Off and Running

Yesterday, Sunday, was the first day of training using the new plan. While I'm not "officially" slated to start until this week, I modified the Sunday progam to get a jump on the new schedule.

Ok, I admit it was more about not having the patience to wait until next week.

Sunday was another chilly one with the cold air mass from Canada still sending morning temps into the 20's. It was 32 when I headed out the door to load the bike rack onto the car. My intent was to run 5+ on big hills followed by 10 miles on my mountain bike up at my local training spot on the Pleasanton Ridge. I estimated about 2 hours of gone time with my wife as I headed out the door.

At the trail head by 10am and on-time, I began the 2.1 mile ascent to the top of the Ridge. My goal was to hit the gate at the 2.75 mark for a turn-around and descent back to the staging area for the second half of training. About a 1/4 mile up the trail, I remembered I had left my bike's front wheel in the garage in a distracted moment. Unless I was going to pull off a 10 mile wheelie, my plan had just changed.

The run was beautiful in the crisp morning air and while the trail had a few hikers and bikers, I was pretty much alone. I kept a pretty loose run but was still bothered by a pace that put me on top nearly 2 minutes behind my fastest ascent time. That was my "type-A" bad training demon talking, I reminded myself as I resisted the urge to turn up my pace. My average ascent pace was around 10:30 for the 700 foot climb up so I had nothing to be concerned about.

At the turn around point, I had reformulated the biking portion plan. I cast off the idea of going home and retriving my front wheel for the mountain bike and instead would jump on my road bike instead after the short drive to the house. Not quite a back to back run-ride, but close enough.

I got home and quickly transitioned to my road bike after a quick change out of my sweat soaked running shirt. It was about 39 degrees when I hit the street yet my wind breaker kept me nice and comfortable (props to the Pearl Izumi Blizzard jacket...the thing rocks!). I peddaled a mainly flat 10 mile section of road around town but at a fast pace. I was looking to maintain and 18mph average. Some hill sections killed that goal in the end, but it was a good 1.3 hour work out total.

Total time: 1:20
Total run time: 0:42
Total run distance: 5.5 miles
Average run pace: 8:13 per mile
Total bike time: 0:35
Total bike distance: 10.2 miles
Average bike pace: 17.5 mph