going the distance... between updates. oops.

Haven't posted a new blog since July 6th. What is wrong with me? Alright, this needs to be a PR of a recap because I have a lot of fun workouts to go over, (especially since Ryan was nice enough to put a training plan together for me after Racers and Chasers!) and I don't want to put anyone to sleep here.

Well the week after my race was kind of a mile stone for me, training wise. It's funny when I think about it, because I only worked out twice (totally not counting pilates classes). And I'm pretty sure that to most of the cyclists I know and to the ones who have blogs that I now read, only working out 2 times in a week would be a humongous step backwards and would make them feel like ultimate fat asses. Well, I made those 2 days hard, ok??! :)

Here's what happened. Tuesday morning I set out for a solo 35 mile road ride at 19 mph avg- my most challenging solo ride yet. I knew that it would be hard, especially without Ryan's back wheel out in front of me to hug... and that I would have to stay disciplined the entire time. Knowing how I am when it comes to long distance stuff, I knew that I would have to ride 17.5 miles out in one direction before turning around to come back, if I was going to hit 35. Otherwise, I'd come up to Ryan's apt and make some excuse to just go back instead of passing it by to reach my goal. I honestly just get really bored after even 10 miles on the road by myself and when I get tired, the excuses start to flow. Sucks to say but I can't deny it... And it always ends up being a battle against myself. So, that's what I set out to do. I went from Ryan's in downtown HB towards Laguna Beach. I can't even guess how many times I looked down at my computer to see how many miles I'd gone and thought, "That's it??" I realized at about 10 miles in that focusing on a certain number of miles for a new goal is great, but it shouldn't be about the distance. It should be about the effort you put into reaching that distance, and how you feel along the way. Cliche, I know... but it really is true. Even on a road bike. So at the 10 mile mark, I switched my computer over to Average MPH mode for good and left it there for about as long as I could resist. I actually had a lot of fun flying solo although it's always a lot more fun to ride with my boy, for sure.. But I was kind of excited to see what I was made of as I climbed the rolling hills that lead into Newport and Laguna- a bunch of them I've never climbed before and parts of them were brutal for me... just longer than the 2 ant hills I'm used to in HB and long beach. Side note- the further south I went, the more worried I got though because I didn't realize until about 7 or 8 miles into the ride that I had no spare tire or any gear to change a flat; Ryan took it off for a ride with his dad a few days before and I totally forgot to put it back on my bike, of course! Mental note- don't forget the spares next time, nerd. But anyway, I felt super strong... (shocker to me) so I was amped on doing a 35 miler!! Thennnn I got to Laguna. Ocean Avenue to be exact. And as if drivers in OC don't force you into the gutter enough as it is, coming up on Ocean in the heart of Laguna Beach.. well you might as well take up street sweeping while you're at it. That's what I felt like anyway. So I caved, and I looked down at my computer to see the distance I rode at that point and was somewhat satisfied with it but not totally- 16 miles. Not too shabby... but it wasn't 17.5. Welp, to sum it up, I decided to avoid the single track of a street and all it's oblivious drivers.. and headed home. But I went as fast as I could the whole way back to make up for what I knew would fall short of 35 miles. With all the climbing and stops I did, I ended up averaging 19 mph!! (When I ride with Ryan and his dad, their averages will usually be around 21 when mine will be around 18 after the same exact ride (mine counts everything but 0 mph when theirs stops counting at 10 mph or something). So I was excited. Definitely plan on doing that ride again soon.

Wow I just talked a lot about that when I totally didn't need to.....

The following Sunday (7/12) was my second and last workout of the week, and it was with Ryan, mountain biking through Aliso. He did a great recap of it here (I say great because he's so awesome the way he talks about our rides together :) and also because he actually knows the names of all the trails we ride, whereas I come on here to write about them, but end up saying stuff like, "we rode up that long, and like, really steep trail.. you know, that one that's got some rocks and stuff on it... and some trees) ok maybe not that bad, but I still need to get better at learning names of trails, for sure. Anyway we ended up riding up Cholla (Ryan timed me- 6 minutes I think. definitely gonna work on improving that but Ryan said that's a good time, so I'll believe him. haha) Then we headed down Rock It and up Mathis to the Top of the World. About half way up Mathis, I seriously wanted to puke. It was hot as hell and I didn't want to stop for water because I knew it would take me forever to get going again. Stupid I know, but true. But I looked ahead at Ryan and knew I couldn't stop; The fact that he did a century with Slater and some other guys the day before totally motivated me to finish... and definitely left me no excuses!! I stopped to catch my breath once but kept going til I reached the top... top of the world baby! I finally did it. I'd been wanting to for a while and when I finally got there, physically, it felt like shit, but mentally, it felt AWESOME. I will be back!!! I especially want to descend down what I think is called meadows again too, because I went down it like a grandma in a motorized cart for my first time. And I know it could be part of a really awesome trip back to the car. Next time!

