WOW Ride + The Man = Fun (Loop #18)

Joy here...After a lacklustre performance on Tuesday night at the Time Trial, I was feeling a little apprehensive with the approach of the weekly Women on Wheels (WOW) ride on Wednesday night.  The sun was hot; the sky was blue; the air was still, and so I couldn't blame the weather for anything.  Twelve riders showed up at the meeting spot, and I could feel myself getting more and more nervous--if my back pain from Sunday and my metallic legs from Tuesday show up again, I'm gonna be really embarrassed in front of a pretty good group of people.

So, swallowing my nerves, and resisting the temptation to fall back on my childhood habit of nail biting, we rolled out of the parking lot in neat rows of two, heading towards the Pink Lake climb.  At first I wasn't on the front of the group, but tucked nicely in the middle, and the pace wasn't too high, so I was feeling good and was sucked along in the middle of the group, keeping my legs light and easy.

Then we rotated in the group, and I found myself on the front.  I kept the pace steady, and I didn't work myself too hard, but before I knew it, some of the ladies were having a hard time holding on to the wheels of the riders in front of them.  And then we approached the Pink Lake climb, and while a couple flew off the front of the group up the climb, I just kept my pace steady, and one by one, I began catching up to those riders on the hill.  By the crest of the hill, I was at the front, and as the group re-gathered itself to keep on going, we pedalled slowly a bit until those on the back caught up, and then we carried on in our group, taking a moment to practice all the rules of group riding etiquette (some of which you can find listed on this helpful website; just click the hyperlink).

As we approached the Fortune Lake climb, one of the group organizers shouted for the stronger riders to get in their biggest ring and climb while standing.  Feeling much better than Sunday's ride, I thought that "stronger rider" might just refer to me, so I stood up and climbed up that hill.  Eventually, about 1/3 of the way up the hill, I had to sit down, but I kept my bike in that big ring (the hardest gear) even while seated for a while.  Then those of us up front got the word that the group had splintered, so I slowed down my pedalling and waited for everyone to catch up, and then I rolled to the back of the group and put my bike into its hardest gear again so that I could stand up for the rest of the climb.  We crested that hill in no time and had a bit of a drink, and I was starting to feel good.  My back pain hadn't showed up, and my legs seemed to have enough gas in them to keep up with the demands of the ride.

And then as we paused for a photo at Champlain Lookout (and a wee snack), we also found The Man out in the park on his ride.  As we rolled away from our pause and passed him, I shouted out:  "Hey Handsome Husband!"  And all the girls checked him out as we sped past.  He said, "I'll catch up to you," and one of our riders turned to me and said, "I think that's a challenge!"

The gauntlet was dropped.

Here we are at the top of the world!

Then as our group roared over the rollers after the main climbs, and tore down the speedy descents (with me topping speeds of 69km/hr), The Man and his friend were ahead of us on the road, and it just so happened that I was at the front of the group at the time, so I stood up and pushed the pace, heckling The Man and his friend...and soon other WOW riders joined in with the heckling:  "speed up guys!" "you're about to get passed by a bunch of girls!" "Beep! Beep! Get a move on!"  With a pack of 12 women chasing them, The Man and his friend had to push their pace and pedal their little hearts out to avoid being passed.  I could hear our group splintering behind me, and one rider shouted:  "stay on her wheel!" meaning mine, to which the response was "she's chasing her husband, I can't keep up!"  After Sunday's crummy ride and Tuesday's crummy ride, it was encouraging for me to hear that my legs seemed to be back in form.

Eventually we all regrouped, and passed the guys on one of the descents and leap-frogged each other throughout the rest of the park.

Ultimately, The Man pulled ahead, but before he knew it, our WOW group was roaring past him on our way out of the park, and it was all he could do to jump on the back of the group.

As I pulled up to the car and hopped off my bike, The Man was nowhere to be found.  In a moment or two he caught up to me and arrived at the car, and the girl who had noted his challenge shouted over to us:  "So, who won?"  "I did, of course, as it should be!" was my response.  The Man looked back and forth between us, not understanding, and I winked at him and told him of the challenge that he had unwittingly issued, and that I had won.

All in all, our ride was 43kms and our average speed was 28km/hr, much better than Sunday's painful ride, so I have no complaints.

