Does It Sound Wet Or Flat?

Yesterday after work I took my bike back to Toga to have them fix the bike computer. I was really glad that they were going to fix it because on the way over, nothing was working. Not the mileage, not the MPH, not the cadence ... nothing. Well, that's not true. It did still tell time accurately. I waited about a half an hour and they brought it back up and everything was in working order. Apparently one of the wires was too tight before and that's why it wasn't working. Once they re-wired and gave it some slack, it was A-OK. The only thing I'm not sure about is that they moved the location of the computer. It's fine, but I sort-of liked where it was before. I'm sure in a while I won't even really remember what it used to be like.

This morning I woke up at 2:30 to the sound of rain. I was secretly hopeful that it would keep on raining so that I could just get some more sleep. However, when my alarm went off at 4:45, it had stopped raining. I did debate whether or not to still go to the brick workout and if I had been by myself, I probably could have justified staying home, but Drew convinced me to go. I know that was the right decision, I just wasn't that excited about waking up before 5 AM.

I got to the meeting spot and it turned out that there were only 8 of us at the workout today. Not super surprising given the fact that the weather was a little bit iffy and it was also the last Terrier brick workout of the season. Even though it might have seemed like it could keep raining, the temperature was fantastic - really quite warm - which was a nice surprise.

The taper workout wasn't anything fancy - just 50 minutes on the bike spinning easy and then a 15-20 minute run. I started off on the bike riding and noticed right away that since there had been no car traffic in the park, the roads were really still pretty wet. It's not really that big of a deal to ride on a wet road, but I just hate that you get this thin layer of dirt all over you from the splashing up from the road. I also don't really like to give my bike a bath and that's usually a requirement after a day like today.

After I was 3/4 of the way done with my first loop in the park, I thought I heard a bit of an odd noise coming from my bike. I was worried that maybe I had a flat. I did think that it could just be the sound of the wet pavement that was leading me to hear all of these funny noises and not a flat, but being the worry-wort that I am (and also prone to flats!), I decided just to stop for a second and check it out. Of course, it was just my over-active imagination, but I did feel a lot better for the rest of the ride once I had stopped to see. Also, since the weather for Sunday is still looking pretty iffy, it made me feel better that I'll know what it'll sound like to ride on wet roads and I won't have to be as paranoid that every sound I hear is a flat tire.

My bike ride was 12.34 miles in 50:47 (14.58 MPH average). I really took it easy today. Every time I found myself pedaling harder up a hill, I reminded myself to ease off and not blow up my legs before the race. Which meant that I had no shame in using my granny gear to go up the Harlem Hill!

Running wasn't anything exciting. I started off a little bit slow because I really didn't want to push too hard this close to the race. I did the loop around Cherry Hill Fountain and then the lower loop of the Park. On the last quarter-mile or so of the run, I picked up the pace a little bit. I wanted to try to simulate the end of the run on Sunday and I'd like to have a little bit of gas left in the tank so that I can pick up the tempo at the end of the run and finish strong. My run was 1.86 miles in 18:01 (9:41 pace).

Bike:
Calories: 574
Maximum HR: 176
Average HR: 160

Run:
Calories: 238
Maximum HR: 183
Average HR: 174

I think my plan for this week is going really well so far. I'm hoping I can get to bed early tonight to try to stockpile my sleep. I'm just guessing that I won't sleep too well Saturday night, but I'm hoping if I get up early both Friday and Saturday mornings, I'll just be too tuckered out to stay awake worrying all night long. I just have one more workout planned for tomorrow and then that's it. I'm not going to gain any fitness in the next three days, so I just have to hope that everything I've done this far was enough.