At least it sure felt like it today.  We had sunny blue skies all day long with temperatures creeping up into the upper 30’s.  I decided to take advantage of the great weather and did an outdoor bike ride; my first since December 2nd.  I had a relatively light work morning so I decided to take off early and head to Grand Haven to meet Jennie when she got out of work.

I knew going into the ride that the wind was out of the NW – the direction I was headed.  Nevertheless, I decided to stick to my plan and head into the wind.  I figured that it would be a good mental workout as well as a physical one. 

It was an absolutely brutal ride.  I’ve done it dozens of times before, but this was by far the hardest.  The first half is rolling hills with a couple of big climbs. The wind wasn’t too bad at this point because the roads were lined with trees and/or houses which helped block it.  However, the 2nd half of the route is through farmland where it is completely flat with nothing to block the wind.  There were times when it felt like I wasn’t even moving.  I almost wish that I had been doing an out and back, rather than stopping at Jennie’s work so that I could have taken advantage of the tail wind (like Lance and Chris did in Hawaii).  Oh well, I still wouldn’t have averaged 56kmph.

Despite the wind, I managed to stay fairly warm.  My feet, which are normally the first to get cold, stayed nice and toasty thanks to my Specialized neoprene shoe covers.  I also had on my bike shorts with tights over them, a long sleeve compression shirt with a bike jersey over it, a balaclava, and gloves.  My hands and forearms did get pretty cold near the end of the ride, but stayed warm much longer than I thought I would.

When I finished, I grabbed this screenshot from my iPhone of the weather conditions.  If it wasn’t for that damn wind, it would have been perfect weather.

My time and pace for the ride was horrible compared to my previous rides.  It took me 2:20:03 to go 36.24 miles (15.5 mph pace).  Compare this with the last time I rode this route in October when it only too 1:47:27 for a 20.2mph pace.  Like I said, the wind was brutal.

After the ride, I rode home with Jennie and we got Big Bob’s pizza for dinner; the perfect fuel after a long ride.  I decided to skip my 4 mile run today figuring that the ride more than made up for it.  Now, it is time to get a bit more work done before I fall asleep at my desk.

Today was one of those rides where nothing seemed to go right, but in the end it turned out to be a great ride.  I had a course all planned out in my head and it ended up changing twice during the ride due to unforeseen obstacles.  My initial plan was to ride southwest towards Holland and then north up to Grand Haven where I would meet my wife at the end of the day. 

So, I started off on the Kent Trail bike path hoping to take that as far as Jenison.  This would keep me off some of the busier sections of Chicago Dr.  Didn’t quite go as planned though.  As soon as I got south of Wilson, I hit mud.  You have to realize that #1 the bike bath runs along the Grand River and #2 October set a record for rainfall in month.  Yeah, not good.  After the first patch of mud, I thought I would be OK.  But it kept getting worse.  And worse.  And worse.  I ended up having to turn around before I ended up under water.  Once I got back to dry land, I inspected my bike.  I wish I would have taken a picture then, but I was so covered in mud, I didn’t want to take my phone out of my pocket.  My tires were so caked with mud, they were as wide as mountain bike tires.  I had gobs of leaves stuck in my brake calipers.  And did I mention the mud? 

I had brought a 3rd water bottle with me on this ride rather than just 2 because I knew it would be a longer ride (the 4th water bottle on the seat post rack has my tools, spare tire, and ID in it).  I decided that I would have to use that water bottle to clean out the calipers as best I could because there was so much mud between the pivots, I was worried it would affect my braking ability.  The water bottle didn’t get me very far though.  I still had lots of mud.  Thankfully (I guess), I was close enough to the boat launch that I could refill the bottle in the river and continue to clean out the brakes.  That water bottle is now going through the dish washer at least twice to clean off whatever filth I managed to pick up in the Grand River.

Miles 11 & 12 are where I ran into the mud.  Mile 19 was a horrendous winding hill that
climbed 150 feet in about a half mile.  I felt like I was going to tip over.

