Apex Hill Rd. Ride and Run

Training continues with growing intrest on my part.  Even the mornings when I'm like, "Uh, I didn't sleep very well and another French press of coffee would be nice, while just reading indoors..." I still have this little pilot light of desire to get outside and work.

Yesterday, I got out on the old Peugeot for a dirt/road ride.  You see, I'm reluctant to put any money I don't really have into that bike.  It's sole purpose is to save my race bike from wear and tear in training.  So, when I bought it and the seatpost was all whacked out, I rigged it to work (or so I thought).  It was fine for my 2 hr ride a few days ago.  Yesterday, well, that would be a different story.  I was pretty happy to be out riding and lingered a ways from home.  As I'm climbing up a long gradual hill, I realized I was sliding back and had taken the form of a chopper rider with monkey hanger bars.  Crap.  I was still a good hour from home.  Well, it ended up being a great quad workout (at least that's what I tell myself now).

A used seatpost and 3 mins to switch it out last night and Pudge is ready to fly again.

Today, one of my athletes, Stephen drove up for our weekly run.  I didn't think the awkward ride yesterday would affect me today.  I was wrong.  I could tell from the get-go that my quads were sunk and I'd be struggling.  Stephen is tuned up like a grand prix super motorbike for the Boston Marathon, yet is gracious enough to take it easy on me and act like fast hiking the longer climbs is fun.  We got in some great views and equally great conversation while whittling away 15 miles, 2,600+ ft climb, mostly over 9,000 ft elevation for 2.5 hours.

Continental Divide

Stephen wishing I'd get faster

All in all, this will be another good week.  Heck, I'm already at 11,000 ft climb for 4 days.  Looks like I get to hit the treadmill on Saturday with the forecasted storm.