Sheathed in Lycra

As a runner, I always loved biking to cross-train. Now that I've embarked on the insanity that is the "Ride to Read" though, my running has taken a back-seat to biking. In the past three months, I've cycled 274 miles and run 24.

So obviously, I haven't been training for any fall races, including the half that I had been planning on.

But that's ok. I like getting involved in another sport. There's still a part of me that wants to hit the pavement running as soon as the Ride to Read is over, but in the past couple of weeks, I've increased the distance I can bike at one time by double. I keep going further and making more steps towards being ready for the 60-mile ride. I had started out on a mountain bike, and while I knew that it wasn't as efficient as it could be, I gave it my best and pushed myself to perform. This past week, a friend lent me her road bike to use for the ride, and I've been adjusting to it. Road bikes place more weight forward on your hands and wrists, and the handlebars are shaped differently, in addition to the obvious difference that the tires are about half the size of mountain bike tires. I'm practicing, though, and am planning on riding over 50 miles tomorrow. I'm at the point now where 20 miles is an easy after-work ride, so I'm not worried about it. In fact, I'm excited to keep making progress. After the Ride to Read, I am going to continue riding and work my way up to using clipless pedals. Of course, that will be as I get back into running.

On the running front, I'm going to do a hounds and harriers run with my fiancé's German Shepherd in October. Her name is Anna, and I can't wait to do some trail running with her. I went for a very short hike with her last week, and I ran a little bit on the trail and was immediately drawn to that old feeling of flying over rocks and roots, jumping over logs and nimbly fleeting over the ground. I can't wait to spend more time out on trails like that.

In the meantime, I'll keep pedaling!

1 Librarian. 4 Libraries. 60 Miles.

1 Librarian. 4 Libraries. 60 Miles. That librarian is me, and I'll be cycling to each branch of my library to raise money for a new main building.

This is a fundraiser I've organized for work, where I am the staff member who works with the Friends of the Library (the fundraising group). We will be moving into a new main library building next spring, but there is a lot that needs to go into it - literally. Besides bookshelves and desks, a library needs comfortable chairs for curling up with a good book in, and study carrels for students, and fun furniture in the children's and teen areas. To purchase these things, we need to fundraise, and I knew that it would be up to me to organize something.

I thought about endurance events where I could run really far and have people sponsor me. I formulated a plan where I would travel to each branch of the library (it's a county system with 4 branches) and end at the new building. Due to the distance that would take (60 miles), I knew that I would have to bike it. And so the Ride to Read was born. It will be held on September 19th, and I'm hoping to raise $5,000 for it.

I have a blog dedicated specifically to the Ride to Read (http://ridetoread.blogspot.com) which records my training and has all of the sponsorship information.

I'm serious about training for this. I am motivated as I haven't been in ages. I am supplementing the riding with total-body circuit workouts courtesy of Jillian Michaels' Ripped in 30 DVD, which I hope will build and round out the foundational strength I need. It's a chance to get back to that fitness level where I could keep up with the fast runners at a 5K and feel strong, nimble, fast, and just good all around.

I took pictures and measurements of myself at the start of training, because there is pudge creeping up in my tummy, back, hips, and thighs. It's time to nip all of that in the bud, get healthy, get to know my bicycle better than I ever have before, and to raise money for my library.

I feel a little daunted by the distance. I've never ridden more than 25 miles. I'm not a "real" cyclist. I didn't even know the proper way to mount and dismount the bike until a few weeks ago. But I'm determined to do it and learn along the way. It will make me a better rider, runner, and a healthier person, and maybe it will inspire some other people along the way.

If you're interested in supporting my ride, please visit the Ride to Read blog, and feel free to share the link with others!

Thank you, and stay tuned for updates!

Party in O'burg!

This Saturday, I'll be running the O'burg 5K with 3 friends. We're not running as a team or anything, but it will still be fun to be there with friends. I don't have any big goals for this race - just to run with a time comparable to past times.

Another race came up for the following week that I'd like to do: an alumni track meet at my high school. I'd love to revisit the 100 meter dash again, just to see how fast I could run it 10 years later. I am scheduled to work that day, though, and I don't know if I'll be able to take the day off or switch my schedule. If I can't, I may try a 5-mile trail run the night before. That will be tough because I haven't done any trail running, but maybe the hiking my fiancé and I have done will count as some sort of training.

For now, I'm going to rest up my legs. I've been getting out on my bike for some quick rides pretty often lately and even rode to the track for a practice sprint workout last week. It's been great for getting me used to the bike again. A big problem was a smooth front tire that I had gotten last year that made me slip and slide all over the place and made me feel very insecure. Now that I've gotten a new tire with more traction, I can loosen up the white-knuckled grip and feel more comfortable. I've also made a point to ride through and over spaces that I'm afraid of, like narrow gates or rocks and roots. After all of this riding and running, though, my legs need a little recovery time, especially if I want to feel fresh for Saturday.

