Why not take a traffic cone with you?

Tonight's workout was a fast interval bike ride that was a special request by my friend Britt, the traffic cone!  Britt is training for Ironman Wisconsin in 9 weeks and normally doesn't dress like a traffic cone but today was a special day and she did! She works with a coach and gets workouts every week and sometimes asks for company on them. 

Is that a traffic cone? Nope, just Britt!

Her coach had prescribed 8 x 5 min at hard effort with a 2 min recovery between.  Kyla, AJ, and I all were able to join her and none of us has been doing interval work on the bike that much.  One thing is for certain with interval workouts...they are always easier when you have company and you always work harder when you have company pushing you.  Another thing that might be certain is how sore we will all be tomorrow!

Really, my friends aren't in the Witness Protection Program. I swear!

We started out by riding through town as our warmup.  We decided that once we passed the Home Office we would be on roads that would be okay to start our intervals.  Truly we were still in town in some neighborhoods so our first 2 intervals were a little slower since we had hills, turns, and stops to navigate. 

Speed over time...you can see a definite jump during the hard efforts. Some hills were thrown into the 1st two which is why I didn't hold consistent speed on them.

Once we were out on the highway it was much easier to do the intervals.  We had a nice wide shoulder to work with and the road is mostly flat with very small inclines.  We did 3 more intervals heading out of town so that we would only have to do 3 intervals once we turned to head back.  This helped us so that our final interval didn't have to be in a neighborhood!

Overall, the intervals were tough especially when we had a headwind.  Just before our turnaround, we saw a friend of mine pass by. He and his riding partner had a minute or two headstart on us and I wanted so very bad to catch them.  It took all three intervals that we had left to do it, but Kyla and I did finally catch them with 1 minute to go on our very last interval! Persistence pays off!

One thing I didn't like about the ride was that there wasn't any time to be social.  During the intervals we were all working way too hard to try and have a conversation.  And 2 minutes recovery time isn't enough time to tell a complete story.  We were all so glad to be done with the hard efforts and we took a nice leisurely pace to finish up the remaining 6 miles. 

We finished up at the Bentonville square and met up with some of our running friends for dinner outside.  They had already finished up eating by the time we got there.  We made it to the coffee shop with 10 minutes to spare before they closed.  Just enough time to order a sandwich and lemonade.  It was nice to sit outside for a few minutes and catch up with friends. 

The day I took my bike on a hike

Every so often I join up with the Bentonville Women's Bike Group for bike rides.  Last Thursday was one of the nights when my schedule worked out to join up with the group.  It was super hot...super hot that night.  I had put in a request for a route that we hadn't done in a while which included a long section in shade. 

Three of us ended up on the longer route and a group of six or so ended up on the shorter more casual ride.  We headed out of town and within a couple miles I could tell that something major was wrong with my beloved Koi Bear (that would be my bike!)  I could shift just fine but there wasn't any tension on the gears and I was pedaling with a super high cadence which isn't my normal style.  It wasn't too bad so I kept going.  

Our route winds through some residential neighborhoods in order to avoid a section of highway that is pretty busy after work.  It lets us skip some of the more dangerous parts of the highway and still get in decent riding.  As we were making our way through one neighborhood I saw a funny sign.  It read something about "Find a new Shortcut, this is our home where kids play."  I took it to mean that cars are bothering this section of the homeowners but that bikes were cool.  Well, bikes weren't mentioned on the sign so I decided for myself that we were cool!

We soon were on the highway and relatively flat ground.  The high cadence wasn't working for me so I switched up to my big ring and still had a high cadence while pedaling. Not a good sign! We made it to Hiwassee which is a normal stopping point to allow people to regroup.  We took the time to hydrate...the heat was crazy!

Erin, me, and AJ

We made our turn to continue the route and saw a bad sign...Road Closed! We decided to go ahead and pedal along to see whether the route was salvageable.  About 1/2 mile down the road we came upon the road construction.  They are building a bypass and had torn out part of the road we were on for a new overpass that is being added.  We decided that we could easily hike our bikes across the dirt and so we did. 

Construction...no problem!

It was well worth it since we got 5 miles of shady road to enjoy for the route! After our sojourn in the shade we made a pitstop to refill our water bottles at a gas station.  I bought each of us a $1 lottery scratcher but sadly none of us had winning tickets. 

