Celebrate and Curse

I swear I curse every time I drive around DC. Coming from Portland, the traffic lights out here aren't on sensors. They're all old school timed. It's ass. There could be no cars waiting at the side street light and the main light will change just as you're coming up to it. You have to wait a full cycle as no one is around. It's pathetic. I know why everyone out here runs red lights all the time. Especially when there's only like 1 car planning on going through....but

I celebrate every time I ride around DC on the bike. I know I don't have to worry about banditting through red lights because my carbon bike won't ever trip the sensor. I can also time my effort pretty well to get to the intersection just as the light is planning on changing because it's all timed. There are no extra long green lights for numerous cars. Each light is the same every time. I feel safer at intersections because of the timed lights.

I finished a good hard weekend of workouts but gained weight. I ate too much ice cream after each workout. I was weak and I have ice cream in the freezer. I went and suffered for 80 miles on the bike on Saturday after a killer interval workout in the pool. The interesting thing about the bike ride was at about 30 miles I was in the middle of nowhere. It was wild. There were one lane bridge crossings and no cars for miles. In all the riding around Oregon, I really have never experienced single lane paved roads out in the middle of nowhere. The pavement was actually in better shape than most of the side streets around here. There wasn't much chip-seal at all which was nice. I fought a headwind the whole way out and then rode the tailwind all the way home. I thought about doing my brick run on Saturday as the weather was quite nice but it was supposed to nice on Sunday as well and I wanted to get another good ride to beef up my cycling.

Sunday sucked! It was raining and cold. I decided to do my form work in the pool and then do the spinning class instead of riding on the trainer or outside. I felt like if I got the legs hammered in the spin class and then hit the streets for my run it would be beneficial. The run was pretty tame. I decided on trying to hit 90 minutes but decided to turn around at 40 minute mark. I was clicking off nice 7:20s and then upped to 7s on the way back. I keep thinking about making it through that 112 mile bike and then trying to relax through 26.2 miles on the run.

It's worrisome unless I get my bike to come around. I think my legs on the run can take the pounding and I've suffered through 3 marathons so I know what to expect at mile 18. That's the mile for me where I always say to myself I don't want to be out here anymore.

4 months 17 days...