Well, I too this past week off, and will be out at least for one more . I'm travelling cross-country to the east coast and back! I visited some of my family today in Nashville, TN. It was about 99 degrees, so there was no chance of doing anything outside. I went to a gym here, which btw was very nice - it had a swimming pool, basketball and tennis courts, and the standard weight and workout equipment. I ran 5k and then biked for about 20 minutes. It was fun, especially since I've been sitting on my ass for the past few days while travelling (however, that was fun too since the scenery along the way has so far been simply amazing - Washington, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois and Tennessee).

Total: 5k Run; 400 calories; ??? weight

Well, today was another good day. Why? Because my total biking + running distance for the week was over 100 miles. When I realized yesterday after my bike ride that I was pretty close to that mark, I knew I had to go for it today. Maybe in a couple of months I'll hit 200 miles. That will definitely not be easy!

Oh, I looked over the Garmin Forerunner 201 manual, and it turns out you can adjust the exercise mode to "speed", the effect being that the calorie calculation is adjusted for biking. That's why today's ride was only about 600 calories vs. much higher reported calorie outputs for the other rides, even when adjusted for distance.

Total: 13.9m Bike; 585 cal.; 143lb. after workout

Today was a good day. I decided to ride the Burke-Gilman trail and aim for about 40 miles. My left leg was hurting a little bit at first but the pain went away after about 5 miles or so. I was feeling good so at 20 miles decided to do 5 more to make the total 50 miles. I actually thought about doing a loop around Lake Washington and then come back on the I-90 Bridge which has a guarded bike lane, but I didn't bring a map of the best roads to take to get there so I came back the same way instead. At the 25 mile mark I rested, stretched for a couple of minutes, and drank my first sips of water - actually about half of a water bottle. I also sprayed some on my head. A few minutes later, already heading back, I ate a carbohydrate gel pack which helped out a lot.

I thought I would easily come back in under 3 hours. 2 hours would average out to 25 mph, which I know was impossible based on my previous rides. It took me 1:27:40 to get to the half-way point (Lap 1 is apparently not showing up on the map but it's at the end of the path line on the right side). I thought I could go back a lot faster for some reason and maybe hit 2:45. But alas, I just barely made 50 miles in under 3 hours. I hit the Lap 2 button on my watch with approximately 30 seconds left. Lap 2 was clocked in at 1:31:45, but it included the rest I took, so I think my time was almost exactly the same both ways. The total distance of the bike ride was 50.6mi because I took a slightly longer way to come back by the Fremont Bridge.

I'm actually pretty happy with the overall results because I tried my best to get under 3 hours once I knew it would be hard to even make that time. The last 8 miles or so were pretty difficult - my muscles started to crack up. My average speed was 16.4mph which I think is my best so far. I know I could do 20mph, the problem is the path along the Burke-Gilman trail: many stop and yield signs for cross car traffic and occasionally quite bumpy. I actually go a lot faster on regular car roads - for example the road that goes by the wineries towards the half-way point once the bike trail ends. Still, it might be doable if I take more risks, but at this point my thinking is it's not worth it.

By the way, I don't get a reading for the approximate amount of calories for bike rides because I have the older Garmin Forerunner (201). The new Forerunner 301 has separate readings for running and biking, and includes heart rate data as well.

Total: 50.6m Bike; ??? cal.; 143lb. after workout

I was a little sore again today. I started feeling some pain yesterday in my left Tensor fasciae latae, I think, towards the end of my run. It could also be a joint next to it, I can't pin it down exactly.

I won't bike today to allow for some healing. No point in risking an injury. Hopefully I'll be back on the road tomorrow.

I took yesterday off - my legs were a little sore from the 33 mile ride on Monday. Today I planned on running 5 miles along the waterfront. But the weather was about 10-15 degrees colder than forecasted. It was only in the low 60s and cloudy - perfect weather for running. I felt pretty good so decided to go past the Magnolia Bridge and kept going 'til I hit 3.1 miles which would make my total run 10km or 6.2 miles. I pushed hard the last mile because I wanted to make the 10k under 45 minutes. I did 10.03 km in 44:59 :-). Average speed turned out to be 7:12 min./mile - not great, but OK for a training run.

Total: 6.24m (10.03km) Run; 731 calories; 144 lb. after workout

It's been a few days since I rode my bike so this morning I decided to make it a nice and long one. I rode down to the waterfront and took the ferry to Bainbridge Island. Within half an hour I was on the island. When I got off, I fixed my seat - I've been meaning to do it for a while because I've been sliding off it just a bit. I raised the tilt of the seat by just a few degrees but the difference was huge.

The map that you see is an elevation map of the route I took today. The route is called the "Chilly Hilly", which is a bike race done in February every year. Yes, the ride is hilly - a total of 2675' in elevation gain, and a distance of 33 miles. I rode this route once before a couple of weeks ago but I went pretty slow because I was unfamiliar with the course. My goal today was to basically go as fast as I can.

