Week 3: Day 1 Night Ride

Tonight Mead brought me out on a night ride on Difficult Run, and I made a mess of myself. Mountain biking is one of those things that I never get very comfortable with and when I take time off I become very shaky. Tonight all seemed fine until a creek crossing. My attempt to ford the river failed leaving me covered in mud and blood (not bad, on the knee). I think I also lost an oxen, 225 lbs of food, some ammo, and Timmy.

There were tons of critters, especially deer, on the trail and Matt almost ran into one.

Somehow I failed to start my GPS at the beginning of the ride. The ride took about 45-55 minutes and cover roughly 9 miles of trail. The second half of the route which tends to be sloppy after rain was a bit muddy, but not too bad.

Another product endorsement tonight, my Light in Motion Seca 400 produces excellent, bright light and is extremely light-weight. The battery pack was completely unnoticeable after I got riding. The only complaint I had was that it was constantly shaking due to a poor mount. Now that's partly my fault, and I can probably shim it to make it sturdy, but I was definitely disoriented by it. Also, the white light produced by the L.E.D.s might have caused a loss in definition of some obstacles, but I need to take it for another spin to be certain.

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Forget about week 1... Training Week 2: Day 1

Tip #1: If your heart rate monitor is failing you, especially a Garmin, apply saliva to the chest contacts.**

I wasted time/money getting a spare battery when it just needed a lil moisture. For reference, water did NOT work.

I jumped straight into week 2 of the training program today. I don't know that I'll strictly adhere to the plan from here until race day, but I ran the prescribed 3 miles today.

distance	time	Pace	HR Avg.	HR Max
3.13	24:10	7:44	149	173

Or at least that's the information from my robo-runner brain (aka Garmin Forerunner 305). I've been running with the forerunner for 3 years now, and despite its bulky appearance, it is a fantastic tool for serious runners, especially those who like to geek over training data like me.

I passed a large group of women (or several related packs) running on the trails and gave them words of encouragement. I suppose it's not the most sensible thing to say "great pace" or the like when I'm flying by (I blame oxygen deprivation to the brain at the time) but for the most part the women were positive in response anyhow :-)

I think I may forgo the Monday runs for cycling or swimming, but we'll see...

** - If that fails, find your favorite volt meter and make sure the battery is supplying the proper power.

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