Last Monday (7/13) marked the first day of a new training plan that Ryan set up for me. I told him I really need/want to get my endurance up and that I want to get stronger. I know those sound like extremely broad goals, but I've noticed that my endurance has been what's killed me at both mtb races. So we figured that was a priority, and that strength will naturally follow. Since I signed up for another triathlon, I'd like to focus on being ready for it (by ready I mean totally healthy and pain free as well as able to complete it without feeling held back primarily by my endurance level.. if I'm held back by a technical issue on my bike or because something weird happens, like a crazy steals my running shoes while I'm on my swim... basically if anything out of my control holds me back, I could care less in the end. But I don't want to finish another race saying, "god, I really need to get in better shape!!"). Anyway.. I want to be ready for the tri without neglecting any progress on my mountain bike and lastly, nurse my bad knees back into shape. Surprisingly, that's been my biggest challenge yet through all this...

So Monday (7/13) I was scheduled to run for just 10-15 minutes to start. 10-15 minutes... No problem, right? Yeah. Well I just made it to 10 before my right knee started locking up on me. I knew it would happen as it always does after a certain amount of time, but I didn't expect it to so soon after staying off off it for MONTHS now and trying to build the muscle around it with cycling and pilates. But it did, and all I can do is deal with it the best I know how... which I believe is giving it the right balance of training and trying to expand its limits, and rest/recovery.

Tuesday (7/14) had a 60-90 minute road ride for endurance lined up. No hard efforts, just meant to get the base miles in. So I went out for another solo ride up PCH towards Long Beach from Ryan's. I started out feeling great... Didn't realize how great I was actually feeling until I looked down and saw that my avg was 21 mpg at about 8 miles in! Knowing the head wind on the way back would be a downer to my average (it always is when I take that route in the morning- damn off-shore winds!!) I decided at that point to see if I could average 20 mph for the first time ever on that ride. Welp, to sum things up for the sake of what will be this massive post, I'm bummed to say that didn't happen... almost, but it didn't. Came in at 19-point-freaking-8 mph. I knew it was going to be on for my next endurance ride..

Wednesday (7/15) was my first time back in the pool for laps in a lonnnng time. And it showed. I did a single-paced 1000m and it took me about 45 minutes. I stopped a lot. In fact I don't think I did more than 100m one time, without taking a break before starting my next lap. Had to think to myself afterward, "Well, I can only go up from here, right??" :/ haha. Had another 10-15 minute run scheduled after this swim. I did it basically right after I got out of the pool, thinking I'd be much looser than Monday's run which would help, but I wasn't even a quarter of a mile in when it locked up on me this time. Yeahhhh that's all I have to say about that....

Thursday I had off but Friday was time for another ride. I decided to hold off a couple days before attempting the LB test again, and wanted to get a good climb or 2 in. Thought it might help my endurance more than a flatter ride to LB. So I took off south, down to Newport Coast Drive. I remembered the spare tube this time (yessss!) but TOTALLY forgot to ask Ryan to fix my gears... they've been having issues staying on the smallest 3 rings so climbing a 2 mile hill without them was just going to suck (noooo!). After riding 11 miles to get to Newport Coast, I thought, "Oh well.. time to suck it up and climb standing." So I did. I timed myself on the whole climb- got to the signal at the top in almost exactly 10 minutes. And since I always enjoy a climb a LOT more if I get to ride down it, that's what I did... and went back home at a solid pace. Was a pretty good ride in the end- 27 miles, 18 mph avg.

Took Saturday off to spend the day with my sister Val, who came in from Arizona for the weekend. Had a lot of fun riding beach cruisers around with her, Ryan, and my other sister Liz. Had an even better time seeing my sister Val try to hop up the curb in front of Ryan's apartment at the end of our ride... hahahha. Something to keep in mind- if someone you know is ever riding on a fat beach cruiser and says to you, "watch out, I'm gonna jump it!" then you LET THEM TRY!! Because when they don't even come close to making it, and you see their back wheel go a good 5 feet in the air, it is one of the most comical things you'll ever see. If you have a sense of humor that is. ;)

Sunday (7/19) I headed out to PCH again for another ride to get some more base miles in, this time with Ryan and his dad. I was really excited to ride with them because it has been a while and we always have a good time. They planned to do 50 miles and I only wanted to ride for 60-90 minutes. So since we went south for this one, I decided to do the same ride I did a few days before and go up Newport Coast. It was kinda bizarre to me how good I felt, riding with them, strength-wise. Usually I fall back several times, even though I AM always drafting behind Ryan and/or his dad when we ride together. But I didn't fall back once and it was sweet!! So when I got to Newport Coast I had a lot more energy conserved in me for the climb, which I wanted to time again. although I forgot again to ask Ryan to fix my chain/gears before we left!! crap... But I thought of forgetting as a good thing because I was forced to climb it the same way I did a few days before, leaving my strength as the only variable that could affect my time. Sure enough, I did it in 9 minutes that time.. a whole minute faster! Granted, I drafted basically the whole 11 miles there, but I still feel like it was a better effort which is always a good feeling to have.