Over and out,
Joy

Fourth 15km Time Trial: Metallic Legs & Figuring Averages

Joy here...After my painful two-loop ride of the park on Sunday, when my back and my legs were screaming in pain, and I tried in vain to convince myself of the truth in the slogan that "pain is temporary," I took Monday off and was all set for Tuesday's weekly time trial.

The day was not too hot (around 28C), with very little wind, blue skies spotted with white, cotton clouds, and a number of team race riders showed up to compete, making us all think that tonight was a night for fast times and personal bests.

While last week only 14 riders showed up to race in the gusting winds and the rain, this week there were 34 racers gearing up to start.

While last week my start was screwed up a bit, this week, I was off like a flash as soon as my countdown was done.

I quickly hit 40km/hr as I got up to speed, topping 400w.  So I was all set for a good ride.  All I had to do was keep my power at around 200w and my speed over 35km/hr for 15kms.

It wasn't a tall order.  I've done it before.

Lady Deathstrike

But somehow, each time I looked down at my little computer, I was disappointed with what I saw.  My wattage kept dipping down to around 180w, and then I'd have to pedal harder to get it up to my target of 200w.  Then I'd hold it there, thinking that I held my cadence steady, only to look down and find out that my speed had dipped down to 33km/hr.  No matter what I tried, I just couldn't keep my numbers up.  My legs must have been pumped full of liquid adamantium, like that scene from the X Men 2 when Wolverine kills Lady Deathstrike by filling her veins with liquid metal...as he lets her die we hear her head clink hard against the glass container in which she is laid.  And I somehow felt like I knew what she must have been feeling, because as I was out there riding tonight, I'm sure my legs would have clinked heavily were there anything to touch them, because they sure weren't moving fast at all.

There's nothing more discouraging than looking down at disappointing numbers, but not being able to do anything about it.

And then, when I was feeling dispirited, at the 11.44km mark that back pain from Sunday's ride showed up with a vengeance, and all I could do was convince myself that I had less than 4kms left of suffering, and I just needed to stop looking at anything--distance, speed, time, wattage--and pedal my little heart out until the finish line, blocking out everything (including back pain and metallic legs).

In the end, my time was 25:50 and my speed 34.84km/hr, so certainly not a personal best, but better than the day I raced with two glasses of champagne working their way through my system.

Discounting that tipsy ride, I now have three 15km Time Trials under my belt:
June 5th--Time: 25:44, Speed: 34.97km/hr
July 3rd--Time:  25:41, Speed: 35.04km/hr
July 10th--Time: 25:50, Speed: 34.84km/hr

Thank goodness for salty, post-race delivery food!

So my averages for these three (giving me a baseline measurement) are:
Time: 25:45, Speed: 34.95km/hr.

Now my next step is to look into getting aero bars for my bike and playing with positioning, to see if that can help me improve on that average baseline.

But before that...I'm going to settle down and eat a nice meal from Greek on Wheels who just showed up at my doorstep with balm for my hurt and metallic soul.

Over and out,
Joy

Pain is Temporary (Loops #16 & #17)

The sun already high in the 7am Sunday sky.

Joy here...After taking two weeks off the bike, I felt like I was back in the groove a bit this week with Monday's easy flat ride, Tuesday's Personal Best Time Trial, and Wednesday's strong WOW ride; then Thursday I went to the gym with the Trainer and did some intense strength training, took Friday and Saturday off, and thought I was all set for a strong two loops of the park...only one week before the Gatineau Grand Prix, the very first real bike race that I intend to compete in.

So as we rolled out early Sunday morning, into the gusty winds and under the blue sky, I felt like I was strong and ready to have a powerful ride, challenging myself up over the hills and maintaining a strong and consistent pace for my first two-loop ride in the park in about a month (my last one being when I first started toying with the idea of doing the race...but back then I figured I had 5 weeks of training to prepare...now I'm down to 1 week).

But while my brain seemed to think I was all set to go with a strong and powerful Sunday morning ride, my body seemed to have other ideas.

