Broken Chain

Posters and Christmas decorations

Michelle gave me some sweet Trek posters for Christmas, so I got to work putting a few of them up on my walls. They make for some entertaining decoration!

Then I went to the Concord Y to meet Parri, Anna, and Val for a short ride before our team ride. We were planning on riding about an hour, but 20 minutes in, Anna's chain broke. Val and Parri headed back to get a car, and Anna and I started walking back toward the Y. We had a little adventure over some railroad tracks and through people's yards, and surprisingly no one stopped to see whether we needed anything. No, it's not normal for people to be walking their bikes. We made it a mile before Parri picked us up, and we went back to the Y to wait for the rest of the crew. Total ride time: 22:46, 5.47 miles, 14.4 mph (25.7 max), 119 HR (175 max). Total walk time: 18:02, 1.12 miles, 16:06 pace (13:51 best), 119 HR (146 max).

Ride out, walk back

David and Lee, Catherine, Shelly, and Cali met us there, David put a new chain on Anna's bike, and we hit the road again. It felt colder even though it was supposed to have been warmer, but that could be because we'd ridden, stopped, walked, stopped, and started riding again.

We were hoping to ride 2 hours, but we made it back to the trail in 1:42. We'll have to add more miles somewhere or ride slower, and I'm pretty sure the "ride slower" things isn't going to happen. I was cold pretty much the entire ride and went into the Y for some quality hot tub time after the ride. If it had been warmer out I'd have ridden, and if no one had been in the pool I'd have swam, but the hot tub sure felt nice! Total ride time: 1:51:40, 32.54 miles, 17.5 mph (35.5 max), 149 HR (190 max).

Team Ride

Spray

No, these are not super hairy legs
It was very wet and dirty on the roads!

This is where our route went

These are the two categorized climbs: One on
Natchez Trace and one on  New Hwy 96

It was quite wet this morning, and instead of joining a group of people we didn't know, Shelly, Parri, Anna, and I hit the road early enough for me to be done and showered by 11am. Woohoo! It wasn't the fastest ride, but there were definitely some times where we keeping a good, steady tempo pace. Mostly when Parri was pushing the pace. I definitely need to ride with her as often as possible—she will push me hard every time.

After church, I headed to the Y to do my 3×30sec heavy workout. I'd hoped to run too, but I didn't have a towel with me so I didn't. Maybe tomorrow.

Total ride time: 2:11:13, 36.28 miles, 16.6 mph (34.0 max), 152 HR (186 max).

Fun Run

I had time for only a run today, even though it was BEAUTIFUL and would have been a perfect day for a nice long ride. But I couldn't leave Tigger (who I'm watching for the weekend) home all day, so I didn't stay gone forever. Plus we had a team meeting at night and I had to spend some time at home with him.

I ran 1.25 miles with Tigger, brought him home, then ran another 4 or so. It was a good run. I also had time for a 10×10sec (2 sets) workout before our meeting and dinner. We discussed a race plan, a proposed schedule for the season, and a few goals for the team. Then we went to dinner at Pie in the Sky. Here's some encouragement from their menu:

Dream Big...Real Big

CompuTrainer Class: Aerobic Capacity IV

I wasn't able to get in a workout early today, which means tomorrow will probably be a hard day. But I'm ready for it.

Shelly and I were in Todd's class tonight (with another 8 people), and it was a good hard workout. It was the same workout as Tuesday, and I did better today than then. First, I increased my sprint wattage from 638 to 699. My goal had been 700, and even though I didn't hit that number I'm increasing my goal for next week to 715. I can totally do it. My max (that I've recorded and can find) had been 681 from April 28, 2011, so this is evidently a new best for me. Shelly and I both thought that we'd reached around 750, and maybe we did, but I don't have it written down anywhere. So this is my new best to beat!

I had fully charged my Garmin, but I forgot it. I had a little HR data from the Polar monitor, but it just isn't very reliable for me, so I rarely looked at it except to realize that my HR was consistently about 15 BPM higher than Shelly's I guess since she has 15 years on me, that's OK, right?

1-03-12
1-05-12

• Total Ride: 1:45:00
• Warm up
  Warm up: 13:15 + 21:45; 3min rest
• Single-leg drills: 4min; 3min rest
  Single-leg drills: 4min; 3min rest
• Spin-ups to 105, 110, and 115: 3:30 each, 2 or 2:30 rest
  Spin-ups to 105, 110, and 115: 3:30 each, 2 or 2:30 rest
• Tempo work with single-leg drills in the middle: 15min, 4min rest
  Tempo work with single-leg drills in the middle: 15min, 4min rest
• Tempo work with single-leg drills in the middle: 15min, 4min rest
  Tempo work with single-leg drills in the middle: 15min, 4min rest
• Spin-up to 110: 2:30
  Spin-up to 110: 2:30
• Sprint (to 638)
  Sprint (to 699)
• Cool down
  Cooldown: 3:00

Wrenching

You can't take this on an airplane

I made two trips to the airport today: one to drop people off, and another to pick up something they'd left: the foot-long wrench in the picture above. It was somehow hidden in Lauren's bag, but the bag scanner machine (and the guys behind it) found it and wouldn't let her take it with her. Imagine that!

CompuTrainer Class: Aerobic Capacity III

My Garmin's batteries are dead, so I have no time stats and no HR data. Sad. The workout looked something like this, and I got to 638 in the sprint at the end.

1-03-12

• Warm up
• Single-leg drills
• Spin-ups to 105, 110, and 115
• Tempo work with single-leg drills in the middle
• Tempo work with single-leg drills in the middle
• Spin-up to 110
• Sprint (to 638)
• Cool down

Quiet Day at the Office

This is the emptiest I've seen our parking lot in the daylight

Today is supposedly a holiday, but our company is open and about half of us are in the office. It turns out that we are the only people in the entire building, which I would never know unless I went outside, which I did (despite the ridiculous wind).

I was supposed to run with Catherine this afternoon, but we pushed it to later in the week when it is supposed to be warmer and much less windy. Instead, I will finish my 5 on, 5 off thru 40 workout (in totally random order) and possible run on the TM.

• Pull up
• Standing ham
• Wall squat
• Dip
• Push up
• Lunge on crates
• 1-leg squat
• Curl
• Crunch