Ride Recap: Medina Twin Sizzler

Since I'm going to talk about my first "organized" training ride today, I want to do some promoting for a BikeMS fundraiser first.

What: FireSide Symphony Concert for MS

Where: Dewey's Coffeehouse, 13201 Shaker Square (NE quadrant) Cleveland, OH

When: Friday, July 15th

Time: 8pm - 10pm

Details: 

This is a performance to raise awareness and money to fund scientific research for Multiple Sclerosis. In August, Team "Baby Got Bike" will be biking 150 miles in 2 days in August, to show our love and support for those living with MS. 

Funds raised from this BikeMS ride is crucial to the National MS Society and the services and support they provide. This is a free performance, but all donations will go directly to Team Baby Got Bike's fundraising efforts for the National MS Society. Please come ready to support the services and research they provide to those living with MS with a night of music!

Dewey's Coffeehouse offers a small cork fee and glasses for any wine/beer you want to bring. If adult beverages aren't your thing, they have lots of coffee and snack options.

OK, so that's that. If you're in the Cleveland area, please please please come out and show your support! Brandon's got a lot of fun songs planned and there will even be a special guest performer...you have to come out to see who it is!

On the Fourth of July, Brandon and I rode in our very first bike race as a bit of training for Pedal to the Point. The Medina Twin Sizzler was a combo of a few races; 5k run/walk, 10k run, and 27 mile bike ride. I've done 27 miles on the towpath before, but this was my first official, ride with other people, bike ride. 

Prior to this ride, I had only ridden once in Medina. Despite this fact, I have done a handful of runs at lunch and I definitely know how hilly it can be. It's a stark contrast to the flat flat flatness of the east side. You know what? Hills are downright fun on a bike! I actually enjoy riding hills much more than running them. It might be something about the coast down the other side ;-)

Anyway, it took Brandon, his sister Tanja and I about 2 hours and 10 minutes to ride the 27 miles on this course, so we're talking about 12 mph. A few people have mentioned that it's pretty easy to ride about 20 mph on the Pedal to the Point course...but I'm not convinced I can ride that fast. We shall see. 

Overall, it was a fun and pretty challenging ride. I think I'm in for it when it comes to 150 miles, because I haven't ridden more than 27 in one shot thus far. BUT I'm less concerned about the mileage and more concerned about my butt. Riding 75 miles, two days in a row is going to do a number on that part of my body. 

Now that I'm back from my Cali/Chi-town vacay, I'm going to get back on my bike in earnest. I've got a few good rides planned for the weekend, maybe a run or two, and plenty of yoga!

Want to donate to Team Baby Got Bike? Click here! Or, you can click the link on my sidebar anytime! 

P2P Training

I just realized that since I announced that I was going to ride the Bike MS Pedal to the Point ride, I haven't once updated you on my training.

That's because there really hasn't been much of it. I was doing good with getting on my bike for a while, but then life kind of got in the way. And, as is always the case when I don't have a plan, exercising got pushed to the back burner.

So, according to my Garmin, I've ridden 42.5 miles in the last 30 days. Considering I'm planning to do 150 miles in two days...that seems a little under par.

Also, apparently my average speed was 6.7 mph. Wow, I'm slow. 

I think I'm having a tough time with this for a few reasons:

1. This is my first summer since I moved to Ohio not training for a big (marathon or half) RUNNING race
2. I don't want to set an actual training plan out...I want to just roll with it

Sometimes for me not having a plan is a sure path to not training, but I'm also finding myself wanting to do more running than anything else, even without training. I kept finding running races that I want to do and it finally occurred to me, that we should probably be focusing more on doing bike tours for training...not running.

Wait, running = cross training??? That's new. 

Ok, so the fact that my mom is coming into town and we're trying to get the upstairs of our house painted has a lot to do with training taking a back burner for the last couple of weeks. So this week I've taken a whole new approach.

Lunch time training!

I know I only have an hour at lunch to get in a workout, so it's going to have to be a quality one. Lucky for me, I work in beautiful, hilly Medina. It's a great place to ride! Here is my attempt at putting together a {very} loose training schedule for the next two weeks:

The '27 miles' next Monday is a ride in Medina that we're going to do. Friday, I'm hoping to get my mom out for a walk with the dogs, as she's not much of a runner, plus I have plans with a coworker at lunch to go buy some herbs to grow in the office so we can have fresh cilantro with our lunches!

After the fourth, I anticipate mostly running and yoga, because I'll be traveling to L.A. and Chicago. I'm not going to make any set "plans" to run though, we're just going to go with the flow and see what happens. At this point, I just don't want training to consume my life so it's going to continue to be a "play it by ear" "go with the flow" sort of thing. Expect to see some ride recaps instead of race recaps coming up though!

Do you prefer training with or without a training plan? How the hell do you train for a 150 mile ride??