Not so sucky Sunday

This week sucked so it was time to at least have one good day. After only logging .5 miles for the whole week I was feeling pretty down about the whole running/biking thing. Life happens and does interfere with training, but that's just the way it is and it seems to be happening more and more to me.

So this morning I decided it was time to run. Good, bad, ugly, I needed to. And it was actually not bad. The foot felt pretty good and I tried to run an easy pace. Which considering my running fitness level that's probably all I could do anyway. Ended up with 4.14 miles with a 10:35 average pace. My splits were all pretty consistent with a 10:10, 10:35, 10:35 and a 11:11. Walked too much that last mile plus I didn't have any water.

I had planned on biking with the 1:30 group but I had to go work for a couple hours at our West Little Rock location. One of my managers had a death in the family so I have to get their payroll done. I figured I might not be able to make the ride but it worked out that I got back home at 12:30 so it was a rush but I went.

Met the group at 1:30 at Cleland and Hwy 5. We were biking part of the Big Dam Bridge route and the plan was for about 65 miles going all the way to Conway and back. The plan was also not to ride hard but we all know how those plans go. We had a pretty large group, James, Heather, Russ, Rick S1 ,Rick S2, David, Lisa M and Lisa F and myself.

We took Cleland pretty slow which was nice since its very rough. Towards the end of it the group started splitting up some. Pretty much was everyone except David and Lisa F. We took Cleland all the way to Batesville Pike and then turned on Dorsey to Fortson. There were a few good rolling hills in this part. But Fortson we all knew was going to hurt. And it did. Right on Fortson towards 107. A couple miles down the road was the first major hill. It was one of those that took almost everything you had to get over it. I have climbed worse, but this one would be in the top 5 I think. Several nice downhills made up for it and the road was soon newly paved which was nice and smooth.

We all stopped at the top of Fortson hill to take a quick break before descending down to 107. This is a tricky decent as you have a stop sign at Hwy 107 and its kinda hard to stop! We didn't have any problems though. Left on 107 then took a left on Otto Road. This was another nice, smooth road with rolling hills. We had some good speed on this road and I'm sure we averaged 19-20mph most of the time. The main group all hung pretty close but we were not really drafting. I think we may have had a little tail wind helping us out which was OK. The return trip might not be as fun though.

We turned right on Hwy 286 and headed towards Conway. Another rough road and lots of traffic. This road really sucked but we were still flying along at a 19-20mph average most of the time. We had some truck pulling a tractor attempt to pass us and then before he even got to the back of the first bike he locked his brakes up, squealing and burning rubber. I guess there was a car coming in the other lane and he decided he better not pass. Didn't really bother me that much and I was the one at the back.

We stopped at a Citgo station just on the edge of Conway to refill and wait on David and Lisa. This was just over 25 miles. Heather was needing to get back early so James, Russ and myself decided that we would turn back and take 286 over to Hwy 89 and then back in. This would cut out probably 10+ miles which probably 3 miles was going to be in city traffic which I wasn't looking forward to.

So the group split here and we rode on. We tried to up the pace some but we had a little bit of a head wind and there was countless hills. We stopped at the Hwy 89 intersection for a minute then had to climb up a long hill. Not super steep but one of those long slow ones. It had to be at least a half mile long if not longer. A couple more smaller ones put us to mostly flat ground again. At least the road here was smooth too!

We made a left on Batesville Pike and then rode back to Cleland and back in. After we turned on Cleland from 107 I couldn't get back into my big ring for some reason. I fought with it for half a mile or so then just rode in the small ring. This put me behind which at the end of a ride always makes you wonder why the hell you do this. I finally tricked the gears and got into the big ring and I could get some speed again. The group was 1/2 a mile ahead of me at least by this time. I said the heck with it, I was just riding it in and not pushing it.

Ended up finishing with right at 54 miles with an average pace on the bike just under 17 mph. I didn't think this was too bad considering the slow hills we had on Fortson. I was glad afterwards that I didn't do the 65 mile route. It had even more hills and I'm sure the others didn't get back till almost dark. I was pretty wiped out afterwards, and the run this morning I'm sure didn't help.

Next weekend is the Big Dam Bridge 100. I am almost doubting my sanity in doing 100 miles. Which I know if I do it slower it won't be as bad but I would like to have a new PR at least. My lack of training the past two weeks further makes me question why. The bad thing is, I will have little to no free time this week to get any running or riding in the way it looks now. Hopefully I can cram something in.

See you on the road!