So, stay tuned for a race report!

Working my way back

Biking, hiking, kayaking, swimming, canoeing, and finally running: I'm getting back to my usual summer activities.

Thanks to overdoing it over Memorial Day weekend, I was set back a lot, but I'm finally back in the game and am thinking seriously about training for some races and epic outdoor adventures.

I ran 4.5 with my running buddy last week and was pretty out of shape, but I'm going to be exercising regularly now that the knee/IT band issues seem to have mostly cleared up. I'm also trying to get some saddle time on the bike. I went out for a morning ride on Saturday and had a nice 17-mile ride that didn't feel difficult at all. One of my friends suggested a ride on tow-paths and canal paths that, if done there and back, would be almost 50 miles. I know that I can do 20 easily right now, so with some practice I could probably handle 50 in the next month. Right? So I'm hoping for an epic 50 mile bike ride and definitely some running races this fall. So here's to getting out and active and actually remembering to log on and blog about it!

Fear factor

Bears
Domestic dogs
Skunks
Coyotes
Crazy people

That's my list of greatest fears when running/biking. Notice that bears are number one. I've lived around bears all of my life, and I know all of the things that you're supposed to do when you come across one, but for some reason I'm terrified of them. What, then, could be scarier for me than coming face to face with a black bear in the middle of the woods at sunset?

Coming face to face with four black bears in the middle of the woods at sunset.

That was the scenario I found myself in yesterday as I enjoyed my second bike ride of the year.

It was a perfect day with temperatures in the lower 70s and lots of sun, and because it would have been a crime not to, a friend and I took our bikes to the trail for a ride after work. My legs were feeling a little tired, so we stopped quite a few times during the first half of the ride. Around the midway point we took a long break sitting down near a lake to have some snacks, and I realized at that point that it was getting late and that we might not be able to get back to the car before the sun set.

So we set off at a faster pace and started to make pretty good time. It was getting steadily darker, though. At one point, I looked past my friend, who was in front of me, to see two black shapes ahead up the trail. They were walking toward us as we rode toward them. I asked if they were bears, and almost the moment that I did, my friend stopped, jumped off his bike, shouted, and waved his arms. The two bears took off into the bushes to the right of the trail, but another bear ran from the bushes on the left across the trail and to the right. He raised his bike above his head and shouted more. I believe that at this point, another bear ran from the left to the right across the trail. I, of course, was paralyzed with fright and just watched. Since when do bears travel in packs of four? I've never seen more than two together, so this really shocked me.

After being sure that there weren't any more bears hiding in the bushes, we continued on, making lots of noise as we did, and we continued to push the pace to get back before it got really dark. We were biking faster at the the end of our 15.5-mile ride than at the beginning. Considering how tired I had felt at the beginning, I was surprised by the strong finish. It felt great, though. This time I wasn't worried about going slowly through the mud puddles (or small lakes, as it seemed sometimes) and ended up soaked and muddy, but I felt really exhilarated. It turned out to be a great ride.

"I think she was a middle-distance runner"

Since last fall, almost all of my runs have been slow and easy -- which is not a bad thing -- but now that 5K season is here, it's time to crank up the intensity, so last Friday I went to the track. I didn't really know what kind of intervals to run or at what speeds, so I used an extremely handy VDOT calculator suggested by Mrs. CJ. It gave me paces for various types of training, and I used the easy and interval paces. As I said, I didn't really have a plan, but this is what I ended up doing:

1-mi warm up - 11:30
200m - 0:57
200m - 0:61
400m - 2:06
800m - 4:45
400m - 2:08
400m - 2:06
200m - 0:57
200m - 0:58
200m - 0:56
200m - 0:56
1-mile cool down - 11:32

Afterwards I thought that it seemed too easy. I thought that I might have given myself too much rest in between intervals, or maybe the pace was too slow. But the next morning I was sore and felt as if I had just done a hard workout, so it must not have been too light after all.

On Sunday, my running buddy, who has not been running since last summer because of a foot injury, called and asked if I wanted to go for a run. We met up at 10 a.m., which was a little late, considering it was almost 80 degrees and 90% humidity, and headed out for a hilly 6 miler. I am in awe of how she can not run for a year and then go and run 6 miles with hills. She did it though, which is a testament to her awesomeness. We ran a loop starting at her home, which covered a lot of roads that I was not familiar with. I like exploring new routes, and it was great running with her again, although I'm not used to talking while running. In the end, it was too hot to run the whole way, so we started our cool-down walk early and ended up running a total of 5.2 miles. Not too bad, considering I had only anticipated doing 2 or 3.

