I don’t have a running or consistent biking partner to push me when I get tired, but I do have the Schuylkill River Trail ‘partners’. This past weekend I was racing everyone on the trail (unbeknownst to them) to keep me motivated to keep going. I was certainly not the fastest one on the trail, but I did keep up with some pretty fast people for a while. I even passed one on my bike, after catching up to him, going faster than I ever have for such a long stretch. I unfortunately ran out of steam 1/2 mile down the road and he blew past me in the same fashion. I would see someone in the distance in front of me (going the same direction), and pedal or run really hard till I caught up to them. And if I passed someone, I wanted to make sure they didn’t in turn pass me. The real challenge came when the trail started getting more crowded and there was always someone in front of me. The good news is that my run was the fastest for 9 of the 11 miles I’ve ever had and my average bike speed was almost 1 mph faster than what I’ve been used to.
It was fun to try to go faster on the longer distances. I’ve been mostly taking it easier those days to conserve as much energy as I could to be able to get home. My thought process changed when I realized I’m always going to find a way home because I’m never that far away. So, for the rest of the training period…..Bring It On Ghost Racers!
