After spending the last two days in Traverse City for work, without my running shoes or bike, I was determined to get a ride in tonight. I rode Sunday and enjoyed a skating party with my oldest daughter on Monday night, but with Barry-Roubaix 3 ½ weeks away, I wanted to get a 2-2.5 hour ride in tonight. Unfortunately, the weather had other plans.
The last time I rode in the rain it ended up being a disaster. And although the temperature was about 10 degrees warmer than ‘that ride’, I knew I didn’t want to ride wet for 2 hours. So, I decided to do the next best thing: run. Outside. I just don’t mind running in the rain as long as I can keep my feet relatively dry.
I’ve been ramping up my training over the past month, but took it easy last week. I had a conversation with someone who scared me a bit into thinking I might be training too hard too early. Some mountain bikers who are carefully building towards their year this year will not touch running and instead focus all their time on detailed aspects of their riding. They are going to compete at a very high level this year and I have no doubt that their plan will work (and that it could work for me). However, after reading up on some beginner training techniques for building a fitness base; what some symptoms of over-reaching and over-training are; and how to use my Heart Rate Monitor better; I determined that I was probably o.k. to continue on with my plan. What I have currently determined for me is that I am still in a general fitness building and weight loss stage and that the benefits of running still outweigh any detriment it can cause to my mountain biking.
So, I threw on my shoes and went for a run. Here’s my run, although I don’t normally run that slow (and didn’t tonight, either), my time includes a 5 minute warm-up walk/skip: http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/98327776
Tomorrow looks dry so I’m going to do my 2+ hour ride tomorrow night and hopefully be able to get a trail ride in on Saturday or Sunday to take out my new bike. Registration for the Iceman Cometh Challenge opens tomorrow, so I’m sure I’ll be all jacked on my ride tomorrow night, excited for another crack at a personal best performance in November…back in Traverse City.