The weekend after Mariana broke her hand, Wes and I found ourselves riding alone. There is a world of jokes to be had there, but we prefer to believe that all our usual riding partners were just busy. It was, afterall, Easter weekend. So we changed things up a bit, hopped on our cross bikes, and hit the south side of the American Tobacco Trail. The south side of the ATT is not really road bike friendly. It's 11 or 12 miles of mostly gravel path. There is a section of about 3 miles that is part paved, part crushed gravel, but to get to it you must ride on gravel. The south section of the ATT is why we bought our cross bikes. As it turns out, Wes commutes to work every day on his, and during the winter months when training began I rode mine on the trainer in the garage. Now that the weather is nice, it's nice to get my cross bike rolling on the trail.
From our house, we ride 6 or 7 miles to get to the northern-most trail head on the south side of the ATT. With 11 or 12 miles of trail to ride headed south, it's about 18 miles one-way from our house, making for a nice (read that as challenging) 36-mile ride roundtrip. The trail is *generally* pretty flat (with some low-grade inclines) but on crushed gravel it's constant work. There is little coasting on this type of terrain. It's constant work and a really nice calorie burn. It was a nice change of pace this day.
At the turn-around point, we paused for a quick snack of a power bar, and Wes took a picture of me in my FS Series bike jersey (I still need to send the pics to the FS Series guys).
As we were getting ready to head back, Wes decided to take off his leg warmers as the temperature had started to rise a bit. He LOVES being the center of the paparazzi's attention. :)
The rest of the ride this particular day was fairly uneventful. I felt pretty tired and depleted, which on the one hand was somewhat disappointing since it was a shorter ride but on the other hand was understandable since riding this trail on the cross bikes is more constant work. As we rode through the 3 miles that are part paved, part gravel, I stayed on the paved part while Wes worked it on the gravel. We FINALLY had found level ground. My heart rate was staying around 150, and so was Wes's. He commented about how I was working him, and then we realized he was working as hard as I had been working all day. WELCOME TO MY WORLD, IRONMAN. Needless to say, I took some pleasure in the leveling of the playing field for those three miles. For those who can't imagine it on their own, Wes kicks my butt on the bike, and then some. I enjoy any time we are riding side by side when he feels like he is working as hard as I am. It's a rare occasion, to be sure.
I ended my ride after the 36 miles roundtrip. Wes went on that day to ride enough to total 73 for the day. Yep, he's an ironman alright.
The next day was Easter Sunday. Sundays are run days, and after our run Wes suggested we ride our bikes to Duke Gardens. The Gardens are in full bloom this time of year, so we hopped on our bikes (I on my road bike and Wes on his cross bike) and rode through the streets of Durham to Duke Gardens. It was a gorgeous, warm, and sunny Easter Sunday, and it was the perfect time to view the Gardens. On the way, we stopped for lunch on Erwin street and then had a frozen yogurt at Local Yogurt. The fountain outside Local Yogurt is inviting, and I nearly took a dip.
After we found bike racks on Duke's campus, we spent some time walking through the beautiful gardens, admiring the in-full-bloom flowers. For those who have never walked through Duke Gardens in Durham, NC, it is so worth it if you are ever in the area. There are so many beautiful things to see. It's acres upon acres of color, shade, and bloom. It is well worth the time.
Some of my favorite features are the shade plants. I have a yearly, ongoing battle with deer that live in our neighborhood. They've taken it upon themselves to relieve me of my 10 hostas in my front garden, eating them down to stalks every year. It's been a springtime source of frustration for the past 8 years! Wes gets a chuckle out of it every year, and every year it aggravates the you-know-what out of me. I've tried everything I can think of, including chemical deer repellants, praying to the garden gods, and this year planting marigolds all around the hostas. I'd heard that deer don't like marigolds and will avoid the hostas if the flowers are near. Well...not so, at least not in my garden. Grrrr. I'm open to any tried-and-true suggestions.
In any case, I was envious of the huge, still-intact hostas at Duke Gardens and long for the day when I can have my own that aren't eaten down to stalks! I didn't get any photos of the largest ones, but this pretty little plant in the shade also caught my eye.
There are also plenty of water features and soothing sounds to be found and heard.
