Bucks county bike riding

I drove to peace valley to start my ride, and it is worth the drive. It is so much nicer to bike on roads with barely any cars. I had been feeling like I am biking so much slower this year, but it is really a matter of having a long enough stretch with no intersections to be able to go faster.  The wind was so strong. Seeing sailboats on the lake reminded me that it is probably a better day for sailing than biking. Riding downhill against the wind is a crazy sensation. I imagine a small parachute would be enough to take flight. 

Sights along the way included large birds of prey swirling ominously in the wind, horse farms, dairy farms, and mansions surrounded by farms. It was interesting to see a sign for rice greenhouses. I didn't know rice was grown in PA.  I stopped at one point because I couldn't make a sharp left turn at the bottom of a hill when a car was coming, so I stopped by this bridge for a minute. Of course I was tempted to go play in the creek, but I kept moving. These photos are near the intersection of sweet briar and fretz valley rd in bedminster. 

I was roughly following a 25 mile loop I did last year, but I wanted to go 35 miles, so I made some additional turns and went exploring a bit. Just for the name, I had to turn onto Irish meetinghouse road, and it didn't disappoint, well paved, no traffic, and gradual hills. After that I was worried I wouldn't find my way without resorting to the map, as country roads don't go straight and connect where you would expect. But after a little trip through a random development, I did find my way back. 

I hope that as I build to biking longer distances, that I can find a good route to get to these roads from the new 202 bike path (which I am going to try for the first time today), but I am not sure how to get around the trafficky parts of the chalfont/doylestown area.

A typical Saturday

Run 

1 mile warmup, 4 miles in 29:40, 30 min easy on trails

Swim 

200 warmup

8 x 1000 (1-2 on 17:00, 3-8 on 16:00) fastest was #7 in 15:15

10 x 300 on 5:00

5 x 200 pull on 3:30

5 x 200 kick on 3:30

10 x 100 on 2:00 odds IM, evens free (1:25, 1:20, 1:17, 1:21, 1:19 for free)

300 easy

Countdown to summer--7 class days and honeysuckle on the way

This week, I got back on the track for the first time since well before Gettysburg.  The goal was 4 x 1200 at 5:00 (6:40 mile pace) with a 200 jog.  I did the first one in 4:46, and decided rather than getting slower, to cut the workout shorter if I could do 3 at that pace or faster.  The next two were 4:42 and 4:45.  One thing I really did learn from my college coach is knowing when to say when.  We almost always had workouts that were over-planned and then cut shorter depending on how we did.  Sometimes a shorter, high quality workout is better than dragging through endless repeats that are too slow.  Endurance certainly has its place, but for me, I get plenty of longer efforts when I am not on the track.  The other good thing about this 1200’s workout was that Alyson ran with me and did the first and last 400 of each 1200 (for a total workout of 6 x 400’s), so that we were able to run together despite being at different paces and different stages in our training. 

My great track workout wasn’t great for swimming.  That same night at swimming we did 20 x 100’s on 1:25.  I made about 12 of them, then started to fall off the pace, then just swam continuously as fast as I could for the rest of the set.  By the end, I was about 15 seconds behind.  Even though the set was a failure in a sense, it is probably the fastest 2000 I ever swam, under 29 minutes. 

Saturday morning I rode from my house to the art museum, along the Schuylkill River Trail out to Conshohocken, and cut across Joshua road back toward my house.  One thing that I have seen people do but was always afraid of is riding over a curb.  This time I did, just for the convenience of getting from the bike path to the open road on West River Drive.  Toward the end of the ride, while going up a short but very steep hill, I noticed the first honeysuckle of this season—a sure sign that summer will be here soon enough.

I bought some new gear from Jenkintown Running Company, mainly new shoes—Asics Gel-Cumulus.  I realized that I have trained for 2 marathons primarily in the same shoes.  I always alternate between my new shoes, old shoes for shorter runs, and trail shoes for trail runs.  That’s my method for making shoes last longer by spreading the mileage around.  I don’t know if it really makes a difference.  I was also tempted to get a minimalist shoe by Asics, but I have tried a New Balance minimalist shoe, and while I have worn them for a few races and shorter quicker runs, they definitely make my calves a lot more sore.  I also have a habit that the first run in a new pair of shoes has to be a messy one.  Sometimes, I’ll do a trail race in brand new shoes, but this time, the mud and puddles on forbidden drive Sunday were enough to end the “new shoe” appearance. 

French Creek Triathlon

This past weekend was my first triathlon of the season, the French Creek Triathlon, directed by none other than my brother, John Kenny (johnkennytri.com).  Anyone who knows my brother knows that he would not make it an easy course.  My time was a full 54 minutes slower than the last time I did an Olympic distance triathlon (which is technically a 1.5k swim, 40k bike, 10k run for any non-triathletes, or a little less than a mile swim, 24.8 mile bike, 6.2 mile run for any non-metric people).  Mostly, the bike took me forever, as it was extremely hilly.  Not only was I slow on the uphills, but I also spent most of the downhills riding the brakes because I am terrified of going over about 30 mph on a bike.  Someone was just telling me about a friend who broke a hip in a bike accident, further adding to my fears.  The only unpleasant thing about the race was cold feet, and I don’t mean that metaphorically. After swimming with a wetsuit but feet exposed in 62 degree water, my feet got even colder on the bike, and by the time I got to the run, it was all pins and needles.  A few miles into the run, they started to warm up.  Although I am proud of competing, I really did not feel sore at all from this race, which means I should be faster.  Basically, I need to 1) start riding my bike more, and 2) start running faster.  I pretty much did a 10k at marathon pace (8 min miles), which is the pace I’ve been training for.  Expect to read about lots of track workouts and hill repeats in future blogs. 