We finished up the route back at the square and saw several friends hanging out finishing up dinner.  They yelled out that there was leftover carrot cake and with those magic words we headed over to join the table.  It was great to hang out and enjoy the cooler temps as the sun went down and cap off a great ride. 

The next day I took my bike into the shop for repair...the diagnosis was a super stretched out chain.  It had even done some damage to my cassette.  Not cool but having a great bike mechanic who takes care of you makes it all better! I'm still looking into what to do about my cassette.  I think I'll replace it in the next few weeks but I need to check in with my mechanic to find out if we'll have to special order it since I like the gearing options I currently have. 

A Little Biking Fun

Sunday I met up with some friends to ride the upcoming Shark Sprint bike course.  This course includes a really tough hill and I always like to get in a couple practice runs on the course before the race. 

AJ, Britt, Maja, and Me

We started off at 8AM and it was already pretty warm out.  The first four miles of the course seem like a constant uphill and that is made more difficult since your legs aren't warmed up at all.  We each took our own pace to get started but stayed pretty close together.  By mile 5 we were in a flatter section of the course and all together.  The fun thing about riding with friends is that the conversation and laughter make the time fly by!

We hit the big hill and I got into my granny gear and slowly pedaled my way to the top.  It was a tough ascent and it quickly made me change the route plans for our second tour of the course.  Instead of doing two loops we modified the second loop to cut out the massive hill.  One friend needed a little longer ride so she did the full loop.  We parted ways after a little break full of random topics including the best idea ever for how to turn your bike into art.  AJ and Maja came up with a brilliant idea to frame your bike on the wall so you have beautiful art and storage!

Also during our break, AJ treated us to her prime number song.  Looking back I don't remember why prime numbers were part of the conversation but it was a fun musical treat. 

As we headed back towards our starting point we were discussing more random topics and saw a truck approaching us.  In the road, there was a squirrel between us and the truck.  The poor squirrel proceeded to go crazy with indecision.  It couldn't decide where to go with the truck coming towards it and the three of us coming from the opposite direction.  It was one of those awesome animal moments that you can only witness as an athlete. 

We finished up the ride with a few miles of fast paced riding to have a strong finish.  I originally had wanted to swim after the bike ride but instead we just stood in the lake and cooled off.  The water was cool and the perfect way to finish.  It could only have been better if we had planned ahead and brought some post workout snacks since we were all pretty hungry. 

Weekend Wrap Up

Saturday morning I kicked off the weekend with a long run of 9 miles.  The skies were slightly overcast for the start which made a huge difference in the temps.  About 4 miles into the run, the sun broke through the clouds and the heat was on!

I finished up my run by visiting the local water park for some stretching and maybe I dipped my head in the jets too!

Thanks to the city of Bentonville for such a great addition to our city this year.  The water park converts into a small ice rink in the winter and water park in the summer.  It's a great place to finish up a hot run. 

Sunday I had a brick workout planned.  There were some rainstorms during the early morning hours and my bike plans fell through.  I wasn't as worried about the roads and wanted to keep my plans for doing the workout in the morning.  I texted Kyla to see if she wanted to join me for part of the ride.  Kyla joined me for a roundtrip visit to Hiwassee.  It was nice to have company for the first 17 miles of my 40 miles.  After dropping Kyla off, I headed back to Hiwassee and then tacked on a few more miles to get to my 40 total. 

One of my favorite parts of this route is that we pass a horse farm.  Normally I just say Hi as we ride by the horses but after pedaling into the headwind I decided to take a little stop.  I needed to switch my water bottles so the one that was more full was in the front cage. 

I had a nice chat with the horses and told this friendly horse that I only had 4 miles left to ride.  After that, he turned away as if to say "get your butt back in gear and stop dilly dallying!"  

After finishing up the ride, I suited up with my water belt to do a 3-4 mile run.  It was now quite warm out and there was no shade to be found.  I took some walk breaks...admittedly more than I wanted to but I kept myself going and ended up doing 3.35 miles. 

