With spring in full swing, I had my fair share of wildlife accompanying me on my bike ride today.  And these were just the ones I could snap pictures of.

This guy was off to the side of the path.  When I stopped to take a picture he walked right in front of me,
not bothered at all by my presence.  He had little nubs where his antlers were growing in.

Mom, dad and goslings zipped past me on the Grand River.  Mom and Dad didn’t seem very happy with me snapping a picture and quickly hustled the little guys along.

Yesterday, I did my long brick.  I was originally scheduled to do a 4 hour bike / 1 hour run, but I decided against doing the full workout.  I really wasn’t prepared for that sort of distance yet, so I backed off a bit.  I ended up doing a 3 hour bike ride and 30 minute run.  I wanted to go longer on the run, but as it was, it was after 6:00 and I was starving.

After lunch, I fell asleep on the couch which caused me to get a letter than planned start.  I headed out just before 2 pm.  My plan was to bike the White Pine Trail again.  This meant that I would be biking straight into the wind for the first half of the ride.  The wind yesterday was around 15mph gusting up to 30mph, so it made for a pretty chilly ride.  I rode the trail further than ever, almost reaching Sand Lake (it goes all the way to Cadillac, but is only paved to Big Rapids).  I turned around 28 miles in which would give me 56 miles for the total out and back.  The ride back was much more pleasant, but there was still a bit of a cross wind depending on the direction of the trail.  My splits were 1:40:01 on the out and 1:26:46 on the back, so it was over 13 minutes faster with the wind at my back.

After finishing the bike, I took a longer than normal 30 minute break before starting the run.  Because it was so cold out, my feet were numb when I got home and I wanted to let them warm up a bit before trying to run.  I took the time to grab some peanut butter and graham crackers to try and appease my grumbling stomach.  Once changed, fed, and warmed up, I headed out again.  The run went pretty well.  My knee (oddly my right knee, not my left knee that usually give me trouble) gave me a bit of trouble 2 miles in.  I walked for about a tenth of mile, the pain went away, and I was able to run the rest of the way.  I ended up with 4 miles at a 8:17 pace.

As soon as I got home, I threw a Red Baron pizza in the oven and hopped in the shower.  I had the house to myself because Jennie was at a bachelorette party.  After eating the entire pizza, I laid around and watched TV for the rest of the night.

Again, I find myself playing catch up.  It is crunch time at work and I have found myself working until later in the evening to try and meet my deadlines.  Thankfully, I am on my taper, so my workout schedule was a bit lighter than it has been.

A couple of my days involved dogs, so the phrase “dog days of summer” popped into my head.  The nerd in me wondered what the origin of the phrase is, so I Googled it to find, “The name comes from the ancient belief that Sirius, also called the Dog Star, was somehow responsible for the hot weather.” (Source: Wikipedia)  So next time you are sweating your balls off in the middle of the summer, you can blame Sirius.  Consider that your random factoid of the day.  Anyways, my days this week just involved dogs, they were by no means hot enough to be the dog days of summer.

Monday

I moved my 7 mile run from Sunday to Monday to give my sore hamstring some extra time to rest.  It paid off.  I did 7 miles in roughly 53:00.  My Garmin went a little haywire for the first couple miles and showed me running all over the place.  I also did 2,250 yard swim at the pool.  No dogs involved today.

Tuesday

Tuesday’s schedule called for a 1:20 bike ride with 5×3 min Z5 intervals with 3 min active recovery. I stuck to my route around Reeds Lake because it is fairly easy to avoid traffic and be able to do long intervals without hitting much traffic.  This was my hardest ride of the season and in the end I was dog tired (figurative dog today rather than literal).  The wind coupled with the hard intervals, kicked my butt.  I also did a 20 minute strength workout when I needed a break from sitting at my desk.

Wednesday

I did a swim at noon with the core intervals being 4×200.  I got faster each interval with times of 3:15, 3:12, 3:09, and 3:07.  My swim times are still dropping like crazy.  200’s used to take me at least 3:25 less than 6 months ago.  I am crediting the strength workouts for this.