Finally, I was back on my way.  I had to back track about a mile to pick up Chicago Dr – the road I was trying to avoid in the first place.  It ended up not being too bad.  There was one hairy spot where two lanes of traffic were exiting the highway at the same time causing me to essentially end up in the middle of the road.  I managed to pull off on a side street and weave around there before popping out on a street called Cottonwood; one I had never been on.  I pulled out my phone at this point to see where I was.  I wasn’t as far south as I had wanted to be, but I knew this would get me where I wanted to be.  And beings as I had already lost some time messing with my bike, I knew I was going to have to cut the route a bit short. 

So, on I went.  Headed west finally.  Now, I knew going into this ride that there was going to be a wind from the WNW.  What I didn’t know was how strong it was going to be.  It was a steady 15mph or so wind the entire time.  And this is a horrible course for a WNW wind because you head about 22 miles WEST and then about 6 miles NORTH.  So, wind in your face the whole damn way.  I put this ride in the mental win category.  There were so many times I wanted to say screw it and turn around so that the wind would be at my back, but I knew that mentally I had to push forward.  Despite being a very flat road, the wind made it feel like an uphill battle the entire way.

After much effort, cursing, and worrying that I would run out of water with only two bottles left, I finally made it to the end point.  I ended up getting there a bit earlier than I had to and thought about tacking on a few more miles, but at that point, I was absolutely beat.

My bike post ride.  This is after I cleaned out the brake calipers and road another 30 or so miles.

With the bike loaded and Jennie out of work, we headed home.  I was starving at this point, so we stopped by McDonalds.  Normally, I avoid fast food like the plague, but I have been craving one of the 1/3 pound angus burgers ever since I had one on the way home from a ND game a month ago.  I gave into my craving and got one along with biggest Coke they had and some fries for Jennie.  It was sooooooo good.

Mmmmmm… post ride junk food.  Makes it all worth while.

In the end it was a 40.63 mile ride (I was hoping for closer to 50, but sometimes that odds are just stacked against you) in 2:31:29 for a 16.1mph pace.  I wish I would have had a power meter for this ride because it felt a LOT harder than some of my rides where I am pushing 20mph.

After I got home, I did my best to clean my bike.  Thanks to the time change last week, it now gets dark here at about 2:00 in the afternoon.  Ok, I exaggerate a bit, but suffice to say, it was dark by the time we got home.  I got out a bucket, turned on the flood lights, pulled out my trouble light and got to work.  Under the little bit of light I had, it looked clean, but I’ll have to check it out in the daylight tomorrow.

I haven’t posted in a few days, so now it is time to play catch up.  Enjoy!

Ride to Grand Haven

On Thursday, I did a long bike ride out to Grand Haven where Jennifer works.  I have done this in the past and will leave the house around 2:00 so that I get to her work just as she is getting out and then ride home with her.  I left a little earlier than normal this time because I knew that the most direct route was under construction and I would be detoured.  The detour ended up taking me further out of the way than I had planned, but it was fun to find a new route.  The new route also added a few miles on to the trip which I can’t really complain about because it was great day for a bike ride.  I averaged just over 19 mph on the 41 mile ride.  Someday, I will set aside the time to actually do both legs of this ride (out and back) rather than just the one way trip.  I’ll just have to make sure it is a day with little to no wind because 40 miles into the wind in one direction would be a little much.

Light Friday

On Friday, I did my normal run and swim routine.  I tried running in the morning to get it out of the way, but my legs still felt a bit tired from the previous bike ride.  I managed to get in 5 miles and a very casual pace.  My swim was a bit more uplifting.  I did some sets of 100yd and 150yd intervals for 2600yds total.  I did the 7 100yd intervals at a hard pace with little rest between them and averaged about 1:42 / 100yd which is pretty good for me especially since I still had about 1300 yards to go after them.

Happy 26.2 to Me!

