are still fairly tight, so still not doing any running. With nice gentle stretching it's getting better, but I know it's going to go again as soon as I go for a run!

86k cycle!!!

WOOHOO!!!!! It was such a great ride this morning! Another gorgeous Canberra day. Blue skies, warm without being too hot, and just a really light wind - almost unnoticeable.

I met Kirsty, who lives in the same complex as us, and we cycled in and I debated what ride I'd do. The short ride is just too short. The long ride is too long and too fast. Then there was 2 medium groups - a hilly and a flat. I knew the hilly would be too hilly, but would the flat be too fast? It was also 70k, and given my last long ride 2 weeks ago was 40k and I struggled, should I just do my own thing??

I decided to go the flat medium ride, and on the first hill they dropped me. Great, I thought. But they waited (I wasn't too far back), and I had no problems with the pace from there, and we got to the top of another steepish hill, which I'd taken easy when I started to get the chest pains. At the top I got off my bike and crouched down until they subsided, felt fine, so kept going. We were almost halfway at this stage, and it was a really nice day, and I was enjoying the company of the other in our bunch, so I decided to keep going. As it turned out the rest of the ride was really nice - fairly flat, warm, and hardly any cars. Perfect.

My legs were getting tired near the end, which is to be expected, given that it's been around 4 months since I cycled this far. Interestingly at the end of the ride when we got home, Kirsty who also rode in the same group, said her bike computer said 86k. Mine said 58k. Given that the actual ride we did was 70, and it's about 8 each way to the ANU where we meet, I now know my wireless bike computer is stuffed :-(

So add a bit more onto all the rides I've been doing recently. I thought I must have just been cycling really slow - this has helped the confidence a fair bit!!!

I got home and I was pretty hyper from such a nice ride, but now I just feel tired! Legs are a bit heavy as well. Need a good stretch!!!

Run on Wednesday

Oops forgot to mention that I ran on Wednesday! Honest I did! :-)

Did a nice easy 5k run at lunchtime with one of the girls from work. It was a really nice day and I'd had a crappy morning so it was just what I needed.

So I've cycled 60k and run 11k so far this week. Woohoo!

Ride and spa

Planned to a ride after work, and got home and lay down on the bed for "just a little bit" and chatted to Andrew for a bit (the usual "how was your day" stuff), and realised I was knackered and really couldn't be bothered cycling.

My hip flexors/itb are sore from the run and got quite stiff at work today. I realised I had nothing to do at home though as Andrew was doing stuff, so threw my cycling gear and forced myself out there! By the time I got out it was a bit later than I'd planned and I felt a bit sluggish, but I was pleased I got out there.

Nice arvo - sunny, not too hot, minimal wind. Did a nice 30k as the sun was setting, then came home scoffed down dinner and went out to the AIS for a spa with a few others from the club. The spa was just beautiful! Exactly what I needed.

Ready for sleep now... :-)

Sri Chinmoy, 6k jog, no ride

I was out at the Sri Chinmoy triathlon festival for a fair chunk of the weekend watching and cheering people on. Bloody horrible weather on Saturday - windy, rainy and just plain cold! The weather stopped me from doing my long ride on Saturday morning, and it didn't really improve in the afternoon (although it stopped raining), but the race still went ahead. I had been planning to do the race, but given the recent heart concerns, I didn't really want to feel as though I had to push myself. I was really really pleased not to be out there!

The next morning though for the longer races Canberra put on a lovely autumn day! It was chilly in the morning, but lovely in the sun. When I first got there, there was a light swirling fog sitting just above the water, clear blue sky and hot air balloons everywhere enjoying the gorgeous day.

The long course athletes were just heading onto their ride so got to cheer on a few people, and then went down to the swim start to watch the classic distance guys set off. Apparently it was warmer in the water than out of the water, so everyone had a really enjoyable swim. We then moved to the cycle exit and watched everyone trying to mount their bikes at the bottom of a small hill. We couldn't help but laugh at those who hadn't bothered getting their bike into "granny gear" prior to the race and so struggled to get onto their bikes due to being in the wrong gear.

Once the majority of these guys headed off, I went for my jog. It really was a stunning morning, I felt as though I could have gone forever. The sun kept you nice and warm, but the slight chill just kept it from getting too hot. I followed the run course of the race and turned at the 3k mark. I just took it easy, and kept a nice steady pace. I stuffed up my timing and when I thought I was pressing the lap button on my watch I realised I was only just starting my watch - d'oh! Took me a little while to figure out what was going on... But for the 5k I timed it was about 38 minutes which I was pretty happy with given that I wasn't going at any kind of speed.

I actually had a guy run past me and say "Come on, you're not going very hard". What a loser... Who is he to judge how fast I should be going???? I was going to make a smart comment back but figured that was childish... :-)

Anyway, was a great run, and really enjoyed being out there! Looking forward to more easy runs. Maybe the 10k at Canberra Marathon is still achievable...??

Week in review!

It's been a fairly quiet week, just had a nice swim in the lovely Dickson pool Wednesday night, and rode into work yesterday (Thursday). I've been taking it easy until I hear from the cardiologist, but I'm hoping to do an easy 50-60k ride tomorrow and an easy 5 or so k run on.

Oh how about that - just spoke to the cardiologist.... He's sending the piccies upto the cardiologist in Brissie, and he'll let me know as soon as he hears anything. He doesn't see a problem with me exercising on the weekend as long as I promise to take it easy if I do get the pains. Not a hard promise to make!!!!!