Bicycling Through The Heat

Mike -- don't feel bad about your run yesterday...the heat was simply amazing! This week, I'm trying out riding my bicycle the 11.5 miles into work. Monday I got in the round trip (42 mintues/15.4 mph inbound, 54 minutes/12.8 mph homebound, which is into the wind and during the 100 degree heat). Bicycling generates its own face wind, so it's tolerable in the heat. Yesterday I loaded my bike in my SUV and drove in so I could run errands and then I biked home. Today I doing the reverse, having left my car overnight at work yesterday. Over time, I'm thinking I should be able to get in 2-3 roundtrip commutes per week, which would give me 2-3 days of 2aday workouts!

Back to the heat: my two home bound rides into the heat have certainly been challenging -- yesterday was more effort and took me a minute longer. I simply don't care for the heavy air/poor air quality we get at 5:30 pm in 100 degree heat. But the bike rides are worth it -- I'm sitting on 4 workouts of 44-55 minutes each and its only Wednesday morning! Yeah!

Like Rob's earlier posting, I'm thinking that bicycling may be a great way to work through the 4 weeks or so of peak heat we seem to get every year. -- Bill

Torture!

Since I had no trouble with my four miler last week, and since Brandon and I didn't get to go on our 50 mile bike ride, I decided to run a six miler today. My plan was to just take it easy and get in the miles. Well, after mile two I realized it just wasn't going to happen. I was already hot and it wasn't getting any better. I walked 15-20 seconds after each mile and a minute and 10 seconds at the beginning of mile five. That mile five was a real struggle to keep moving. Total time 55:55. Mile one 12:06, two 10:50, three, 10:41, four, 10:36, and mile five 11:41....Mike

Surprise, Surprise!

Mindy called me yesterday and wanted me to run with Brandon in a 5k next Saturday at Deanna Rose Farm. His cross country coach wants the boys to experience a 5k in order to get used to that distance. I agreed to run with him, but was pretty apprehensive since I've been having so much trouble lately with the hips. Well, I think all the biking with Rob is paying off! I decided to just run a very easy four miler this morning. My thinking was that if I can get through four miles, I can run a 5k at a moderate speed of maybe around 10:00 to 10:30 pace.

I started with a warm up mile at 12:14, mile two was 11:35, mile three 9:30, and mile four was 8:54. I know that's not fast by our race standards but since I haven't ran anything much lately it was off the charts for me! I felt just great the last two miles! Hopefully, I'm back!......Mike

P.S. Brandon and I are headed for the Katy Trail in Rocheport next Tuesday to bike 50 miles. He needs to get his 50 mile cycling merit badge.

Near Death!

Since becoming a biking fanatic,
Rob's skills have become quite eratic
Took his eye off the trail,
Nearly crashed on his tail,
But his recovery was really dramatic!

Rob Forgot To Mention!!

Rob forgot to mention that during our 40.15 mile ride at Smithville this morning, we both had a near crash. I was going too fast and mis-negotiated a sharp turn. I saw that Rob, who was about 25 yards in front of me, didn't have any trouble with it, but I didn't realize it, until it was too late that I was actually going faster than him! I rode right into the grass and just hung on. Just happy that the grass wasn't wet or I would have been part of the turf. However, Rob had a closer shave with near death than I did! We were riding along at about a 15 mph clip when Rob turned to say something to me. Well, he should have taken a quick peek at the trail to see if he could afford the 5 seconds of turning his head from the trail. All of a sudden, Robbie was off the trail in the middle of a sharp turn. The shoulder, if you want to call rutted and slanted ground a shoulder, was not an ally of poor Robbie! He stuck his legs out from his bike and I'll I could see was the similarity between him and a cowboy riding "Thunder" the Brahma Bull! He hung on for the full 8 seconds and won first prize in the catagory of "I didn't die today!"

All in all, it was a good ride and we beat the hottest part of the day.......Mike

The longest ride

We picked the hottest day of the year to do our longest ride yet, and it turned out just fine. Mike and I kept the pace down because of the heat and humidity, and because we knew we had a long way to go. Since it was a weekday, there were very few people at the lake or on the trail, which meant we didn't have to be so wary all the time. I think we only came across a total of maybe 6 other people all morning. It was probably just under 80 when we started, and it was 90 in the shade when I got home, so it was heating up pretty good. High temp today is expected to go over 100. Happily, we won't be out in that.

My GPS tells me I burned 1,950 calories on the ride. I don't know how true that is, but I'll take it, along with a great big cookie.

40.26 miles in 3:13:16, for a 12.5mph average. --Rob

Long and hot

For whatever reason I decided I wanted to ride 30 miles today, even though I couldn't get out on the road until the sun was right over head. It was getting pretty hot and humid, but I had plenty of hydration and figured I'd just keep moving so I'd always have some wind in my face.

Once I got going I revised my distance plan and set my sights on Dearborn, which would add a bit over 3 miles to my total mileage. I covered the 16.69 miles to Dearborn in 58:30, or a tad over 17 mph average. There was a light breeze, and it was at my back, which was very helpful as it turned out.

That light breeze, so helpful on the way out, was quicksand on the way back. It opposed me all the way. I can't remember coasting at all coming back (maybe it wasn't such a light breeze, after all). Anyway, with the heat and humidity, and the wind, my pace slowed considerably and my overall average dipped to 15 for the whole ride, still pretty good. I stopped twice on the way back to drink and rest briefly, and I was plenty worn out at the end. But, it was a real good workout, burned a bunch of calories, and added 33.39 miles to my log. -- Rob