Sunday, August 8, 2010

So-called bricks

64 miles bike, 2 miles run, 2.5 miles bike

This is what I did today. I have read a post by Running, Tri-ing and Living and got inspired.
It sounds so challenging, hard, dreadful, sweaty...I needed to try that!!!! I wanted to know how running feels after more than 60 miles on a bike.

No judging please. I know that Running, Tri-ing and Living is hard-core training for a Half Ironman race at the end of August and I am not and one should never do anything what more advanced people do. But I do not have any responsibilities, so I can do silly things.

So 64 miles on bike followed by a 2 mile run it was. I did 34 miles out and back on a trail and headed directly to the track to do a run.
1-4 miles: on streets to get to Clinton river trail
5-10: Clinton river trail- fine gravel
10-22: Macomb Orchard trail- paved part. Amazing.
23-32: Macomb Orchard trail- unpaved part. This was horrible. It was pretty large gravel and so hard to bike on it. Like running in sand. I biked like crazy but did not move forward. And I could not do any sudden movements because then bike would just go where it wanted to go not where I wanted it to go.
33-34: Macomb Orchard trail- paved part. There was the end of the trail. I refilled my water bottle and turned around feeling pretty good, starting to get hungry.
Unpaved part again, followed by the paved one where I felt like FLYING! After hard and useless effort on gravel, it felt awesome to be on a pavement again.
I left the trail after 61 miles to go the track. And there was a hill. It is no biggie usually, but after 61 miles...I kept telling myself: "Com'n, only 2 more miles and you can get off this torture machine (aka bike) and run for a bit". Man, that's comforting...

I was really thirsty by the time I got to the track. But I can do it! I started very slowly, you know jello legs... But it got much better after two laps. First mile was at around 8:30ish place, 2nd at 8 min pace. I felt pretty good (except for being thirsty and hungry) but I am not sure for how long I would be able to continue like that (definitely not for another 11 miles).

Too bad I had to bike another 2,5 miles to my place but it was ok. My legs kinda loosened up during the run.

I got home, ate (more peanut butter that anyone would consider healthy), showered and went to the pool. I did not swim, I just splashed around to loosen up quads and neck muscles (they are killing me on this stupid bike)

Things I have learnt today:
1, I need more water here that I needed in Europe. Back there I was able to run 20 miles without drinking anything. Here I cannot even bike 20 miles without drinking. Humidity...

2, Something does not sit right in that bottom bracket. Last weekend when I was biking there were couple pretty bad noises and I though that it is breaking down completely. But then I realized next day that those noises disappeared. Until today. I had to stop and then start biking again and the bike was on a high gear and as I started peddaling and there was one loud noise and then popping noises started again. So annoying. So now, I need to try to do something so it falls into place again.

3, Next time I decide to do something this silly I will take at least a banana with me. I am sure that my poor body fed on my poor muscles to get energy. But since I do not have any eating self-control I know I would have eaten that banana after 4 miles and end up starving anyway. All I could think about last 20 miles was what I was going to eat when I get home. I constructed a meal in my head: tuna sandwich, banana milk shake and nectarine with peanut butter. I ate those tuna sandwiches and nectarine with peanut butter but after I drank 3 glasses of mixed mineral water, tap water and orange juice I had no desire to drink anything else.

All in all, it was fun and I might try that again. Maybe I will even start training for a triathlon in a near feature:)

2 comments:

  1. The only silly thing you said was that you should be training for something if you want to bike for that long. I totally disagree an think it's cool you just want to be in great shape and explore on your bike! And it is just so much fun to mix running and biking. But are you really saying you did all that without drinking anything??!! Don't you have a water bottle holder on your bike!?

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  2. OMG, wow, you need to do a triathlon. Can you swim? Great job, and I agree, you need some food on the ride!

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