Oh, yeah, it's Rollercoaster time

Yesterday, I headed out to Emmaus, Pa, hometown of Rodale publishing who puts out Bicycling. Also home to some really really strong and really really crazy riders. Every year for the last several years, a group of these crazy riders have done what's known as 2/5/10 on the 2nd rest day of the Tour de France. Here's a little bit about the ride:
Ride the 3 hills of Emmaus (2nd, 5th and 10th streets) with a group of people who love bikes. And then, keep riding those hills 10 total times.
Simple enough right? These are no little road bumps. Some more about the ride:
Mileage per lap: 10.19 miles
Elevation per lap: 1,473 feet
Approximate time per lap: 47 minutes (HA!)
Approximate time climbing per lap: 26 minutes
Approximate avg. speed: 13.1 mph (I averaged 11.3 for the whole ride)
Highest % grade: 22% (on 10th)
Avg. grade of all climbs: 6.3%
My intention was to ride 6 laps. I'm not in shape to ride 100 miles right now and certainly not when it involves so much climbing. I got in touch with my old pal Kristy who lives and rides out there to see if she was riding. I know she had done the entire thing last year. She was in.
We rolled out of South Mountain Cycles a little passed 7AM, about 30 of us. We start the first climb on 2nd st right away. A nice flat warm up would have been nice, but oh well. I hung on to the back of the pack and tried to find my legs. I managed to hang on to the back until we got to 10th st, the 3rd climb of the loop. 10th st has a section that is 22% grade. The rest of it isn't too much better. Bye bye, doggie. I was off the back questioning my sanity. On lap 1. Kristy, kind soul that she is, rode with me.
After every lap, we roll through the bike shop where our times and laps are recorded on a white board. When I rolled in on the first lap, the group was gone already. Lap 1 took 47 minutes. HA! The rest of my laps would be about 57 minutes.
2nd time around, I actually felt better. Now I knew what was coming.
Before the 3 lap, I stopped to fill my bottle and have a gel. It was getting warm and it was humid. Climbing 2nd st wasn't too bad. It's fairly long but not too steep and in the shade. Climbing 10th st, I would sweat so much I would be soaked to the bone and sweat running into my eyes. On 10th st on lap 3, I looked at Kristy and said, I'm sitting the next lap out. I hadn't enough very much before the ride started and I was feel a little cooked. My hands hurt from pulling on the bars up the hills.
I spent the next 50 minutes or so drinking tea, having snacks and chatting with the folks hanging out at the shop.
I jumped back in with Kristy for my 4th lap, her 5th. I felt much better. The break was a good one. Somewhere on lap 4 I decided I was going to be done at 5 laps. After my 4th lap, same routine: stop, fill bottles, snack, go. I was pounding fluids. The bank clock next to the bike shop read 92 degrees.
I knew Loren was going to join the ride on her lunch break. Just before Kristy and I turned on to the 5th st climb, there she was. She had taken a short cut to find us and rode the rest of the lap with us. New legs in the group is nice (ha group, me and Kristy. But people do rotate in and out all day which helps the people going long keep going). This was my last lap. Last time up 10th st. UGH. It was a nice feeling knowing I was going to be done for the day and lunch would be waiting for us back at the shop. The whole group was back together wolfing down pizza. Kristy was in for some more and Loren went out for full loop. I rehydrated and relaxed, my day DONE. Kristy did 8 laps.
I rode just over 50 miles and climbed over 7000 feet. Ya know, just an easy day in the saddle. Check out the elevation chart from my garmin, it looks like an EKG.

Country Roads

So one of the cool thing about being on vacation is running in new places.  Right now, I'm at Snow Farm doing a stained glass class. It's a beautiful quite place full of different studios and people working hard during week long intensives. Lots on country roads to take me to new places. 

Yesterday, I got up at 6 to run before the day started. Not having run here before, I had no idea what I'd find. I sorta love that, just look at the road and turn right or left. Yesterday, I turned left.

What I found was up hill. Three miles of uphill. It seemed endless, though was beautiful. On a run like this I was like screw the pace, this is all about effort. The good side is, 3 miles up means 3 miles down so it worked out pretty well.

I'm still not running consecutive days. While my foot doesn't hurt while I'm running, if it does it's just til it's warmed up. It hurts after. Though I think that might be getting better. I was fine most of the day yesterday until late in the day but I had been standing a lot (need to stand to cut glass).

I am concerned about NY and being able to run as much as I'd like. Right now, I'm not running as much as I'd like.  It's a thought in the back of my mind. I'm not going to give it much weight until I get back home and into my normal routine.

And I ran

Yesterday I went to see Pete again. He does such a nice job working on my legs. He gave me the ok to run. So the plan right now is to not do consecutive days and to not go over 30 miles a week. He said it might hurt and that's ok, I'd be able to tell the difference (HA) in this hurts dont run and this is just a little flared up because I ran.

Last night was hill work with the team. 4-5 times around the Harlem hills with the 102nd st transverse as a recovery jog at half marathon pace. (here is a pretty cool map of CP, we were above 102). It was hot and sticky, though I've decided whenever I think it's hot here, I think of my team mate Bryce who's settling into his new home in Kuwait. I'll take the weather here. The section of active running is about 1.17 miles, none of it flat. I averaged 7:36 pace for 4 times. it actually felt pretty good. It's a bit faster than my last half marathon pace though I felt I could hold it and certainly could have done another. Not that I wanted to. So I ended up with 8.25 miles for the night. Not bad. Foot felt good.

This morning I could feel my heel when I woke up. No surprise there. It's a little tender but doens't seem to be anything to worry about. I'll try it out on a longer run tomorrow morning.

upside down

45 minutes of hill running.

This is why the NYC Marathon is not hilly to New Yorkers.