I finished in just over 2 hours. When I had done over 15 miles the first hour, I wanted to get to 30 miles within 2 hours, which would give me an average speed of 15mph, which I think is OK for this course given the hilliness. At least I can say that I was satisfied with my performance because I hit 30 miles at 1:59:40. I was really dogging it the last couple of miles to make it. In all, I finished the 33 miles in 2:11. Theoretically, one could go a lot faster if not for the ~10 stops signs and an occasional car that gets in the way. But overall, there is almost no vehicle traffic on this course. It's my favorite ride in the Puget Sound area that I have ridden so far.

I had about 20 minutes to kill before the 1:10pm ferry back to Seattle, so I bought a lemonade at the wooden shack next to the car waiting area :-). Great ride today!

Total: 32.8m Bike; ??? cal.; 143.5 lb. after workout

I went swimming today in Lake Sammamish. I don't usually swim much perhaps because I don't like pools all that much and I can only swim outdoors for a couple of months here in Seattle. I drove towards the Microsoft campus in Redmond on Route 520, then headed south along the lake. I found a nice secluded place near a public park and swam for about 15 minutes. Not much, but I wasn't planning on working out severely today :-). Before I went, I checked to make sure that the Garmin Forerunner is waterproof - it is, but only up to a 1 meter depth. The reading came out OK, as you can see from the map. I zoomed out on gpsvisualizer.com to get a better sense of exactly where I was along the lake.

This is a screenshot I took from the Garmin Forerunner Logbook I have on my laptop. It records workouts from the GPS device. This is my favorite run because it's along the waterfront by Elliot Bay and very close to where I live. I run about 2.3 miles and stop under the Magnolia Bridge and then come back the same way. I ran tonight right when the sun was setting and it was beautiful. On the way back it was getting dark but the sun was still shining on Mt. Rainier.
Total: 4.6m Run; 559 cal.; 144.5 lb. after workout

Back to "live": did 3.1 mi. (5k) on the treadmill at the gym in my building. It was too hot to run outside. The gym is air-conditioned to a cool 65 degrees.
Mile 1: 6.0 mi./hr.
Mile 2: 7.0;7.5
Mile 3: 8.0;7.0 and 6.0 last .5mi.
Total: 3.1m Run; .5mi. cooldown; 400 cal.; 144lb. after workout

This is one of the first long-distance bike rides I've done, ever. I used to run cross-country back in high school and I still run regularly, but I've never really biked that much. Watching the Tour de France this year gave me the inspiration to start riding.

Because I'm currently on a pretty low budget, I went on craigslist.org and found a listing and picture of what looked like a good road bike for $30. As it turned out, the guy who was selling it hadn't been riding it very much in the last few years, so it was in decent shape. It's a ~1980 VolksCycle Mark100. It's 10-speed and has Shimano brakes and gear apparatus. I went to REI here in Seattle and replaced the tires (27"), break pads, put some grease on the chain, and got a pump, patch kit, helmet, bicycle shorts and a jersey. It has strap-in pedals and I haven't replaced them yet so I wear my running shoes. Overall, the bike works great so far! I'll post a picture of it soon.

Now back to the bike ride. It was a hot Monday early afternoon. I started riding about 12:30 from Belltown near downtown Seattle, headed along Drexter? Ave. 'til I hit the Burke-Gilman trail and continued past Matthews Beach on Lake Washington 'til the end of the trail. I was feeling pretty good and didn't yet use up my water bottle that I had inside the sack on the back of my jersey (I don't have a built-in holder on the rim). I decided to keep going 'til I hit 25 miles on my GPS reader to make it a 50-mile ride. The trail ended, and within a couple of miles, to my surprise, I went by Chateau Ste. Michelle in Woodenville, where I've driven before to taste wine! I remember it took me about half an hour to drive there from downtown Seattle, so I knew I was pretty far out. I went past the winery, turned right at the T-intersection and went uphill and turned back.

I got lost on the way back because I turned left early and subsuquently tried to make a shortcut through a small forest because my GPS device was showing I was close to the road I came on the other way. Unfortunately the small dirt road ended and I had to turn back (it's the light-blue zigzag on the upper-right side of the map). I finally made it to a road that took me back around the other side of Chateau St. Michelle and was eventually back on route 202 which interesects with the Burke-Gilman bike trail. By this time I was exausted and as soon as I hit 202 I stopped at a grocery store right by some small dive bar (I later looked it up - it's called the Hollywood Tavern). The thought to dive in and gulp down a cold beer actually entered my mind but I'm glad I didn't because I probably wouldn't have made it back. Instead, I bought a Gatorade and a rice cake and soon headed back. It was probably close to 85 by now, around 3pm. I made it back, but barely. It was a mistake to go that far on my first bike ride. On the other hand, it was worth it. No injuries and I only needed a day break and by Wendesday I recovered sufficiently enough to go for a 5-mile run.

By the way, I just got the idea to put up this blog so I still have a couple of past rides to post but by next week the rides should be "live".