Holiday Weekend Warrior

In anticipation of either over eating, over drinking or under sleeping like most long holiday weekends, I wanted to get my long bike ride in early so I went Friday morning. I had my usual brown rice on Thursday night before bed. Only this time I combined tuna, balsamic vinegar, cumin, cinnamon, and red pepper. Holy cow that was good! I had to stop myself from eating the next morning’s portion too. I went to bed semi early and wanted to get out the door be 6 am to ride.

As 5 am rolled around, I got out of bed, had the same meal as the night before and hit the road on my bike. On the longer rides, it’s very difficult to not to push myself to go faster when I have the energy. My first half mile to the path is always slow because of the hills, cars and traffic lights. after I hit the path, however, I couldn’t help myself and tried to go as fast as I could for as long as I could. The first twelve miles were the fastest I’ve been able to do so far. I thought I would settle down, run out of energy and do the rest of the ride slower just to build the miles.

The first hour past and I was still cruising, I had so much energy, I didn’t slow down at all. My goal became: Finish the ride, no matter the length with a 17 mph pace. The path from Conshy to Valley Forge is pretty flat and at 7 am, not very crowded. My top speed was 23.6 mph (though I didn’t maintain it long). At mile 25, I turned around, took a short water break and headed home (9 miles away).  The whole length of that 9 miles had me pedaling to keep above the 17 mph average. The reason that was a goal, was because my rides always have my average below that because of the the mile going to and from the path from my house always slowed me down.

I was at 17.2 average before the last hill climb home. I rolled in the driveway and stopped at the back of the house after 1 hour 59 minutes and 49 seconds and a total of 34 miles even. I just barely made my goal. Now that was a good way to start the weekend.

I went to the beaches this weekend and realized as I was driving past center city that I forgot my running shoes by the front door of the house. The sneakers I typically wear are so worn out, I could tell you what side is up if I walked over a quarter. They’re not very good for running. I had no real anticipation of swimming in the ocean even though it was warm(ish), so that left my bike, which was strapped to the back of the car. There is no (known to me) bike path in any of the shore towns, so even though I brought my bike, I didn’t really think I’d have an opportunity to ride it for any distance without encircling the island many times.

The next day, Saturday, the town I was in really didn’t lend itself to long rides, but I was happy to have driven a total of 12. Sunday was much better for a few reasons. I was able to ride longer and the street was much smoother for my ride. In fact, my average speed for a 5 mile stretch was 21 mph (If I could just keep that up for 5 hours….).

I tried hard not to over eat, over drink or under sleep this weekend and based on the few times on my bike, I have to be at least considered a holiday weekend warrior.

Five am rolls around pretty fast, and I can’t wait to get up and go to the pool! This really has become fun!