1 mile up

Looking UP at the 3 mile point on my walk yesterday; same route as my ride today.

I did some cross-training today. Had to get up early again because Loren had his dentist appt today and he had to leave at 6:45 am, so I had to be back by then. I normally have my weight training class on Wednesdays from 6:30-7:20, so obviously that was out of the question. But after 10 miles on Monday and 6 miles of hills yesterday, a day of rest from racewalking was in order.

So I hopped on Loren's hybrid bike (more gears than mine), complete with bike light and rack for carrying stuff, and up the hills I went. I decided to do the same route I did yesterday racewalking, only I wanted to go farther up the hills. I biked up as high as I could going that way (a road I thought I could take was actually private and gated, with no access), which turned out to be 5280 feet = 1 mile up (1.609km)! OK, so I didn't actually bike up that far...I started at 4350 feet, but still, that is 900+ feet of elevation gain. Not too shabby on a heavy commuting bike (someday I'd like to get a real road bike, but it's kinda low on the priority list at the moment).

Photo looking down when I started down the hill yesterday on my walk (same route as bike ride today).

It was about 3.3 miles up, and then I went on more level roads up there for a bit, and then I biked home (fast... very fast... topped out at 31 mph = 50 kph). Total workout was 7.59 miles in 43:46; ave speed 10.4 mph and ave HR 135 (ave HR going UP was more like 142, and going down it was about 115).

I felt great when I got home, and now I have piano students in 5 minutes.