Even before we reached the first steep climb (the Pink Lake Climb, about 1km of climbing around 70m of height gain with an average incline of 5.6%), my back was killing me.  I had a sharp pain in my lower back like I had been stabbed in the right kidney.  I don't know if I slept wrong and had back pain, if I was pedalling too hard and was straining my back, if I had worked my back too hard on Thursday and it was seizing, or if an invisible monster had jumped on my back and was digging in his claws.  I'm not sure what was going on, but no matter how I tried to stretch my back on the bike--leaning forward, standing up, sitting on the back of the saddle--nothing seemed to work.  The pain had settled in and seemed like it was there to stay.

So the battle between the brain that wanted a strong, hard Sunday ride and the body that was suffering began.

I huffed and I puffed; I tried to moderate my breathing lamaze-style to deal with the pain; and I just tried to ride beside The Man and not be too slow as to ruin both my ride and his ride this Sunday morning.  My face cringed; my mouth groaned; and my hands clenched.  I was doing everything I could to mind-over-matter this back pain.

Then, just before the start of the second big climb in the park (the Fortune Climb, nearly 2km of climbing over 150m of height gain with an average incline of 6.2%), we came upon The Professor and Cili Padi relaxing with their bikes and having a snack before tackling the climb up to the Champlain lookout.  We had a bit of a chat with them, caught up a bit, and I complained about my back, and then we hopped back on our bikes and headed up the hill.

At first my back seemed to calm down a bit with my pedalling up the steep part, but then that dagger started twisting its serrated edge in deeper and all I could do was settle into my bike in my easiest gear and pedal as consistently as possible.  I could feel the tears in the corners of my eyes and was happy that my sunglasses were hiding those eyes so no one would be able to see.

The Sunday morning view from Champlain lookout.

As I crested the steep part of the climb and rode towards The Man, he took one look at my scrunched up, "I'm in pain" face and said, "you know, we don't have to do two loops, we can just turn around at the top and go back."  I could have kissed him right then and there for the offer.  Everything in my body screamed:  "YES!  I wanna go home!"  But instead, I heard myself say:  "No, I need to finish these two loops."  What?  Did I just say that?  My brain seemed to be winning this battle between body and mind.  My brain was thinking that I needed the experience of suffering through these two loops as this Sunday's ride would be my last two-looper before Saturday's race, and without these two loops in my legs, the race would come along and I wouldn't have the mental fortitude to complete it.  When those voices in my head show up during the race (as they always do), I knew that I'd be quitting.  The only prevention strategy that I have in my arsenal is to finish this painful two loop ride on a hot and windy Sunday morning so that when the race begins to hurt, I can say, "shut up little voices, I can suffer through two loops, and even coming in last place is better than quitting."

Shadow Joy giving a thumbs-up, but definitely not
feeling thumbs-up-like!

So onwards we trundled, up to the Champlain Lookout, stopped long enough to eat and visit with The Professor and Cili Padi as they eventually reached the lookout, and then The Man and I began our descent so that we could reach the turnaround point and do it all over again.

I looked down to my Road ID on my wrist--it's a little velcro bracelet with a metal info plate engraved with my name, phone number, The Man's phone number, and my blood type.  It was a gift given to me by Simon (aka TriTwins), our friend from Malaysia who came to visit us last summer and rode with us in the park.  In addition to the info Simon had engraved on my little wrist ID, he also added a slogan:  "Pain is temporary."  So as the stabbing back pain spread from my right lower back to radiate to the rest of my lower back, not letting up at all, I looked down at that slogan, swallowed hard, grimaced, and just kept on pedalling...suffering up the Fortune Climb for a second time and suffering over those rollers on the way down from the top of the climb and suffering all the way out of the park.

In the end, our average speed was 26.5km/hr, and the ride was just over 80km door-to-door.  My average speed should have been somewhere between 27km/hr and 28km/hr (ideally even faster), so I was disappointed with that.

But when I think about the fact that I suffered through more than 3 hours of riding and was still able to complete the ride within spitting distance of the time that I would have expected of myself, I am pleased.  While this ride certainly doesn't represent a triumph of the body with fast legs and a fast time, it represents a triumph of the mind.

Napoleon once said:  "The strong man is the one who is able to intercept at will the communication between the senses and the mind," and this Sunday I can't say that I intercepted that communication between my body and mind, but I sure did prevent it from stopping me, and that's my triumph for the day...one week away from the two-loop race day.


"Pain is temporary...Pain is temporary...Pain is temporary...Pain is temporary..."


