Sunday, 5 pm, lawn is mowed, beer is cracked

I did not get that much of a workout yesterday at my half-race, but it was something. Mountain biking is a very different workout than on the road or bikepath. It is alot more upper body work and you use your legs in different ways, unlike the road which is pretty constant except for climbing.

I got an early morning phone call to go riding at Longview Lake, on the paved trails there. I'll take any opportunity to exercise outside rather than the gym so I went. Pretty relaxed ride, 14 miles, slow pace (avg 12 mph, max 18 mph), mostly flat.

As we drove up, a couple girls on their bikes came up to the car asking if that was the end of the trail. My friend who had ridden there previously said it was but said there was a section they might have missed and if they wanted to ride with us, they could. They decided to go on but first they went over to some jungle-gym equipment by the parking lot. This one girl did 3-4 pullups! I was impressed.

When our other riding partner arrived, I said 'This chick did pullups.' She told me that I could do that and I said I was going to try but I was waiting for them to leave so I didn't look too stupid. So we went over and tried and, lo and behold, I could do a couple. Not very well and I really struggled to pull up all the way from completely straight arms, but still more than I thought I could do. Motivation to get my strength training done, for sure.

Eatin' mud ...

Today was my first ever off-road duathlon. It was the first multi-sport event I've done in years, maybe 20. Super fun at the Lawrence River Trails (http://www.fattireduathlon.com). And it's true, I won the 40-49 womens division. I placed 7th overall in the women's group. So I'm pretty psyched about that. Then I got a flat tire on the way home on I-70. So that kinda sucked.

But back to the good stuff. My total time was 1:24. The splits will be available later when they post the results. The format was a 2 mile run, 10 mile bike, 2 mile run. The run portions started on the Levee trail, which is a flat, wide trail that runs for miles along the Kansas River. After about half a mile, we dropped into the woods and hit the singletrack. LRT is a blast because it's not rocky or rooty, just super flowy and rollercoastery in spots. I have not run much on a real trail like that before so it was a great introduction. There were some dips and climbs but no worries about twisting your ankle on a big ol' tree root. I never start well in a race, particularly in the morning. But once we moved off the Levee Trail, I had warmed up sufficiently to not feel like crap. We reached race equilibrium pretty quickly, where there was not much passing or being passed going on. I tucked in behind a guy for quite awhile towards the end at a comfortable pace as I wasn't sure how my endurance was going to hold for the whole deal.

My transition to bike was slow as I'm inexperienced. I got there too late to get my bike on a rack so it was at the back of the transition area propped up against a post. When we came into the area, I slugged down half a cup of water. I didn't want to use my bike water bottle as it's often too rough on trails and it just bangs around or pops out. I don't know why I didn't bring my Camelbak for the bike part, but I didn't die of dehydration. It was in the low 60's probably and overcast so no heat worries. Two loops on the bike, as we've had so much rain that they had to pick the least muddy parts of the trail. I used the Levee portion to recover a little more from the run and then we dropped into the trail again. LRT is the best place around KC to take a first-timer on mountain bike, as the trail is not technical. But the mud and other riders required some bike handling skills. I had to make a couple passes. Got passed a few more times. But everyone was cool and polite so no crashes, no rudeness. The mud made for some slick spots and some real bogs, especially the portions in grass. While LRT is free of rocks and roots, there are some tight turns. I probably could have pushed a little harder on the bike but I kept thinking about that 2 mile run ....

The bike-run transition was faster but the legs felt like sludge those first few steps. Finally I loosened up and was able to get in a decent rhythm. A much slower pace than the first run I'm sure but I pushed as much as I could. My knee let me know it was there but no really bad twinges or pain. More trail running is a real possibility for me, as it's not the repetitive pounding on pavement that can really wear you down. I felt tired at the end, but strong. I tried to do my post-workout stretches and walk around as much as possible, but I'm sure I will be stiff and sore tomorrow morning. That's part of the deal over 40. You just don't recover like you did at 25. Sigh. Maybe I should have taken advantage of the massage services offered.