Weekly workouts – metric century!

This week was all about the metric century ride on Saturday.  Alan, Zach and my daughter’s boyfriend all participated in the ride.  I did get some good running miles in this week despite the heat.  I was very thankful for our pool!  There are 10 more weeks until the Columbus Marathon, and 6 more weeks until the Garmin half.  Miles run this week = 35, miles biked = 101.  This is what went down this week….

Sun – what was our adventure day?  We went to Mohican Adventures and floated down the river, and played mini golf.  Good times!!

We also went to the best ice cream parlor which had a flight of ice cream for only $5!  What a deal.

Mon – 8 miles, pace run.  59 degrees, yay!  Thankfully the weather was cooperating with this run so my pace miles felt easy. It was a dark out this morning, whomp whomp.  After my run I went to the gym.

After the gym it was a non stop day!  I went to IKEA with my mom.  Can you believe my mom turned her nose up at the Swedish meatballs?!

IKEA was an hour drive each way and then we spent hours wandering through the store.  After a few more stops at other stores, I finally made it home only to rest about 45 mins before it was time to go to Dave’s Running Metroparks Monday!  It was the last cookout night of the year.  Yum!  I love sampling all the goodies there.  I didn’t run, but went for a park walk instead. I was exhausted by the end of the day!  

Tues – 6 easy miles.  I was hoping it was only 4 miles, but the plan called for 6, so 6 miles it was!  I saw our favorite neighborhood cat (whom we have named “Mr MewMew”).  He’s so friendly!  We have no idea where he lives, but he is well fed.

26.5 miles biking.  The days are getting shorter so I didn’t get my 30 miles in today. That’s ok because my big ride is coming up on Saturday!  No need to go too hard today. Tonight was Ladies Ride (and a TAB ride for the guys) followed by drinks and snacks. We also got a coupon for a free ice cream cone so that was a nice bonus!

Weds – Rest day! Nothing going on today other than a short neighborhood walk.

Thurs – 16 miles, long run.  I had to mix up my workouts this week due to Saturday’s ride.  I think it was probably the best day of the week since the temps were just going higher, but it was a humid hot run!  By the last 3 miles I took a lot of breaks in the tree shade to get this run done!

Fri – 5 easy miles.  I usually take a rest day after a long run, but everything was feeling good so I went for a run.  Again, so humid!  I went to the gym, but no leg workouts for me.  Keeping the legs fresh for the MARR ride tomorrow!

Sat – 64 miles biking!!  TAB (Toledo Area Cyclists) MARR ride (Maumee Area River Rally) This event is the premiere event for our bike club.  There were a couple of route distances and we chose the longest one, the metric century.  There were also a few pace groups and we chose group 2, which was 18-20 mph, rolling 20-21 mph.  Our group was huge at the start.  At least 40 riders!  I think I started in the 7th position which worked out pretty good because some people pulled for several miles and some people hopped back in line in front of me, further pushing the time when I needed to pull the group farther back.  We planned to stop at mile 24 for a quick break and even though I got to the 2nd position in the line, I thought maybe I might not have to pull until after the break!  Well, 2nd position in line is often almost as tiring as the front position at times.  Unfortunately for me, we were rolling almost 23 mph for a lot of those first miles and 23 mph is pretty much my limit.  When we got to the rest stop my legs were shaking, which isn’t a good thing!  Our max speed was 26.4 mph. After the rest stop we split into two groups.  Here is half of our huge group splitting off.

I thought my best approach would be to hang in the back of the slower group, but as the group took off, there was a gap and I was unable to catch up with them!  Several swear words were spoken by me, and a feeling of frustration and disappointment as I watched the group roll away.  Ughhhhh.  Not how I planned on doing this ride.  My son was part of the group, and I had told him ahead of time that he should just stick with the group if I was dropped.  Alan insisted on staying with me which was quite good for me because I could draft off of him! 🙂  I did pull for some of our remaining 40 miles, but he did a lot of the work.  

Even though I had hoped to remain part of a group for all of the ride, Alan and I ended up with an average of 19.4 mph for the 64 miles.  Not bad at all!!  I was very happy with our overall speed.  We passed several of the group 2 riders as we finished so I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t hang that day.

Sun – 10 miles biking!  I had to get my hundred miles for the week 🙂 The rest of the day will be spent driving to Ohio State University and back.  We are checking out Zach’s new apartment.  Both kids will be home for a few more weeks but the countdown is on!  (waaaaaa!)

Need some more inspiration? I’m linking up with Deborah at Confessions of a Mother Runner and Kim from Running on the Fly for their Weekly Run Down. Check out all of the fun blogs there!

Q: Do you like Swedish meatballs?

I’m shocked my Mom said she never had them before!!