New Toys!

Oh snap, look what Daddy bought! I couldn't be more pumped to see this beauty sitting in my garage. I finally replaced the bike that was stolen years ago. For so long getting a new mountain bike just fell so far down the list of priorities. With a wedding, then a new house, then a new baby there was always a reason to put it off but when i saw this for sale last week I hoped the time had finally come. I called Jamie and told her that i had found a bike that i wanted and she said to go for it. What an awesome wife! 2006 Norco Fluid Three. 5 inches front and rear. It's used, but only a couple years old and lightly ridden. Most importantly, it cost me half the suggested retail price. Thank you, PinkBike ! It's going to be a great summer. Here's a pic of my two main rides. So hardcore!

This week was also my longest run to date in the training schedule. 16 miles at 8:38. Here's a chart.

Had to be in White Rock at 8:30 AM Sunday morning so I sent a bag of clothes home with my Dad so that I could run to his place in the AM, get showered up and be where I needed to be by 8:30. I had my route from Cloverdale to WR all planned out in my head but switched things up at the last minute because I was worried about traffic on one of the roads I was going to take, a long narrow, single lane back road that is a straight shot from my pace to WR. It's a good thing that I did because I hadn't thought of one detail: to get my run in and get cleaned up by 8:30 I had to leave the house by 5:30. And at 5:30 it's still pretty dark around here. Narrow, single lane back roads with no streetlights that early on a Sunday. Not a great idea. The new route took me through some spots that weren't all that well lit either but there was a nice wide shoulder so it was all good.

Felt solid on the run. Pace was good, effort wasn't too tough until the last 1 1/2 mile or so where I felt myself needing to push a little more. Ran a negative spilt for the 16 which is what I was hoping for. Went out too fast and if the second half had as much climbing as the first my spilt would have looked very different for sure. Heart rate seems high but I'm still working on getting a handle on what it should look like on a run like this. If there's anyone who can shed some light on a good resource for figuring out what my zones should be please send it along. Right now with my Garmin i feel like a caveman with a calculator: I've got a great tool but don't really know how to use it.