Well, I rode to work again today. Yesterday morning I took the same 11 miles and change route in my car and it took me 39 minutes door to door. Today on the bike, 47 minutes. This was no hammerfest. I had some reservations about riding at all, as a day of complete rest might have been a better idea.
Why? Rewind to last night. After work, I laced on the trail runners and hit my mixed fireroad/paved woods road loop to the top of Big Blue. I was surely tired from the bike racing in the days prior, but I kept up a decent pace, hitting LT or near it on all the climbs. When I got to the Big Blue access road, this time I decided to descend to the base and run the entire hill to get a true comparison to my bike times. I was careful not to start out too hard, and when I got a minute or so up, another runner came out of the fireroad and turned left up the hill just in front of me. Great, a race.
There were at least a half dozen riders coming down. A couple of them were gumbies, then two guys in BHCC kits, and then a guy in the IBC barbershop quartet jersey came down with a woman companion in an unfamiliar jersey. Through the middle of the climb, the guy I was following kept pace in front of me, but at the switchback he slowed and I kept going. I kept my HR out of the stratosphere, but running the top portion where the grade is 13% or more is tough. At the top, I ran right up past where I normally stop the clock on the bike and clicked the button at 8:09, just over two minutes slower than this year's best on the bike, and 3:30 or so off my all time best. Hmmmm.
Running down I tried hard not to strain any muscles. The other guy was still a hundred meters from the top when I passed him. The riders were all coming back up, looking pretty good. I turned off on the fire road and headed back, keeping up a decent, but relaxed pace. Near the end, the other runner caught me from behind and ran right through me. Once I get back out of the woods, it's about 1.5 miles back to work. I was going to try to pick my pace up and finish strong, but then it happened...
Apparently bouncing along down the fireroad did not agree with my digestive system. Things started feeling bad right when I came out of the woods, but I thought I'd be fine. Wrong. After another half mile of worsening gas pain, I realized I was experiencing a bad attack of the Bangorhard Bowel Blast. I guess this stuff happens to runners. I was still almost a mile from work, and no, I wasn't going to make it. Luckily, the Blue Hills is all woods, and I had worn my training jacket, and low and behold, there was a lonely single paper towel in the pocket. Exit stage right, up the hill, hey, there is even a convenient outbuilding of some kind on the trail to block the view from the road should anyone driving by decide to look up the hill. Shit that sucked.
After I got home, the gas demons resurfaced and I was in for more discomfort. So, this all left me wondering if riding to work was such a good idea. I have the Jiminy Peak road race on Saturday, then Hollenbeck on Sunday. Originally I'd planned this week as the last of three hard training weeks in a row, so piling on saddle time made sense. However, after Tuesday I started wondering if I was prematurely coming into form, and that maybe I should taper a day or two into Jiminy and try to do well at this site of my first ever win. Then I came to my senses. Since I don't have a power meter, I can't possibly be coming into form. There's just no way my training could be effective. So I rode to work. I rode easy, just taking what the terrain will give me, not fighting it. I think this is what Gewilli calls 2.14359 w/kg, but I'm not sure. Tonight I'll do the same on the way home. Hopefully I'll be able to telecommute tomorrow. Keep smiling, thanks for reading!
"Yesterday morning I took the same 11 miles and change route in my car and it took me 39 minutes door to door. Today on the bike, 47 minutes."
ReplyDeleteSolo, that is a ringing endorsement of commuting by bike.
Ya call em junk miles... well it still beats sitting on your ass in the car letting the lactic acid pool in the quads and the adrenaline from the Massholes on the road fire the brain...
Ya HR prolly ain't even that much higher on the bike... doing your low intensity stuff commuting...
But tis true - it ain't really a true rest day...
W/o the trailer i'd be finding the commute rather heavy on the junk miles.
anyway - nice to see(hear about) ya riding in!
I've been commuting on the Slim Chance. If I get around to swapping out the broken fork on the Yo Eddy, I'll probably switch to that. The appeal of the whole minimalist fixed gear thing for utility use is lost on me. I'd rather have a two-wheeled SUV. The Yo Eddy is a boneshaker, but I'll put on a Thudbuster ST post to save my back. No rack nor fender mounts on it though. The Slim has a plush ride for the cracked streets of Canton, but the brake arch is a bit low and as a result I can barely fit a 700x28 on there. I don't want race rubber for riding to work. I want racks, fenders, gears, and a corrosion proof frame. I don't want it to handle like a friggin' bus either, so many cheap CX and touring bikes are out. And I have no money anyway.
ReplyDeleteGe's romance with commuting is all fine and well, but I don't like riding in the dark, and I don't like riding between 4:30 and 6 pm when the roads are even more choked with assholes than usual. So that pretty much leaves May-Mid July as commuting season for me. Maybe I'll get used to it...
Barbershop? I'd say it's much more like a McDonalds uniform.
ReplyDeleteWonder who that was... which bike?
I've averaged about 4.5 commutes/week from Norwood to Longwood Med area (basically, Fenway) since late August. It can be done, and it can be great training if you do it the right way. This whole 'junk miles' thing is lost on me. 35 miles/day is going to leave a mark, especially if i'd take the train otherwise and not do much else when i get home.
Didn't catch what kind of bike, and didn't recognize the guy. The woman he was with was small and had a blue kit, but I don't think it was a local team, at least not a road team.
ReplyDeleteI never actually used the term "junk" miles, though it gets tossed around. Commuting miles are sure better than nothing. Twice a day workouts also provide unique benefits. When you're young you can do 250 miles a week no problem, so even if you commute half that you can still get in plenty of training. I can't handle it now though. When I was 25 I could train all day and work in a factory all night (a real one, not a 3bicoastals fantasy camp), on my feet in 100 degree temps. Now I sit on my ass all day and still feel wasted after a ten hour training week. Hell, I'm not sure I've even done a ten hour training week and still worked 5 days lately...