The course was simply amazing.  The area near French Creek State Park is mostly hills, forests, creeks, lakes, and a few open fields.  Sunday was a wonderfully cool but sunny day, just a perfect day to be outside.  It is simply a great location for a race, and I definitely hope to get back there later this summer just to train or just take a hike. 

Really, though, the best thing about this race is the fact that my brother organized everything.  I never thought about how much work it takes to make a race happen:  getting permits from the state park; hiring professionals for traffic control and EMS support; organizing sponsors to provide caps, gels and other goodies; setting up a website and advertising the race; hiring a timer who also supplied equipment such as bike racks, cones, buoys, and signage for the course; tshirts; post-race food; awards; organizing volunteers; and the list goes on.  Most impressively, John handled all of these responsibilities and maintained his typical even-tempered demeanor.  After a negative experience last year where a certain race director used a tone of voice that made me cry, I think that it is so important to keep the stress-level down and project only positive energy towards athletes and volunteers.  After all, races are meant to be fun.  And this one certainly was.  Most of the volunteers were family, my brother’s friends, people from swimming, and generally just a lot of great people.  It was also the first time in a long time that my mom has seen me race, so that was appropriate for Mother’s Day. 

Also, Saturday afternoon, I was at French Creek helping out with the kids race.  After the rain passed, my job during the race was near the bike out/ bike in part of transition, telling kids to mount and dismount.  I didn’t realize how important this job was until I forgot to tell the first kid to dismount his bike and he nearly had a collision riding into transition.  After that, I started jumping out into the road, waving my arms, yelling, “stop, get off your bike!”  So, 4 to 6 year olds doing triathlons are beyond cute.  Some even had training wheels (which I wish I had), but an impressive number could ride a bike at least as well as me.  Also, most of the bigger kids had nicer bikes than mine, and had quite the transitioning skills (legs crossed to dismount the bike).  It was impressive to watch kids compete, and although the distance is shorter (roughly proportional to their age), children fearlessly tackle a challenge that would be daunting to many adults, and most of them made it look fun (except for the occasional kid who was struggling and miserable, but we’ve all been there at some point). 

I used to think of triathletes from the outside as an exclusive clique (especially given how expensive equipment is, and how, statistically, the average triathlete earns a six-figure salary at their day job).   However, especially now, I am beginning to see it more as an inclusive community.  Family, friends, acquaintances you see at races, and strangers all support each other.  And all you have to do to join that community is compete or volunteer.    

Gettysburg marathon 4/28/13

Shortly after the Philly marathon last fall, my dear running friends convinced me to sign up for the Gettysburg Marathon this April.  It didn’t take much convincing, as training with a group is much better than training alone.  However, of the five who signed up, only three made it to the starting line, and only two made it to the finish.  I had all kinds of ambitions while preparing for the race:  to prove that I am now in the best shape of my life (by beating my PR from my first marathon at age 23), to negative split or at least maintain a steady pace.  However, there is that inevitable point in a marathon where the goal changes to simply finishing.  Now, after running my slowest time ever, the accomplishment of finishing and savoring the experience is enough. 

Where to start:  the beautiful scenery or the hills?  Unfortunately, they can’t really be separated.  The first few miles included some of the biggest uphills, starting near the battlefield, where the confederates first held higher ground in the battle.  Further on, the biggest hill near mile 7 crested at an orchard in bloom. My favorite part of the course was the downhill to flat section near mile 9 where the road paralleled a creek.  Among the many farms along the way, there was a turkey very close to the road making crazy turkey noises, some horses running through an open meadow, and, of course, lots of cows.   Many quaint farmhouses with historic and/or patriotic décor lined the roads, and families came out on the front lawns to cheer the streams of runners. 

My morning soundtrack included the late Richie Havens’ “Here comes the sun,” which echoed over and over in my mind, as this was the quintessential spring day.  After many January and February long runs in the snow and windy winter track workouts where speed seemed impossible, the sun broke through for a beautiful running day.  True, I was dehydrated and taking a double-fisted walk through nearly every water stop by the last few miles, but those winter days and much of the stress of the last four months can be put behind me now. 

What was most challenging about this course was not how big the hills were, but how unpredictable.  I was prepared for hills in the first 7 miles and another one at mile 11, but I was expecting the rest to be mostly downhill.  I didn’t anticipate all of the little ups and downs, and I certainly didn’t train for the hills enough.  While my long runs often include running uphill back from Manayunk, that long steady climb is very different from Gettysburg’s rolling terrain.  I struggle with hills in general, and specifically here, the need to continually shift gears required more mental focus than I had at that point in the race.  I may have slowed down on some uphills, and just forgot to pick it up when the hill ended, because I was just in survival mode, perhaps lacking the brain fuel to run smart. 

Around mile 17, I started counting down the miles until mile 21, where Alyson would meet me to run the last few miles.  What a relief to have some company and the distraction of conversation (with another person, not just my own head).  I am blessed to have such a good friend there when I needed it most.