Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Mow Brick

Leave it up to Tri-Dummy to come up with the newest summer catch phrase - the MOW BRICK. Cut some grass, kick some ass! After a slow cutting day, with only 4 lawns cut due to the afternoon deluge that hit right after I started lawn #5, I had to follow up my butt-kicking from Tuesday with a really hard bike.

The plan was to mirror the run workout - go out slow, stay in Base HR Zone, and then pick it up to LT. Great plan; usually a plan like that calls for tenacity, good hydration and the right tools - like your HR strap. Oops. Fortunately, I've ridden my Flatwoods loop for about 5,000 miles now, and I know that between 18 and 19mph keeps my HR in the Base range.

Then, after 12 miles, I remembered something from HR Training 101 - "training miles in between your base HR zone and somewhere close to LT are what we call in the "Biz" JUNK MILES". Well, I wasn't about to do any junk miles today. So, I did another 12 lap (lap 2) averaging around 18mph, just to make sure I was ready to kick my own ass.

Lap 3 did just that. It started out feeling pretty good. By the 6 mile turn-around parking lot, I was starting to run those scenario's in my head..."oh, Bigun, that was good, you can ease up now. Ok, just get to the main trail. Remember, you still have another lap after this one." But that was short lived...looking down and seeing that despite the pain, your still holding 22mph is a good motivator!

I had a great help for the last 4 miles - way up ahead, the couple drafting on the uber expensive carbon road bikes (saw them in the parking lot when I started lap 3...). Time to finish up! They were hauling butt, 'cause I had to crank it up a notch to catch them - and here's the thing...even on the trail, ride on the right people! You may be going fast (sort of...), but there's always someone faster! HA!

Rolling in to finish up the lap, I was d.o.n.e.-done! The "plan" called for 50m, but in the interest of getting home to dinner, and the utter truth - I was finished getting rained on! Usually here in Florida, we get showers. Cats and Dogs sky dumps that last a few minutes - a half hour max, and then blue skys - right? Wrong. It did not stop raining the entire 2.5 hr ride. So my waterlogged Bigun self cut off 5 miles of cool down and headed for home.

Which brings us to this morning. Ahhh. I used to be a big weight guy - squats, bench, heavy weights, yadda yadda - and used to love that feeling the next day of sore muscle - well, this endurance stuff generally hasn't gotten me there. 35 minutes of pushing as hard as I could must have done the trick, 'cause I'm walking on sore legs today! Yeeeeha!

14 comments:

Wrenched Photography said...

Mow brick - yawn. Try a Frostick Special: 8 mile run, 25 mile bike, 8 mile run, 25 mile bike, 8 mile run.

Unknown said...

The MOW BRICK. I need to do one of those.
Tell the truth though Bigun- you cut that 5 miles off to go home and listen to your WHAM! and Manilow CDs, right?
We all know how you roll.......

The Stretch Doc said...

I thought it was Tom Jones and Wayne Newton.. J-wim.. HA..

Nice ride tho Bigun. and now I know what da "biz" is all about.

rockon`

Green Eyed Lady (aka GEL) said...

Actually, it's KC and the Sunshine Band! Cut some grass, kick some ass, get down tonight!

Unknown said...

Mow brick -- clever!!

bigmike600 said...

Dude you are a monster on the bike. About the Frostick Special-I say no thanks to that. That would be brutal as well. You guys are kicking this training thing up 2 notches. Makes me want to quit my job and train full time to keep up. Nice bike ride.

S. Baboo said...

Ah ha, junk miles exist between base pace and LT…you know what also lies between base and LT, your IM race pace…hardly junk. I think that in the long rides it's a good idea to play around in that "junk" zone to see what kinds of paces you can reasonably expect to hold over distance. My feeling is that the only junk miles are those done without specific intent.

Pfft, double bricks…try climbing a mountain on your bike Winz, a real mountain not those glorified east coast hills.

Oly said...

Andrea sounds like my wife.:)

Did a hardcore off road trail run w/ Yeti last week and the next day I had that sore feeling. It's been a while.

Dances with Corgis said...

I love the Mow brick! awesome! although at my house it would more be like a mow, shovel mulch, rake leaves brick.

Green Eyed Lady (aka GEL) said...

Btw, I keep forgetting to tell you what I saw when I flew to NYC a couple of weeks ago. At the airport Starbucks there was a sign that read "Heard on the Porch. Lawn Mowing is a Competitive Sport." Swear to gawd...

Tri-Dummy said...

The KC lyric had me rollin!!!

You're dogging me about the mow brick...now you're using it???!!!

I'm honored.

Di said...

GEL is sooooooooooooo funny!!

Supalinds said...

Don't ya just love the sore :) means you done good to the body.

Kate said...

Sounds like my husband! Weights galore; squats, bench, fly, curls, tricep press downs, hang cleans, dead lifts, you name it as long as it is HEAVY! But running and biking have kept him at a normal looking human being (mostly!).