98.1

That's how many miles I ran and biked this weekend. Oh yeah, we even added some adventure race training in.

Saturday - 3.1 mile run - 45 mile bike - multiple flights of stairs carrying the bike
Sunday - 50 mile bike

Yes, my legs are trashed, but not that bad. No, I do not want to bike tomorrow!!

Saturday:
Annette and I loaded up the bikes and headed down to the River Trail for some running and biking. There was a large group of cruiser going to be there. My goal was just to run about 3 miles, then bike till 8am, meet the group for breakfast and bike some more. Annette was running like 10 miles then biking after breakfast.

The run started at 6am with a big group and too many people to mention. James (Iron James) and Cindy C. were only going to run short also. We planned on biking before the others got back. Cindy stopped around 2 miles because of her foot. She has PF too but a more severe case. And James ran with me to the 1.5 mile mark where we turned around. Gary and Rock were doing a fast 8-10 miles so we were going to meet them to bike till Gary had to go to work at 9am.

Dennis, Vicki, Kelly, Annette starting the run

The run was ok, I was slow, had a 34:22 time for a 5k slow run but it was probably 90% humidity. Since I had only ran about 3 miles a week for the past few weeks I guess it wasn't bad. Cindy said she felt the humidity too. So we did take a couple walk breaks.

Annette, Bailey, Kelly

After we got back to the parking lots we were dripping with sweat. Got the bikes unloaded and took off towards the bridge. Starting out we just went a fairly easy pace. Around the golf course we ran into Rock and Gary coming back so we turned around to meet them to get their bikes. Well, it didn't take them long to get back as they are fast runners. Gary is doing Ironman Louisville this coming weekend.

After they got to the skate park they unloaded and we admired Gary's new Tri Bike. It is a Gray. Never heard of that brand before so I think it is a custom made ride. Gary got a good deal on it, not sure if it is new or used. Anyway, this was going to be his first ride on it so he knew there would need to be some adjusting as we rode. By the way, he is not taking it to Louisville. He trained on his road bike so that's what he is taking.

Gary and his new Gray Tri Bike with Rock

After starting out we road fairly easy. Had to stop and adjust Gary's seat. Then we started picking up the speed some. Not too bad. we went across the Big Dam Bridge and headed out Rebsamen. We picked the pace up here and we were doing 20 with no problem. It was getting close to 8am so we figured we better call Annette and let them know that we would just meet them at the River Market. When I got her she said they were not even back yet so we figured we would just head back to the skate park since Gary needed to get to work anyway. I made the comment to Gary, "take off and lets see if we can chase you down on that new bike". Wrong thing to say to him. Before I knew it he was gone. Rock was latched on to his draft but James, Cindy and I were like sitting still even though we were moving. James sprinted out to catch them. I tried but it was no contest. I just rode as hard as I could and Cindy did the same. We drafted each other a few times trying to catch them. I looked down at my speedometer and I was going 24mph and they were leaving us like we were sitting still. Man, that tri bike is fast!

Rock and me on the phone calling Annette

James taking a breather from our hammer fest

This went on all the way back to the skate park. Cindy and I never caught them, even though we continued to ride 20mph+ on the trail most of the time. Let me tell you, it was a good workout! When we made it back the others were just unloading their bikes for the ride to the Rivermarket for breakfast. Gary had to get to work and Rock had to get home so James, Cindy and I headed out with the group towards North Little Rock. When we got to the new pedestrian bridge Vicki told us that we would have to carry our bikes up the stairs to the bridge. No problem, about two stories worth of stairs and we were riding across the river. Then we had to go up probably 4 flights of stairs to get to the next level. Ok, this was not fun anymore. Not good for my foot either. When we got to the next level we got to ride a little more then we had to go down about 4 flights of stairs. I kidded everyone asking where we were going to rappel at. This was like doing an adventure race! We did finally get done with the bridge and no one was interested in going back across that way so the plan was to ride to the Big Dam Bridge on the Little Rock side after breakfast.

We were all hungry at this point. I think our group had dwindled down to Vicki, Lisa(Tri Lisa), Bailey, Jackie, Annette, Cindy, James and me. Robert and Kelly drove over to meet us since they didn't have bikes. We had a nice breakfast, then it started raining while we were sitting outside. Finally it was time to ride again. The rain had stopped and Coreen and another man that I don't know his name was going to escort us a back way out of the River Market to the BDB. The route worked great, we rode down by the river, under Main and Broadway street bridges and then turned back onto Markham by the police station. This kept us away from the traffic and trolley tracks. Trolley tracks and bikes do not mix!

Had a lot of stop and go with red lights and stop signs until we made it back to Riverfront Drive. James said lets play when we get there. We would go out hard again all the way to 430 then turn around. By the time we do that the others should just about be at the bridge. We tried to get some others to join us but only Bailey would take the bait. So the next hammerfest crew consisted of James, Cindy, Bailey, and me. James and Cindy took off, I held their wheels with Bailey in behind me. It was another hard effort. 20-22mph heading to the bridge. I fell back a little and lost James and Cindy. Bailey hung with me to the bridge and then she dropped. I tried to catch James and Cindy but they must have been trying to kill each other! We were having fun though! I finally got back with them at the first turn around heading towards 430. We hammered back to the BDB and again they left me. No big deal, sometimes its the other way around. When we got to the bridge the others had just gotten there. Next thing you know it was on again. Cindy and James chasing each other down. I hung with them up the bridge and then got stuck in some traffic and never caught back up. When I got almost to the golf course here comes Cindy back. She said James was heading home. I kidded her saying "yeah, he couldn't take anymore". I think both of them were pretty tired at that point.

We headed back towards the soccer fields to catch the others and then I saw them turn into them. Vicki had said they were going up the hill at the soccer fields and then across the freeway and back. We hammered trying to catch up and not being sure their exact route were looking for them. The I saw some of them stopped at the top of the hill. "Dang, we have to go up that?" Its a short hill going out of the soccer field into Burns Park but its almost straight up. I had no problem making it up, picked the right gear and went right up. i did have to stand up for this one though. Cindy had a little trouble as she missed a gear or something. Then it was off and around the loop with the group. By this time I was ready to ride easy. I had probably 35 miles but I knew more pain was ahead. We had several hills to climb before making it back to the golf course. I went right up the long hard one, then dumb me, I made a right turn after crossing the interstate. Being ahead of everyone else I thought they were going this way then I heard them yelling at me that it was the wrong way. So, I had to turn around and try to catch back up. I had to expend more effort again catching up. They just came down a downhill and I had to go back up to catch them. Half a mile up the road I did. We stopped to regroup and wait for some of the others who had slowed down. Cindy was taking it easy at this point, chatting with the girls. Annette was doing great on the bike, and I think at times was probably leading the others.

We headed back across the interstate and towards the golf club house. Then there was a big downhill with a big uphill. Bailey was on my wheel and I just let it rip on this one. I hit 37mph going down and kept the momentum going back up the other side. I barely had to pedal up. That was nice! We finished the ride off with a moderate pace, 16-17 mph. I ended up with 45 miles which was pretty much what my long ride was suppose to be for the weekend. Only problem was, I had told Gary that I would ride with him on Sunday and do 50 more!

I'll blog about that maybe tomorrow!

Saturday stats:
3.1 mile run - 415 calories - 170 average HR
45 mile bike - 2882 calories - 152 average HR