On my drive home I planned out my recovery.  First up was a stop to buy ice for an ice bath.  As I was walking into Walgreens, I stopped at the RedBox and rented the Adam Sandler movie Just Go With It.  My next stop was at Sonic for some eats since I was super hungry.  I took a quick shower to get the road grime off of me and then started the ice bath process.  After that I curled up on the couch with my compression socks and watched my movie.

Later it was time for Sunday Funday at the pool.  I met up with Team Tininenko (Brent and his daughters Lauren and Alexa), Jeff, Kyla, and AJ at the pool.  We took over the lap swimming lanes with our crew. 

We started out with a nice easy 400 m warmup.  Then we did 8 x 50 of over/unders.  Over/unders should actually be called Under/Overs because you swim underwater with one breath for 25m then you do an over water 25 m recovery (usually back stroke.)  The pool is really warm which makes these pretty difficult since the water just isn't that fast.  Jeff picked out the next set which was a ladder with mixed stroke work.  It went 25 fly, 50 fly back, 75, fly back breast, 100 IM, 150 free, stroke, free, 200 all free, and then back down.  Brent was in charge of the time during this ladder and he killed me.  I had to drop back on some of the longer distances because I was struggling to keep up and recover in the time allotted. Our final set was 10 x 50m with breathing drills on the odds and swim on the evens. 

We couldn't have Sunday Funday without a trip down the water slide.  It's a great way to end a weekend full of workouts!

Hillapalooza

Last week the weather impacted my training in a way that let me feel like a "Hoss" for a day or two because I ended up with a two-day Hillapalooza!!!

Elevation graphs of my two days of hill repeats!

 I wanted to get a bike ride in on Thursday since I am trying to up my bike mileage to get ready for triathlon season.  I sent out a note to my friends to see if anyone else was up for a ride.  There was a 30% chance of rain forecasted but my friend Kyla said she would join me.  We talked about in the event of the weather looking rough I should bring my trainer and we could ride the trainers together but my post-work brain didn't think to pack the trainer in the car.

I got to Kyla's house to start the ride and you could hear the rumble of thunder in the distance.  We checked the radar on our phones and figured that we had a small window of opportunity to ride before the storms arrived.  Kyla suggested that we do hill repeats which would keep us fairly close to her house in the event that the weather picked up speed.  Reluctantly I agreed...hills are not my strong suit which is why I should be doing hill repeats!
Sneaky Kyla getting me to work on my weaknesses and try to build my confidence.

We started out with an up and over of the hill and then decided to just do the front side of the hill instead of doing more up and overs.  Our running coach has always stressed that hill repeats should be done in even increments so we had to do an even number and yes we counted our final hill climb at the end of the ride as one of our repeats. Throughout the ride there was thunder and even a little lightning but nothing too dangerous.  We were so close to having perfect timing...we had just finished our final hill climb on our way back to Kyla's house with maybe 1 mile to go.  The rain started as an intense downpour and a few big wind gusts to accompany the rain.  That is definitely a tough way to end the workout and for an added bonus our running coach happened to drive by right then and saw us.  He told me I look terrified which is true mostly because he saw us at a spot where a truck had parked in the street and he was slowing to pass them.  We were coming from the opposite direction and were waiting for him to pass so that we could pass the parked truck.  Well, he was taking his time in passing and I was praying that I wouldn't have to unclip in the downpour since I'm still getting used to my new pedals!

Our Motley hill crew: Matt, Jon, Nikki, Me, Robert, and Carolyn

Friday is our hill repeat night for Rush Running and every week we head to a different hill for the workout.  This week, Mike selected a hill in the neighborhood of Avignon.  It is a really nice neighborhood with really pretty houses but when doing hill repeats you don't seem to notice your surroundings.  The group was small with just six of us but we still had fun cheering each other on.  The hill was really steep as you can see from the elevation chart above but not too long.  Each repeat was about 1/3 mile for total distance up and down. The prescribed workout was do to 8-10 repeats.  I had to step down a little and shorten the hill for half of my repeats.  Mike tricked me into doing a distance of 2/3 of the hill versus the 1/2 of the hill I was agreeing to do.  Sneaky Mike!

Two days of hill repeats equals one tired girl.  My legs took 4 miles to get warmed up on Saturday for my long run where I may have repaid the favor to Kyla and tricked her into accompanying me for 8 miles instead of the 6 miles we had agreed to.  Oopsy! It was great to feel like a "Hoss" for two days but my lesson learned was that it's important to give the legs some rest which I did on Sunday with a total rest day. 

