Tag Archives: Cycling

10K, 7 miles, Hills

Leave a reply

10K

Last week I ran one more time. I planned to do six miles, but as I was finishing, decided to add 0.2 miles to make it a 10K. So it was my first run of 10K for a long time.

There wasn’t much special about it (it took almost 1:18:00), but I did have a fastest pace of 5:00 and an average pace of 7:18 in my last 0.1 miles despite being quite beat. Then I thought about how in high school, that 7 minute pace was my easy run pace.

Cycling

I didn’t run more last week because I went for bike rides instead: 18+ miles on the 17th, 26.2 miles on the 20th, and 35.2 miles on the 21st, for a total of just over 80 cycling miles last week. That 26.2 took me just under two hours, but taking out traffic lights and such, it was about 1:45.

The 35.2 took me 2:53:50, but 2:43:09 moving time. I was kind of beat before I was headed home. I stopped for a tiny rest at a place with a great view. I didn’t take pictures that time, but I had rested there on Labor Day, and took some then.

7 Miles and Hills

Today I decided to go for a seven mile run, because why not? I also decided to do a hill workout. So I ran three miles or so to a great hill by a river. I forgot to press the lap button for my first time up, which was going to give me a nice, slow baseline. Oh well. I ran up twice more, each time trying to go fast.

My first fast lap up was 0.09 miles in 0:43.1. Second was in 0:45.9. I was a little bummed that I didn’t get my second lap faster, but, my average pace was 8:04 and 8:41 on an average of 5.3% grade (there’s a fair bit of not steep distance, followed by steep stuff). And, my fastest pace for the run was not downhill, it was on my first uphill, 5:33.

Let’s not discuss my pace in my last mile.

50

Leave a reply

My first ever 50 mile bike ride was yesterday. I made it all the way around Bear Lake (Utah and Idaho), but the distance was only 49.6 miles or so, so I made a U-turn and got another 0.2-ish miles before heading back. When I finished, I was at 50.15 miles.

Stats:

  • Time: 4:06:36
  • Average speed: 12.2 mph
  • Fastest speed: 34.5 mph
  • Estimated Calories burned: 2033
  • 1076 feet ascent / descent

The last time I tried (3.5 years ago), I didn’t make it all the way around. The last seven miles killed my average this time, and last time I don’t think I would have continued somewhere in that stretch.

The hill that I thought of as huge last time, didn’t seem as big this time, so much so that I kept looking for the next big hill, and never got to it. Glad I tried to get a fast speed going down the last hill.

Paused to capture the view on the east side of the lake

No Hydrants Were Hurdled Today

Leave a reply

But I did go for a 47 mile bike ride.

I packed up my jersey, purchased when I was considering doing Salt to Saint as an employee of the featured company.

And off I went. My throat started to get dry at 1.5 miles, so I went to take a drink, and realized I forgot my water. And my sunglasses again. So home, and back on the road again. I took Winchester to get to the Jordan River Trail system, which meant a fast, steep, downhill, followed by a, “I’m close enough to my parents’ house; I should stop by real quick.”

Along the JRT system, in the South end of the valley, I saw two mule deer, a red bellied bird, some lizards, and of course a lot of other birds and waterfowl.

I also rode past the location of one of my first scout camp outs. The Jordan Narrows. My first “snipe hunt” (after which I learned there is such a bird as a snipe, it just isn’t as described). But it’s fallen victim to progress. It’s now used for gravel or sand or something.

I was planning to ride 55 miles, and as I reached the half way point, I was only 7 miles from the Utah Lake Inlet, so I decided to make it to the lake. When I got there, I was beat, and out of fluid. I also clearly didn’t have enough daylight to make it home.

Utah Lake, primary source of the Jordan River

I made a call, and arranged to just keep riding south, after I replenished my fluids at a store, and my sweeper would pick me up however far south I got, with a 30 minute delay before leaving to get me. They only waited 15 minutes, which was fine because my quads were killing me. I went to Maverick and bought some Gatorade and water. As I stopped to put it in my bike bottles, some guy, who kind of looked like a coworker of mine, and was dressed up for the evening, gave me a look that seemed to me like “what are you doing here,” but probably because I thought he looked like my coworker.

Now that I was on the open road, instead of the trails, I was able to get some speed and keep it. My fastest mile was not the one where I almost hit 40 mph downhill in Taylorsville / Murray. It was along the west side of the lake, at just over 20 mph.

Green = bike ride, blue = car ride home via an Iron Strong at Roxbury.