Over and out,
Joy

Beautiful Day......[Nomi's Second Marathon]

Nomi says,

So, Lulu wanted to run her first marathon this year and she wanted to run somewhere with pleasant weather and a very flat route. She suggested Gold Coast, Australia, we badgered our respective families into agreeing and thus, our great adventure began.

As with my previous marathon, i had a training plan all mapped out on a nice big calendar. And as with my training for the previous marathon...I couldn't really follow it. I tried to run at least 3 times in the gym during weekdays and tried to do a long run during weekends with Lulu. About 1 month before race day, we decided to do one long run of at least 30kms. If we could do that much, I was sure that we could finish 42kms. Lulu gave me a pair of CW-X compression tights, and i decided to try those out. Which was not a good idea. I was not used to them, and they compressed in ways that made my right knee and thigh hurt. So, I decided not to run anymore after that. I wanted my knee to recover for the marathon. I would go to the gym and use the various machines there to maintain my fitness, but not strain the joints. It was a compromise of sorts. If i didn't run anymore, my knee would recover. But, I knew that my endurance and strength would be affected to a certain degree. But I guess, as long as i could finish in time, it would do.

The weather in Gold Coast was expected to be in the range of 9 to 20C during the race. I had no idea what to wear. I live in a place with only 2 types of weather. Hot and dry or hot and wet...with haze intermittently.  I thought that I had to wear long sleeves, long tights, a wind cheater, a hat, a balaclava maybe, throw in some gloves, thick socks and make a thorough fool of myself :) ...So, i asked the Guru of Cold Weather -Joy, for her opinion...and she said, a sleeveless T and 3/4 tights would do. 'Cool and clear is the best weather to run in ', Joy said. Honestly, i was a little skeptical, cause she was used to sub-zero temperatures, but she would know cause she ran in similar weather during her first half marathon. So, a T-shirt and tights it would be. It was also raining in the days right up to the race, so i managed to get some plastic rainwear, which kind of looked like a garbage bag with a hood and sleeves. I assumed that the race would be well organized, so left my camelbak at home. I would rely on whatever hydration fluids provided but I did bring my GU gels. I also didn't bring my GPS. I would run with my usual pace and there probably would be pacers and distance markers by the road.
The day of race dawned bight and clear. It was truly a Beautiful Day. The rained had stopped the day before and temperatures were expected to be about 10 to 23 degrees. But to me it was still cold. It was about 14C before the race. It was like going to a big, big party . There were thousands of runners mingling around. Most were in sleeveless T's and shorts. Some were covered from head to toe, with wind cheaters, hand warmers, gloves, full tights, garbage bags with holes for the head and arms. And some were in costume too. There was a Japanese lady with a tutu and a veil, a few with short cotton kimonos over running gear, one dressed as a frog, one as 'Dragonball' , one in a superman costume, and there was an air of festivity and fun. The runners were categorized according to the expected finishing time. Me and Lulu were in wave D, which was 4 hr 30mins and thereafter. We made our way to our category.....and there were so few runners there, maybe less than 75 or so. The majority of them were in groups expecting to finish much earlier.

The gun went off at 7.20 am and it took 5 minutes before i crossed the start line. I think that this race was one of the nicest that i have run. The weather was wonderful. The route was through coastal roads alongside beautiful beaches, through suburbs along the sea and since it was a Sunday, a lot of residents had decided to come out and make an event of it. There were street musicians along the way Some people had barbies in their gardens, many were walking dogs, some stood by the road holding placards for people running the race, some stood in the boot of their pick up trucks with load hailers cheering the runners along and the participation from all these people and observers were fantastic. Strangers clapped, cheered you on, waved, called out your name on your bib, encouraged, told you what a good job you were doing, drivers honked and shouted encouragement from their cars, children stood by the road-side to touch your hand as you passed them and this was truly a novelty for me. These people made you feel welcome running in their neighborhoods.

My knee was fine in the beginning of the race. However, I did wonder if the Australian kilometer was longer than the Malaysian one. It felt like it took forever just to complete a kilometer. 1 hour and 10 minutes into the race, when all i ran was about 11kms or so, the elite runners were returning! There was a wave of Kenyans....soon followed by the elite runners and after another kilometer or so a hoard of A wave and B wave runners thundered pass. And I had only completer about a quarter of what i was supposed to do...The temperature may be moderate but the sunlight is strong. It was hot and blasting in my face for the longest time. Luckily i had a hat and sunglasses. I kept wondering about Lulu who only wore a bandana cause she was not used to hats or sunglasses. We had started of running together initially but we drifted away after a while.

