Week in review May 15-21: Run, bike, and that’s it

Run and bike, run and bike.

A recap of the good news first: I rode my new bike outside not once, but twice. I wanted to take it to the route that’s closed to traffic Saturday, but I didn’t want to get all the way out there before I discovered there was a problem, so I squeezed in a ride after work Thursday to test it out. I can’t even remember the last time I’ve ridden outside – probably last June or so – so it was great to get outside in the fresh air and sunshine. I made sure to take a few moments to enjoy the day and be thankful that I was out there.

Other good news is that I ran four times this week for more than 31 miles. I am a little stiff and sore today from my long run yesterday but other than that, there weren’t any other big aches or pains. Not that 30 miles is the be-all end-all, but it’s a nice goal to shoot for weekly, and there’s a better chance I’ll hit my goal of 100 miles per month if I can crank out 20-30 weekly.

Some kind of good news, kind of bad news is that I discovered my speed run Friday, which included a 5K time trial, was my fastest run in at least the last 13 months, as far back as Daily Mile tracks. The sad thing is it was a 8:45 minute-per-mile pace so no, I’m not going to be qualifying for the Olympic Trials any time soon. BUT I guess I can be happy that I am getting a little less slow these days. It’s been a slow build from my IT band issues two summers ago, and I’m happy that I’m able to do half-marathons and ultra weekends, but yeah, I’m disappointed that it’s a far cry from where I was at my speediest a few years ago. But what else can I do except keep working and take care of myself? Nothing.

Other bad news is I didn’t do anything except run and bike. I took the evening of our wedding anniversary off to go out to dinner, and I did some gardening after my ride Saturday instead of the lifting I had planned, and other than that I just had to prioritize my time. Story of my life.

Anyway, the week was:

Run: Four times, three on the road and once on the treadmill, for 31.65 miles in a hair longer than 5 hours. I did my long run on the treadmill yesterday because it was storming when I started out. It was also getting late, so I hopped off at 45 minutes and 1:30 to move dinner in the oven and do some quick food prep to be ready for the week. I made it work. And I watched Ghostbusters for the zillionth time, so it wasn’t total misery.

Bike: TWICE ON THE ROAD for 42.65 miles in a bit longer than 3 hours. (Apparently 65 is my lucky number this week?) If you’re keeping track yes, that’s a very slow average. I went SUPER slowly Thursday as I was getting used to my new bike (I didn’t even have a chance to swap out the pedal cages) and not much faster on Saturday as I negotiated other people enjoying the closed route. Still, I was pretty proud of myself that I could bang out a 30-mile ride without too much trouble!

Total: 6 sessions in slightly longer than 8 hours. This was the first time in about a month I’ve come close to 8 hours, and the first time I’ve broken it since peak training week for the Gasparilla Ultra Distance Challenge. Again, it’s not like 8 hours is the be-all end-all, but it’s nice to have a round number to shoot for training-wise. I’d love to hit double digits regularly again, but I’m not sure how to do it without sacrificing food prep, work, sleep or my marriage. Still thinking about that one.

It’s supposed to be another beautiful week and I’m looking forward to running in it and hopefully biking in it again. Let’s see if I can do any other training this week, too.