cycling Idaho

I tried running last weekend. Just easy 5 miles on the mountain. Hiked up, ran down. It was second trial run since Badwater. This time, I was again testing the hip flexor to see if it healed up completely. Those things can take months to heal. Last weekend was 5 weeks since the race. Well, at first it felt fine. No problems. It was sooo good to be on the trails again. I felt it a bit running downhill so took it very easy. But after my run, I could already feel the deep ache returning. And by the next day, it was back to feeling bad. Not near as bad as before, but it is obviously not healed. Bummer. So, I decided to hold off on running at all for the next 3 to 4 weeks. I've got this bike thing to master during that time anyway.

So, I focussed this weekend on getting some mileage on the bike. I wanted to cycle all 3 days, but got in only 2. Yesterday, I rode the Centennial Trail to Coeur d'Alene and picked up a friend, and we rode together to Higgins Point, which is a famous spot for watching bald eagles in the winter. We turned around there, at the end of the Idaho Centennial Trail and headed back West toward Spokane for a total of 80 miles. The miles were slow and we took some nice relaxing breaks, but still...it was 80 miles! (So, if you decide to view the link to the Centennial Trail to Coeur d'Alene link, whatever you do, do NOT hit the link to the North Idaho Centennial Trail link at the bottom right corner of the page...the website has been hijacked by a porn site. Trust me....it has. You don't have to click on it to see for yourself. Really you don't....you DON'T. Really. Ok, ok, you obviously don't trust me...!)

Ha! I told you so!

Anyway, I wanted to make it to REI before closing yesterday but unfortunately, we spent too much time and had too much fun on the bikes. Dang! I wanted to get me some Labor Day sale stuff.

So, today, I decided to get an earlier start and ride 100 miles on the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes. It was a 40 minute drive to Plummer, Idaho to the trailhead and I headed out east toward Mullan.

(pic from the official website)

This is a rails to trails course, relatively new and thus very nice. It's also flat for most of the course.
(pic from the Trail of the Cd'A website)
The trail hugs Lake Coeur d'Alene for the first part and the river for the second part. There is spectacular scenery all along the way.

I thought I was going to make it back in 6 hours (total time including a break at the deli for drinks and a potty break), but the last short easy 6-mile hill back to the trailhead kicked my butt! It was not a steep grade or anything. I think my legs were just TOAST from yesterday's mileage too. I crawled up the hill and added an extra 20 minutes to my time. -- Not that I really care! -- So, my overall riding time for the century was 6:10 and total time including breaks (which matters in a race!) was 6:40. Not bad but not good either for a flat course. Still... I'll take it! It was a blast. I was by myself and so had to entertain myself during those hours. That's really not a hard thing for me to do. However, it was difficult to push myself without other riders around. I found it very easy to relax into a "touring" pace and had to constantly remind myself to pick up my cadence.

So, today I had time to swing directly over to REI to buy...um....well, stuff, you know....it's REI, there's a sale going on....

And so I bought some essentials and some non-essentials, and I was carrying around one of their big tote bags. And when I went up the stairs, I couldn't believe how fatigued my legs were! I had to do the ole' ultrarunner climbing maneuver, pushing my quads down with my hands as I climbed...

So, this is good. This is a good tired. It will help me at the 508. I wish I could ride again tomorrow, but real life calls.

I will now focus on some hills. I did some hill repeats 2 weekends ago and those too whipped me. So, yep, I can't fake this race! I've got a lot more work to do. Good news is...I LOVE the work!

Anna and I still have to pick our order for the team but at first glance it seems to me that it really doesn't matter much. There are so many long hills in each stage that I'm gonna be crying no matter what I do! :)

(You know I'm kidding, right? There will be NO WHINING! We have an excellent crew, which I will introduce later, and we have our humor and positive attitudes to get us through with loads of fun along the way.)

OK, holiday over. Back to work!

Great job to all the Tetoners! AJW rocks! And so do many others, though notable bloggers include: Bob, Matt, and Leigh. I'm looking forward to reading some reports.

Also, a special congratulations to Dori Robertson (who was on my Badwater crew) for a fabulous race at Ironman Canada with a finish time of 12:41:22!