A tough weekend

Here I am sporting some new (to me) shades I purchased used. I bought 'em for the three included lenses - dark, yellow as pictured, and clear - that offer eye protection under any conditions. They'll be particularly helpful for winter running, as the clear lens will keep my eyes warm while still allowing me to see during the seemingly near constant darkness of Dec. to Feb. Plus, I'm now fully equipped to enter a high school shop class.

Now for the good stuff. Saturday started with a 1:45 bike ride. Stacey and I watched the University of Michigan defeat Minnesota in basketball and hopefully secure a bid the the NCAA tournament for the first time since the U quit paying its players. Hopefully the team starts off the Big Ten tournament with a win to almost certainly get a spot. Anyhow, I took the ride fairly mellow, but not easy, averaging a 133 HR.

Up next is a secret workout that Chuckie said was "brutally hard." Despite the ominous description, that over two hour effort wasn't that bad. It's amazing how much of a role psychology plays in PE. If one expects a workout to be easy, and the workout is actually moderately hard, one will believe the workout to be hard or very hard. If, however, one is begins a workout with the expectation that it will be very difficult, the workout often ends up only seeming moderately hard. I think that was the case here.

Anyhow, the secret workout was followed up with another hour on the bike, but really easy this time. I kept my HR under 115 bpm as instructred.

Sunday began with a 1:30 run with a 130 bpm HR cap. It was decently warm out, though raining a bit, and the warmer weather is comforting. My calf loosened up over the first 15 minutes of the run and I didn't notice it much the rest of the way, except when I actively tried to assess how it was feeling.

The second workout had me worried. 3:30 on the bike with 2:00 at 145 bpm. I knew my legs would be tired at the start of the ride, so the prospect of a long, tough ride was not promising. I took an hour for a warm-up, slowing bringing my HR up. After that, keeping my HR at 145 was tough, but not killer. I checked my average HR for the first hour post-warm-up and was pleasantly surprised to see I'd nailed 145 bpm on the dot. That was a confidence booster and helped keep my effort high during the next tough hour. I ended up hitting the target HR for the second hour as well. My only "cheating" during the workout was eating whenever my HR dropped, as chewing food instantly raises my HR 3-4 beats. Of course, my cheating didn't work too well, as I'd wash my food down with some liquid, and drinking lowers my HR by 7-8 bpm for a few moments (Stacey says there's some medical term for that, but I have no idea what the term is or what it refers to). I finished up with a half hour easy and was satisfied with myself for making it through another tough week...well, after I went to the pool that evening and did a 30 minute "flop".

Now it's Monday, the first of three easy recovery days. I was able to get outside with Stacey for an easy 30 minute ride (okay, almost 40 minutes, but my HR was nice and low - about 100 bpm - the whole time), as the temp was an almost 47 degrees. But, whew, my legs are still feeling it today.