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May 20, 2006
Bricking It
'Tis the season for cross-training. It's so beautiful here in Yellowstone National Park that I think one would have to duct tape me to my couch to get me to stay inside. Today it was a gorgeous 80 or so degrees. I can't ask for anything more.
In the early afternoon, I road biked to Swan Lake Flats from my house. It's all a windy, curvy, decent grade uphill, through a series of places with funny names like the Lower and Upper Terraces (These are hot springs and their associated delicate calcium carbonate terraces featured in a rainbow of colors.), the Hoodoos (The Hoodoos is a huge boulder field below a big cliff. The road winds through the boulder field and it's all surreal and kind of creepy in there.), the Golden Gate (Here, the road is attached to a cliff face, I'm not really sure how, it's kind of a bridge, and it crawls through a golden rocked canyon complete with a waterfall.), to Swan Lake Flats (Appropriately named for a lake often populated by nesting swans in the summer.). On the way out, uphill and into a pretty staunch headwind, was a challenge in keeping oneself just under that redlining threshold and right at that feeling where you're giving it about all you've got. On the way down, with the wind, was like some sort of adrenaline junkie's heaven. Near the bottom, where the downhill is less steep, there's a sign that tells you how fast you're going, and it read 42 mph when I went by (The car in front of me read 36 mph going by the same sign.). I wonder how fast I was going up in the steeper stuff. This ride was about 65 minutes long, and I can't recall the mileage.
Then, after a bit of a break, I went for a run, making this afternoon an unintentional brick workout. I kind of liken running after road biking to trying to cool down after a short, fast race. Your legs are all jelly-like and you know they're moving under you, but you can't particularly feel them. And you don't have much control over them, so you can't get them to do much else other than to move forward at a moderate pace. I ran 5 miles.
And now, I go to work. 12 hours of night shifting it. The park is busy, full of tourists who make my job hectic, exciting, and exhausting. The summer season is assuredly here, from both a play and work perspective. And I'm thrilled.
Tomorrow: a review of my first backpacking trip of the summer in Yellowstone, and the details of the somewhat idiotic racing decision that I've made.
Posted by Meghan at May 20, 2006 4:59 PM
Comments
Alfred Lansing's "Endurance" ring a bell? I just picked it up...
Posted by: corrado giambalvo at May 21, 2006 2:15 PM