November 24, 2012
Getting my run on!
Had a great weekend, training wise. After my swim yesterday, i wavered back and forth about getting my run due to the weather in the morning. Then i wasn’t sure about having enough time to finish and still have time to shower before going to friends for dinner.
I decided to go for it and ran 12km in awesome conditions – still sunny but rain clouds were rolling in so it was starting to get a little windy. It was actually beautiful down by the water with the sun setting and all the contrasts in color.
Unfortunately no pic because my battery died.
However i didn’t make that mistake today! After a three hour indoor bike session i wanted to run 20 minutes to get used to the feeling of doing a long bike ride followed by a run.
I’m going to consider the below just another karma reward.
That view’s about a 9 minute run from my apt. Definitely worth it!
October 12, 2012
By the numbers
50 kilometers; 2 hours, 7 minutes and 30 seconds; 24km/hr and 27 laps around Rosh Tzipor. All done by 09:00am this morning.
Yay for me! I wasn’t really looking forward to this bike ride but I’ve got to start getting some real bike experience, as opposed to my leisurely daily commutes.
Biking is not a reality for me without having either a closed road or an escort car – it’s just not safe enough for me to even bother. So if I don’t want to pack up the bike in the car and try to find another route, I have to stay in Tel Aviv and bike in the park. There are 2 loops – one is about 1.4km around and the other is Rosh Tzipor – 1.89km. That’s a lot of circles if you want to do any kind of distance but since there’s no way I’m giving up my parking spot for this, I didn’t have much of a choice. (I actually prefer the 1.4km loop more but knowing that 50km was the plan, that would have been an exceptionally masochistic thing to do.)
Therefore I joined all the other lycra-clad bikers this morning (although most of them were much faster than me, and on bikes that probably did cost as much as my car.)
I didn’t get out as early as I would have liked. On one hand that’s good – the amount of time that I spent on the path with the so-called “professionals” was at a minimum since they all were probably there at the crack of dawn (as opposed to me who took the time to eat breakfast, throw in a load of laundry and watch the end of Great British Bake-Off). I’m actually nervous about the fast bikers who somehow are always passing me at the narrowest parts of the path, during a curved section. However, they do serve their purpose. They speed around the track scaring all the walkers, dogs, and crows (who are surprisingly aggressive and don’t really move that fast when I’m riding towards them) out of the way. Once they start heading home, along come more dog walkers (who always feel it’s ok to let their dogs off their leashes), various strollers who never seem to pay attention to what’s happening around them and have no qualms about crossing into the paths of others without looking once, let alone twice and the bikers who seem to have just learned to bike last week, as far as I can tell, due to all the weaving they do..
Never mind, I did my ride and had a good time doing it (although an even better time once I saw that “5” turn up and knew it was my last lap).
And the ultimate bonus? 1,353 calories burned! Nice!!
(Did you have to tilt your head to see this? If so, sorry – the file looks fine to me but when I insert the photo it’s off. But I’ve spent enough time trying to fix it. And who knows, it might be fine and just how it looks to me in this edit mode.)
On another note, have you read Elaine’s most recent post? Definitely worth it if you’ve ever sat next to some screaming kids in a restaurant – it explains everything! http://houseofbedlam.wordpress.com/2012/10/12/eating-out-bedlam-style/
April 25, 2011
My First Bike Fall!
And of course, it involved a dog.
Pretty much recovered from the marathon and now that the weather is nice, I’ve been trying to get some long (for me) bike rides in on the weekends. I’m just trying to build up my mileage so that eventually I can join a group that does long rides with a car riding alongside with them (this is the only way I will feel safe out on the roads).
Until then I’m stuck in the park. And it’s a choice of one of two loops – the 1.49km or 1.89km. Both have their downsides (and very few upsides) but what can you do. That’s what’s available at the moment.
Anyway, today I had a late start and didn’t get to start riding until 8:20. I changed my sneakers to my bike shoes and clipped into the pedals. Rode 22km (around and around), occasionally yelling at someone about their unleashed dog in the wrong lane (bikers/walkers). And at one of the corners where people join the park, a woman was standing right in my path with her dog, who was on a leash. However the leash extended about 6ft because the dog’s off sniffing who knows what. I have no place to go and try to get unclipped to stop in time and lo and behold, I can’t.
Crash! I’m on the ground with a bloody knee and a sore hand because I put all my weight to stop the fall. And there’s a bike on top of me because my second foot is still clipped into the pedal! Finally I untangle myself and I think she may have apologized (at least she asked if I was ok). I moved over to the side of the path to assess the damage. I think I was more shaken up than anything so I drank some water to steady my nerves and than climbed back on and continued for another 20km. (All the while, yelling at more people and dogs along the way.)
This was the 1.89km loop and even though it’s longer and mentally a little easier to do, I think I’m going to have stick with the shorter loop – less people and wider paths. So what if I have to go around more than 30 times to get to 50km?
I think that my second ride this week is planned for the gym – that at least is fall-proof and I get to watch ESPN for an hour. Score! (so to speak!)
And We're Off! 