In the afternoon, I did a 4 mile run.  It had been a busy/stressful afternoon of work, so I was itching to get out.  My first mile was 7:23.  I shouldn’t be going this fast, so I told myself to slow down.  Mile 2 was 7:13.  What the heck.  I tried to slow myself down for mile 3 and went 7:14.  This obviously wasn’t working, so I went with it and finished the run in 29:28 with a 7:33 mile.  I guess as long as I was listening to my body and not hurting, it was okay to run harder than I was supposed to.

To get on topic of the blog title, I had a minor incident with a dog on my run.  I was running down the sidewalk and a man walking his dog was walking towards me.  He shortened the leash on the dog, but as I approached, he seemed to let the leash out again.  The dog seemed friendly; it wasn’t pulling on the leash or anything.  But as I passed him, the dog leapt up at me.  Reflexively, I swung my arm and caught the dog on the side of the head.  In hindsight, it was more of a playful leap than an attack leap, but it still startled me.  The guy then proceeded to yell at me for hitting his dog.  Seriously?  I didn’t hurt the dog and I felt bad for hitting it, but if he had control of his dog, it never would have happened.

Thursday

On Thursday afternoon, our house guest arrived; the in-laws dog, Bagel, is staying with us for a couple days.  She is a good dog although she has a tendency to get gassy when she is nervous or excited and she seemed to be nervous after she was dropped off if you catch my drift.

Immediately upon arriving, Bagel found the bone that she had left here during her last visit before making herself comfortable on her sleeping bag.

After the dog was settled in, I headed out on my long bike ride.  I decided to head out to Rockford on the White Pine Trail.  I had a head wind the entire first half of the ride which made it miserably cold.  I wished I had worn my neoprene shoe covers, but I didn’t think it was going to be that cold.

 
The Rockford Dam in the Rogue River.  There were a ton of people finishing in the river downstream.

After a quick stop in Rockford to stretch and warm up, I headed back home.  Now that the wind was at my back, I was flying.  The second half of the ride was almost 10 minutes faster than the first half.

I also managed to stay in the aero position the entire time I was on the White Pine Trail, over half of the ride.  I had to stay up on the hoods while on the surface streets though because there was too much traffic.

The ride ended up being 35 miles in 1:56:41 for a 17.8 mph average.

Friday

I decided to get up early and get my run out of the way.  This was a bad idea for two reasons.  First, it was only about 14 hours since I finished my long bike ride, so my legs were still tired.  Second, it cooled off a ton during the night and was only 20F when I left so I had to dig out my hat and gloves.

I ended up doing a 4 out and 4 back course and then stopped home to get Bagel for the final 2 miles.  She seemed to happy to go on the run, but she got tired quickly.  It worked out well though because after the run, she curled up in the sunbeam and passed out.

Here she is. Passed out and using my swim towel as a pillow.  The life of a dog is so tough. 

Only 2 weeks until the marathon!

We had a bit of a warm weather streak this past week.  So, I pulled my bike back off the trainer and out of the basement.  This ended up being one of my highest mileage weeks to date; mainly because I was able to get a couple of long bike rides in.

Running

I covered about 23 miles on foot this week.  Not as much running mileage as I would like, but I am trying to give my hamstring a bit of a rest.  It has flared up on me during a couple of runs, but nothing major.  I have tried to remember to ice it at night, but I usually forget because it only bothers me when I run and I forget about it afterwards.  As wanted, I got in one speed workout on Friday.  I did a 2 mile warm up, then 1/4 mile intervals on the track up the high school and then a cool down back home.

Swimming

Nothing too eventful on the water front.  I have pretty much settled into a 2500 yard workout routine each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  I actually ended up going a little long this week with 7750 yards total.  There is a great group of regulars up at the pool which makes it a fun time (not that we can really talk while we swim).  At least we are all suffering (in a fun way of course) together.  I have been trying to mix up my workouts so that it doesn’t get too repetitive with some focused on endurance (longer intervals) and others focused on speed (shorter intervals).

