Training ride #4, or trainus interruptus

This past Sunday was my last good training ride day. I will be in New Orleans for Memorial Day weekend and the Tour de Cure is on the following Sunday. My plan was to ride from home to Reston Parkway, turn around and ride west to Purcellville, then turn around and ride back home. That route is 56 miles, only five miles short of my Tour de Cure if I have Scott drive me back home and ten miles short if I ride the bike back home.

I got on the trail at 11:30am, much later than planned, but the trail wasn't too crowded. The trip to Reston and the return past home were easy. I worked on keeping my pace at a reasonable 13 MPH but it kept creeping up to 14.5 or so. I got into a spot of trouble in Ashburn when my sunscreen started running into my eyes. After clearing that up, I continued on while being pounded by the sun. The air temperature was only 80F and the humidity was tolerable, but that sun was baking me pretty hard. I couldn't wait to get into the tree cover outside of and through Leesburg. I got to Raflo park -- mile 22 of my trip -- and seriously considered calling Scott to come pick me up. But I rested in the shade and breeze, ate half a sandwich, ate a banana, and drained both water bottles. Thankfully, there was a working water fountain and I was able to refill.

I hit the trail again and was doing okay until I crossed Route 7 and began the climb up to Clark's Gap. The sun started baking me again and everything hurt. My gloves felt like they were squeezing my fingers, my shoes crushed my toes, my shorts pinched my thighs and lady parts, and my helmet felt like a vise on the back of my head. My hands were numb, my toes hurt, my right heel hurt, my head hurt. It's only 30 more miles, I bargained with myself. I can do that easily. But I slowed, and slowed, and slowed.

No, damnit! This is my last time to train! My body could NOT give up. Except that it did. I gave in and called Scott for rescue. I was at Clark's Gap but I asked him to meet me in Leesburg. I figured I could at least coast most of the way down hill to town. I was disappointed in myself and fretful about what this meant for the Tour. However, as I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening recovering from heat exhaustion, I realize that I made the right decision in calling for rescue.

You know, my not being a morning person makes me grumbly about tours and supported rides starting so blasted early in the morning. But now I understand why they do that. My Tour start time is between 7 and 8am so I feel a little better about not getting too sun baked while riding. Of course, now watch us get a monsoon on the day of.

Training ride #3

Since I skipped the group ride from Leesburg to Purcellville on Saturday, I made Sunday a training ride day. Scott agreed to meet me in Leesburg and ride to Purcellville and back so I had the first and last legs to myself. The ride out was pretty easy and, due to the gloomy skies, the W&OD wasn't too crowded. I found myself amongst a group of the lycra set and kept up with them through the downhills, eventually losing them before we got to Ashburn.

I made the twelve mile trip to Raflo Park -- middle of Leesburg -- in 49 minutes and waited for Scott to arrive. A couple with two young boys stopped in the gazebo where I waited and asked for suggestions on bikes for them and a carrier for the boys. I may have overwhelmed them with answers, but I stressed the importance of finding a good bike shop and asking lots of questions.

Raflo Park.

Scott finally joined me and, after chatting with the family for another 30 minutes or so, we hit the trail westward. That climb to Clarks Gap is a bugger and the downhill side is a welcome respite. I started to bonk around mile 20 as we made the final climb into Purcellville, but again the slight decline as we hit the town limits revived me enough for us to pedal slowly through town and find a restaurant for a well-deserved lunch.

The highest point is Clarks Gap.

I feared that heading back out on full stomachs might not be the best idea. Scott may have had the same thought and suggested that we stop and browse Trails End Cycling. He may have regretted that decision as I found a pair of white shoes at a significant discount off MSRP. A girl does want a choice in footwear... Of course the problem became how to get them home. We were both on road bikes with no baskets or racks. Scott volunteered to play his usual role of porter and crammed the shoes into his jersey pockets. Bless.

He promised he was comfortable.

The downhill ride home was a breeze and Scott was pleased to note all the recumbents out on the trail. He's developed a fascination with tadpole recumbents and I see a trip to bikes@vienna in our future. Anyway, I still felt great when we hit Leesburg and continued home alone as he loaded his bike onto the truck and drove home.

My final leg was pretty easy and I'm happy to say that I avoided any crashes with the ground, or anything else for that matter. I was able to play good Samaritan to another cyclist whom I noticed bleeding and limping along the side of the trail just east of route 15 by giving her some wet wipes and a band-aid. She said she didn't need any other assistance and I continued on my way. I even had enough energy to race a guy up the route 20-hate bridge (Scott's clever moniker) and not let him pass me until about half a mile from my neighborhood. I wound up with 46.99 miles in 3h 29m, a mile farther and 21 minutes faster than my last time riding this route. Color me very pleased.

