Back to Playing Around

With the impetus of the ultra behind me, I find myself playing around on the workouts again.  If I see something that interests me, I stop and explore.  Today I spent quite a bit of time recovering deposit cans from the "swimming hole" upstream of Ernie's Bridge.  So much so that I was nearly completely immersed!  Good thing I thought ahead enough to take my socks, shoes, camera, and Ipod off before trying to retrieve the cans from the water.

The pool in January. It's much shallower today.

But I also settled down and ran some significant stretches.  The heat and dry conditions are becoming troublesome.  I hope we get some good rains soon.

5.5 miles this AM and a 4 mile hike tonight.

A "No Run" Birth Day Celebration!

Sometimes it works out that a run just doesn't fit into the schedule for the day.  I could have hit the trails but chose, instead, to take a bike ride due to the heat.  

I postponed any workout in order to fit in a brunch to celebrate my 60th birthday and edging into a new competition bracket!

Late afternoon heat seemed more tolerable on the bike and I again extended my total distance so I reached just over 40 miles for the day.  It was a good ride and helped me appreciate being able to ride as hard as I do at age 60!

53.5 running miles this week and an additional 80.2 miles on the bike

Boring

Summer doldrums I guess.  Same type of day as yesterday.  10 miles in the AM (but not until after watching live finishes at the Hardrock 100), then volunteered at LC Nature Center, then a meal to celebrate turning 60 tomorrow, then a 3 mile hike at night.  

Picking Up Some Extra

With the bicycle time cutting into my running mileage, I decided to build in a little extra mileage today.  It's been a while since I hit the trail with any serious distance aspirations.  I ran my routine 10 miler and was distracted a few times by cleaning up the trail of trash and recyclables.

The running was OK but not very inspired.  My legs are definitely feeling effects of the biking so I didn't force anything and ran relaxed.  There's still a week before my next race.

Hope to get in a brisk hike yet tonight. 

Saddle Sore

So I finally got out on the bike yesterday and it went well.  Physically I feel great today, however, it did hurt quite a bit to sit back on the bike saddle today!  So the conditioning I need for multiple days of riding RAGBRAI lies mainly in my butt not my legs.

Today's schedule of events went anything but..as planned. But I finally got out for a workout after lunch and rode the Madone again for a bit longer distance in a bit windier conditions.  Ended up with over 23 miles and it felt good to cover some different territory. 

I'll get some sort of a hike in yet this evening.

Cross Training

I finally got the road bike out today and did a shake-out ride just over 20 miles.  It went well and made me wonder why I don't ride more often!  Interesting to me that the temperature on the bike computer showed about an 8 degree increase over the posted ambient temp.  Probably the result of open road and blacktop heat radiation.

Got off the bike and hit the trail immediately for a 4 mile run/hike.  The weather was warming up but still quite pleasant.

Another hike after dark.

Need For Speed

With the prospect of shorter races looming, I've begun to consider introducing some speed work back to my training.  The long, slow stuff has definitely help to strengthen my knees and I had played around with the track when NIACC went to Nationals in Texas.  So I started to head to the Mason City High School track but with sun and rising temps, I chose to run repeats on a roughly 1/4 mile stretch on Lime Creek.

So the workout ended up to be a mile and a half warm up, followed by 7 X 400 with 4 and 1/2 minutes walking rest between them, then a mile and a half cool down home.  The 400's were within a 5 second spread of 75 seconds each (70 - 79).  I haven't tried this type of workout in a looong time.  It felt good again.

A few more pics from the Black Hills.

5.5 miles for the AM. 3 mile hike after dusk.