the bumble bee rides again!

well, lots of muscle taxing exercise to talk about this morning. i'm not sure where i got the idea in my head that the distance from work to home was about 10.5 miles. it's not.

as you recall, i had an interval workout to do yesterday, so i had a co-worker drop me off at the back-bay trail (which, taking a combination of bike paths, get's me to within two miles of my house) and the idea was to do the intervals as part of a run home. i was a little stiff as i started out, and the three mile warm-up came and went rather quick. i dropped down to between 7:10-7:20 pace and kept that for two miles. i downed a gu at five miles, jogged a half mile and then started into the second interval. i hit closer to 7:00-7:10 for the second interval, but it wasn't because it felt easy. i wouldn't say i was struggling, but the quick pace felt faster than threshold. i again jogged a half mile to recover and then picked it back up to hit 8 min miles for the remaining miles of the run.

the end of the recovery had me right at eight miles. and as i began estimating the remaining distance, it was well over 2.5 miles. i figured it to be closer to five miles remaining. five miles later, i rolled past my front door. home at last, after traveling 13 miles and doing intervals, i was exhausted and ready to stretch and recover with some fluids and food. BUT, smsmh wasn't home, so i was stuck drinking from the hose until she turned up.

the rest of the evening, i felt spent. my calves were shot and i was mentally exhausted. i turned in early, spent about 15 minutes massaging my thighs and calves with the behemoth and then crashed.

i was up at zero dark thirty in the morning and out the door and on the bike by 5:15am. i planned to retrace the route from yesterday, so the only road i'd need to be on was a two mile stretch from my house to the trail and a three mile stretch from back bay to my office. i showed just how long it had been since i'd been on the bike by getting my left foot caught in the clip and falling over at a dead stop at the first light signal. i hit hard, got some small raspberries, but didn't really bruise anything other than my ego.

the ride felt pretty good, and even though i did some quad burning peddling, general cardio fitness levels allowed me to keep a pretty good pace for the whole ride. with several stops and a couple hills, i averaged just over 15mph, and actually rode between 16-18mph most of the time.

the best treat of the ride was as i cruised through back bay. the sun was just coming up to my rear, and i turned around to see just how high in the sky it was. i was treated to a beautiful sunrise over the bay. the water was still and reflecting the sky like glass. there were a couple ducks in the water with long wakes stretching out behind them and terns were just beginning to circle. it was absolutely beautiful. i nearly biffed a couple more times as i craned around to watch as much of it as i could. i kicked myself for not bringing the camera.

so, i'm not sure how frequently i'll try this in the future, but it sure did feel good to be back on the bumble bee and hearing the hum of the tires. and it felt good to take part in the 'bike to work week'. now, i've got to make it through the eight mile run scheduled for tonight and then it's clear sailing until sunday.

i wonder why i'm so hungry...