I rode really far.

[Day 58]

Like 20 miles further than I've ever ridden. It was fantastic. I feel like I should say more about it, but honestly I don't really want to. I'll bullet point some of the highlights at the end. I'm swamped with work this weekend so I've really been trying to focus on that instead the rest of the day.

Today's Workout: Long ride w/ Brian
Summary: 52.75 mi, 3:55:10, 13.5 mph
Speed splits by 5 mi: 13.8, 12.9, 13.7, 14.5, 12.2, 14.6, 13.5, 13.5, 14.8, 11.9, 13.4
Hit Rate: 63/69 (91.3%)

Notes/thoughts:

• Route was out to Confluence Tower and back via the Riverfront Trail (we started at the Forsyth entrance to Forest Park).
• My shoe clip things were super tight this morning, had a really hard time getting in and out. But they loosened up a bit by the end of the ride.
• Brian was a great baby-sitter. Took care of me after my one (and only) fall of the day. Also helped me with my clipping issues. Didn't mind me being slow. Was good.
• We went really slow. I probably could have taken it just a touch faster, but probably just a touch. Any faster than just a touch faster and I would have definitely crashed and burned and died. My brain was getting fuzzy on the way back as is. 
• Eating real food is pretty awesome. I think it would have to be going at about that effort, because if I were riding harder than that I'd have a hard time physically chewing and swallowing but also digesting. But for a long ride like this at the effort that we took it, being able to eat real food on the ride was fantastic. (Clif Bars were what I had, just btw.)
• So the full ride actually took us closer to 5 hours because of stopping time (lights, a tour of Confluence Tower, some random detours and reroutes). See the Garmin page for deets.
• It was nice to take it slow, I felt pretty good the whole time, but then somehow I got home and over the course of an hour crashed so hard. Legs are feeling it even though they felt pretty light and happy on the pedals most of the ride. 
• We road on the shoulder of the highway for like 4-5 miles worth of the out and of the back. I'm getting much more comfortable riding on the roads. I don't think I'd opt for the highway very often because every time I got near a pothole I couldn't help thinking that if I messed something up and fell into the road I would be dead (which was the truth) but I think I could get more used to riding around real traffic. 
• I gained so much confidence in my ability to go for this long today. Even if it was slow, it was something that I was really scared about and I think my body actually handled it really well, so I feel like I'm going to be able to tackle my usual 20-30 mile rides with way more confidence than I used to have. It's super fantastic.
• Also, this is important: I HAD SO MUCH FUN. It was nice to just use my bike to go explore and hang out with a friend and have funny random conversations and enjoy myself. It was a great great way to spend a morning. So glad I did that.

There ya have it! Day off tomorrow and we get back on that grind on Monday. (:

Much love,

Jess

PS - Here's a picture!

Kicked off the weekend with a 50 mile ride! Thanks for taking me out Brian! (: #cycling #didntgethitbyacar #littlevictories

A photo posted by Jessica Hao (@newxheights) on Feb 27, 2016 at 11:12am PST

Making peace with the distance

Woohoooooo took that long run yesterday, went for 12 miles instead of 10, did them all slow instead of mixing in some faster efforts. Originally, I had planned to go for 10 today and then 12 on Saturday and another 10 on Monday, but I figured if I just made peace with the distance earlier and if I could do it on tired legs (the mileage these past four days have been 10 mi, 3 mi, 6 mi treadmill intervals, 12 mi) then there really was no reason for me to continue pushing the volume into the next week. So I bit the bullet and went for it.

It was the first time I've ever taken two laps of the park, I had been really worried about my mental status but actually it wasn't that hard to just keep going onto the second lap. I really focused on just holding that nice steady sub-10:00 pace every mile and working through it mile by mile made it a lot easier. I also stopped twice for water at fountains, which I don't usually do, and that was probably much needed and very helpful. All in all, it was slow but I'm proud of how it went. It was by no means easy even to hold the slow pace I was going, probably a product of tired legs and midday heat. I finished feeling fairly put together though and even though my legs were definitely achey the rest of the day, they've also definitely had worse. The running has come a long way. And I'm glad the highest of the volume is behind me now. Here's the summary!

Yesterday's Workout: 12 mile long run (easy)
Summary: 12.68 mi, 2:04:42, 9:50 pace.
Pace splits: 9:38, 9:54, 9:53, 10:03, 9:53, 9:51, 9:57, 9:54, 9:44, 9:45, 9:47, 9:44, 9:50.

So some changes in plans for the rest of the week: I had been planning on swimming today but a bunch of personal things kept me up a little later than expected last night and put me behind a bit on the rest of life, so I'm probably going to take an interval trainer session on my bike this afternoon instead (have a fun/terrifying sprint set lined up). Tomorrow is a day off and now I'll be dropping some of the volume from next week, meaning my longest run will probably be Saturday for 10 miles with some fast efforts mixed in and everything else will be single digit mileage, specifics TBD (and probably quite flexible depending on how I feel). I really need to start focusing on studying for exams though! Must pass.

That's all I've got for now!

Much love,
Jess