Monday, September 10, 2007

Different Sort of Weekend - Bikes & hikes

I was completely frazzled by the end of the workweek and I also noticed that my right shin was feeling pretty sore so on Friday night I decided to skip Saturday's PhillyFit run. I decided to cancel mostly because the run was being held downtown, at Kelly Drive, and that meant at least a 40 minute drive to get to the starting point instead of the usual 10 minute drive. That was just a little too much sleep for me to give up so I opted for sleeping in.

Brian had a plan to ride our bikes for awhile and then follow up with a walk but we wound up just riding our bikes. We went about 15 miles, mostly on the flat, but there was at least one killer kill. I found it pretty fascinating that I was able to pedal the bike to the same point on the hill before I had to walk it as I managed when I was running. It's at least 3/4 of the way to the summit and probably more than that...maybe 4/5 of the way to the top. The big difference was that when I was running, I probably didn't have to stop at all but I did when I caught the runner ahead of me. It was a mental shift down not a physical one. On the bike, I was ready to die by the time I got to that point....I really couldn't pedal anymore and it seemed like FOREVER before my HR came back down.

As it turns out there was a huge cycling event going on in Philadelphia on Saturday so there were tons of "real" cyclists out on that hill at the same time as us. They were doing either 65 or 100 mile rides and I was happy to see that they were mostly struggling up (or even walking up) the hill and hurting nearly as much as me. These are people with might lighter bikes and more cycling experience than I have. Of course, they'd also ridden at least 40 miles at that point, so I suppose they were in a different spot than me.

By the time we finished our ride, we were starving and it was pretty hot out so we just blew off the walking segement of our workout. That was OK with me because we had a plan to go hiking on Sunday and I really didn't want to stress my sore shin because of the Distance Run coming up next weekend.

On Sunday we went out for a test hike to see if Brian's hip would be cooperating enough for us to still do the Megatransect at the end of the month. It wasn't 100% but I think he did well enough for us to do the hike. We were out at French Creek for about 3 hours and we tested out our new trekking poles and stuff. All in all, a good day. Today my wrists and hands are sore from the poles but other than that I think I really liked them.

Post hike we came home and watched that horrible Eagles game on Tivo. I think I could field punts better than those guys. Tonight I plan to watch the Men's final of the US Open even though I already know what happened.

On schedule this week: a couple short runs plus some walking to rest for the Distance Run on Sunday. The early weather forecast looks awesome -- sunny with a high of 68!

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