Big Ride Kickoff

Today was the kickoff for The Big Ride which is a weekly group ride hosted by one of the local cycling clubs and my favorite bike shop.  The ride began on the downtown square and was supposed to start with a ceremonial tour of the downtown area with the mayor.  My friend Mandy and I decided to sneak out of the group before that and headed out on our own.  We were meeting another friend to ride at a stop along the route and didn't want her to have to wait too long for us. 

Pauline, Mandy, and Me

We picked up Pauline and then headed out for the ride.  Mandy is just coming back from a knee surgery so she was only taking a one way ride while Pauline and I were in for the round trip.  We had parked Mandy's car at the turn around point and did she luck out with a nice downhill finish.  It was a gorgeous day and the three of us enjoyed the company and had a nice pleasant ride. 

I ended up with 36 miles which was a little more than I was hoping for the day.  I also ended up with a little after effect from the ride.  My first sunburn of the season:( I completely forgot to put on sunscreen this morning and ended up with crisp burn lines from my jersey and my bike shorts.  Whoops!  

A New Do!

Sorry, I can't get the picture to rotate:(

I just picked up my bike from the shop for a much overdue tune-up.  Doesn't she look pretty with the new handlebar wrap I picked out?!?!?  Yep, that is a two-tone wrap job that my bike shop has started to do.  I don't think they enjoy doing it but isn't it worth it for such a fun look! I can't wait to try out the new pedals with our big bike ride tomorrow.  Off to run a 5K tonight. 

HAPPY WEEKEND TO YOU!!!

Frost Bike Race Recap

I headed to Carthage, Missouri this afternoon for a 20 mile time trial style bike race.  The race is part of the Rufus Racing Ruthless Series, however, Mother Nature did not cooperate with the race founders.  The race was intended to be done in the dead of winter and earn the name Frost Bike.  Mind you, I would not have done the race under those circumstances! We have had a beautiful week with temps ranging in the mid-60's so with a little prodding via Facebook announcements I decided to do the race.  I'm a total race swag fan and the cool keychain swag had me sold (once I knew the weather would be warm, that is!)

So much better than a t-shirt!

The race was set up with a time trial start. Racers started every 10 second from a complete stop with one foot on the ground.  Some friends of mine (Brent and Cole - a father/son duo) also participated in the race.  I was rider number 25 and they were 63 and 64 so I got quite the head start on them. 

Cole and I before the race...check out his bike with star rims!

The start was straight into a headwind for a short distance.  Honestly since I wasn't from the area the race course was a complete mystery to me.  It was very pretty for the most part with the course going on country roads with little traffic.  The downside to country roads are rolling hills.  I found out the course elevation chart on Map My Ride was not accurate.   

Race start

 The race was uneventful for the most part.  I spent a lot of the ride wondering when Brent and Cole would catch up to me.  I kept ahead of them until around mile 10 and 12 respectively.  They had a little competition going between them.  Cole, the son, was riding a single speed bike that he has just finished restoring.  His dad was riding his regular road bike with gears and it sounded like some trash talking had been going on between the two! Brent was rider 63 and caught up to me first.  He told me I should tell Cole that he was way ahead of me:) Unfortunately we were on an out-and-back section of the course so I couldn't mislead Cole. Also of note, Cole was racing in jean shorts or jorts over his bike shorts and had Vans shoes on!

While the temperatures weren't as frosty as the race organizers would have hoped, the wind was out of this world.  The wind was steady at probably 10-15mph with gusts up to 30-40mph.  There were sections of the course that were directly into the wind and you could just feel your bike slowing.  The cross wind was also a little tough but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Cole, Me, and Brent after the race

 I finished up the race in 1 hour 11 minutes 7 seconds.  This calculated out to a 16.87mph average pace and 8 out of 17 for females.  I was pretty pleased with my performance given the rolling hills on the course and the stiff wind.  For the family competition, Brent ended up with the win and a 20.8mph average to Cole's 20.2mph average.

Going into this race, I was worried that I wouldn't remember how to ride outside since I haven't had my bike off the trainer since November.  I guess it's true...you never forget how to ride a bike!