Monday - Cathe's Muscle Endurance with my oh-so-awesome barbell, baby.
Tuesday - 8 x 800m repeats at supposedly 10K pace but really at my mile pace
Wednesday: 15 mile bike ride
I decided on Monday to recover from my duathlon by pumping some iron and leaving my legs alone. I busted out my barbell for a nice workout that involved a lot of bicep curls using that baby. Those same bicep curls came back to haunt me the next day, as it hurt to straighten my arms at any point in time. It's amazing the difference a barbell makes--I was actually lifting less weight that I normally do on the barbell, but holding that bar must work the muscles differently for me to start feeling it so soon afterwards.
Not being able to extend my arms without pain did make for a rough start to Tuesday's workout, when I stepped outside at 4:45 A.M. to run some 800 m repeats and was promptly engulfed by heat and humidity. I shrugged it off and began my warmup, and ran the first repeat into the wind, which actually wasn't that bad.
It was when I turned around and began to run those repeats with the wind at my back that I ran into some trouble.
At the start of the 5th repeat I was tired. I was dripping so much sweat off my body I'm sure I could have been classified by a meteorologist as a "rain event" on a weather map. I began the repeat, but about 10 seconds in I stopped running. The heat and humidity had gotten to me. I considered walking back to the house, but then I stopped and stared straight ahead in the direction I had been running.
I thought to myself, "You've done this before. You can do it again. Just make it to 6 repeats and we'll see."
I made it to 6. And then 7. And finally got to 8 (running back into the wind for that last one...the cooling effect was nice, but it did slow me down a bit). Funny, I never even thought about quitting or the heat after that slight pause to get my mental act together and suck it up.
This morning was a little better heat-wise, although the humidity was still clinging to everything in sight. Luckily I had a bike ride planned for this AM, so I scampered downstairs into my bike shoes and helmet, grabbed my bike, and then headed out the door.
And then I went back inside because I had no reflective gear/lights on. It's dark at 5 A.M. now, peeps. How depressing.
I threw on my reflective vest and grabbed a flashing red light to slap on the back of the bike. I strapped on my reflective ankle straps, and then began to fight with my headlamp. I tried to strap the thing on below my helmet, but it looked and felt weird, like it would slip down onto my face at any time. Plus, my batteries were dying and I didn't have time to scrounge up new ones--I had to get out the door so I could work out and get to my job (the place that pays me so I can buy all my fancy schmancy gear) early.
I shuffled through my running gear basket, looking for something-anything-that would work better than duct-taping a flashlight to my handlebars. And I found my knucklelights.
These are some bright brighty-bright lights that go around your knuckles (duh). They work quite awesomely for running if you don't mind having to clasp something in both hands the entire time. On the bike...not so awesome, but they solved my problem temporarily. I clasped one in my left hand, leaving my right hand free to actually hit the brakes and shift gears. It was an OK fix-and it would have been better if the light hadn't gone off every time I hit a bump. I had to keep smacking it to get it to come back on. You can probably tell by now that I did not cycle as fast as I normally did for the first part of the ride. I couldn't wait for the sun to come up so I could toss the knucklelight in back pocket of my cycling jersey and steer with both hands again.
I think I should just invest in some of these. Only $500 a wheel:
Or maybe haul my ass to Target and pick up a $20 light for the front of my bike.
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