Friday/Saturday was my 26.2 year birthday.  Earlier this year, I had thought that it would be fun to run a marathon on my 26.2.  It was a good thought, but not meant to be.  There were a few options available, however, my run training hasn’t quite ramped up to marathon levels yet.  My longest run has been 15 miles and I would like to get a little bit more under my belt before I do my next one.  At this point, I am hoping that I’ll be ready for the Grand Rapids Marathon in October.

Nevertheless, we celebrated my 26.2 in style.  On Friday, we had dinner out at Olive’s in Gaslight Village. After that, the always wonderful Jennifer made me delicious marble chocolate cake decorated with M&Ms.

Mmmmmmmm……. Cake…..

Go Irish!

On Saturday, I took the day off from running and biking, but it was by no means an easy day.  I headed off to South Bend in the morning to tailgate before the big Notre Dame – MSU game.  I was thankfully able to score a ticket at the last minute from MM.  After hanging out with the guys; drinking beer, tossing the pigskin around, and catching up, we headed off to the stadium.  It was a great day for a game and we couldn’t have asked for a better game.  It got a little hairy a couple times, but in the end, ND pulled out a 33-30 win.

A very happy scoreboard

Sunday

After missing out on my Saturday run, I went out on a long run today.  I did 10 miles and felt awesome.  It is the best I have felt on a run in a while.  I finished the 10 miles with an 8:03 pace.  I started off fairly slow and really picked it up at the end.  My last three miles were 7:39, 7:48, and 7:10.  With these last few miles, I ended up negatively splitting with 43:08 and 40:24 halves.  I would have liked to have done a bit of a longer run this week, but it just wasn’t in the cards.  If tomorrow ends up being a light work day, I may try to do another 10 or 12 and have back to back mid distance runs to make up for the lack of a long run.

As for now, Jennifer and I are headed up to the park for a picnic and to relax for the rest of the day.  She has been busy decorating and interior designing all weekend (it is fun for her for some reason), so I am sure she needs a break as well.

I went out on a long bike ride today.  I have been wanting to get out and ride the Kent Trail and they have finally reopened a section of the trail where I get on, so I figured today would be a great day to give it a whirl.  It was a beautiful day for a ride.  A little windy, but not too bad.  Trail riding is definitely different than riding on the street and to be honest I almost enjoy riding on the street a bit more.  The trail ride was a nice change, but it seemed bumpier than the roads I ride on and there were more road crossings than I remember from the past.  I pretty much had to stop and unclip at each road crossing.

My 40 mile Tour de Grand Rapids

For the ride, I headed out towards John Ball Zoo to hop on the trail.  This part of the trail is brand new and was as smooth as butter.  From here, I jumped on the trail to take me out towards Byron Center.  The first half of this portion of the trail was a combination of bumpy trails and riding on the shoulder of the road.  However, once I got to 44th street, the trail opened back up and was much smoother.  There was also a lot more tree cover on this portion of the trail and it was actually refreshingly chilly in the shade.  It also made my sunglasses unnecessary.

After getting to 84th street, I stopped by Houseman’s Ice Cream for a soft serve ice cream.  It is a good thing I carry “emergency” money with me for just these occasions.

Houseman’s Ice Cream and my mid-ride snack

After finishing my snack, I got back to it and headed back down the Kent Trail and picked up the new M-6 trail which runs along the expressway.  This is less than a year old, so again, very smooth.  However, because it is along the expressway, it isn’t very scenic.  Also, it is very hilly when it comes to trail riding.  No complaints here though.  It felt good to push the legs a bit on the uphills and fly down the downhills.

I looped around back towards home finishing the ride in 2:11:20 for a total of 39.44 miles, which averages to an 18mph pace.  Overall, I am very happy with the ride.

AND the lovely Jennifer brought home a giant Slurpee for me.  I was craving one yesterday and she remembered.  Isn’t she great?

The remnants of my post race Slurpee