Western end of the W&OD.

We ended the day with an hour at Scott's gym where I enjoyed feeling weightless in the pool and getting pounded by the waterfall in the spa. Now I just need to work up adding another 21 miles for the Tour de Cure in four weeks.

More damage

To me. The bikes are fine. In fact, it took Scott longer to put the bike on the back of the truck than it took for the bike mechanic to shift the horn/brake assembly back into position on the side portion of the handlebar. Apparently, the actual metal part of the handlebar was completely unscathed. I had no idea that the horns could bend so much! Now I just need to take a Sharpie to the edge of the brake handle and Circe will be back at 100%.

Friday night I rode my hybrid over to B's house and then rode the trails around her house with her. It would have been a faster trip to her house, but she's getting used to riding again and is on a hybrid so I took the slower bike with new combo platform/SPDs. These SPDs are pretty tight as I discovered when I lost momentum going up a hill, lost my balance, and couldn't unclip before falling sideways into a ditch full of thorn bushes.

Good times.

B. pulled my bike off me and then hauled me out of the thorns. She also kindly pulled a couple of thorns out of my upper arm. I washed off the blood and we resumed our ride. I felt fine when we got back to her place and decided to ride back home. The traffic was kind of heavy for a Friday night, but I've gotten pretty comfortable around cars. I amused myself by hitting and maintaining the 25mph speed limit on a residential street which meant that the car behind me couldn't (well, not legally anyway) pass.

I hopped on the W&OD in Old Town Herndon for the trail leg of my trip and ran into a bit of trouble when the trail was CLOGGED with teens who were ignoring the concert happening on the green behind City Hall. I slowed way down but when a girl darted out in front of me, I went down hard on my right side.

The kids around me were horrified and helped me up, gathered my belongings which had fallen from my basket, continually asked if I was okay, and apologized again and again. I thanked them for their help and told them that I was very nearly a professional faller and I was okay. One of the boys said, "In that case..." and began to clap. I bowed, we all laughed, and I hopped back on for the final leg.

When I got home, Scott was horrified to see the bloody scratches on my left arm and leg, fresh bruise on my right arm, and streaks of blood from knee to ankle on my right leg. He's looking to develop a line of cycling clothing made of bubble wrap for me. I think I may simply need to go back to wearing leggings over my cycling shorts. I never got banged up like this when I was fully clothed.

Due the cuts and bruises and stiffness and soreness, I stayed home from the group ride today. I was disappointed to make that call this morning, but as of tonight I've realized that was the best choice. Scott and I will take our own trip out to Purcellville and back tomorrow. Oh, and he's going to loosen the clips on my pedals a tiny bit so I can yank my feet out more easily and not escalate injuries.

Damage

During last weekend's ride, I overheard a cyclist tell his friend that when learning to ride clipless, you will fall three times. I had my third, and worst, fall last night.

I was exiting a shopping center (what my friends and I call the "Bavarian Monstrosity" at the corner of Centreville Road and Sunrise Valley in Herndon) and the driveway was a fairly steep hill. The driver in front of me gunned his car to make a right turn but then hit his brakes. I hit my brakes and unclipped on the right towards the curb. Unfortunately, Circe decided to go left. She never goes left. All my falls have been to the right. But left we went and I couldn't unclip fast enough and went down in front of a car. I hopped up as fast as I could, yanking my foot out of the left shoe and bounded with bike to the grassy spot next to the driveway. I lost a little skin on my left knee because I was wearing bike shorts instead of my usual capris, but I wasn't bleeding much. It took some work to wrench the shoe off the pedal, but eventually I got everything in order and walked the bike up the hill so I could clear my head of the shock and adrenaline.

Eventually I felt comfortable enough to get back into traffic and, because darkness was quickly falling, headed for home. I was a couple of miles from home when I realized that my left brake handle felt weird and I had to put my hand in an odd position to use it. It was only then that I noticed the left horn was no longer 90 degrees from the handlebar; it was more like 75 degrees from the handlebar. That didn't seem good. But it was working well enough and I got home just as full darkness came on.

Today I'm a little sore on my left side -- dull surprise -- and have discovered that I scraped up my elbow as well. The road rash on my knee isn't too bad, but I've got some pretty spectacular bruises. This isn't putting me off riding with a girlfriend tonight; though I will be on my hybrid. Scott works half days on Fridays and will take my bike over to the shop and get them to fix my handlebar. He said he could bend it back into place, but I want the professionals to handle this first repair.