After 25kms or so, i felt the muscles of my legs stiffen, tighten and become mildly uncooperative. However the knee held up and there was no outward discomfort from it. I stopped and drank at every hydration station. But, I think I probably drank too much cause I needed at least 3 toilet stops.The fluids provided were dilute and mildly 'detergent' tasting. But, something was better than nothing. Also, it was hot but quite dry. I could feel my skin baking and drying out in that strong glaring light. Somewhere before the 32km mark, Lulu caught up with me and we progressed together. However she soon started cramping up at 32kms or so. She couldn't move and was in a lot of pain. To cut a long story short, we had to walk after that. Despite hydrating herself and consuming energy gels, she did not get better. She knew that these cramps were from under -training, not electrolyte imbalance. I asked her to rest  by the road, to sit for a while, but she told me, 'Once i sit - i know i won't be able to get up again'. So, limp, hobble and push forward she did. I could see the frustration and pain she was in. She had been doing really well and if she didn't have cramps, she would have finished her first full marathon in very good time. After walking for about 6 kms or so, she told me to go on without her. She said - 'This is not what i wanted for you. You go on'.  By that time we had less than 4 kms left to go and a little more than an hour before cut off time. My legs were really hurting by then and I ran-walked to the finish line at 5 hr 54 mins. Lulu reached 5 minutes later. I am so proud of the both of us :) It was a good race to run I look forward to our next race together, hopefully with Joy too.

WOW! Independence Day Ride! (& Loop #15)

Joy here...In one of my favourite movies of all time--Bend it Like Beckham--the two young heroines of the soccer (ahem, football) flick head out for a day of shopping in London's Oxford St district, breaking their parents' rules, having some girl bonding, and generally asserting their sense of identity.  The soundtrack for this day of youthful fun is former Spice Girl Melanie C (aka "Sporty Spice") singing "Independence Day," and as I rode out to meet the Women on Wheels (WOW) riders on this July 4th, I heard her voice ringing in my mind:

This is my independence day

My independence day

Hey, my independence day...

No matter what comes my way

I'm gonna live for today,

This is my, this is my independence day!

After taking over two weeks off my bike, nearly three weeks since my last ride in the park, but finally getting back on this week with Monday's 75km flat ride and Tuesday's Time Trial, I was starting to feel like myself again--independent and full of the spirit of 1990s "girl power"!

Then when I meet up with the rest of the WOW crew under a boiling hot late day sun (temperatures around 34C) the theme of powerful women was destined to continue.  We rode at a reasonable pace to warm up towards Pink Lake, and as we reached that climb, one of the more experienced riders shouted for us to do the climb in our big ring.  I gamely tried for about the first 1/3 of the climb, but then the screaming in my legs forced me to sit down as the two strongest riders pulled ever-so-slowly away from me up the hill.  I crested the hill in 3rd place, just behind the other two, and then we all regrouped before continuing on through the rolling section of the park.

Every now and then we would slow down as some riders got trailed off the back of our 7-woman group, and then as we approached the great, long descent we decided to just rip it as fast as we wanted and regroup later...and that's just what we did.  I was still up front with those other two strong riders, and then as the descent started, I chased one down as fast as I could, and she and I were in first and second place down the descent!

But what goes down must eventually go up...at least in cycling that seems to be the case, so as we regrouped at the bottom of the descent and rolled towards the Fortune Climb, we knew that the hardest part of the ride was just ahead of us.  Again as we approached the climb, that strongest rider shouted for us to stay in our big rings.  The same three of us managed to climb up in our hardest gearing combination, but about 1/3 of the way up the climb, I had no other choice but to sit down.  My legs were full of lactic acid, and the muscles felt like they would give out, and I'd topple over...so with a grunt and a whimper, I sat down again and watched those two stronger riders--still standing--pull ahead of me up the hill.  I recovered as I rode up behind them, pedalling while seated as fast as I could up the incline, passing other riders out for a Wednesday eve ride, but I still never caught them before we crested the hill.  However, just like at Pink Lake, I was only 3rd place.  We regrouped again, and then continued to the peak and the hot, summer view at Champlain Lookout.

