Group Bike & Run Training - Mar 29

The great day of on-road biking finally arrives! I had a hard time getting up, considering I was arrogant enough to party up till 3 am the night before, but it was good times. :)

I had blown out a tire tube nozzle trying to get it to work with the pump last night, and had to replace it with a new one. Luckily I had all the tools I needed for that, but I still had one slight problem, the tire had no air, and I know I cant blow 100 psi with my mouth!

After layering up on shorts, track pants and couple of pullovers, I loaded the truck with the bike and the rest of the equipment and set off to Hines Park, which happens to be like 40 some miles away. I started out a little late, since I was being lazy getting all my stuff together and drinking tea, but the tea was worth it. I called Bora aka "Mean Machine" to ask him if he had a pump handy, since I was not going anywhere with my bike without the tires having any air in it. MM was supportive as always, and told me he would help me resolve that issue before we started. I reached there just in time when people were grouping up to leave. Our A2 buddies helped get my bike in order and off we went with our bike run. I was having a little bit of brake issues, and seemed to be pedaling way to hard for the speed I was attaining. After looking into it a lil bit, I figured out that the brake was not aligned properly and needed some tools to fix that, which to be honest I was not in any mood for. The coach and I decided just to unhook the rear brake and use the front break to slow down, just to make things more interesting! ;)

The whole clip-on thingy on the bike did not seem to be going to well for Bora and myself from the start, with Bora taking the lead in falling off, and myself close at his heels for seconds. We slowed down to help a couple of team mates who were having mechanical issues, only to find the curb breaking my fall! :(

After that we decided that our body had just about enough of the beating it could take on falling off the bike, so we focused more on trying to stay on the road, a plan I would rather have stuck with from the start. ;)

We came back in style, not only catching up with the rest of the team, but actually passing them to get a lead, and the 6 mile run with Bora was really fast paced. We took a short breather to hydrate ourselves and lost the lead, but the whole getting into the groove of it was very exhilarating, not to mention a huge confidence booster!

I felt quite on top of the world after our bike run, and my butt did not hurt as much as it generally does after bike training. The cold air however had more or less frozen my toes which I was having trouble feeling, so I had to warm up in the car a little bit before I got ready for my run. I ate some sport beans to tank up on sugar and hydrated myself some more, before I started my run with Bora.

The first mile is almost always very painful for me while the body is in the process of transitioning from bike-mode to run-mode. However it seemed today, my body had decided that all this biking was too much and somewhat gave up on me. It was only Bora's continuous support and motivation that made me get through the 3 miles with a couple of 10 secs stops to let my muscles loosen up from cramping. I had cut out on my running for the last week and a half to let me knee repair itself, so on the bright side, my knee was not hurting, partly to the brace I was wearing and partly to the fact it had a chance to repair itself.

Once we got back to the parking lot where the team was socializing, Bora bought a "stick" (not to beat me with, even though I deserved it some for slowing him down), to use it to roll it on my muscles to let the lactic acid out. This helped significantly to relax my muscles which were constantly tensing up on me, every step I took.

I feel that my swimming and biking skills are up to par for the stage I am at, but my running skills need a lot of work for now. I will start running regularly starting this week, and replace some of my swimming sessions with some leg workouts. On the brighter side, I am still very much motivated and ready to rock'n'roll on my next group workout!! :)