I didn't feel tired afterwards, which is good, because I needed to stay awake for a concert that night. The support staff and I were going to get a blast from the past seeing Procol Harum and Jethro Tull. According to my co-workers, I'm too young to even know who those groups are, let alone see them in concert, but it was a really good show.

I was really only familiar with Procol Harum's Whiter Shade of Pale, but everything they played that night was amazing, and I will soon be purchasing some of their albums.

Jethro Tull was the main act, and they didn't disappoint. In addition to their concert staples, they played a madrigal written by Henry the VIII, two songs from their folk-y "Songs From the Wood" album, as well as this one: Budapest, from the infamous album that denied Metallica a Grammy award in 1989. I love the melody, and the first line is "I think she was a middle-distance runner." !



This isn't my video, but it's really close to what I saw, considering it was filmed at another concert only 2 days before!

After Sunday's run, my shins were pretty sore, so I've been icing them and resting. This morning I biked 10 miles on the trail instead of running 10 miles, as I wanted to. Maybe tomorrow or Thursday the shins will feel good enough for me to get my long run in.

Fishing permitted, but please don't heckle the runners!

So today was it, my first 10-mile run, and the longest distance I'll be running until the half-marathon in (only!) three weeks. It was a beautiful day, with temperatures in the mid 60s and a mix of sun and clouds. The route was an out and back on the trail, and it went really well -- better, even, than the 9.5 miles I ran last week.

It took a while for me to feel loosened up, so the first few miles were pretty slow. By mile 3 I was still keeping a very easy pace, which prompted some comments from fishermen who were sitting on the trail at the river's edge. One said hello, one nodded, and the last said, in low undertones, "faster!". That's not the first time I've been told I'm too slow by an old man. On two occasions I've run by a house near my neighborhood and been told "I could have run faster than that when I was your age!", or "Come on, can't you go any faster than that?". I'll be doing some speedwork soon enough... :-)

About half a mile after the fishermen, I stepped to the side of the trail to let a horse and rider by. This isn't mandatory, but it's a safe way to ensure than I'm not kicked or stepped on by a startled horse. To my surprise, instead of walking past me, the horse came right up to me and put its head down to be rubbed and petted. So cute! He was dark brown with a little white star on his forehead. I rubbed his face and the mane by his forehead and chatted with the rider a bit. When she was ready to ride off, the horse didn't want to go and kept pulling his head in my direction. I made a new friend. :-) I had been a little antsy to get back to my run, but it was a really pleasant break.

A lot of people who live in my area own horses. Some have horse farms, like the one pictured here. Many of those farms offer trail rides, so I always meet up with horses on my runs and bike rides.

I was timing today's run so that I'll have a realistic expectation for my finish time for the race, but I didn't stop my watch at all during the run. There was a time when I stopped to loosen my shoelaces, and then I had to stop several times to let horses go by -- but I'm sure that there will be just as many times when I'll be held up during the race, such as at water stations, so I think that my timing today was fairly accurate.

When I began running again after my break with the horse, I felt really refreshed and full of energy. I picked up the pace and felt really good for the next 4 miles. At the turnaround point, I snacked on some raisins. I tried a pretzel nugget last week, which was an instant failure (much, much too dry without a large supply of water), but the raisins were great. They were easy to store, handle, and to eat. I congratulated myself on finding a good fuel supplement to bring with me and started on the final 5 miles.

Once I started on the way back, I picked up the speed even more. The miles started flying by, and when I reached the fishermen again, I was going at a nice strong pace. One of them asked how I was doing. I said "7 miles down, 3 to go!", to a reply of "Good God!", and then I was out of earshot. I kept up the pace until about mile 8. By then my legs started to feel heavy, and, to keep my motivation going, I started thinking about people I wanted to beat in races. I wonder if my pace was a little too fast or if the raisins gave me a spike of energy that fell after 3 miles. I have another 10-miler next week, so I can try snacking at the 7-mile mark to see if it has any effect.

I finished my run in 1:59:17, which isn't the fastest, but it's a start. I've been running for years, but in terms of weekly mileage, I've never actually run very much. I think that once I've got a good mileage base, I'll see more results with speed and hill workouts. This half-marathon is just the beginning.

