The weekend and now a rest week

Saturday's ride was spectacular. I left my house at 7:30 am. The temperature hovered around 35 degrees. I met Ken and then Doug as we traveled south. A funny thing happened when we approached downtown. The fog was so thick you couldn't see 200 feet in front of you and the temperature dropped suddenly.

Doug threw in the towel and went home. He hadn't even worn full finger gloves so he was miserable from the start. When we got to Tempe town lake it was spooky. You couldn't see the water as we crossed the Mill Avenue Bridge. The water looked awfully cold. I really need to remember to go pick out a wetsuit.

Anyway, Ken was concerned about time so he bailed out as well. I completed the ride. While I didn't do the entire ride as fast as I wanted to I climbed the hill from Tempe to Fountain Hills averaging well above 18 mph and never let my pulse out of level 2. I think I can go down that road about 26 easy! The Ironman course has 3 big loops that include that up and down.

The run on Sunday was great! I think I ran about 10 miles in 1:30. I was a little beat up at the end of it. There are some days that you can't wait to get out of the house and work out, like Saturday. Then there are days like Sunday where you just procrastinate until you just decide to get it over with. I'll tell you something, I don't really even feel good until 15 minutes into my runs now, but after that I feel fantastic. As the run was coming to an end and I started my cool off (10 minutes at level 1) I really felt like I could have run forever. When I finally stopped I realized how taxing the ride had been. I didn't really eat that day and I wasn't as hydrated as I should have been. I also kind of hurt my right hip. All these will heal of course.

I'm now in the middle of a rest week. Rest week rides and runs are very relaxing. Actually I guess this is my second rest week of the month since I took almost an entire week off because I was sick.