Getting closer to the big day

It's only 31 days until the National Capital Tour de Cure and I'm at 85% of my fundraising goal of $1,000. THANK YOU to those dear folks who have donated to this worthy cause and who are supporting me on this journey. If you feel so included to help me reach my personal goal and help the American Diabetes Association with their goal of eliminating diabetes, please click the link below. And if you donate, please comment here or there with the name of someone you would like for me to ride in honor or in memory of. My bike will be adorned with ribbons emblazoned with the names of those loved ones. I'm also happily accepting "atta girl!"s. :)

I've decided to ride the 50 mile route -- it's actually 54.7 miles -- plus the twelve or so mile round trip from home to the start/finish line. That'll put me at just over a metric century which, at this point, will be a challenge but won't damage me. This Saturday will offer another chance at a decent training ride as Bike Me DC again conducts the crowd favorite "Fireworks Pizza Ride". The group will ride from Raflo Park in Leesburg to the trail head in Purcellville and back with a group lunch at Fireworks Pizza in Market Station. If I'm feeling especially spry and sassy, I will ride from home to the meet-up and back which should give me just about 47 miles when I include riding to and from the pizza joint. The temperature isn't supposed to be stinking hot like the past few days, but it'll be the warmest I've felt while riding for distance. Good training for the first weekend of June when it's usually REALLY stinking hot. Heh, spending Memorial Day weekend in New Orleans may actually benefit me by reminding me what REAL heat and humidity are like.

In semi-related news, a dear friend (hi Barb!) has signed up to ride in the Tour de Cure as well. I am incredibly proud of her for taking this step and getting out there. I've promised to be a gentle-yet-firm coach and help her get up to speed, so to speak, to prepare for the Fun Ride. Riding the trails together in her neck of the 'burbs will be a lot of fun.

Training ride #2

I hit the trail at the crack of 1pm on Saturday (so not a morning person) for another training ride. Just like last weekend, Scott met me at Idylwood Park in Falls Church, but this time we continued east along the Washington &Old Dominion Trail until its junction with the Custis Trail and rode that to Rosslyn. Since I'd ridden that route before, I called out to him the blind corners ahead of time -- for which he was grateful -- and gave him a heads-up on potentially troublesome intersections as well as the switchback ramp leading down to the Roosevelt Island parking lot. The ramp was much less scary my second time down but he found it terrifying. He kept one foot unclipped and extended the entire ride down just in case... but we made it to the base safely.

(Yes, there are commuters who face that ramp just about everyday, but we live in the sticks and don't have to deal with switchbacks... except for the one just west of Clarke's Gap which is especially fun in autumn when it's blanketed in leaves. But anyway...)

Sterling to Falls Church to Arlington and back to Falls Church.

On the W&OD, you can easily ride two abreast. Source.

I wouldn't try that on the MVT. Source.

I realized something as we pedaled along the Mount Vernon Trail: that multi-use path feels about half the width of the W&OD. It seems like the MVT could almost fit in one lane of W&OD. I find passing other cyclists and pedestrians fairly harrowing. I always feel like a jerk because I'm passing too closely, following too closely to wait for an oncoming cyclist to pass, or nearly running oncoming peds and cyclists off the trail. Suburban trails, like suburban streets, are wide expanses compared to their more urban counterparts, I guess. Yes, I'm generalizing a bit.


Okay, so the photos don't show that great a difference, but note how much space the W&OD guys take up compared with the MVT guy. Maybe I'll take my own comparison photos; that would require my taking my life into my hands by being even more of a jerk and stopping on the trail.

We stopped for a short picnic break between the Memorial Bridge and Lady Bird Johnson Park where I marveled at the Washington, DC skyline. I still feel a flutter in my chest when I see the monuments and Smithsonian castle across the river and realize that I live in the nation's capital. Okay, I live twenty-five miles northwest of the nation's capital, but you get the picture. The hubs, who spent most of his years in Annapolis, is less impressed seeing as how he had field trips there all the time. But for me, despite living in Virginia for sixteen years now, that skyline still gets to me.

We hopped back on our bikes and reached Gravelly Point Park -- which was CLOGGED with people -- easily. The ride to and past National Airport was harder because we were beginning to tire and the wind from the south kept getting stronger and stronger, but once we turned onto the Four Mile Run Trail, it was smooth sailing again. I have to say that I was very glad to have Scott with me at that end of 4MRT because the isolation creeped me out pretty badly, but I eventually relaxed and enjoyed the scenery. We returned to civilization fairly quickly and panted our way up to the W&OD trailhead in Shirlington.

