great weekend..putting time in the bank

what a great weekend, I decided it was time to start upping the ante. I have the first race in 4 weeks and wanted to get a few harder weeks out before I taper ( not much) for the race in Corvallis. So Sat took Jennelle over to Utreks house for a birthday party and set off on a goal of running a half marathon on Saturday morning with the plan of doing a follow up of a long ride on Sunday.

Got out the new shoes I got last week, I usually buy two pair at the same time and alternate them. Went with the supernova shoes ( 1 road and 1 trail). The shoe really fits me so its a no brainer.


Run went well, I ended up doing about 14 miles at a easy pace. I kept the HR at 150 in my aerobic zone. here is the course with distance and elevation ( click here).

legs felt decent, lungs and HR felt great. longest run of the season.




With that in the bank set up a small group to go on a recovery ride that we had planned on about a 67 mile loop ( map click here) . I showed up at Bruce's house and instead of the three or four guys that we had planned on and were in on a recovery day ride there was a group of about 10 ( the word got out) so here we go spinning out of town on the route with a larger group and as we all know a large group of guys becomes a race. not really a race but a group has a hard time doing a recovery ride, So to stick to the plan i rode the middle of the pack and did not pull in the front. One issue was since I had planned on a lower pace I was dressed warm but as the speeds were averaging about 28 miles per hour I warmed up. after a few hills i was baked...not physically but just temperature wise. Once I got off my craft under layer and my cap it was like a small second wind. I actually felt pretty good, I was checking my HR and it was staying at 150-155 so again in my aerobic zone. However the legs felt heavy from the run. not bad or something I could not endure but it was there for sure. usually with a group of 3-4 guys you stop everyone in a awhile and grab a gel or a energy bar, adjust clothing layers etc. this group kept rocking on. Actually a pretty good group, we ended up picking up a few others from another group that we went by and they were doing a shorter loop so some grabbed on to us and we had about 15 guys. at mile 45 I was starting to have a problem keeping the pace which was still high. I went to the back of the pack and decided I needed to finish the ride at a lower speed so i told Bruce I was going to back off and spin back on my own.

I came into Redmond and after spinning the last 5 miles at an easier pace I felt really good again. HR was at 150 and the speed was back up. I came into Redmond and there was a rider that was in our group and he was on a cell phone calling for a ride...he was done. I pulled him through town to a meet place for his pick up and then I hit the old Bend Redmond highway and got in the drops and headed back, This was good time to work on not having the Ipod and using some good thoughts to keep the energy up. I really finished hard and felt good about the ride. Rode back in to town and touched base with Rob and Bruce and checking in with them I was only about 15 minutes behind them so knowing that gave me a boost.

Long weekend in the bag and a swim lesson this morning and the rest of the day off as a rest day ( of course commuting to work by bike so will get in some active recovery in as well)