Yesterday was the most brutal yet rewarding ride yet. It was a 97k ride from Kipling Station to Inglewood. For almost the entire first half of the ride we riding into a strong headwind. I didn't know just how strong it was until the way back. We rode uphill into the wind for almost three hours. I was beat. I thought that would be it for me.

The other day when I was in MEC buying my replacement HRM I overheard the sales lady telling a prospective buyer that a GPS isn't a replacement for a map. It's just meant as an aid to help with a map. I scoffed in my head. How ridiculous! It is a map! Well I forgot to program the rest stop in my GPS. Since I didn't have a map for a backup I ended up doing the entire trip without stopping. I was riding with a few different people on the way up, and the last two I ended up passing just before the rest stop.

The ride back was heavenly. The 35 km/h winds were right on my back, plus we were riding downhill. The road wasn't busy at all, so I sat up with not hands and lightly pedalled for 10k, trying to get the lactic acid out of my quads, which were in a lot of pain. What took two and a half hours to get to only took an hour and a half on the way back. Every time I looked down at the speedo I was never doing less than 40 km/h.

I was wondering why I didn't see anybody anywhere for the next hour, until Glenn, George and I forget the other guy's name passed me. Then they made a wrong turn. Then they caught me again. We all ended up finishing at the same time... we were the first ones back. But it's not a race... ;) It was hollow for me anyway, since I was probably half an hour slower than everyone else, but still. It's a good feeling to know you're holding up speed wise.

If it would have been reversed and the easy part was first followed by the torture, I probably would have given up on riding altogether. It was that bad. But the way it worked I'm going to be very upset missing two weekends when I'm gone. On the other hand I think my body could use the rest. I'm starting to feel some sports injuries coming on.

My back is getting pretty bad. The pain was pretty intense by 30k, and got worse to 45k. It levelled off until 55k, then on the way back I had enough time to stretch it while sitting up. I'm considering riding my mountain bike if this keeps up. Just until I can figure out what's wrong with my back.

Another problem is my right foot. It's tolerable right now, but it's getting worse all the time. I think it has to do with when I rolled it go-karting. I was running and jumping and landed on a patch of oil. I had a hairline fracture, and I'm sure there was some muscle/ligament damage too. I noticed during spinning that my left ankle is very stable positionally, but my right moves up and down with each pedal. It's been doing that for a long time, and that's the one that hurts. I don't know how bad it is, but I might have it looked at over the winter. Brutal, but I think that'll be less of a problem when I drop more pounds and build up more strength in it.

So today I'm going to give running a shot. I don't know if I should be giving myself a day off after that ride or not. I'll be taking Monday off anyway, and I usually had a recovery ride scheduled for my other weekend day. I'm going to see how much time I can run for in a half hour period. I'll be using this plan on Beginner Triathlete.

I don't know if you need to register to see the plan. Basically it's a four month run/walk program. Every session is a half hour, done three times a week. It starts off where you walk for a half hour. The next week you walk for 27 minutes and run for three. It increases ratios until you're running for 24 minutes straight. Then it switches to 15 minute runs, increasing time until you're running 5k in 30 minutes. Pretty smart, and a great way to avoid injury, while building up the strength of your joints.

Today I'm going to see how long I can run in a half hour period. When I feel like running, I'll run. When I can't anymore I won't. Sounds simple enough. From there I'll base where on the plan I feel comfortable starting. I like the idea of running, because I can do it anywhere, anytime. I could run on vacation, I could even run to work if I wanted to.

Final stats:
Distance: 95.73 km (because of the missed rest stop)
Time: 3:54
Actual time: 4:18
Average speed: 24.48 km/h
Max speed: 55.16 km/h
Average HR: 141
Peak HR: 170
Time in zone 3: 2:53
Total ascent: error due to heavy winds

Overall I felt a lot more tired than the last ride, despite keeping the same average speed. I miss going balls out for the entire ride, but with these distances it's getting to be too hard. I think the last weekend went so much better since I was still kinda drunk when I woke up, plus I had a ton of carbs. I didn't have enough before this ride, and that's what hurt. I need to up my calorie intake on the Friday before riding.

It's hard to eat more. I know that eating more will increase my performance and prevent wasting muscle, but I want to drop as much weight as I can to increase my future performance. It's so hard to do both. I can't wait to be at my proper size so I'll finally be able to eat as many calories as I use. At that point I'll be able to entirely concentrate on performance. I'll be awesome.