Oh my goodness, I had NO idea how pretty the trail is up there. Well, once you get out of the urban part, that is. I want to explore the paths down along the stream. I guess that's still Four Mile Run? Somewhere along the way, I called out to Scott that we needed to stop. He was worried that I'd hurt myself, but I was scrabbling through the bush of the side of the trail trying to find the plant that smelled like the plant that used to grow in the bayou near the farmhouse where I grew up in Arkansas. I love the scent of whatever it is, but I have no idea what the plant is and I can't remember what it looks like. But gracious, does it smell sweet and it send me right back to my childhood.

Back on the bikes and we pushed to the meeting point of W&OD, 4MRT, and Custis. I began to tire and was nearly done by the time we got to Shreve Road. I bargained with myself, promised myself that I could walk Circe up the formidable hill that is Virginia Avenue (like last weekend), told myself that the truck was less than a commute distance away, and I didn't have to ride fourteen miles against the wind back to Sterling. The ride up Virginia Avenue was hard and I pushed myself to "get to the next driveway" and then I could walk and just as I thought I couldn't climb any more, the street leveled off and I could get ready for the downhill into Idylwood Park.

Route elevations

I wound up with just under forty miles with the ride. I'm trying not to be disappointed in my stamina and reminding myself that I'm still adjusting to the road bike and new posture. Scott stressed that I'm riding faster than I could on the hybrid and I'm able to go farther with each ride.

Training ride #1

I've been moping about how much solo cycling I do. While I cherish my alone time on the bike, I do occasionally get a little lonesome putting in all those miles by myself. With that in mind, I jumped at the chance to ride on Sunday with friends who are also training to ride in the ADA Tour de Cure in June.

Bel, Bob, Scott, & me with our trusty Specialized steeds.

My route was slightly shorter than my planned fifty mile ride, but I still managed almost 37 miles by riding from Sterling (mi 22.5) to Idylwood Park in Falls Church (mi 8.5) , backtracking to Hunter Mill in Reston (between mi 14.5 & 15) with Bel, Bob, & Scott then riding back to our meet-up spot in Falls Church (mi 8.5) and continuing with Scott up to the spot in Arlington where the W&OD meets the Custis (~ mi 4), and then back to the park in Falls Church where the truck was waiting to carry us back home. I am so thankful that Scott drove the truck to meet me at the park. While an easterly tailwind got me to Falls Church in an hour, that same wind was a killer going westbound. My legs were killing me on the final leg of our ride and I wouldn't have made the slog back to Sterling in that headwind.

Elevations from Shirlington (0) to Sterling (22.5). Source.

During the ride, I took my first clipped-in spill. I unclipped on the left and promptly fell to the right on to a, thankfully, super soft patch of grass. Also thankfully, I remembered to leave my right foot clipped in so I wouldn't possibly sprain it or worse. Bob and Scott were horrified, but I threw my arms in the air -- after crawling out from under the bike -- and hollered "Whoo hoo! I'm a real cyclist now!" Circe was fine and I was merely covered in chain grease from my knees down. My pride wasn't even bruised; I was too jazzed that the fall wasn't anywhere as painful or scary as I had imagined it would be.

Scott took his Crux off-road and disappeared in the bush.

The training ride shook my belief in my being able to ride a metric century, much less a full one. But I have to keep reminding myself that this was the first longish distance ride on my new bike and I have six more weekends of training -- I'm out of town Memorial Day weekend -- before the big event. There's plenty of time to continue training and the ride will be okay.

Training

It's T-minus 58 days to the Reston, VA, edition of the American Diabetes Association's Tour de Cure and I am at 61% of my $1,000 fundraising goal. Based on promised donations by family members, I'm going to get pretty darn close to my goal and may actually have to ride the full century plus the ten mile round trip to and from the Tour starting/ending point. This mileage calls from serious training because, at this point, I've put only twenty miles in one trip on my road bike.

Luckily, the weather is supposed to be gorgeous tomorrow and I will take advantage of that blessing by getting my booty in the saddle and taking a long ride. My goal is to ride to Rosslyn/Arlington and back which is about fifty miles round trip. Should be fun!

Eastern half of the W&OD. Source.

I've thought of doing something additional for my charity ride for the American Diabetes Association. If you have donated to my effort and have someone you would like for me to ride in honor of (including yourself) or in memory of, I will write your/their name on a ribbon and attach it to my bike for awareness of just how many people around us are touched by this disease.