Here we are at Champlain Lookout.

On our way down from that highest point to finish our 43km ride, we decided to no longer hold up and wait for those falling off the back of the group.  So I followed those two other stronger riders out over the rolling hills and down some rip-roaring descents (topping 70km/hr).  Each time we hit a bit of a climb, their stronger legs, greater experience, and higher technical facility let them pull away from me a bit, but I pedalled my little heart out to catch up with them each time, so that we tore out of the park in a train of three almost 10 minutes ahead of the rest of the group as a whole (and averaging 27.7km/hr for the ride)...with each and every one of us feeling strong, independent, and powerful.

I guess Americans don't have a monopoly on Independence Day after all.

Over and out,

Joy

Third 15km Time Trial: Baby's Got Back

According to my 2-year old
nephew, she's a dead ringer for me!

Joy here...Over a week ago I was in Winnipeg for work (as you know, since I blogged about it), and since that also happens to be my home town, my sister took the opportunity to travel there with my nephew at the same time so that we could all have a visit.

The little sucker has grown a lot since I babysat him back in November, but does remain the same is his toddler's amount of energy!  I may not have done any working out while I was away, but I did my fair share of running around with him.

One of the words he knows (and puts to good use) is "Chase!"  And let me tell you, there's nothing like a little blond cherub looking up at you with his big brown eyes, his dimpled cheeks, and trusting you implicitly to "Chase!" to make you run around like a crazy person, making funny sounds and giggling!

After that week of "Chase!" I was one of the little guy's favourites, and when he got home, he looked at his nanny's book cover and thought the cover image was me!  What can I say?  The little guy recognizes a cyclist's butt when he sees one!

For that butt has a lot of power in it:  Even after taking 2 weeks off the bike, 2 weeks between Time Trials I was able to head out last night into the rain and gusting winds to complete my third-ever 15 km Time Trial with my best time to date.

Even though my start was compromised because the guy at the start didn't give me a countdown and just yelled "go!" out of the blue, leaving both me and the guy holding my bike to think he was joking, thus costing me a few seconds off the start, I was able to pull off a 25:41 time, with an average speed of 35.12km/hr and an average power output of 200watts.*

And all of that is thanks to my butt.

That's right...baby's got back!

Over and out,
Joy

The ominous skies...just to give you a sense of what
we were riding in!

*This according to my CycleOps Joule computer mounted to my bike.  The Time Trial organizers haven't posted the official results yet.

First Bike Ride in Two Weeks!

Joy here...Okay, so I was out of town from June 18-24 (i.e. no working out at all, unless you count splashing around in the pool with my 2-year old nephew or my friend's two kids), and then when I came back, I had to catch up on a lot of work that piled up while I was away, so I missed that Tuesday's Time Trial (the second one in a row that I missed).  Then I had a function to attend on Wednesday, so I missed the "Women on Wheels" ride (the third one in a row that I missed).  And, in short, my last bike ride was Saturday, June 16th--a great 95km ride over rolling, country terrain with two more experienced riders--and so when my friends were up for a ride on Monday, July 2nd, I did the math and counted more than two weeks of no-riding for me, and so I agreed to Monday's ride and hoped for the best.

The view of the country fields and the aqua sky above.

And the best arrived.

We met under gloriously blue skies and a light breeze at 9am, and rode 75kms door-to-door with four of us practicing a pace line and keeping our over-all average speed around 30km/hr, even with the sometimes strong headwind.

At no time did I feel tired, taxed, or put to the limit.  It was a great ride, and my legs were thanking me for getting back up on the bike.

While I've struggled with motivation for the last two weeks, with feeling overwhelmed by my growing to-do list, and worrying that I just can't finish everything that needs finishing, after that bike ride, I felt invigorated...like the whole world is my oyster and there's nothing I can't do.

It almost looks like the prairies with that big sky, doesn't it?

So if my little 25 minute runs this week are allowing me the opportunity to meditate, to find something creative and centred in a personal way, then this bike ride reminded me that bike riding gives me that extra bit of confidence and external power so that I can do anything I set my mind to.

That combination of riding and running just might be the magic elixir that I've been seeking.

Over and out,
Joy