bobthib

Ok, so it was not on the bike. It was running.

I've been cycling since March of '09, and pounding out some decent miles. But I let myself get in with a bunch it Tri guys and gals. It rubbed off, and now I've got a TT bike and I started running and swimming. I did my first tri, a sprint, last weeked. I was VERY happy with my performance, despite "racing to complete, not to compete."

But even in that 3.1 (5K) run, I had to slow to a walk 2 or 3 times due to high heart rate and just plain a bit tired. Today, however, was a different story.

I had a hard club ride yesterday, 63 mi, and 1/2 way into the ride by RD cable snapped, leaving me in high gear. Spinning the 39/11 at 22 was ok in the paceline, but hills and starts were taxing my knees and legs with only one gear. I wasn't sure about being able to run at all today. So I planned out a route to do 1.6 mi one way, turn around, and complete with 5K. I decided that if I felt ok, I would not stop at the turn and see if I could do the entire 5K running. My longest distance running to date was 2.5 K.

The morning was clear and bright, and a bit cool compaired to home (we are in Orlando visiting friends.) I got to the 1.6 mi point, and felt pretty good. My HR was holding steady at about 85% and the legs and knees were "OK." I pressed on.

I had mapped out an alternate route incase I felt OK, so now I was committed to a loop of about 4.5 mi. I held my pace and HR at about 5.5 mph 85% HRM. The miles clicked by.

I came to an intersection. I made a right and kept running. After a few miles I realized that I should have made a left. I was now heading back the way I came, more or less. So now my goal was to do the 10K with out stopping. I was at about 4 mi.

At about 4.5 mi I came to a long uphill. It was not steep, but it seemed to go on forever. In reality it was probably not much more than 1/2 mi, but for this flatlander any hill seems long a steep.

The city had recently replaced 5 or 6 spans of concrete sidewalk at the base of the sprawling oak trees that lined the road. Their roots had heaved the slabs, so they had been replaced with asphalt. These 20 ft stretchs felt like running on clouds compaired to the hard concrete.

When the hill ended I only had about .8 mi to go to reach the 6.2 mi point. That would leave a 1.5 mi cool down back to the house.

When the Garmin read 6.15mi I opened it up a bit and "sprinted" (if you can call it that) to the 6.2 mark. I was very proud of myself, and I actually felt pretty good.

The walk home was very peaceful. Several runners went by, as did many cyclists. I envied the cyclists breezing along at 20 or so, enjoying that cool breeze they were making. But I was quietly enjoying my own personal victory.

Next year: Olympic distance!

EL LUCHADOR

congratulations on the achievement.

have you tried the jeff galloway method?

bobthib

That's more or less how I trained. But not because I read about it. I just couldn't run very far w/o my HR going too high, so I would walk it down, then start again.

Next I'll start with wind sprints. They really helped my cycling.