Thursday afternoon through Friday evening was filled with 4 great workouts!
• Thursday, Nov 4th, 3:30 pm: Mountain Biking! I got done with class, grabbed my bike, and raced out to the Theo Wirth MTB trails.
Self-portrait with camera on car.
Normally, at Theo Wirth, my "default" workout is 1 loop on the short "B" trail, and 3 loops on the main "A" trail. That usually takes me about 1:20+. On Thursday, I wanted to do a LOT more than that.
I headed out on the "B" trail, and then did 3 loops on the "A" trail. The first loop was easy(ish). The second loop I wanted to be all out, so I started hard from the get-go.
Well, after 30 seconds, I had fallen off my bike TWICE and lost my bottle in the woods. (I found the bottle later, but not the chunk of skin torn from my shins.) Do'h. Fail. Then I did the third loop hard, but not all out. Here were my times:
First loop: 17:07
Second loop: 15:56 (my fastest loop EVER at Theo!)
Third loop: 16:46
After 3 loops on "A" at Theo. And yes, I'm aware that my helmet
straps are "weird" - they have been for 5 years. Mind of their own!
Then I did another loop on the small "B" loop, and then came back out for
TWO more loops on "A" before heading back to my car.
Fourth loop: 16:20
Fifth loop: 17:01
Part of the trail on my fifth loop.
Looking back from the same point above.
Geese in a pond. Minnesota in late fall: gross.
The little creek crossing.
Trail along the creek, next to the mini-waterfall.
When all was said and done, I had been mountain biking for
over 2 hours! I usually do 1 "B" loop and 3 "A" loops, but on Thursday I did 2 "B" loops and 5 "A" loops! I covered 20 miles on my bike, and nearly 16 miles of that was twisting single-track! Longest MTB ride EVER! I felt great! (Oh, and there's NOTHING special about my lap times. But I like to keep track so I can compare from year-to-year. I wonder how fast good riders can finish a loop at Theo...)
• Thursday, Nov 4th, 7:30 pm: Strength and Core. Pharmie went to the Y to swim, so I went for a killer strength workout. I did decent upper body, a fair amount for my legs, and good core work over 80 minutes!
• Friday, Nov 5th, 7:30 am: 2000 yards of swim drills. Julia asked if I wanted to come work on my technique with her. I figured I should, being she's always teasing me about my "giddy-up" kick. So we worked just on form / technique for a while. Here we are post-swim with nice goggle marks:
(Grey-haired photo-bomb.) We live less than a mile from the Mighty Mississippi, and I run along the river for most of my long / important runs. But I've only taken the off-road trails down to the water's edge in a few spots, so we thought we'd go exploring together. We ran about a mile of sidewalk / paved trail before heading off into the cliffs.
Standing by something that is important for some reason.
High water led to some tricky "running."
Smile!
Running downhill through the sumac.
[
Safety side note: Notice in those photos that it was getting dark. Also notice Pharmie's
stylish reflective vest. And note the Road ID on my wrist in the photo of me giving thumbs-up when mountain biking. We (as runners / bikers / etc) need to remember to stay safe out there. Someone e-mailed me last week asking if I could remind people to wear their reflective gear. She knew of 2 local runners who were just hit by a car on an early morning run on Friday. One of them died because of the accident, and it was someone she knows from the local race scene. That's horrible news. If it's dark, you NEED to make yourself visible. Pharmie and I wear this
super sexy vest if we'll be out around dusk. Please, be safe!]
Working our way over fallen stone.
Running up from right along the river.
Working her way STRAIGHT UP to meet up with where the paved trail starts.
As the sun was completely setting, we made our way to the paved trail. Running along that trail, Pharmie stopped and said "LOOK!" There was a red fox just 10 feet to my left! As soon as I tried to take it's photo, it started running off, so I only got a "butt shot:"
A long MTB ride, a good strength / core session, a swim full of drills, and some running with my hunnie: that's a nice stretch of off-season workouts!
Posts
6 comments:
Aw, great pictures and workouts! :) And thanks for the reminder about the safety stuff! it's so important!
Nice photos. The run along the Mississippi looks like a blast. Yes, definitely Reflecto-Vest time. Cheers!
Good point about the reflective accessories. We had two cyclists hit a couple of weeks ago at about 6am - one of them ended up dying from his injuries, the other is okay but very shaken by the loss of his best friend. To make matters worse, this was a hit-and-run. By all accounts the guys had full lights and were wearing reflective gear - but be safe out there.
Ok, I am chuckling at you in all of your warm weather gear when today I ran my track workout in booty shorts and a sports bra and did a bit of sunning on my back deck in a bikini earlier in the day.
Thanks for reminding people to wear their reflective gear and Road ID when they go out. Now that it is darker earlier in the day I have been going out with reflective bands around my ankles and a reflective race belt around my waist. I wear 3 blinky lights. 2 on the front (one at hip level and one at boob level) and 1 on the back attached to the race belt. I also have a roll of reflective tape that I can cut pieces off of and slap on my tops or shirts if they do not have a reflective stripe or stitching.
After my friend who was supposed to race IM Arizona this weekend was killed when he was hit by a driver on his early run in September, I have been extra careful to make sure that I can be seen on the road in low light conditions.
Who let Spencer Pratt on a mountain bike? Your flesh-colored beard is disturbing. Glad you got a good trail run in.
Nice stuff here. Enjoyed reading the post.
Post a Comment