This past week's training plan was structured almost identically to last week's, to get some more base training under my belt. Monday (7/21) I started off with a swim, and pushed my total up to 1300m- same pace as last week's swim. Nothing crazy.

Next up on Tuesday was another road ride. This time, my sister Liz and I decided to go to a spin class though. Liz is actually the one who talked me into the LB tri although she's only done one race herself, and she also managed to talk her boyfriend into doing his first triathlon this year (we're all doing the same one.. should be fun!). She's definitely on a health kick right now, trying to get back into working out, and since she doesn't have her own road bike yet the spin class was great for us to go to together as we train for this thing. Anyway it was just a fun class for me, especially with Liz and also with the old guys that go to that class every Tuesday and Thursday morning... they just sit in the back and talk crap on the instructor and each other. It's hilarious. So Liz and I definitely had fun time.

Wednesday was my day off from riding, but included a short run. So I hit the gym at lunch for my pilates class then went upstairs afterward to run on the treadmills (can't STAND treadmills, but I figure they're better for me to run on once in a while compared to concrete obviously or the uneven grassy trail right by my house). I ended up running a half a mile before my knee started hurting, but out of frustration I guess, I decided to run another half mile after walking for a few minutes. I always get so frustrated stopping after only a few minutes, and since it hasn't seemed to help lately, I wanted to try something different. The 2nd half hurt and I definitely finished it with a gimp, but I did. And I felt a whole lot better finishing the complete mile in a little pain this time, than to stop 1/4 or 1/2 of the way in because it hurt.

Thursday I hit the pool for some more laps. This time I figured I needed to start pushing myself to swim certain, longer distances without stopping. So before I started, I planned to do a 300m warm-up, 2 sets of 450m and a 300m cool-down.. all without stopping. Surprisingly, I made it and I actually didn't die too much! :) I also threw in a couple water sprints at the end to see if doing that would help loosen up my hip flexors (also a consistent problem for me, besides my IT band) and let me tell you, that crap was wayyy harder than I thought it would be! I only did 100m and my quads and everything were fine, but running in water was a bitch for my calves! They cramped like crazy, it was so unexpected. Kinda funny actually... :)

Friday was another road ride for endurance, and I definitely had not forgotten my goal to average 20 mph from Ryan's to Long Beach and back. I kept thinking about it throughout the week as "My Quest for 20" like it was the title of some really cheesy documentary that no one cared about. I don't even know why I just included that thought in here just now.... alright, so back to it.... :) I didn't want to kill myself too early and have no steam left to fight the head wind on the way back, and more importantly, I didn't want to force a dumb injury on myself because I didn't warm up. So I gradually increased my pace on my way to LB and found myself refusing to drop below 20 on the way there, no matter what. Well, of course, I hit every damn light there was. Seemed like it anyway. When I got to the street I turn around at, I looked down to see my average at 22. 22!! Hell yeah!! I was at 21 last time at this point, so being at 22 put me in a good spot for the ride back. sweet. I started off, going a little faster than I did the way back last time to leave any doubt behind me. I got to the the little climbs that go into Huntington Harbor and it hit me- I did exactly what I told myself not to as I warmed up; I gave it a little too much gas, too soon. My legs were just tired, riding up and over those stupid things. And I couldn't get my speed back up as I rode down them. Some guy flew past me a few minutes later, with about 6-7 miles to go. HUGE calves, some team jersey with a kit to match his bike perfectly... I knew he'd be pissed if some girl like me could hang with him, let alone pass him. So naturally, I tried to do both! :) I hate it when people are riding "slower than molasses in the dead of winter" as Ryan would say :) then see us fly past them, THEN start working by trying their hardest to keep up right behind us and on our wheels. So retarded to me. So I wasn't going to draft but try to use him as motivation to keep my pace up. And although he eventually left my sight, I guess it worked because I finished my ride with a 20.3 mph average! Woo hoo!!! Good times.

If you actually just read this entire post, thanks and.. sorry it was so long!!! Now that I have this blog going, I'll need to stay on top of updating it weekly instead of once a month, or just updating a little bit here and there as I go. Because super long posts that are just about training and not about the fun stuff at all are just lame. So no more of that from me!!

On Tap: Ryan will be racing up in Big Bear with James tomorrow for Rim Nordic #2 so that should be pretty awesome!! It's always fun cheering them on and it'll be cool to be Ryan's #1 fan again, this time without having to worry about my race. Been a while now since that's been the scenario. Training wise, well, we'll see what Ryan has in store for me next week. :)