20 laps around the track....NBD

Sunday I was still feeling pretty pukey so I decided to hit up my road bike in lieu of a boring 5 mile recovery run.  I decided to take my bike as far as the trail would let me (we have a ton of construction on the trails this summer; it's obnoxious).  I also tried to push the pace more so than I have on any other bike ride (which isn't saying much). 

Observations from the ride:

• I'm a speed demon when there is/are a) no one to pass on the trail b) straight paths.
• I'm still a big wienie when it comes to biking downhill.  Also passing people on curvy trails.  Also passing people in general (but hurrah that I'm going fast enough to pass people!).
• Some chicas show more cleave on a run than I do out at "da clubs" trying to catch a man.  Seriously, I was concerned about black eyes/potential knock out situations for a couple of folks.
• I spotted the 2nd cute runner guy running with Boobs McGee.  No wonder she was pulling out all the stops for the run........
• People look miserably hot and sweaty running.  Which means I look 900x worse because I'm a freak of nature when it comes to sweating. :/
• Bikers will actually smile/wave/nod at other bikers.  It must be some sort of secret society or something.  I don't know how many times I've done my friendly smile and wave while out doing a long run to get a cold shoulder in exchange.
• Sometimes I feel like I could bike forever!
• I'm totally doing a sprint tri next summer.
• Maybe I could do a half Ironman someday!!!
• Oh wait..... you're like a toddler in the water.  Hold on, didn't you teach swimming lessons to toddlers?  You should at least be more advanced than they are.  Also weren't you a lifeguard for 5 or 6 years???

Another idea pondered on said ride was re-vamping my training program.  I'm really enjoying a long bike ride every week, and I also love 2 complete rest days.  I decided to do some changing up to go from 5 to 4 days of running/week (which is what I've done in the past) and added biking on the 5th day.  We'll see how it goes!  I can never get myself psyched up for that 2nd day of easy/recovery runs anyway, so just get rid of it.  Works for me (or I guess we'll see if it works for me).

I ended up doing a little over 14 miles with an average speed of 13.19 mph and max speed of 19.2 mph.  For all of the bobbing and weaving I did for some slow pokes, I'm quite alright with that.
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Monday I hit the track for some 800 meter repeats.  Since my car is possibly a goner and I'm waiting for confirmation of such from the mechanic, I am sans car and took Princess Leia to the track.  My legs were pretty tight from the previous day's bike ride as well as the race on Saturday.

I got to the track, and it was the most perfect weather you could get for speed work (for the end of July that is).  Mid-70's, cloudy, a little breeze.  Heaven.  I did my mile warm up and I felt like I was wearing those old school "gym" shoes you had to buy specifically for P.E. class that wouldn't mark up the floor.  You know....the ones that were 20 lbs. per shoe when you weighed about 65 lbs max?  Anyway, not fun legs o' lead.

My pace for the 800 meter repeats was 3:28-3:38.  When I created this training program, I think I did it based on a 23:00 5k time (assuming I was going to hit that time prior to starting the training).  Since I didn't hit that I'm shooting towards the lower end of the ranges for my speed work.

I decided to run in the 2nd lane to hopefully avoid the hip pain that temporarily ruined my life by not having to run as tight of corners.  Some of the laps ended up being slightly long because of it, so I'm posting the pace instead of the time, since it was more than an 800.  Got it?  (3:33, 3:39, 3:32, 3:34).  I ended up knocking out 20 miles on the track before all was said and done.  Fairly certain that in a given season of high school track, I wouldn't race that many times around the track.  100 m. dash, 4x200 m. relay, 200 m. dash and high jump x 12-15 meets.....yup not even close. :)

I jogged a quarter of a mile in between each and did a slow one mile cool down run before hopping on my bike and heading home.  Biking after a sweaty run might even be better than driving with the windows down.  Ahhhhh.......