On a somewhat related but different topic, a friend of mine asked me to do a 25-mile bike tour with her on April 25th. That's 1 week before the half-marathon. I'd like to do it, but I don't have a road bike, and I'm not sure if my legs will be very happy with me after 25 miles. I've only ever biked 25 miles once before, and I remember being pretty tired afterwards. I don't want to be sore for my big day! If anyone is reading this and has any comments about how much exercise is good to do in the week before a half-marathon, feel free to leave a little wisdom. :-)

Holiday cheer from the threshold of Hell

Happy holidays! I hope that any and all readers had a very merry Christmas. Mine was very nice, spent with both my family and the support staff's family. I actually found some neat presents for my parents this year, and I was happy to be able to surprise them. For example, my poor dad is used to getting bbq spatulas and coffee makers, so he was very surprised to get kayak accessories instead. It made me so happy to see that he was happy with it!

I also received some great fitness gifts, for which I really have to thank my family and support staff. The first I opened up was Wii Fit from my parents. "Pretty cool," I thought. Then I tried it out, and it's much more than just "pretty cool." The yoga and strength training sections are like workout videos, except that the platform senses your motions and center of gravity and it tells you how to readjust your positioning for the proper movement. Very, very, very cool. I'll be working on flexibility and strengthening my core for better posture with this.

My parents also got me a calf-stretcher, which is very useful for me, since my calves are always tight. It gives an even better range of motion than standing on a stair-step. I definitely recommend one if you have trouble with tight calves.Then there was the support staff's gift: a bike trainer - a stand that you prop the back wheel on that provides resistance so you can ride indoors as a stationary bike. I had been wanting one of these for a long time because I want to even out my running and biking, and now it's hooked up to my old Diamondback just waiting for me to ride! I've already done about 40 minutes of cycling on it, even though I haven't moved it to its permanent spot by the treadmill. The support staff will probably help me with that when he comes over to help install a speedometer to go with it.

I made use of all of these fitness gifts this week, so I didn't feel too badly about slacking off with my already minimal runs. I ended up only doing one mile all of last week. I've been reading about running, though, in Once a Runner by John L. Parker, Jr. I like this book, although my running intensity has never been anything like the competitive collegiate track atmosphere that it describes. The book points out that recreational runners don't truly understand the mindset and training of a competitive miler, which actually made me feel slightly offended. In fact, I thought to myself, "Ok, Quentin Cassidy (the protagonist) may run over 100 miles a week and be existing in a state of perpetual exhaustion, but he's never known the pain of running with menstrual cramps."

Famous last words.

Was I trying to jinx myself? (This is where I come to the part of my post in which I describe how I decended to the threshold of Hell this weekend.) It seems that I did jinx myself. I was getting ready Sunday to go into Manhattan to see the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center with my cousin, her husband, and my sister, when I started to feel some cramps. I prepared myself somewhat in case the inevitable came around, and began on my merry way. I drove an hour to my cousin's house, which is about 25 miles from New York, and we took a bus into the city from there. The bus ride should have taken about an hour, but it was a beautiful day, and everyone else and their cousin also decided to go to the city, so the ride took 2 hours. During the course of this (bumpy stop-and-go) ride, the inevitable did come around. I was uncomfotable with cramps, but I figured that it was no big deal and I could handle it. Until we pulled into the Port Authority and took the escalator down into crowded stuffiness and I knew that I was going to throw up.

Maybe it was just that time of the month, maybe it was the bus ride, maybe it was not eating anything for several hours beforehand, maybe it was a lot of things, but when I found myself running along the New York sidewalks to keep up with the group while stripping off winter gear because I was desparately hot and realizing, on top of that, that the cramps were so bad that even standing upright and extending each leg to walk was unbearable, I think I had Quentin Cassidy topped. And then, when I threw up in a trash can on the sidewalk in the middle of New York City, I was truly at the threshold of Hell.

But I returned, and I can try to use the memory of it to help me with my running. Mainly, I have never, ever, felt such pain or had such an overwhelming sense of misery than I did leaning over the trash can knowing that I was a 2-hour, motion-sick-filled bus ride from my cousin's house and an hour's drive home from there. It was far worse than any of the cramps I've had while running, so maybe I'll remember and be hardened in future runs. Of course, I hope never to experience that feeling again, but maybe I'll remember that I did, indeed, return in one piece. In fact, I actually ended the night by drinking eggnog and eating cookies. Ah, to be well again!

Thank God for health and happiness, for so many new fitness opportunities, for my cousin and her husband, for my very supportive support staff, and for a merry Christmas this year (notwithstanding the whole Hell incident)!

I'm feeling much better and had a great 1.5 mile run on the treadmill this morning. I warmed up by walking and doing a few minutes on the bike, and I felt pretty good. Much better than I did last Tuesday when I only did a mile. Here's to more good training days this holiday week!