Saturday, February 20, 2010

Trying to catch up

Saturday is normally my rest day. We like to start the day by drinking coffee and reading the papers. We can't always, of course, but it's a nice way to start the day. Normally I have no guilt about my rest day; I put in lots of workout hours the rest of the week. Today, however, I was thinking I should have a go at the missed Thursday workouts.

Lately my bike workouts have sucked slough water. My legs were not wanting to spin very well or for very long. I figured it was a reflection of working on the run during the build up to the Hypo Half, and didn't mind so much. A few days after for recovery doesn't bother me, but I'm beginning to think the bike skills should be coming back.

The core went well, so that was a good start. 30 minutes there. Then onto the bike. Warm up was fine, but I could tell there was no real gas there. Spin was better, much smoother, so that at least is an improvement. But even a minute at 120 in an easy gear had my heart rate much higher than expected, and I could start to feel my quads and calves complain, especially the left. I did a bit more easy spin, and could feel myself starting to feel the burn. Which is rediculous. Called it a day at 30 minutes.

Did I say I bought The Stick when I bought new shoes? Rollered myself with that really good, and found a few really tender spots. I also played with the speed laces. I'm sure they must be making them shorter now. My last shoes had a good 6 inches left at the top. These now have the lace tips jammed into the zipper mechanism, and they still might be a little bit tight. I'll find out on my run tomorrow. I tried taking the zipper mechanism apart again, but it doesn't seem to want to go. Has anyone had any success with this? I might need to take the laces out of a couple pairs of eyelets.

Oh, and I ran outside, in shorts and a short sleeved T shirt, at -5 C (23 F), with a bit of wind chill. Admittedly, it wasn't a long run, just to see how the shoes felt with the laces as loose as possible.

2 comments:

  1. I have a Stick too. I love the Stick. It makes for really fun and dirty comments:

    "Hey, hon, will you Stick me?" or,

    "Can I borrow your Stick?" or,

    "How hard is your Stick?" (because they come in varying degrees of firmness)

    I suppose it wouldn't be cool for you to use them, since you're a guy, but maybe we can change them up:

    "Can I Stick you?"
    "Wanna borrow my Stick?"
    "Wanna see how hard my Stick is?"

    You're welcome. ;)

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  2. I really, really want to get those laces: Xtenex. They are all bumpy -- so you can adjust the tension on every part of the foot.

    I can't believe you ran outside (even for a little bit in -5!!!!) BRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

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Looking forward to reading your comment!