All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go

My long bike rides have been taking place on Sunday. This is part function that Sunday is the only day I don't work and although I only work from about 10-3pm on Saturdays I wind up pretty drained (probably the accumulation of fatigue from the week) from the 13-14 hour work days Monday through Friday.

Last Saturday was no different and I was looking forward to Sunday since the Sunday before that I was able to get in a 47 mile ride. Rain was in the forecast for the afternoon, so I got ready to leave around 9:30am. As I got outside, it started pouring rain. I turned back around and put my feet up on the couch.

I checked the weather and the thunderstorms looked like they would be around for a while and more were forecasted for later in the day, so I knew it was going to be a day inside on the trainer. With this in mind, I was no rush to hop on the trainer, so like any normal cyclist, I laid around the house in my cycling spandex. The only thing worse would be to lay around in just the bib shorts with no jersey. It's scientifically proven that that outfit combo is the least attractive of any ever worn.

Poor bike, all ready to go and all you'll see is the trainer. I do think it's time for at least a new rear tire. The Sunday when I did the 47 mile ride some of the roads were a little wet and when I got out of the saddle on some of the climbs, the tire would lose traction and slip with each pedal stroke.

I'm not really doing any sort of specific training now on the bike, just trying to maintain a little bit of cycling fitness. I have been running during the week. I did my first 5 mile run in a really long time last Tuesday. I take my bike computer with me so I can get the mileage, heart rate and pace data. The Garmin 705 is chunky to carry, but it's not too bad. The run is here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/10487293. It was a pretty slow run, but all of mine are. I'm just trying to get my legs used to it again. This Tuesday I signed up to do a Half-Ironman next June... My younger brother Jon did it this year and he convinced me to sign up. Should be interesting.

My right achilles tendon has been overly sore after that 5 mile run, so this morning I found a running route that is less hilly and hopefully I can train my legs on it as I'm starting out. The route I was running took me along Massachusetts Ave, which goes by the Vice President's House and the way back up is a constant 4-6% gradient, which wasn't working well with my achilles tendon I guess.

I'm hoping to get a ride in this weekend before work on Saturday and then a long one on Sunday. We'll see.