Steakums

Tonight I road this route over the course of 1 and 1/2 hours.

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Which generated this awesome graph of stuff going on.

And in the end I ate this awesome steak.

That is all.

Yesterday's Brick Redux

Well today went much better than yesterday, at least insofar as inner tubes go. I got my tire changed this morning. I looked over the entire tube and tire and found the problem. I indeed had run over something along Parmer. There was a hole in the tube, and a puncture through the tire, but whatever I had run over wasn't embedded in the tire anymore. 

I replaced the back tube and then for practice removed the front tube and put it back in as well. Working around the derailleur wasn't nearly as difficult as I was expecting it to be though.

I probably need a new tube in the front anyway. I have no idea how long it's been in there, or if the guy I bought the bike from ever changed it. I know I never have. Both the back and front tubes had to be physically pulled away from the inside of the tire. Like they were glued. I'm guessing that means they're pretty old. I'll have to ask Lace or David - one of them will know. I rubbed the front tube down with some talcum powder before reseating it though. So that'll help for now.

Today's weather was great! It was a nice break from the triple digits that we've been having. It was nice getting to ride when the sun was up, but not at the break of dawn. The downside to the break in temperature was the rise in wind. But that's something good to train with.

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The run went really well too. I got some good speed in at times. I'm finally getting used to the "controlled falling" aspect of running faster. Staying on the balls of your feet and leaning forward. I still have a tendency to lean back or be straight up and down which isn't doing me any favors, but I'm getting better. The trick is to get your knees up higher. Don't try and physically kick your leg out in front of you to go faster with a longer stride, simply bring your knee up higher and fall forward. The higher your knee the more time between your left and right foot and the your stride with lengthen naturally.

The trick is to keep getting that knee up high without wearing yourself out.

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Blowout!

Well I got my first blowout tonight. I'm here at the Weirdos parking lot and Emily is on her way over.



8:30 at night on the side of Parmer is not the place to be attempting to change your first road flat. And on top of that, it's the back tire, so I also get to learn how to deal with a chain and derailleur.

Yeah, no thanks. Not right now.

I'll get this fixed tonight and reattempt this brick in the morning.

At least I got an absolutely awesome swim in today!

Go Team Michel!

Location:W Parmer Ln,Austin,United States

Saturday Morning Brick

This is what the day looked like this morning when I took my bike outside to start my 2 hour bike training session. I would have like it to be a touch earlier, if only because I knew it was going to be pretty bright and hot by the time I got to my run.

When I first started out this morning, I was really the only cyclist on the road. I didn't see any others until I was maybe 45 minutes in. With the really nice weather this morning I was expecting a lot more cyclists on the road when it was still darker.

By the time I was half way in to the ride though, the number of cyclists on the road was crazy. A lot of people get out and ride their bikes here in Austin. With varying levels of expertise and experience.  I saw a lot of singles and pairs, and people just in regular clothes, and also a lot of groups - both out for a ride and out for training.

I got quite a ways out there before I turned around and headed back in.

And probably the best part of all of this is that the route I'm taking now is giving me more hill work than the race route. Awesome!

My Route on Parmer

The Toyota US Open Route

Of course, all of that flatter terrain just means that I'll feel the wind more. 

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All in all, it was a pretty nice ride this morning.

The run didn't go as smoothly, but mainly because my legs were pretty beat by then - even though I had tried to make a conscious effort to save some power for the run.

I was really so worn out at this point that I couldn't keep my heart rate down. If I walked briskly it dropped down to HR Zone 2 and might hover near 3, but the moment I put any speed on at all, even a slow jog, it just went up and up.

So my run was really a lot of alternating jogging and walking.

Follow the red line for super fun heart rate times. And check out that awesome hill work I'm putting in.

Overall elevation change of 197 feet

Overall elevation change of 62 feet here (minus the big drop at the end)

Ha ha! Take that Dallas! Hill Country has got you beat in the hill department!

Overall this wasn't bad either. I got to 5 miles, which I wasn't expecting to happen. I just need to work on my leg endurance for these longer bricks.

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