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October 25, 2007
What Wind?
So today I had off work and I was pretty excited about the whole situation because I had not one appointment or other committment all day long! No meetings with the dentist, vet, chiropractor. No need to go to the grocery store or get the car serviced or get my hair cut. No where to be at no particular time. Of course I still had my training to do, laundry, ironing, other assorted odds and ends but no schedule per se. Very nice. Very, very nice.
So I slept in. I had an alarm set but turned it off figuring this no schedule thing is a rare occurence and I should take full advantage. I got up around 7:15 - a nice 9 hour night. Sweet.
First, off to the pool for a pool running workout. It was 62 min total and I am proud to tell you I finally succeeded in getting my HR up over 160. Those of you that are pool running veterns know that that is a very hard thing to do. And I really had to work to do it. I was sweating like crazy (also hard to do when one is in a relatively cold body of water)!
Afterwards I came home for some breakfast and about 30 minutes of waiting for it to warm up some. I wanted it to be at least 50 before I set off for my ride. But I got bored and anxious so around 10:15 I took off on my 1:50 ride when it was still 49 degrees. :)
I was only cold for about 30 minutes but I also put on lots of clothes (still just shorts though) so I was prepared. I headed out on one of my normal routes and instantly noted a strong tailwind. When one actually notices a tailwind one can only assume that they are in deep trouble when they turn around and get the beastly headwind that accompanies it.
Now I know I've gotten stronger on the bike, especially longer rides, but I also know that riding 25 MPH on the flats with my HR in the low 130s is not going to happen without the help of a very strong push. Maybe one day I won't need the wind to accomplish this kind of cycing - but for now? Tailwind required. Yeah - so as I was nearing the time when I needed to turn around (and believe you me I was definitely going to give myself much more time to get back given aforementioned wind) I started to wonder if there was any other way home that wouldn't require heading back in the direction I just came. Now I'm not a geography genius (I once tried to convince O that Minnesota was closer to Pennsylvania than Wisconsin) but I am smart enough to know that there was no avoiding that headwind.
And boy was it ever beastly. Those same flats that I was easily rolling along at 25 MPH were now feeling all uphill at a quick 9 MPH. Oh. My. And I wasn't allowed to let me HR get up over 150 so it was some slow going for a while. When the wind would die down for ever so slightly a moment it would feel like I had a huge tailwind again! There were also some beastly crosswinds that almost tossed me from my bike a few times. Good thing I went for the road bike today because I don't think I would have been in the aero position too much on my TT. :)
But I finally made it home and all was well. Training for windy conditions - CHECK!
I've been relatively productive the rest of the day and am now waiting for O to get home from his cross country meet - the district championships that qualify teams for states. He called to update me that the girls team qualified and the boys team was up next... News to follow!
Posted by beth at October 25, 2007 5:05 PM
Comments
Congrats to O's girls! And, by the sounds of his boys team in your earlier entries, they should qualify easily! Good luck to them!
Meghan
Posted by: Meghan at October 25, 2007 8:21 PM
What years were you on the x-c team at PSU...i'm a fellow PSU runner too:)
Posted by: at October 26, 2007 1:18 PM
What years were you on the x-c team at PSU...i'm a fellow PSU runner too:)
Posted by: at October 26, 2007 1:18 PM
I ran from the fall of 1997 to the spring of 2001. Did we overlap?
Posted by: Beth at October 26, 2007 4:36 PM
You ar just a young pup!! I was there 1987-1992!
Posted by: at October 28, 2007 12:16 PM