Sunday, May 13, 2012

First ride run for the wraps

I was a slow creaky mess getting out of bed this morning. All that gardening yesterday really took it out of me. Fortunately I wasn't in a rush, so filling the water bottles, arranging nutrition, changing the bike tire, and all that other stuff could be done in a slow, orderly sort of way. With coffee.

Here's a pic of the new equipment I was trying out.

My regular glasses are underneath them. This worked out great! It was sunny and warm today, very sunny, very warm. My eyes loved it. My regular glasses protect my eyes from some wind, and before today I'd never realized how much I had been squnching my eyes up. Today was very relaxed, which felt sort of odd, but I think I'll get used to it really quickly.

I was afraid they would slide down or block my view but none of that. Neither were they so tight as to press on my head. No problems with my bike helmet. I can't snug my regular cap down quite as much on the run, but now I don't need to.

The bike ride was down to Turner Valley and back, total 92 K. I'd been thinking about going to Black Diamond but decided not to. Even though it was almost the two year anniversary of my banana whapping ride to Black Diamond. I still wasn't feeling strong as I started. There was a strong headwind all the way south on 22, after a strong crosswind on 22X. When I say strong, I mean between 20 and 30 Kph with some stronger gusts. Or maybe attacks of being feeble. I spent a lot of time on the drops trying to cheat the wind. I didn't use to be able to do this for very long. I can feel the difference in my hip flexors.

There was a point where I woke up and realized I'd got behind on nutrition and hydration and was just pedaling along. Ate and chugged some energy drink and felt better pretty quick. I don't think I went any faster against the headwind but I was feeling better about it.

I turned around at the first intersection in town. No cars, and I badly wanted to be moving fast again. The wind pushed me north, hardly having to pedal at all. Well, that's not true, but it sure felt that way after going south. Coming back along 22X was cross headwind again. At the 3 hour mark I was starting to feel a bit tired overall and more than a bit tired of the wind. Back to the house at 3:25.

What was really nice about the ride was that I passed 5 people and nobody passed me. That is very unusual. Almost everybody waved, and there were lots of people on bikes today. Plus a great many on motor bikes. Some of them are very loud.

There have not been too many runs off the bike lately. I was in the house long enough to pee and change shoes, then start to run. It was awful! My legs felt badly bow-legged and did not want to run at all. I shuffled along trying to keep my steps quick. No hope for keeping them light at this point. I was breathing like a steam engine though I was hardly moving. Eventually my breathing settled down and my legs felt a little better. That was enough for me and I called it.

Rolling my feet on the T ball felt wonderful! Stretched and put my feet up. After showering I fired up the BBQ for bison burgers. Oh, so yummy! Then a nap.

So all in all it was a pretty good day.

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