Biking

Biking was by far my focus of the week.  With the warmer weather, I took as much advantage of it as I could.  I did a quick 20 mile ride on Tuesday.  It was still bit cool that day and I didn’t have a lot of time to devote to a ride.  Thursday was my miserable, yet wonderful, muddy ride to Grand Haven.  I clocked 40 that day even though it felt like much more. 

Then, on Sunday, with temperatures in the mid 60’s I headed out again.  I didn’t have a route in mind, but eventually found myself drawn to the White Pine Trail and 20 miles later I was in Rockford.  The trail was very crowded, especially as I got close to Rockford.  It was amazing how many grown men felt the need to weave side to side on the trail for no apparent reason whatsoever.  Also, I managed to (unintentionally) spook a number of people by saying “on the left” as I approached.  I didn’t know what else I go do, but people were jumping out of their skin when I tried to give fair warning.

Anyways, the ride was very enjoyable.  It ended up being just about 40 miles.  Compared to my ride to Grand Haven, this ride was nearly 18 minutes faster and a lot more enjoyable.

In the end, I managed 101 miles for the week with 3 rides and nearly 6 hours spent in the saddle.

All in all, it was another great week.  As for this week, I’ll probably try and do a bit more running this week as long as my hamstring cooperates.  We’ll see if the nice weather keeps up of if it is back to the trainer.  Stay tuned!

Finally getting around to posting about my long bike ride yesterday.  I did a 3 hour ride out the White Pine Trail past Rockford and back with a few laps around Reeds Lake to add on some distance.  I got a late start to the morning; the prospect of being able to sleep in until 10:00 got the best of me, so I didn’t head out on my ride until around noon.  When I started the ride it was cool and overcast, but the sun came out about a half hour into ride, reminding me that I forgot to put on sunscreen.  I did get a little red on my shoulders, but it isn’t too bad.

This way my first ride with my new water bottle holder.  I bought a Profile Design saddle mount water bottle holder the other week in preparation for Steelhead.  I usually go through a water bottle per hour, so I figured I would need at least 3 bottles for the bike portion.  This would give me an extra two water bottles – or so I thought.  With the way it mounts, my saddle bag (which hold my spare tube, tools, CO2 cartridge, etc.) no longer fits under the seat.  So, in order to carry the essentials, I stuffed everything into an old water bottle and put it in the mount.  I still get the one extra water bottle, which is all I really need, so I am happy.  Other than the issue with the saddle bag, the water bottle holder works great.  Each holder has a rubber band around it which holds the bottles securely so that they don’t rattle around.  The bottles are in there pretty tight and I didn’t attempt to try and pull one out while I was riding, but may have to try that this week.

My ride on the White Pine Trail was much busier than it was last time; probably because it was later in the day.  I was very surprised at the number of people riding without helmets.  And they were more than just casual riders.  I saw riders on triathlon bikes in aero with no helmets.  I know it’s relatively safer on the trail rather than the road, but still, there are quite a few cross streets (that no one stops at) and lots of other traffic on the trail itself.  My biggest concern was the kids on bikes (or more to the point – their parents) who weren’t paying attention to others on the trail and would drift from side to side without a care in the world.

It was busiest the closer I got to Rockford, but was quite peaceful at other portions of the trail that were further from the trail heads.

One of the quieter sections of the trail.

In the end, it was a 50.14 mi ride in 2:52:37 averaging 17.4 mph.  I felt pretty good at the end which is a good sign for next weekend.  If I could keep the same pace for the bike portion, that would get me in under 3:15 under the bike.  I’d like to get a bit closer to an even 3 hours for the bike, so I may try and push my average closer to 18mph.  It may be fairly easy to meet that goal because I won’t have any of the traffic stops during the race, but I’ll just have to see how I feel.

The full course

Post-ride with Green Lightning and the Red Bullet in the background