Saturday, June 23, 2012

Grueling miles...

I was running down to the Redbox to rent "Sherlock Holmes" to watch later today when I saw the paper delivery guy headed toward our house. My plan had been to pick up the movie, run it back to the house and then run around my mile loop until the bundles were dropped on our porch. Instead, I stopped at the house, folded the papers, loaded them up in two backpacks and headed out the door.

I hadn't run my daughter's paper route in ages, not once since she added two more routes. Those two routes double the number of papers from 40 to 80. Eighty newspapers, even small town newspapers, weigh a lot more than you think. I ran most of the routes, but I couldn't keep going the whole time. My heart would've given out! I was drenched with sweat when I got done.

Since I near four miles at that point, I decided to run one more mile unencumbered. In my worn out state, that mile was still pretty slow. I just couldn't speed up my legs. I finished just past the house, walked around the block and went inside to eat something. (garmin data)

After I'd eaten breakfast, I foolishly believed I could go out for a ride and not die. My legs were fried from my run. I thought they'd loosen up a bit if I rode easy. That's what would happen on any normal day. Today was not normal! The winds from the south were over 20mph most of the time. When you're riding on that kind of day there is no easy, at least not on the way out.

I thought about going out to Glendale and back, but I thought the wind felt like it was slightly out of the west, so I didn't want to have to deal with that on the way back. When I got to the intersection of Country Club and Lake, I turned west and rode over to Highway 281 instead of heading toward the lake.

Riding south on 281 was awful. I don't know if I can describe the suffering I went through. Awful doesn't do it justice. Add to the gusting headwind a mostly uphill trip out of town and you have the makings of something really bad. Even though it hurt, I kept going. I kept telling myself I could make it to Sawyer. "Go to an hour or to Sawyer which ever comes first," was my mantra.

After I took the first curve to the east before Sawyer, the going was a little bit better. The wind wasn't directly in my face. I was able to get up to 13 or 14mph. Scary, isn't it? I past and waved at Jimmy Lee as he rode his bike back toward Pratt. I almost turned around and joined him. I would have, but my "one hour or Sawyer" goal kept me moving forward. No retreat!

I went past my goal. When the timer rolled over an hour and I was less than a mile out of Sawyer, I just couldn't turn around. I pressed on, rounded the last corner and entered Sawyer. I rode till the timer ticked over to 1:08, then turned around.

The ride back was slightly more pleasant. I was quickly up and over 20mph. The hour against the wind had taken its toll though. I didn't feel like pushing very hard until I decided to try to catch Jimmy. Nothing like a rabbit to get me going! I cranked up my effort and flew along at over 20mph all the way back to town. For four or five miles my average hovered around 30mph. I didn't catch Jimmy. I did, however, hit over 40mph on the final downhill into town. I smiled as I flew past the 30mph speed limit sign.

Shortly after rolling onto the bricks of South Main, I hit a bump that knocked my taillight out of its mount. I braked hard, leaned my bike against a tree nearby and walked back to pick up the pieces. From that point until less than a half mile from home, my Garmin was not running. I thought I'd left it on and let it auto-pause. I hadn't. I'd stopped it! Grrrrr! I hate losing miles. At least they were slower miles, so my average looks higher.

I rolled up to the house, clicked out of my pedals and put my bike away. I'm going to shower now, then watch "Sherlock Holmes". I hope it's good. If it doesn't keep my interest, I might fall asleep. (garmin data)

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