On the way home, we rode a few miles on the north (fully paved) portion of the ATT, and Wes found a shopping cart someone had left on the side of the trail. There is a grocery store in the shopping center that splits the north and south sides of the trail (along with interstate-40...there are plans to build a bridge to go over I-40 to connect the north and south sides, but we still patiently wait for that). He is a good deed doer, so he literally rode with the cart back to the grocery store and deposited it safely where it belonged. I ran interference from the back.
Last weekend, Wes and I decided to try something different for our long bike ride. We rode with a local cycling club, the Tarwheels, and followed a nearly 50-mile path in and around Durham, Chapel Hill, and Pittsboro. We crossed the Haw River a few times, and I took a moment to capture the view. The ride was beautiful and pushed the pace for me just enough that I felt like I worked hard the entire ride. It was a hilly 50 miles, and my legs felt it for the next few days.
Finally, this weekend our long ride started with a tour of local greenways sponsored by Eastcoast Greenway Alliance. The morning consisted of a large group ride through 28 miles of local greenways in and around Durham. We took off from the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, with a kick-off wish from Congressman David Price. There were many, many more cyclists that participated than I'd expected. It was great to see so much local support! The photo below shows just a fraction of the folks who attended.
I had to pay photographic homage to the Bull at the ballpark across the lawn.
After the 28 miles were complete, Wes and I rode across the street to Mellow Mushroom for our typical Saturday ride lunch. We then proceeded to add more miles by riding to Maple View Farm Country Store, where they have the most fabulous ice cream in the area. MVF is obviously rural farm country. It's a working dairy farm that has a very popular ice cream store. We've ridden past it before but (shockingly and sadly) never stopped there to have a treat until yesterday. I decided then and there that the only time we could ever eat their ice cream is when we've ridden our bikes to the store. No driving for us! It's way too delicious to not feel obligated to burn those calories! We had a nice stop that included large waffle cones and the purchase of pecans and farm honey. Wes packed those goodies into his pannier on his bike, and we were again on our way. By the time we reached the house, we'd logged just under 73 miles for the day. Though the ride was broken by lunch and ice cream stops, I'm still considering it "a ride". That said, it was my longest ride EVER. Nearly 73 miles! So exciting. The trouble is, I have to keep one-upping myself, so who knows what next weekend might hold?!
As I've been writing today's blog, I realize that I tend to focus on the bike rides. I really do swim and run, as well. In fact, a few weeks ago I upped my swims to three times a week (instead of the two my training calls for). I'm now swimming 2500 yards each time I swim, and those workouts take pretty much exactly an hour. Thankfully, I can swim 2500 straight yards in the pool a bit faster than an hour, but I still want my swim time to get better. *IF* I can swim a straight line in the Ohio River in Louisville (which is extremely doubtful in open water), I'll be swimming 4,220 yards (2.4 miles). At my current pace, I can expect to swim the Ironman distance in well under 2 hours, but that's not accounting for current, nerves/anxiety, and a whole lot of other flailing bodies vying for space and speed. I finally sought out the assistance of a coach to help increase my swim speed, but I was denied (more on this in a future post). So I keep working on it on my own in the Y's pool. It's early mornings (I wake up just before 5am on swim days to swim before work) and a lot of effort, but I'm hopeful it will eventually pay off.
I've begun to fall out of love with running during this training, but I think it's because it's become an after thought. I'm very focused on my swim and bike times, and I'm putting forth a lot of effort to get faster in those sports. There is much more for me to gain by swimming and biking faster in this race. As for the run, I just need to get to it (i.e., not get DQ'd for not meeting times on the swim and bike) and then get through it. The thought of running (okay, let's be honest here, run/walking) a marathon AFTER I've swum 2.4 miles in the disgusting Ohio River and then biked 112 hilly miles in and around the countryside of Louisville is something I just can't imagine. Having run 2 marathons, I can't fathom dealing with that kind of pain after what will be my longest bike ride. I need to figure out how to reconcile that, because that's the plan.
Tomorrow marks the beginning of Week 15 of 30 for this training plan. I am nearly halfway through this adventure, which is simultaneously frightening and exciting. Will I be ready for Ironman Lousiville on August 28? Time will tell. I know I plan to give it everything I have.
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